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From the Weekender, Volume 13 issue 43, featuring us on the cover.
Lessen One breaking through in NEPA
With its fan base growing, the edgy, hard-working regional band releases new CD, "Thousand Words."
By Alan K. Stout Weekender Editor
There's one thing for certain about the local music scene in recent years, and that's been that NEPA has been one tough nut to crack. Some new and upcoming bands arrive with plenty of hype, yet despite their talent, can't fill rooms, or get bookings. Some of the once mighty NEPA players have fallen in popularity or disbanded, and as we all know, some of the best rock clubs have closed.
Sure, people are certainly much more open to original music than they were five or 10 years ago, but overall, our once vibrant rock scene - which at one time had plenty of bands that could draw hundreds of people on any given night - is fairly dry.
One group, however, which is releasing its first full-length CD this week, has been cracking NEPA's tough musical exterior. They've been doing it quietly, without a lot of pomp, over the course of the past three years, yet if you take a look at their monthly schedule, you'll find them to be one of the regions busiest bands and it's not uncommon to see them playing 15-20 shows per month at clubs such as Outsiders, Ole Tyme Charley's, Brews Brothers, Tink's, Leary's, Nightcaps and Heil's Place.
Lessen One is everywhere, all the time, rocking clubs, kicking some ass, sharing some laughs and entertaining a town that, for whatever reasons in 2006, seems tough to entertain. And, just as it finds itself joining the ranks of NEPA's most popular bands, it is dropping its first full-length CD, "Thousand Words."
One listen to the CD reveals a sound somewhat unorthodox to the local music scene, or the national music scene, for that matter. The arrangements are un-formulaic. It's not metal. It's not pop. It's not roots-rock. It is, more than anything, is a true alternative-rock album, which the band says is no accident.
"All of the songs that we play when we go out - Stone Temple Pilots, or The Toadies, or the Red Hot Chili Peppers - that's really where a lot of our writing inspiration comes from," says guitarist Kevin Callahan, who along with his four bandmates, recently swung by the Weekender office to talk about the new album. "Sometimes, in reference, well even say 'Yeah, thats our Alice In Chains tune.' That definitely comes out of us."
Still, drummer Rob Burns says the band puts no limit on how it crafts its songs, nor does it have a musical agenda.
"We don't consciously think 'Is this going to fit in to a certain genera'", says Burns. "We just kind of make some music, and if it works, it works. We never say 'That sound sounds too hard,' or 'Thats too poppy.' We don't really like to classify stuff, or fit into some type of classification."
Lessen One, formed in 2003, also features Jaconda Cortazzo on lead vocals and guitar, Steve Husted on guitar and vocals and Andy Sleboda on bass. The new CD was recorded at Sound Investments recording studio in Scranton and includes three remixed tunes that were included on the band's "Something Im Missing" EP, which was released in April, as well as six new tracks. Titles include "Lost," "Stop and Stutter," "Impossible Love," "Drone," "See You Next Tuesday" and "The Smallest Oceans."
Perhaps the band's fiery, tough-to-pigeonhole, alt-rock sound comes from its additional eclectic range of influences, which, collectively, also include the Dave Matthews Band, Tool, The Deftones, Steely Dan, Rush, Bill Evans, Django Reinhart, Helmet, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Incubus, Glassjaw, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Beatles, Pearl Jam, The Rolling Stones, classical music and jazz. As for what inspires their songs' lyrics, well ... for that, they tend to stick to two old tried and true muses.
"It cliché as hell to say it, but booze and women," says Cortazzo with a smile, when asked what inspires him to write songs. "It's all about booze and women. I've gotten my heart stomped on quite a few times, and music is the easiest way to take it out. It's funny, because you're lying in bed at 3 o'clock in the morning with whomever, and they'll say, 'You're not going to write a song about me if we break up, are you? You won't be mean?' And its like, 'No, no I would never do that about you,' and then we have a song called 'See You Next Tuesday,' and there's some obvious implications there ...
