Solid Gold: Reporter's Notebook

Photo by Nick Vlcek

​We had a lot of fun gallivanting around New York and Minneapolis with local dream-pop band Solid Gold, and naturally ended up with more material than could fit in this week's cover story. See below for extra quotes from the band, click here for a gallery of live shots from New York and Minneapolis, click here for a gallery of embarrassing photos from the band's past, and click here for outtakes from our cover shoot, which included a trip to the U Otter Stop Inn in Northeast for some midday pirate karaoke.

Brett O'Brien, Director of Marketing for Mountain Dew, on their new partnership with Solid Gold:

Green Label Sound was founded to empower those artists who best embody the spirit of Mountain Dew. They use music to create a unique form of self expression, think outside the maintsream and they are constantly pushing the limits of creativity. We team up with these artists to help increase their exposure and hopefully fuel their growth.

Solid Gold already has a passionate following in their hometown and a great buzz from music critics. They are great guys with an addictive love for what they do, a refreshing point of view and they are a great fit for our label. We approached them about writing an exclusive track for us to release and they agreed.  We love the track, look forward to working with the band on future programs and will follow Solid Gold as they continue to grow.

Matt Locher on their Green Label Sound partnership:

Basically, they're paying you to advertise your music... iPod commercials and TV shows are breaking bands where the radio used to. You just have to adapt and just try to be as smart as you can about it. Green Label, it's Mountain Dew, which is initially a turn-off, but it's a product that no one's making money off of. It is advertising for them, but the fans don't have to pay. And that's what did it for us. We're not making much money off it, but we got a chance to record a song for free. For us, since we've never had a budget for recording, that's awesome.