I cut cable TV. And I'm enjoying free and cheap alternatives to cable and satellite.

I was a loyal cable TV customer all my life. I started having cable once my parents bought an old analog Sony TV set from an electronics store back in the early 90's. I was a little kid at the time and I had cable TV throughout my childhood and young adult years, especially when me and my parents moved to a house in Antioch, California, a suburb in the Bay Area. I enjoyed that I can watch 24 hour cartoons, 24 hour movies, and 24 hour music with the cable networks. My brother Ricky was still living in my childhood home in San Francisco, and he wasn't using cable TV there. When I moved back to my childhood house in San Francisco about two years ago, I had my mom's old 1993 analog Magnavox TV set up in my bedroom. Yet I couldn't watch anything on my TV except using my Xbox 360 to play my movies and TV shows I had on DVD. It wasn't until later years I found out that analog TV sets now needed a DTV converter box and antenna to watch over-the-air programming. Back in June 2009, the US government now ensured that all networks upgrade from analog to digital broadcasting. I didn't have an HDTV set, and it turned out only HDTV sets or Smart TV's didn't require you to buy a separate converter box to watch local channels and the big networks like PBS, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and CW. They had digital tuners built in, so if someone didn't subscribe to cable or satellite TV, they can watch over-the-air broadcast TV channels through connecting their antenna to their HDTV set. 

Analog TV's weren't obsolete but they now needed a DTV converter box and antenna to watch free TV (the local channels and big networks) since June 2009 when the Digital TV laws were passed by the government. 

Of course I didn't have cable anymore once I moved into my childhood house. For the next year or so, I was stuck using my Xbox 360 gaming console to watch DVD's I bought from Rasputin Records or I borrowed DVD's from the library to watch whatever I could. Something in me was missing. I wanted to watch actual TV. So I went on the Internet to find out how my old 1993 Magnavox tube TV can receive free TV programming from the local channels and big networks like ABC. Me and my brother Ricky weren't subscribing to cable or satellite, so our options were limited to watching over-the-air antenna programming of shows like Grey's Anatomy or Nashville. So I went to Radioshack the next day without getting enough hours of sleep, excited, and I bought me a DTV converter box and a Radioshack TV rabbit ears antenna. The reason why my brother didn't have cable or satellite was because we didn't want to pay $80 on basic cable with most channels we wouldn't even watch. Plus there was too much trashy reality shows and with so many channels and smut, it was harder to surf through cable to find good quality TV. Too much smut too. We thought it was pointless. My brother had a Samsung HDTV he bought from Costco in 2008, so he was able to watch over-the-air programming without a converter box as it had a digital tuner. Not sure what shows he watches though.

So I bought me the converter box and antenna. I set it up on my old analog TV, I scanned for channels and tweaked the rabbit ears antenna a little bit and I had about 36 channels! Some of these local channels didn't work because it had a very weak or no signal. I couldn't get KTSF very well because of a very weak signal on my antenna and DTV converter box. Now you see, I live in a metropolitan city that's very popular in America called San Francisco. Tourists come here and many people in the world would love to live here. Because I lived in a big city, I was able to get a lot of over-the-air DTV channels! Here's my channel lineup through my converter box and rabbit ears antenna.

My digital broadcast TV channels

Callsign		Network	Virtual Channel	Band
	KPIX	CBS	5-1	UHF
	KBCW	CW	44-1	UHF
	KRON	MYTV	4-1	UHF
	KQED	PBS	9-1	UHF
	KCNS	IND	38-1	UHF
	KOFY	IND	20-1	UHF
	KTVU	FOX	2-1	UHF
	KMTP	ETV	32-1	UHF
	KFSF	TELEFUTURA	66-1	UHF
	KCSM	PBS	60-1	UHF
	KGO	ABC	7-1	Hi-V
	KKPX	ION	65-1	UHF
	KNTV	NBC	11-1	Hi-V
	KDTV	UNIVISION	14-1	UHF
	KSTS	TELEMUNDO	48-1	UHF
	KTNC	TUVISION	42-1	UHF
	KTSF	IND	26-1	UHF
	KICU	IND	36-1	UHF
	KQEH	unknown	54-1	UHF
	KTLN	IND	68-1	UHF
	KRCB	PBS	22-1	UHF
	KVIE	PBS	6-1	Hi-V
	KXTV	ABC	10-1	Hi-V
	KOVR	CBS	13-1	UHF

CALL SIGN	NETWORK	CHANNEL	HD
KBCW	CW	44-1
KCNS	MundoFox	38-1
KCNS	Sino TV	38-2	-
KCNS	Estrella TV	38-3	-
KCNS	Japanese	38-4	-
KCSM-TV	Educational	60-1
KCSM-TV	MHz Worldview	60-2	-
KCSM-TV	Audio	60-3	-
KFSF-DT	UniMas	66-1
KFSF-DT	Bounce TV	66-2	-
KGO-TV	ABC	7-1
KGO-TV	Live Well	7-2
KGO-TV	Live Well	7-3	-
KMTP-TV	Ethnic	32-1	-
KMTP-TV	NTDTV	32-5	-
KMTP-TV	Asian	32-6	-
KOFY-TV	Independent	20-1
KOFY-TV	Me-TV	20-2	-
KPIX-TV	CBS	5-1
KQED	PBS	9-1
KQED	PBS	9-2	-
KQED	World Channel	9-3	-
KRON-TV	My Network TV	4-1
KRON-TV	Weather	4-2	-
KTVU	FOX	2-1
KTVU	LATV	2-2	-
K14MW-D	-	-	-
KTSF	Asian	26-1	-
KTSF	ICN	26-4	-
KTSF	Vietnamese	26-5	-
KTSF	World	26-6	-
KNTV	NBC	11-1
KNTV	COZI TV	11-2	-
KTNC-TV	Estrella TV	42-1	-
KTNC-TV	Estrella TV	42-2	-
KTNC-TV	This TV	42-3	-
KTNC-TV	Retro TV	42-4	-
KTLN-TV	TLN	68-1	-
KTLN-TV	Infomercials	68-2	-
KTLN-TV	SonLife	68-3	-
KDTV-DT	Univision	14-1
KDTV-DT	UniMas	14-2	-
KSTS	Telemundo	48-1
KSTS	Exitos TV	48-2	-

