John D. Luerssen

Pennywise 'From The Ashes' Bio

2008-09-01T12:36:00.002-04:00

Let's get this straight. Your average punk band doesn't sell out venues like the 14,000-capacity Long Beach Arena. Your average punk band doesn't organize benefit shows for charities like the Surfrider Foundation. And your average punk band doesn't last fifteen months these days let alone fifteen years. For fuck's sake - PENNYWISE is not and never will be your average punk band!

From The Ashes, the seventh studio disc from this Hermosa Beach foursome, doesn't just pick up where the "Fuck Authority"-touting Land of the Free? left off. It builds on it. Just when you thought PENNYWISE - the fan focused band that let loyalists choose the set list for its recent Warped commitment - could do no better than that 2001 long-player, the group ups the ante.

Formed in 1988 by vocalist Jim Lindberg, guitarist Fletcher Dragge, bassist Jason Thirsk and drummer Byron McMackin, PENNYWISE inked with Epitaph Records for their eponymous 1991 debut. A middle finger directed at the grunge movement of the time, the group helped to define the emerging West Coast punk scene. Remarkably, 1993's Unknown Road sold a few hundred thousand copies and at the height of the punk resurgence of 1994 the major labels came calling. Saying "thanks, but no thanks" PENNYWISE elected to stay put and released another hit with '95's About Time. But the tragic death of Thirsk the following year put the band's future in doubt. Electing to soldier on with new bassist Randy Bradbury, Full Circle hit the racks in 1997 and the outfit's following continued to swell with its fifth studio disc, '99's Straight Ahead.

Following the 2000 concert album Live at the Key Club and PENNYWISE's critically lauded, aforementioned Land of the Free?, the group took some time to evolve, look inward, and, in the case of guitarist Dragge, mourn the unexpected loss of his beloved father Otis. Earlier in 2003, the members of PENNYWISE regrouped with longtime studio collaborator Darian Rundall at Stall #2 in Redondo Beach and co-produced From The Ashes. It wound up being their finest album ever.

Lighting the fuse on this filler-free, fourteen song affair is "Now I Know," a percolating anthem that singer/lyricist Lindberg says is about "the personal struggle to find fulfillment and hope in a world that has become increasingly confusing and forbidding." Despite such ruminations, From The Ashes is by no means somber. The material here is long on power, as evidenced by tracks like the nostalgic, radio affable "Yesterdays" and the intoxicating "Punch Drunk."

The cynical roar of "God Save The USA" - a public service announcement with guitars - is a reminder to free thinking punks everywhere that PENNYWISE is still the band of choice. As Lindberg croaks lines like "Apathy's the national disease and there is no end in sight/God save the USA, blame the president, and say your prayers tonight," Dragge, McMackin and Bradbury drive this accusatory State of the Union home.

Change-ups like the blistering, imaginatively arranged "Falling Down" (a song about coping with looming middle age) and the acoustic false start of "This Is Only A Test" prove that PENNYWISE will always refuse to rest on formula.

Armed with the same belief it held when they started, that punk music can change the world, PENNYWISE have created a punk classic known as From The Ashes. And, once again, just to clarify matters, PENNYWISE is not your average, ordinary punk band. Try fucking extraordinary.

Story of the Year Bio 2008

2008-09-01T12:33:00.002-04:00

With its explosive, infectious roar, "Wake Up" alerts Story of the Year's fanatical, global following that the epic, uplifting The Black Swan is upon us. An artistic triumph in every sense, the beloved, million-selling band's third studio album is unequivocally its finest, building on the strength of past accomplishments while celebrating a newfound allegiance with Epitaph.

"Making this record felt like starting over," says Dan Marsala, frontman for the St. Louis-reared quintet. "We're like a brand new band. You can hear it in these songs, we're excited again. I think we've really stepped it up on this record."

If Story of the Year's career achievements - from 2003's smash debut Page Avenue to headlining massive festivals such as the Van's Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos, to world tours with the likes of My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and The Used - have been abundant, they've also been the result of the esteemed modern rock outfit's tireless work ethic and willingness to push boundaries musically. Approaching the follow-up to 2005's In the Wake of Determination with a burst of creative freedom, Story of the Year - which also counts guitarists Ryan Phillips and Philip Sneed, bassist Adam Russell and drummer Josh Wills - elevates The Black Swan with these same key convictions.

Leaps and bounds beyond the standards of what an alt-rock anthem can be in 2008, the remarkably powerful, hopeful and deeply personal "Tell Me" is undeniable. "It opens with a fucking gnarly, classic riff that hits you right between the eyes," Ryan enthuses.

"It's about our band," Dan acknowledges. "Before we signed to Epitaph, things were up in the air for us. We knew we didn't want to be on a major label anymore. We were like, 'What does this mean? Is our band done?' We really had to work through it and it was a weird time for us. But it's also been a really positive experience. Like, 'we're going to get through this together and nothing can stop us!'"

Thematically based around the concept of impactful, unpredictable events, The Black Swan hits home with Story of the Year in that it relates to a massively successful rock band breaking free of confines and restrictions to thrive on its own terms. "Epitaph seemed like the perfect place for us at this time in our career," Ryan explains. "It's a much more creative environment." To which Dan adds, "We could tell that Brett [Gurewitz, Epitaph's founder] loved the songs."

Despite a back catalog that counts a half dozen radio staples (like 2003's "Until The Day I Die" to 2006's "Take Me Back") and a wall full of gold and platinum awards for record sales in North America, Japan and Australia, Story of the Year's loyal fans are its principal concern. And the legions that discovered the group via Page Avenue will be pleased to learn the group re-teamed with producer John Feldmann for a handful of tracks on The Black Swan.

Among them is the aforementioned, explosive "Wake Up," a collaboration between Phillips, Marsala and Russell, which took lyrical inspiration from Carl Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot. Written from a global perspective, Dan says of the track, "When you think about just how small the earth really is and just how small the human race really is, our existence is almost insignificant in the greater scheme of things. You think of how the wars and all of the fighting and killing are just so unnecessary. It's pointless, and we should all be living our lives to the fullest."

Elsewhere, the band's first bona fide ballad, "Terrified," upholds the same line of thinking, with an emotional and uplifting delivery. "It's an amazing story about a man who goes off to war leaving a pregnant wife," says Ryan. "It narrates from both sides; their fears, emotions, and the fact that she doesn't even know if he's still alive. It's a hard hitting song that needed to be personal and epic instead of heavy."

"A lot of this record explores social and ethical issues that we feel strongly about," explains Marsala. As is the case with the melodic charge of "We're Not Going To Make It" which explores the struggle for an interracial couple to find acceptance and support from their parents and beyond in an overwhelmingly prejudiced America.

Equally poignant is the thought-provoking "Message To The World," which sends a global memorandum via the refrain, "When you kill me do it slowly." "People have this weird blind nationalism," says Dan. "Like, 'we're from America! And America is good. And we've gotta support America. And nobody else matters, because we're better than everybody.' And it's pretty obvious that having that kind of outlook will only result in things ending badly."

Additionally, Story of the Year teams with it-producer Elvis Baskette (Chevelle, Escape The Fate) on The Black Swan. "Elvis is a little more organic," Dan laughs. "He wants the guitars loud!" Be it "Welcome To Our New War," a stand out track that takes the group's shredding mastery to new heights, or the powerful riffs that propel "Apathy Is A Deathwish" - a track Phillips says, "Makes me want to smash stuff and drink a car-bomb shot" - the results are simply stellar.

Ferocious and thought-provoking, The Black Swan finds Story of the Year in the rare position of being one of the biggest bands in the world, while being left to its own devices to evolve and flourish creatively.

"I hope people really read into the lyrics and respect the fact that we don't sing about lollipops and gummi-bears," Ryan explains. "Musically, we've grown so much. We have some very unique, timeless, face melting guitar riffs and solos that have come to define our sound, without compromising the idea of a classic song."

Hot Water Music 'The New What's Next' 2004

2008-09-01T12:29:00.002-04:00

If it's trite to say HOT WATER MUSIC's third album for Epitaph is easily its finest album yet, it's also the goddamn truth. When it comes to forceful, fluid and intricate punk-inspired sounds, few -- if any -- roar with the kind of expression and precision found on The New What Next.

Launched by the expressive, anthemic spark of "Poison," The New What Next is a bold musical proclamation that's uniquely paced and often irresistible. From the melodic yet cathartic drive of "End of the Line" to the captivating, infectious riffs that propel the mid-tempo "All Heads Down" and beyond, bassist Jason Black says the sonic change-ups in place for the follow up to 2002's Caution were intentional.

"We sought out new dynamics, and we went for different tempos and different feels," Black explains. "The only thing we purposely tried to do for this record was make sure each song stood on its own, so they didn't really sound like each other too much. We even experimented with different tunings, which is something we never would have thought we could do. But we just keep evolving and trying new things without confining ourselves too much."

Built on a foundation of open-mindedness, teamwork and democracy, HWM has been road and studio dynamos since coming together in Gainesville, Florida in the mid-1990s. By 2001, the quartet had aligned with Epitaph in time to drop the highly lauded A Flight And A Crash and its follow up, the much revered Caution.

Again relying on producer Brian McTernan (Cave In, Promise Ring) whom Black calls "a great shit meter for us," the bassist says that The New What Next was "the easiest record we've ever made by a long-shot." With another head in the game that the group by now trusts implicitly, Jason says that things were so comfortable with McTernan that when things wrapped up, the members of HWM "were kind of bummed that we couldn't just hang out with him longer."

That sort of focus and allegiance emerges from the explosive blast of the aforementioned "Poison" -- single-handedly explains how the group has been able to grow its fanbase every year, remain true to itself and retain the kind of credibility eons of other "mainstream punk" bands would kill for. As Black thumps on his bass, drummer George Rebelo keeps an expert beat , Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard carve out blistering,

memorable riffs, along with thought-provoking vocal delivery perfecting Hot Water Music's lure. Furiously intoned prose like, "I could waste away with politics/drown myself with wine/find myself through solitude/and inject poison into my mind," is all the evidence needed to affirm HWM's genius.

Taking its title from the journal where Wollard kept his lyrics in, which he put together taping in pages and the cover from an old children's book, Black says, "it just kind of fit in with what's been going on with us." Be it the rhythmic, airwave-worthy "Ebb And Flow," the frenzied, exuberant "Monkey Wrench" or the pensive, emotive "Ink and Lead," the band's latest is a stellar representation of all its abilities.

With The New What Next, Hot Water Music builds on its legacy and defies easy categorization by unveiling a twelve-song arsenal that's sure to please long-time disciples and recent converts alike. And that was the band's motivation all along. "Basically, the thing we wanted to do was bridge the gap between our older and newer fans," Black explains.

"If there was one Hot Water Music record to own, it would be this one," he continues. Succinctly put, Black. Succinctly put.

The Presidents of The United States of America 2008 Artist Bio

2008-09-01T12:17:00.001-04:00

THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE

(FUGITIVE RECORDINGS/EMI)

Chris Ballew (Vocals, Basitar)

Jason Finn (Drums, Vocals)

Andrew McKeag (Guitbass, Vocals)

With THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE, THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA have delivered an inventive, uplifting and often brilliant rock & roll album. From the opening, celebratory blast of “Mixed Up SOB”--which embraces the spirit of the band’s 4 million-selling eponymous debut--to the warm, Shins-like lilt of “Loose Balloon,” the group commandeers your attention with fourteen contagious winners.

Simply put, THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE delivers the goods with PUSA sounding as vital as ever. With the collective strengths of founding vocalist, basitar player and principal songwriter CHRIS BALLEW, original drummer JASON FINN and guitbass player ANDREW MCKEAG--who officially joins the band with this album--PUSA lend their joy and enthusiasm to any and all within an earshot.

Recorded by Northwest legends The Fastbacks’ own Kurt Bloch (Robyn Hitchcock, Mudhoney, Les Thugs) and mixed by Martin Feveyear (Epoxies, Amber Pacific, Screaming Trees), the disc marks an alignment between the band and EMI via the new imprint Fugitive Recordings. Sharing the landscape with recent, acclaimed efforts by Ween and They Might Be Giants, PUSA--as masters (and progenitors) of “Joy Pop”--dig deep and pull off their most diverse and accomplished record yet.

Case in point is the twangy, swing-informed exuberance of “Flame Is Love,” which effortlessly shares the company of more recent numbers like the riff-tastic “Poor Turtle” or the light, countrified “Truckstop Butterfly.” As for the aforementioned “Mixed Up SOB,” it was originally penned in 1989 and first existed as “a slow, 12-string kind of thing,” says Chris. “It wasn’t until I decided to Cars-ify it that it came to life.”

“Chris is very prolific and there’s never a lack of new material,” Finn explains. “He’s also got stuff from the last ten years on his computers. And he’s always sort of rifling through fragments of material from hard drives, cassettes, Dictaphones, wherever. And every time we do a new record, he goes through that stuff. And every time I think I’ve heard every song that he’s ever written, he pulls out like eight great songs I’ve never heard, and I’m like, ‘Why the %$#@ didn’t we do this one or that one?’

And then there’s the glistening, piano-touched pop winner “More Bad Times,” which is brand new, sort of.

Replete with an a cappella break and a captivating acoustic shuffle, the song--which can’t help but be one of the main focal points of THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE--is essentially a hybrid of Presidents music and the lyrics to a song by an old, obscure group known as Ed’s Redeeming Qualities. “I used to go see them when I moved to Boston in 1988. They had a ukulele, a violin and an old man shaking a can of rice,” Chris chuckles. “And they had a song, “More Bad Times,” that was very different musically. But I always loved it.”

“So, we’re goofing around with acoustic guitars,” Ballew continues, “and Andrew started playing a new riff, and all of the sudden that other song came into my head, and I starting singing those lyrics over it and changed the rhyme scheme and it just fit. I wound up writing a final verse and discovered how much fun it is to take an existing song and turn it into something else. When we finished it I was like, man, this is the feel good hit of the summer.”

“I was just playing this part on this Silvertone guitar that Chris had in his house and it was tuned an octave higher. And he was like, ‘Keep playing that! Keep playing that!’” Andrew laughs. “He started jumping up and down and got all excited.”

“It’s certainly one of the high points and it’s in a spot where we rarely go,” Finn acknowledges. “We’ve gone a little bit further out toward the edges on this one, but in a totally focused way. Of course, people have always expected a ‘mixed grill’ from us stylistically. Our earliest crowds in Seattle didn’t know whether they were going to get loud, soft or all ska on a given night. That was part of the fun…as long as it wasn’t ska very often.”

Since the Seattle-based trio first burst into the public eye with its aforementioned debut – on the strength of radio smashes like “Lump” and “Peaches” – it has been plugging away in fits and spurts with remarkable success. Look no further than their twice Grammy- nominated debut The Presidents of the United States of America, which continues to thrive as an enduring modern rock disc since peaking at #6 on the Billboard Top 200. Enjoying the kind of longevity shared by eponymous classics of the genre like Violent Femmes and Weezer, it’s found a new life on digital services like iTunes since its rights reverted back to the band in 2003.

1996’s II rocked just as hard, giving birth to the full throttle, Top 10 single, “Mach Five,” which fostered PUSA’s most imaginative and infamous music video. Meanwhile, accelerated fan favorites like “Lunatic to Love” and “Tiki God” left their imprint on then-up and-comers The Hives.

In advance of a much-deserved hiatus, two well-chosen covers helped leave a substantial cultural mark. First, a boisterous take on The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star” musically defined the smash Adam Sandler flick “The Wedding Singer.” Next, “The Drew Carey Show” adopted the Presidents’ rendering of Ian Hunter’s “Cleveland Rocks” as its theme, bringing the trio into millions and millions of living rooms across the fruited plain. “Ohio!” indeed.

In 2000, Chris, Dave and Jason reconvened for the vibrant studio-only effort Freaked Out and Small, which boasted the airwave favorite “Tiny Explosions.” Giving PUSA a chance to record songs that Chris had crafted outside of the band’s unconventional 2-string, 3-string format, the project included the riotous track “Jupiter” and live in-studio performances on the accompanying DVD. “We weren’t officially working again at that point, Jason explains. This Musicblitz company appeared out of the ether and offered us a chance to make a record with no touring obligation. Sounds like a hoot, says us, and we had a blast recording it for 10 days, then didn’t give it another thought. Neither did Mudicblitz, who went out of business a couple of weeks after putting it out.”

A full reformation followed a series of reunion gigs for 2004’s Love Everybody, and while critics were handing out four star reviews and “Some Postman” was a radio favorite, the band ultimately realized that operating as a touring band and maintaining its own PUSA record label was a huge undertaking. As Finn puts it, “Being our own label was interesting, but ultimately the day-to-day realities of managing a retail operation were taking too much of our rocking time. Plus, during our frequent DIVA tantrums, it was less fun calling and screaming at ourselves!”

With Love Everybody, Dave stepped away from the band for touring purposes and ultimately passed the guitbass to McKeag, a Seattle music vet and longtime friend of the band who was initially introduced to the group by Dederer years ago and who first served as a roadie for The Fastbacks when they opened for PUSA on their June 1996 U.S. tour.

“After 200 shows in the band, I’ve finally earned my stripes. Woo-hoo!” Andrew laughs. To which, Finn adds, “Andrew is a huge, huge guitar player. He takes the rock & roll of the band and capitalizes the ‘R’s’.” It’s a notion upheld by the punchy, rollicking “French Girl,” the quirky and undeniably sharp “Fangs”--which boasts Jason’s finest harmony vocals to date--and the blistering, forceful anchor track “Ghosts Are Everywhere.”

Then there’s “Deleter,” a bona fide funk song with horns that the band built from a beat that Finn had been playing at soundchecks for years. “One day at practice we put it together but I couldn’t make any lyrics fit,” Chris explains. “Then I remembered an email I had from Robyn Hitchcock--who I’ve been friends with and whose records I’ve been playing on for a while--and he asked, ‘Do you still have that horn part you did?’ So I wrote back, ‘No man. If I know you’re not going to use it, I delete it. I’m a deleter.’ And he replied, ‘She’s a deleter.’ So we started riffing back and forth. That banter became the chorus. I wrote the verses and we finished it.” Soul singer Fysah Thomas rounds out the song with the first ever guest vocal appearance on a Presidents album.

With a cover image of a hand with a pin coming in to pop a balloon, Ballew says the track “Loose Balloon” fostered the album art. It was also the first song he wrote for THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE. Written on Christmas Day 2005, the first he spent alone after his marriage dissolved and his kids were off with their mom, Ballew says, “The split was a positive one but that day I was really bummed. My whole life was changing. And that song came out as therapy.”

When it’s suggested that although it came from a dark place, it still translates as a song of strength, Chris is quick to explain. “When you write a song and you play it live you have to live it,” he says. “If you tell a sad story, you have to live it over and over again each night. So my version of musical therapy isn’t to wallow in the sadness but find that little bright spot and turn up the volume on it.”

