The Local Division

The Local Division is named after a group of music junkies from opposite sides of the pond, who united to create music, based on their common love for the English "shoegaze" movement of the late 80's and early 90s.Ian Christian, a singer songwriter hailing from the Midlands area in the UK and Matthew Rhee from Los Angeles, a star guitarist with loads of pedals, met at a Mark Gardener show in Nottingham whilst Matthew was on his Anglo rock pilgrimage…paying homage to the Stone Roses - a U.K. invasion vacation of pub crawls, and Madchester music etc…The pair recorded a couple of songs in a dirty cellar called the Newarke. Three weeks later they emerged with the raw tracks of their debut album, which was later mixed in Los Angeles, by Mark Raines, a friend of Ian's long time U.S. manager and friend, Anita Rivas.The debut album is a beautiful noise. .. Anglo based pop symphonies with sometimes dark lyrical memoirs of lost relationships and the highs and lows of life in the inner city of the music scene. The songs are diverse musically, sometimes personal lyrically, with Ian's rhythm guitar and vocals as the common thread that runs through the album. Soundscaping guitar textures fill some of the canvas and the rest is occupied by to the point, paint by numbers and pub chants of sarcasm about their generation….almost pistols without the politics… shoegazer without the polish, pop without the poseurs, music you can move to and vibe - with minus the mainstream DJ forcing it down your throats…Armed With Tony's Wilson's fuck it all philosophy… and the vulnerable yet raw emotional charge of Ian's voice which has been captured on this album….not to mention (memorable) choruses that hit you with waves of reverb and delay 24, Ian Christian and The Local Division, which is rounded out with equally gifted members, will inspire and provoke even the most jaded anglophiles.