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.

Hellogoodbye Show Review – Nov 24, 2006

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Hellogoodbye, Reggie & The Full Effect, Cute Is What We Aim For, & Dave Melillo
House of Blues in West Hollywood, CA
November 24, 2006

The House Of Blues, spanning the entire United States in the biggest and most famous cities, you can always count on HOB to put on a quality show. Extensive security and a very short list of items you can bring in (that doesn’t include bottled water or any form of camera) makes for a very different dynamic for a concert. Stage lighting equivalent to that of an arena or broadway performance, I’ll just stick to staying short and say you can definitely expect a “show.” Sorry, no photo pass for this one, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Dave Melillo, one of Drive Thru Record’s youngest artists (signed at age 16), followed the typical DTR format and released an EP entitled “Talk Is Cheap” for free online earlier this year. I’m a big fan of the EP and have been excited to see him perform live ever since hearing it. With a band that couldn’t possibly be out of their teenage years, I was quite skeptical as he stepped on the stage. From the first note it was quite clear that with your eyes closed you’d believe you were listening to someone far beyond his 17 years. Playing his entire EP and the debut song, “Wait For It”- Dave is a true testament to the idea of talented people becoming younger and younger. If this is what he sounds like now, I can only imagine what he will create in the coming years.

I am guilty. 100% guilty. It took countless listens and this being my fourth time seeing the band in concert, but I’m getting past the denial. I am addicted to Cute Is What We Aim For. Now, lyrically they are not my favorite. Songs that speak the truths of popular TV shows like The OC or Laguna Beach, but even though their subject matter isn’t always applicable, I still can identify to nearly every song. If I’m not able to identify, I’m still singing along. This 4-piece from Buffalo, NY has slowly begun to take over the world that is currently run by Fall Out Boy and Panic! and I wouldn’t be surprised if they achieved a complete monopoly by this time next year. Their live show is solid, and Shaant sings quite well considering the energy he exudes on stage. If you’re a hater, you’ll come around. If you’re addicted already, I’m starting a support group soon, let me know if you’d like to join. All in all, I am really impressed with this band and can’t wait to see them again. They’re my pick as the next big thing in pop music.

I said it earlier to a friend of mine, and I’ll say it again. Reggie and the Full Effect was the absolute worst choice for this tour. Not only does their music not fit the pop outline set by the other three acts, but the on-stage comments made by the once admirable James Dewees may very well make it so that half of the 14-year-olds in attendance will never be able to convince their onlooking parents to take them to a concert again. I’m not saying I’m not a fan of them, I actually appreciate their honesty and intensity, but not in this setting. James’ additional performance under his side project “Fluxuation” was NOT funny to anyone in the audience, it caused most of us to turn away from the man only wearing a bra and shorts and his “turkey” dancers. Basically, whatever respect I had for him, I lost.

Finally, after the hour long experience I mentioned above, Hellogoodbye took the stage. A packed out venue filled with frantic teenage girls, family friends, label staff and veteran scenesters was definitely ready to be uplifted. The band took no time changing my mood and performed nearly all of their recorded songs. Bright lights, confetti, balloons that Forrest insisted on pausing from his vocal duties to stomp, people dressed as food, and incredible music were all present in their performance. An amazing encore included “Oh, It Is Love” dedicated by Forrest to his own girlfriend was then supplemented by the audience favorite “Touchdown Turnaround” and an all-crowd dance party ensued. The only thing I could’ve asked for beyond the incredible performance was my personal favorite track “Two Weeks In Hawaii” but I guess you can’t have it all. Hellogoodbye puts on one of the most memorable and fulfilling performances in music today. I would gladly see them play every single night, and I don’t think I’d ever go to bed sad again. I shouldn’t even have to sell this to you so do yourself a favor, GO SEE HELLOGOODBYE LIVE!

Jack’s Mannequin Winter Tour

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The first batch of dates for the Jack’s Mannequin, The Audition, Head Automatica, and a special guest is posted below.

Feb 10 2007 Rocco Theatre Lincoln, Nebraska
Feb 12 2007 Myth Maplewood, Minnesota
Feb 13 2007 The Beaumont Club Kansas City, Missouri
Feb 14 2007 The Pageant st. louis, Missouri
Feb 16 2007 Riviera Theatre chicago, Illinois
Feb 17 2007 State Theatre detroit, Michigan
Feb 18 2007 The Guvernment toronto
Feb 21 2007 The Palladium Worcester, Massachusetts
Feb 22 2007 Water Street Music Hall Rochester, New York
Feb 24 2007 Electric Factory Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Feb 25 2007 9:30 Club washington dc, Delaware
Feb 26 2007 9:30 club washington dc, Delaware
Feb 28 2007 Hammerstein Ballroom new york, New York

Contest Update

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We have two new contests up on the website. We are giving away a copy of Tony Hawk’s new game Project 8 (ends December 1st) as well as a Self Against City (ends December 31st) prize pack! Also be sure to enter our Plus 44, Kaddisfly, and Bright Light Fever contests which will all be ending on November 30th.