That sentiment lends itself to the title of the record: “Whenever we were on tour over the last couple years and things were sucking and we’re sitting backstage somewhere, cold and eating whipped turkey in some strange third world country, everyone would be quiet and I would say, ‘These are the good times, people.’ Like, this is it! This is what we signed up for! And it sort of mutated into the record title, when I thought that without the sarcasm, it could be used as a positive statement. “

Perhaps that outlook also explains why PUSA have persevered and remain able to make inspiring music on their own terms long after so many of their ‘90s alt-rock peers have gone by the wayside. With an average age of show-goers at around 20, the band’s high energy shows continue to pack venues all over the world, selling out shows in London, Amsterdam, New York, Sydney and Seattle on its last world trek.

With THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE, new and old fans alike should find little problem joining the party with PUSA circa 2008. “I know this stands up strong against our entire catalog. And I hope our fans agree. We’ve finally gotten to the point where we can let the vibe come to us and then we jump out at it and reel it in. I think we’ve really brought our ‘A’ game to this album. I feel like we’ve given as much as we ever have on this record.”

Forgoing the director role he has assumed in the past, Ballew says a democratic dynamic steered the project and greatly improved the energy of the band. Playing to their strengths on THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES PEOPLE, Chris concedes, “I’ve just kind of learned over time that it’s a lot of stress for me and I don’t necessarily end up with something better. I just decided to lay back and not care while caring deeply, letting the cream rise to the top.”

The Color Fred Bio 2007

2008-09-01T12:16:00.000-04:00

Bend To Break

(Equal Vision Records)

With Bend To Break, Fred Mascherino--known for his work as lead guitarist and co-vocalist/songwriter for Taking Back Sunday--has turned out one of the most exhilarating and gutsy solo projects in years. Operating under the guise of THE COLOR FRED, the first recording under his nom de rock was artfully executed with the help of legendary producer Lou Giordano (Sugar, Paul Westerberg, Sunny Day Real Estate).

A triumph in every sense, the disc finds Mascherino where he belongs--out in front and wearing his heart proudly on his sleeve. From the urgent, three-minute firecracker “Get Out” that launches Bend To Break, to the six-minute, lighter-ready opus “Don’t Pretend,” the Coatesville, PA-bred, Northern Jersey-based musician has created an accomplished and conscience-invading album. And while TBS fans will be delighted to know THE COLOR FRED is in the same musical realm, its debut doesn’t mirror the world famous band Fred Mascherino has played with since 2003.

After road-testing the new material with the likes of Dashboard Confessional this past September, in advance of extensive touring commitments slated for well into 2008, audience reaction to THE COLOR FRED was enthusiastic to say the least. Many had already been exposed to the disc’s advance single, through the project’s MySpace page. Truth be known, the contagious, full throttle allure of “If I Surrender” is hard not to sing along with.

While THE COLOR FRED had been in Mascherino’s plans since before he joined Taking Back Sunday, his solo project was put on the backburner with that band’s meteoric rise. In the wake of two gold records while in the band--2004’s Where You Want To Be (Victory) and 2006’s Louder Now (Warner Bros.)--and their subsequent touring commitments, it wasn’t until the Spring of 2007 that Bend To Break truly took shape.

“It was pretty rough finding the time, because I went from one tour into getting the record ready and recording it,” Fred admits. “And that backed right up into Taking Back Sunday playing on [Linkin Park’s tour] Projekt Revolution. So I basically passed on a two-month break but it was totally worth it.” Recorded over a four- week span at Millbrook Studio in Upstate New York in close proximity to Alfred Hitchcock’s estate, Mascherino says, “We were in the middle of nowhere, which was fun, but also ideal because Lou and I were uninterrupted. We were brothers in arms and we totally trusted each other.”

“I played all the bass and guitars on the record. I also had a little help with some backup vocals by P.J. Bond, who will be playing bass on the road,” Mascherino says. The album’s recording sessions was rounded out by drummer Steve Curtiss, who will also be in tow when THE COLOR FRED embarks on extensive roadwork to support Bend to Break.

Fueled by Mascherino’s musical pedigree, which includes a Jazz Performance degree from Temple University, THE COLOR FRED is the next logical step in the songwriter/guitarist’s sonic evolution. Fronting punk act Brody from 1992 – 1999, Fred took his early musical cues from revered bands like Dag Nasty, The Descendents and Jawbreaker on a series of indie releases for labels like Creep and Harvcore. When his attention shifted to Breaking Pangaea in 2000, the beloved emo trio’s output was chronicled in a pair of releases for Undecided Records and cemented with the 2003 Phoenix EP on Equal Vision.

Once again teaming with respected label Equal Vision (Coheed and Cambria, Saves The Day, Chiodos), a worldly and wise Mascherino is celebrating his achievements as he looks forward. If the explosive and contagious admission “Complaintor” is sure to draw the interest of fans, its one of eleven inventive, exciting and honest tracks awaiting your attention.

Turning that energy into the musical triumph that is Bend To Break has had enormously positive results. “I couldn’t be happier with how it came out,” Fred enthuses. “I’m proud of what Lou and I did and I wouldn’t really change anything about it. I’m excited for people to hear it and enjoy it and feel like they’re listening to something that is honest. I’m hoping that the fans who have been with me for the last several years will continue down the road with me. Of course, I’d like to reach some new people, too.”

Mascherino is also quick to point out that the CD packaging is 100% recycled material, with an inlay tray made of cornstarch. The green lifestyle is evident in the 1982 VW Rabbit he owns, and which runs on veggie oil, not to mention the carbon offsets he bought for recording. He also plans to offset as much of his imminent touring commitments with THE COLOR FRED as possible.

“I like to keep everything I do as close to carbon footprint zero as possible,” he says. “The guys at Equal Vision had to search far and wide to make my packaging goal a reality. But it’s well worth it. It’s really important to me and if everyone else did it, it would make a big difference.”

So what about the curious moniker for his solo endeavor, which elicits the same sort of chuckle that rock fans had a dozen years ago when Dave Grohl unveiled his then-solo project The Foo Fighters?

“The people who know me, knew it was a good fit, because it kind of makes you smile,” Mascherino says of The Color Fred. “I do write about some dark issues, but I try to always take it from a positive angle in the end. I try to be a positive guy, so it’s okay if people hear the name and grin. It’s supposed to get that reaction.”

The Almost 2007

2008-09-01T12:13:00.003-04:00

The Almost
Southern Weather
(Tooth & Nail/Virgin Records)

Aaron Gillespie is a man obsessed. Whether he's out in front of The Almost, his new, eagerly anticipated rock-based project, or behind the drum kit for Underoath, the Clearwater, Florida-bred songwriter/musician can't help but throw himself into everything he does.

With Southern Weather, The Almost lets Gillespie put a different, more melodic side of himself on display. Hoping to follow in the footsteps of his idol Dave Grohl, who stepped out from behind his drum kit to capture the rock world's hearts as one of the genre's most visible frontmen, Gillespie has begun a metamorphosis.

If The Almost brainchild is quick to downplay any similarities to the Foo Fighters in their infancy, his project's debut affirms he's clearly worthy. Consider that The Almost is already confirmed for the upcoming 2007 Warped Tour and that Southern Weather marks the first time Tooth & Nail has partnered up with a major label (Virgin Records) for a joint release and there's little denying that Gillespie is about to take the ride of his life.

Southern Weather features the blistering "Call Me Back When I'm Honest" and the quick, evocative "Drive There Now!" Performing nearly every instrument on the disc, workhorse Gillespie aligned with acclaimed, Seattle-based producer Aaron Sprinkle on Southern Weather. And while the two had never met, The Almost brainchild was a big fan of Sprinkle's work with Pedro the Lion and they hit it off instantly.

"Aaron is an incredibly talented producer," says Gillespie. "And it turns out we have a lot in common. He wears a lot of hats and plays every instrument. He's able to open up your eyes and make you think about things you can do on an album that maybe you didn't think about."

Case in point is "Amazing Because It Is," which started as a very basic song but built into a horn-touched, choir-augmented album pinnacle. "It's way different from anything else on the record, but I think I might like it the best," Gillespie says of the spiritual opus. "It started with one take on the vocals and I kind of kept it stripped down. And then I went to a church-to like a youth group-and they invited all of their affiliated youth groups and I played a few songs for them. And I am so pleased with how it ended up."

Nearly as magical is the disc's tender, countrified moment, "Dirty And Left Out"- which took shape after the Aarons spent an evening absorbing Ocean Beach by Red House Painters. If the latter--which counts a guest vocal collaboration with former Sunny Day Real Estate singer Jeremy Enigk--is a noticeable shift from the bone-crunching attack fans have come to expect from Aaron through his work with Underoath, Gillespie says it's completely natural. "As much as I love what I do in that band, there are songs in me and music that I enjoy just as much that comes from melody," The Almost principal explains.

While some artists might find themselves overwhelmed by the prospect of working alone, Aaron says he thrived by working on his own with Sprinkle. "I'm used to working in this band environment," he admits. "So that was a shift. But when I hit my stride, I could just go for things. I didn't have to explain what I was looking for to someone else or over-think anything."

From the inventive Thursday-meets-Oasis vibe of "Everyone Here Smells Like A Rat" to the breathtaking, undying roar of "I Mostly Copy Other People"--which benefits from the bass and guest vocal work of The Starting Line's Kenny Vasoli --Gillespie plays from the heart on Southern Weather. Throughout the album Aaron incorporates pieces of his youth.

Most visible is the disc's commanding opening track and first single, "Say This Sooner," which introduces the album with an attention grabbing, percussion-driven anthem. "I grew up in the Deep South," he says of the urgent, hook-fostered opener. "Like anyone, I've had struggles along the way. But I am very much informed by Southern values and I think the songs speak to that."

Just as informed are the Gillespie devotees that scored The Almost the top three songs and #1 artist ranking on PureVolume some four-plus months in advance of Southern Weather's April 3, 2007 release. The first week the songs were up, they received over 100,000 combined plays on PureVolume and MySpace. If Aaron's initial apprehensions about the project being accepted have subsided, it's that honest piece of his personality that is rare for a performer of his magnitude.

In advance of an early 2007 tour to test The Almost record on the road with his band--built from a line-up of Jay Vilardi (guitar), Alex Aponte (bass) and Kenny Bozich (drums) and himself--Gillespie was worried about how he'd be received, despite the fact most of the gigs were sell-outs and they all went off with out a hitch, setting the stage for their upcoming Warped Tour commitment.

Between his own duties out in front of The Almost and Underoath's touring and recording schedules, Aaron Gillespie is fully committed until 2008. For now, he's a firm believer in his ability to balance both. "Underoath is extremely special to me," he says of the group he co-founded in 1998 which debuted at #2 on the Billboard Album Chart with June 2006's Define The Great Line.

"Whereas with Southern Weather, it's got a much broader scope," he continues. "From a 12 year old listening to her iPod on the school bus to a 38-year old guy commuting on a train, I'm excited by the fact that this album can find an audience with a lot of different people."

MXPX 'Secret Weapon' Bio

2008-09-01T12:11:00.002-04:00

MxPx Secret Weapon
Mike Herrera: Bass/Vocals
Tom Wisniewski: Guitars
Yuri Ruley: Drums

Sometimes you can go home. Just ask the iconic, idyllic punk/pop stalwarts MxPx, who have returned to the almighty Tooth & Nail Records for their exhilarating, dexterous eighth studio album, Secret Weapon. Long on the highly-charged, infectious anthems that made them scene favorites and boasting a smattering of adventurous, classic pop-inspired winners, the trio – consisting of frontman/bassist Mike Herrera, guitarist Tom Wisniewski and drummer Yuri Ruley – has delivered what can only be called its most accomplished and cohesive disc yet.

As Secret Weapon uncorks with the 1-2 punch of the title track and “Shut It Down,” it’s hard not to think masterpiece as the Aaron Sprinkle (The Almost, Anberlin) produced set unfolds. If Wisniewski is a little too humble to agree with that notion, he does call the disc’s double-whammy opening, “a face-melter.” Counting a guitar solo from Bad Religion’s Brian Baker, “Secret Weapon,” the incendiary, attention-grabber also finds MxPx wielding its infamous, optimistic tack.

“We’ve always been a band that’s tried to focus on the sunny side of life,” acknowledges Herrera. “But we try to do it in a way that’s real to people and not cheesy. We kind of embrace the dismal and the uplifting at the same time. And “Secret Weapon,” the song and the album, sums up where MxPx is right now.”

The aforementioned “Shut It Down” is an equally blistering homage to the Clash replete with soaring choruses, thundering drums and a vocal cameo from Sugarcult’s Tim Pagnotta. Launched with the proclamation, “This is a public service announcement with guitar!” – a line excerpted from that seminal quartet’s 1982 effort Combat Rock – its an endearing acknowledgment to Strummer/Jones.

“Aaron and I were listening to a playback of our song, waiting for Mike at the studio,” Tom explains. “And it just popped into my head. I was thinking of “Know Your Rights,” so I started shouting it over the song. And Aaron’s like, ‘Dude, that’s sick.’ So when Mike arrived, I was like, ‘Okay, get in front of the microphone.’ And that’s how we paid tribute to my favorite band ever.”

Suggesting kids give up their incessant texting rituals and forgo time in the chatroom for time with their families in the living room, the song’s message is a thought-provoking commentary on technology’s impact on society. “Everyone’s seen that cell phone commercial where the whole family is sitting at the dinner table,” says Tom. “The kid’s asking for the salt or whatever and the dad’s just blowing him up on the text message. And he’s like, ‘Dad. I’m right here.’ Sure it’s funny, but it’s also kind of sad.”

Not so for the alluring contagion “Top of the Charts.” An acerbic look back at MxPx’s frustrations with the music business and its tenure at a major label specifically, it just may be the band’s most accessible number ever. “It’s absolutely based in reality and our experiences with the whole major label world,” says Tom. “It was actually written a while back, after we parted ways with A&M. You know, they’d tell us, ‘Oh, the record’s perfect. It’s great. Then two weeks later they’d be back in touch and say, ‘Yeah. We don’t hear a single. Can you get back to us with a couple more songs.’ Like, ‘I know you just spent the past year writing songs but now can you pull an amazing single out of a hat? Can you just do that for us real quick? Thanks.’”

“It’s one of those things that we almost left off the record because we didn’t want people to think that we were jaded or that we blamed other people for us not having a big hit single,” Mike explains. “We don’t blame anyone. Things just sort of fall where they do and roll with it.”

That’s not to say MxPx hasn’t had its share of triumphs in its decade and a half in operation. Founded in July 1992 by Herrera and Ruley, the Bremerton, Washington-bred band’s line up has remained constant since Wisniewski joined in 1995. Counting a series of alternative radio and video favorites like “Punk Rawk Show,” “Chick Magnet,” “Move To Bremerton,” “I’m Okay, You’re Okay” and “Responsibility” over seven extremely popular studio albums, an array of EPs, plus one live disc and a DVD.

With their weighty back catalog of should-be smashes, returning to Tooth & Nail – a label now running circles around the conglomerates when it comes to getting rock albums on the charts by the likes of Underoath, Anberlin and The Almost – made perfect sense for its glimmering but tenacious eighth album. After agreeing to record three new songs last year for an expanded reissue of its B-sides compilation, Let It Happen, the band and label founder Brandon Ebel patched things up for good.

“It’s no secret that years ago we had a pretty well publicized falling out with them but it’s been a long time and things have healed,” Tom says. “We sort of picked up where we left off.” Fresh off the completion of an amicable deal with respected indie SideOne Dummy, MxPx began seriously considering Ebel’s offer to rejoin his label.

“I would say that helped our decision,” Herrera says of Tooth & Nail’s powerful industry position, “but it wasn’t solely based on business. A lot of it was based on redemption and wanting to right some of the wrongs and be righted for some of the wrongs that were done to us. We felt like this was our way to rebuild everything. I think, if anything, regardless of the success of this record, having that relationship with Tooth & Nail again is going to do wonders for our career, our personal lives and the well being of the whole camp.”

Similarly karmic was the decision to re-team with Sprinkle, who handled production duties on MxPx’s 1994 debut Pokinatcha, after he worked with Tom, Mike and Yuri in the summer of 2006 to append new material to the aforementioned bonus edition of Let It Happen. Because Wisniewski didn’t join until ‘95’s Teenage Politics, replacing founding guitarist Andy Husted, he says, “Aaron and realized that although we were friends, I had actually never recorded with him.”

“But he comes from the same mindset as us musically, and he had a lot of great ideas,” Tom adds of the sessions in Sprinkle’s Seattle facility. “And not only is Aaron a man on the rise, based on his credits, he’s able to help deconstruct a song and put it back together in a way that makes a lot of sense.”

Case in point is the adventurous instrumentation the band fused to “Punk Rock Celebrity,” a hard charging rocker that takes a unique left turn at the bridge, integrating piano and a wall of brass. “Mike came in with the song one day and said basically it’s two songs stuck together,” Tom explains. “Once we put it down, we thought triumphant Beatles-y horns and piano would make the song. So once the horn part was perfected, we brought in the horn players. And it worked really well.”

Less designed to poke fun at the punk rockers you see in the gossip rags than to poke fun at the similarities of the bands littering the music scene. “If you look through Alternative Press, every new band looks like every band you’ve seen before,” the guitarist laughs. “It’s kind of the return of ‘80s hair metal in a way. Except now it’s the sideways haircut and the Cyclops look; just slight variations on the same get-up. And we’ve never been like that, one of our favorite bands ever was the Descendents. And they never bought into that image over rock thing. It was all about the music. There was no pre-planned image.”

From the riotous, circle-pit anthem of “Contention,” clocking in at under 90 seconds and which Mike says he wrote “in whole in all of fifteen minutes,” to the stellar harmonies that elevate the lush, splendid “Sad Sad Song” and pay honor to The Beach Boys, MxPx finds the perfect balance of dichotomy and consistency on Secret Weapon.

“Take everything away, the bassline and the lyrics and the melody was all it was,” Herrera says of the germination of the song, which features former Superdrag frontman John Davis on backing vocals and keyboards. “All of the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ kind of came afterward. It just seemed like with that type of song it had to be something completely different. It couldn’t be a punk song. It had to be kind of oldies sounding. And I think punk and the oldies era fit well together, and of course, The Beach Boys’ – that fits like a glove.”

From the explosive closer “Tightly Wound,” which boasts a guest contribution by Benji Madden of Good Charlotte, to the upbeat punch of “Here’s To The Life”, the men in MxPx – who were handed the Keys To The City of Bremerton last year – have delivered the strongest record of its career.