Now that I am enjoying TV. I found that most of the TV shows, entertainment, and other fine programming on these broadcast channels were better than what I was getting on cable. I get to enjoy the local news on ABC with Carolyn Johnson and Dan Ashley. I get to watch the latest hit TV shows on the networks like Dancing With The Stars and The Mindy Project. With cable, there was just 600 channels and pretty much nothing was on during most of those channels and I would never watch most of them anyways on my TV. So I wasn't paying for a hundred something cable TV channels I would never watch or had nothing on. I loved the fact I cut the cord and disabled my cable. Watching free TV should be something that is embraced. As of these days, I heard most people are getting fed up with the rising costs of cable and satellite TV and cut their cord for streaming video/Internet TV set-top boxes like Roku and/or just settled with digital broadcast TV channels with their antenna hooked up to their flat LED screen HDTV sets. Plus finding good TV shows and movies on cable gets mundane and tiring quickly!

Since I've been living like this for awhile already, do I really miss cable? Well I do miss watching channels like Comedy Central, Travel Channel, ABC Family, Disney Channel, BET, and TV Land. Instead of TV Land, I watch I Love Lucy reruns on MeTV. Instead of Comedy Central, I watch America's Funniest Home Videos on ABC. Instead of Disney Channel shows, I watch the Vortexx on CW on Saturday mornings. Now you see, I love TV but I don't let it consume my daily life. I have a girlfriend Faith who I'm in a long-term relationship with. I spend time with her in my free time. I make music with my guitar and use  Mixcraft on my laptop. I walk around the Excelsior District where I live at in San Francisco for a few hours in my free time when the weather is good! And I work a per diem job at a greeting card company. 

Because of the popularity of streaming video set-top boxes like Apple TV, Roku, and TV Pad, I learned online that using these electronics can be a money saving alternative to cable and satellite. In late April of 2013, I became one of the 5 million people who decided to give it a try. I bought Roku LT from Best Buy, and I set that purple box the size of a sandwich onto my TV. Because these things require WiFi at home to use, I wouldn't recommend a streaming Internet video box for people who watch TV but doesn't have Internet at home or isn't well adapted to this new technology. I wanted to try Roku out, and so far, I've been very pleased with it! I get to watch more of a variety of free content. Roku is basically streaming Internet video and watching it on your TV like shows and movies. Smart TV sets already have Hulu and Netflix built in. But Roku and streaming media boxes contain a lot of free awesome TV shows and movies and other interesting content. It gives you your own choice to choose what you watch that's made available. The thing about Roku is, it contains 600 online streaming Internet video channels featuring movies, the news, cartoons, and TV shows. A lot of the content is free, but it's mostly B-movies and I do get free Anime on the Crunchy Roll channel on my Roku LT box. To get the most of Roku, you need to subscribe to paid streaming channels like Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon Prime. You get a lot of reruns of TV shows from the big networks like ABC, CBS, and FOX, programming from a few cable networks, and a whole lot more. Since Roku is fairly new, not every cable network has jumped on the bandwagon yet but it will happen soon considering the decline that cable and satellite TV had in recent years. Roku doesn't work like a conventional TV, you get to choose and click on what you want to watch on whatever channel you're on with Roku and you browse content for it, it's like using YouTube in a way on the Internet. I think Roku and these streaming media set-top boxes like TVPad are a great cheap alternative to cable. While you still have to pay a little money in your bank account for some of its better features, its still way less than what you're paying for in a cable or satellite TV bill. I use Roku to watch movies, TV shows, and things I couldn't get out of the converter box broadcast channels since it wasn't enough to satisfy my TV needs. It really worked! I get to watch reruns of Adventure Time and Beavis and Butthead by paying for the Hulu Plus channel on my Roku box, and I get to watch and stream movies as I browse for something good and interesting to watch on this awesome new technology called the streaming media player. And Hulu Plus shows some TV shows that they no longer show on both cable or satellite! Ooooh yeah!

I use Roku as a cheap alternative for cable and satellite TV. And I couldn't be any happier. Even my mom is thinking of cutting her cable for these streaming video set-top boxes! She was thinking of cutting cable for Dish Network because satellite is cheaper than cable, but we don't know for sure yet. I found the cheap and free alternative to cable and satellite, by watching over-the-air digital TV broadcast channels like ABC, KOFY, MeTV, CW, and FOX. And I use a streaming media player called Roku to watch more and more interesting TV shows and movies that I couldn't get on the broadcast channels or were only on cable or satellite. Who needs cable or satellite when you can find free and cheap alternatives to watching TV? :)

And I have a huge DVD collection of TV shows and movies. I downloaded them, bought them at the store, or I burned them onto DVDR's when I borrow them from the library. I don't really care what anyone says. I love TV. It's one of my interests and hobbies. But I do other things besides that too, keep in mind. And I'm here telling you all my amazing story of how I cut the cord and found the alternative to cable and satellite TV. :)

Thanks for reading!

Heavy Sigma & Patrick Lew Band Bio

For the last five years, Patrick, Dave, and the rest of the musicians and friends associated with Patrick Lew's Electric Army are positive everyday people doing music as a passionate hobby, and balancing everything important essentially before getting together to make music.

