100 Bands in 100 Days Presented by Verity Credit Union — Day 50: No Plug
Music fans of the Pacific Northwest, hello and welcome back to our third annual year-end daily countdown, 100 Bands in 100 Days, where every day until December 31st, we’re showcasing a new band or artist you have to know about, presented by Verity Credit Union. Follow the #100Bands100Days hashtag on Twitter to stay on top of all the bands featured and make sure to follow Verity on Twitter as well. Some days the featured act could be an established and locally-adored northwest-based musician that perhaps you haven’t been turned onto yet, and other times they could be a band with a small following that just hasn’t had their deserved time in the sun yet. Either way, we’re fairly confident you can come away from this daily segment with plenty of new favorites. Today’s musical offering is a project with a huge amount of upside, No Plug from Portland.
No Plug is an artist whose star is definitely on the rise. Although he’s fairly new and doesn’t have a massive following on social media, the raw talent Austin Frost possesses should propel him to the top of ladder in short order. While his bio describes his sound as being heavily influenced by Billy Joe Armstrong(Green Day) and Ben Haggerty(Macklemore), the band I’m most reminded of is Incubus and certainly their vocalist Brandon Boyd.
Inspired by a diverse wave of new music from the progressive mind of Ben Haggerty (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis) to the raw, unforgiving lyrical ambitiousness of Billy Joe Armstrong, Portland, OR based multi-instrumentalist Austin Frost presents No Plug. No Plug points to Austin’s acerbic attitude which collides inclusively with a sanguine outlook on his past, present, and future life. Austin discovered that music could have dramatic effects in someone’s life when he learned how to use it to cope with his experiences growing up.
Deep synthesizers and heavy guitar work has become signature in No Plug’s sound, and is accompanied by a voice greatly influenced by 2000’s pop rock artists. “I really want to use this as an outlet for topics that are too politically charged for everyday conversation, but too important to ignore.” Austin notes about No Plug. “Actually, that is how songs like Anchors were able to come out. Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in the emotion of what you experience, that it is hard to comprehend what really happens from an unbiased perspective.”
Being involved with fellow local artists has been vital to the success and development of this project, and with no indication of slowing, No Plug’s intention is to engage the entire Northwest with innovative ideas. No Plug is very active in the community and can be found performing in shows all around the Portland metro area.
While Austin Frost and his No Plug project don’t have a huge catalog to draw from, yet, if he stays on the path he’s on, we should see some big things from him in the future.
(You can check out No Plug on Facebook and you can listen to “No Plug” at Bandcamp and/or stream the EP below)
Submissions for 100 Bands in 100 Days are still open to any Pacific Northwest band interested in submission. If you would like to have your band submitted for a chance to be featured in this segment, consult this link for more information on how you can do so.