“We don’t take each other too seriously,” Herrera explains, talking about how the band has endured through the years. “We like to travel and play music and do all the things you get to do being in a band, save for long plane rides. This band is sort of a microcosm of how a lot of people live their lives. And “Here’s To The Life,” kind of speaks to that. “Here’s to the life that we always never wanted.’ Like, This may not always be how we planned it, but it is what it is. We might as well enjoy it.’”

With that credo in place and Secret Weapon under its sleeve, 2007 seems certain to be the year that Mike, Tom and Yuri conquer the world. Onward and upward, MxPx!

Emery 'I'm Only A Man' Bio 2007

2008-09-01T12:07:00.002-04:00

Emery

I’m Only A Man

(Tooth & Nail)

Toby Morell (Vocals, Bass)
Devin Shelton (Vocals, Bass)
Matt Carter (Guitar, Vocals)
Josh Head (Keyboards, Vocals)
Dave Powell (Drums)

Emery’s colossal third album I’m Only A Man (Tooth & Nail) captures the aggressive quintet building on the blueprint of its remarkably successful back catalogue to deliver the album of their lives. With an abundance of stylistic risks, the surprise-laden song cycle was crafted with the confidence that can only come from a deeply devoted fanbase and combined sales in excess of 250,000 for The Weak’s End (2004) and The Question (2005).

With the help of producer Ryan Boesch--who previously engineered discs by everyone from The Cure, Foo Fighters, Eels, Ozomatli and From First To Last--the Toby Morrell and Devin Shelton-fronted outfit steps out of its comfort zone at the very start of I’m Only A Man. Launched by “Rock N’ Rule,” the song’s bold energy is a powerful proclamation of the inventive song structures to follow.

“That song went through a lot of changes,” says Shelton, who penned the epic tune. “At first I was struggling with it. Finally I decided to go with a really heavy, aggressive approach, and it worked. I spent a lot of time making sure that everything fused together the right way, and the band’s input really made the song.”

Strengthened by an irresistible hook (“I guess you don’t have faith”) and a captivating, near-lilting middle section – not to mention a mind-blowing trumpet sample delivered upfront by keyboardist Josh Head – Morrell explains, “We’re really big on dynamics and changing it up. We love heavy music and screaming – although not for the sake of just screaming. We’ll place it in our songs where it needs to be, just as we’ll put a harmony where it needs to be.”

For Emery – which also counts imaginative guitarist Matt Carter and thunderous drummer Dave Powell – the sonic ebbs and flows on I’m Only A Man come from an array of collective influences, be it classic rockers Queen – who they paid homage to in the past on 2005’s “Listening to Freddy Mercury” – soul icon Sam Cooke, indie rockers Pedro The Lion or musical peers Brand New.

As a result, Toby says, “Some of the songs on this album might encourage our fans to dance along and embrace the hooks, but if you check out our lyrics, some of them are just heart crushing. We knew we were doing something different, but we didn’t go too far. We didn’t leave ourselves.”

From the soulful harmonies that launch the explosive “Don’t Bore Us, Get To The Chorus” (subsequently heightened by both a completely unexpected electronic breakdown and blood-curdling screams) to the roaring, airwave-worthiness of “The Movie Song,” Emery arguably casts itself as the most original band in rock’s modern world.

In advance of Emery’s third album, lead single “The Party Song” – which touts a stern message about the perils of self-destructive behavior coupled with an optimistic rock tack – was released to an enthusiastic response by fans. “I wrote that with Queen or Weezer in mind,” Toby says. “I wanted a simpler, almost happy kind of feeling, although the lyrics are pretty serious. It’s based on a couple of friends I’ve had and especially my wife, who lost her father when she was 17. As a result she started exploring and making negative choices. I’ve had friends who have had some serious stuff go down in their lives and they’ve turned to drugs or alcohol or sex, whatever it might be. And all that stuff wound up being empty because they weren’t fixing themselves. They were avoiding the pain instead of addressing it.”

In contrast from that contagious, succinct blast, the ten-minute opus, “From Crib To Coffin” closes the record out in an artful, expansive way rarely heard since the era of old school 1970s album rock. “Sometimes we get really bored with two guitars blaring and loud distortion, so that one just kept developing,” says Toby. “We did some improvisation and just kept pushing ourselves.”

Be it the chart-worthy, mid-tempo track “World Away,” which is infused with a cathartic detour, or the slide guitar-illuminated “After The Devil Beats His Wife”--which Toby named after the Southern expression for sunshowers--Emery exhibits a welcome depth. “Being in a band you always want to grow musically,” Devin insists. “You never want to get stagnant. We’ve got to keep moving forward and make things happen.”

“We love our first two albums but if we re-write those again then we’re not being fair to ourselves or any fans,” Toby acknowledges. “We’re not doing this just for a paycheck. We want to evolve, which is why we’re stretching the boundaries and going beyond what people might expect from us.”

From its recent acoustic tour to its dual frontman approach, Emery has always taken risks. Of the latter, Toby says proudly, “We were all good friends before we started the band, so there are no egos. And to be honest, having two singers is a huge help when you’re playing a full set of music. Having to sing on your own for an hour and a half, the way we play, would be a struggle. With us alternating it keeps things fresh and new.”

With Morrell and Shelton coming up with the basic structure of the songs, things take shape with the guitar prowess of Matt Carter, who typically elaborates with the guitar. As they perfect the material, Head and Powell also contribute. Weaned on the meat and potatoes commercial rock radio that their home state of South Carolina had to offer, Morrell says, “We didn’t know independent bands really existed until we got to college. And then we knew this was the kind of music we were longing for our whole lives. When we came from the other bands we had been in at college and formed Emery we knew we had to write music that we liked.”

Fast forward through the past six years, the band first settled in Seattle, but its members are now spread out across the country. So with Matt and Josh still living in the shadow of the Space Needle, Devin is in Illinois, Dave in Indiana and Toby in South Carolina, the group makes time for songcraft. In the case of the tunes that shape I’m Only A Man, the men in Emery rented a Charleston-area beach house in late autumn of 2006.

After hitting the studio with Boesch in the spring of 2007, the group has emerged with a disc that clearly sets them apart from the status quo. “As for standing apart – we don’t ever consider ourselves better than anyone else,” Toby says humbly. “The awesome thing about music for us is being able to create and be unique in the context of what we do.”

To which Devin concludes, “We’re really proud of what we’ve done and we really want it to be something that stands out to people and maybe earns us some new fans. My hope is that people will be caught off guard, but in a really good way.”

Emilie Simon 'The Flower Book' Bio 2006

2008-09-01T12:05:00.002-04:00

EMILIE SIMON’s plush, artful soundscapes which have yielded her significant praise and awards in her French homeland and acclaim across the rest of Europe and Japan are set to delight and inspire U.S. music devotees with the arrival of her breathtaking album THE FLOWER BOOK (Milan). Consisting of material collected from her 2003 self-titled debut, 2006’s Végétal (which reaped a four-star review in Mojo) and SIMON’s critically acclaimed motion picture soundtrack for the original worldwide (except for the U.S. and U.K.) release of La Marche De L’Empereur (The March of The Penguins), the 15-track disc highlights EMILIE’s uniquely sensual work.

Despite garnering best album honors in the electronic category at France’s “Victoires De La Musique” Awards for her debut, and being touted as one of the most promising female artists, the Montpellier-bred chanteuse is quick to champion her independence as an artist over such acclaim. “[Awards] are nice, but it’s like a cherry on top, really,” the 28-year-old singer/songwriter insists. “It’s great when you have the feeling you are doing something important or that you’re understood. But it doesn’t alter the way I work in any way. I’m always thinking back on what I have done, because I don’t want to be redundant. I want to make music without rules, without anybody telling me what I have to do.”

Originality thrives on The Flower Book, as exhibited by the La Marche-excerpted opener “Song of the Storm.” Literally ice-tinged, SIMON rubbed pieces of ice together to produce beats and sounds to blend with her electronic machinery and the song is bolstered by inviting lyrics (“Can’t you hear my storm coming/Stones falling on to you/Can’t you feel the earth shaking/Big dark clouds forming now”). EMILIE says her invitation to work on the project caught her by surprise.

“The producers of the film’s original version took a big risk, actually, because they wanted me to do the music but I wasn’t really established.” SIMON admits. “They knew my first album and they thought my music was so different from the common kind of documentary music. They wanted to do something different and artful and unique. They knew that I was interested in the texture of music, and that although I like electronic music, I’m interested in arrangements and melodies. I was interested in making music in keeping with the elements – water and ice or wood and flowers. I had just finished a song called ‘The Ice Girl’ about coldness and ice. The film was sent to me and when they contacted me I said, ‘that’s really funny, I’ve just finished this song. So my involvement just grew from there.’”

Despite the frustration of having her songs shut out of the American release of the film, the sparkling material that shapes The Flower Book firmly defies that Hollywood blunder. “The explanation I was given was that my music was not adaptable to American audiences,” EMILIE chuckles, sounding hell bent on proving them wrong. “It’s really strange to hear something like this when Japanese people, Chinese people and Eastern European people have all adapted to it. It’s hard because for any musician, your music is like your baby. But now I’m happy because everything is not solely about the movie. This album is a reflection of what I have done.”

For the Végétal-culled material like “Dame De Lotus,” “Rose Hybride du The” and “Fleur De Saison,” EMILIE focused in on names of flowers (garden or wild), carnivorous plants, climbing plants, floating blooms and ghost-like trees to inform her art. “The poetic link on Végétal was plants and vegetation. They remind us of our own origins. I was inspired by parallels like how the sap of a tree is to us and our blood for example. Also, the sonic link was the use of materials like water, wind, fire, wood and stones that I recorded by myself in natural surroundings and then I’d go in a studio with a percussionist coming from the contemporary music. Those sounds are the basis of all my programming. Creating Végétal was a great experience for me."

As for the language choice in her songs, SIMON refuses to over-think it. “I don’t make a big separation between music and lyrics. It’s all part of the same thing,” she says. “I think it’s the song that chooses the language. If I’m on my piano or I’m writing and the melody comes in my head, the words might come in English or French. It doesn’t really matter to me because it’s all part of the same creative process.”

The daughter of a sound engineer, SIMON works in her home studio that allows for spontaneity and the quick germination of ideas. Although she had access to her father’s studio at a young age, she says she didn’t start recording herself until she was 16. “Still, the nice thing for me was that I was not scared of the machines or the cables and plugging things in when I started,” EMILIE says. “It’s a completely comfortable environment for me.”

In her early twenties, EMILIE recorded demos after moving to Paris from the South of France that wound up landing her a deal with Universal France. “I had a friend who worked at a label and she felt it was time to play my songs for people. So she basically took the responsibility and they sparked an interest.”

Songs from that era like “Desert” and the brilliantly conceived “Flowers” earned her a loyal fan base at home with her 2003 debut. A subsequent video for the latter, replete with Tim Burton-inspired animation, is a captivating example of SIMON’s complete involvement in her work. “It was my idea,” she says of the clip. “I was looking for a way to introduce the song. You can take it literally but if you look a little deeper there’s a lot more there.”

“If you were to put me in a video smiling in the middle of flowers, it would be the complete opposite of my idea for the song,” SIMON continues. "I had to find a way to communicate the second degree and thought it would be fun to distort this happy little song. I had this idea of a little girl in a cemetery who is coming with dead flowers to a grave. In the video, everything takes place by night in Montmartre where I was living at the moment. I worked with a Parisian team called NoBrain who are big fans of Burton’s work like me, so this was my cute little homage.”

A tribute of a different sort is EMILIE’s sensual rendering of The Stooges’ classic “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” recorded upon her arrival in Paris, where she actually worked in a squat for more than a year. SIMON says she discovered the song as a teenager. “Every time I was at a basement party, it seemed like everybody was into that song. So it was a great memory for me,” she reveals. “One night, with, like, pigeons coming in through the windows, I was all alone working on my first album and I thought of the song. I was just having fun, and it was spontaneous, but the recording ended up feeling very personal.”

As for her own compositions, which account for the rest of the disc, EMILIE says, “It’s important to know when a song is done, because if you work on something too long, you can kill it. And I don’t want to kill something that’s precious. Some songs I’ll work on for a year, a little bit at a time. I might go off and write a full song and then come back to it. It’s a little bit like painting. Some things come quick and it’s very clear that it has to be a certain way and others will require you to go back every day and add a little bit of color here or there.”

Although The Flower Book seems destined to put her stateside career in bloom, EMILIE SIMON is already a huge success in her own mind. “To me, it’s being given the opportunity to have my music heard around the world,” she concludes. “You can’t control if people like it or not. My success is in having the possibility to come and express myself and reach people who believe in my songs.”

Breaking Benjamin 'Phobia' Official Bio 2006

2008-09-01T12:03:00.002-04:00

Some would argue BEN BURNLEY is a perfectionist. But for BREAKING BENJAMIN’s singer, guitarist, and visionary, there is no other modus operandi for his craft. With that dedication, BURNLEY and his bandmates–guitarist AARON FINK, bassist MARK JAMES, and drummer CHAD SZELIGA–have built 2006’s meticulous, infectious hard rock milestone PHOBIA (Hollywood Records). Building on their trademark hard-charging rhythms, sharp hooks, and soaring vocals, PHOBIA marks BREAKING BENJAMIN’s third album.

For BURNLEY, who typically writes at least 10 songs to yield one, the arduous approach has helped BREAKING BENJAMIN elevate the bar in following up 2004’s explosive platinum-selling We Are Not Alone, which produced a pair of compelling #1 rock hits, “So Cold” and “Sooner Or Later.” “It’s a very time-consuming thing,” BEN admits of his efforts to top the band’s airwave favorites. “I’ll basically write a number of similar songs and cherry-pick the best pieces from all of them and make one.”

With PHOBIA, which confronts anxiety and fear through catharsis and breathtaking melodies, the fruits of BURNLEY’s conviction can first be heard on “The Diary of Jane” –the first single and video–just one in a number of ferocious and hook-injected offerings on the band’s third album. As muscular as it is accessible, “Jane” has the power to invade one’s headspace, and occupy it for days.

Yet BREAKING BENJAMIN’s namesake didn’t always think so highly of PHOBIA’s first single. “Ben is his biggest critic,” bassist MARK JAMES acknowledges. “He’ll write stuff that is undeniable. And everyone else knows it’s undeniable. But he’ll think it’s not good enough and he’ll go back to the drawing board. With ‘The Diary of Jane,’ he had three or four different options lyrically and melodically before we even entered the studio. He had all of these variations that he presented to [producer] David [Bendeth]. And as is the case nine out of ten times, it’s almost always his initial gut feeling that wins out.”

BURNLEY’s instincts have guided BREAKING BENJAMIN from the bars and clubs of Wilkes-Barre, PA to a platinum album certification, all in the course of five years. On the strength of the quartet’s first hit, “Polyamorous,” from its 2002 major label debut Saturate, the group’s alt-metal leanings–inspired by the likes of Tool, KoRN, and Nirvana–earned the band prompt recognition.

With the aforementioned radio darling We Are Not Alone (which also contained the memorable ballad “Rain”) the group aligned with producer David Bendeth to forge a partnership that only grew stronger by the time work on PHOBIA commenced in early 2006. “We knew what to expect,” BURNLEY says. “We knew what he’d want out of us and knew what we’d want out of him.”

“Mark, Chad, Aaron, and Ben gave this record everything they had, worked their asses off and never settled for second best,” David Bendeth says proudly of BREAKING BENJAMIN’s new material. “The melodies are strong and memorable and we all feel it is a lot stronger than anything they’ve ever done. I worked BEN hard and he pushed himself. He has such a great instinct for lyrics and melody. He really knows what he wants and he never ceases to amaze me. He has a natural talent, a gift.”

That gift is evident in “Evil Angel.” which has a vibe akin to Alice in Chains, replete with AARON’s expressive, thunderous riffs giving way to a newfound rootsy, organic approach. Elsewhere, “You” finds the band operating in a rarely-used standard tuning, and relying on the highly capable rhythmic wares of MARK and drummer CHAD–who only recently joined the group but is an obvious ideal fit. “It was back to basics for us,” MARK says of the latter. “It’s so direct, more simple than usual. It’s definitely more of a feel than anything else propelling that song.”

The sonic epic “Dance With The Devil” also stands out as AARON’s fluid, forceful guitar lines and monumental drumming ideally interface with the power and range of BURNLEY’s voice. And despite his heartfelt delivery of lines like “I believe in you/I can show you that,” Ben pauses when it comes to talk about his deeply personal verse.

“I want the listener to analyze my songs,” he says. “I don’t want to do it myself. If someone thinks the song is about something and I come along and say, ‘No. The song is about this.’ I could ruin it for them.”

One thing that won’t be damaged at this point is the infrastructure of this band, helped by a newfound openness. “One thing in the past that affected us in a negative way was that we didn’t always speak our minds,” MARK says. “We’d keep stuff bottled up. And then maybe we’d feel regret or resentment. This time around, we made a point to say what we’re feeling.”

Finding a balance between enjoyment and ambition, BURNLEY thrives by challenging himself on PHOBIA. “I’m doing things vocally that I haven’t done before and we’re using different time signatures and tunings that are new for us,” he says. “I look at evolution this way: Every time you write a song, it’s one less thing that you can do. Of course there is always pressure to at least match what you’ve done before, but there is nothing I can do about it other than write the best possible songs I can.”

“I’m really proud of these songs,” MARK says. “BEN has done a fantastic job providing great hooks and phrases. I feel very strongly about every track on this record, which isn’t something I was always able to say. I think we really tried to approach every song by never trying to overstate an idea. If there was a catchy riff that AARON was doing, I never wanted to step on it. I’d try to seek a different way around it.”

Thinking outside the box, the men of BREAKING BENJAMIN have faced down their fears, put their hearts and their heads together to woodshed PHOBIA. Regardless of whether you’re afraid of heights, snakes, bees, air travel or whatever, this stellar song-cycle pays big dividends. Summing up BREAKING BENJAMIN’s new album, the band’s bassist concludes, “The goal was to make a solid, mature and cohesive record.”

Mission accomplished. PHOBIA is a damn-near faultless rock album.

Good Charlotte Good Morning Revival 2007

2008-09-01T11:56:00.001-04:00

From the opening sounds of GOOD CHARLOTTE’s fourth album Good Morning Revival -- which launches with an artful, innovative sound collage that slides into the irresistible “Misery”-- it’s evident that the world-famous band who’ve sold over nine million albums has revolutionized its sound for 2007. And by the time the optimistic parting shot “March On” rolls around, it’s evident that this is the vibrant, adventurous and unexpected rock album that has redefined the group.

Returning to work with producer Don Gilmore (Pearl Jam, Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne) -- who helmed Good Charlotte’s eponymous 2000 breakthrough debut -- was the decisive change that reinvigorated the band. After a pair of successful albums like 2002’s tremendously popular triple platinum The Young and the Hopeless and 2004’s subsequent million-selling follow-up The Chronicles of Life and Death (which were realized with producer Eric Valentine), GC singer Joel Madden says its modus operandi on Good Morning Revival (Epic/Daylight) was simply to “make a record that we loved and that felt good.”