"Whatever I'm feeling at the moment, I just try to get it down, and get my frustrations it out. I think I'd go insane if I didn't do it."
Ultimately, Cortazzo says that Lessen One is not unlike most songwriters. First, they hope listeners are drawn in by the song's hooks, and, after diving into the lyrics a bit deeper, they hope listeners can put themselves into the songs.
"I hope it's therapeutic for them as well, to know that other people are going through the same kind of things," he says. "I like when people make connections to music. I like listening to a song and thinking 'Wow, that was written for me.' It could be about something completely different, but I'll I think 'I know exactly what that guy is going through.' And I've already had people come up to me and go, 'I broke up with my girlfriend, or my boyfriend, a couple of weeks ago, and listening to your stuff, I just want to play it for them, and say 'That's how I feel.' And that's really cool. I hope they get that out of it."
Cortazzo says such empathy with the audience goes beyond music, and even comes into play when the band selects its on-stage wardrobe, or, more truthfully, lack there of. Lessen One, like many of the '90s alt-rock acts from which it drew inspiration, is a jeans and t-shirts band. Cortazzo says the lack of pretense is reflective of band's philosophy on life.
"You'll never see me in leather pants, or some kind of silly getup," he says, adding that what the band's members wear throughout the day is also what they wear to gigs. "We want people to say 'I sat next to that guy in English class,' That's the kind of feel we want when people come to a show. But then ... we get up on stage, and then we rock, and they're like 'Holy crap!'"
Guitarist Steve Husted, (who recently joined the staff of the Weekender as a graphic artist), agrees. He says it's not uncommon for the band, if they are playing a new club for the first time, to go unnoticed among the crowd before they take the stage. Nor, here in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, is it uncommon for other area musicians to be in attendance and get up on stage for a song or two. Even Aaron Fink from Breaking Benjamin has jammed with the band.
"Everybody that comes to a show - they're all our friends, and all our peers," says Husted. "But when we get up on stage, we have this energy, and we're like different people. I could be having the worst day and Kevin and I can be at each others throat's, but as soon as we hit the first note, it's gone."
In addition to originals, Lessen One offers covers of tunes by bands such as Brand New, Incubus, Foo Fighters, Weezer, The Gorillaz, The Toadies, Tool, Pearl Jam, Franz Ferninand and System of A Down. They also recently began offering a cover of The Beatles 'Rocky Raccoon' and a Led Zeppelin medley.
Husted says the name of the group is not a play on the word "lesson," as many assume, but rather a true use of the word "lessen." The concept of the band, he says, is to be honest about your life's experiences, which often include loss.
"We're not five guys who write songs," he says. "We're five artists who write music."
Cortazzo agrees.
"There's a little bit of everybody in every song," he says. "Lyrically and conceptionally, what I try to get at, a lot, is truth. Just being true to yourself ... I think that's the whole point of this band - the way we write music, the way we play music, and the way we perform.
From Diamond City, Volume 2, Number 25.
Lessen One's 'Thousand Words'
By: Gene Padden, d.c. editor
This CD of originals by the popular cover band is easily worth a thousand listens
OK, we'll bite. Thousand Words is what Lessen One wants you to hear.
So you know what? The least we can do is spend a thousand discussing L1's Thousand.
So count 'em. A thousand words about the least annoying self-proclaimed cover band we've ever heard.
To justify that intro, let's clarify. Think of all the reasons the skeptical "original" musician hates a cover band. Let's see, there are the cover charges. Then, the stolen songs passed off as their own among party playlists that merely regurgitate the same bullshit you had to listen to at work all day.
But the numero uno? Definitely the unjustified, unremarkable ad-libbing of otherwise universally respected material. How many times have you heard one of these bands butcher a classic song with its self-involved, "look what a great musician I am," licks and tricks?
