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| Andrew McMahon – piano/vocals
Josh Partington – guitar
William Tell – guitar
Clutch – bass
Brian Ireland – drums
The sophomore effort. It's a crossroad in the lifespan of nearly every band and – let's be honest – not always the kindest fork in the road. The sophomore |
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 | North
Released: 2003 |
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Andrew McMahon – piano/vocals
Josh Partington – guitar
William Tell – guitar
Clutch – bass
Brian Ireland – drums
The sophomore effort. It's a crossroad in the lifespan of nearly every band and – let's be honest – not always the kindest fork in the road. The sophomore effort is what separates artists from one-hit wonders, careers from brief flirtations with the music industry, and often times, men from boys. For SoCal introspective rock quintet Something Corporate, it just so happens to be all three.
But the similarities between Something Corporate and the sophomore successes of their peers end there. It's said that you have a lifetime to write your first record and a mere six months to scribble out your second – usually on the road. As a result, many sophomore efforts involve a bevy of songs complaining about becoming the very thing the artist always wanted to be: A rock star on the road, missing home, their girlfriends, their favorite Laz-Z-Boy chairs. Boring.
On North, the band's follow-up to their 2002 Drive-Thru/MCA Records debut, Leaving Through the Window – a 250,000 seller based largely on relentless touring and word of mouth – Something Corporate bucks that idea in favor of a more cerebral concept: Simply being away.
"It has a lot to do with the effect of being away from people and situations in life that you've never been away from and how being that far away can make you isolate yourself further," explains singer/songwriter Andrew McMahon. "As a result, it's a much more serious and moodier record."
Where Leaving Through the Window could be considered the band's summer album, recorded amongst friends in Santa Monica, Calif., peppered with boy-wants-girl/boy-gets-girl/boy-loses-girl tales of carefree adolescence, North is it's polar opposite. The band immersed themselves in Seattle's Robert Lang Studios over a two-month period in May and June, away from hometown distractions, away from the fun and sun of Southern California, away from everything, essentially. "I think I left the studio three or four times and it was to go to the bank to make sure I had enough money to eat that week," says McMahon. "The whole idea was just to completely avoid anything but the record."
The results of self-imposed isolation from everything besides their collective musical vision are stunning. North is a more coherent record than its predecessor is; a more focused affair crafted around emotive, heartfelt lyrics and earnest musicianship that weave a lucid texture through each track. To create the latter, the band pulled the plug on most studio gimmicks.
"Rather than employing cheap production tricks to give the record more body, we wanted to do that only musically -- only though our parts and only though development of the band as opposed to development of production," says McMahon. "Its not that we wanted to make it sound like a White Stripes record or anything like that, but we wanted to make it sound really rich without having to employ techniques like guitar doubling and vocal doubling and all those things that you hear as a typical staple of modern bands."
To create the former, songwriters McMahon and guitarist Josh Partington locked themselves away in a room and made sure they met eye to eye on where the songs that would eventually make up North were headed. "We wanted it to include the different facets of our band but, at the same time, really showcase some sort of growth from the last album," says Partington.
That lyrical growth is immediately evident on North, with such somber tales as "Only Ashes" and "Me and the Moon" clearly coming from a much darker place than high school bullies and punk rock princesses. A dark tale of freedom at the ultimate price, "Me and the Moon" paints a chilling reality right from its opening line; "It's a good year for a murder…"
"It's about this woman who kills her husband after many years of noot being fulfilled in her relationship and not being where she wants to be in life," says McMahon. "She is targeting this man as the reason why she didn’t become the things she thought she would be when she was young."
On "Only Ashes" -- whose tsunami-sized guitar riff is probably the hardest lick the band has recorded to date – a tale of introspection turns to contempt over an expansive rock track. "It's all about frustration and how it seems like sometimes the worse things that can happen to you, you end up doing to yourself," explains Partington. "It's probably the most personal song I have ever written. It's my favorite on this album just because of that. I felt it was the first time I was ever completely honest in what I was trying to say. I didn’t leave out anything."
Partington also penned the album's lead single, the anthem "Space," which features the band's trademark piano feeding off a sprawling guitar riff. "There is nothing more frustrating then having somebody love you more than life itself but can't necessarily even come close to grasping what you are all about at times," says Partington of the song's theme. The track, along with the gorgeous "Break Myself," best sums up the personal demons North is attempting to expel. "To me, 'Break Myself' is all about total desperation," says McMahon. "Just being in that place where you can't do anything to help anyone. What do you do when you're so far away from somebody who needs you and you want to be there but you can’t?”
That's not to say North is a downer – quite the contrary. Something Corporate has simply trimmed the fat this time out and, essentially, matured as songwriters. The result is a work of startling beauty – a portrait of life set to a soundtrack of furiously catchy urban hymns.
