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Alex- There's not much to my story, and it's really not that interesting anyway, but here it is. Basically, I believe that the music industry, and the branch known as "rock and roll" is horribly mismanaged. No so called "artist" has really broken through the mold as a "great" rock band since the mid-nineties. We're stuck in a cycle now. The punk influenced people came up and they mixed it with new wave and called it "pop punk", which is one of the biggest oxymorons i can think of. Next will be the glam metal influenced generation, and after that, the grunge kids again. The problem is, the people that are governed by a style of music start to put a formula to it and before long you've lost most of what made the music great to begin with. This trend can only cease through musicians who are talented enough, dedicated enough, and TRAINED to be the best they can be. Our generation may be selfish, but we need to keep our artists from being like that. There's no difference between someone viewed as a musician, and say, someone off the street, and rarely is there any more talent. This trend needs to stop immediately, or our culture could be damaged. If children don't listen to intelligent music, then some of their creativity will be lost as well, why else would doctors say it's good to let your unborn child listen to classical music and that it will encourage development?
We may not be the band to start a renaissance, but we will do everything we can to keep dumb music from your ears. You may not like it, but at least it's thought out.
-Alex Stephens
Clinton - Hello there, everybody. Some of you may remember when I had my own little essay here describing the history of the band but it was basically like Alex's so I got rid of it, but now that he's replaced our history with a rant, then I'll take over.
Let's see, I guess this really starts with Alex, who had been playing drums for a while thanks to band, and wanted to give being in a rock band a shot. I remember him talking to our friend Andrew three years ago or so about song concepts, so the idea of a band had probably been around for ages, but I don't know when it started to become a reality.
Fast forward to very early 2005, when Alex and I were at a shindig, one of our earliest reunions, since we hadn't really been talking for the last few years. We became friends again through a passing comment that I played guitar, and I guess Alex kept me in the back of his mind for a while because he'd occasionally ask if I'd be interested in practicing with him, but I figured I wasn't even close to good enough so I put it off for the first half of that year.
One day in August-ish 2005 Alex called out of the blue, asking if I would be interested in practicing with him and his bandmates Brandon Rock (vocals) and Josh Coffer (guitar). I said ok and showed up. Needless to say, I continued to show up after that and became lead guitarist almost overnight, but for the next few months we never got anything done. Brandon was too self-conscious to even sing for us, and Josh had a serious rhythm problem and had trouble playing anything but stuff he's already worked on religiously. Bass players came and went and I don't think anyone lasted more than a day. So in November or so we kicked Josh and Brandon out, and the same day we practiced with Tony, a guy we had just met. During the short time he was here he completely changed our sound, only playing his songs, and influenced the way Alex and I conduct practice, instead of just screwing around constantly. But of course, he moved away after a couple months, but we ended up forming the soon-to-be-renamed Ultra Blank.
By February Alex and I had given up and I remember we did almost nothing, just working on covers, slowly. Then one day at lunch we were talking to our old, old friend Kody King and he mentioned how he had been playing bass the night before and completely tore up his fingers, leaving bloody pulps. We insisted that he practice with us, but he seemed embarassed that he played. Around that time we also saw a blog by one Mike Hurteau about how he was interested in forming/joining a band, and that he sings, so we picked him up as well. We had a practice with Kody in late February, and on March 1st, all four of us practiced together for the first time. We wrote our first songs (Saving the Sun and Gimme Cheese) that day, and except for a slow summer culminating in a disastrous show in August, we've only gotten better. Now we're playing around Springfield so catch us some time.
- Clinton Houseman
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