Moving Atlas

Hailing from Dallas, TX, Moving Atlas is an five piece progressive hard rock band who have slowly but surely solidified themselves within the ranks of Texas’ most respected bands. With 1 studio album & 2 EP’s to their name, Moving Atlas has recently been touring to promote their latest work, the Red Shelter EP, and have been very well received opening for the likes of 10 Years, Nonpoint, & Fair To Midland.

Band Members:

  • Dunagin Gaines - Vocals
  • Ricky Dansby - Guitar / Back up Vox
  • Ben Scott - Guitar
  • Geoff Lucke - Bass
  • Ross Rubio - Drums / Back up Vox

History

Ricky talks about the history on their website forum:

"Geoff and myself (Ricky) have been playing in various forms (Phat E. Lumpkin 98-01, Udoka 01-03, Break the Fall 03-04) of Moving Atlas since 1998. In 2004 I was introduced to Ben through Moving Atlas' first vocalist Cameron Uranga. Ben and myself starting playing acoustic guitar while Break the Fall was on hiatus, we then added Geoff and a short time later, my long time drummer and friend Matt Baker moved back to DFW to play drums for Moving Atlas. In 2005 we started full on jamming with Moving Atlas. A few months into 2005 we had to kick Cameron out of the band due to his personal life effecting his growth with us as a group. I'm glad to say Cameron and I are still great friends, but he had a lot on his plate and had to figure out some things. After several vocal auditions we came across a guy named Jeremy Tuggle who took over in the vocal department. Shortly after his arrival we recorded our first EP which spread like wild fire and built our band some quick recognition as one of Dallas' up and coming new bands. Unfortunately, the Jeremy days only lasted until December of 2005 and we then were in the hunt for our 3rd and final vocalist, or so we hoped. After a slew of vocalist tryouts, Mike a friend of ours set us up with Dunagin Gaines (21 Fits, Microton). It was seriously like everything just clicked when he entered our practice space, and the rest is history in the vocal department. Just a couple of months after Dunny's arrival we went into the studio to record Et Al, which we released in June of 2006. Almost one year to the date later in June of 2007 we received the worst news possible as our drummer Matt Baker had committed [...] on June 20th, just 5 days before his 27th b-day. We were in a state of shock after losing such a great friend and talent. He was what you would call a human highlight reel on his instrument, he constantly turned heads with his ability on drums. One week after his funeral which was held in Odessa, TX (Our original stomping grounds) we held a memorial show at the Rockyard in Ft. Worth where we performed our set acoustic with the addition of Ben's brother (Dallas Scott) on violin. With an outcry of overwhelming response, we decided to move forward into a new era of Moving Atlas. Ross Rubio (Project 232, Fear of Self), the final piece of the puzzle, offered his services to initially just be our sit in drummer until we found a new one. Over a few shows and several practices we all knew that Ross was the right guy for the position. We didn't want to be known as a band that robbed other musicians from other groups, but Ross was ready to move on from his current project and branch out into a different style of music all together".

Music

Et Al

Release Date: August 2006

  1. What I Did - 4:39
  2. Timer - 3:25
  3. Just Crash Anywhere - 4:10
  4. Travel On - 3:33
  5. Bread and Meat - 2:31
  6. Torpedo - 4:22
  7. Nature's Law - 3:53
  8. Lay Down and Die - 3:41
  9. Smooth As Ivory Tongue - 3:33
  10. Cheating Mark - 4:17
  11. Storm Before the Calm Part 1 - 0:21
  12. Storm Before the Calm Part 2 - 0:21
  13. Storm Before the Calm Part 3 - 0:21
  14. Storm Before the Calm Part 4 - 0:21
  15. Storm Before the Calm Part 5 - 0:21

The Elephant Gun EP

Released: June 2008

  1. Parachute - 4:06
  2. Year of the Rat - 3:54
  3. No Ordinary Love - 3:59
  4. Elephant Gun - 3:47
  5. How We're Infected - 4:59

Red Shelter EP

Released: Novemeber 2009

  1. 5280 - 3:35
  2. Becoming Blue - 4:01
  3. Empty, Heartless, & Lost - 4:11
  4. Overexposure - 4:30
  5. Red Shelter - 3:56
  6. Sonata Non Grata - 4:30

2010

March 13th: played at Skillman Pub with other bands including Calling all War, The Better Death, Issacs Fallen, Mokshya and Fusillade

Awards and recognition

Independent Music Award

  • 2010 Independent Music Award Winner - "Becoming Blue" (Red Shelter EP) - Best Hard Rock/ Metal Song
  • 2009 Independent Music Award Nominee - "Parachute" (Elephant Gun EP) - Best Hard Rock/ Metal Song

Active Rock

  • 2007 - Independent Band of the Year Award Nominee
  • 2008 - Independent Band of the Year Award Nominee
  • 2009 - Independent Band of the Year Award Nominee

The Buzz

  • 2009 - Best Live Performance, Best Metal Band, Best Bass Player (Geoff Lucke)