In an effort to achieve that goal, Gilmore challenged Joel and his identical twin, Good Charlotte’s guitarist Benji Madden, to bring their A game. And he was highly critical. “We threw out 50 or 60 songs and pretty much started over,” Benji says. “Don was like, ‘I want to reinvent you guys. I want people to ask themselves, ‘Is that Good Charlotte?’”

“We wanted to love every track,” bassist Paul Thomas explains. “Our goal this time out was to make it an awesome listen straight through. No fucking filler, man.”

For the Maddens, who -- unlike their bandmates Paul, guitarist/keyboardist Billy Martin and new Good Charlotte drummer Dean Butterworth -- had become fixtures of the paparazzi-addled L.A. nightclub scene as well as prominent DJs, the opportunity to ship up to Vancouver to create new music was absolutely necessary and remarkably fruitful.

The first day in British Columbia the Maddens had the bulk of “Victim of Love,” the contagious harmony-laden rock & roll song, down. “We knew we were onto something,” Joel explains. And literally every day it was like we were writing a new song. After two months in Canada, isolating ourselves and getting away from everything that we were comfortable with was amazing. We came away with most of what you hear on this record.”

By the time the group officially hit the studio with Gilmore, the downtime between its last tour and its official reconvening was as therapeutic as it was motivational. “The fact that we were able to stop, take a deep breath and kind of find some appreciation for all that we’ve accomplished has a lot to do with why this record sounds as vital and electrifying as it does,” says Martin. “We used to just take every offer that came our way and we’d never get much in the way of downtime. Now that we’ve had that time off it feels like a new band in a lot of ways.”

One of the album’s highlights is its first single: the blistering, unforgettable rocker “The River,” an impassioned song about sin and redemption that traverses the dark side of Los Angeles. For the song, the band brought longtime friends and fellow musicians M. Shadows and Synyster Gates (of Avenged Sevenfold) into the mix, marking the first time Good Charlotte has officially collaborated with another artist on an album. It turned out to be a natural fit for both bands.

“We’ve been friends with Avenged for a longtime. This wasn’t planned, but it ended up working out,” Joel explains. “We were sitting around listening to some new music and they liked that song so we asked them to jump on. It felt right and sounded really cool. Aside from being friends of ours, we’re also fans of their music and since this is our first collaboration, we couldn’t be happier that they’re a part of our record.”

Good Morning Revival sustains its momentum with tracks like the fuzzy, club-driven “Dancefloor Anthem” and the genre-defying, Gorillaz-like You Tube favorite “Keep Your Hands Off My Girl” (which was introduced to audiences on the band’s U.S. fall 2006 tour and will be the lead single in Europe, Asia and South America). Good Charlotte has proven that it can thrive in a number of musical realms.

“Honestly, the first time I heard it, I was like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me? People will never know that’s a Good Charlotte song,” concedes Billy. “And then Joel’s like, ‘Well, that’s the point!’ But soon enough it had me in its clutches.”

“It’s kind of weird,” Joel says. “That song takes a lot of balls. I know some people will listen to it and probably think, ‘No thank you.’ It’s definitely not as if we sat down and penned a piece of art. It’s kind of like a sarcastic take on the whole club scene.”

Elsewhere, on the hard-charging dance beat-steered rocker, “Misery” -- in which the singer observes the “tacky, plastic, shallow, empty” people that distinguish the City of Angels -- the keyboards are really pronounced. While the gorgeous “A Beautiful Place,” which evokes strains of Travis, The Beach Boys and the Flaming Lips, asserts that Good Charlotte is as much of a bona fide pop band and serious chart contender as it is a techno group or a punk quintet.

“I wrote that song in Mexico,” Benji says of “A Beautiful Place.” “I was down there during hurricane season and I was in this beautiful beach environment. I had a night off and I was just thinking about how lucky I’ve been. “That’s a real Dean [Butterworth] moment. It was different when we wrote it, but then Dean started playing that real pronounced drum part. The drums are part of the hook. And it changed the whole sound.”

Speaking of new vibes, the ups and downs of relationships propel rock anthems like “Break Her Heart” and the opposites attract tack of “Something Else.” These songs, along with the tender, melodic ballad “Where Would We Be,” find Joel -- who recently ended a lengthy, highly-publicized relationship with a certain movie star -- putting his feelings out there for public scrutiny. “I’m sure people are going to say these songs are about this or that,” he admits. “Love is a big part of me and I’ve accepted that and it’s in my music. And I’m not afraid to just show it.”

Such honesty coupled with success and personal growth couldn’t help but inform Good Morning Revival. “This record shows a lot more of us than anything we’ve done in the past,” Benji says. “Because it’s hard to be an angry kid, all mad at the world when you’ve got it so good. I mean, that angst will always be there for Joel and I because of the way we grew up. Our father wasn’t the best role model as people know. But I definitely have a moment every day where I go, ‘Wow. What a rad life.’ I look at myself as being really blessed.”

To which Joel adds, “It’s been a roller coaster ride for us in our own little way. We were up, then we kind of went down a bit. But now we’re up again. I think our new record has really been as much about looking back as it is about moving forward. We’ve realized a lot, and I’m really grateful that we’re still doing what we love.”

Revitalized and inspired, Good Morning Revival finds Good Charlotte at its creative pinnacle.

Architects 'Revenge' Bio 2006

2008-09-01T11:54:00.001-04:00

ARCHITECTS

BRANDON PHILLIPS (Guitar/Vocals)
ZACH PHILLIPS (Bass)

ADAM PHILLIPS (Drums)
MIKE ALEXANDER (Lead Guitar)

With REVENGE, the ARCHITECTS have designed a scorching, vitriolic rock & roll album steeped in the art of getting even. Cops, politicians, ex-lovers and even dewey-eyed, nostalgic Gadjits fans all get thirty lashes on the white hot follow up to 2004’s acclaimed Keys To The Building.

Frank Lloyd Wright they are not. I.M. Pei they are not. Mike Brady they definitely are not. But this Kansas City foursome plays it like it means it. The ‘it’ in question is raw, inspired, melodic and, at times, deafening rock music. In REVENGE, the ARCHITECTS have drafted a boozy, bluesy and – above all else – heartfelt album, where punk fury and whiskey-drunk prowess meet and exchange dirty looks.

“The goal was to make a record that would capture the live sound of our band,” says frontman BRANDON PHILLIPS. “For ten years, in this band and The Gadjits, the band we were in before, the struggle was always to make a record as good as the live show. But we never quite gave ourselves over to the dark side as much as we did this time. We wanted to get something gritty.”

From the earnest, blistering Midwestern punk of “Widows Walk” – which recalls the magic of both Soul Asylum’s Hang Time and the Replacements’ Tim – to the hard snarling, cop baiting croak of “Badge” and the spirited, muscular “Grace,” REVENGE is a restoration of faith. For BRANDON and his younger brothers ZACH (bass) and ADAM (drums), who all did time as the aforementioned Gadjits before conspiring with lead guitarist MIKE ALEXANDER, the overwhelming notion on ARCHITECTS album number two is that ‘loud and fast’ rules.

“I have nothing against a ballad. I just don’t have a lot of use for it,” says BRANDON, who draws inspiration from everyone from Tod A. of Cop Shoot Cop and Firewater fame to singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams. “I kind of got bummed out writing ballads or slow songs that we weren’t going to play live. Because when you do that, you know you’re going to try and play it live and you really hope that it’s going to go over and it never does. And it just doesn’t. Unless you’re Keane and you got famous off your ballad, it’s not going to happen.”

“I’m old school Vaudeville like that,” he continues. “If it’s not going to make the show better, then you’re wasting your time on it.” “Don’t Call It A Ghetto,” for instance, is alive and direct, finding PHILLIPS (who says he lives in a “questionable” neighborhood) venting about corrupt local politicos and the omnipresent hover of police helicopters alike as his bandmates pay homage in amalgam to The Who, AC/DC and The Afghan Whigs.

“I went to jail because of that song,” BRANDON admits. “We had a show that involved our band and six strippers – it was a birthday party that one of our friends was throwing for his wife – and it was real rock & roll. Everyone was drunk. And there were a couple hundred people crammed into a space that was big enough for fifty people and then the cops showed up. When I saw them out of the corner of my eye, I said, ‘Let’s try to get one more in.’ And the cop was really pissed off that we dared to play another song after they showed up and he took the microphone away from me. He was a real substitute teacher about it. He was unplugging our stuff and pulling our cords out. So we maybe got a little mouthy about it. Then me and the owner of the establishment both went to county that night.”

Despite their issues with authority, the group – with the assistance of producer John Seymour – pushed itself to make a record more consistent with the grit and guts of their club shows. Recorded in just four days, the songs are urgent and compelling. Less thought out than anything he’s written in the past decade as both a Gadjit and an Architect, BRANDON has stopped sweating his lyrics – much to group’s benefit.

“In the past, I was flipping out about every turn of phrase, and I don’t think it made the songs any better,” he says. “I look at songwriting over the last ten years as practice. From here on out, I’ll write songs but my favorite thing to do now is write all the music and wait until I have to go in and record it. Then I write all of the lyrics two minutes before I have to do sing them. I just work with a gun to my head.”

That ‘Russian Roulette’ approach to song-craft may seem fucked, but in some inexplicable way it has yielded one of the most exhilarating indie rock records you are likely to hear in all of 2006. Perhaps it’s because the passion behind this thirteen-song cycle is close to PHILLIPS. And REVENGE, he confesses, “just may be one of my favorite perspectives to write from. People who are jilted because they were passive or took any other route than the confrontational route – that angry, ‘walking along the railroad tracks kicking rocks’ headspace.”

“And that’s the theme of the record – that and “Reciprocity,” BRANDON adds. “I pat myself on the back for the contagious chorus that is “Reciprocity.” I want you to say, ‘I give good reciprocity.’ To me that’s equally marvelous and disastrous. I’m pretty sure I stole that from the Burt Reynolds movie “Hooper.” In the opening five minutes of the movie, Jerry Reed makes some joke about Burt being humble. He says, ‘You give good humble.’ I just thought it was a funny-ass thing to say. I stole the context and made it tragic.”

One thing that isn’t calamitous, however, is the group’s desire to shift monikers and move forward. With the arrival of their sophomore disc as the ARCHITECTS, BRANDON wants to put the past behind them. “Changing our name was kind of an unsuccessful attempt to sever ourselves from the stuff we just didn’t want to do anymore,” he explains. “When we were The Gadjits, people expected us to play all these ten year old Gadjit songs that we wrote when we were 17. And maybe you’re not so keen on that anymore. I’m in my late twenties. And people have the nerve to act disappointed about it. I’m like, ‘Are you joking? Have you heard anything I’ve done since I was 17? It’s infinitely better, trust me.’ But rather than get all Billy Corgan about it, we just decided to slip one past the goalie and change our name.

But getting back to the ARCHITECTS’ themes of reprisal, BRANDON concludes, “I think revenge is an easy thing to get behind. I know if I heard a song about it with a big chorus, that would be a song I’d be drawn to.”

There’s no way around it. Revenge is sweet. Exact expiation baby.

Anberlin 'Cities' Bio 2007

2008-09-01T11:52:00.001-04:00

Anberlin
Cities

Stephen Christian--Vocals
Joseph Milligan--Guitars
Deon Rexroat--Bass
Nathan Strayer--Guitar
Nathan Young--Drums

Throughout rock history, from OK Computer to War to London Calling, third albums have defined careers. With the bombastic, breathtaking CITIES, ANBERLIN's cohesive and adventurous new album, the group puts itself in some esteemed company, with a modern classic that uplifts as much as it initiates thought and elicits emotion.

The Winter Haven, Florida-reared quintet--who have watched its career rise while touring with everyone from Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance to Yellowcard and Hawthorne Heights--doesn't just build on the energy and determination of recent singles like "Paperthin Hymn," "Feelgood Drag," and "A Day Late." Instead, ANBERLIN expands its grasp of what a rock record can be with the Aaron Sprinkle-produced CITIES.

Be it the huge-sounding, memorable roar of "Reclusion" or the bright, infectious "Adelaide," the writing team of singer STEPHEN CHRISTIAN and guitarist JOSEPH MILLIGAN drives ANBERLIN-which also counts bassist DEON REXROAT, guitarist NATHAN STRAYER and drummer NATHAN YOUNG-as it retains the airwave ready allure that earned the band a pair of radio hits last year. But, with the sprawling, epic "Fin*" and the gorgeous, lighter-ready "Unwinding Cable Car" the group vastly widens its musical boundaries on CITIES.

"Anberlin has always had really good songs," says STEPHEN of the group's past output, which counts 2003's Blueprints For The Black Market and their 2005 breakthrough Never Take Friendship Personal. "Still, I think this is the first time we've got a really great album. We spent most of our energy on the entire project over the individual songs."

"Friendship was a really big album for us," admits MILLIGAN of the worldwide success that sold in excess of 140,000 copies. "But CITIES is such a shift from that. Because we were out on the road for so long behind our second record it actually gave me the time I needed to pace myself and bring in the strongest material I could."

Crafted at Sprinkle's Seattle-based Compound facility, with drums captured at the infamous London Bridge studio (where classic albums by Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Temple of the Dog and Blind Melon were realized), MILLIGAN says he's grateful for the opportunity to work where so many legendary discs were born. "It's out in this wooded area, like 40 miles north of Seattle," he says. "And there's this incredibly huge live room there. So we all got together in pre-production to play out the songs and the place had the best feel to it. You actually felt like you were a part of this historic place and it was the perfect vibe to get the record started."

And if you've yet to crack the cellophane on the third ANBERLIN record, we can tell you it feels downright gigantic. Proof lies in the hard charging "Godspeed," the gorgeous Beatle-esque "Inevitable" and the soaring, melodic "Hello Alone" where the shimmering riffs of MILLIGAN and STRAYER, the rhythmic achievements of REXROAT and YOUNG and the skilled vocals of CHRISTIAN prosper in tandem.

But what sets ANBERLIN circa CITIES apart from its peers is its willingness to take risks. For the somewhat unorthodox, ten-minute long "Fin," for instance, the band took its tip from The Rolling Stones circa Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed.

"We just all got in a room with a bunch of percussion instruments," CHRISTIAN says. "And everyone just started playing while JOEY played guitar and I just sang whatever came to mind. And that's how the song took shape. I was watching a DVD of the Stones and they had taken the same approach. So I really wanted to try it and I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out."

As for the tender "Cable Car," the song came together when a riff MILLIGAN had slated for an interlude was given life. "When the rest of us heard what Joey had written, we were like, 'There is no way that we are going to leave that as a simple interlude. It's an amazing guitar line. It has to be a song," STEPHEN says. "And while we didn't set out to write a ballad, we kind of wanted to integrate different approaches into our repertoire. To make them part of our song book"

Taking MILLIGAN's music and adding prose can be a complicated process--something CHRISTIAN equates to putting together a jigsaw puzzle. "As far as the lyrics go, I'm not one who can throw together a song very quickly," the singer says. "It usually has to come from an emotional experience, whether it's in my own life or the lives of those around me. I keep a journal on tour and the goal is try to formulate ideas that I can use to build a song. Sometimes they come, sometimes they don't."

Drawing lyrical inspiration from artists like Travis and The Smiths, STEPHEN says he is determined to make ANBERLIN devotees think. But the fact that they don't always connect to the deeper meaning in his songs can be frustrating. That notion gave birth to the lyric, "I'm so tired of writing songs, where people listen but never really hear what's going on," on the winning anthem "A Whisper and A Clamor."

"That line isn't an insult," he says. "It's more of a challenge to fans to study the words. I think a lot of times, it's kind of draining on me that people only have one kind of interpretation. I put a lot of thought into what I do. With our last album, I'd get emails from fans about the song "Symphony of Blasé" and people would say, 'I just broke up with my girlfriend and that song helped me through it.' And I'd be like, 'It wasn't a break up song at all. It was about alcoholism.' I mean, these songs aren't about the basic pop, 'Ooh girl. I love you.' They're much deeper than that."

Thankfully, the majority of ANBERLIN's faithful fans seem to get the message. When the group played to some 20,000 of them at a New Zealand gig recently, it was kind of startling. "That was so unexpected," says MILLIGAN. "From the backstage area we couldn't see the crowd. And we're getting ready, doing the set list. And then we walk out there and it took a few seconds to catch my breath."

"We walk onstage and hear the crowd roar," STEPHEN adds. "I got goosebumps. I don't drink or do drugs, but I can't imagine any high that would be better than that." Equally inspiring is the new disc's potential to exceed its predecessor from a success standpoint.

"We never said when we set out that we want to be the biggest band," CHRISTIAN says humbly. "I don't really care. I enjoy the experiences I've had and the travel. I do feel like we're ready to get to the next level. We're very confident about the work that we've done."

As for the band's mission as Christians, STEPHEN says matter-of-factly, "It's not like we have a huge platform. We're not Coldplay or U2, but I want to touch people's lives. I've got two routes to go. I can either go the sex, drugs, and rock & roll route--which is so temporal--or I can invest in people's lives. When I look back on my life, I want it to have meaning."

"I'd like to think we have more in us, and even broader spaces to cover in the future, but this is our proudest moment" MILLIGAN concludes. "I don't really have any goals for the record. I'd just like to have it find its way into the hands of as many people as possible. Not for glory but because we're so proud of it."

Getting back to the different dynamics that give CITIES its standout tack, CHRISTIAN says, "We wanted to allow the songs to breathe. That's the strength of this band, because we don't all listen to the same music. And we don't all think about things from the same perspective. It starts with JOEY's ability to move the guitar around a song. But with almost every one of our songs on this album you can feel the pieces of each person. And it all comes out as ANBERLIN."

Expect CITIES to light up the globe in 2007.

Beat Union 'Disconnected' 2007

2008-09-01T11:48:00.002-04:00

BEAT UNION

DISCONNECTED

(Science)

Dave Warsop (Vocals/guitar)

Luke Johnson (Drums)

Dean Ashton (Guitar)

Ade Preston (Bass)

What do you get when you fuse brilliant, inventive songwriting--bolstered by an amalgam of influences--from the Clash to vintage Elvis Costello--with the platinum production hand of Goldfinger’s John Feldmann (The Used, Good Charlotte, Story of the Year, The Matches)? If you’re the Birmingham, England-bred foursome BEAT UNION, the answer is DISCONNECTED (Science), a seamless yet diverse eleven-track debut that celebrates the past as it looks to the future with serious intent.

“We wanna be the biggest band in the world,” the men of BEAT UNION--who are already confirmed on the Hurley.com Stage for the entire 2008 Vans Warped Tour--have told the likes of U.K. publications Metal Hammer and Kerrang! And if the foursome-- consisting of childhood friends DAVE WARSOP (vocals/guitar), LUKE JOHNSON (drums), DEAN ASHTON (guitar) and ADE PRESTON (bass)--seem far more humble in person, they couldn’t make that proclamation without the necessary sonic wares.

