Virus Divine

Little King | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 26, 2011)
• Original Release Date: November 23, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: The Orchard
• ASIN: B0006PIQ8C
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #963,224 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

The Rock and Roll band Little King was formed in November of 1996 by guitarist/singer/songwriter Ryan Rosoff in El Paso, Texas. Rosoff had cut his teeth as the guitar player in the seminal eclectic rock group Tweed Quickly (where he met future Little King bassist Shannon Brady). After a year in that band, he had written enough of his own songs to try his hand at recording and producing a record. Rosoff named the new group Little King (a translation of the name "Ryan" in Gaelic). Featuring bassist Mike Esparza and drummer Alex Lizarazo, the trio played a few shows locally and regionally in the next four months while preparing to enter the studio. Little King’s first demo CD, titled Transmountain, was released in El Paso in May on 1997. The group continued to tour and promote the CD, which sold about 800 copies in and around the Southwest. In September of ‘97, Rosoff moved back to his hometown of Seattle, Washington. He signed a one-record deal with an independent label, Shade Records, and journeyed back to Texas in August of 1998 to record and produce a new CD, Time Extension. For this record, Rosoff was joined by bassist Shannon Brady and drummer Jim Hargrave. Rosoff, who has a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing, based the concept album on the story of a fictional man’s life, and it opens with the anti-hero on his deathbed in an emergency room. The protagonist looks back on his life and examines all of the things he wishes he had done differently, and each song in the set relates to the choices he had made throughout the years. Time Extension sold well online and at shows as the band toured extensively throughout the Western United States. The band also filmed a pro-shot video for the single "Smoke Spin Free." The single received extensive college airplay, and the video was a mainstay for three months on cable access video shows across the States. Little King worked hard and developed a loyal following, but when Shade Records dissolved in 2000, the band agreed to go on hiatus indefinitely. Rosoff focused his energy on a new business venture, Little King Productions. His company handled print and radio promotion, management, and booking. The business became successful after a year, but Rosoff continued to write songs with the knowledge that a new album would eventually demand to be born. That itch was finally scratched in September of 2003, as Rosoff joined with drummer Wes Kahalekulu to lay down tracks for the new record, titled Virus Divine. The songs were engineered by Eddy Garcia (the bass player for Ministry) and were recorded at Krank Studios in El Paso. After the guitars and drums were completed, the two were joined by Brady in the studio, and the tracks were completed in April of 2004. That summer, Rosoff took the completed sessions to Toronto where the album was mixed by Terry Brown, whose impressive resume includes production credits on ten Rush albums. The disc continues Rosoff’s tradition of conceptual lyric writing and follows a theme of enlightenment, inner conflict, and resolution. Based on the story of another anonymous man who is moved to change the world after watching news coverage of the horrible tragedy at Columbine High School, Virus Divine examines the impact one righteous person can have on the world around him. Virus Divine represents the best of Rosoff’s writing and production, as the songs work beautifully both as a set piece and individually, and the sound quality is immaculate. Brady’s bass work is complex and tasty, and Kahalekulu is a monster drummer with chops and feel to match the subtle nuances of each track. From the catchy AOR tunes "Narcissus and Echo" and "All I Need" to the powerfully intricate title track, the record captures the essence of the band’s philosophies, both musically and lyrically. Virus Divine is scheduled for release on October 11, 2004, and will be available in stores and online. For details on the band’s tour schedule, updated news and notes, and a complete musical and

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars El Paso Times Open Mic Review, by Everett Saucedo, April 4, 2005

By 

Phillip Flowers - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virus Divine (Audio CD)

LITTLE KING REVIEW

By Everett Saucedo

Rush fans have never been in short supply. Among them has to be Ryan Rosoff, singer / guitarist / writer for El Paso rock band Little King. The coincidence is not unintentional; while creative influences stretching from Styx to Temple of the Dog can be picked out with one listen of Virus Divine, the band's slickly-produced third album, there is no question that Little King owes more than just a passing nod to the legendary prog-rockers.

Comparisons to the cultish Canadians don't end there. Rosoff manages a sometimes-spooky vocal impersonation of Rush frontman Geddy Lee. The final tracks were mixed by Terry Brown, who also helped produce many of Rush's albums. And the album itself came together as a singular unit in (yes) Toronto. In all, Virus Divine is an artfully-tailored album full of sweeping vocal rock arias and at-times thundering bass and drums interspersed with modest and clean guitar licks.

Little King (Rosoff on vocals and guitars; Wes Kahalekulu on drums; and Shannon Brady on bass) is not your typical garage band. Aside from being on the verge of celebrating its tenth birthday next year, Little King has also released two previous albums (Transmountain in 1997 and Time Extension in 1998), has had extensive airplay on college and independent radio stations, and has even cut a video. Little King is a professional endeavor, and that professionalism extends beyond the quality of their sound, to the content of their lyrics.

Like Rush lyricist Neil Peart, a writer known for his grandiose and mystical lyrics that touched on everything from questions of god to arboreal allegories of the civil rights movement, Rosoff writes with similar intentions of telling a story in a way that connects his songs and brings them together at the end as one whole being. On Virus Divine, the subject of exploration is the Columbine tragedy. Virus begins with one man's mindset as he watches the events unfold on TV ("All I Need,"), then explores the mortal dangers that stalk America's suburbs ("Peacemaker") and the antipathy of its children holding court in a dying empire ("Antibodies" and "Virus Divine") before ending on "Horsefeathers," the surprisingly-optimistic goodnight kiss to Rosoff's daughter that wraps up the album.

As an album, Virus Divine starts out like a lion and leaves like a lamb. "All I Need" is rich with heavy guitars and pop-rock guitars that betray its ominous heart; by the end of the album, the trappings of the first song have been replaced for a much-folkier sound on "Horsefeathers." All told, Virus Divine suffers only one painfully-noticeable flaw: clocking it at only thirty-eight minutes, it is much too short. Still, it's a great thirty-eight minutes. Wait to see what Little King does when time is on their side.