Patrick Lew's Electric Army reign over localized Bay Area rock music - and for that matter, the social-media - was a critical success and sporadic struggle since 2008. As a cult-like social media phenomenon on the Internet and their very own hometown of San Francisco, California, Facebook "likes" and Internet virality through the Electric Army's music websites online varied but never kept themselves or their fans quiet worldwide since their 2008 formation, the garage punk band while often a critical jackpot or success within the music industry - depending who you ask - have created very extraordinary experiences for themselves in contemporary society. Before they became band, Patrick, Dave, Faith, and the rest of the musicians and friends associated with this garage band phenomenon in Patrick Lew's Electric Army, were merely misfits and fairly below the status quo of society. They struggled years to accomplish what they've dreamed about, musically procrastinated for a long time, and yearned for in their pre-adolescent childhood aspirations to become and feel like a part of something, after being isolated for so long. Anyone who had played music, made contributions, and recorded with these peeps, was a precursor for bigger things to come in life generally speaking.

All the band members (former and current) were 1980's babies, who had their childhoods growing up in the 1990's, but growing up in that essence was found comfortable through the Grunge (Nirvana and Pearl Jam) and later, Britpop musical movement that found their way through the pre-YouTube, pre-Facebook, and still fairly primitive technologically resourced days of cable TV on a Magnavox.

Patrick was just 13 years old when he found out what he wanted to put his passions and interest towards, whether it made him successful or not. He was a pre-teen rebel at the infamous Rooftop Middle School in the city of San Francisco. Life wasn't easy for the de-facto leader of the band growing up. His beloved grandfather passed away when Patrick was aged four, and spent nearly his whole childhood sheltered and isolated from "the in-crowd." When he was just aged 13, he bought his first electric guitar at a mom-and-pop music store, and painstakingly practiced and procastinated when learning how to play the guitar.

While he wasn't particularly skilled as a musician, at least not yet by conventional standards, Patrick was going to Cumberland Church every Sunday in the Chinatown. It was here! Where he met his soon-to-be high school classmate Tommy and struck a close friendship which lasted since day one. The two friends began establishing themselves with aspirations to become professional - or semi-professional yet amateur - musicians and were damn passionate about playing rock & roll music. Regardless what many critics and haters thought of them since day one, never letting those jeers and poor criticism discourage their passion for playing music in garage bands. Tommy and Patrick formed a garage punk duo called Goldenweasel (which eventually became Band of Asians), and it was the tail end of the 90's as the two were about to graduate from 8th grade with diplomas before luxoriously attending Raoul Wallenberg Traditonal High School as freshmen.

Whilst their freshmen years in high school, Napster and mp3 technology was changing the way the music industry and how bands, musicians, any many other things could be heard and distributed. Computers and Internet, while still in its pre-Facebook days, were becoming more affordable for home office usage and digital music software was replacing the 4-track Tascam! While the Internet didn't virally made Patrick Lew a very successful millionaire rock & roll superstar with millions of "likes" or "fans" on Facebook, it did give him and a million other unsigned bands locally an option to get heard. But realizing the oversaturation of the Net of dozens and dozens of unsigned bands putting themselves out there, Lew had a lesson to learn in later years.

The next step meant! Jamming in their garage, playing their music aimlessly to create instrumental and songwriting ideas, fine tuning their musicianship, and everything else. This took quite a long time, as Lew procrastinated and practiced for years on-and-off to consolidate himself as a guitarist, songwriter, and musician. Plowing through a series of unsuccessful garage bands, and battling his own problems in his life before putting it back together.

In 2008, that dream being a successful musician making money, touring and performing in bands across nightclubs and theaters, and being super publicized and making professional studio recordings, were slowly but surely fading. Even though realizing music wasn't going to pay the utility bills, groceries, and the rent, Lew enrolled into a university in Hayward called CSUEB. Resumed his music as mainly a hobby, but cutting any expensive seriousness that would devour time, money, and effort into making a music career work in the long run. He graduated university in June 2011 with a B.A. in Philosophy and Music. Although music was no longer meant for seriousness for a potential career and benefit. It didn't mean he had to quit doing what he loved doing. He had to make music primarily as a hobby, and play guitar with the friends he chose carefully to play music with as a favorite past-time when everyone isn't busy with school, work, and other important or busy things in life. Flashing back three years prior to graduating college, Lew formed the Patrick Lew Band - later band named the Electric Army or simply, Patrick Lew's Electric Army.

Together, the PLB Army recorded and created music at the expense of their much heavily invested musical gear that Lew spent on with some of his college aid money. Somewhere in Patrick Lew's king-size bedroom inside a house in Antioch, California, that became the band practice room for the PLB Army where they made music. Sometimes, digital and electronic collaboration via Internet was related to the music making priorities. Through Skype and private email messages through social-media website GIANT, Facebook. This led to how Lew created music alone and with the assistance of others as sidemen musicians on record.

To get themselves out there however! They had to have a website. Most of Lew's free time leisurely on his Netbook was spent making a few websites here and there and posting the music by Patrick Lew's Electric Army up for everyone to hear online - SoundCloud, Reverbnation, etc etc. Lew and the rest knew this was going to be mainly a passionate past-time hobby recreationally, not a career path for success and to make a living financially. While the PLB Army doesn't really perform locally live, given the lack of many kinds of resources to do so. This doesn't mean the Patrick Lew Band doesn't perform onstage. They busk low-key shows and gigs anywhere they can. Whether it be downtown SF near the Powell BART station, churches, Antioch house parties, or secluded small Contra Costa County warehouses. That's their philosophy on how they handle their musical entrepreneurship. While the Patrick Lew Band is open about opportunities for exposure in music, they're not getting their hopes up. Many of the band members are rapidly approaching the big Three-O, and have other personal and career priorities for the most part.

But let's hope the music stays what it is and forever. Music will always be the weapon for the Patrick Lew Band.

WATCH THIS GROW! ENJOY THE MUSIC AND PLAY IT PASSIONATELY.

