Northstar - Is This Thing Loaded?

Northstar - Is This Thing Loaded?

Rigged And Ready

Is This Thing Loaded?

Broken Parachute

My Ricochet

My Wishing Well Disease

Taker Not A Giver

Daybreak

Train Hopping In Dixieland

Cinderella

Black Heart Valentine

Produced by: Jesse Cannon

Triple Crown Records (2002)

Nick Torres described his hometown of Huntsville Alabama as a stagnant hole with no music scene where the only things to do were drink and play guitar. Like many bands from the early scene, the motivation to escape a somewhat inevitable fate proved enough to start a band--thus came Northstar in '97. The group underwent numerous lineup alterations as a three-piece, four-piece, and a five-piece all before signing to Triple Crown Records in the summer of 2002.

"Is This Thing Loaded?" is the groups debut album on Triple Crown Records and features Nick Torres (lead vocals, guitar), Tyler Odom (lead guitar, vocals), Shawn Regan (bass guitar, vocals), and Gabe Renfroe (drums). Regan was replaced by Jake Fisher, who had left the band just before their signing to Triple Crown, for the recording of the group's final release: "Pollyanna (2004)."

"Rigged And Ready" was the album's single which describes the difficulties of heroin abuse: "birthmarked my arms in vein" / "shooting bullets through my blood, the bullets barely missed my brain" / "and fly for five days around my bedroom in a haze" etc.

"Broken Parachute" is supposedly written for Torres' father whom supposedly died in a sky diving accident. Much of the song alludes to the need to escape the pains of reality as a result of the loss of his father. The line, "one million miles from the city where the lights won't burn our eyes, that is where the wild things are, that's where gold falls from the sky" references Maurice Sendak's children's book "Where The Wild Things Are"-- the "city" symbolizing the the land of the Wild Things where everything is much happier. The line, "I know somewhere my life won't be like this, pulling out the poison with a kiss on the bottle's lips" reinforces this notion but from an aphotic perspective--the phrase "pulling out the poison with a kiss on the bottle's lips" clearly alluding to drinking his pain away...but also referencing the Jawbreaker song "Kiss The Bottle." (Northstar released a cover of Jawbreaker's Chesterfield King on their b-sides compilation Broken Parachute put out by Speak Music Media in 2008.)

During a show in Orangevale, California in 2003, Northstar paid homage to their good friends in Taking Back Sunday by intertwining a part of "Cute Without The E/Cut From The Team" at the end of "Taker Not A Giver" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6jJJWgiasw)

The song "Daybreak" was written by lead guitarist Tyler Odom and is the only song not written by Torres.

"Train Hopping In Dixieland" honors the band's roots in Alabama--as the state is known as the heart of dixie.

Huntsville is also home to the historic Redstone Arsenal-- the U.S. Army post where Wernher von Braun developed the Saturn V moon rocket during the mid 1960's.

Associated acts:

Cassino (Torres, Odom)

Stars Below

Destry (Odom)

Northstar is:

Nick Torres (lead vocals, guitar)

Tyler Odom (lead guitar, vocals)

Jake Fisher (bass guitar, vocals)

Gabe Renfroe (drums)

Northstar (1997 - 2005)

Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window

Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window

I Want To Save You

Punk Rock Princess

I Woke Up In A Car

iF yoU C Jordan

The Astronaut

Hurricane

Cavanaugh Park

Fall

Straw Dog

Good News

Drunk Girl

Not What It Seems

You're Gone

Globes & Maps

Produced by: Jim Wirt

Drive Thru Records / MCA (2002)

Leaving Through The Window was the much anticipated full-length, debut album from Orange County, California's Something Corporate. The album was released on Drive Thru Records/MCA in 2002 and features rerecorded versions of the Audioboxer EP's "(Hurricane) The Formal Weather Pattern", "Punk Rock Princess", "iF yoU C Jordan"; and Ready...Break's "Cavanaugh Park", "Straw Dog", "Drunk Girl".

"I Want To Save You" references the band's good friends and labelmates New Found Glory in the opening verse: "standing on the edge of morning, scent of sex and New Found Glory". McMahon and New Found Glory's lead singer Jordan Pundik had lived together for an unknown period of time. The song was also featured in the infamous online game [Emo Game 1.5: Alkaline Trio vs. Hell] as you descend into the fiery underworld to begin your journey.