“I believe the faster you rise, the faster you fall,” WARSOP says with a hint of modesty. “We’re just trying to build our audience.” But when it’s suggested that DISCONNECTED is quite an achievement for a new band, he simply replies, “We wanted to make a solid album--great songs with hooks and attitude.”

Launched with the explosive punch of the title track, where an infectious melody offsets lyrics of alienation, “Disconnected” is the first of many uplifting winners set into motion by BEAT UNION. And in an era where the face-to-face has been supplanted by Myspace, WARSOP’s lyrics capture his fear of being left behind with all that technology brings.

Elsewhere, the beat-driven angular guitar opus “Pressure Zone” nods its head to Gang of Four and Franz Ferdinand before embracing a Two/Tone-inspired horn break that takes the track into exhilarating heights, WARSOP explains, “We didn’t want a standard pop arrangement. We wanted to do something different.”

BEAT UNION has taken a unique path to the successful completion of its debut album, aligning with John Feldmann after a demo for the vibrant, punky, single-worthy “Can’t Stop The Radio” (which also appears on the disc in its riotous original approach and in a Sandinista!-esque dub form as a hidden track) caught the esteemed producer’s attention. “At the time we thought it was one of our best songs, so we sent it around to whoever we could think of. Then, one day we’re at rehearsal and it’s John. And he tells us that he loves the song and loves our sound and wants to hear more. It was fucking crazy.”

Crazier still, Feldmann flew BEAT UNION to L.A. at his own expense, financed the demos that led to a deal with Orange County’s burgeoning indie label Science--home to Blessthefall and Greeley Estates--and gave the band the support slot on some of Goldfinger’s West Coast dates. For these four English lads, who first cut their teeth playing in local Birmingham bands like Shooter McGavin, Shortcut To Newark and Farse, their collective efforts as BEAT UNION culminated in successful U.K. tours with Taking Back Sunday and Gym Class Heroes.

The band also pulled down a surprise feat in the summer of 2007, when the irresistibly charged “She is the Gun” fired up to #5 on the BBC Radio 1 rock chart, giving DAVE, DEAN, LUKE and ADE their first real taste of airplay. “I think it’s cool that kids are picking up on our music and digging it and maybe thinking, ‘Who the hell are the Clash? Who are the Police and the Jam and Joe Jackson and Squeeze and Elvis Costello?’” WARSOP says. “That idea, to me, is incredible.”

As for WARSOP’s devotion to Mr. Costello, the songwriter/frontman explains, “His music changed my life and made such a huge impact on my songs and songwriting. From him I learned that the songs have got to stand out and there has to be attitude and character. You’ve got to hear the singer and know who it is right away.”

With DAVE’s distinct voice and quirky delivery leading the charge for BEAT UNION’s hybrid of the aforementioned, DISCONNECTED links the splendid, keyboard-inflected mirror moves of “Heart Starts Beating” to the Police-influenced almost-ballad “All On My Own.” “At first we thought about leaving that off the album,” WARSOP says of the latter. “And we thought maybe we should keep it uptempo like the classic punk records or like Nevermind or Dookie. But then we just thought, ‘Fuck it. We cannot deny a good song.’”

And above all else, that philosophy holds the key to the surprise-laden, unflinchingly strong material that upholds DISCONNECTED. Sustaining a listener’s interest for an album’s full duration is a rare feat, but its one that Beat Union pulls off by following Feldmann’s lead and wearing its influences proudly on its sleeve. Hence “Johnny Loves Jojo,” which lyrically recalls Squeeze’s beloved “Up The Junction” but musically comes much closer to the likes of Strummer/Jones.

As the group looks forward to the worldwide release of DISCONNECTED, the quartet from the outskirts of Birmingham contemplates a summer spent touring the United States, bringing its exhilarating songs to the Hurley.com Stage on every date of the aforementioned Warped Tour. “It’s exciting but it’s a little hard to comprehend,” the BEAT UNION frontman says. “Being from the U.K., every day we’re in the States, we’re like ‘Holy shit.’ How did we get here?”

“I guess the bottom line is our songs,” WARSOP concludes after pondering the question for a moment. Then he comes back, confident and driven. “I want our songs to stand the test of time.”

DISCONNECTED. Great songs with hooks and attitude, indeed!

Chiodos Bone Palace Ballet 2007

2008-09-01T11:46:00.003-04:00

CHIODOS
Bone Palace Ballet
(Equal Vision Records)

Craig Owens – Vocals
Matt Goddard – Bass
Brad Bell – Keyboards/Vocals
Derrick Frost – Drums
Jason Hale – Guitars
Pat McManaman - Guitars

From the cover of Alternative Press to a supporting slot on Linkin Park’s 2008 North American arena tour, CHIODOS has knocked the music world on its collective ear with the arrival of BONE PALACE BALLET (Equal Vision Records). With a stunning #5 Billboard debut last September, the sophomore disc by the cutting edge Michigan sextet affirms what loyal devotees of the group have known all along: CHIODOS is inexorable.

Touted by the aforementioned Alternative Press as both “an arresting piece of post-modern musical art” and “a frighteningly mighty album of exhilarating musicianship and inspired lyrical introspection that plays out like an evening at some glorious experimental-hardcore cabaret,” CHIODOS’ dramatic charms are on full display with the lush, keenly orchestrated BONE PALACE BALLET.

Be it the goth-tinged wallop of first single and video “Lexington (Joey Pea-Pot with a Monkey Face)” or the roaring “Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered,” the sextet--consisting of vocalist CRAIG OWENS, bassist MATT GODDARD, keyboardist/vocalist BRAD BELL, drummer DERRICK FROST and guitarists JASON HALE and PAT McMANAMAN--makes brilliant post-hardcore music that sounds innovative and feels the pain of everyone.

But that’s not to say the follow up to 2005’s fan-cherished 200,000-selling All’s Well That Ends Well came effortlessly. “We were feeling pressure,” keyboardist BRAD BELL explains. “We went into the studio with tons of song ideas, but some of the songs we had weren’t entirely completed. And that was a challenge and it was a little bit intimidating.”

“There was one point where we didn’t keep one of the deadlines we had been given, and a lot of ‘What ifs’ started to bubble up,” GODDARD concedes. “I think every band, no matter who they are, is afraid of that second record. It can make or break you. So we couldn’t help but feel nervous.”

But staying true to their vision and counting on the guidance of producer Casey Bates (Gatsby’s American Dream, Portugal The Man) paid off. Tracks like the crushing, oft-maniacal “Teeth The Size Of Piano Keys” and the melodic, single-worthy “A Letter From Janelle” not only took shape, but also brought the band into a new realm. “Casey helped us sift through the ideas and make the songs the absolute best they could be,” Bell asserts. “We couldn’t be happier with what we’ve done. I think it’s a record we can definitely be proud of and build from.”

Anchored by virtuosic lead singer CRAIG OWENS, the CHIODOS frontman possesses a wide vocal range that’s evidenced by his performance on the invigorating, cabaret-laced “Is It Progression if a Cannibal Uses a Fork?” OWENS’ onstage persona is as stellar as it is unsettling, bolstered by the wordsmith’s deeply poetic lyrics (BONE PALACE BALLET takes its name from a collection of Chuck Bukowski poems) and the singer’s ability to careen from a pitch-perfect melody to a blood-gurgling rant (see “If I Cut My Hair, Hawaii Will Sink”).

And perhaps it’s that widely eclectic formula and agility in switching sonic gears that allows CHIODOS to maintain an audience as diverse as the music they make. The group’s incendiary live shows at varied venues and events--from the world famous Vans Warped and Taste of Chaos Tours to the Bamboozle Festival --have reaped them an ever-bulging fan base drawn to their distinct fusion of emo, classic rock, hardcore, and progressive metal.

“I think our fans get something from our music that they can’t find in other bands,” BRAD says of CHIODOS’ loyal following. “We’re a little different from what people are used to.” To which MATT adds, “We are very blessed. The dedication that our fans, or the Chiodos Army as we call them, have toward us is phenomenal. It’s exciting to see them get so stoked about something that we’ve created.”

Whether it’s OWENS taking his nightly walk across the top of the crowd--as he did on the band’s Fall ’07 sold-out headlining trek--or guitarist PAT McMANAMAN diving from the balconies of assorted venues, the fear that a member of the band might fall and break a limb has been alleviated by the complete and utter trust CHIODOS has in its fans. After all, the rock & roll acrobatics are all part of the group’s ultimate goal: to give CHIODOS fans a performance that will stay with them. “We’re giving our fans an experience, a memory,” BRAD explains. “So if Craig goes walking out on top of the crowd, or if one of us climbs up onto something, it’s kind of thrilling. It gives people something to talk about and remember.”

Armed with a video for “Lexington,” lensed by director Josh Graham (Saves The Day’s “The End”, Underoath’s “It’s A Dangerous Business…”), the men in CHIODOS are celebrating each milestone brought forth by the David Bendeth (Hawthorne Heights, Paramore, Breaking Benjamin)-mixed BONE PALACE BALLET. So what was going through their heads when they dropped in at #5 on the Top 200? “We never could have expected that kind of thing. We were all shocked and excited by the news,” BRAD says.

“You know, we’re living proof that bands can promote themselves and get themselves out there without the help of a major label,” GODDARD continues. “Word of mouth and the internet were both big things for us. We toured our asses off for several years and word got around about us. And we wound up having Equal Vision’s highest charting record ever.”

With their eyes on the Linkin Park trek and the rest of the world in 2008, CHIODOS’ founding keyboardist considers the support slot “a great opportunity for us to have our music heard by 10,000 potential new fans each night.” Adds MATT, “We’re Chiodos. Here we are. Get Ready.’ That’s our attitude.”

As CHIODOS steps into the spotlight, one might assume they’re a little apprehensive. They’re anything but. “We’re psyched,” BRAD acknowledges. “We’ve always sort of had the dream of being a big band. I don’t know if it will happen for us, but I’d be lying to say I haven’t thought about it.”

###

Darling Stillettos 2008

2008-09-01T11:44:00.002-04:00

Darling Stilettos
Ace
Gina
Jersey
Lindsey
Megan

Rebellion, swagger and talent have always brought forth the best rock & roll, from Guns N’ Roses and The Clash to The Ramones and The Rolling Stones. But if edgy, defiant sounds have been perfected, the strong dose of sexuality that Darling Stilettos bring to the stage adds an essential and long-overdue element. A trailblazing rock & roll dance troupe, the Stilettos have been wowing L.A. audiences of late with their attention-grabbing, attitudinal moves. Set to enduring tunes by punk and hard rock gods, the group’s scorching live spectacle needs to be seen to be believed.

“It’s amazing eye candy,” says Ace Harper, Darling Stilettos’ principal choreographer and rock diva, about their live set. “Each girl draws you in with her allure and powerful moves. We have such a great chemistry onstage; our energy just bounces off one another. We’re a true gang and it’s so rewarding to give to the audience and to do what you love to do.”

In addition to Ace–a former dancer for the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Motley Crue and Velvet Revolver–Darling Stilettos are rounded out by four like-minded, revved up rocker chicks named Gina, Jersey, Lindsey and Megan. Guided by Velvet Revolver’s Matt Sorum, and clad in original outfits made by Corey Parks of Nashville Pussy, this is a youthful, punk rock dance quintet that is responsible for blowing away attendees at recent Hollywood gigs with the likes of Camp Freddy and Metal Skool.

“I think of it as West Side Story meets Sex Pistols,” says Sorum, of the Stilettos’ rock & roll dance moves. “Here they are: girls in their early twenties who grew up with their Mom & Dad’s records: Clash, Ramones, Generation X. All the cool shit. And they’re taking the stage and doing rock & roll steps. It’s not pop. It’s edgy, it’s punky, it’s gang-like.”

Born in the early 1980s, these Dionysian debutantes of rock & roll first got their hands on their parents’ record collections and never looked back. Using Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock & Roll” as a call to arms, the respective members of DS discovered Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, AC/DC and countless others. Finding inspiration from the fashion, spirit and freewheeling savoir faire of Bridget Bardot, among others, the rebellious spirits of Darling Stilettos’ respective members took flight.

“I would always sneak out to parties,” says Ace, a product of small town Oklahoma. “I just wanted to be where the action was.” A wild child, she began spending summers in L.A. from the age of 15, assisting top choreographers. “While my friends were cheerleaders, I was choreographing the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders,” Ace marvels.

Empowered by her attributes at a young age, Harper explains, “I’ve always been very in tune with my body. Dancing is very sensual. It comes from that part inside you. If I have to put on some high heels and a mini skirt to bring some attention back rock & roll, I’ll be the first one to do it!”

It’s a notion that drives Darling Stilettos’ upcoming, Sorum-produced version of “Girl’s Got Rhythm.” Charged by their tough chick exterior, Ace says seriously, “You don’t want to mess with us or we’ll kick your ass.”

Or as the Hell-raised (that’s Hell, Michigan) vixen Gina explains, “We’re hard and powerful. We’re hot rock bitches tearin’ it up.” But she’s also quick to assert that the group’s members are thoroughly trained artists who’ve been dancers all their lives. “We’re not just random celebrities trying to drop an album and tour. This is what we do, and we do it very well.”

Assured and sultry, headstrong and hardcore, Ace proudly announces, “These are the most talented girls in Los Angeles.” To which Jersey–a self-professed ‘bad girl’ and ‘Italian Mamma’ from the Garden State--explains, “When we step on the stage, we rock it out. We get to really embrace our gift of being hot sexy women in stilettos, flipping our hair, laughing, singing and looking and feeling great. What girl wouldn’t want that?”

And considering her troubled past (Jersey was kicked out of public school for fighting) the Stilettos’ credo makes perfect sense: “You have to be confident and take no shit from anyone, but still be a darling.” Or as Megan, a South Korean-born, Greeley, Colorado-raised hottie with long sleek legs adds, “We’re raw, aggressive and ready to kick ass. We’re not afraid to be the girls you love to hate.”

“There’s something really sexy to me about women in rock & roll,” Megan continues. “And dancing for people is so satisfying. It leaves me and the audience always wanting more. Maybe it’s being able to connect with them and seeing their reaction, but when I’m done I have this unexplainable rush through me. It makes me want to do it again.”

As for the rock & roll that drives Darling Stilettos performances, Lindsey, the little bad-ass from Northern California, explains the basis for their musical selections. “We get down on anything that makes us want to sing or scream,” she says. “Something with a good beat or guitar solo that makes you wanna shake your head and pound on your steering wheel when you drive.”

“Our vibe is rock, rock and more rock,” Lindsey concludes, explaining their unique presence in today’s musical climate. “We’re tough and sassy. We don’t let people ‘loosen up our buttons.’ We take people ‘to Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.’”

With an ability to turn heads, even girls’ heads, Darling Stilettos balance their “drive to fucking rock with a charisma that draws people in,” Gina says. “You may have expected some hot girls prancing around, but we really raise the temperature in the room. We are so alive and in your face.”

Or, as the world famous drummer turned DS manager says with a succinct chuckle, “It’s hot.”

Dropkick Murphys The Meanest of Times Bio 2007

2008-09-01T11:42:00.002-04:00

The Meanest of Times

(Born & Bred Records)

Al Barr: vocals

Tim Brennan: Mandolin, accordion, banjo, bouzouki, tin whistle, and acoustic guitar

Ken Casey: Vocals and bass guitar

Matt Kelly: Drums and backing vocals

James Lynch: Guitar and backing vocals

Jeff DaRosa: Guitar, accordion, piano and backing vocals

Scruffy Wallace: Bagpipes

From meager beginnings playing all-ages matinees at now-defunct Boston clubs to a prominent placement in Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-winning film “The Departed,” the Dropkick Murphys have evolved over the past decade into one of the most beloved punk-inspired bands in the world. Now, with “The Meanest Of Times”, their sixth studio album of spirited, cathartic and heartfelt anthems, the oft-cherished seven-piece outfit has also launched its own record label, Born & Bred Records, as a means to bring new DKM music to the world while assuming full control of their destiny.

As evidenced by the explosive, uncompromising and downright brilliant album-opener, “Famous For Nothing” and the set bowing, optimistic roar of “Never Forget”, “The Meanest Of Times” is book-ended in top form and captures among its fifteen tracks what founding bassist Ken Casey calls “themes of childhood, growing up and family.”

“Growing up, I saw my share of hard times,” Casey says. “I think a lot of us did. But looking back on it, I wouldn’t trade them for anything, because those hard times made us all who we are today.”

“To me the record is a celebration of life,” frontman Al Barr adds. “It’s about redemption. It’s about coming up in the world and the way it shapes you. It’s about not taking your family and friends for granted and it’s about living in the moment. The cover is a bunch of Catholic School kids messing around and looking angry on the playground. And if you think back to your elementary and high school years, in a lot of ways, they sometimes really were the meanest of times.”

From the school bell ringing as the kids exit for recess to the manic pace of guitars, bass and drums, Casey calls “Famous For Nothing” a rowdy, teen-spirited sort of anthem. He says, “Whereas, ‘Never Forget,’ at least for me and Al, now that we’re parents it kind of has a different perspective. One end of it is the kid looking ahead and the other end is the adult looking back.”

At the heart of The Meanest Of Times lies “The State of Massachusetts” a song that plays to the strengths of the Dropkick Murphys that was chosen as a digital single in advance of the disc. The song with its instantly memorable driving banjo riff courtesy of Tim Brennan is sure to be an immediate hit with the diehard Murphys fans as well as the legion of new fans that have come on board in the wake of “The Departed.”

“Of the new material, it’s the song we’ve been playing live the longest and it’s a song that has gotten a tremendous live reaction.” To which Al asserts, “I think we all like the fact that it crosses the spectrum between Irish folk music and rock & roll. It’s really indicative of what the band is all about.”

Meanwhile, "Flannigan's Ball" is a stirring opus which features Irish folk legend Ronnie Drew from The Dubliners and Spider Stacy from iconic Celtic folk punks The Pogues. “It was wild,” says Ken of the thrill of capturing three generations of modern Irish Folk music for the track. “You know, Irish music is a family thing. I can imagine a father, son and grandfather all sitting down to listen to that song, each with their own generations represented.”

“Spider is a good friend and it was pretty easy to get him to come down for the recording” Ken continues. “Not that we’re any less honored to have him on the track, but to have Ronnie as well was amazing. When we were singing the chorus together, it was amazing to look to the right and see Spider and to the left to see Ronnie in the room. I just think it’s a tremendous achievement. I would venture to say that Ronnie probably never sang on a song with screaming electric guitars. But I tell you he sounds great with them. He might want to start a punk band!”