Press Release - Patrick Lew Band Hiatus (as of October 2011)

The Patrick Lew Band formed whilst the musicians were still in high school as teenagers, and began posting their music on the Internet in May 2001. Regularly busking and freelancing individually and together in the San Francisco Bay Area via jam sessions and busking live performances. The following year, the band recorded their first album Psychotic Love on a 4-track Portastudio. While seriously dedicated to their music and remaining focused and persistent, the band gained some degree of notoriety revolving around Lew's personal problems at the time and Bandalism. It would be four full years before the Patrick Lew Band was able to record a follow-up to Psychotic Love, aptly titled Revenge (2006) with new members Dave Arceo (drums) and Zack Huang (keyboards). Patrick met his girl Faith by late 2006 on a free dating website, and began dating before she re-located back to Texas in the Bay. 

The band set out on a tour locally in 2007 (as Band of Asians) sponsored by KLC Productions as an opening act for Tinkture, Scarlett Bombs, and former lead guitarist Eddie Blackburn's other band Nocturnal Rock Turtles. After the tour concluded, the band underwent another difficult period of rehabiliation, losing Huang on keyboards. Blackburn re-signed from the Patrick Lew Band by the end of 2007, to focus on his own bands he was playing music in at the time. 

During this period, the band underwent a change in sound, discarding their post-hardcore style from their first two albums, and began experimenting more with new broader and eclectic sounds on record. By this time, the band became an inter-band freelance activity and presumably a solo project for Lew. Original Distorted Harmony guitarist Jeremy Alfonso joined the Patrick Lew Band by mid-2009, and Lew reconnected with his long-time girlfriend Faith Marie, who also became an auxiliary contributor and group member of the Patrick Lew Band. In the studio, they created two more albums, Let It Rise And Against (2009) and Murder Bay (2011), which expanded Lew's music and recognition through the indies locally and via Internet. Becoming the first major success for the Japanese & Taiwanese musician and guitar hero Patrick Lew. In addition, the last two Patrick Lew Band albums also developed and solidified Lew as a garage punk "fused" prototypical hard rock act. Combining grunge and various punk influences and creating their own distinct sound while playing and making rock & roll music. During the Murder Bay sessions, Alfonso mutually departed the Patrick Lew Band to focus on college mostly before re-locating to Toronto, Canada. 

In October 2011, Patrick Lew announced the Patrick Lew Band will be going through an "indefinite hibernation" to experiment more in the home recording studio as a solo musician under a "TBA" band name, alongside jamming freelance with other musicians in garage bands. For the time being, the TBA band was under the infamous name Chaos in Chinatown for a few months. The former name was given as a recommendation from an estranged former friend on Facebook named Candace. However after much deliberation, the name Chaos in Chinatown was quickly dropped due to rising concerns of raising the anger of the Asian American community. The then-TBA solo rock band was given the name Heavy Sigma, reportedly as a pun on another local band that Lew did not get along with, primarily their bassist by the name of Damien. During the last two months of 2011, Lew and Arceo rented a recording studio in Antioch, California, and began taking their unfinished musical ideas and rehearsed cover songs they were jamming to, and recorded a demo EP. Called Studio Demos 2012 (sometimes referred to as “Oddities”). It was self-released via Internet as a free download on the Heavy Sigma websites. 

While there is no word when the Patrick Lew Band will return to the Bay Area music scene, Lew insists when his musical ideas are not as creatively stagnant or “filler” even, he would return to recording another album with the PLB. It could be an instrumental punk record, or even more experimental leaps from Murder Bay. For the time being, Lew is investing his time and creative energy to Heavy Sigma and making music alone there. Lew also set up his own indie record label, Heavy Sigma Records, to handle the distribution of Patrick Lew Band and Heavy Sigma albums and related merchandise for America. Lew is busy making music, playing guitar, and rocking in the free world. And it’s a good time indeed to be content with it all.

Patrick Lew Band EPK (as of 2012)

1) band name: Patrick Lew Band 

2) hometown: Antioch, California, USA 

3) genres: Alternative Rock, Hard Rock, Garage Punk, Grunge, Punk Rock 

4) years active: 2001-present 

5) labels: Heavy Sigma Records (USA/Canada), Unsigned (worldwide) 

6) related bands: Band of Asians, The P & G, Distorted Harmony, Goldenweasel, Logic's Enemy, Retrograde Fire 

7) website: http://www.reverbnation.com/patricklewsband 

8) band members: 

Patrick Lew - lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2001-present) 

Faith Marie Lew - TBA role (2009-present) 

David Hunter - bass (2012-present) 

Greg Lynch - keyboards, guitar, backing vocals (2012-present) 

former members: 

Jeremy Alfonso - lead guitar, backing vocals (2009-2011) 

Zack Huang - keyboards (2005-2008) 

Eddie Blackburn - lead guitar, backing vocals (2001-2005, 2007) 

Tommy Loi - drums & percussion (2001-2005) 

David Arceo - drums & percussion (2006-2012, recurring onwards) 

HISTORY 

Starting out as a musician by aimlessly jamming in Lew's bedroom with then-limited experience and education in playing musical instruments, creating their own brand of Garage Punk. They recorded their first demo tape between 1999 and 2001, and in May 2001, Patrick Lew began promoting his music on the Internet as a solo rock musician or in his freelance garage bands. Unlike most of their contemporaries in San Francisco, the band was interracial and inter-gender. Alongside, displaying more 80's and early 90's hard rock and grunge inspirations fused with contemporary punk. Lew also adopted a part Mod, part Hippie, and trendy Asian pop culture image. But later replaced it with varying hairstyle lengths and casual men's attire. 

The Patrick Lew Band mainly created music, freelanced with other musicians in the Bay Area community in garage bands, and busked free low-key gigs locally in bars, churches, high schools, even outside of retailers in downtown San Francisco. 

