Driven Far Off

The latest on the indie, alternative, and rock music scene including news, music, contest, interviews, and more. Best described as your favorite place to find new bands.

Switchfoot at the Avalon – March 30th, 2007

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Switchfoot at the Avalon Theatre
March 30th, 2007
Hollywood, CA

The Foreman brothers, Jon and Tim, and good friend Chad Butler started the band Switchfoot in 1996 in San Diego. Now six albums and countless world tours later, the band has been nominated for a grammy, and won several Dove awards. With the release of Oh! Gravity, the band has begun to regain the commercial success that was somewhat lost with the harsh reception of their last album, Nothing Is Sound.

Performing at the Avalon Theatre, with the bill boasting only two acts and a $25 ticket, one would expect a good show from both artists. Unfortunately, I missed most of Copeland, but upon entering and hearing the poor mix and Aaron being under the weather, I wasn’t too disappointed with my miscalculation of time.

Switchfoot took the stage, now as a five-piece with additional musicians Jerome Fontamillas (keys) and Drew Shirley (guitar), the band dove straight into their blend of edgy pop-rock. Jon Foreman’s voice was at the best I’ve ever heard it. Pulling songs from as far back as Learning To Breathe, the band also featured a three-piece string section on certain songs.

It’s with great regret that two albums ago is when I last heard new music from Switchfoot that I truly loved. When I used to feel the same about The Beautiful Letdown, the live performance totally turned my perspective upside down and the album put itself in the same league as their prior work. In all honesty, Nothing Is Sound and Oh! Gravity just don’t cut it for me. With tracks like “Happy Is a Yuppy Word” and “American Dream,” while the lyrics are decent, the melodies and choruses border the land of outright obnoxious. Since I’m sure they appeal to some, I will choose to disregard these few songs from my opinion of the show as a whole.

As I said earlier, Jon Foreman has never sounded better than he did at this show. His stage presence incarcerated the audience’s attention as he ventured into the crowd and scaled the right balcony. I completely forgot there was still four others playing on the stage. However, it was the band as a whole that created such an appealing live show. Tim and Jerome’s background vocals filled up any empty space, and Drew’s guitar work allowed Jon to put down the guitar and focus primarily on his vocal work. Chad’s drumming was just as solid as it has always been. Switchfoot impressed me far more than I had ever imagined, and after two years without, they have again won my praise.

Photos by Michael Schneider

The Almost – Southern Weather

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The Almost

Artist: The Almost
Album: Southern Weather
Label: Tooth & Nail / Virgin
Purchase: Music Today
Release Date: April 3, 2007

Overall: 8.3
Music: 8.2
Lyrics: 8.6
Production: 8.2

Aaron Gillespie has just gotten one step closer to total domination. The Almost’s new record Southern Weather is the cure to the haters of his other band, Underoath. The Almost is Aaron’s full display of his talent, vocally and musically. Sharing control with the reputable Aaron Sprinkle, Gillespie wrote and recorded eleven songs.

While the songs vary in tempo and dynamics, I don’t really feel like the record ever reaches a smooth flow. Individually, the songs are outstanding. Aaron’s guitar-work is what came as the biggest surprise to me. His all around talent is comparable to that of Dave Grohl and Phil Collins. His voice, unlike in the demos, is powerful and controlled. He soars melodically on most tracks, reminiscent of Underoath’s “Reinventing Your Exit” but climbs higher and tensely combats himself with harmonies that stand the hair on your neck. Songs like “Amazing Because It Is” and “Dirty and Left Out” (which features guest vocals from Sunny Day Real Estate’s Jeremy Enigk) dive into Aaron’s unhappiness with his own behavior, faith and love for Jesus. Much more open with the spirituality that takes a metaphorical disguise in Underoath, The Almost is as honest as you can get.

My favorite track, hiding at the end of the CD, “Everything That Makes Me Sick” is anything but. Other standouts “I Mostly Copy Other People (with Kenny Vasoli)” “Everyone Here Smells” and radio single “Say This Sooner” make this a definite staple in my music collection. Aaron will be touring for the next six months straight between both bands, definitely make the effort to catch this band before they hit mainstream success! Check out the record after its release on April 3!

