photo by Aram Agazarian

Acme Rock Group is the follow-up to guitarist/vocalist Erik Rex's previous creative outlet The Brilliant Suns who had broken up in 1995 after five years. The group parted ways at the peak of their popularity with up to 40 songs recorded and none released. The Suns followed the rawer, harder blues-inspired approach of the Rolling Stones, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix, mixed with the post-punk psychedelic sound of groups like Echo and the Bunnymen, The Sound, The Church, The Stone Roses, and so on.

Acme's CD Star combines elements of early influential British guitar-based rock and roll bands like the Beatles, the Kinks, and the Who. Acme Rock Group has gotten many comparisons to artists like the Apples In Stereo, The Lilys, The La's, Jellyfish, Big Star, early Bowie, and The Rain Parade.

As time moves on, some elements of the B-Suns are meshing with Acme's. Recordings are moving into new territory. Acme's pop veneer barely conceals the theme that life is a strange, sweet, and sometimes tragic gift.

Acme Rock Group's name was coined in an effort to meld an anti-advertising ethic with the need to advertise the group and the Star CD. The original push included slogans which fully reflect the absurdity of releasing such a specialized CD into a world already overflowing with new music releases. another cd for a saturated market was the slogan used. Official Records was created to release the album.

Star was recorded under the premise that this freshman recording effort could have been released in 1967 to directly compete with some of the greatest rock and roll acts of the mid-60's. Sonically, the CD sounds as good as anything which came out at the time. On different occasions it's been likened to Sgt. Pepper, Revolver, and Rubber Soul.

Recorded at Fat City Studios with engineer/owners Paul Hammond and Paul Sinclair. Eight of the songs are Rex compositions while two covers were written by Pete Townsend and Lennon-McCartney.

Two new albums originally slated for 2004 were postponed after Erik Rex and another person were seriously injured in an elevator crash in NYC. Recent releases include Rex's acoustic LP "Hello Sun, Hello Rain" (2005), the Acme single "Never Forever" (2006) and contributions to The Lilys 2004 single "You're Getting Closer" and extra track "Colorful Acts". The second Acme Rock Group album, titled and nearly finished for several years, remains unreleased.