One of the most notable moments during their brief time as a live performing Garage Punk band was opening up for the all-girl SF pop punk trio Tinkture, Scarlett Bombs, and former lead guitarist Eddie Blackburn's other band Nocturnal Rock Turtles during a 2007 local tour across recreational centers sponsored by KLC Productions. 

Some time in 2008, the Patrick Lew Band dwindled into being more of a Patrick Lew solo project with the occasional contributions of other musicians Lew was close to from City College SF and Cal State University, Hayward. By this time, Lew no longer performed live gigs and assembled a homegrown rock band recording studio in his own bedroom, to create his own music alone. Despite many turbulent times, Lew persisted and determined himself to improve as an artist, songwriter, guitar player, and musician after years of being deemed "amateurish" as a musician playing and making rock & roll music given the lack of experience at the time playing guitar and creating music. This led to three more albums, "Curb Your Wild Life" (2009), "Let It Rise And Against!" (2010), and "Murder Bay" (2011). The Patrick Lew Band took an indefinite hiatus in Fall of 2011 to devote more time to other extracurricular side projects, such as The P & G. And because of consistent expansion of the Patrick Lew Band, Lew finally receive slight recognition for his efforts and earned some online fame as a musician. Alongside, a creative lull for the Patrick Lew Band itself when making new music. 

Although the Patrick Lew Band never signed with a major or indie record label, and were also turned down by a lot of the Internet music critics and the rock music industry for its uniqueness or unconventional sound or alleged notoriety, and never appeared on mainstream multi-media publications, the Patrick Lew Band nearing the end of 2011 has become somewhat of a critical moderate success in the independent rock music scene across the universe, and attracts a cult-like following via Internet based on persistence and uniqueness. 

Why this name?

Because it's Patrick Lew's solo project. Pretty much! In the last 11 years since the Patrick Lew Band existed, there were: 3 drummers (Tommy, Dave, and Faith), 2 lead guitarists (Eddie and J), 1 keyboardist (Zack), no bass players. But there is only! One Patrick Lew. Fo reals.

Do you play live?

No, we jam and make music in the studio most of the time!! But you might see me busking down the street corners of downtown SF sporadically...

Would you sign a record contract with a major label?

It depends. I'm content with what I have now as far as my musical merit and accomplishments are concerned. But I'm open for the forthcoming "right" opportunity for my music if it ever comes my way! 

Most of the time, I rather be known and recognized as an artist or pure musician rather than just an entertainer.

Your influences?

The Beatles, Nirvana, Green Day, Pearl Jam, AFI, Steelheart, White Lion, Tesla, Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Oasis, Dead Kennedys, Silverchair, Mother Love Bone, Bad Religion. 

Being in a rock & roll band is like being in a marriage. It's not just about getting in a studio or club playing music together. It's also very similar to a romantic relationship with someone. I mean I been in bands where a guy gave me a hard time for reasons that seem irrelevant today. Basically...Either, you have to get along and resonate well with your band. Or else, sh*** man...You're unemployed musically for the time being. I do most of the music alone, given the skills I've gained over the years in the regional music field. And somehow...Persisted because of it.

Favorite spot?

San Francisco! Other than that, Seattle. As far as overseas goes, I love Ireland and my homeland of Japan and Taiwan in the Far East.

Equipment used:

My musical gear consists of... 

Guitars: Gibson SG, Epiphone Les Paul custom Hot Rod, Excel Stratocaster 

Amps: Fender 25R Frontman Amp 

Pedals: Digitech RP50 Multi-Effects, Digitech Death Metal hi-gain distortion box, Boss DS-2 Turbo 

Other Guitar Accessories: Dunlop bottleneck slide (for my crappy slide guitar skills...), Monster 15 ft cables 

Recording: Acoustica Mixcraft 4, M-Audio Fast Track USB digital interface, Various guitar VST's (for Mixcraft), Countless #'s of drum loops via DVD, Beheringer USB guitar interface, Line6 TonePort GX (discontinued as of 2011), My Toshiba laptop 

The Gospel (promoting my band): Toshiba laptop (equipped w/ WiFi), critical thinking & writing skills for band bios and EPK's, countless #'s of my finished pieces of music via mp3 files, ANY indie music website with high traffic, big demographics, and registered artists & bands (ex. Reverbnation, Facebook, etc)

Heavy Sigma Band Bio (A Patrick Lew Offshoot Band...)

Heavy Sigma is an instrumental experimental rock band that formed in Antioch, California in 2011. It was founded as a solo project for guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Lew, whilst his band the Patrick Lew Band was becoming more of a construction of an actual band with other musicians involved sporadically. Heavy Sigma also features musical collaboration and performances by other Patrick Lew Band members including Faith Marie and Dave Arceo. Playing music under pseudonym 'guises' in an attempt to preserve their low-key ethnical and musical approach to musical enterpreneurship and to thwart mass media hype, Heavy Sigma mainly plays abrasive, loose, and raw non-conventional sounding rock & roll and garage punk. Following the same promotional tasks that Patrick Lew Band took to get their music heard, the Internet and local San Francisco Bay Area social-media were methods to getting themselves out there. 

Heavy Sigma 411

1) hometown: San Francisco East Bay, California, USA

2) genres: Experimental Rock, Post-Rock, Garage Punk, Grunge

3) years active: 2011-present

4) record label: Unsigned (fuck record labels...)

