"Professed as "America's House Band," Poker Face has played all across the country, from coffee houses to theaters, for paupers and Presidential candidates. With over a decade of performance experience, and 5 full length CD's to their name, Poker Face is a sure asset to add to any event." So, you really want to know about Poker Face? Well, here it is... collectively we've been one of the Lehigh Valley's longest standing Local Original bands... about 15 years. I guess you can't say that for most local bands out there... we were fortunate the first time around and created a union of brotherhood and a union for the love of music in our hearts. We express our feelings very freely in our songs, and we are very steadfast in our beliefs of the world, which brings us closer together.
We love traveling across the US spreading our music to all that will give us a moment to listen. We're a fun loving group and like including alot of outdoor festivals, and yes, camping involved too. Yet through all the similarities between us, we managed to keep our unique personalities prevalent in our own way. It's great when you can get a group together that meshes so well that whatever it is compliments the other.
We love our fans, and like hearing from you. You see us out at a show, HELL YEAH come up and say hi! We love to hear feed back, all of it, no matter what. We love to party and have a great time, relax, no pressure, sling some back and have a great time. Hopefully by viewing "view more pics" you'll see that unique personality shine through.
Although, we tend to be a modest group, there's always something to work on, nothing's perfect, we could do this or that better, but that's what holds the longevity of the group.
Poker Face has received some great reviews from the media, which you can read below, about our last album "Made in America". God Bless AMERICA!
CD's released by Poker Face to date: Made in America (2003)
Sex, Lies & Politiks (2000)
Next (1996)
Game of Love (1992) Upcoming Releases by Poker Face: "Untitled"
(in conception) "Peace or War"
(in production) Reviews on the recent album
"MADE IN AMERICA" by [email protected] "...it's incredible. The band's writing, lyrics and the production by Eric Beebe are just something words can not describe. Paul pulled some connections and had the disc mastered by Johnathan David Brown (Amy Grant) so you know it rocks. MIA has a powerful message and is a masterpiece that will propel POKER FACE to international fame. This is an absolute must have if you are proud to be an American!"
In a review done by Luigi Ametta of Itally in the summer of 2004 he states: "... And the title of this new work of Poker Face seems to want to underline this reality: believe it or not, this CD of protest is Made in America, not somewhere else, but right in the land of McDonald, Exxon, Coca Cola and Microsoft using their own political and military tentacles to increase their titanic profits to the detriment of sanity, education, the family, and the workers. The climate of terror introduced by the Patriot Act, with which the civil liberty of the American citizens have suffered an onslaught from the administration and the secret services is well represented in the cover of Made in American, where one policeman with shining boots and a bludgeon is standing in a threatening at the back of an opponent who has just finished correcting with varnish a motto on a manifest depicting Bush and Hitler, a motto that recites "America must be safe" and that completes the phrase written on the wall "the rich and the powerful can go to hell!" On the back of the booklet is drawn another image representing Clinton with a short moustache and a brown shirt, and words that say "Big Brother Wants You" a good calling card!
And the songs compared with Sex, Lies and Politics this time are hard, angry and more complicated showing Poker Face sincerely convinced of what they do and say. One understands clearly that the four musicians love their country, and suffer to see it governed by corrupted criminals on the pay of the multinationals controlled by the Zionist bourgeoisie; but this suffering stimulates Poker Face to a grim musical approach that in part reminds us of the Porcupine Tree and In Absentia with resounding guitars in close-up and soloist parts decidedly better compared with the past. We become aware of the intellectual Kontrol, an explicit exhortation to revolt for the conquest of the freedom that Poker Face also includes in the album in a translation into Spanish. The Genesis sang almost the same thing in 1970, in The Knife, even if probably Peter Gabriel could not even remotely imagine the reality described by Paul Topete ("satellites in the sky transmitting lies to billions of persons, telecameras in the streets registering our meetings with others, do you call this freedom?") Among the best things in Made in America I will mention the break of Forces, a beautiful tract characterized by a beautiful instrumental break that reminds a little of Genesis of Duke or even better the It Bites of Eat Me In St. Louis, and also the suffering of Destiny, a long rhythmic tract that seems inspired by the legendary Kashmir of Led Zeppelin, very great but rather in the manner of the ballad Prayer for America, but we prefer Good Times for its progress to less hymnic."
A refiew of Made in America by Don Harkis, January 2004 in the Idaho Observer
"This article is going to get a little personal because I cannot think of any other way to describe how important the four guys who comprise the Christian patriot heavy metal band Pokerface really are.
