SEA OF GREEN LOOKING TO MAKE BIG WAVES IN THE ROCK MUSIC SCENE

TORONTO (CP) - Prepare to set sail on the Sea of Green, into the groovy
world of stoner rock.

Sea of Green is a Toronto-based band and its members have no qualms about
being part of such a curiously named genre, one implicitly intended for
listeners prone to consuming certain illegal substances. But bassist Eric
Kuthe dismisses the notion that the music - whatever it gets labelled -
will appeal strictly to glassy-eyed Cheech and Chong types. "The industry
needs catch-phrases like grunge, boy-bands, whatever," Kuthe says. "Stoner
rock is something that can categorize the whole scene but it's really just
like '70s retro riff-rock."

Sea of Green's music is groovy, catchy and fuzz-laden; not too fast and not
too slow. It's not so much for head-banging as head-bobbing. Similar bands
who've made it big recently include Queens of the Stone Age, Fu Manchu and
the now-defunct Kyuss.

There's no denying the band's allusions to pot-smoking. Sea of Green is
the name of a hydroponic growing system, and Northern Lights - the band's
debut EP - happens to be the name of a strain of marijuana. But Kuthe
emphasizes that the music comes first.

"We're just good old rock 'n' roll," he says. "If they want to call us
stoner rock, fine. But when I hear the word 'stoner,' it sounds like a guy
who's sitting on his couch waiting for the pizza man. But we're energetic
guys. We're the guys that get stoned and go hiking!"

Sea of Green's lyrics are also purposely ambiguous.

"Everything is kind of encrypted and coded, let's say metaphorical," Kuthe
says. "Nothing is blatant like, 'Yeah, run out and roll your dope and smoke
it.' "

The band is still in its infancy - they've only been together for a little
over a year - but they've got big ambitions and are already beginning their
crawl out of the underground and into the mainstream.

Northern Lights was released in July by New York-based label the Music
Cartel and has moved a respectable 3,000 copies worldwide. The band has
been playing local clubs regularly this summer and is booked for a fall
tour in the U.S.

The three-piece - rounded out by singer/guitarist Travis Cardinal and
drummer Chris Bender - has already created a buzz by working with a
recognized name in the music industry. Northern Lights was produced by
Nick Blagona, who has worked in the studio with the Tea Party, Deep Purple
and Nazareth. Not a bad catch for a relatively unknown band.

"He has so much experience and so many ideas, it's like having access to a
vast vault of musical ideas," Kuthe says of Blagona.

It was a bit of a fluke that Sea of Green hooked up with Blagona in the
first place. Kuthe was working on a CD for a previous band he played with
at Metalworks studio in Toronto, and Blagona happened to be there mastering
another album. The two hit it off and kept in touch, and when Sea of Green
needed a producer for Northern Lights, in stepped Blagona. He's also been
enlisted to produce Sea of Green's upcoming full-length album, tentatively
titled Time to Fly.

Kuthe fervently believes stoner rock will be the next big thing in popular
music.

"It's starting to catch on, and I think it's going to explode pretty big,"
he says. "We're trying to take it to a melodic, more mainstream level."

And what could be more mainstream than MTV? The American music network has
signed a contract with the band that will see songs from Northern Lights
played as background music on the reality show Road Rules.

Sea of Green is also making inroads with the American college crowd. Move
the Mountains, the opening tune on Northern Lights, is featured on a CD
sampler of music being distributed at American college campuses by a
company called EverAd. Other bands featured on the CD include London,
Ont., pop-punkers Kittie, as well as Backyard Babies and the Circle Jerks.

American sports network ESPN is also featuring Sea of Green tune In the Sun
on its highlight packages during the X-Games in September.

"We're probably bigger in the States and Europe and Asia than we are in
Canada, and I can totally live with that," Kuthe says, noting that bands
like the Tragically Hip are hugely successful in Canada, yet hardly make a
dent in the international market.

Sea of Green's new album will be released in North America by the Music
Cartel, and will be licensed to Rise Above Records in Britain and to JVC in
Japan. Kuthe says the next CD will be a lot heavier to reflect their live show.

"Now we're going to go for a slightly thicker, heavier sound," he says.
"The first album didn't quite capture our real heavy sound."

And the band does indeed sound heavy in a live setting. So far they've
been limited to clubs, but that hasn't stopped them from breaking out the
smoke machines, psychedelic lights and mini flashpots en masse. Kuthe is
excited about taking the live show to the next level, with cues from the
glory days of 1980s heavy metal.

"All hail Kiss, Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue, Poison," Kuthe says. "Hats off
to all those bands. They had the flames, they had the explosions, they had
the lights, and we're trying to bring that back."

For more information and music samples, check out
http://www.sea-of-green.on.ca/