Ulysses

There are three groups with this name. The Band "ulysses" is an indie rock band formed by Robert Schneider (lead vocalist of The Apples in Stereo) along with John Ferguson and Ben Fulton in the spring of 2003. Robert Beatty (of Hair Police) joined later that year. They released their first album, 010, on October 26, 2004 through Eenie Meenie Records. The album was recorded in monaural audio instead of standard stereo.

While in Spain, Schneider was inspired to write "Castles in Spain", the first song written for 010. Schneider began writing other songs for the album as well.

Schneider's main influences for the band's songs were The Velvet Underground and My Bloody Valentine.

In Lexington, Kentucky, the band formed by impulse when Schneider invited Ferguson and Fulton to organize songs for Schneider's other side project, Marbles. Schneider asked them to first play his set of 010 songs and recorded them as a demo. Soon Schneider decided to release the demo instead as a full album though Eenie Meenie Records.

In the process of writing and recording 010, Schneider's marriage with Apples in Stereo bandmate Hilarie Sidney ended.

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The other "Ulysses", the DJ, began his university's first Techno radio show, Ulysses has been a major player in New York's recent Electro movement. Ulysses is one of the people who defined the eclectic New York techno/electro DJ'ing style later popularized by artists like Larry Tee. His DJ sets are famous for their energy, creativity and panache and have carried him all over the world, with recent appearances in Berlin, Paris and Hong Kong as well as his home base New York City, playing for thousands supporting local superstars the Scissor Sisters at the New York contemporary arts museum PS1's "Warm-Up" series last summer.

Ulysses also started one of the first large-scale Electro parties in New York: the "Regressive Technologies" series. Regressive Technologies has featured the likes of Arthur Baker, Mark Kamins, Alexander Robotnick, Miss Kitten and the Hacker, Ectomorph, Perspects, Adult., John Selway, DJ Unknown of Fisherspooner, and Tommie Sunshine.

Ulysses is not only about party promotion, however, and a close look at his prolific musical career will quickly shatter this misconception. Though initially lumped into the "Electroclash" semi-genre, Ulysses is charting his own musical path with many high quality releases on a dozen different labels. The music released so far has been wide in its breadth and quality, with records as diverse as Detroit Techno on pioneering Tribal Techno label Teknotika, Quirky Electro-House and Techno-Pop on Chicago's genre-defining Deep House label Guidance, Deep Tech-House for Plastic City Suburbia and Tuning Spork Records, Italo-Disco weirdness on Memory Boy, and NRG inspired Techno/House on Germany's influential Lasergun Records. Also look for collaborations with John Selway as the Neurotic Drum Band on Plant, Sodium and NDB Records, solo releases on Xylophone Jones and Play's Cool Records, as well as a new release on Lasergun Records. Also look for remixes of Le Tigre, Scissor Sisters and Fischerspooner

Scatalogics Records opened for business in the winter of 2002 and has so far proved to be an astounding success. Scatalogics features Ulysses as the primary artist, as well as music from HÃ¥kan Lidbo, James Duncan, Todd Sines, John Selway, and, most recently, 1980's Italo Disco legend Alexander Robotnick.

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Third Ulysses (not specifically in this order) is the Dutch progressive rock / metal band Ulysses.
Ulysses was initiated in November 1998 by guitarist Sylvester Vogelenzang de Jong and keyboard player Ron Mozer. The intention was to form a band with the main objective: make great progressive music. During a three year period a steady line up was completed, songs were written and in September 2001 the band recorded a demo CD entitled “Eclectic”.

The Cdemo “Eclectic” received good reviews and the band immediately focussed all their attention on a full length album. In February and March of 2003 Ulysses recorded “Symbioses”. For the distribution the band signed a worldwide distribution deal. After the release in May (2003) the album promotion kicked off and “Symbioses” received overwhelming positive reviews. Despite the enthusiasm Ulysses decided to split with lead vocalist Raymond Jansen due to artistic disagreements.
Shortly after the release of the album the band was confronted with the fact that they had no frontman and had to find a good replacement singer with whom the band could promote “Symbioses”. After a period of auditions the band picked out Michael Hos to be Ulysses’ new front man. In this line up Ulysses performed on several stages and played on festivals like “Progpassion”, “Trailerpop”, “Goothstock” and other Dutch festivals. In November 2005 bass player René Schippers decided, due to personal reasons, to leave the band as soon as the band could find a replacement. Casper Kroon heard the news that Ulysses had a vacancy. After some try-outs, Casper joined the band as the new bass player.

At the end of 2006 the band took time out, to focus all attention on the writing process for the new album. In the fall of 2007 the band started recording demo tracks for the long awaited second album. In September the demos were ready and the final recordings were in full progress. Production was in hands of Sylvester Vogelenzang de Jong and René van Haaren.

After two years of arranging, recording and mixing the long awaited new album “The Gift of Tears” is finished. The album will be first released in the U.S. (Novermber 18th) soon after that Japan and Europe. 2009 will be the official 10 year anniversary of Ulysses and it will be celebrated with the fans.. Main objective is to promote the album out there, play live as much as possible. 2009 will be the year of Ulysses, see you out there!