Apollo Sunshine

American alternative rock band

Apollo Sunshine

Background information
Origin	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Genres	Alternative rock, indie rock, indie folk, psychedelic rock
Years active	2003 (2003)–2010

Past members	Sam Cohen Jesse Gallagher Jeremy Black Quentin Stoltzfus Sean Aylward

Apollo Sunshine was an alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts.

History

Founding

Sam Cohen, Jesse Gallagher, and Jeremy Black originally met in 1997 in Boston, where the three were attending a Berklee College of Music summer performance program.^[1]

Albums

The band released their first album, Katonah, in 2003 on SpinART records. The album was recorded in Katonah, New York in a barn which the band converted into a studio, and produced by Andy Edelstein, a professor at Berklee. The first single, "I Was on the Moon", was released in 2003.

The New York Times described their sound as "bouncy 60's-style melodies crack wide open, breaking into outbursts of pummeling and feedback before jumping back into the tune. It's all neatly and cleverly plotted, but with a looming chaos that's anything but nostalgic."^[2]

The band released their second album Apollo Sunshine in 2005. In November 2005, it was named to the Amazon.com Best of 2005: Editors' Picks in Rock list at number 5^[3] and the band was featured in Rolling Stone as an "Artist to Watch".^[4] Several Boston alternative weeklies declared Apollo Sunshine the best Boston band in their 2005 year-end issues.^{[citation needed]} In 2006, Apollo Sunshine toured with The Slip and Sam Champion en route to SXSW. ^[5]

Their third album, Shall Noise Upon, was released on vinyl and as a digital download on August 5, 2008. It was released on CD September 2, 2008.

The band has been inactive since 2010.

Etymology

We were just sitting on the couch one day and one said Apollo and someone else said Sunshine and that was it. It just kind of came to us. And then we looked up Apollo in a Greek mythology book and it turns out he's the god of music.
— Jesse Gallagher^[6]

Members

Current

Sam Cohen - Guitar, Vocals, Pedal Steel
Jesse Gallagher - Vocals, Bass, Guitar, Keyboards
Jeremy Black - Drums

Former

Oli Rah - Percussion
Quentin Stoltzfus- Guitar, Vocals
Sean Aylward - Guitar, Vocals

Discography

Studio albums

Studio albums by Apollo Sunshine
Year	Album title	Release details
2003	Katonah	Released: October 7, 2003 Label: spinART Format: Digital
2005	Apollo Sunshine	Released: September 13, 2005 Label: spinART Format: Digital
2008	Shall Noise Upon	Released: September 2, 2008 Label: Headless Heroes Format: Digital, vinyl, CD

EPs

The Other Side of the World EP (May 3, 2005)

Live albums

Live at the Paradise (2005)

Singles

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (December 2014)

References

^ "Blogger". Accounts.google.com.
^ Jon Pareles "Throwbacks With Muscle" The New York Times, February 28, 2004
^ [1] ^{[dead link]}
^ Kevin O'Donnell Apollo Sunshine Heat Up Early wakeup call leads to hugs from Smokey Robinson for neo-psychedelic crew Rolling Stone, November 18, 2005
^ Grenehaus, Mike https://jambands.com/features/2006/03/31/searching-for-south-by-southwest-with-the-slip-apollo-sunshine-and-sam-champion/ Jambands.com
^ "LAist Interview: Jesse Gallagher of Apollo Sunshine: LAist". November 5, 2017. Archived from the original on November 5, 2017.

Sources

James Sullivan What a racket - Apollo Sunshine The Boston Globe, September 2, 2008
Joan Anderman Critic's picks - pop music - Spare Change Benefit The Boston Globe, August 10, 2008