Intelligent rock with melodies that will have you singing long after the record is over.

11 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Americana, ROCK: Roots Rock



Details:
Like Summer cohered at a tightly conservative school in the middle of Western Pennsylvania farm country, not exactly a nurturing rock-n-roll haven. Drummer Dan Harding, the first to hear lyricist Steve Gretzâs well-crafted songs, determined that the world should know them. Bassist Trevor Baker and guitarist/keyboard player Ben Hardt rounded out the group. After deliberating for five frustrating months over a name, the group settled on the title of a Gretz original: âLike Summer.â

Band members graduated in waves from college, moving to Pittsburgh, PA and beginning the arduous task of coordinating practice sessions and gigs for members living over an hour apart from each other. This trend would continue throughout Like Summerâs history, interrupted by only three seasons of cohabitation in Pittsburgh. Despite the distance, two EPs were released, whetting fansâ appetites for more with the promise of a full-length release to come.

When the last college degree was finally bestowed, Like Summer moved into a house in Pittsburghâs Arlington Heights neighborhood to record their next album. Juggling odd jobs, band members continued to gig in Pittsburgh and beyond, returning home to the demands of eking out a living and the incessant call of the recording ahead. Gretz found himself sleeping over, under, and sometimes curled around the recording equipment that crowded his room and spilled out into the houseâs furniture-bereft living room. This tangle of amplifiers, drum kits, organs, guitars, and microphones bore an album that would invite listeners to enter into the bandâs world.

Though a seasonâs jumbled togetherness created the beginning of a beautiful project, Like Summer again faced the challenges of geographical distance. Bandleader Gretz moved back home to the New Jersey suburbs while the other three musicians remained in Pittsburgh; the recordings, unfinished, had to be mixed by mail.

The long-awaited album, From Arlington Heights, With Love, was finally released on May 6, 2006, to a capacity crowd at Club Café on Pittsburghâs Southside. Eleven songs deftly navigate the depths of despair, tempered with the euphoria of redemption. Shimmering guitars and pounding piano octaves from opening track âSoonâ set the pulse for the albumâs driving rock tunes. âBlack Coffee In The Afternoonâ romps with a whirling Hammond organ while the humble acoustic of âIâm A Fakeâ sets aching melodies loose in a wash of sobering feedback. Mysterious noises summon the melancholy âMoving On,â yet the album crescendos to a rousing chorus of earnest voices before peacefully fading away.

With the achievement of From Arlington Heights, With Love, Like Summer continues to defy the miles between them, inviting fans into a world of
depth and desire, and promising more heart rending beauty to come.