The Nice Device

The Nice Device
Origin Detroit, Michigan
USA
Genres Indie rock
Indie pop
Years active 2001–2010
Labels None
Members Alicia Gbur
Matt Lannoo
Nick Gerhardt
Jeffrey Alber
Past members Rich Griffith
Zach Shipps
Matt Hatch
Steve Champine
Thomas Smak
Jeffrey Alber

The Nice Device was a four-piece, female-fronted Indie rock band from Detroit, Michigan formed in 2001. Their musical style is primarily edgy pop influenced indie rock with some electronic overtones. The group is often compared to acts such as The Pixies, Blondie, The Buzzcocks and Metric to name a few.

History

During the summer of 2000, songwriter Alicia Gbur, inspired by the thriving local rock scene wrote three power pop songs with the intent to record and start a new band. As a returned favor for shooting photos, she asked her friends from another local band called The Atomic Numbers, Zach Shipps (Electric Six) and Matt Aljian (The Mood Elevator), to come to the studio and play on the recordings. Rehearsals started with a bass player from Ann Arbor named Rich Griffith. That same month, she met guitarist Matt Lannoo at a party. During the fall of 2000 the three wrote and rehearsed while auditioning drummers eventually finding Nick Gerhardt. A handful of new songs were written and in early 2001 they booked their first show at The Gold Dollar in Detroit's Cass Corridor under the name The Nice Device. A few months later, Griffith was replaced on bass with Zach Shipps.

In 2002 The Nice Device entered Ghetto Recorders Studio with producer Jim Diamond (White Stripes, The Mooney Suzuki) and recorded three songs for their first release, a 7" vinyl single. 2004 saw the band recording their next batch of songs at Grand Studios with Brendan Benson. Zach Shipps left the band to join Brendan's Wellfed Boys and Matt Hatch (The Sights) took over on Bass. They released the EP titled Birth of a Lover later that year (produced by Zach Shipps and engineered by Brendan Benson) and instantly garnered a slew of favorable reviews, as well as a publishing deal with Pure Tone Music. In 2005 they began writing songs for their first full length release eventually titled Let The Nightlife Down. Steve Champine was added on keyboards and recording with began at 12ax7 in Hamtramck and Big Sky in Ann Arbor. Yet another lineup change, Matt Hatch left and was replaced by Jeff Alber on bass in June 2005. The video for "Innocent" was shot by Lucky Airlines in early 2006 and by May the record was released and a US tour followed. In January 2007, Steve Champine was replaced on keyboards with Thomas Smak until June 2008 at which time they became a four-piece again.

In the summer of 2007 Alicia and Matt began rehearsing with former Sire Records artists The Von Bondies who were about to release a new record and begin touring again. They took a several month hiatus from The Nice Device to tour with the Von Bondies throughout the US, CA, UK, and Europe - eventually leaving the band in April 2008.

In the fall of 2008, The Nice Device released a new EP titled Sorry We Killed You. It was recorded at The Loft in Saline, MI and produced by Tim Patalan.

While finishing a planned final album, the band unofficially disbanded in 2010.

Members

Past:

Work

Discography

Compilations:

Videography

Miscellaneous

External links

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