“Ronnie is a folk legend,” Al insists. “We’re just so humbled to have him on the record. I remember when we were leaving the studio in Dublin and we’re walking out with Ronnie, and people were spotting him on the street and going ‘Heya Ronnie!’ He’s just an amazing person and a legend.”

It wouldn’t be the first time the band has been associated with legends. The band performed at the Sex Pistols’ infamous 2002 Golden Jubilee gig, wrote the theme song to the highly improbable 2004 Red Sox World Series Championship, their first in 86 years, and collaborated with Woody Guthrie’s estate to utilize the folk pioneer’s unpublished lyrics to craft “Gonna Be A Blackout.” Oh yeah, and there was that critical use of “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” from “The Warrior’s Code” in the aforementioned Scorsese movie “The Departed.”

“To be in an Academy Award winning film is mind blowing,” Al says, still with a sense of disbelief. “As far as expanding our fan base, we got a lot of great, positive feedback on the song. And from that use in the film our last record was given an unexpected new life. It was an explosion.”

“We’re at a point with the band where we’ve earned the right to try go it alone,” Casey says of the band’s decision to release their music on the band’s own label. “We’ve always sort of been in control of our own destiny, and we’ve got a built-in fan base, so it only makes sense for us to call the shots. In this business I think it’s a pretty enviable position to be in. You don’t have to hand your record in to some A&R guy and wonder if he’s going to tell you if it sucks or not, or fire a band member or get a new producer if the label tells you to. Warners have been great and from our experiences working with them via “The Departed” we knew it was a good place to release our records, so when they approached us and were so open to the kind of deal we wanted, we knew we just had to go for it.”

“It’s something that we had always talked about,” Al continues. “We learned quite a bit from Hellcat/Epitaph, but I think that because of the way that the business has changed the timing is as right as it ever will be for us and in a lot of ways it’s a dream come true.”

With their label debut, the Dropkick Murphy’s have turned out what is arguably their best album to date, a notion upheld by the scorching two-minute working class anthem “Tomorrow’s Industry,” the whiskey, war, suicide, and guns chant-along of “Vices & Virtues” and the disc’s socio-political hardcore bruiser “Shattered.”

“In this day and age, I think it’s natural for bands to write songs based on topical, political and social issues,” Ken explains. “But as we started to take a look at all the songs, we had eleven that dealt with family. And by that I mean our direct families, people in the neighborhood, fans and friends. For whatever reason the songs just gravitated in that direction. Each song tells a story about people in our lives or parts of our backgrounds.”

“We were kind of going through the grief process when we were writing the last record, because we lost our good friend and unofficial mascot Greg ‘Chickenman’ Riley who died suddenly in a motorcycle accident in 2004. This time we sort of took a step back and were writing from a broader perspective. That whole experience took a bit to get through, but I think we have come out the other side with a greater respect for the people in our lives. It reminded us never to take your family and friends for granted.”

With the presence of “Surrender,” a perseverant, optimistic anthem, “Fairmount Hill,” a Boston take on the traditional Irish ballad, “Spancil Hill” that would do Spider’s Pogues proud and the uplifting tribute to their wives and families known as “Echoes on A. Street,” The Meanest Of Times asserts that the Dropkick Murphys know home is where the heart is and are proud to pay tribute to the people who have touched their lives.

And the fans pay them back tenfold with their exuberance and loyalty. A Dropkick Murphys live show is easily one of the most exciting and invigorating around these days as particularly evident if you have ever been to one of their sold-out months in advance Boston St. Patrick’s Day shows.

Says Ken, “I think it’s almost like we’re going to a show every night ourselves, because the audience is entertaining us, just as much as we’re performing for them. Our fans are so unpredictable. You never know when some drunk is gonna take his clothes off and rub up against you. Not that I want to encourage that type of thing!”

“When you get up onstage for two hours of your day, it reminds you why you do it,” Al interjects. “It’s the audience and the fervor that you feel. A lot times I don’t embrace it until I hit the stage, but then I come alive and the reason why I do this, why I love this so much, is nailed into my forehead.”

With the kind of success they’ve developed, the Murphys have, rather miraculously, held onto the bulk of their original fans. “To some degree, whenever your success increases, you lose some of that original fanbase,” Ken explains. “But as far as the law of percentages go, we’ve been very lucky. I think a lot of it goes back to that generational thing. It’s the kind of music that an older brother wants to get a younger brother into and it’s the kind of music that a father wants to get his son into. I also think it’s because we’re very close with our fans. We actually have conversations with our fans, like, ‘Hey, I saw you were in ‘The Departed;’ I was so proud of you guys.’ Our fans feel a part of it. And they are a part of it. And its wonderful, because I think for most of them, they’re in it for the long haul.”

That loyalty is perhaps best personified by the unaltered mural dedicated to the band that fans painted on a building in South Boston. “I don’t know if it’s a respect thing, but there’s new graffiti on the building where our mural is located, but the local taggers stopped just short of the painting, leaving it untouched,” Al says of the piece (which was used as the artwork for 2001’s Sing Loud, Sing Proud).

When asked if he ever thought he’d see the band he founded eleven years ago become the heralded band that created The Meanest Of Times, Ken Casey responds with an unequivocal “Yes.”

“For me, I think back to when we were playing punk rock matinees for kids with Mohawks at the Rat more than a decade ago. I envisioned that it would become this, because I thought the topics and music could appeal to a much broader audience if given the chance. And that’s the beauty of it. We’ve gone on to become something different to a wide group of people, but the music gets to stay the same. Most bands have to change to get to where we are. So the best part is we get to have our cake and eat it too.”

From the Quincy Barbershop to Fenway Park the year the Red Sox won the World Series, to six sold out shows in a club they used to be barred from, to a song in an Academy Award winning Martin Scorsese film, the goal has always remained the same. Says Casey: “We always wanted to be that band that didn’t forget where we came from and we keep it in the forefront of our minds that we’re all in it together, audience and band members, as one. That’s the M.O. of a lot of punk bands, but I think sometimes it gets lost when a band has any kind of success. We never want to let it go to our heads. We know how lucky we are to be doing this. I don’t care if we’re playing to 10 people or 10,000 people, those kids that are up front singing our songs are the reason we’re doing this.”

Discography

Do Or Die 1997 (Hellcat/Epitaph)

The Gang’s All Here 1999 (Hellcat/Epitaph)

Singles Collection 2000 (Hellcat/Epitaph)

Sing Loud Sing Proud 2001 (Hellcat/Epitaph)

Live on St. Patrick’s Day From Boston, MA 2002 (Hellcat/Epitaph)

Blackout 2003 (Hellcat/Epitaph)

On The Road With the Dropkick Murphys DVD 2004 (Hellcat/Epitaph)

Singles Collection: Volume II 2005 (Hellcat/Epitaph)

The Warrior’s Code 2005 (Hellcat/Epitaph)

The Meanest Of Times 2007 (Born & Bred/Warner Music/ILG)

Junkie XL Bio 2008

2008-09-01T11:39:00.001-04:00

Take one part classical musician, one part producer, add one part programmer and throw in one part performer. Mix it all together, remix it again and you have Tom Holkenborg aka Junkie XL.

Born in The Netherlands, Tom discovered music by learning and playing most instruments, including guitar, bass, piano and drums. Although he was classically trained by his mother (herself an accredited violin teacher), it wasn’t long until he discovered synths and joined the Dutch New Wave group Weekend at Waikiki as a multi-instrumentalist and producer. He then expanded his horizon further to form the industrial rock band Nerve with vocalist Phil Mills, and released 2 full-length albums in 1994 and 1995.

During this period, Tom built his music repertoire by freelance producing and quickly landed projects for bands such as Sepultra, Fear Factory and Dog Eat Dog, as well as for video games, movies and TV spots.

But Tom’s nature as a musician was calling, and in 1997 he released his first album as Junkie XL, entitled Saturday Teenage Kick. A fusion of breakbeat and rock, Junkie XL joined The Prodigy on tour and with hits such as "Billy Club" featuring Rude Boy, he quickly began building an underground following and loyal fanbase in the US and Europe.

Tom then followed up with his second Junkie XL album. Big Sounds of the Drags added a new electronic and psychedelic bent to his music, with his huge club track "Future in Computer Hell (part 2)" leading the way for the new genre of progressive dance music.

This direction added throbbing baselines and pulsing beats to an already unique sound, and further confirmed his underground status with industry peers like British DJ/artist Sasha. More fans followed from the nightclubs, elevating Junkie XL to the status of superstar DJ/producer, thrilling everyone with his live sets.

But it was Tom’s next production that brought Junkie XL onto mainstream radio and televisions around the world.

Tom was asked to remix Elvis’ "A Little Less Conversation," the first time anyone had been granted permission to remix any Elvis song. Originally introduced as the music for a Nike World Cup ad, the remix was so powerful and popular that it was released as a standalone single – Elvis vs. JXL.

The track hit number one in 24 countries, and Tom had officially crossed over, seeping into the general public’s consciousness.

Not one to rest on his laurels, all of Tom’s accomplishments paled next to his new ambitious goal – create a multimedia concept album based on a pirate radio station. His vision was to integrate the CD release with live shows, new videos and a feature-rich web site.

The pirate radio station required Tom to invite guest vocalists to sing and co-write on top of all-new tracks. Junkie XL’s reputation and respect in the industry was never more obvious than when Tom’s own musical heroes agreed to collaborate.

Chuck D (Public Enemy), Gary Numan, Terry Hall (Specials), Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode), Robert Smith (The Cure), Solomon Burke, Saffron (Republica), Anouk, Infusion, Peter Tosh. All legends in their own right, and all part of the powerful 2002 RadioJXL release.

On June 2, 2003, RadioJXL – A Broadcast From The Computer Hell Cabin was released in stores across Europe and Japan the same time that RadioJXL.com launched with a streaming radio station, chat forums and an exclusive MP3 double album. The 7AM/7PM downloadable CDs were the perfect sister companion to the 3AM/3PM retail CDs. Both PM CDs are loungy and expressive like afternoon radio, while the AM CDs are more reminiscent of an early morning club vibe, with heavy beats and progressive rhythms.

Tom followed the album release with an exhausting RadioJXL tour schedule that covered five continents, and included the massive Pinkpop show in the Netherlands. On June 9 2003, Junkie XL’s 75-minute set included guest performances by Saffron and Solomon Burke. Backdropped by a huge screen broadcasting all-new Junkie XL videos, Junkie XL had over 60,000 fans dancing in unison.

By the end of 2003, it was time to take a short break from his studio. After living in Europe for all his life, Tom was looking forward to a different perspective and warmer weather. Next stop – California.

Tom moved to Los Angeles in 2004 and furthered his talents, scoring and composing for high profile film soundtracks, videogames and commercials. He also kept remixing and producing for A-list artists like Sarah McLachlan, Britney Spears and Depeche Mode.

As the future beckons, Tom is now working on his next album due out Fall 2005. He just completed the soundtrack to Forza, the highly anticipated Xbox racing game due out in May with James A. Rota (Fireball Ministry) and Logan Mader (formerly of Machinehead and Soulfly) as guest guitarists on his homage to dark rock. Tom will also make his first time appearance at Coachella on May 1.

This is, after all, Junkie XL – a fusion of artist, composer, producer, technician, performer. Defying categorization and comparison. One thing is for sure – this master alchemist is bound to impress.

Sorum Noce 2008

2008-09-01T11:38:00.002-04:00

SORUM NOCE

Since the suit and tie era of The Kinks and The Rolling Stones early years, rock and roll and fashion have walked arm and arm. From trendsetters like David Bowie and Bryan Ferry to leather clad icons The Ramones and Aerosmith through to today’s stars, attitude and imagination have always helped define and refine modern style.

With SORUM NOCE, legendary Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum and veteran fashion designer Max Noce have aligned to create an elegant, innovative line of rock-inspired couture. The culmination of a 10-year friendship that began when Noce started crafting clothes for the one-time Guns N’ Roses kitman, it flourished in 2005 when Max – who already had tenures at Valentino, Ungaro, Karl Lagerfeld and Dolce & Gabbana – and Matt decided to become business partners.

“I’ve had the good fortune of being successful in the music business, which is a difficult business. So I went into it with an understanding that it might be a challenge,” acknowledges Sorum. “But John Varvatos, who has become a really good friend of mine, gave me the courage to think that it could be done.”

For Max, drawing from his array of experience as a fashion merchandising manager-turned-designer has helped build the Sorum Noce line into something substantial and distinct. With an L.A. boutique unveiling set for Spring 2008 with a goal to have the designs in high end stores like Barneys New York by Fall, the Milan native asserts, “We’re bringing old world values and sophistication back to fashion.”

“I like things elegant, English tailored, black and small,” Max says, acknowledging Depeche Mode as an influence. “There is nothing oversized or flashy in our line. I really enjoy working with high end cuts of fabric and I pride myself on delivering a quality product, couture with an edge.”

Meanwhile, Sorum admits to drawing influence from the aforementioned Thin White Duke. “I’ve always been interested in the idea of rock & roll and fashion,” he says. “I’m really into suits. I was always really inspired by the actor Tony Curtis. He always looked impeccable. He was a master of style.”

But that’s not to say Sorum isn’t equally driven by his need to please the rock world. Not only do his Velvet Revolver bandmates support the initiative, they can be seen modeling designs on Sorum Noce’s official website. “Duff [McKagan] and Slash have been a huge source of support.” Matt says. “Everyone’s been really excited by what we’ve done and can’t wait until the boutique opens.”

“In fact,” he continues, “I designed a leather jacket especially for Slash that has this special pocket for his Gitanes cigarettes and his lighter. And he loves it. And we’re going to make that available to buy.”
If one wonders how Sorum balances the launch of a clothing company and its respective flagship shop with recording and touring responsibilities, he concedes to being “a little bit of a workaholic.”

“I love keeping busy, because I find that when I’m off tour and I’m home in L.A., if I don’t have anything to do, there’s usually trouble waiting to happen. So I have to keep occupied with something. There is a reason I’ve redone three houses.”

That admission puts an end to any speculation that Sorum might just be involved financially in the fashion venture, which the world famous drummer simply but firmly describes as “rock & roll couture.”

“People might think that Matt is just my business partner, but he has a say in almost everything creatively,” Max explains. “As long as I have known him, he has a tremendous eye for style. If he didn’t, Sorum Noce wouldn’t or couldn’t exist. He and I are extremely proud of what we’ve come up with and we can’t wait for the world to see what we’ve done.”

Sorum Noce opens to the world in Spring 2008.

www.sorumnoce.com

Norma Jean 2008 Bio

2008-09-01T11:35:00.001-04:00

NORMA JEAN
‘THE ANTI MOTHER’
(Solid State)
CORY BRANDAN (Lead Vocals/Guitars)
SCOTTIE HENRY (Guitars)
JAKE SCHULTZ (Bass)
CHRIS DAY (Guitars)
CHRIS RAINES (Drums)

Brace yourselves.

THE ANTI MOTHER has arrived--and NORMA JEAN wrestle her to the ground, with the most furious, and yet melodic, music of their career.

For their fourth studio album, Atlanta-based post-hardcore heroes NORMA JEAN deliver a heavy and potent song cycle that looks at life squarely in the eye, from the opening track “Vipers, Snakes and Actors” to the closing “And There Will Be A Swarm Of Hornets.” Explains lead singer CORY BRANDAN about the inspiration for the album title and theme, “The Anti Mother is a character we created which represents anything that is deceptive, and yet possesses an outwardly beautiful nature.”

The crushing, sonically adventurous 10 songs that comprise THE ANTI MOTHER easily mark an artistic and creative high point for NORMA JEAN. "The Jean absolutely live life’s purpose, giving away the pure essence of real love and it’s not pretty at all,” says producer Ross Robinson with whom the band re-teamed after he first manned the boards on the quintet’s strongly received Redeemer (2006). “Being fearless, THE ANTI MOTHER steps musically beyond the line of greatness--it’s the soundtrack of surviving any situation and becoming who you were born to be; if you don't know, listen and find out..."

Before THE ANTI MOTHER hit the streets, the percussive-rich track “Robots 3 Humans 0,” seized the prompt attention of NORMA JEAN’s loyal following when it was posted on the group’s MySpace page. And if the sound of CORY BRANDAN (lead vocals, guitars) stepping away from his trademark growl and embracing melody on the track raised more than a few eyebrows, the band--also consisting of SCOTTIE HENRY (guitars), JAKE SCHULTZ (bass), CHRIS DAY (guitars) and CHRIS RAINES (drums)--says it plans to continue evolving creatively.

“We don’t like to set any norms for Norma Jean,” SCOTTIE says. “People call us metalcore or post-hardcore, but we just write what comes. Being open to trying new things and having Cory actually singing has sent this record in a different direction. We aren’t trapped in any kind of sound or scene. It’s healthy for us to expand and grow.” Or as CORY explains, “I love melodic, catchy songs, plain and simple. The Smashing Pumpkins are one of my favorite bands ever. And all they did was write love songs, even if they were heavy. We wanted to write a heavy record-- and ‘Robots’ is heavy, but still melodic and we’re stoked on that.”

Fortified by separate collaborations with Page Hamilton of Helmet (who befriended the band after an ’06 L.A. gig) and Deftones’ frontman Chino Moreno (who NORMA JEAN also came to know after exchanging boxes of T-shirts and other gear on the road), THE ANTI MOTHER is unlike any other heavy music album of 2008. And as for Hamilton’s appearance on the blistering “Opposite of Left and Wrong” SCOTTIE says, “Growing up listening to Helmet, we were inspired to play music. It’s pretty much musically why a lot of us are even doing this. We wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a guest vocal thing, that it was us actually writing with him. We had a couple of riffs and he had a couple of chords he put together and it became the chorus. It was really smooth. It was awesome.”

Meanwhile, Moreno’s appearance on the incendiary “Surrender Your Sons” was equally fruitful. “Deftones are just another band that we grew up loving,” CORY explains. “That song was written in a very spontaneous way and came out so unique. Later, Cove Reber from Saosin came in and also did some vocals on the song as well.”

While the band’s willingness to pool resources with hard music legends is as courageous as it is unique, another creative element of NORMA JEAN that sets them apart is the fact the entire band is involved in the lyrical process. “We write lyrics together,” CORY says proudly. “I know it’s unusual, but we all want to know what every song is about. I can’t tell you how many bands there are where you ask the guitarist what the lyrics mean, and they’re like, ‘I don’t know… Some girl?’”

Whether it’s the aggressive, hardcore tack of “Self-Employed Chemist,” the expansive and experimental “Discipline Your Daughters” or the intense guitar opus “And There Will Be A Swarm of Hornets”--replete with a breathtaking outro--NORMA JEAN crafts and delivers its music with conviction. And it willingly acknowledges Robinson’s contribution to THE ANTI MOTHER’s successful outcome.