Track Listing:
1. Say This Sooner
2. Drive There Now!
3. Dirty And Left Out
4. I Mostly Copy Other People
5. Southern Weather
6. Stop It!
7. Amazing, Because It Is
8. Everyone Here Smells Like A Rat
9. Never Say, â┚¬Ã…”I Told You Soâ┚¬?
10. Call Back When Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m Honest
11. Everything That Makes Me Sick

Anberlin and Bayside Show Review – March 07

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Anberlin, Bayside, Meg & Dia, Jonezetta
March 10th & 17th, 2007
Pomona, CA at the Glasshouse & Seattle, WA at El Corazon

As you can tell by the above information, I got to do something not many people get to do with this tour. Due a pre-arranged trip, I discovered I would have the opportunity to check out this tour a second time while at home in Seattle. So this review is from two different shows.

Venue dynamics played a huge role in my opinion of the two shows. Pomona supposedly caps at about 900 people, a large room with a decent sized stage, barrier, and about 15-20 security guards. El Corazon has a posted capacity of 807. However, since I’ve been going to shows there since I was 13, I know from experience that anything over 500 is ridiculous. This tiny room where the farthest you can be from the stage is about 60 feet, there is no barrier and crowd surfers take out the lead singer’s microphone cause there is no where else to go.

Opening band, Jonezetta, for me was the surprise on this tour. Only hearing the free EP that was released a long time ago, I didn’t really have much of an opinion of the band. Pomona was the first date with a new keyboardist, and I don’t know how much of a difference it made, but this band is absolutely phenomenal live. Dance-pop rock jams like “Backstabber” and “Get Ready” make it impossible to stand still. With three vocalists, their harmonies aren’t anything new or special but they’re executed perfectly, and that’s much more than I can say for a lot of bands today. Due yourself a favor and check out their new record out on Tooth & Nail.

Up next was sister duo Meg & Dia. My first experience with them was on the Daphne Loves Derby tour, and considering I’m listening to their album right now you can guess that I’ve been converted to a spot in their growing fanbase. I was impressed at these shows how many people in the audience were singing along. They played my favorite song, “Masterpiece” along with “Roses,” “Indiana,” and recent contribution to the Take Action compilation, “Monsters,” and quickly made their way up my charts of the best females in music. Next month they will be playing the Warped Tour kickoff party in Hollywood, for only $10!

Bayside, this band is surrounded with controversy, passion, and triumph between a van accident that killed their former drummer and the open, honest rebuttals their singer Anthony makes at any crude or unjust review of the band. Bayside, attitudes aside, are solid vocally and musically, live and recorded. When you add in their pure disregard for what people think of them, they get even better because you can know everything they do is genuine. Debuting songs off of their recently released, “Walking Wounded” as well as an acoustic song, and plenty of tracks off their last record, the band charged through their set and never really backed off. This being the first time I have ever seen Bayside live, I’m hooked. Pomona was an interesting experience. I severely underestimated their draw to this tour and after the band finished their set, more than 1/3 of the crowd left. In Seattle, while the percentage was not as great, a good amount of people did leave after Bayside. The bands fans seem like some of the most dedicated and passionate I have seen.

After being totally focused on Bayside, I had almost forgotten one of the major reasons I attended this tour. Jamie Tworkowski, founder of To Write Love On Her Arms, and author of the story, took the stage to speak a bit about the vision of the movement. His brief description was met with complete attention of both crowds, and for the first time in a long while I sensed the audience was giving true respect to a speaker. Jamie ended with the introduction of his long time friends and headliners- Anberlin.

Tooth & Nail Records’ band Anberlin have been touring heavily since the release of “Blueprints for the Black Market” in 2003. I first saw them that year with Further Seems Forever, Movielife and Autopilot Off- Anberlin is the only surviving act of that tour. Never really giving them a proper chance, I always held their music as good, but nothing special. When I received a copy of “Cities,” my perspective definitely changed. I immediately tackled the chance to catch their first ever headlining tour.