Staff Recommendations November 26th 2006

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Bryce Jacobson

There aren’t to many albums coming out this time of year but there is one that fits in perfect. Check out A Santa Cause 2 for a whole bunch of holiday tunes from some of your favorite artists.

Michael Schneider

After attending his live show on Friday with Hellogoodbye, I must recommend Dave Melillo. Since hearing his first demo before he signed to Drive-Thru, I’ve always been impressed, but never expected him the talent I saw in his live performance.

Matt Wertz Follow-up Interview – November 6, 2006

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Matt Wertz

Matt Wertz Interview #2
November 6, 2006 in Malibu, CA

First off, this interview follows up on some of the questions I got to ask Matt earlier this year and you can read those here. Second, I have to appologize it took me this long to post this interview, but here it is! Questions are in bold, Matt’s responses are in normal type.

First things first, who are you?

My name is Matt Wertz, I’m a pop star…an aspiring pop star from Nashville, TN.

Since I talked to you last June a lot has happened with you and your music. “Everything In Between” was released online- how has that been going?

It’s been I great! It’s kind of hard to know what to compare it to, and I think with anticipating the retail release that’s going to happen in early February I just don’t know what to expect. I’m definitely excited to see how the retail release looks cause I’ve never had that before.

How is your relationship with Nettwerk going? The idea you voiced for your own label being distributed through them, how has that been coming along?

That’s exactly what’s happening. They are totally creative and competent when it comes to marketing and getting the word out. I think I will be the first artist that they will be releasing from scratch without having a major label that once backed them. I think everyone is anxious to see how it works. My expectations are based on what I’ve been able to do independently and I know we will at least be able to meet or exceed those. I think having an online outlet for this record has been really helpful. It’s interesting to see how much of a presence the online distribution has taken over since I released 23 Places in 2003. This is a whole new deal.

Everything In Between. I have to first say it is one of my favorite records this year, but I’m curious, some of the songs are quite different from your past releases. Can you tell me what brought this new flare into your music?

I think I wanted to do a record that was very groove heavy that was centered on melody and groove kind of playing with each other. The first song that was written for the record was Like The Last Time and that song was like the bridge to some of the newer songs like The Way I Feel. There are songs that are more straight forward like Carolina that could’ve been on my last record. The beauty about this record is that it was recorded over a year and a half and the songs were written over a period of three years. You get a pretty wide variety of styles in the songs that I don’t know that you got as much on 23 Places. 23 Places varied more in the subject matter, this record follows a relational pattern.

The approach you took to recording the record- the fusion of two separate sessions, can you explain that?

We set out and started approaching the record like we did 23 Places. Ed, my producer, Dave Barnes and I would get together and demo songs. We would put down synthetic instruments and use computer sounds and I’d put down the acoustic parts. If any of us felt an electric part, we’d put that down. It was like we were making rough drafts of the songs. It allowed us to go crazy and put down whatever we heard. We went to the extreme of ideas. As we shared them, we realized we had to limit ourselves to a smaller pallet of sounds and instruments to define the sound of the record.

A lot of this demo-ing took place in the spring and in late July we booked a band for a week and we tracked with them. At that time I was shopping around to a few different labels and we got into this place that I was trying to please them before we were even working together. I felt like I was trying to please everybody. We ended up taking another stab at some of the other songs and by that time I had written some more. We went in as a live band and I brought in Justin Rosolino to play guitar and everything was happening at once. That jacked up the energy level, but from a hook standpoint we lost it, there wasn’t as much thought or planning going into the tracking sessions. We basically melted the two together. That’s kind of the best of both worlds, I really like the hooks and that’s what keeps people listening.

I saw you perform 5:19 on a news show in Boston, do you have any plans to release anything acoustically?

Well, this show tonight is just Justin and I. I always try to do a band tour and then an acoustic duo tour just to keep things fresh. A lot of times as an opener it isn’t feasible to bring a band out financially and logistically. It works great that I can do the songs acoustically and a lot of times people want to hear them like that. It’s a fun break from the norm and I enjoy both.

You’ve put out 3 full-lengths and an EP already, a feat most musicians never see, how do you feel about the music industry now that you’ve been fully exposed?