5) related bands: Patrick Lew Band, Band of Asians

6) band members:

TWRebel85 (AKA Patrick Lew): Guitar, Electronics, Lead Vocals

Angel Eyes (AKA Faith Marie Lew): Drums & Percussion

Stitch (AKA David Arceo): Electronics 

Patrick Lew and Faith Marie met on a free dating website and became a serious romantic couple despite long-distance separating one another, especially because of personal priorities in life. Lew and Dave Arceo met at Skyline College whilst Lew was taking a few music courses, and played together in the now-eponymous Band of Asians from the San Francisco post-hardcore scene. Prior to forming Heavy Sigma as a Patrick Lew solo project, with credited contributions with close ones musically, Lew was experiencing the sudden critical cult-like success and was playing music frequently in the Bay Area with the Grunge/Punk self-prolcaimed buzzworthy band the Patrick Lew Band. Brushing off the critical success and experiencing immense pressure from sudden cult-like fame for his music in the PLB Army, Lew decided to take a brief hibernation from the Patrick Lew Band to focus on other musical activity as an artist and rock guitar player. Aware of the overwhelming experience with how to follow-up the critically acclaimed "Murder Bay" recording with PLB while making music, Lew chose the other method of being a musician, by going more low-key in his approach to recording and marketing his music alone experimenting with more second-rate songwriting ideas and instrumentals. Which was the genesis of Heavy Sigma as a Patrick Lew solo project.

Heavy Sigma's material mainly consists of chaotically raw and unpolished produced music featuring unfinished musical ideas Lew experimented alone, feeling no need to record it with the Patrick Lew Band considering he felt it was not his best music as an artist and rock guitarist. A lot of Heavy Sigma's music is experimental post-rock, but dabbles with other styles closely associated with the Patrick Lew Band such as Grunge and Garage Punk. However, on the Heavy Sigma studio demo which was published and posted via Internet as of early 2012, many of the musical ideas wounded up becoming instrumental-only produced rock music. Lew's guitar playing skills were also at the time artistically challenging, as he felt his lead guitar playing sound was suffering on record given his experience and limitations as a musician. Many of the songwriting ideas that were rejected by the Patrick Lew Band in the music making process were given its presence in Heavy Sigma, which were still unfinished yet reasonably listenable post-rock/garage punk band recordings of Lew's music. Lew is pretty much, the only lone guitar player in Heavy Sigma, both in the studio and sporadically onstage for local gigs. With today's digital technology and computers with fast-speed Internet or WiFi, online collaboration between Lew alongside Faith Marie and Dave Arceo via webcam when making the music on Skype and social-media website juggernaut Facebook enabled some of Marie and Arceo's musical performances and contributions on record in the studio. Recording bits and pieces of the music in their own home studios and computers, emailing back the multitrack files via WAV to Lew so he could Frankenstein the music on record. 

Between October to December 2011, Heavy Sigma began making music in the studio. It resulted in their recorded EP, Studio Demos 2012 (also known as Oddities). Which later after they finished making the music, was posted on the Internet as a free download on PLB-related band websites. Usually, Lew hands out printed pamphlets of Heavy Sigma locally at gigs and elsewhere to get his new solo project out there. But most of it was musical entrepreneurship based methods on the Internet itself. Lew intends Heavy Sigma as more of a solo project hobby for his passion for playing rock & roll music, but doesn't discount any prospects of performing live shows under the 'guise' Heavy Sigma sporadically.

WATCH THIS GROW! ENJOY THE MUSIC AND PLAY IT PASSIONATELY.

The Patrick Lew Band - 10 Years of Rebelling, Chaos, and Taiwanese Man Blues!

Patrick Lew Band. The 100% Truth.

1) band name: Patrick Lew's Band


2) formation date: May 2001


3) years active: 2000s, 2010s


4) web address to use as a link that can be seen by all users:
http://www.myspace.com/patricklewsband
http://www.reverbnation.com/patricklewsband
http://www.facebook.com/patricklewband

5) preferred genre classification: Grunge, Garage Punk, Alternative Rock, Hard Rock

6) home state (or country if not U.S.): Antioch, California, USA

7) band members:
Patrick Lew - Guitar, Bass, Electronics, Lead Vocals
Faith Marie - Drums, Percussion

8) Discography:
1st album: Psychotic Love (2002) --!!! OUT OF PRINT !!!--
2nd album: Revenge (2006) --!!! OUT OF PRINT !!!--
3rd album: Curb Your Wild Life (2009)
4th album: Let It Rise And Against (2009)
5th album: Murder Bay (2011)

FOREWORDI am just an Asian guy who loves and is passionate about music and was lucky enough to survive many struggles in life and enjoy what I love doing and making, regardless of what other people thought. My relationship with the music and through the Internet is to maintain a friendship with listeners & fans of PLB and encourage constructively with other bands to share the music we make to everybody where ever we're at around the world, whether I'm in San Francisco or you're somewhere in Liverpool or Tokyo. The Internet should be used as a musical weapon to get ourselves out there, heard, exposed, and maybe even some prospects along the way! While I don't play gigs very often, based on many different factors such as a lack of a band to play guitar and sing in as one of the major pitfalls along with other limitations. I take pleasure in jamming with friends in the Bay Area in garage bands. That's what I been doing since I was 13 during the end of the 90's! While I am often at home, I mainly play my guitar figuring out how to write new music and record them on my laptop. One of my intentions as an artist is to write good songs, and improve myself not only as a musician but also a human being!

Band History:

Patrick Lew (guitar, vocals) met Faith Marie (born Faith Lambright) (drums) in 2006 on a free dating website online. While Marie came from a subtle yet relatively turbulent and dysfunctional personal and family background, Lew's childhood was thrown into turmoil when his beloved grandfather passed away when he was four, and his family endured many moments of being financially and socially challenged as an Asian American family. In his youth, Lew was a "somewhat" outsider in school and experienced countless struggles and conflict within the social-network online and in real-life. Lew was also highly creatively inclined and artistic as a child, drawing comic books and developing a love for 60's British rock such as The Beatles and late 80's/early 90's hard rock in the process. Eventually, Seattle grunge (Nirvana and Pearl Jam) and contemporary punk rock worked his way into his interest in music and whilst attending Rooftop Middle School, he began playing guitar at the age of thirteen and met his childhood friend and schoolmate Tommy Loi at his summer recreational day camp at Cumberland Church in San Francisco.

