pop, rock, confrontational pop

4 MP3 Songs
POP: Power Pop, ROCK: Modern Rock



Details:
I was raised on pop music. I mean, let's just be honest - very few of us were given the Minutemen with our juiceboxes. But you start finding the other stuff over time - my family moved to Seattle and I integrated myself into a really cool local music community where no one genre necessarily dominated another. Or maybe the world gets bigger when you're a teenager. Some friends (who you may know from the late Racetrack and the still around Patience Please) and I formed a pop band with an unfortunate name when I was 14. When I wasn't allowed to change any settings on the amp I had to borrow for our first show, the pop band became a grungy, crunchy pop band. I fell in love with playing those kinds of songs. When the band ended (as they sometimes do), I began coming to terms with the concept of being a "solo artist."

I went into the studio (Orbit Audio) a while later (there were, of course, assorted non-musical life happenings in the meantime - lackluster day-jobs, a premature trip through college, fucked up relationships and things like that) and recorded This is the Team with Joe Reineke (who's also worked on stuff for Pavement, Frank Black and School Yard Heroes) in charge of spaceship operations and Chris Thompson-Pratt (who did some severe rocking with Shook Ones) hitting drums like there was no tomorrow. I played everything else because I kind of had to. Not in a Billy Corgan way, but mostly in an, "I couldn't really find anyone else but I do know how my songs go," way. There are four songs on the EP. I think all of them are about being angry and disappointed but determined to hope. Some people think they're about loving people who don't love me back. Whatever works for you. The guitars are rather raunchy, which I like. (Which might be a little funny because I do frequently play solo and acoustic live. You should come see what that's like!) Some people say This is the Team reminds them of Liz Phair, others say Josie and the Pussycats (circa the movie with Rachel Leigh Cook and Tara Reid. But I think Letters to Cleo, or at least the girl from LTC, did the soundtrack?). Some people impress me by drawing parallels with non-female musical reference-points, like Ted Leo or Matthew Sweet or, "that one Jimmy Eat World song, you know?"

Anyway, I'm in school again (this time in Los Angeles) and also traveling quite a bit, but what's relevant here is that I'm writing a ton of new stuff lately for a full-length release. Hopefully the determined/hopeful thing becomes more obvious. But since hope is so passive, hopefully there's more to it than that.

For now, though, you can get the This is the Team EP [here] or at one of my shows (or, in all likelihood, if you see me walking anywhere). But more importantly, be what you want, do something amazing and don't rely on anyone else to change your life/world/etc. for you - you are the team. Please keep the dream alive.