It’s weird, I feel like I’m always riding under the radar. Sometimes I’m bitter about that cause I’m working really hard but sometimes I’m really thankful. When a lot of my friends who sign to labels are getting dropped, I’m really thankful that I’m able to have a career without the help of a label. When I have friends who sign to a label and seven months later are playing for a thousand people, I realize it’s not possible to do that by yourself. You have to have a machine behind you. I really have been able to stay out of it and I’m not bitter or disillusioned by the industry because I haven’t gotten worked over yet.

I feel like I’ve seen exponential growth in your fan base since I was introduced to your music, what’s your secret?

I don’t know, I have no control over it. As much as it’s growing it could be falling apart and every day I wonder if today is my last day as a musician. Earlier in my career I could see the growth cause it started from nothing. Now I don’t get emails that I can trace how they heard about it and now I can’t. I don’t have any secret, I’m trying to write honest music that excites me. I have to play it every night and I’m just trusting that people will find truth in it and enjoy coming and hearing it.

Tell me about the mocha club.

The mocha club has been a really cool thing to be a part of. It’s really a selfish thing for me. I’m doing this because it makes me feel good that we’re able to do some good here. It is no self-sacrafice, it is totally a selfish move that I’m able to help. It’s better than be selling a hundred records a night. I would rather do something like this because it’s for helping someone other than me and it’s a bigger cause than myself. I have not gone to Uganda to see where the impact is being made but I keep getting reports from my friend Barret who has been working over and it’s been awesome. They wired over $10,000 to start building huts and it’s really going. I’m just trying to figure out when I can make it over.

I’ve been really blessed to be a part of it! I plan on going over there again, the people there are so real. I just feel like they have so much to teach us. We have so much to learn from them. What sucks is so many westerners have gone over there thinking that they’re going to do some good. I think we would be really wise to slow down and just learn from the way they live their lives. Granted, they need a lot of help, a lot of physical needs to be met. Their lives are so simple and their priorities are so right that it’s kind of hard to look at us and think we have much to offer.

Any last words
THANKS!

Brand New – The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me

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Brand New

Artist: Brand New
Album: The Devil & God are Raging Inside Me
Label: Interscope
Purchase: Smart Punk
Release Date: November 21, 2006

Overall: 9.0
Music: 9.0
Lyrics: 9.0
Production: 8.5

Originally leaked as a demo in January, the first track on Brand Newâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s much-anticipated â┚¬Ã‹Å“The Devil & God are Raging Inside Meâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ is called Sowing Season. Much like its demo counterpart, the song starts without a musical introduction, instead breaking into a barely-changed lyric. Missing, however, is the original second verse. Instead, it is replaced with a catchy â┚¬Ã‹Å“I am on the mend/At least now I can say that I am trying/Hope you will forget/The things that I still lackâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s at this point in the album that we can truly see the glory of re-writes. While the original lyric was not a weak one (it was, in fact, a favourite of mine), the re-write fits the song more in terms of theme, tone and overall colour.

After the opening track (also the lead-off single), we delve into â┚¬Ã‹Å“brand newâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ (lame) territory. Millstone is a raw track with a reverberant chorus that laments about the past, and the present (â┚¬Ã‹Å“this ship of fools Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m on will sinkâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢), and appropriately uses the analogy of a millstone around oneâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s neck (in case youâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re unaware, a millstone is defined as an exhaustive emotional or mental burden). Overall, it is a catchy track with understated instrumentation and emotive lyrics, which is typical of the band.

Track three is where it gets serious. â┚¬Ã‹Å“Jesusâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ takes the band in a new direction. Religion is obviously a recurring theme on the album, and this song brings that to the forefront. Neither political, preachy, nor critical, the song can only be described by saying â┚¬Ã‹Å“it is what it isâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢. A humourously analytical verse about what happens after death is one of the best parts of this song (Jesus Christ, Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m not scared to die/Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m a little bit scared of what comes after/Do I get the gold chariot?/Do I float through the ceiling?). The obvious lack of a chorus in the song brings to light a solid fact about the band: they donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t need to conform to songwriting rules in order to write songs that are catchy, relatable and commercial enough to sell. Lyricist Jesse Lacey bares it all on this track, with nothing but a great result.

Degausser is one of the songs that everyone was curious about, having played it frequently on tour this summer under the title of â┚¬Ã‹Å“Take Apart Your Headâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢. Before the release of the album there were rumours circulating regarding this track. The final product is a mellow and subdued track in the verses, which explodes in the chorus with a choral round of â┚¬Ã‹Å“take apart your headâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢. Layering of vocals and muddy instrumentation give this track a unique feeling from the rest of the album.

