The Connection

“THE CONNECTION GETS IT!” - Steven Van Zandt, The Underground Garage   The Connection is an independent rock & roll/power-pop band from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The group recently announced its selection by the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME to perform a two-hour set for an exclusive audience of 1,000 Rock Hall VIPs at Cleveland's "Party of the Year," the 11th annual “It’s Only Rock and Roll” Spring Benefit. This huge honor speaks volumes about the band’s terrific original songs and its reputation for professionalism. Almost since its formation, E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt has championed The Connection to a nationwide audience on his Sirius XM radio station, The Underground Garage, and to a world-wide audience on his syndicated terrestrial radio show, Little Steven's Underground Garage, naming four of the band's songs "The Coolest Song In The World" in a recent 13-month period, putting two other rockers into heavy rotation, and naming the band’s most recent LP, LET IT ROCK!, “The Coolest Album Of The Month" last August. As Little Steven says, “The Connection gets it.” Coming on the heels of Van Zandt's strong support, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame booking is The Connection’s crowning achievement thus far, and signifies that the band’s national break out has begun in earnest. The Connection formed in late 2011 to hit the ground running, working with legendary Ramones engineer and producer Ed Stasium, and opening for The Flamin' Groovies, Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere & The Raiders), The Muffs, Boston legends The Real Kids, The Figgs, Dan Vapid & The Cheats, Paul Collins, Low-Cut Connie, Richie Ramone, Muck and the Mires, The Kurt Baker Band, and others. While LET IT ROCK! recaptures the sheer exuberance of the best British Invasion bands, The Connection sound like The Connection and no one else. The band’s music is both familiar and fresh, timeless and new. It is feel-good, time-to-dance, original rock & roll. Goldmine Magazine named LET IT ROCK! one of the 20 best albums of 2013, stating, "A helping of punk energy, plenty of pop songwriting smarts, and a whole lotta rock and roll attitude sums up these New Hampshire boys..." The album features a dozen original Brad Marino/Geoff Palmer power-pop/rockers, including the breakneck-paced “Wrong Side of 25,” the melodic, Beatles-influenced "She's A Keeper," the driving, Stones-influenced “Girls In This Town,” and the Rockpile-inspired “Crawling From The Wreckage Of A Saturday Night.”   Critics uniformly praise the band and its original songs: "[T]here is no one--no one--on the scene today that does rock and roll better than The Connection." "[N]othing could have prepared me for the sheer awesomeness of the band's brand new LP, Let It Rock!" "If there ever was a power pop band that oozed coolness...it would be The Connection." "This is Rock ‘n Roll! ... These are the bastard Yankee sons of Rockpile ... There’s not a step wrong made on [Let It Rock!]."   The Connection toured Western Europe in both 2012 and 2013, playing to wildly receptive crowds in Spain, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, and has appeared on MTV.