Normally, I’m not a fan of bands that over produce their live shows. Anberlin, was a definite exception. Carrying along their own lighting rig, group of techs, and many additional pieces of stage equipment, their production equaled almost that of a boy-band. Opening on a dark stage to “A Whisper & A Clamour,” Stephen Christian controlled the crowd as they followed his every move. Pushing through “Never Take Friendship Personal,” the lights danced to the hooks of the songs, growing dark right before the first chorus of “Hello Alone,” the show reached full speed from then on. Playing favorites from “Never Take Friendship Personal” and “Blueprints,” the band balanced out new tracks from “Cities” and even pulled out the acoustic track “Unwinding Cable Car.” One of the best parts of the evening was seeing how perfectly new guitarist Christian (formerly of Acceptance) fit in with the band. His background vocals and stage presence complemented Deon, Nate and Joey’s musicianship perfectly.

Anberlin has reached a level that very few bands will ever push for. As their album continues to climb the charts, the band will continue to tour relentlessly throughout the US, Canada, Japan and more with bands like Copeland, Daphne Loves Derby and also almost all of the entire Warped Tour. It’s doubtful that you’ll be without opportunity to catch their stunning live show.

Photos by Michael Schneider at Glasshouse in Pomona, CA
*my apologies to Bayside-Glasshouse somehow had about 10 too many people doing photo during the set*

JonezettaMeg & DiaAnberlin

Bayside Interview – March 10th, 2007

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bayside

I was able to sit down with Anthony (second from the left) of Bayside at their sold out show in Pomona, CA. He gave me inside look at what’s going on in Bayside and what’s to come of the Victory Records four-piece.

Please introduce yourself however you’d like.
I’m Anthony, I play in Bayside. So far…this is pretty easy.

Yes, you = Anthony, me = Michael. Now that it’s settled…
Nearly every show has sold out on this tour, how does it feel to be on the road again?
It’s incredible. This is probably one of the most fun tours we’ve ever been on.

You guys were on Conan O’Brian a couple weeks ago, what was that experience like for you?
It was a trip, it was really surreal. When it came time to actually play, we weren’t as nervous as we thought. He’s awesome, we were a lot more nervous when we got there and were setting up but when it came time to actually film we were pretty comfortable.

Walking Wounded, was released about a month ago, What’s the response been?
It’s been an amazing response. It’s really exciting as a band, and something every band goes through is trying to force their new music onto their old fans. That whole battle has been really easy, the fans have been taking to it.

Lyrically, the songs on Walking Wounded are honest and bold, in head on a plate, the lyrics read, “I’m pouring out my soul, I find the right words to express myself instead of fitting round pegs in round holes.” What fueled these words?
Something I’ve never done because I feel like it’s bad for my health is reading reviews and reading press. It gets me so angry and stresses me out, so I’ve kept away from it. Lately, I have been reading it all. It drives me insane. We’ve never really touched on it before but on “Head On A Plate” and “Popular Science” we’re starting to take jabs at the music industry and other bands we think are a joke. After a day of reading reviews and gossip online and people who think they know everything about music and shit like that I just wanted to call everyone out on that. That line, specifically, is what I feel like a lot of bands are doing.

I also read one of your blogs from this tour where you quoted different message board posts and music reviews, all being quite distasteful and shallow, what keeps you going when you read such ruthless things?
Honestly, I was feeling this thing where I got really pissed off at these people on message boards and who run websites, who have the right to criticize something they don’t do. It pissed me off that they have this platform to criticize music and bands. I decided that I’m at a point where our band is pretty big and we have a lot of fans so I have a platform, too. I’m going to start calling out all of those people. If they feel like they can criticize music then I’m going to start writing reviews about websites and magazines.

Your band’s history contains tragedy, and triumph since, do you feel like within your band you embrace the events of the past, or are they more things you’d like to keep personal and separate?
I think we definitely embrace it and we want to bring what we’ve been through into our music but not so much in an obvious way. What happened to us, happened to us. We took some time to be together and be friends and help each other through everything. Through that we became different people, we became stronger- Optimistic, more powerful people. Rather than the depression that came with it, we wanted to put that in our music.

