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PRESS RELEASE

Sweatheart
“If Sparks, The Bangles and Blue Oyster Cult made a smoothie, it might smell something like Sweatheart” – Naeem Juwan (Spankrock)

Philadelphia based band Sweatheart has created an exciting new show and sound. Now they are excited to take it on the road.

Through six years of working with an army of talented musician friends, performers, film makers, visual artists and DJ’s, Sweatheart has evolved. A live show that was once art gallery madness in french fry costumes is now more refined. Thoughtful backing tracks and dance routines have replaced off key screaming and humping the audience (sometimes they still hump the audience). Sweatheart is inspired by the spirit of 80’s rockers like Eddie Money, Pat Benatar and The Outfield, and influenced by the punk and indie rock ideas they all grew up with.

Sweatheart formed in 2004 with original members (Hot) Tanya Nagahawhatta, Rose Luardo and Thom Lessner. When Nagahawhatta left for medical school, close friend and fellow musician Amanda Blank (Downtown Records) joined the band. Soon after, Dave Pap became Sweatheart’s drummer. Lessner, Luardo, Pap, and Blank form the cornerstones of Sweatheart, and they welcome collaborators including Michael Robinson (King God/ Holland Boys), Brian Langon (Kock107/ Sw!ms) and Trevor Williams (Barry & the Eastenders).

Last year Amanda Blank released her own album (I Love You), and toured worldwide supporting the album. Rose Luardo did a brief stint as Santigold’s hypewoman and began her performance work with The New Dreamz – the duo of artist Andrew Jeffrey Wright and Luardo. Thom Lessner is a working fine artist and maintains an art studio at Space 1026 collaborative gallery. He simultaneously leads Sweatheart while he creates art work for gallery shows as well as companies like OBEY and Blue Q. Dave Pap works closely with Lessner to create the Sweatheart sound and serves as handler for the rest of the band.

As stage performers, Sweatheart members are versatile and seasoned. While Blank maintains sex appeal and has cut her teeth touring as both a solo artist and with bands like Sweatheart and Spankrock, Rose Luardo adds a performance art element. Luardo has many years of experience as a theatrical performer and dancer. She is a recent graduate of Bryn Mawr’s Performance Program and has done comedy routines for The Next Art Festival in Chicago and The 30 Days Festival in NYC with The New Dreamz.

If the women of Sweatheart are performers, the men are musicians. Lessner and Pap have been working with music their entire lives. Lessner played guitar in numerous Columbus bands since Jr. high school and later played everywhere from Philadelphia to Tokyo with artist Clare Rojas/Peggy Honeywell (Glaxia) as her entire backing band “The Dew”. Pap has been in several bands and is a former student and teacher at the Paul Green School of Rock Music.

A Sweatheart performance is fun and alive. It’s a bold show with no pretension, no sleepers, some guitar solos, many high-kicks and finely-crafted, inspiring songs. At a Sweatheart show you’ll see girls popping out of boxes and eerie, human-like robots. Band members costumed in matching outfits bring the audience in with stylized movements and off-the-wall banter. You’ll also find an interesting collection of hand-made merchandise.

What you will walk away with after seeing a Sweatheart show is the honesty of their feel-good stage performance and music. They believe wholeheartedly in what they’re selling — this isn’t an irony show. This is a pop-rock show. And pop-rock is what they love.

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