"Punk Rock Princess" and "I Woke Up In A Car" are the only singles released from Leaving Through The Window--both in 2003. The song "I Woke Up In A Car" pays homage to all of the bands they've ever toured with.

"The Astronaut" was played for the Space Shuttle Discovery on July 17, 2006 (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news/sts121/STS-121-26_prt.htm). McMahon also references the song in the chorus of "La La Lie"--taken from Jack's Mannquin's Everything In Transit (Maverick, 2005). The line: "the spaceman that can't get high" refers to "calling out to the astronaut, I need some of what you've got. I need to be high" (The Astronaut, Leaving Through The Window, 2002).

"Cavanaugh Park" is about an actual park that Andrew frequented as a kid. It's located off the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) just northwest of the Laguna Hills Mall. *The name of this blog, "My Friend Adam" is taken from the verse: "at Cavanaugh Park we used to get high watching teams as they fought, they loved my friend adam but he always got caught, man that kid made fucking up look cool, aren't we all so cool? no no..."

Something Corporate's Leaving Through The Window is my all-time favorite album--not simply because of its rampant musicianship or honest lyricism; but because of what it represents and what it means to me--it's everything I used to be, everything I am today, and everything I ever dreamed of being. This album changed the way I view, listen, and love music.

Something Corporate is:

Andrew McMahon (vocals, piano, hammond)

Brian Ireland (drums, percussion, background vocals)

Josh Partington (guitar, background vocals)

William Tell (guitar, background vocals)

Clutch (bass, background vocals)

Something Corporate (1998 - 2006)

Something Corporate - Audioboxer EP

Something Corporate - Audioboxer EP

(Hurricane) The Formal Weather Pattern

iF yoU C Jordan

Punk Rock Princess

Bad Days

Little

Walking By

Produced by: Jim Wirt

Drive Thru Records (2001)

The Audioboxer EP was Something Corporate's first release on Drive Thru after being signed in early 2001. The EP features the first releases of "(Hurricane) The Formal Weather Pattern"; "iF yoU C Jordan", and "Punk Rock Princess"--all of which were rerecorded for Leaving Through The Window (Drive Thru, 2002). "Little" and "Walking By" were also rereleased on the band's debut album; but only as bonus tracks on the UK/Japan pressings.

"(Hurricane) The Formal Weather Pattern", was written by Partington during an oceanography class (which he claims nobody ever went to) and was originally selected to be the EP's single. However, the band decided to go with "iF yoU C Jordan" out of respect to their fans' unprecedented love for it. "Jordan", peaking at #29 on the Alternative Songs chart, remains the band's highest charting single.

The remaining five songs on the EP are credited to McMahon-- the band's primary lyricist. He actually refers to "Walking By" in the second verse of "Into The Airwaves"; the final track on his solo project, Jack's Mannequin's debut release: Everything In Transit (Maverick Records, 2005). He states, "from the corner by the studio, the gold-soaked afternoon comes slow. I deconstruct my thoughts and I am, walking by." In the chorus of "Walking By", McMahon also references the Cheshire Cat; presumably the one from Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland: "so why do you leave these stories unfinished, my cheshire cat doorstop with tears in your eyes." In an interview series called "Under The Skin," he describes a tattoo that he wants to get of the Cheshire Cat preaching to Alice: "if you knew what I do of time, you wouldn't talk of wasting it." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tnxl7b0t6o)

Although McMahon has yet to publicly detail the influences behind "Walking By", it is my personal interpretation that the lyrics "and these nights I get high just from breathing. When I lie here with you I'm sure that I'm real like the fireworks over the freeway" refer to Disneyland's extravagant firework show, which can be seen from the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5). I say this because Something Corporate is from Orange County, California and frequently played the circuit of small venues in the surrounding area (ie. Chain Reaction, House of Blues, The Grove).

"Punk Rock Princess" is the revised version of the piano ballad "Heroine"--featured on the band's Galaxy Sessions (2001).

"Little" is featured in the closing credits of Something Corporate's 2nd dvd: "Live at the Ventura Theater (Drive Thru/Geffen, 2004)

Something Corporate is:

Andrew McMahon (piano, b3, vocals)

William Tell (guitar)

Josh Partington (guitar)

Kevin "Clutch" Page (bass)

Brian Ireland (drums)

Something Corporate (1998 - 2006)