Cold War Kids - Mulberry Street EP

Cold War Kids - Mulberry Street EP

The Soloist In The Living Room

Heavy Boots

Quiet, Please!

The Wedding

In Harmony In Silver

Don't Let Your Love Grow Away (From Me)

Producer: Matt Wignal

Label: Monarchy Music (2005)

The Mulberry Street EP is the debut release by Long Beach natives Cold War Kids. The EP is named after an italian restaurant in Fullerton, CA that guitarist Jonnie Russell lived above. It was called the Mulberry ST. Ristorante. The band's work on this EP closely resemble the sounds of the Velvet Underground circa The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) and White Light/White Heat (1968). "Heavy Boots" appears as a b-side on the UK pressing of the "Hang Me Up To Dry" single (V2, 2007). "Quiet, Please" and "In Harmony In Silver" were both included on the UK pressing of the "We Used To Vacation" single.

Cold War Kids is:

Nathan Willett (vocals, piano, guitar)

Matt Maust (bass guitar)

Jonnie Russell (guitar, piano, vocals)

Matt Aveiro (drums)

Kenji Chan and Friends

Kenji Chan & Friends is the funk/motown/jazzfusion work of guitarist Kenji Chan. I first met Kenji while he was playing with local Torrance, CA band Best Interest. Before the band released their debut full-length "Camera Shy But Still A Star," Chan left the group to tour with Meg & Dia for a year. Eventually he found his way back home --Gardena, CA--and that's where we await he much anticipated release of "Gardena.". Kenji Chan & Friends features good friend and ex-bandmate Christopher Crandall on percussion (Best Interest).

Kenji Chan & Friends - Spring '09 Teaser >>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMn_6oK9kRU&feature=related

Kenji Chan & Friends - Free Love

Entrance @ The Wicked Shamrock Lompoc, CA 2.18.10

Entrance is the definition of psychedelic in every way, shape, and form. Here's some live footage of them playing "Lookout!" (The Entrance Band, Tee Pee Records 2009) during their show at the Wicked Shamrock in Lompoc, CA.

Silence On A Crowded Train >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vg4Hj9P_Y4&feature=related

MLK >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZcUaiI-mv4&feature=related

Still Be There >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LzxNXhkoVA&feature=related

The Starting Line - Classic Jazz

Classic Jazz is an unreleased song by The Starting Line that was recorded during the time of the Make Yourself At Home EP. It sounds like a mixture between recordings on Based On A True Story and Vasoli's early ambitions with Person L. It's all about kicking back with your friends and getting out of trouble-- "dash to the back porch where we laugh and we pass to the left and reflect on expected repetitiveness." One time through this gem and you'll find yourself flying around and to the sun.

Yellowcard - The Underdog EP

Yellowcard - The Underdog EP

Underdog

Avondale

Finish Line

Powder

Rocket

Producer: Nick Rucker

Fueled By Ramen Records (2002)

Yellowcard released The Underdog EP on Fueled By Ramen Records in July of 2002. The 5-song EP captures band's transition between One for the Kids (Lobster Recrods, 2001) and the renowned Ocean Avenue (Capitol Records, 2003).

The first song "Underdog" is simply a ballad for any underdog. It's for the kids that were "picked last for the big ball game" and who were "beat up after class." By the end of this song, the underdog has risen and is ready to make a change -- "showed up one day you were not the same / you won't be the last one anymore"

"Avondale" was written by lead singer Ryan Key about Inspection 12's Dan McLintock because apparently the two had some beef back in the day. Key and McLintock were both members of the Jacksonville-based pop-punk band Craig's Brother. The song's title comes from the part of town that McLintock was from and the song itself references the Inspection 12 song "Doppelganger." The Yellowcard lyrics read: "I stuck a knife into his back, inventiveness is what I lack, he's always hanging up on loyalty." The Inspection 12 lyrics read: "so take the knife out of my back, inventiveness is what you lack and I wont stand for this disloyalty." Don't worry folks, the two are friends again!

My personal favorite song from this release is "Finish Line." The song was written in honor of Yellowcard's good friends in The Starting Line--the two of which had toured together in their earlier years. "The finish line is almost here and someone softly whispers in my ear, that times like these are memories to hold deep down inside of you and me"

"Powder" is about drug abuse--according to lead singer Ryan Key, Oxycodone.

"Rocket" delivers a solid ending to the EP. The lyrics, "the two of us we dream as one--the two of us, the two of us / the two of us take breath like one--the two of us, the two of us" were later used in "Inside Out" featured on the groups 2003 release Ocean Avenue.

Bass guitarist Peter Mosely, who recorded on The Underdog EP (2002), Ocean Avenue (2003), Lights and Sounds (2004), and Paper Walls (2007), was also a member of Insepction 12.

Associated acts:

Big If

Craig's Brother

Yellowcard is:

Ryan Key (vocals, guitar)

Ben Harper (guitar)

Warren Cooke (bass guitar)

Sean Mackin (violin)

Longineu W. Parsons III (drums)

Yellowcard (1997 - 2008 hiatus)

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)