Three weeks of pre-production at the producer’s Venice Beach compound helped the band bring its A-game to the recording studio. “Being familiar with [Ross] going into it made it that much easier to get down to work,” SCOTTIE explains. “The way he is as a producer, he’s always digging deep inside of us for a fire. It’s about finding something that makes the song come alive. We’re more interested in the song having feeling as opposed to having a perfect studio product.”

“I wanted it to be the best thing I’ve ever done, and from At the Drive-In to Korn, Ross is about getting the best vocal performances,” CORY says. “He finds a button and keeps pushing it. He gets under your skin, but he does it for a reason. He’s doing whatever he can to get the best out of you. His whole thing is sing it like you mean it. You have to mean it. It’s about the song. And it’s something that carries over to the stage.”

From “Vipers Snakes And Actors” to “Murphy Was An Optimist” to “Death Of The Anti Mother” that ferocity comes alive. “It’s a release,” SCOTTIE says of the band’s cathartic roar. “This record is a lot more personal. Even lyrically, we kind of went for it writing metaphorically.”

A fusion of NORMA JEAN's most tuneful and aggressive material yet, CORY concludes, “We've never been this excited about anything we’ve done. THE ANTI MOTHER is exactly the record we’ve always wanted to make.”

And if it’s up to BRANDAN, his hope is that listeners will get something out of the THE ANTI MOTHER that’s unique and personal to them. “I want them to make our music their own,” the singer says. “That’s how I’ve always gone about it. That dates back to when I was a kid in my bedroom listening to Helmet or Fugazi or Deftones. I want to lend that kind of experience to people who hear our band.”

Uh Huh Her Artist Bio 2008 Common Reaction

2008-09-01T11:31:00.002-04:00

UH HUH HER
COMMON REACTION
(Nettwerk Records)

Camila Grey--Lead Vocal/Keys/Synth/Guitars/Bass/Programmed Drums
Leisha Hailey--Vocals/Synth

There’s something irresistibly magical about COMMON REACTION, the debut album from electro-pop duo UH HUH HER. Simply put, the L.A.-based musical pair consisting of singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Camila Grey and musician/actress Leisha Hailey and have crafted an exciting and seamless modern rock disc. Perfected with the able hands of producer Al Clay (Pixies, Blur, Pink), the eleven song offering captivates the listener from the opening notes of its pulsing debut single ‘Not A Love Song’ and effortlessly charms its way through to the evocative piano-touched finale, ‘Dreamer’.

Boasting sold out shows from L.A to New York and London on the strength of the 2007 self-released EP I SEE RED, UH HUH HER’s knack for memorable song-craft is indisputable. If the duo’s quick ascent is somehow tied to the interest in Showtime’s ‘The ‘L’ Word’, UHH’s ability to write great songs is what will ultimately uphold and build its ever-growing fanbase for years to come.

“We’re definitely grateful for the fans we have in place,” says Grey – a veteran of L.A. indie outfit Mellowdrone. “We’ll never take it for granted. It’s because of them that we’ve been able play huge venues like the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London to a sell out crowd. Ideally though we’d like to reach as many people as we can with our music by jumping on tour with a band that doesn’t cater to a specific audience.

And it’s an attainable goal. “We’d be lying if we said we didn’t want to see it go as far as it can,” says Hailey, who previously co-fronted Lilith Fair vets The Murmurs. “As we were making COMMON REACTION, we realized it went in a pop direction, but in a good way.” As evidence check out the dreamy, lilting and provocative ‘Explode’ which pays faint tribute to The Cure and the exquisite, pulsing and passionate ‘Wait Another Day’

Remarkably, the roots of their golden musical touch only date back to 2006, when Camila and Leisha met by chance at a party and then reconnected soon after Grey explains. Leisha cold-called me some time after and said, “Hi, do you want to start a band?” As I was phasing out of my previous group I was open to it. We met and instantly clicked.”

After just two rehearsals, Grey and Hailey flew to New York to play their first UHH show to a packed crowd that included a number of industry execs. “Our first showcase was crazy,” Camila remembers. “We were literally thrust from making demos in a bedroom studio to playing for a sold out crowd.”

With no backing band yet in place, UH HUH HER were accompanied by a lone iPod. It was at that memorable gig that Camila embraced her new-found power. “You have to shed any kind of shell you have,” Grey says of her first experience at the front of the stage. “The moment you’re up there people are looking at you like you have to give something back. If you don’t give anything, they can see it. I learned quickly that it’s up to me to show up and pour my heart out.”

Six months after their formation, the duo released a well-received debut EP through their own imprint, Plaid Records. It contained early renditions of ‘Explode' and another COMMON REACTION inclusion, ‘Say So’. That urgent, contagious holdover, and the first song Grey and Hailey ever wrote together, is a celebration of devotion (“You say that you’re broken/I just want to fix you”) that sounds even stronger in its new enhanced form.

According to Leisha, Clay’s guidance on COMMON REACTION was instrumental in helping UH HUH HER achieve such sonic quality and clarity. “Because of my shooting schedule, the way we wrote the album was very fragmented,” Hailey explains. “Cam would fly up to Canada where I was working and we’d write or I’d fly down, and in some cases we wrote while on tour. But the fact that it sounds cohesive is fascinating and definitely attributed to Al. He has this ability to enhance a song without changing its origins.”

Be it the soothing soundscape of ‘Everyone’ (which brings to mind elements of The Cocteau Twins classic 1990 album Heaven or Las Vegas), or the aforementioned UHH favorite ‘Wait Another Day’, the consistency of the material is unwavering. “I really love that song,” Leisha says of the latter. “I loved it from the second we wrote it. I always told Cam, “It just grows and grows on me.” And I think when you’re in a band and can say that about one of your songs, you’re really lucky.”

“I love the words and I love the melody,” Camila agrees. “It’s a classic love song and the instrumentation is analog-kind of old school.” And for Grey, who has also worked as a professional musician with an array of performers including Busta Rhymes, Dr. Dre and Kelly Osbourne, the need to be creative is in her bones. “If it were up to me, I’d write a song every day,” Camila explains. “I actually did that as an exercise. Time doesn’t always permit it these days, but I’m extremely prolific.”

UH HUH HER is a fully collaborative entity. Additionally, the lyric writing duties are shared, which Grey admits, “it’s kind of weird for me to have someone else bringing in ideas for me to sing”. Leisha believes that approach adds to the mystique of the group. “When Camila first hears my lyrics, she doesn’t necessarily know what they’re about. And the same goes for me, which leaves room to kind of fantasize about what the other one intended. I guess if Cam’s singing a line I wrote, she’s interpreting it her way and having her own experience. Besides, I don’t always think it’s a good idea for bands to give up too much information about the writing process. That way the audience can form its own ideas”.

Whatever the process the results speak for themselves. COMMON REACTION is a solid first album packed with great songs, which should see the two talented ladies of UH HUH HER around for the long haul.

COMMON REACTION IS RELEASED THROUGHOUT NORTH AMERICA ON
AUGUST 19TH 2008 ON NETTWERK RECORDS.

Underoath Artist Bio 2008

2008-09-01T11:27:00.003-04:00

UNDEROATH
LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION
(Tooth & Nail/Solid State)

Aaron Gillespie – Drums/Vocals
Tim McTague – Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals
Spencer Chamberlain – Vocals/Guitar
James Smith – Rhythm Guitar
Christopher Dudley – Keyboards/Synthesizers
Grant Brandell – Bass

As the final notes ring out on LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION, it’s evident that the six men of Tampa, FL-based UNDEROATH--who’ve built their career on being both heavy and experimental--have delivered their most ambitious and accomplished disc to date. Succinct and resolute, there’s little denying that the 43-minute, 11-track follow-up to 2006’s rapturously received and gold-certified Define The Great Line is a hard music masterpiece.

UNDEROATH–whose last three albums count combined sales in excess of one million copies–has worked diligently to reach this creative apex while building what may be the biggest metalcore following in the world. Through incessant touring and with a reputation for unrelentingly intense live shows—chronicled to perfection on the 2008 concert disc and DVD Survive, Kaleidoscope--the band has forged an unbreakable bond with its fans.
That allegiance earned the group a startling #2 debut for Define The Great Line on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart for first week sales exceeding 98,000 copies and marking the highest chart debut for a Tooth & Nail artist. On top of that, the band earned a Grammy nomination for “Best Short Form Music Video” for the surrealistic video for the album’s lead single “Writing On The Walls.” Critical acclaim for its thrilling mix of mayhem and melody, catharsis and experimentation came from both music and mainstream press alike. Alternative Press called the album “transcendent.” The Los Angeles Times took note of how “the album delves into new sonic territory, exploring phasing and untried guitar sounds…” And USA Today was unbridled in its praise of how “…singer Spencer Chamberlain howls against jagged riffs and rhythms that shift so suddenly he sounds like he’s walking an active fault line.”

Those same dedicated fans and enlightened scribes will undoubtedly embrace LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION based on audience reaction to the new material on UO’s summer 2008 trek headlining the Hot Topic stage on the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour, alongside the likes of Slipknot, Disturbed and Mastodon.

***

Inside the cinder block exterior of a non-descript, Northern New Jersey industrial park, the six men of UNDEROATH has congregated at House of Loud Studios for the final playback of the album. And as LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION unfolds, the band is clearly elated.

“Breathing In A New Mentality” launches the record with an ingenious false start that ultimately gives way to an innovative ferocity. Beyond exceptional, it’s a breathtaking, brain-rattling affirmation that UNDEROATH--AARON GILLESPIE, TIM MCTAGUE, SPENCER CHAMBERLAIN, GRANT BRANDELL, CHRIS DUDLEY and JAMES SMITH--have taken a huge creative step forward. By trusting their instincts, pushing their songcraft to the limit and meticulously perfecting it with Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage) and Matt Goldman (Copeland, The Chariot), the producers of its aforementioned, gold-certified 2006 disc, the band has soared to new artistic heights.

“We wanted someone to hear it and have a first impression like, ‘Man they must have cut a lot of corners’,” guitarist MCTAGUE explains of the disc-opener. “And then it kicks in and your entire car, like, blows up. We wanted to come out, blow them away. Just shut people up. And in doing that, we’ve made the beginning of the record very memorable.”

The song also takes a subtle cue from Led Zeppelin, according to drummer AARON GILLESPIE. “It reminds me of John Bonham, when he would go in and record the drums on one side and then go back and record it all again. I wanted to bite off of that a little bit. If you listen to it with headphones, it really makes a statement. And then, when Spencer starts singing, it all comes together.”

If CHAMBERLAIN’s distinctly coarse vocals put a focus on new beginnings via sentiments like “Let me start again,” the sextet’s tense delivery is underpinned by intrinsic melodic guitar lines that continue to further distance UNDEROATH from the metalcore pack. When the blistering, forceful “Anyone Can Dig A Hole But It Takes A Real Man To Call It Home” takes over, the collective roar is heightened by SPENCER’s throaty proclamation: “Oh how the plot thickens!”

“I really like that vocal line,” MCTAGUE says enthusiastically. “Plus I think that’s one of the best musical pieces that we’ve ever done, in that each part introduces another unique part.” Living up to that lyrical promise, the dichotomy of “A Faultline A Fault Of Mine” follows, balancing CHAMBERLAIN’s abrasive voice with GILLESPIE’s lucid delivery. “That song progressed naturally,” SPENCER explains. “And it felt right. There were a few times on this record where I said to Aaron, why don’t we try to switch off of each other?”

So while scathing song-beasts like “Emergency Broadcast: The End Is Near” or “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures, the maniacally sonic catharsis of “The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed” and the invigoratingly brutal “We Are The Involuntary” all live up to UNDEROATH’s reputation as the world’s pre-eminent metalcore troupe, material like “The Created Void” offers a melodic reprieve.

“Naturally we’re a heavy band and we want to put our best foot forward in that respect,” MCTAGUE says. “I love The Created Void,’ one of the most melodic songs we’ve ever done. But the bottom line is everything sounds the way it does on the record because we agreed that’s how it should sound, whether it’s heavy or melodic.”

“We’ve had to work hard at being open-minded about our own art and let it flow naturally, MCTAGUE continues. We love melodies, but our instincts usually go in the other direction. Anyone familiar with our band knows that Aaron is a big lover of melodies and I think he’s a huge reason why certain songs sound the way they do. But we definitely proceed with caution to ensure that we’re being true to Underoath.”

“We all love a ton of different music,” GILLESPIE adds. “That’s what makes Underoath what it is. Regardless of whether it’s Spencer singing or me here and there, Underoath is the sum of its parts. And at this point, if one guy were to leave, we’d suffer greatly.”

Defying the band’s patented approach, the uplifting “Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear” is a beautiful, near-ballad lighter destined to become a fan favorite.

“I originally wrote the music without intending it to be a quote-unquote accessible song,” MCTAGUE says of the memorable soundscape. “It was a slow paced, slowed down jam-out song. We were actually out to dinner one day out by our practice space and Aaron pulled out his iPhone and he was thinking about that song and he said, ‘I wrote these lyrics’. And what he wrote was so meaningful. It was this huge statement.”

Citing the lyric “Good God if your song leaves our lips/if your work leaves our hands/then we will be wonders and vagabonds,” the guitarist continues, “Our band has always been this Christian band and we’ve always been open about what we believe in, but there comes a certain point where a lot of the messages in our songs are very ambiguous. And that was so bold and straight up, talking about how we’re all people but without purpose we can feel lost.”

Yet with such a diverse musical display coupled with the input of six opinionated souls, the completion of LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION--thanks in part to the skilled mixing hand of rock veteran David Bendeth--is an epic achievement. “We laboriously toiled over this record,” GILLESPIE admits. “Even when we’re in the studio, I don’t know if we’re all ever totally happy. There’s constant change until we’re done. I think we should always push ourselves to make the best music imaginable.”

To call the men of UNDEROATH perfectionists wouldn’t be far from the truth. “The writing process, when it’s fresh and spontaneous and ideas are flowing, is great,” Tim says. “But the initial excitement is pretty short lived, followed up with a lot of scrutiny. It can be intense. Getting six people on the same page is virtually impossible. But without that input and criticism from everyone to serve as a filter, I don’t think we could ever come up with the same songs. It’s a really hard thing to deal with, but it’s a very, very valid thing. That’s also the only way we know how to write as a band.”

For principal lyricist CHAMBERLAIN, who penned the bulk of the disc’s revelations, the singer truly embraces his craft. “I’m the kind of guy who is always writing, whether it will end up being on a record or not,” he explains. “Writing in a book about yourself can be therapeutic. Having met a lot of people over the two years since Define The Great Line, it’s been really interesting to see how our fans can relate to some of the things I’ve been writing about.”

Perhaps most notable of all the lyrics is the heartfelt sonnet that closes out LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION. At first stark, the largely instrumental, and keyboard-steered “Desolate Earth: The End Is Near”--initially imagined by Chris Dudley-- possesses a cold atmospheric feel until a cello elevates it. Shifting into a vibrant crescendo of MCTAGUE and SMITH’s guitars, BRANDELL’s bass and GILLESPIE’s drums, CHAMBERLAIN sings:

“…You said there was nothing left down here
Well I roamed around the wasteland
And I swear I found something
I found hope, I found God
I found the dreams of the believers
….Oh God, Save Us All”

“When we got done, that song made me feel a certain way,” SPENCER says. “I just wrote something down and put the mic down a hallway--because I wanted it to have a feeling of despair. Originally we were going to put it in the beginning but it feels right at the end.”

“It gave such a strong closure to the record,” TIM adds. “Being lost, searching for answers and finding hope, we really felt like it summed up the whole record.” If it’s arguably the most artful moment in metalcore to date, it’s the kind of unique statement that explains how inspirational UNDEROATH has been to its fans and vice versa.

“It’s really cool that people accept it and I don’t know why because this is just as therapeutic as it is for us as it is for anybody else,” says GILLESPIE, beaming with pride over what he and his bandmates have crafted with LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION. “I hope they find healing and some way in life and truth. I hope that for this or any record that I’m ever a part of.”

UNDEROATH Tooth & Nail/Solid State Discography

THE CHANGING OF TIMES (2002)
THEY’RE ONLY CHASING SAFETY (2004)
DEFINE THE GREAT LINE (2006)
777 (2007)
SURVIVE, KALEIDOSCOPE [LIVE ALBUM/DVD SET] (2008)
LOST IN THE SOUND OF SEPARATION (2008)

www.underoath777.com

Lars Ulrich Blows Off Blow Thanks To Noel Gallaher

2008-09-01T11:22:00.002-04:00

Original Post: http://wampweb1.spinner.com/2008/08/28/lars-ulrich-blows-off-blow-thanks-to-noel-gallagher/

Lars Ulrich loves Oasis. Lars Ulrich loves Oasis so much that when Noel Gallagher decided to quit cocaine cold turkey, so did he. Well, a few years after the fact.

"A couple of years ago I was like, 'You know? Enough of this. I don't need it,'" the Metallica drummer said. "It was literally something that happened one morning, like 'Y'know? F--- that.' I was very impressed with Noel. As you know, I'm an Oasis fanatic, and Noel was like [adopts stentorian tone] 'You know what? No more cocaine!' And I thought, 'If he can do it, everybody else can do it.'"

We're pretty sure he intended that as a compliment.

American Songwriter April/May 2008

2008-09-01T11:05:00.003-04:00

DCfC’s Chris Walla Goes It Alone on Field Manual
Interview by John D. Luerssen

If being the guitarist and producer in the critically acclaimed, fan-revered Death Cab for Cutie and a respected producer of brilliant records like Nada Surf’s The Weight is a Gift and The Decemberists’ The Crane Wife wasn’t enough, one-man wrecking machine Chris Walla asserts himself to be one hell of a songwriter on his first-ever solo offering,Field Manual—which he released through Barsuk Records back on January 29.

Recorded with Canadian-based producer Warne Livesy, who holds production credits for his work with Midnight Oil, The The and Julian Cope, Field Manual is an alluring, atmospheric and politically themed alternative pop record that cannot be denied. When a hard drive containing the completed disc was detained by U.S. customs last fall as it was shipped down from British Columbia, it landed national news coverage. Walla talks about how Bill O’Reilly helped inform one of the disc’s finest moments, why he’s such a freakin’ workaholic and how The Connells changed his life.

When Field Manual was detained by U.S. Customs, were you fearful you’d never get it back?
Luckily, there was a safety drive that backed everything up, but there was a delay because Warne, who was working on the record, was away…so we weren’t able to get to it for a couple of weeks. As a result, there was a real impact on the production schedule. Most notably, the advances that went out to the media had a bunch of rough mixes. And I only had an eight-day window to mix five or six songs.

I love the upbeat vibe of the first single, “Sing Again.” How did that song develop?
That song took shape in 1999, and the chorus hasn’t changed much since then, although the rest of the lyric is completely rewritten. It was written at a point when I was starting to notice that we had enough rock anthems in the world, and I wanted to go in a completely different direction. That’s definitely the oldest idea on the record.

