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For the Ray Bradbury short story, see The Martian Chronicles.

The Rocket Summer
Background information
Origin	Texas, United States
Genre(s)	Rock, power pop
Years active	1997—present
Label(s)	Island Records
Website	The Rocket Summer's Official Site
Members
Bryce Avary

The Rocket Summer is an indie rock/power pop band from Colleyville, Texas, comprised of musician Bryce Avary who plays and performs all instruments and vocals. Stylistically, The Rocket Summer is characterised by Avary's slightly high pitched voice, powerful choruses, instrumental diversity, and the generally optimistic nature of his songs.

Avary began his obsession with music around the age of 10, when his dad bought him his first guitar from a pawn shop. He then began to teach himself various other instruments. Avary started performing local shows as a teenager in Dallas and Fort Worth. As Avary's local fan base grew, he released his first EP at the age of 16 in limited release during 2000. Distributing the EP himself under the name The Rocket Summer (the name inspired by Ray Bradbury's short story) to local stores to be sold on consignment, his music appeared on The Adventure Club segment of the KDGE radio station, and quickly became the most requested local band on the program that year.

With increased interest in the music from local, national, and international magazines and the EP selling in 5 continents, in 2003 Avary recorded and released his debut album Calendar Days. Using a $15,000 budget, the album was recorded in Kansas on the label The Militia Group. The album was critically praised as being extremely uplifting, and included varied music (for example, a track including a 6th grade choir that his younger sister was in from Texas). The album sold well throughout the United States and Japan The album went bronze in 2005.

Seth Brewton on guitar

In November 2004, Bryce began working with producer Tim O'Heir in Brooklyn to record his second album Hello, Good Friend - the album title coming from the song "Never Knew". This album included more piano central songs than his previous album. The Rocket Summer has toured the US and Japan extensively and has gained a large fan base. The album was subsequently released by a Christian music label to Christian retail outlets. Although it is not immediately obvious in his lyrics, Avary is a Christian and lets his faith influence his lyrics and his music.

He signed with Island Def Jam Records for his third record, Do You Feel, which was released on July 17th, 2007. The first single from the album is So Much Love. The Rocket Summer has releases the music video for So Much Love. On May 3rd, the song "Break It Out", from Do You Feel was added to the TRS website and Myspace. Also, tracks such as "Do You Feel" and "So In This Hour", after being included on a CD Sampler, and "Save" have been leaked online. On July 11, the entire album was leaked online.

The Rocket Summer toured with the Vans Warped Tour in the summer of 2007 for two months. Although Bryce records all of his own instruments for his records, he tours with a band mostly made up of high school friends. His band currently consists of Seth Brewton on guitar, Matt Bergeland on bass, and Tommy Quinn on drums. His wife, Tara, tours with him as his business manager and sells merchandise at his shows.

When asked what he would do if he weren't a musician, he replied, "I'm deathly afraid of not doing this because I have no idea what I would."

Starting in September 2007, The Rocket Summer went on tour with The Academy Is..., Armor for Sleep, Sherwood and, recently added, Cobra Starship on the Sleeping with Giants tour across North America.

Bryce is a soloist, so he mainly does a lot of other things outside of his band.

He is currently planning his Spring 2008 Headlining tour. From January 27, 2008, The Rocket Summer will play a series of dates in the UK including major cities such as London, Manchester, Newcastle and Cardiff, with The Secret Handshake and Between the Trees supporting.

The Rocket Summer is involved in To Write Love on Her Arms and Invisible Children also Julianne's children, the new novel.

• The Rocket Summer (EP) (2000)
• Calendar Days (2003)
• Hello, Good Friend (2005)#26 Top Heatseekers
• The Early Years EP (2006)
• iTunes EP (2007)
• Do You Feel (2007)#44 US

• The Rocket Summer's Official Site @ Island Records
• The Rocket Summer at MySpace
• The Rocket Summer on Purevolume
• TRSconfetti.com - A Fan Site
• Trash the Stage interview with Bryce
• Band of the Day's 10 Questions with The Rocket Summer
• The Rocket Summer Official Merch
• An Interview With an Evangelical Publication
• Skies So Blue - A Fan Site
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