Together, Lew and Loi began jamming aimlessly on their own brand of garage punk music in Lew's house near the tail end of the 1990s called Goldenweasel, and Lew enrolled in a few music courses at a local guitar store. Lew also met a couple of popular punk bands and musicians such as Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 and the band AFI while furthering his interest in punk rock and seeing live music locally. Lew attended Raoul Wallenberg High School, and began playing guitar and jamming freelance with several garage bands like Samurai Sorcerers, often including Nocturnal Rock Turtles lead guitarist George "Eddie" Blackburn.

Although most of Lew's high school band pursuits as a musician, guitar player, and artist were mainly a freelance hobby, Lew intended to take his music very seriously as an independent artist. During his times jamming aimlessly freelance with friends in garage bands miming the post-hardcore and punk rock they grew up witnessing on MTV and the mass media, Lew also created a one-man band called the Patrick Lew Band which was his musical outlet for his own songwriting ideas on record when not playing in other bands
locally for whatever purpose.

Through keyboardist and friend Zack Huang while attending a community college, Lew met close friend and drummer Dave Arceo, who had an intense passion for music and art, which meant that he, like Lew, felt alienated from the atypical superficial, bland, and not-so-interesting types of people from the masses and the Bay Area. Arceo, like Lew, also were considered outsiders within the community and social-network and felt "left out" of the status quo. Lew, Arceo, and Huang decided to form a post-hardcore band called the Band of Asians, with Arceo on drums, Huang on keyboards, and Lew on rhythm guitar. Lead guitar duties were handled by Eddie Blackburn temporarily, and subsequently by their schoolmate Cory Gaitan. The Band of Asians landed a few gigs locally and recorded a small output of musical ideas and instrumentals in a local recording studio (which caused Lew a credit card debt). Alongside a rotating cast of freelance garage bands in which Lew jammed and played his guitar in, and a rotating cast of Bandalism and band members, the bands Lew played in went through many band name changes as it did with whom he was playing guitar with or the ideas he had musically on record as a musician. As Band of Asians didn't put enough effort to further their music and pursuits as a local Bay Area band, mainly because of personal and creative differences, the Band of Asians decided to part ways and embark on solo careers.

Deeply devastated by the outcome of the events and years of adolescent turmoil, Lew pondered his musical future as an artist. Relocating his family to Antioch, California, a suburban Bay Area town about 45 miles Northeast of San Francisco in the Contra Costa County, and took his college education more seriously. Transferring into the California State University, East Bay, and spent most of 2008 in seclusion tinkering in his newly assembled home recording studio digitally creating new rock & roll music alone and posting his demo recordings of song ideas online. Two years earlier, Lew met his close friend and future spouse Faith Marie on a free dating website online and went on a couple of blind dates in the Bay Area. Only to be separated once again, because of Lew's personal crisis with music critics, transitory moments in life, alongside Marie's dysfunctional relationships with former boyfriends when she re-located back to Texas.

Lew began taking his music alone more seriously by 2008, his solo project the Patrick Lew Band and some other freelance jam sessions with friends. With the help of musical entrepreneurship Lew self-taught himself how to do, Lew began posting his music online alone as the Patrick Lew Band and seeing where the prospects take him. And suddenly, Lew's close friend Faith Marie came back into the picture and Lew and Marie solidified their friendship through social-network website Facebook and as a couple long-distance. Lew recorded 20 or 30 tracks or song ideas in his home recording studio. That became, "Let It Rise And Against" the demo album in its original form. Published on Valentines Day 2010 digitally online via iTunes and other mp3 stores.

In 2010, Lew and Marie began living together in Lubbock, Texas, as Lew sacrificed his college education and local friends and family to be with her respectively. However, the interracial and happy couple were oppressed by much of Lew's social-network online and in real-life and the social-media imposed claims and gossip about Marie which were fallaciously damaging and atrocious. Much of 2010, Lew and Marie's relationship were on the rocks partly because of the social-network that resented, judged, or oppressed them via Facebook and in real-life. However, the couple has since reconciled and took steps to filter out these unfortunate people in their social-network and keep their relationship strong and healthy. Also, Lew spent sporadic moments making new punk rock music in the studio.

Currently, the band Shanghai Kiss is working sporadically on new music as an Internet collaboration punk rock project between Lew and Marie at this very moment. Lew is also working on his music solo, and freelance jamming with others in the Bay Area in garage bands. Lew just recently published his album "Murder Bay" on his Partrick Lew Band website. Stay tuned for more music, more "dear diary" moments on Facebook, and more extreme and ultimate rock & roll from the rebellious Asian punk rocker named Patrick Lew!

The Chaos Room

Chaos Room: The Patrick Lew Band Anthology
This Soundclick.com music page is dedicated to 100% Patrick Lew Band's music. What you will see and hear is a historical recollection focusing directly on Taiwanese American punk rock musician and guitarist Patrick Lew's music, rather than his personal demons and truimphs. This is pretty much a boxed set anthology "kind of" band webpage of previous rare unpublished recordings such as Patrick Lew home-recorded demos and rough band rehearsal or onstage recordings, spanning from as early as 1999 to today from Patrick's freelance garage bands he played guitar and jammed with. What you will also see and hear are YouTube videos related to the Patrick Lew Band such as band practices, solo punk rock recitals, rant video blogs, and etc. You will also get a chance to hear all the Patrick Lew Band official albums on record as mp3 and streaming hi-fi audio. This music is NOT for everybody, but if you're passionate about the music and this outsider musician, enjoy.

Chaos Room (also known as PLB) are an Internet garage punk band that originally formed as Patrick Lew's Band in 2001 in San Francisco, California. They play a very loose and unpolished musical hybrid of 70's guitar-based hard rock, 90's alternative rock (especially Grunge), and contemporary punk music. The Chaos Room mainly promote their music online as a relatively unknown rock band from the Bay Area. Since 2011, their line-up consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Patrick Lew, keyboardist Faith Marie, and drummer Dave Arceo. Most of the band's pursuits as musicians are jamming in Patrick's bedroom writing songs and recording music, and aforementioned posting them via Internet.