Does any of that history have to do with your record’s title, the Walking Wounded?
Walking Wounded- a lot of people ask, and call it a morbid title. It’s not, it’s just kind of what we feel like we are. We’re wounded but we’re on our feet.

Next week you’re showcasing for your label at South By Southwest, how do you feel at a label with quite a diverse roster of artists, Victory Records?
It’s awesome. I think we are on the best label. We love all of the people that work there, we love all of the bands. It’s really a sense of community that a lot of other labels don’t have. All of the bands are friends.

What was it like doing Bayside acoustic?
It was really therapeutic. We didn’t want to bring all of the sadness into walking wounded, so that was our therapeutic record. We really enjoy playing acoustic so we do tons of in-stores. We do two every week on this whole tour.

What are your plans for after this tour?
After this tour, we’re going to Europe for a couple weeks, then Canada for a couple weeks, then we’re doing the whole Warped Tour this summer. Then we’re headlining a Victory tour in the fall.

Any last comments?
I think people really need to check out our record because we wanted to make a record, and I think we succeeded in this, for the casual music listener. Something to put on in the background, while you’re driving and something that’s catchy but we also wanted it to be something under that. We wanted to make something that if you want to read deeper, it’s there.

Well, thank you so much.
Thank you!

Underoath Show Review – March 11th, 2007

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Underoath
March 11th, 2007 at the Orange Pavilion
San Bernardino, CA

Last summer I returned home from an international trip with the expectation of attending the Warped Tour the next day and finally seeing one of my favorite bands play songs from their new album. With my best friends thinking I was joking, I solemnly read the announcement that Underoath had dropped off of the Warped Tour, and that no one was really sure of the status of the band. Devastated, I waited patiently, hoping that the band was not set for the untimely demise so many others were encountering.

As we all know, Underoath attacked their problems head on, and resolved the differences that threatened to break them apart. Now back in full force, and opening for mega-band Taking Back Sunday, it was obvious that a good portion of the thousands of fans present were there to watch them tear up the Orange Pavilion.

Borrowing sound bites from the only film appropriately proportionate to the band, 300, in darkness the six members took the stage. Expelling half a bottle of water on to the crowd, Spencer greeted the audience and thus began one of the most systematic and intense performances I’ve ever seen.
Opening with the definitive ‘In Regards To Myself,’ not one person was focused anywhere but the stage where the song was played with utmost precision. Aaron’s vocals were nothing short of excellent, and I was quickly reminded why I feel he is one of the most versatile musicians today. Tim’s guitar playing got so out of control he broke the volume knob off his guitar, and Chris looked as though he had more energy than he could exude. James and Grant exploited the right side of the stage as if they were the only ones performing and I caught myself focusing on just them for a good portion of the first few minutes.

In eight songs, the band showed more maturity, talent and passion than many artists do in a whole tour. Contrary to what might be socially acceptable, the band dedicated their set to Jesus Christ, customary for the professed Christian band. Writing On The Walls, It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door, and Down, Set, Go is a small sample of what was chosen from the incredible repertoire the band has. I could watch them perform every song they have and they’d still keep my attention.

My one complaint would be the incredibly obnoxious lighting that would blind the whole crowd randomly. Besides that, I’m already counting down to the fall’s headlining tour, and you know what I mean when I say, ‘DO NOT MISS UNDEROATH’ if you have a chance to see them.

Photos by Michael Schneider

underoathunderoathunderoathunderoath

Anberlin Interview – March 2007

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Anberlin On March 10th, I was able to sit down with Stephen Christian, lead singer of the band Anberlin, right before they performed for a sold-out crowd at The Glasshouse in Pomona, CA. He was kind enough to take some time out of their insane 2007 schedule and discuss what’s going on in the Anberlin camp!

First things first, introduce yourself however you please!
My name is Stephen Christian, and I am the ruler of the free world…I am the singer of Anberlin as well, It’s my day job.

