Last show of 2015 for Sentinel. Join us for our CD release party in this classic Oakland dive bar & we are "headlining," but also playing with some other fabulous bands from the Bay Area!
Indie dream pop duo from San Francisco, CA, now transplanted to Austin, Texas, the Live Music Capital of the America! Find all our albums on Bandcamp: http://sentineldream.bandcamp.com
Dec 15, 2015
Dec 14, 2015
LIVE 105.3 FM LOVE
Getting FM play next to Weezer, Silversun Pickups, & Chvrches is just awesome!
Thanks to Aaron Axelsen, music director at LIVE 105 for believing in our music!
Dec 8, 2015
Charity Tuesday ~ I Love family Dog
Nov 10, 2015
Swords to Plowshares - Charity Tuesday !
Today is Charity Tuesday
and all sales of our new album
and all sales of our new album
Points of Light go to this non-profit for Veterans - Swords to Plowshares !
Nov 7, 2015
KALX LIVE !
We had a such a great time performing live at KALX 90.7 FM!~ The DJ Sean and engineers Eric and Gina made us feel like part of family!
Oct 27, 2015
Charity Tuesday !
Points of Light
Our new full album of indie pop songs,
in its Earth-friendly CD case, is in stock via CDBaby.com
For Charity Tuesday all our sale proceeds will be donated to
MEAL ON WHEELS SAN FRANCISCO chapter!
MEAL ON WHEELS SAN FRANCISCO chapter!
This organization helps feed the elderly and infirmed via home meal deliveries.
Oct 23, 2015
Updated Band App for iPhone and Android Phones!
Download our updated Band App. Free in Apple stores or Google Play stores!
Here is your invite link :::
Sentinel Band App. Invite
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| Sample of Sentinel Band App. |
Oct 22, 2015
EGH Radio Plays
Thanks to some stupendous DJ's in Northern UK,
we are getting a lot of plays on EGH Radio !
Unsigned Madness with Stephen
Unsigned Pop Show with Niki
AM With Amy
Anne's Rock Show
Listen via: http://www.eghradio.com/
Feeling part of the EHG Radio family:
Oct 19, 2015
Live on KALX November 7, 2015
We are playing 5 songs from our new album
&
some from our back catalogs
Sunset,
Jet Black,
Diamond Bows,
All That's Necessary!
If you are not in the BAY AREA, stream our show from anywhere on the internet:
Oct 14, 2015
Play on WoodyRadio !
"Twitch" with DJ Mac on WoodyRadio - is a
show dedicated to Post-punk, industrial &
indie rock Tuesdays 8pm-10pm eastern, 5pm-
7pm pacific time.
http://www.woodyradio.com/
Here is the play list from this week: Featuring
Smoke & Mirrors, from our new release right
next to our idols Cocteau Twins..
show dedicated to Post-punk, industrial &
indie rock Tuesdays 8pm-10pm eastern, 5pm-
7pm pacific time.
http://www.woodyradio.com/
Here is the play list from this week: Featuring
Smoke & Mirrors, from our new release right
next to our idols Cocteau Twins..
Oct 13, 2015
Sep 24, 2015
Philadelphia Web Mag Interview
by Izzy Cihak
Like recently profiled Absinthe Rose, Sentinel are a band that I really wish I had been familiar with quite a bit sooner… although the two equally impressive bands differ in nearly every other way… Sentinel are a Bay Area dream pop trio, inspired by post-punk, ethereal wave, and shoegaze, who have been at it for close to two decades, and whose latest effort, Points of Light, dropped this June. The album boasts songs that are a little more popularly accessible than, although not entirely dissimilar to, Dead Can Dance and Ride, who are admitted and obvious influences (They also cite The Police, Coldplay, and The Arcade Fire as influences… which would seem to bridge that gap.) The album itself actually resembles a dreamier, more ethereal, and more subdued take on the aesthetic of the first two Garbage records (whom they also claim to be a big fan of.)
Sentinel is comprised of guitarist Dennis Bestafka, vocalist/bassist Tarabud, and drummer Bill Mowery. I recently got a chance to chat with Dennis about Sentinel’s history, influences, and highlights. I ask him about the highlights of the band so far and he tells me that the local music community has been incredibly supportive and inspiring and has also allowed them quite a few big opportunities.
“I’d say probably getting consistent airplay in the Bay Area has been a highlight, with stations like Live 105.3 FM. Aaron Axelsen has a Sunday night show and he’s been playing us for the past 10 years or so. Almost every station has a local hour and it really gives a lot of courage and confidence to the bands to take things to the next level. But we’ve also been on all kinds of podcasts in Europe, the UK, Japan, Latin America, which is so amazing. Right now we’re on NPR in Hawaii, which is really cool. We always do instrumental versions, as well as vocal versions, of the tracks, which has landed us in places like NPR and The History Channel. Our last show was at Great American Musical Hall and we played a sold out show there as the support, which was really great. And we’ve played some pretty big festivals. The music and arts scene here is great. I mean, I’ve lived all over as well, from Minnesota and I lived in Texas and I was on the East Coast for a while, but it’s really nice here in the Bay Area. There’s a lot of tolerance and mixed ethnicities and it’s kind of small and there’s a lot going on for such a small space. The bands in the Bay Area stick together and huddle together and stay active.”
Dennis tells me about Sentinel’s progression and evolution of recent years and says that the experience has been quite positive, but that their latest output and their current state as a band would seem to encompass that whole experience.
“We’ve been a band for a while now and we’ve been in this current lineup for five years now, but people seem to like us, which is really encouraging. We’re trying to be consistent and persistent, but people seem to like us. We have a really solid record this time, so it’s like, ‘Just go for it!’ This is the first time we’ve had a publicist, which is really nice, but I would say that we pretty much do everything ourselves. By trade, I’m a recording engineer. We love the process, we love recording. Sometimes we write and record at the same time, sometimes to get something out of just jamming. We took pretty much the whole year off last year to focus on these songs.”
