The story of Gölden Palace ultimately begins in 2001 with a punk rock band called 5th March. Alex Goss, Joseph Kimbrell and Johnny Emmel, together as 5th March, performed numerous concerts around the Charleston area during their years in high school. They personified the punk rock DIY ethos by setting up their own concerts, thus attracting and sharing the stage with bands such as The Berlin Project, Punchline, Sloppy Meateaters, East Arcadia, and Gunmoll. The band enjoyed some local popularity but broke up upon graduation in 2003.
Fueled by a love of punk rock, beach music, hair metal, and vodka, Gölden Palace was formed in the summer of 2004 with Alex Goss on vocals and guitar, Joseph Kimbrell on guitar, Johnny Emmel on drums, and Graham Spees on bass (who was actually the first drummer of 5th March before Johnny). The newly formed four-piece hit Charleston furiously and quickly gained more traction than ever before. Reminiscent of bands like Thin Lizzy, NOFX, Goldfinger, Less Than Jake, and even Motley Crue, Gölden Palace made it clear their music is about having a good time and rocking hard. In late 2004, GP entered the studio with producer Dwayne Greenhill to record their debut album “A Little Rock N’ Roll,” 10 songs which absolutely personify the band’s personality and attitude during this era: Four carefree surfer dudes who all lived together in a crappy apartment who lived to rock and loved to party.
In 2007, the band took a year’s hiatus while Joseph attended Full Sail University in Florida for audio recording. When he returned in 2008, the band re-grouped, added lead guitarist Andy Adkins, and hit Charleston with a new energy, nearly selling out venues like Black Cart and Village Tavern. The band then began recording new songs with Joseph engineering, eager to release new material. After college graduation in 2009, however, Joseph announced he would be moving to Norway to be with his fiance which led to the band’s final concert in Fall of 2009 and the new album remaining unreleased.
In January 2010 Joseph moved to Europe and during this time he began making a name for himself as a singer and songwriter, fronting the hair-metal band SEKS in 2011 and launching a solo career in 2013 under the name Vitne. The rest of the Gölden Palace members were also busy: Alex, Johnny and Andy formed a new band of their own called Savage Tongues, an active force in Charleston today.
Now in 2015, Gölden Palace is back. In celebration of it’s 10th anniversary, a newly remastered “A Little Rock N’ Roll” has been announced for release July 1st both digitally and on CD as well as a brand new EP entitled “Touch Me There.” The new EP was originally recorded in 2009 and never released until now.
And last but not least, Gölden Palace will be performing a reunion concert July 25th, 2015 at Art’s Bar & Grill in Mt. Pleasant, SC. This will be the first time performing together since 2009.
Gölden Palace are:
Alex Goss: Vocals
Joseph Kimbrell (aka. Vitne Eveillé): Guitar
Johnny Emmel: Drums
Graham Spees: Bass
Andy Adkins: Lead guitar
LINKS:
http://www.goldenpalaceband.com/
http://www.facebook.com/goldenpalaceband
http://www.twitter.com/vitneofficial