You’re out on a headlining tour right now, tell me a bit about what that’s been like for you?
The first headlining tour for us, it’s been amazing and it’s been humbling in the fact that all but one show has sold out. It’s my favorite tour of all time because all of the guys get along. Even better, all the bands are not only great musicians and bands that we love but they’re really cool people. It’s definitely the best tour we’ve been on.

Your support is quite diverse musically, who picked the lineup?
We all pitched in and gave our own ideas. Jonezetta is our favorite band on Tooth & Nail right now as far as the new bands coming up, we really wanted to take them under our wing. Meg & Dia we wanted to a chance because their music is solid and we want to see them succeed because we don’t feel like there are enough girls in rock right now. Bayside have been good friends with us for like two and a half years and they just had a record come out so we thought it was perfect.

You made your ‘television debut’ on Craig Ferguson, how comfortable were you guys performing straight in front of the camera?
No way, we were dead nervous! Everybody was just sweating and I was shaking. We actually did a take and a half because my vocal mic was off. Half way through the first take I forgot some of the words. I remembered them at the last second, but I was freaking out cause I was so nervous. Second take was a lot better.

You’re supporting your third full-length album, Cities, how has the response been to the newer material?
It’s really picked up steam as far as people singing along because obviously when you go out on tour the day your CD comes out, a lot of people don’t know the new songs. Each and every night we see more response to the new songs. It’s been awesome, we try and play half old songs and half new songs.
The sales have been great, people seem to love it. The reviews on iTunes seem to be pretty positive for the most part. It’s been really cool.

With Cities you decided to go back with Aaron Sprinkle, what was different this time around?
We didn’t initially want to go with Aaron Sprinkle because we didn’t want to make a Never Take Friendship Pt. II. We started to look around at different producers and really didn’t feel comfortable with any of them. We started to talk to Aaron and think of what we could do differently on this record. He suggested we could get a new engineer, a new studio- we went to this place called London Bridge where they did Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’, Alice in Chains, and Nirvana. We got a new person to mix the record, Chris Shipley, he did Andrew WK’s I Get Wet. We just made it a lot bigger. We made it everything Anberlin was but we made it a lot bigger and a lot fuller. We kind of wanted everything as far as conceptual stuff like the artwork to match the CD, we wanted it to correlate instead of everything pieced together. We had an overall vision of what we wanted the record to look like.

Just out of curiosity, have you been to all of the cities on the online City Pass?
I haven’t been to Hong Kong, I think there was a couple we haven’t. I haven’t been to South Africa, but one of the guys has. I think all but two or three.

After the success of Never Take Friendship Personal, I’m sure you had the option to go major, what made you want to stay with Tooth & Nail?
We haven’t gone back to Tooth & Nail, we’re deciding right now between major and going back. Both have pulls, there’s the security in Tooth & Nail and also the passion and friendship. On the other hand, they have the money, backing, the power and the push. We’re weighing out our options right now, it’s been on our minds the last couple of weeks.

A Full US headlining tour & brand new album is usually a full schedule for bands in three calendar months, but you also headed up a recent trip to India, can you tell me about that?
In May of 2006, we took a whole bunch of our friends, Seth our tour manager and Nate, our drummer to Haiti. We got to work on some humanitarian projects and I realized that it was an experience I wanted to share with as many bands as possible. I approached Tooth & Nail and said, ‘Can I have some bands and some money to help fund this trip to Calcutta?’ Tooth & Nail pitched in thirty percent of everybody’s way there which was awesome. Some bands off of Tooth & Nail came with us, and the same things happened when we got there, I just felt like I wanted to do this again with any bands that want to go. We’re heading up a trip to Nairobi, Kenya this December. We’re just starting to get the project rolling and it’s looking like it’s going to happen!