Track 5 is â┚¬Ã‹Å“Limousineâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢, an almost 8-minute song that starts off with a simple acoustic guitar and haunting vocals. After about two minutes, the song slowly graduates into a more defined piece, with repetitive lyrics (â┚¬Ã‹Å“I love you so much, but do me a favour baby, donâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t replyâ┚¬Ã‚¦ cause I can dish it out, but I canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t take itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢), and building instrumentation. The anticipation builds for about three minutes before the track breaks into a softer denouement and some noise in the last 30 seconds. This song is demonstrative of the experimental edge that the band bares on this record.

Following â┚¬Ã‹Å“Limousineâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ is â┚¬Ã‹Å“You Wonâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t Knowâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢. Aptly titled for its chorus, unlike most of Brand Newâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s obscure song titles, the song has got a catchy melody and an overall busy tone. The lyrics take a back seat to the instrumentation in this song, which is not typical of the bandâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s writing style. The conclusion of the song is my favourite part: â┚¬Ã‹Å“I canâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t use the telephone/To tell you that Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m dead & gone/So you wonâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t know/You wonâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t knowâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢.

A sort of intermission, â┚¬Ã‹Å“Welcome to Bangkokâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ is an instrumental track featuring only sparse spoken vocals saying â┚¬Ã‹Å“Space cadet, pull outâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢. In true Brand New fashion, it starts acoustically and builds into a noisy reverberant chant of distorted guitars, screams, and lots of hi-hat.

â┚¬Ã‹Å“Not the Sunâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ is a more upbeat song that again focuses on vocals and lyrics. One of the more catchy songs on the album (I havenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t been able to get â┚¬Ã‹Å“Wonâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t you be my baitâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ out of my head since acquiring the album), it brings us back to Deja Entendu in terms of lyrical style. A favourite lyric of mine is â┚¬Ã‹Å“Say youâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re my friend, but why wonâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢t you be my family?â┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ Repetitive and fun, the bridge is probably my favorite part of the track. Slowing down the tempo, Lacey repeats â┚¬Ã‹Å“Settle baby, you are not the sunâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢. Overall, it is one of the best tracks on the album.The next track was also leaked as a demo in January. â┚¬Ã‹Å“Lucaâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢, when released as a demo, featured a strong opening lyric (Well I lost my taste for the company of airports and cars/We flew through the year and/Avoided the dust and the rock). The opening lyric on this track, however, I feel pales in comparison (When I disappear, do you fear for the sister I took/ When I disappear, it is clear I am up to no good). Luckily, the majority of the rest of the song stays true to its demo counterpart. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s also one of the more structured songs on the album, which just proves their capabilities as writers. It also presents a recurring theme in their music. Like in â┚¬Ã‹Å“Play Crack the Skyâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢, there are many references to water, which I believe is an ode to their Long Island home.

Untitled (considering the bandâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s history with titles, Iâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢m sure there was some thought that went into titling it â┚¬Ã‹Å“Untitledâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢) is basically another two minute instrumental with muffled vocals repeating â┚¬Ã‹Å“I can never love you, I can never reach youâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢.

The second to last track is â┚¬Ã‹Å“The Archers Bows Have Brokenâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢, which brings back Brand Newâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s affinity for longer titles. Seemingly to have taken influence from The Smiths, the song is driving and one of the poppy-est on the album. To me, the overall tone of the song, specifically the chorus, seems to have been derived from the 9th demo that was leaked in January. I could be wrong, but when I listen to this song I hear a lot of similarities. Overall, it is probably one of my favorite tracks, and is in some ways reminiscent of Brand Newâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s first album.

The last track of the album is â┚¬Ã‹Å“Handcuffsâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢. Written by Vinnie Accardi, as opposed to usual lyricist Jesse Lacey, the song starts out a lot like â┚¬Ã‹Å“Play Crack the Skyâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢ with the count in and acoustic guitar. Due to its stripped down nature, and simple lyrics, itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s definitely one of my favorite tracks on the album. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s a great way to close the album, as well, and the string arrangement is very complimentary to the tone.

Overall, the album speaks volumes for the direction in which the band is headed. Itâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢s a great compilation of some of their best work to date, and while it may dissuade some of the fans that prefer their poppier work, it seems truly artistic and original to me.

Tracklisting
1. Sowing Season (Yeah)
2. Millstone
3. Jesus Christ
4. Degausser
5. Limousine
6. You Won’t Know
7. Welcome to Bangkok
8. Not the Sun
9. Luca
10. Untitled
11. Archers
12. Handcuffs