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The East Portal Express

About Me

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Formed in Sacramento, California, in August 2007, East Portal Express (EPX) was born out of longstanding friendships and deep musical connections. Shawn (guitar and vocals) and Alex (bass and vocals) have been playing together since 2002, and Scott (drums), Steve (keyboards and vocals), and Shawn had been playing a monthly gig together for nearly two years before Alex joined them during the recording of Shawn's The High Country CD (2007) to form East Portal Express. Taking their name from a Sacramento park across from their friend Sam's house, EPX aims to take their listeners (and themselves) on a musical journey full of surprises and soundscapes reminiscent of ancient Egypt, deep sea sojourns, and windswept highways. Through improvisation and discovering the unexpected, EPX has been captivating audiences in the Sacramento area with their energetic live shows and near-telepathic musical communication. EPX has been described by the Sacramento News and Review as having a “tasty, funky Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia feel” and is in regular rotation on KXJZ’s Blue Dog Jam program. Combining a mixture of well-crafted originals and well-chosen covers, they aim to be the newest addition to the jam band community and are excited about their upcoming debut CD (look for it in 2009)

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 19/05/2007
Band Website: www.eastportalexpress.com
Band Members: Steve Bisel--Keyboards and vocals;Alex Bohl--Bass and vocals;Scott McConaha--Drums and backing vocals;Shawn Vreeland--Guitar and vocals
Influences: Phish, the String Cheese Incident, the Grateful Dead, The Band, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, J.R.R. Tolkien, Carl Sagan, Charles Darwin, Jerry Garcia, Wizards.....and many more....
Sounds Like: 4 guys making music
Record Label: Unsigned

My Blog

East Portal Express CD now available online and locally

Hi everyone,Just want to let you know the new East Portal Express CD is available online at Amazon, CD Baby, and the iTunes store.  Below are links for listening to samples, purchasing CDs or MP3s, le...
Posted by on Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:43:00 GMT

Our first CD review!

Our debut CD has received its first review by Peter Hund at Good New Music and it's a really great one!Here's a snippet:"Some groups start out doing albums of long-form psychedelic music and later hon...
Posted by on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:03:00 GMT

East Portal Express CD and CD Release Show (7/25/09)

Friends, Family, & Music Lovers,Years in the making, epic in scope, with a cast of thousands . . . uh, ok, getting a bit carried away!  But we at East Portal Express are very excited to announce the r...
Posted by on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:15:00 GMT

Grateful Dead Tribute Show (11/29) and Festival of Trees and Lights fundraiser (12/6)

Hi, Been a while since we've posted anything to our blog but I wanted to share a couple of exciting upcoming events that East Portal Express will be playing. First off, we are excited to be part of th...
Posted by on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:28:00 GMT

The High Country CD available on CD Baby and in iTunes Store

Just wanted to let folks know that our own Shawn Vreeland's "solo" CD The High Country, featuring stellar performances from all of the East Portal Express crew as well as Kate Gaffney and some other g...
Posted by on Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:15:00 GMT

East Portal Express in 11/29/07 Sacramento News and Review

REVIEW FROM 11/29/07 Sacramento News and Review: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=602602
Posted by on Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:37:00 GMT