What was your purpose for going? What did you do while you were there?
We really worked with this organization called Apne Aap (the US go-between is the TEN organization) which is anti-human trafficking for the next generation. Taking girls that might be out on the streets and putting them into a safe environment with education, great leadership, practical skills and some useful tools (Including developing an item to sell here). We thought it was just amazing and something I want to do again. I think we made a definite impression but in the long run we’re still going to support these girls to make sure they have an education for the future.
(Photos from the trip)
I’ve read in interviews, where you ask yourself the question, “what are you going to use your celebrity for?”…it’s obvious that you chose to make an impact where one is very much needed, what was the catalyst to make that choice?
I think it’s a lot of different things. My uncle spent a lot of time in Singapore doing humanitarian work and aid and even at five years old I wanted to do that. At twelve years old my parents brought me to Mexico City to work in the dumps to hand out rice, beans and bananas to as many kids as we could. Little things like that made such a lasting impression on my life. At seventeen, I read Ghandi’s autobiography and in there he said all of these great things and also my faith. My religion says that, ‘pure religion is this, to love the widows and orphans’ and that’s something I connect with. I think everything in life is interwoven, I think it all comes together to serve a greater purpose. It’s just something I want to continue.

Jamie of To Write Love On Her Arms went with you to India and is out with you on tour, how did you first connect with the organization, and what motivated you to bring them with you on tour?
Jamie and I have been friends for years. He tried to steal my girlfriend when I was 20 years old. He buddied up with me cause he really like her and after a couple weeks I was kind of tired of her so I was like, ‘you can have her, it’s no big deal.’ She was as boring as a brick wall. They never ended up hooking up but we became friends through that where years later we reconnected and laughed about the whole thing and then started talking. He worked at a surf brand called Hurley, we’d call each other at least once every other week and just talk. I told Jamie he really needed to get out of here and that this wasn’t what he was called to do, to be working for a surf company. I said, ‘you need to just quit and get out.’ A couple months later, here comes a situation where he gets a chance to write the story. it’s awesome to watch it develop. Ever since the beginning I’ve been a fan of Jamie and whatever he was going to do. I don’t care if it was be homeless or hang out at Hurley for the rest of his life, it just didn’t matter to me. It was something I wanted to get behind. When we saw he was really getting involved in this, Anberlin was the first to sign up. We’ve been a fan of To Write Love and of Jamie’s because he’s such a stellar guy.

Being socially conscious and active has almost become trendy now with the popular movements of organizations like Invisible Children, ONE, and To Write Love On Her Arms, what advice would you give to someone who feels they’re doing their part by giving monetarily, but wants to do more?
The least of it is monetary! America is so good at just casting money at people and saying go solve your own problems. It’s all about volunteer. That’s sad that it’s trendy, I really hope it lasts forever. I hope its a reciprocal process that will never end. There’s organizations you can get involved with like DoSomething.org is a website you can type in your zip code and it will give you a list of things that you can get involved with and volunteer at. There’s great stuff like Habitat For Humanity and World Vision. There’s soup kitchens and orphanages that are great places to start and you don’t have to go overseas to make a difference. It starts in your own community. Definitely get involved. It’s not about the money it’s about making a difference in your community.

Transitioning back a little bit, how are things working out with Christian?
AMAZING. Christian is working out so great, I cannot wait to get him in the band. We’re kind of still feeling him out because we’ve had so many rhythm guitarists in the past. We’re just so stoked cause he adds so much live in his guitar playing but he can sing and his attitude and the whole nine yards. He’s the complete package.

Anchor & Braille is a new musical venture for you, what was the motivation to do that? Can we expect anything else from it?
The motivation is strictly out the fact that I hate sitting around during off time. So Aaron Marsh from Copeland and I decided to work on my project. I had written a lot of songs that I knew weren’t going to be for Anberlin and so I took the next step and asked Aaron to produce. The end of January we put out a vinyl with just two songs on Wood-Water which is a label I started to put my stuff out, I’ve always wanted to run a label. There’s going to be more, we’re going to keep recording more and hopefully around Christmas time next year we’ll have more!

Any last comments?
No, I think that’s it. Thank you very much for the time and thanks for making sure people get involved! I appreciate it.

A huge thank you to Libby Henry and MSO PR for setting up the interview!
Photo by Michael Schneider