Marvelous3

You've heard the tunes and you love them. So now who ARE these guys who make the music? I'm here to tell you... read on and be amazed, scared, confused, thrilled, and mystified... Marvelous 3 are a great band from Atlanta. They were chosen as Atlanta's "Best Rock N' Roll Band" in 1997 from the strong support behind their first indie release "Math & Other Problems." With a second indie release, called "Hey! Album" and strong support from radio behind their single "Freak of the Week", the Marvelous 3 finally got the recognition they long deserved! They signed with HiFi/Elektra and released a revamped version of "Hey! Album" as their first big label album. Their first single, "Freak of the Week" tore up the charts and woke up radio stations and new fans around the world! Yes, not just country, but WORLD... Besides getting strong airplay in the USA from such influential stations as Atlanta's "99x", "Freak of the Week" got plenty of airplay in such countries as England, and was one of the most added tracks on Australia's powerfully influential "Triple J." In 1999 M3 hit all the major night talk shows, including Letterman, Conan, and Leno. They also were talked about in such magazines as Metal Edge, Guitar, Guitar World, and People. Marvelous 3 played in some of 1999's biggest concert events, including Hard Rock RockFest. Tours of theirs included the coveted opening spot for Collective Soul, as well as a few of their own headlining tours. 2000 saw the release of Marvelous 3's third effort, ReadySexGo. They released 2 singles off of it, Sugarbuzz and Get Over. They also made appearances on more big name television shows such as The WB's Charmed. They toured with the likes of SR-71, Tsar, Dynamite Hack, and A. Coming along on tour with them this time was another guitar player, JJ, to help fill in the big guitar sound of ReadySexGo. One of the biggest moments of 2001 for the Marvelous 3 was headlining Music Midtown, a very big festival in Atlanta. All of this success wasn't overnight. The guys in Marvelous 3 have paid their dues to the music biz by being involved in other projects for the past 10 years such as being members of "Southgang," "The Floyds," and "Floyd's Funk Revival." Through all of that, there was 3... Marvelous ain't it? The Marvelous 3 put out the kind of back flipping/knee buckling power pop you just don't hear anymore. Having already been compared to sprightly pop icons such as Joe Jackson and Cheap Trick, the band has made their native Atlanta safe again for vigorous pop bands hungry for some good ol' fashioned stardom.For Marvelous 3, whose Elektra debut Hey! Album was one of the most unapologetic arena-pop records of 1999, the formula for their much anticipated follow-up is a simple one: More mayhem, please. "We toured non-stop last year, just one big party on the road," begins charismatic vocalist/guitarist Butch Walker. "Anyone who sees us live or hangs out with us knows were just a crazy bunch of lucky punks, that somehow convinced somebody to sign us and put out our record. We wanted to make a record that captures what were about live. Weve never really done it until now." The result is a 13 song, rip-roaring masterpiece that ups the ante of its acclaimed predecessor in every way. ReadySexGo took five months to make, but as Butch describes, a lifetime to get just right. "Last year was a celebration of success, while the first album depicted the fucked up perils of my love life, and my struggles five years ago. Right before Freak (smash hit Freak Of The Week) became a hit song, I was trying to get my band a deal, while playing 300 shows a year, sleeping on club floors, and driving a $100 Volvo station wagon. This album rocks with the kind of attitude thats held us together all these years. We went out last year and had the best year we have ever had in our entire lives! We toured the world, sold more records than we ever could have done on our own, and met a lot of wonderful people. But, I still have a few smart ass remarks about past relationships in there."Butch has never been more on-point with ReadySexGo, his searing voice crackling around every sharp turn that bassist Jayce Fincher and drummer Slug can throw at him. Pulverizing rock seeps out of every M3 pore, including incendiary anthems like "Grant Park" and "SugarBuzz", as well as the over-the-top-pyro-rock of "Better Off Alone" and "Beautiful". The album was produced by Butch and much sought after studio whiz Jerry Finn (Blink 182, Rancid, Green Day), with some special guest appearances for added inspiration."While