Antigone Rising

The all-female band Antigone Rising blended the '70s sound of Led Zeppelin and the Eagles with their love of pop so well that it kept them on the road to the tune of 200 or so shows per year, all without a record label. Grassroots promotion and live show after live show earned the band a loyal following and over 20,000 independently released CDs sold. Things changed in 2003 when Lava Records president Jason Flom caught one of Antigone Rising's gigs and signed them. The live EP Traveling Circus was to be their last independent release, and by 2004 they were working on their debut for the Lava imprint Hear Music. The album, From the Ground Up — a live acoustic recording — was launched via a Starbucks-sponsored campaign in 2005 and sold over 450,000 copies. Despite the attention, Antigone Rising had a difficult time capitalizing on this success. They recorded an album in 2008 that remained unreleased, finally getting a live EP out in 2010, and by the time they finally delivered a full-fledged studio LP called 23 Red in the summer of 2011, they had gone through lineup changes that left them as a quartet.