In addition to their musical influences, Sentinel have a pretty wide array of life experiences and cultural influences that would seem to be influential to their process and aesthetic, whether directly or subconsciously. I ask Dennis about the trio’s own personal backgrounds, careers, and interests, and he confirms that they are all involved in a variety of things.
“Tara, she’s a pretty interesting gal. She’s from Colombia and she’s very artistic. She does a lot of handcrafts and makes a lot of jewelry, she has chickens and she’s really into gardening and, by trade, she’s a therapist, which makes it natural for her to delve into the melancholy a little bit. Our drummer, Billy, is an actor by trade and does web design. I’m a music gear-head and I’m basically an EMT by day. I’m a veteran. I was in Iraq.”
Because Sentinel’s most obvious musical influences, which tend to come from the late-‘70s, ‘80s, and early-mid-‘90s (and those who have appropriated those golden eras of sonic subversions in the past decade and a half), I’m curious as to what music actually seems to most inspire Sentinel and what kinds of fans of music are most into their own sounds and Dennis tells me that their listeners do tend to have a similar amalgam of tastes to the three of them: “Foremost, people who probably have the same influences like us most: U2, Metric, The Cardigans, The Mondays… The band had a wide reach, in terms of influences. I think that maybe our influences stretch across decades a bit: The Beatles, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Cocteau Twins, The Verve. They’re probably my biggest influences of all-time.”
Sentinel are currently still plotting out their future endeavors, which they’re hoping reach far and wide, but they do have a date scheduled to play at Eat Real Fest (at 2:30pm), a food festival, on September 19th, and are hoping to take the live show on the road in the near future, while also continuing to record some new sounds.
“We’re going to be at Eat Real Fest. Our next show is a festival in Oakland, it’s a food festival, and we’re keeping our feelers out for a proper record release show and holding out for a really solid venue. We’re trying to be business-minded and just get away from playing any club on the weekends. We’d like to book a small, like two-week, West Coast tour, and we’re definitely putting our feelers out for an indie label. We have tons of more material and tons of stuff to lay down.”
Sep 22, 2015
Sep 10, 2015
Aug 31, 2015
The Big Flip Movie !
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Being part of this soundtrack is such an honor~!
Thanks to the film maker Izzy Chan, a resident of the great city of San Francisco, for featuring our music!
Help support The Big Flip campaign to do final production
Any donation helps!
Check out our band spotlight and IndieGoGo page:
Jul 31, 2015
Jul 9, 2015
Summer of 2015 - Love Had, Love Lost, & More
What we always seek to find is unconditional regard or even unconditional love. We can't always get that or let alone give it, well *DARN* (insert your own word here), that is why we have music, to get us through the cracks of life, over the bridges, where there is another possibility, and we can start over, try again, try something different, sing a different tune. There is something always moving us forward through life, call it whatever you may; and this is where our new album ~ Points of Light ~ fits into your summer playlist! Full albums are rare and at the same a treasure to be discovered in this world of singles and free downloads. You can listen to the 10 song album on this Soundcloud Playlist, full of life themes, ideas, and dreams:
~Sentinel gang
https://soundcloud.com/sentineldream/sets/points-of-light-album
Let us know what you think, how you feel, what is moving you. We want to know! Sending light from the Bay Area,~Sentinel gang
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| photo by Sharon Campbell |
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| Inside cover of album art ~ Points of Light ~ poem by Tarabud |
Jul 4, 2015
Points of Light album review by Insomnia Radio
Happy 4th of July !
May our album, Points of Light be the stars to your stripes tonight!
Check out our stellar review posted today via Insomnia Radio,
by Charles Stepczyk.
Jun 26, 2015
The Good Life In Honor of Today
To honor this historic day in The United States of
America where equality under the law was granted, we
posted our song "The Good Life" from our new album
Points of Light! #LoveWins 🌈💗
Listen to it here:
Jun 25, 2015
Counting Stars song Review Off Points of Light
Stellar review of our song Counting Stars from our album Points of Light just in!
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| Photographs by: Curtis Jermany - MooD-ology Photography |
Jun 16, 2015
Jail House Album Review
The JailHouse
Before you do anything, look at the album cover. Just take a moment and look at all of the shapes and the feeling of it. Ok, that is how this album sounds. The cosmic sound waves carry you through this album. This isn’t necessarily about getting a
message across, but the Dream Pop band is more about pleasing listeners aesthetically.
message across, but the Dream Pop band is more about pleasing listeners aesthetically.
Dennis Bestafka’s synthed-out guitar along with the feather touch of Bill Mowery on the drums blends perfectly with Tarabud’s vocals. The album can fill a room without disturbing it. The sound becomes just part of the décor, almost fading into the background.
After just a few seconds, you can tell that they are recreating the 80’s and 90’s synth pop sound. Taking from major names like Smiths, U2 and My Bloody Valentine, Sentinel has harnessed all of these sounds into a beautiful concoction that easily
passes over the listener. Every track is similar, yet distinct enough to feel a change in the mood. These subtle changes are what gives Sentinel their charm and appeal. Sentinel has been releasing albums for 11 years. Although this is the first album that I have listened to personally, I am looking forward to listening to the other five albums.
passes over the listener. Every track is similar, yet distinct enough to feel a change in the mood. These subtle changes are what gives Sentinel their charm and appeal. Sentinel has been releasing albums for 11 years. Although this is the first album that I have listened to personally, I am looking forward to listening to the other five albums.
*Image and audio via Planetary Group
Jun 15, 2015
Cruising Summer 2015 - New Album !
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