Up for auction "Lo-Pro” Group Signed CD Insert and Hand Written Set List. Signers are: Tommy Stewart, Neil Godfrey, John Fafnestock, Pete Murray and Pete Ricci.

ES-5982E

Lo-Pro is an American rock band formed in 2002 by Pete Murray and Neil Godfrey after the disbandment of their previous band, Ultraspank, in 2001. After attracting the attention of Aaron Lewis of Staind, the band signed to a major record label, Geffen Records, and released their debut album, Lo-Pro in 2003. After a year of touring in support of the album, they would be dropped from their label. The band stayed together, but it would be almost six years until any further music releases, with the band opting to record and re-record several album's worth of material, participate in side-projects, and perform live shows prior to finalizing new material for release. The long gap in releases in turn lead to a number of consecutive releases in the following years, including the Letting Go EP in 2009, a second album, The Beautiful Sounds of Revenge, in 2010, and an acoustic album, Bittersweet, under the pseudonym "Life on Planet 9", in 2011. The band briefly returned to working under the Lo-Pro name to release a third studio album, Disintegration Effect, in 2013, before returning to the "Life On Planet 9" moniker to release The Theory of Everything in 2014, and Higher in January 2017. Concurrently, Murray and ex-bassist John Fahnestock have also started up and released music under a new band called White Noise Owl as well. In the late 1990s, vocalist Pete Murray and guitarist Neil Godfrey formed and recorded two albums in the band Ultraspank. After the poor sales of their second album, Progress, the band parted ways with their record label and ultimately disbanded. Initially burned out with the music industry, Murray and Godfrey eventually met up and began working on music together, refreshed being able to work without the pressures of dealing with a label. The two put together a demo album in one of their bedrooms, where they recorded everything between the two of them; Godfrey handling all guitar work and Murray handling vocals and all other aspects through programming in Pro Tools. They were able to attract the attention of Aaron Lewis, of Staind, who had just started up his own vanity record label, "413 Records", at Geffen Records. Lewis made the band the first to be signed to the label, stating that he felt even the early rough demo sounded "better than 80 percent of the albums released today." After being signed based on the demo alone, Murray and Godfrey needed to assemble a full band for the band's for recording their debut album. The band recruited Tommy Stewart, the previous drummer for Godsmack, as their drummer. Additionally, John Fahnestock, who had met Murray and Godfrey while touring alongside Ultraspank in the band Snot at Ozzfest 1998, was also recruited as the bassist. The band rounded out the lineup with second guitarist Pete Ricci. With the band assembled, recording for the album began in January 2003. The band worked with music producer Don Gilmore, who had previously worked with Linkin Park and Pearl Jam. The band recorded for the first half of the year, and then released Lo-Pro on September 30, 2003. It peaked at no. 9 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and stayed on the chart for two weeks. One single was released, "Sunday", which peaked at no. 20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and no. 27 on Modern Rock Tracks. The track also appeared in the 989 Studios game MLB 2004 for the PlayStation 2. Murray said of the single "It's definitely not about watching football or going to church. It's really about how I've never had anything to look forward to on Sunday. I never liked going to school or going to a job, and when Sunday comes, you just know things are gonna hit the wringer the following day." The band had planned on releasing a second single, bassist Jonathan Fahnestock had even asked the internet community to vote for which track it would be, but it never surfaced. However, the track "Ignition" was featured in the 2004 PC game The Ultimate Dodge Garage. The band toured extensively alongside Staind and Three Days Grace into 2004. Additionally, on April 24, 2004, they released a 3 track acoustic EP exclusively through Napster, containing acoustic takes of "Sunday", "Ignition", and "Not Me". However, by June 2004, the band announced that they had been dropped by Geffen Records. Despite this, the band confirmed that they were still on good terms with Lewis and Staind, were not disbanding, and were in fact already working on writing and recording more music.