we were on the road we ended up playing with everyone you could imagine - Lit, Orgy, Buckcherry, Blink182. We realized a lot of these guys were in rival bands when we were still playing on the strip at the tail end of the hair band days. It was all about moving to L.A., getting a stripper girlfriend to support your drinking habit, and promoting, f*cking, stealing, and lying your way to the top of the rock and roll food chain. We all somehow survived that whole gnarly, decadent scene, by our late teens. Theres not a lot we havent all seen, done, or experienced. This is what a lot of our peers have in common with us. We have a great bond together. A lot of us have the same goal, to bring back the celebration part of rock. Lets just say that Cigarette Lighter Rock is the feel that I wanted on the record and we were honored to have these other bands step up and add to ReadySexGo."Contributors to the album include Lits Jeremy Popov, Buckcherrys Yogi, and Roger Manning Jr., of Jellyfish and Beck fame, among several others. But its no surprise Butch was able to enlist such a high caliber of rock talent. M3 has earned their stripes as one of rocks most resilient outfits. Their 1997 indie release, Math And Other Problems, took their native Atlanta by storm, garnering the band four local music awards. The buzz began to spread about their tremendous live show, with their original, self-made version of Hey!Album coming out on Butchs own record company in 1998, setting the stage for their Hi-Fi Elektra deal that landed them in the studio with Butch and Jim Ebert co-producing. Released at the end of 1998, their first single "Freak Of The Week" became one of the most played radio records of 99. Great reviews followed, with M3 snagging raves for both their breakthrough disk and their live show. Said Entertainment Weekly about the trio: "They deserve to be huge."So how about it? Just how far can Butch push it? "It sounds like a cliché, but you can have nightmares about the music industry. You cant let the concern about numbers and hits and all that overshadow the love for the music."In typical fashion, Butch wrote a song about that very subject, the explosive "Radio Tokyo". "That actually came from a dream. I dreamt about a pirate radio station that kids can only listen to from midnight to six am. The kids listen to it because it plays everything, while the government controlled stations only play what they want you to hear. So they overthrow the government and have artistic and musical freedom to listen to what they want. Moral: be your own person."Its a credo M3 has followed since day one. "In the 90s rock was so pc. It also, as human nature dictates, changed its face and style. You know when it went from spandex, big hair, and fringe of the 80s (gross.), to combat boots, cutoff camo shorts, and goatees. Nobody thought that shit would go out of style, and then all of the sudden everybody is trading it all in for backwards baseball caps, chain wallets, baggy pants, and bucket hats. I love to see the evolution of style and music, but everyone must understand, that everything changes. In 5 years, we will be looking at pictures and listening to the "90s retro flashback hour" on the radio, and saying, what the f*ck was I thinking! All Im saying is, you should really just enjoy music for what it is, and not get suckered into only accepting one particular style. When we grew up, we liked whatever we could get our hands on, cuz you didnt have much to rock your world in a little cowtown outside of Atlanta. Im for bigger than life choruses, all the foot stomps you can stomach, and na nas out the ass on this record."One listen to the albums stadium-sized closer "Cigarette Lighter Love Song," and you realize Butch practices what he preaches. "Every song has got to have its own flair. Ive always been unapologetic about making this larger than life."The Marvelous 3 put out the kind of back flipping/knee buckling power pop you just don't hear anymore. Full of mischief and melody, singer/songwriter Butch Walker's poison pen wordplay dives in and out of pulverizing slabs of guitar on this loose limbed, but tight-as-hell, major label debut, "Hey! Album.."Having already been compared to sprightly pop icons such as Joe Jackson and Cheap Trick, the band has made their native Atlanta safe again for vigorous pop bands hungry for some good ol' fashioned stardom. Their 1997 indie release, Math And Other Problems, garnered them 4 Atlanta Local Music Awards, including a "Best Atlanta Rock N' Roll Band" nod in 1997. The group followed up