It happens every night, everywhere, with bands jerking off all over time-tested classics like Metallica's "Enter Sandman," the cover-band staple "Blister in the Sun," and anything in the Stone Temple Pilots or Rage Against the Machine catalogs.
Some party bands take these unbreakable songs and destroy them for the sake of their own egos. And to make matters worse, that sort of self-infatuation crosses over into the realm of studio recordings, and that's why so many cover bands release shitty CDs.
Note: this epidemic isn't as rampant in Northeastern Pa. as it is in say, Central Pa.
Lessen One is a local counter balance - clearly one of the few exceptions to the rule. On a typical night, the band covers the gamut of pop and rock hits, and does what's expected of a proven group of bonafide musicians. It leaves well enough alone, and in some cases, actually performs the material with more tact than the original artists.
There are no masturbatory guitar solos, there are no cheesy little drum fills at the end of each phrase, and vocally, there's no attempt to fake the high notes by tossing out falsettos left and right and hoping for the best.
Watching a typical set, it's obvious this is a group with god-given ears and a respect for the artists it covers. And on record, Lessen One is god damn explosive.
Lessen One is Jaconda Cortazzo, vocals, guitar; Steve Husted, guitar, vocals; Kevin Callahan, guitar, vocals; Rob Burns, drums; and Andy Selboda, bass. Instead of making the mistakes that countless cover bands have made prior - recording albums that emulate all too closely the weak Top 40 artists they cover - Lessen One went up to Sound Investments in Scranton and recorded a CD that could care less what the recording industry expects.
"We play covers," said Husted. "But people like us because we're energetic and we know everyone at our shows. We shake everybody's hands. And we've reached the point where the crowd reacts better if we close our show with one of our own songs like 'Drone' or 'See You Next Tuesday,' where it used to be we'd use 'Killing in the Name of.'
"We're not always writing for hooks or for radio. We're five guys that write as one, and I have to say I am proud of every single note on this album - finally."
Husted said the band laid out close to $12,000 to record and promote the CD, and it sounds like every penny went to good use. Subtle nuances like Burns' use of an obscure gong technique and the band&..39;s explosive appreciation for dynamics do not go unnoticed.
"Justin of OurAfter produced our record, and he would say things like parts of some songs were cliché and boring and that we should go back and actually do some writing instead of leaving parts there just because they feel like they belong," said Husted. "We need to hear that, and we have such great, trained musicians, that it was easy to fix."
Although Husted said the band doesn't try to write hooks every time, there are certain tunes that have undeniable hit potential. Track 3, titled "Drone," slams heavily for having so much melody, and could easily be considered a Warped Tour anthem if only it could clock in below the 4:00 mark.
Then there's a track called "The Longest Lie" (which does barely finish in less than 4:00), a song that feels like an Incubus-esque tribute to the Knight Rider theme song. Then there's the super sing-able "Stop & Suffer," a tune that sinfully relates to its collegiate demographic. It's an anthemic track that sends sorority sisters into each other's arms, swaying back and forth to a band that has successfully discovered the quintessential balance of "catchy" and "artsy" that up-and-coming bands strive for.
"A lot of bands around here, and I don't need to name any names, try too hard to cater to different genres, and there's only so far you can go before it just gets cheesy," Husted said. "Our album has a certain element of corny to it, but we put it there. It's things like some songs that we wrote in a 7/4 time signature, but then they roll back to 4/4 so you can tap your foot again."
For Lessen One, the toughest task of writing a respectable, well-produced CD is taken care of. Now, the band must break the NEPA cover-band perception of over-saturating the market and dying a slow and painful death.
"We're scaling down everything now while trying to pay back all the money we owe," Husted said. "We don't want to be playing King's College four times in one week or three clubs on the same street in one weekend. It's too much. We're also working in 45-minute sets of our own music and we want that out there.
"I have really never been cocky about anything in my life. But I think this is a CD that will make people think twice about us."