"It's not that we didn’t want to have pop sensibilities within it but we just didn’t want North to be this happy pop album,” says Partington. "We just felt that wasn't the direction we were going as songwriters. We felt we needed to write an album that's a little bit more serious. I think the last record was more about us trying to find a voice. Now we found that voice and this is what it sounds like when we use it."
Source: http://www.somethingcorporate.com |
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Discussion Topic
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Creator
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fav song
wots ur fav song by them???
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i_heart_emo_boys187 |
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Replys
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Listener
| | i like Rutheless and that Moon song Me and The Moon i think... lol... cant remember... | shanie | if u c jordan :sings:: "FUUUUUUCK you Jordan!!!!!" um, me and the moon, 21 and invincible, fall, straw dog..um, lots more.
what do you like better "leaving through the window" or "north"? | shadowbug26 | ive only heard punk rock princess
and its great!!! | whoamiagain | hehe, that song has the funniest lyrics..
"you could be my punk rock princess, i
could be your heroine"
hehe | shadowbug26 | | ah yes! | whoamiagain | i like Ruthless and As you sleep. when i get
some money, i might go buy the album. | Adicktid2SP18 | my favourites are .. punk rock princess ,
drunk girl , If u c Jordan ,ruthless, runaway
&21 and invincible... But all their songs are
amazing! | punk-princess55 | ang...yea...ditto!!...im gonna buy the album
too! | i_heart_emo_boys187 | if you see jordan is a definite favorite, as
well as i woke up in a car, the runaway, and
kostantine from their debut album
"ready....break" though i love
North, Leaving through the window has some
amazing-incredible lyrics... | lindz_e80110 | If U C Jordan Down Space She Paints me Blue
21 and Invincible Punk Rock Princess As You
Sleep Ruthless and Me and the Moon are my
fave.. | maggotsunited89 | yeah those are all great songs, i cant argue
with any of you | lindz_e80110 | | My favorite has to be konstantine | emogurl18287 | its impossible to pick just one song i love
North its one of the cds that i take with me
on any kind of trip. | xtraspecialjenny | I've only ever heard 'Punk Rock
Princess' and 'If You See Jordan'...
I liked '...Princess'...I can almost
pretend that's me! How sad I am.. | sid_loves_nancy | | i like Bad Days. | rach_luvs_simpleplan | | uhh...without the s | rach_luvs_simpleplan | i like Little. and Konstantine. mmm .. and
Straw Dog. and I Woke Up In A Car. actually i
cant really pick a favorite. | bam4dictator | i love the song konstantine.. but i want to
know more about it.. its such a messed up
song anyone got any info e mail me @
jennifertruscott@hotmail.com!! | nifer | Konstantine, If U C Jordan, You're Gone,
Me and the Moon, Fall, Break Myself, 21 and
Invincible, Ruthless, The Runaway...dammit I
could go on and on! I think ya get the point! | danijo08 | | yep. | rach_luvs_simpleplan | for a long time i had the song punk rock
princess... an ishy song.. pretty damn
good... eventually curiosity got the best of
me and i got some more stuff... at which
point i thought i had the wrong band. they
sounded completely different in other
songs... they had that weird angsty whiny
emoy quality in the lead singers voice, and i
found myself cringing. this was so very long
ago... this band first fueled my hatred for
these bands, because i used to love the
ataris when i was sheltered and naive, and
when i started finding out there were scores
of bands just like em, including something
corperate, it broke my heart. :( why must
everything be packaged and mainstream and
treny? =*( | xzar | I like If You C Jordan, Punk Rock Princess,
The Astronaut, The Astronaut, STraw Dog,
pretty much all of the songs on Leaving
Through The Window, Ruthless, Space, and so
on.... I can't wait till they come here in
Febuary. | nnej | | i Love punk rock princess and bad day. | rach_luvs_simpleplan | i love SC! they ROCK! i saw them in concert
in november and it was the best concert ive
ever been too!
well my fave song on there old cd is i want
to save you cause the lyrics make me cry and
i love it! and on north i love only ashes
because its a awesome song for one and they
cme out to the stage playing that and i just
rember that moment so well, seeing
andrewplaying with his new hotly cut hair
hehe and him playing was just a great
experience that ill never forget!
EVERYONE GO SEE THEM LIVE!
THEY'RE AWESOME!
laters,
| sf-hearter-0890 | | :) | rach_luvs_simpleplan | ive only heard one song by them and i thought
it was really good... | simpleplanlover13 | | Cavanaugh Park totally!!! | NO-Core | Konstantine and Only Ashes. All their songs
are good though! | despair | Although i love all of their songs my all
time favorite is Konstatine. I love this song
so much i cant stop listening to it! | riseagainstlove | | DRUNK GIRL!!!! | bloodstains | The song "Heroine," a piano
version of "Punk Rock
Princess".
It's just brilliant
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