JULY 27, 2012 - As Antoinette Michael Thornes lets us know on her critically acclaimed, soulful debut that one critic calls “primal rock and roll at its best,” she’s got serious Issues. Chief among them for the NYC based singer-songwriter and her band Thornes is the fact that she’s desperate to keep rock alive! Her wild, winding journey towards the opportunity to make this happen began growing up in Virginia, when her father, a professional guitarist himself, would fill the house with the sounds of Cream, Led Zeppelin and the Stones while her mom jammed to Motown in the kitchen. Dad bought Antoinette her very first guitar—which she calls a “crappy piece of cardboard with action so high off the neck my fingers would bleed.” But by the time she graduated high school, he would give her his Les Paul, which she still has to this day. That’s how great rock stories begin and there’s usually a quick cut to the moment where the artist locks in, records a killer album and books an extraordinary amount of gigs. But the intense physical and emotional struggles Antoinette went through in the years prior to recording Issues make her songwriting more heartfelt and the listening experience more raw, edgy and real. She spent her high school and college years singing and playing mostly covers in various musical groups. But upon moving to NYC, she shifted gears to acting and scored some off-Broadway roles. Due to an untimely accident that crushed her larynx, she lost her ability to sing, but still she never stopped evolving as a songwriter. Despite her inability to sing for several years, she continued to write music. And now that her voice is healed she has emerged with a powerful 12 track set largely inspired by the challenges of her loss of voice, insights on relationships and life in NYC. Since recording Issues, she has had a few personnel changes in her live band, but the core group with her on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, CJ Calafiore on bass and lead guitarist Abel Garcia has developed an exciting chemistry and an explosive live show that bring Antoinette’s fiery yet heartfelt tunes to a new level. Thornes did their first gig at The Delancey and has since played such hotspots and local venues as the Bowery Electric and the Trash Bar (Brooklyn). They will soon be headlining the legendary club The Bitter End and will be playing the Utica Music Festival in the Fall.