Starbucks Brewing Hits

Coffee chain gets behind Antigone Rising

The long island all-female band Antigone Rising had just performed three songs for Starbucks executives at their record label's New York offices. The Starbucks team huddled briefly, then offered to release an Antigone Rising CD exclusively at the coffee chain, which serves 33 million customers a week. It was a huge break for a hard-rock band that has sold just 20,000 albums on its own. But before signing, singer Kristen Henderson had a question for the Starbucks execs. "I asked, If they were at a Starbucks, would they know how to go behind the counter and make the coffee themselves?" she says. "They said they would. That was reason enough. I liked these guys. It was really important to us that it was, like, a grass-roots mentality." (More on the Antigone Rising Story)