1) band name: Chaos Room

2) Also known as: Patrick Lew's Band

3) hometown: San Francisco, California, USA

4) genres: alternative rock, hard rock, garage punk, grunge, punk revival

5) years active: 2008-present

6) related bands: Band of Asians, The London Lights

7) website(s): www.patricklewsband.com

8) band members:
Patrick Lew - Lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, electronics
Faith Marie - Keyboards
Dave Arceo - Drums, percussion

former members:
Jeremy Alfonso - Lead guitar, electronics

9) discography:
Curb Your Wild Life [demo] (2009)
Let It Rise And Against (2009)
Murder Bay (2011)

Why this name?

While this is still Patrick Lew's Band (PLB), the solo project of muah! The band name Chaos Room was something that was completely f***ing random when I was surfing the Net on some band name generator website. True story peeps. No f***ing joke! I wanted a secondary band name for PLB, like a 'guise' or alter ego or something!

Do you play live?

No! Unless I were playing in a local band serious about the music, with serious musicians who take their pursuits, passions, and everything else seriously. I WOULD. Right now, I do play bass in freelance "temporary" garage bands in the Contra Costa County with my friends from the college I graduated from. Most of the time, I am just making music sporadically in my OWN home recording studio, using my guitar gear, recording software, and little Netbook laptop. And post my new music on websites like this.

How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?

Now you can go on Net and have your stuff heard by people all over the world pretty much. Another good thing about the Internet is it helps others rediscover lesser notable bands and artists from music from more than 15 years ago on websites like YouTube and MySpace and it helps them get some posthumous recognition and stuff.

The good thing about the Internet and mp3 is it helps hobbyists and serious pro musicians to get their stuff out there when the mass media isn't marketing or paying attention to them!

But, the downside of it is mp3's causes illegal downloading and piracy where no one goes out to a record retail place anymore and buy the CD. But then again! A lot of the stuff (Rock, Rap and whatever) out there being spoonfed to us right now on MTV and Top 40 radio is garbage. Indie musicians get a better chance with the mp3's and the Internet because it would have been much harder 15 to 20 years ago without it to make their music entrepreneurship stuff work and all. Or even get heard when not on the stage!

Would you sign a record contract with a major label?

There was a time, when I was a teenager banging amateurishly performed post-hardcore music in the band Goldenweasel (and Band of Asians) with my friends from high school and early college years in our garage that either one estranged member of the band suggested, we use the Internet as a stepping stone to receive that popularity and success in the music field. My drummer Dave, always was against the idea of commerce and corporate recognition and opportunities in music. Meaning, he was 100% against doing music for mainstream reasons and something that seemed the opposite of what we set our music to be. Artistry and creativity.


I might or might not be considered GOOD enough as a Rock musician locally or online, I'm really apathetic what others think about my skills and musical experience. I mean whilst I was a former member of the obscure local bands I played guitar in, based on the encouragement (not the easiest of ways to breakthrough or go viral I figured) from my former bandmates that myself and even the former bands I was a part of use the Internet as a stepping stone to get that success as a musician. I had NO IDEA it was going to be such a huge challenge to get viral when you're competing with a load of other bands/artists/musicians on the Net on whatever site that was more accessible for everyone. I am not even sure, if A&R and record company people even scouted websites like Soundclick for new talent to sign.



Looking back...I didn't think the intentions of doing music for popularity, money and mainstream commerce or success based on my former bands was a good idea or an aspiration to strive for. I realized the Net was a good place to post my band and music, but a word my close ones told me..."Even with the Internet making it easier for people to get their music possibly heard, it's a 1 out of 100,000 chance you get discovered." I had some regrets with my musical past I hate to say, mainly because me and my bandmates had to fork out so much of our personal investment financially to chase that hard-to-earn opportunity.



It's not music critics or my detractors that was the main concern about my musical past. It was because, I was a bit naive growing up as a guitarist and so-called Punk musician to try those ways to go viral or get exposure.


Now what are my intentions as a musician being on the Net?


Nowadays...While I do not mind opportunity from the field of music (if I were ever to get it). I mainly am using the Internet as a musician to use it as a medium and tool for those living faraway outside of my hometown region of the San Francisco Bay Area to hear and share my music if necessary. I am not usually a guy who is doing music for fame, money or a widespread popularity, even for those who assume I do. Yes, those three are nice to have. But only in moderation and to an extent. I am more currently doing the "INDEPENDENT" route as a musician and music-maker, and I am using the Internet to promote my music. Maybe a few fans and a community I can happily share my work with. Honestly, even with the few press coverage I had locally and on the Net as a musician. I am content with what I have now as far as fans, level of recognition and etc etc.


I am not doing music just for a paycheck and to become a celebrity or something. I am mainly doing this because I love playing/making music and I want to share it to others online. And I let the listeners find me from there or so. I don't mind opportunities in this field, but I am content with what I have now pretty much.

Your influences?

INFLUENCES: Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Green Day, Mother Love Bone, Van Halen, The Rolling Stones, AFI, The White Stripes, Steelheart, John Lennon, Smashing Pumpkins, The Vines, Tesla, White Lion, Blink 182, Angels & Airwaves, Dead Kennedys, Anti-Flag, Gin Blossoms, Beyond (HK), L-Arc-En-Ciel

FOLLOWERS: (To be written 10 years from now...)

Favorite spot?

The Bay Area. Other than that...Seattle, Japan and Ireland.

Here, there, and everywhere...I'm a wandering spirit.

Equipment used:

Les Paul guitars, Fender 25R practice amp, Line6 TonePort GX interface, Acoustica Mixcraft 5 (recording), Toshiba laptop, Rogue bass...

UPDATE: I also use a BOSS Micro BR to record demos!