The guitar line on “Geometry Et Cetera” is irresistible. Did it start with that part?
Actually, no. That song started with the chorus/hook, and that’s sort of how most of these songs start. I find myself singing something to myself, and as long as I don’t have an accessible phone or computer, I can usually take an idea and get writing accomplished. The phone and the computer are usually creativity killers for me. Usually, I get inspiration from something that just happened in the quiet of the day…where I was walking around a lake…or I’m on tour on a street in a town that I’m unfamiliar with. Or maybe I’ll wake up with a song in my head that I can’t identify…or I’ll be in a car on a long drive and starting to get sick of listening to public radio through the static. They start all sorts of ways.

“Everybody Needs a Home” balances a warm, optimistic musical vibe with a biting lyrical commentary?
Yes, and that was by design. In the month following Hurricane Katrina, there were so many talking heads on the pundit shows talking about why it happened and who was to blame for the decisions being made in its aftermath. I forget where I was—I know we were on tour to support Plans—and I was flipping through the channels, and it was one of the less-than-civil shows…Bill O’Reilly [The O’Reilly Factor], I think. Someone was trying to cut through his static and just trying to get the point across, like, look, “Everyone needs a home.” It was the first thing that was so simple and so true in that whole debacle that I latched onto it and carried it around with me for a while, and it turned into a melody pretty quickly. One of the things that I really enjoy about it is that there is such a soft collection of letters and vowels on it. There’s percussion, and it’s rhythmic, but it’s really pleasing musically while making a point.

If you get hung up on a song, what do you do to work around the problem?
You know, every one of these songs got stopped up at one point or another. Like… “There’s no second verse. Do I have anything else to say?” And I have found over and over and over, if I can get away from the song for a while, time is always on your side. I do this when I’m producing records, too. I just start stripping elements away. If the bass is carrying all of the changes and I pull that out, the whole dynamic changes. I can get back to instrumental tracks and think of other melodies or other instrumental ideas I might have kicking around. It’s half luck and half work—tinkering and toying around with songs. It’s funny how words will suggest themselves in the strangest places, particularly with a topical record…I found things in news reports.

Between the production efforts, your own songwriting and touring duties with Death Cab, some might think you’re a workaholic.
I think that’s true. Actually, there’s no doubt about it. But I will give myself blackout periods when everything gets shut down. I go to an actual ghost town in the very, very rural north. I’ll work every day for three months on something, but then I’ll go six weeks where I’ll do nothing. So it’s definitely not a nine-to-five gig for me. I have so much belief in creative inertia, and flow and momentum. When there’s a thing that’s happening day after day after day, to deny that and take a day off seems ludicrous to me. It’s not how creative work works.

On your Hall of Justice website, I saw you had posted a bunch of covers, including songs by American Music Club, Clinic and a tune [“Too Gone”] by The Connells, who are one of the great unsung American rock bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Alongside the song, you write of their 1990 album One Simple Word, “I was 15, and that album changed my life.”

It’s true. It was such a big record for me when I was 14 or 15 and just starting to get into college radio. That and [1993’s] Ring, to a lesser extent, were really important records for me. Few bands at the time could mix melody, power and introspection the way they did.

American Songwriter Cover: April/May 2008

2008-09-01T10:51:00.002-04:00

Death Cab for Cutie: Gets Analog in a Digital Age

Words by John D. Luerssen

With its extraordinary ability to balance art and integrity with commercial success, Death Cab for Cutie is arguably the most important modern band in America in 2008. Boasting world class songs, an amiable demeanor and a warm closet full of gold records—including its near-platinum 2005 Atlantic Records debut Plans—Seattle-based DCfC returns with its second major label offering and sixth proper studio album, Narrow Stairs.

Marking an about face from the technology-touched Plans, the new disc is served by the memorable, up-tempo “Bixby Canyon Bridge,” the pensive, shimmering winner “The Ice Is Getting Thinner” and the nine-minute jam-turned-single “I Will Possess Your Heart.” Marking the group’s return to the analog approach that gave its 2003 Barsuk Records swan song Transatlanticism life, Death Cab’s erudite frontman and principal songwriter Ben Gibbard says the overall tone of Narrow Stairs is dark, sad and energetic.

Gibbard, who is joined by journeyman guitarist and longtime producer Chris Walla—also a veteran of outside projects by the likes of Tegan and Sara, Nada Surf, The Decemberists and The Long Winters—and the inventive, unyielding rhythm section of bassist Nick Harmer and drummer Jason McGerr, concedes that the vibe of the record was partially informed by a decision to go back to writing with his guitar.

“I’m feeling like I’m a lot more proud of this record than I am of any album we’ve done in a long, long time,” Gibbard says. “I think the fact that I came in with songs where the structure was in place, and the songs had a lot more sections and pieces to play with, allowed it to flourish.”

At the time, we speak in mid-January, DCfC is in the mixing stages of Narrow Stairs and honing in on album art. Not surprisingly, Gibbard and Walla are still excited by the disc’s innovation and newness. “There are four songs where we got Ben’s vocals off the floor, which is so fun and cool!” Walla announces. “Ben is such an amazing singer. He’d have to be able to pull that off.”

“The big, sort of…goal for this record was to get everybody playing and singing live for as much of the disc as we could,” Walla continues, “and to very much build the record from that idea, if not have that be the actual record. When we made Plans, the way we did it just left so much time for scrutiny and evaluating things. You end up tracking so much more. Going away from that has made for a really interesting record this time, where the performances are all complete thoughts again. It’s got such a linear feel to it, and it’s not micromanaged chorus by chorus, or verse by verse, or line by line.”

Take the aforementioned, nine-minute long “I Will Possess Your Heart,” which—save for a couple of overdubs—went down absolutely live. “There was a moment in that song where I kicked over Nick’s bass Pi and it made this loud distorted noise,” Walla laughs. “He almost stopped playing, but he didn’t, and our engineer, Will, ran in and plugged it back in. Now when you listen back to the song, you can here Nick’s Pi exploding a minute and a half into the song. And it is bizarre, but it sounds really good.”

“That was a live recording all the way through that we built onto,” Gibbard marvels. “We added some keyboards and some delays, and Chris was playing guitar and just killing it…and the whole thing just came together and it sounded beautiful. That never would have happened if we just tried to map it out, and pace it out and have everyone just record their parts.”

“The first five minutes are a jam, building up, but we’ll edit the last three-and-a-half minutes into a single,” Gibbard adds, chuckling at the very idea. “We know what we’re doing. We’re not like, ‘Eight-and-a-half minute singles—Atlantic, deal with it!’ We want to sell records as much as they do. OK, maybe not as much as they do, but we wouldn’t be on a major label if we didn’t have an interest in success.”

Just the same, Gibbard and Walla both use the term ‘departure’ to describe what the latter calls the “creepy, heavy tone” of Narrow Stairs—whose title was suggested to the band by Harmer and reflects what Ben calls the album’s “dark aesthetic.”

“We all sort of got really interested in distortion this time,” says Walla, who just released his politically themed solo disc Field Manual (Barsuk), which showcases his own tremendous songwriting abilities. “It’s a funny thing; the demos were pretty heavy, topically—with the exception of one really bizarre case which was like the fluffiest, happiest sounding thing we’d ever done.”

Deemed an ill-fit for the disc, the unnamed track was subsequently yanked from Narrow Stairs. In the past, they might have kept it around to arrive at 11 album tracks, but this time Gibbard brought 15 finished tunes to the table. “This, really honestly, is the first record we’ve ever had where we can all definitely say that we have more than enough album-contending tracks. With the last couple albums, we had enough material, but we didn’t have a lot of wiggle room. Like, ‘If we can’t make this one work, I don’t know what we’re going to do.’”

“And you know, I’ve dealt with this guy…” Gibbard explains, “who is a reputable music industry douche bag that will remain nameless. And when we were recording the major label debut, he did say one insightful thing that will remain with me. And that’s, ‘The problem with albums these days is that they’re just too long.’ People lose track of the fact that just because you can put 74 minutes of music on CD, there’s no reason for it, and you don’t get any real value by giving people more music that they don’t want to listen to. It’s probably better to have an album with 10 or 11 really solid tunes that are really economical…where you maybe had to make some tough decisions to slice that record down to 40 minutes. Otherwise, you might compromise everything you might have accomplished thematically.”

One of the 11 songs slated for Narrow Stairs is “Talking Bird,” captured entirely live. “I got the vocals live and in playback I thought, ‘I could have never sung it that way if I was sitting in the room with a microphone putting my vocal part over it,’” DCfC’s frontman says. “I think it’s so much more of a gratifying experience, because you’re hearing the song back immediately after you’ve put it down, and that’s a real rarity…especially these days.”

“That doesn’t happen that often when you’re puzzling it all together,” he continues. “And making a record like that isn’t all that inspiring. Don’t get me wrong, we’re all very proud of Plans [which reaped the singles “Soul Meets Body” and “Crooked Teeth”], but there’s an added level of satisfaction when you put on an album and remember how the stars all aligned for four minutes that day, and the band just nailed that song together. I’d say that’s one of the reasons this is turning out to be my favorite album that we’ve ever done. It just feels like an album made by a band, instead of a recording made bit by bit while the other guys are out of the room playing PlayStation. With Plans, I can honestly remember recording in that barn in Massachusetts, watching The Sopranos while Jason was doing his drum tracking. And that just doesn’t feel like a band experience.”

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After capturing its first four records on two-inch tape and then flipping to the digital format RADAR for Plans, the band’s live-to-analog approach was what Chris Walla calls, “The right decision based on the material…Plans wasn’t the kind of material we could just play live right off the bat. The album was very much more of a construction project, where Jason would go play drums on the scratch track. Then we’d get that perfect and add the bass, and we’d be watching the tuner—to make sure that was perfect.”

“Plus,” Gibbard intones, “I think I speak for all of us when I say that we were trying to play down the pressure we were feeling as far as the major label debut thing goes. Although we told the press Plans was no big thing, I think we were clearly nervous and a little more affected in the way we put music together. One of all of our favorite records of the last year was that latest Wilco record [Sky Blue Sky]; they did that almost entirely live to tape. We’ve had these experiences over the year and a half following Plans where we did sessions for compilations and cover tracks, and we would do all that stuff live. Some of the engineers would tell us, ‘God. You guys are a really good band.’ And it started to seep in [that], ‘Yes. We are a really good band, and why don’t we just start doing this. Stop being freaked out about trying to make everything perfect.’ I give the credit to Chris that he’s able to capture and have a real ear for things. Like, there’s a live guitar solo of mine that goes down that’s just wacky out-of-tune and Chris is like, ‘No. That sounds great. People will listen, and they’ll get it.’ We all collectively wanted to go back and record a song and play it back and go, ‘Wow. The vocal sounds great. The drum lick Jason just did sounds amazing.”

As much as the studio approach needed to be different this time out to fit the songs on Narrow Stairs, Ben Gibbard’s song craft went back to square one. He explains: “As I look back on the writing process for Plans, I wasn’t feeling very inspired by my guitar. For some reason, I would pick up the guitar and immediately put it down, as if it were broken. I think that album had a lot of piano, because it was the first time I ever actually owned a piano. For the first time, there was this other option—this fantastic acoustic piano in my house! So most of those songs were written on piano, keyboard or in some kind of ProTools capacity…where I would take a little loop of something I had done and kind of constructed a song around it. I think that led to Plans not being very chorus-heavy. A lot of songs just had an A-A-A-B-A-A structure, without a lot of variation. So going into [Narrow Stairs], I made a conscious decision to want to sit down with the guitar and make sure they could all be played on an acoustic. And for the first time in an album or so, I was making sure all of the songs had choruses and taking more of a traditional approach to songwriting.”

And despite reverting back to analog in the studio, Gibbard still very much embraces the luxury of writing on a computer. “There are an endless amount of options,” he says. “Like, ‘I’d love to hear what an acoustic guitar sounds like right here. Or, ‘What if I moved that line to a piano line?’ It’s so easy to kind of experiment, and I don’t know if I’d ever go back to writing on a four-track. Of course there’s the potential to get lost in the arrangement of a tune when you have 24 tracks on a computer to fiddle with.”

“For me, a song doesn’t really take flight until it has a lyric on it,” the DCfC frontman continues. “And that’s the hardest part. Until I can visualize what’s happening with the song…that’s the point where I really become inspired to move forward with the arrangement and the song itself. So there are times when I get really caught up in a really great instrumental part, and that happened this time out with a couple of songs that didn’t make the cut. And now I think, ‘I wish I had finished that one because it had such a great melody and a great guitar line.’ Without a lyric that I’m happy with, it could be the greatest song ever melodically or arrangement-wise, but it doesn’t have any resonance.”

Gibbard says his songwriting took the turn he felt it needed back around the band’s second album. “I keep coming back to “Company Calls Epilogue,” which is on our second album [2000’s We Have the Facts And We’re Voting Yes], and I had concocted this narrative of going to the wedding of someone that you used to be in love with…and I was very proud of the descriptive nature of the song. It focuses on all of these details of the experience that are not necessarily the first things that one would go to. It’s not about, ‘She looks beautiful in a white wedding dress;’ instead, there are lines about little kids chasing each other around and the feel of the wedding. It’s all of these secondary images. To me, that’s where I broke through as a songwriter and became less obtuse. That started my shift to becoming a far more narrative writer.”

To this day, he reveals that he has an ongoing fixation related to his songwriting. “I want to write songs with complete sentences,” he confesses. “I almost have this obsession with shortchanging words. I would never be so pretentious to say that my lyrics are poetry. That’s the most annoying things ever and one of my biggest pet peeves as a songwriter, when someone does that. That’s such bullshit. Poems are poems. Song lyrics are for songs. And when people have come up to me in the past to suggest my lyrics are poetic, my first reaction is to give them a talking to about it, while being as nice as I can. Like, ‘Frank O’Hara is a poet. Jeff Tweedy is a phenomenal songwriter—not a poet.’”

As for the craft itself, Gibbard usually writes either in his loft apartment near Seattle’s Capital Hill or at Death Cab for Cutie’s practice space. Due to the fact that the latter has no windows, it’s dire, but also ripe for introspection. The very same building where Walla’s Hall of Justice studio was formerly housed and where Nirvana’s Sub Pop debut Bleach was recorded nearly 20 years ago, Gibbard proudly describes it as “this shitty triangular building in this neighborhood north of downtown Seattle.”

That working class location matches Gibbard’s self-described “working class approach to songwriting.” Although he’s prone to taking breaks in writing, specifically when he gears up for a new album release or touring initiative, he has little trouble getting to work when the time is right. “I kind of just tell myself, ‘OK…this month I’m working on Death Cab songs,’” he says. “So I get up and go running or whatever and spend the day working on something. And more times than not it’s a failed endeavor.”

“You will fail more times than you succeed,” he announces. “But I think you need those failed endeavors. During our first few records, I would just kind of wait until I felt like writing. I got some pretty good songs that way, but I firmly believe that being a writer or artist in any capacity, you have to flex that muscle. You have to kind of go to work every day and try to do what you do. And as crazy as it is for me to say out loud, I am a professional songwriter and singer, and this is what I do for a living. I get paid to do this, and I should treat this as such. It is a job…and it’s a difficult job. You have to travel all the time and be away from your loved ones. You have to go through crippling self doubt, and once in a while, that perfect song comes and it is like the best day of your life. And then the next day it starts all over again.”

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Unlike a lot of bands, Death Cab for Cutie was in the unique situation of being a successful touring band with an impressive number of album sales—not to mention Gibbard’s one-off, gold certified collaboration with Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel as Postal Service—when it signed to Atlantic Records in 2004. Describing the arrangement, Gibbard explains, “Atlantic has been entirely hands-off from the beginning with us. Even with Plans, we didn’t send them demos. This was all stuff that we had been able to negotiate. We would take suggestions, but we still stuck to our guns and made the record that we wanted to make. Of course, having a record that’s approaching platinum to our credit, in this contemporary environment, and counting all of the records we sold on our own leading up to Plans…they’ve realized not to mess with a good thing.”

“Of course, if this record totally tanks and they pick up an option for a third record, maybe we could be in a different situation,” he admits. “But I feel very fortunate. They’ve been pretty fantastic. We don’t really have any complaints. They’ve been treating us with a level of respect that I think we deserve. We make our own decisions. We’re adults who have been doing this long enough, and they recognize that. There’s nothing about the experience to date that’s stunk like a rotten fish for me. I think we made the right decision.”

As for advice on how you can turn your own band into the next DCfC, Gibbard has little insight, believe it or not. “Because I live in Seattle and we’re pretty much a band of the people, we go out to see our friends play and stuff. I’ve been approached by people from time to time who ask ‘How do we do it?’ And I always feel like I’m stumped for an answer. We just found ourselves in a situation where people just liked our band, and we worked at it for a long time.”

“Every time we went on tour, the first time there were 25 people, the next time there were 50 and then 100 people,” he continues. “We just found ourselves finding success that way. There’s no substitute for drive, creativity and believing in what you’re doing. But I think sometimes when it comes to business, it just comes down to having something somebody wants. I’m very close to my songs…and I love my songs, and they’re a part of me, but by putting them on a disc and then putting them up for sale, it becomes something that somebody wants to own. And people pay money for something that they want to own. They come see us live because we have something that they want to see. I think it can be frustrating for young musicians, and artists in general, that things aren’t going as quickly as they’d like. But trying to analyze what people want and what people don’t is kind of a fruitless mission, you know?”

Another fool’s errand might be to hold your breath for a sophomore Postal Service disc. “I’ll go on record saying that the next Postal Service record may or may not ever happen,” Gibbard says. “Jimmy and I are still working together and throwing ideas back and forth, but as time goes on and we find ourselves busy with our own music…we have some stuff, but it’s been difficult to find the time and the drive to do the record. I’d love to finish it at some point and maybe even do some performances, but it’s just not a priority for either of us. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, but there’s nothing on the books quite yet.”

In the meantime, there’s gold in that there closet. Gibbard is hesitant to tell us where his are hanging. Meanwhile, Walla—who has RIAA-certified discs of 500,000 sales for his contribution to Postal Service’s Give Up, as well as Death Cab’s Plans and Transatlanticism kept in a warm, well kept office closet—only cops to having one gold disc hanging in his home. “I only have our Canadian gold record for Plans hanging…it’s in my kitchen,” the guitarist laughs. “How could I deny something that is certified Canadian Gold?”

“You know, its funny,” Walla marvels. “I’ve heard stories of producers who carry their gold records around from studio to studio, so that when someone in the band argues with them, they just turn around and point to the gold [laughs]. Can you imagine?”

With Narrow Stairs ready to drop in May, Gibbard is anticipating how the fans, critics and curiosity-seekers will respond. “I will be interested to see how people will react to it. Whether or not people like it, I think it’s indisputable that we’ve tried to do some new things on this album. For that alone, I’m extremely proud.”