For fans of Elliott Smith, Pedro The Lion, John Vanderslice, Sufjan Stevens, Etc.

Andy Crissinger has been a long time influence on everything I have done musically over the last 10 years whether be journalistic or with my guitar.  Andy hasn’t released anything very recently, but the music that he has on Myspace and Purevolume deserves your attention.  Go listen to his latest project The Playbook and if you like it message him and tell him to let us hear more!

In 2001 Andy recorded the Green Room EP under the name Get Well Soon.  This EP was mixed and mastered by TW Walsh.  Yes the same TW Walsh we all know and trust with our lives. It recieved rave reviews all over the internet.

From reading his myspace it sounds to me like Andy is holding out on us.  From what I also understand he has worked recently with Toby Morrell of Emery on some songs on his side project I am Waldo based out of Charleston SC.  Listen to Psalm 4  the last track on the Myspace.  It is beautiful.

(Not a very clever title, sorry.)  We’re sad to report that Columbia band, Hello Tomorrow, has decided to part ways.

Hello Tomorrow has gone its separate ways.

We had good times played some fun shows and met a lot of cool people!!!

Thank you to everyone who has been supportive of us over these past 3 years!!!!

We hope you keep going out to other shows and being supportive of other bands as you were to us!!!!!

PEACE!!!

~HT

I’ll always have very fond memories of my first time seeing Hello Tomorrow at New Brookland a little over 2 years ago.  They were younger than every local band and lot more fun than most local bands out there.  Plus, they covered “Say It Ain’t So” and “You Gave Your Love To Me Softly” (by Weezer, duh) which instantly made me a fan.

Thanks for the fun times and we wish you well in all your future endeavors!

Guest Post: By Todd Mathis (American Gun)

With American Guns re-release of their latest album “The Means and The Machine” in record stores August 19th and with a show at Art Bar this Saturday we decided it was a perfect time to reflect back on Todd Mathis’ and Kevin Kimbrell’s first band. Here it is from Todd’s point of view.

I met Kevin Kimbrell in 1995 when he was in a history class of mine at USC Spartanburg. He had on a Pearl Jam sweatshirt so I figured he must be an ok guy. I struck up a conversation with him towards the beginning of the semester but we didn’t talk much after that. He was more interested in talking with a couple of the girls in the back of the classroom. Hell, I can’t say I blame him. The next semester on the first day of Music Appreciation class in strolled Mr. Kimbrell who waved and took a seat next to me. I had no idea that this would be the start of a long friendship that lasts until today.

Kevin and I had a lot in common and turns out he played guitar and bass. I had been playing guitar for a while and desperately wanted to start a band. We both planned to move to Columbia to attend USC proper and we did just that in 1996. Kevin had a place at Bates West on campus and I had a place at the University Commons with some rowdy high school friends. The first night at the Commons, Kevin came over for a party and we met my neighbors Matt Hammond, Jeffrey Stringer and Aaron Smith. Turns out they were music afficinados like Kevin and myself and Mr. Hammond claimed to be one hell of a drummer. So, we asked him to join the band. A band that didn’t yet exist much less have any songs or anything to play.

Over the next few months we plotted and messed around with writing a few songs and coming up with covers that would be fun to play. Matt also played guitar and sang a bit so we signed up for a USC talent show under the name I-235 West which referred to our respective living quarters. We did the 2 acoustic guitar and bass and also hit a few open mics, most notably the Village Idiot. I had terrible stage fright and would basically puke my guts out before every performance.

Over the Christmas break of 1996 Matt, Kevin and I met at my parent’s house and Matt brought his drum set. This was actually the first time we’d heard Matt play the drums. Good thing he was good… After jamming out to a couple of originals and covers we decided to search for a singer when we got back to school. So, we rented a place at Sumter Street Storage, put an ad in the Free Times and auditioned a few folks. One guy was a Dave Matthews rip off acoustic dude, another guy came straight from the 80′s and touched his hair everytime he sang and another guy was an ex Army guy that auditioned with a Three Dog Night song. Then came Larry Lowe. He basically came in with a beat up acoustic, blew us away with his voice and told us he was joining the band. That’s how it all started…or at least how I remember it. We decided to call ourselves “The Sneetches” after the Dr. Seuss book. Larry often read from the book at shows to mock the sorority girls.