with their self-made Hey! Album. on their own Marvelous Records in October of '98. The disk caused such a buzz with critics and radio that a swarm of major labels began pursuing them. This past winter the threesome signed with HiFi/Elektra, and hit the studio with producer Jim Ebert (Jason Falkner, Meredith Brooks) to re-record the album, with Butch Walker also playing a co-producing role. "It's been like an artistic science project," laughs the effusive Butch. "We enlisted Jim to come and put the pieces of this jigsaw together. Basically we've made the songs three dimensional."And you just may need accompanying 3D glasses for rollicking pop gems like "Freak Of The Week," which was immediately snagged up by influential Atlanta Radio Station 99X, a move which further ignited the outpouring of local affection for the band. But for Butch, bassist Jayce Fincher, and drummer Slug, the road to rock n' roll approval started a long time before anyone ever heard of M3."This is no Cinderella story. We've known each other since we were kids, growing up in a suburb of Atlanta. We've passed through a lot of bands together. It's funny but the one common thread through all of our experiences was that all three of us were the youngest in our family. And all three of us grew up with two sisters and no brothers," smiles Butch. "You might say listening to our sisters' records was the real bond."The music they were weaned on was an eclectic mix. "Thumb through my sister's records and you'd find Kiss, The Bee Gees, Earth Wind and Fire. Music wasn't so categorized then. They were all great stars and you could find them in any record collection." Walker says the band has tried to ensure that the fiery batch of songs on Hey! Album. don't succumb to any genre specific marketing ploy. "One of the reasons we do the kind of music we do is because we were tired of shoe gazing, apathetic bands that disingenuously followed the others. We grew up loving Top 40 rock. We loved bands that played great shows. That was the only criteria. We've played 200 or more shows a year, for the past couple of years now, and I mean all across the country. Part of our raggedness, and our willingness to proclaim 'we are what we are' is because of that. We've slept in vans and in parks, doing gig after gig. We are addicted to playing live. I think that tightness comes across on our album, as well."M3 have indeed received rave reviews for their live show, which included Atlanta's 1998 Big Day Out. The band played in front of 50,000 people, sharing the stage with groups such as The Goo Goo Dolls, Semisonic, and Fastball."Our live show is f*cking awesome. It helps in my songwriting too," says Butch. "The constant playing gets you to know how each other's brain works. I can play the first three notes of something completely new and they'll hear it from beginning to end. It's a great process. I grew up loving great songwriters like Elvis Costello and Queen, and other bands who knew how to create that tension, that emotion in their work. That's what we strive for."You can hear the band's influences in certain songs. The soaring/plunging dynamics of "Every Monday" recalls the roughshod bravado of Freddie Mercury. And one of the album's more poignant cuts, "Mrs. Jackson," rides along on a snappy, Cars-driven burst of guitar. But Walkers' fierce delivery, anchored by Jayce's and Slugs torrid rhythm section, display a confident demeanor that is all their own. The LP clearly has the lived-in feel of a band that has known each other through thick and thin. "I realize a lot of my characters are lonely," he says. "But the songs don't have a lonely feel." He points to a track called "Indie Queen," written about the behind the scenes goings-on of the record world. "We are already finding out there are things that go on after the camera is off," he says. "I wrote that about the unglamorous side of all this stuff. The personal demons seem to come out after someone gets known."When asked about the story behind "Freak Of The Week," Butch offers up this explanation. "I guess it's about people starting to worry about how they're being perceived. Worried if they're going to be seen as selling out."For Walker, a self-confessed ham, his solution is to stay true to the music and don't worry about how you're going to be judged. "And don't be afraid to enjoy it," he adds. "We entertain the hell out of people. And it's so much f*cking fun to do it. It beats waking up and having to make the doughnuts, if you know what I mean."********** Layout made by happykmd at CreateBlog.com .