It Was One Of Those Great Nights

Man, school has been crazy busy. It's Lauren this time, Josie finally has more work to do than me or Amelia. As promised, here's the next band from the amazing concert they went to WITHOUT ME.


SPOTLIGHT ON: Limbeck
Starting off as your typical emo band, the members of Limbeck never expected to gain international exposure. They don't like being labelled as emo nowadays, since their style has gotten progressively more alternative, with even a few country influences thrown into the mixture. Hailing from Southern California, Limbeck frequently sticks to their roots, naming places such as Highways 8 and 22 [most notably in "Julia"]. Over the past few years, Limbeck has toured with bands such as the All-American Rejects and New Found Glory, where they were surprised to find themselves just as well-received by the sold-out crowds. "We can play in some kid's basement or we can play somewhere where they have a nice dressing room for us and they treat us like royalty," says guitarist and vocalist Patrick Carrie. Besides Carrie, Limbeck consists of lead vocalist Robb MacLean, drummer Jon Phillip, and bassist Justin Enstmiger. However, in their Doghouse Records interview, they hinted that they may be adding a fifth member to the band in the near future, although they didn't say in what capacity. It seems impossible that any more instruments can be incorporated into the band after what their latest album, simply titled Limbeck, seems to showcase - the ukelele, bar chimes, and various other horn and wind instruments. Despite all the chaos, Carrie simply says, "'Excited' is a word that I use a lot these days."


CHECK OUT MORE LIMBECK:
http://www.myspace.com/limbeck/
http://www.limbeck.net/
http://www.purevolume.com/limbeck/

Lyric from: "In Ohio On Some Steps"

It's All Right - It's All All Right

Hey, it's Josie again. Last night in St. Paul, Amelia and I went to the most awesome concert EVER. We're huge fans of a band called The Format, so we went mainly to see them, and we had never heard of any of the other bands that were there. [Well, Amelia swears she's heard of Limbeck, but who knows]. So over the next few entries we're going to try and highlight the bands that were there, in order of playing: Reuben's Accomplice, Limbeck, Steel Train, Piebald, and, of course, The Format! You may have heard some of the Format's songs in stores like Hollister and Old Navy, but they're not on the radio yet. So, let's start with RA.

SPOTLIGHT ON: Reuben's Accomplice
Although the band's members have varied over the years, the two frontmen of Reuben's Accomplice have prevailed. Schoolyard friends Jeff Bufano and Chris Corak began performing at their high school talent shows, and slowly progressed to local amphitheatre shows. They finally struck gold by landing a record deal with Los Angeles-based record company Better Looking Records. Their first full-length album, I Blame The Scenery, didn't gain them much national fame at the time of its release date in September of 2001, but established them as cult favorites. They began touring with the likes of Jimmy Eat World, No Knife, the Weakerthans, and Promise Ring, bands who were, at the time, very much in the same boat as they were. In 2002, bassist Andy Eames and drummer Jim Knapp left the group to pursue other careers. Undaunted, Bufano and Corak began touring with a varying rhythm section - namely, whoever of their friends was available for the shows. In 2003, they entered the recording studio again, this time with the production help of their tourmate, Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins. With the accompaniment of six friends [David Bazan, Howe Gelb, John Rauhouse, Matt Maher, John O'Reilly, and Ryan Kennedy], their second full-length album, The Bull, The Balloon, and The Family, was released the following year.


CHECK OUT MORE REUBEN'S ACCOMPLICE:
http://www.reubensaccomplice.com/ [4 free MP3's!]
http://www.reubens.livejournal.com/

Lyric from: "All Chorus"

Fair Ain't What You Really Need

Hey everyone, Josie here. I'm really excited about starting this blog, since it's something we've been wanting to do for a while now. "We" means me and two of my friends, Amelia and Lauren. We've been together since high school, where we were kind of known for being the girls who always went to the weird concerts - you know, bands no one else had ever heard of? None of that has changed, we're still completely devoted to our indie, unsigned bands. Some of the bands we liked back in high school went on to find huge fanbases [eg: The All-American Rejects, Snow Patrol, and Wilco], and some not so much. But we're still just as big of fans of all of them as we ever were, and over the past four years since graduating we've picked up so many more favorites that we just had to share them with you guys. So far almost no one but our friends and families know about this blog that we've finally started, but hopefully word of mouth will bring us more visitors - we're only out to spread the word about our favorite artists. Odds are we'll update this about twice or three times a week, sometimes more and sometimes less. It will usually be me, since Amelia and Lauren both are taking more credits than I am this year. We all have various tweaks to our taste in music - I'm a big fan of the uplifting songs - you know, the ones that sound sad but are actually happy? Amelia is more into the harder indie rock, and Lauren is our resident lover of truly sad songs. We all really like electronic, and songs with wicked cool piano solos and guitar riffs. We're going to try and stick to showing off more unknown artists, but sometimes we'll throw in a more widely known songster that still deserves recognition. All of the bands will for sure not be played on the radio, though - that's the whole point of our name, Off The Airwaves. The other point, however, is to get them more widely known, so if you hear them on the radio later on, more power to them. Unfortunately, we don't have the power to put any of the music directly onto our blog, but we will try and get together many different websites featuring the various artists so you can visit them for more information, and possible song links.

So, kicking off what I hope will become a blog to be proud of is a band that is going to make me sound a little hypocritical. Just over the past two days have I heard one of their songs on the radio, and it's actually one of my favorite songs by them. But that doesn't stop me showing them to you guys. Check it out.

SPOTLIGHT ON: OneRepublic
No, that's not a typo - the band spells their name as one stretched-out word. In pictures, they look like your typical alt-rock group: five men, all with various vocal talents and instrumental experience. But their first single "Apologize" begs to differ. Just recently hitting the radio, the single boasts collaboration with hip-hop superstar Timbaland, and relies heavily on quick-paced drum beats and a lone cello as their main instruments. This version, however, is called the remix - the original version of "Apologize" is similar, but features longer, deeper drumbeats in the background. OneRepublic's five members are lead vocalist [and Grammy-nominated writer] Ryan Tedder, guitarists Zach Filkins and Drew Brown, drummer Eddie Fisher, and bassist [and celloist for "Apologize"] Brent Kutzle. OneRepublic owes much of their success to the popular website Myspace - this is where they have hosted their main website since June of 2004, and where they have accumulated over 12 million plays and more than 145,000 'friends.' Other popular singles include "Stop and Stare," "Mercy," and "Dreamin'," all evoking a strong feeling of whimsy and bittersweetness. On their Myspace site, the band wrote of all their songs, "The lyrics have shades of melancholy, and there is a definite emotional undercurrent running through them...if you can't tap into emotion, you're just selling catchy tunes."


CHECK OUT MORE ONEREPUBLIC:
http://www.myspace.com/onerepublic
http://www.purevolume.com/onerepublic
http://www.onerepublicfans.com/home.html

Lyric from: "Stop and Stare"