web1_CEO-Food-Bank-2.jpg

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights score goal for charity

Wilkes-Barre Police: Bashed with pipe, assault suspect fled into street and brandished gun

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Alt-rockers, Down To Six, have put out quite a bit of original music in the last year. They are not yet a full calendar turn from releasing a full length record titled &#8220;Atlantic,&#8221; and now they have a new four-song EP called &#8220;Shine&#8221; to share with eager listeners.</p><p>The band will hold an album release at 9 p.m. Nov. 27 at Bart &amp; Urby&#8217;s and The Other Side in Wilkes-Barre. They will be joined by special guests Aaron Fink, A Fire With Friends and Ember&#225; to celebrate the launch of &#8220;Shine.&#8221; For a $3 cover charge, patrons will receive a free Pabst Blue Ribbon draft.</p><p>John Novak, songwriter and front man for Down To Six talked about putting out &#8220;Atlantic&#8221; last December and how the creative focus was a bit different with the new four-song effort. The Wilkes-Barre native said the full-length album was concerned with song structure, thoughtful bridges and composition, where the new EP hones in on sonic experimentation.</p><p>&#8220;Atlantic&#8221; featured the heavy guitar and drum elements of alternative rock in tunes like &#8220;If I Return&#8221; and &#8220;Divided&#8221; but took a punky turn with &#8220;Blindsight&#8221; showing versatility and creative perspective.</p><p>&#8220;The last one, we kind of put a lot of time into having &#8230; I don&#8217;t want to say more &#8230; songwriter kind of songs, but some of the other songs had a little more structure to them,&#8221; Novak said. &#8220;These are a little more straight forward. At the same time, there&#8217;s also still a lot of ambience and dynamics. That&#8217;s the kind of thing we try to go for.&#8221;</p><p>Although influences vary among band members, Novak mentioned Shellac, Thrice and Weezer as influences. Rounding out the lineup of Down To Six are Kingston&#8217;s James Yamrus on drums, Wyoming&#8217;s Nick Blockus on bass and Dallas&#8217; Mike Kapolka on lead guitar.</p><p>Novak addressed having the support of other local musicians during their premier.</p><p>&#8220;James Barret from Ember&#225; &#8230; he&#8217;s been playing out for about as long as I can remember, playing up in Scranton, he&#8217;s been in some sort of band that we&#8217;ve played with. He&#8217;s just a really good kid, writes really cool songs, puts a lot of work into it, and so we&#8217;ve always tried to keep some sort of relationship with him.&#8221;</p><p>Barrett&#8217;s group, which released its own self titled EP in August, will be in house to support and play alongside a band for which they have admiration.</p><p>&#8220;The first time I met John &#8230; I remember being blown away by how good he was on guitar,&#8221; Barrett said. &#8220;He had a song called &#8220;Blindsight,&#8221; and that was the song that stuck with me.&#8221;</p><p>Novak said the setlist during the release will include the entire &#8220;Shine&#8221; EP as well as original performances off &#8220;Atlantic,&#8221; but he noted they might work in a cover or two.</p><p>&#8220;We did a Halloween release this year, just for fun, and we covered a song by Shellac, and we were thinking about probably pulling that out for the show, so just kind of a little weird stuff,&#8221; Novak said.</p><p>Follow Down To Six on Facebook at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/downtosixpa">www.facebook.com/downtosixpa</a> and Bandcamp at <a href="https://downtosix.bandcamp.com/">https://downtosix.bandcamp.com/</a>.</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_DownToSixBand.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Down To Six from left: John Novak, James Yamrus, Nick Blockus and Mike Kapolka. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_DownToSixBand.jpg</photo0><caption0>Down To Six from left: John Novak, James Yamrus, Nick Blockus and Mike Kapolka. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photos </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_ShineEP.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Down To Six will release their four song EP &#8220;Shine&#8221; at The Other Side on Nov. 27. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_ShineEP.jpg</photo1><caption1>Down To Six will release their four song EP &#8220;Shine&#8221; at The Other Side on Nov. 27. </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photos </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Alt-rockers to release new EP at The Other Side</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Matt Mattei</p><p>mmattei@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Matt Mattei at 570-991-6651 or <a href="mailto:mmattei@www.timesleader.com">mmattei@www.timesleader.com</a></p></shirttailMeta></div>

Alt-rockers Down to Six to release new EP at The Other Side in Wilkes-Barre