We went on to play for the next few years traveling around South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. We recorded an album financed by Dark Corner Records, which was a label started just for us by our friends Jeffrey and Aaron. They recruited 2 other investors Tripp and Chris, and gave us $4,000. We recorded a pretty good album at the Jam Room but Jay Matheson swears we ruined it with the mastering job we got. I really don’t know because I don’t think I have an unmastered copy of the music. Maybe I do somewhere. I do remember we had a double CD release party for two nights and the CDs didn’t arrive in time. Rookie band mistake… We played at Jillian’s for the first night and they kicked us out before we finished the second set and tried to get out of paying us the full guarantee. They didn’t like our attitudes our something. And we didn’t tuck in our shirts I guess.

Other memories include:

-A bar fight breaking out in Rock Hill and us going into Sometimes Salvation by the Black Crowes.

-Our trip to Atlanta to play Slabfest where we saw Felonious Swank the night before with Vic, lead singer, puking on stage.

-Larry stripping down to his undies during our rendition of Let’s Get It On…this happened on various occasions.

-Getting really drunk during a show on my birthday and not being able to continue playing and also trying to convince everyone that we could play the entire 1965 album by the Afghan Whigs even though we hadn’t rehearsed any of the songs.

-The Art Bar show where there was a huge storm and water all over the floor. Larry proceeded to jump from the stage and splash the few people in the audience causing them to leave. We later received a check from the Art Bar for a percentage of bar sales from that night…I guess we ran most people to the bar. I think this was Larry’s birthday.

-Our first show ever, in which we were The Sneetches, at New Brookland Tavern long before they had a stage and proper sound system. We were apparently the biggest crowd they’d ever had for music. We brought almost everyone we knew in Columbia and opened up for the Spanish Tony’s. On a side note, we changed our name from The Sneetches because there was already a band by that name out of Ohio or somewhere.

-Playing Rockafella’s, the famed Columbia club, and never having to pay door admission to a show there again…wonder why that place went under?

-Winning the Battle of the Bands in Gaffney, SC in which we all wore Star Trek outfits.

Overall I learned a lot from being in Betty Sneetch. Most of all that being in a band is a labor of love in which a lot of sacrifices have to be made and egos have to be put aside if you hope for any success. But in the end it’s a lot of fun.

So it is really hard to find out anything about Joe 747 searching the internet. All the wikipedias and websites that I could find that mentioned them basically say that the lead singer went on to form Emery.

Well I have a different take on Joe 747 as I witnessed the progression of this band first hand. While I went to high school in Rock Hill from 1998-2002 these guys were in college and basically provided me with a place to hang out. I feel like I was a little brother and they treated me well. This was all thanks to Ronnie.

So here is their story from my point of view. I’ll let Matt, Devin and Toby fact check it after the post.

Joe 747 is Toby Morrell on Guitar and Vocals and Joey Svendsen on Bass and Screams. I’m not exactly sure when Devin officially joined the band, maybe he was a member from the start, but Devin Shelton played drums. I don’t personally consider Devin a real member of Joe 747 because he was full time singer of another band at the same time.

Anyway, I saw Joe 747 a couple of times in Rock Hill, Solfest in front of the Student Center at Winthrop and once in Greer. The things that I remember about their shows were Joey having his back turned to the audience the entire show playing bass and Toby talking about their relationship with God and how it related to their music. They also had a lot of energy on stage. The last two of which carried over to Emery.

When they recorded their first album Everyday I Try, Everyday I Fail Toby went to his childhood neighbor and drummer’s roommate Matt Carter to record the album in their house of Confederate Ave in Rock Hill (click link for street view).

I think this is when Matt started playing with Joe 747 and they started to go into serious band mode. These four were the original four that were to go to Seattle.

First Baptist Church in Rock Hill ran a coffee house that bands could play at this time in Rock Hill. All you had to do was sign up and you had a 15 minute set. I guess it was like open mic, but full bands could play. I was there with Matt one night and he signed up the band Iron Kid. I want to remember hearing that the new Joe 747 lineup played “The Secret” which is also on Emery’s first album The Weak’s End.

The summer before they moved to Seattle Joey still planned on making the move, but before they left he decided his heart wasn’t in it. That is when long time friend Joel Greene joined the band.

The rest is history.

You might remember that my first band’s name was Iron Kid. I stole it because they weren’t using it anymore.

So here are two Joe 747 songs.

The first is Potter’s Field. I always linked the song to It’s a Wonderful Life, but the reference goes much deeper.

You will also notice the lyrics “My hands seem to deceive me” which is also in “Walls.”

(The Link streams the song in your Media Player)

potters field

Here is the second song off of the album and one of my favorites.

ten till nine

Word.

Lets Bring Geek Rocktoberfest back to New Brookland Tavern

Love Apple

Winnie Cooper

When I think back to what I was listening to in 2001/2002 I think of a couple of bands. I think Weezer, The Juliana Theory, Capital and Love Apple. Sure there were tons of other bands, but these are the ones that really stand out.

