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Artist Information
Far_0239
far is
Jonah Matranga vocals/guitar
Shaun Lopez guitar
John Gutenberger bass
Chris Robyn drums
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far

Vagrant Records is proud to announce that far has signed to the label. The recently reunited quartet is currently wrapping up their fifth full-length release in The Airport studio in Southern California with producer and guitarist Shaun Lopez at the helm and an early spring release date is expected.

“We had no idea all this would happen,” says vocalist Jonah Matranga. “We were just planning on getting to know each other again and playing a few shows, in between everything else we’ve got going on. But now, all of a sudden, the songs are coming, and it feels really good. All we’ve ever promised as people and as a band is that whatever we put out, whenever we come around, we’re gonna mean it.”

Matranga adds, “Vagrant is a label that has been smart, hard-working and great to their bands for years and years now. They know where we come from and what we’ve always been about, which helps a lot. We feel really lucky to be working with them.”

far got their start in Sacramento in the early ‘90’s and released four full-length albums before disbanding in 1998 – the same year that Water & Solutions was released – an album that Alternative Press magazine named as one of the most influential records of 1998.

In October 2008 far announced the original lineup would reunite for a few UK dates. Meanwhile, the band booked two LA-area warm-up dates under the pseudonym Hot Little Pony in order to deflect attention while they got used to playing together again. They even went so far as to create a MySpace page under the fake name and recorded a cover of a longtime favorite song of theirs, Ginuwine’s R&B hit, “Pony,” to offer as a free download. That’s where things got interesting.

Fans downloaded “Pony” so frequently that their website traffic soared. “Pony” started getting play on the biggest modern rock radio stations on the west coast – including Live 105 (San Francisco), 91x (San Diego), KROQ (Los Angeles) and KWOD (Sacramento). The band’s management team at X Management mobilized to spread the word on “Pony” and now the track has sold over 23,000 digital copies on iTunes, is downloaded up to 19,000 times a day on P2P networks, and an official national radio campaign began last week.