Looking back, I can see how most of my life I have known deep down inside that something was wrong -- but that didn't cause me to outwardly appear different than other kids: I went to school, got good grades, usually did as I was told and was well on the road toward being a typical unquestioning American.
By the time I entered junior high school, I had found the world of rock and roll and began doing all the experimental things that really upset parents and outside authority figures. I met Janice, Jimi, The Doors, The Who, Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Frank Zappa. The list goes on, but I think I made the point. Those musician/poets and their deeply meaningful, politically and socially insightful lyrics set my course of thinking in a direction that has led to me where I am today.
Music is powerful. In the U.S. we can define decades by the music that was popular at the time. Swing, Jazz, Big Band, Rock and Roll, Acid Rock, Punk, Heavy Metal, Grunge. We naturally associate the first four music genres with virtuous America -- the roaring 20s, the Depression Era, the WWII era and then the Fabulous 50s. The last four are less definitive by decade and have been weaving back and forth through time since the 60s. These loud, amplified, protest-driven forms of music have been credited for corrupting youth. People in government and government apologists prefer to lay blame anywhere but at the feet of those who create a world that boils the innocence of youth. They describe today's musical movements as being influential in the decline of our society that began in earnest when America's young people saw through the motives of government during the Vietnam war.
Art reflects culture. Left to its own devices, it is never the other way around.
Music was much happier in the 20s through the 50s. Even though our nation went through some hard times in that period, there was still hope for a future and a belief that we were still a shining example for the world and a true defender of freedom.
The music has become progressively dark, angry, resentful and perverse since the 60s. It reflects the feelings of the youth who identify with it -- frustrated, hopeless, no respect or trust for authority and assured of a future that promises deepening cycles of despair.
In a society where thousands of modern musicians make a living writing and playing the tunes that reflect how miserable our modern society has made our youth, to my knowledge there is only one heavy metal band promoting faith, freedom, responsibility and hope. Pokerface lyrics reflect a deep understanding of the social and political realities of our day. Set to the heavy metal sound in its fifth decade of appealing to the younger generation, Pokerface's message accurately identifies the sources of the common man's collective peril and wraps it in a heavy metal patriot package.
The Idaho Observer packages its message in newspaper form to reach an audience between the ages of 25 and 85; an audience that already understands how the land of the free is fast becoming the world's largest penal colony; Pokerface packages its message in heavy metal music to reach the under-25 crowd.
Pokerface is the modern version of the powerful protest rockers of the 60s. The band uses the heavy metal musical medium to open the minds of today's largely lost youth and start them down the path of becoming historically astute critical thinkers.
That is why the four members of Pokerface are so important to our future. The adults in the 80s viewed me and my generation as a bunch of stoned rock and rollers with no future, just like the adults of the 60s viewed them as a bunch of stoned rock and rollers with no future. We, as adults ought to learn from the errors of the previous generations and seek not to dismiss the youth of today as useless but find ways to teach them the truth about our world. I believe the desire for hope is preferable to hopelessness and that, given the opportunity, kids will respond to truths that will set them free of the bleak future they are being conditioned to accept for themselves.
Like The IO, Pokerface has no corporate sponsors. The band members are inspired to produce and perform out of a desire to make our world a better place. The IO staff is similarly inspired. Where The IO dedicates its journalistic talents and passions to the cause of freedom, Pokerface dedicates its musical talents and passions to the cause of freedom.
The only way The IO staff can impact the freedom movement in our country is for the handful of Americans who believe as we do to help spread our message; the only way the members of Pokerface can impact the freedom movement is for the handful of Americans who believe as we do to help spread their message.
So, if you like heavy metal music, get Pokerface's latest CD Made in America. If you are close to some youthful metal heads and you want to plant hope and social responsibility into their minds, expose them to Pokerface. Made in America is the band's third socially and politically-supercharged CD and is preceded by Sex, Lies and Politiks and Next. All three CDs contain a lyrical content that infers a solid understanding of America's present peril and the forces bringing her down. Made in America shows that Pokerface is maturing in its lyrical insight and its prowess as a band. The CD also contains a live concert video and other well-produced, extremely fun and creative interactive material that can be viewed on a computer. The CD package contains some very interesting artwork, the lyrics to the CD's 12 songs, an alphabetical list of freedom-oriented websites and The Local Solution to Global Tyranny -- a forward-thinking, faith and freedom-filled vision from Pokerface."
This is Chester