When I first came to school at USC I have fond memories of going to Love Apple shows. Time has blurred my memories and I might be getting two shows mixed up, but I really want to remember a show with Superdrag (Who Sucked Out the Feeling?) where Love Apple covered “Straight Up” by Paula Abdul. I thought it was one of the best covers I had ever seen then and I still do.

Here is Love Apples History

Love Apple started out back in 1997 while Jason Sposa was in high school in Richmond, VA. Then he was writing, playing, and recording with a fellow by the name of Chris Freeman. My knowledge of these years is very limited as I wasnt there. However, I do know that these years were essential to the success of the band when Jason reformed it in 2000 while attending USC in Columbia, SC.

Jason came to the University of South Carolina in 1998 in hopes to find a band. After the first two and half years of playing in local bars and headlining shows with a drum machine, under the name “Love Apple”, he found two musicians willing to play music. The Love Apple line-up then became Scott Cooke on drums, George Cooper on bass and Jason on guitar and vocals. Things fell apart, and he went home to VA one more summer to write and created the mp3.com site. Upon his return to USC, Jason recruited me on bass. After a few times going over some synth and reverb heavy recordings in various dorm rooms, Jason once again called upon Scott and George (this time on guitar) to finish out the line-up of Love Apple.

The band heard about a show that Carolina Productions was putting on entitled The Battle of the Cover Bands. A common thread among us was certainly our love of Weezer, so we quickly pulled Jamie and The Sweater Song out of our asses and managed to win the battle on Oct. 31, 2000. With that as our debut, we now needed more than two Weezer covers, so we worked on the songs Jason had recorded with Chris back in Richmond. Simple, sweet, and catchy as they were and still are we managed to quickly move onto the scene.

It seemed that there was a show about every weekend there for a while, and a break would be found in preparations for our debut full-length. We started recording the album during the late fall/early winter of 2001. We took a break and came back to it in January to master and wrap up all the other business that goes with releasing an album. The CD release party was in Columbia at The New Brookland Tavern. This was a show that I am sure all of us will remember for a long time to come. Our fans really surprised us with an unbeatable turn-out. The place was packed and we sold over 40 percent of our inventory on that one night.

With the success of the CD release party, it was only certain that the pressure was on all of us. It was hard to deal with playing shows to 20 people after having played to a sold out crowd. It didnt stop us though. We played on for a while after that without any major problems, and were excited to play with some really great acts including a few personal heroes.

Early in 2003 Garrett Suggs(The Beatholes) joined the group on drums in place of Scott. Musically Love Apple was heading in a new direction. Lyrics grew more complex and in some cases abstract and a few new time signatures were thrown into the mix as well. We talked of plans for a sophomore recording, but there were underlying tensions and desire to move on in our personal lives. We all knew that a break-up was inevitable. We plugged in for the last time on October 9, 2003 and gave it our best for our fans, ourselves, and each other. The show went quite well with no glitches other than some broken strings and bad cables, and that was it for Love Apple.

Written by Jebb Graff with the help of excerpts from interviews with Jason Sposa.

If you’re wondering where are they now? Just go the Love Apple Myspace and you can track them down pretty easily. I’m not going to help you stalk them too much though.

I was reading through their past press linked from their Myspace and there are a lot of things in the articles that show how the times have changed.

For instance in the Daily Gamecock article it talks about how MP3.com helped them promote their music. Now the internet is a lifeline for bands.

Love Apple’s success can be attributed to a variety of factors, one of which is the placement of its music on MP3.com. Sposa said the “MP3 page helped a lot.” Even though posting music isn’t a good way to earn a profit, he said it’s a “good way to open up your music.” With its credibility on the Web page burgeoning, the band was selected by an online label to participate in a Weezer tribute album. Love Apple’s cover of the B-side “Jamie” was included on the album’s first release. When the album was re-released, Love Apple’s track didn’t appear because its sound quality was poor compared to the tracks of bands that could afford to use a studio. Though the band was disappointed, it had already made new fans around the country who began requesting that Love Apple tour their cities.

After reading this article I want to bring Geek Rocktoberfest back to New Brookland one more time. Let’s get some bands together and do it.

If you like Love Apple you will like these songs. The Greatest Weezer songs ever written. If you like these songs you will like Love Apple.

Devotion

You Gave Your Love to Me Softly

I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams

The closest young band in Columbia that I can think of to compare Love Apple to is Hello Tomorrow, who by the way have a new song up on Myspace that you should listen to now. I believe both bands share a lot of the same influences.

Love Apple is for fans of- Ozma, Weezer, Superdrag, The Rentals and so on. You get the picture.