Headline, June04, 2013

'''!WOW! : ACTUAL REALITY'''

The Actual, an intelligent,  no-frills punk band, is the creation of Max he's in Bernstein,  whose background includes sneaking into CBGBs as an under-age teen, hidden in a bass-drum case, so he could watch hard-core shows.

His parents are best selling writers Nora Ephron and Carl Bernstein,  -who exposed the Watergate Scandal, and, says Max about his father,

''Bringing down the President is very Punk Rock.''

Hahaha!

But Max, who started playing the guitar at age five and grew up influenced by bands such as Prong, Husker Du, King's X, and Mission of Burma, is no Dilettante, with a childhood guitar collection  -he's in this for real.

With Bandmates Ben Flanagan, Jeremy Bansall,  and Aaran Bensall, Max has slogged it out for four years  -booking shows himself, relentlessly touring in a van, performing in bars and basement clubs -before. The Actual was discovered, in 2005, by Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland.

He signed them to his Softdrive Records label. The world then changed for The Actual with the release of their major-label debut, In Stitches, which features strong, guitar-based melodic songs, enhanced by Max's throaty vocals.

''It's taken us so little to keep us going,'' says Max. ''We'd have strings of terrible shows, then we'd play somewhere where a kid would know all our songs and tell us we were his favorite band. And we'd be like, O.K., what we are doing is visible to somebody.

And sometimes, when the conditions are right, it definitely works and we can't stop. I would be overjoyed if we could make a living doing this...!''

With respectful dedication to the Students of the World!

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless