All About A Bubble

There’s a pantheon of music constructed of staccato guitars, thrashing drums, and searching, volatile vocals. Some call it emo, some call it pop-punk, some call it alternative. The name itself isn’t important. What matters is the legion of fans who flock to festivals like Warped Tour, snatch up records put out by Fueled By Ramen, and pour their love into every note, every word uttered. Band like At The Drive In, Taking Back Sunday, Motion City Soundtrack and countless others have supplied this demand over the course of two decades. You can add the name All About A Bubble to the list. The Tulsa, Okla. group delivers frenetic, precise rockers like “West Coast,” with its chugging guitars and monster melody. “Impossible to Fade” begins with singer Dustin Storm’s innervated croon before kicking into a coursing power ballad. The calm after the storm comes from “Paper Planes,” a mostly acoustic heartbreaker moved along by—you guessed it—big guitars and drums. Welcome to the pantheon, guys.

With summer right around the corner, we can’t help but be totally stoked for Warped Tour. In case you haven’t heard, we’ll be sponsoring our own stage for twenty-two dates and bringing twenty-three artists out to perform on it. Twenty-two acts will snag a performance at their local tour stop, and one lucky artist will get to perform on every date (tour bus included). In addition, there are a handful of other OurStage artists already booked to play various dates of the tour. We decided to catch up with them to get the scoop on their summer plans.

Having earned their stripes from a young age under the name Another Option, War Games are primed to be breakout stars on this year’s Warped Tour. Comprised of lead vocalist/guitarist Kyle Therrien, guitarist Ian Provost, bassist/vocalist Andy Calheta and drummer Cameron Raubeson, this indie rock outfit promise fun and energetic shows this summer that are sure to win over plenty of new fans. We caught up with Kyle, Ian and Andy to talk about the band’s history, who they want to see at Warped Tour, and why they love Ace Enders.

OS: How did the band first begin?

KT: Technically, the band started when me and Andy were very young. We decided we wanted to start a band after being pretty heavily influenced by bands that were big at the time, like Green Day, Blink-182, Saves the Day. Before we even knew how to play any instruments, we decided we were going to be in a band. We started walking around our lunchroom in middle school and started taking donations so we could start buying equipment, literally, with a bucket, walking around. We were pretty popular at school so we made a lot of money and were able to actually buy some equipment for ourselves. We assigned each other instruments and started to learn them. If you jump forward to where Ian joined the band as a drummer and things started to get serious, ever since then, the better we got at our instruments, and as soon as we started playing shows, we became more and more determined to become more of a serious band. Somewhere along the line, we decided it must be a career choice, so we never let go of that dream and we’re still kind of chipping away at that.

OS: Where did the name War Games come from?

IP: It kind of just popped into our heads one night. It wasn’t anything thought out, there wasn’t a general way we wanted to go with a new name…it thought of itself, I guess.

Continue reading ‘OS @ Warped Series: War Games’

Set It Off

The name alone should tell you Set It Off’s M.O. The Tampa-based band is all about starting a frenzy through adrenaline-soaked, emotive rockers. Led by singer Cody Carson, Set It Off blends theater, social sensitivity and angst a la bands like My Chemical Romance and Panic At The Disco. On “Horrible Kids” Carson, guitarists Dan Clermont and Zach DeWall, bassist Austin Kerr and drummer Maxx Danziger delve into bullying with equal parts empathy and rage. It’s jittery and paranoid, but ultimately a redemptive tune. But on “Breathe In, Breathe Out,” the mood takes a turn towards a manic carnival. Jabbing guitars, coursing verse and a soaring chorus create a totally irresistible, totally schizoid rocker. Set It Off are masters of mood swings. On “Pages and Paragraphs” Carson sings, “I’m on cloud nine.” Even if happiness is fleeting there’s still pleasure to be found in pain. Enjoy the ride.

Sheila Star

Having the last name Star bodes well for a music career. Let’s see, there’s Ryan, Mazzie and Ringo to name a few. In time, you may see the name Sheila Star on that list of illustrious musicians. The San Francisco-based singer-songwriter is already active in Bay Area songwriting circles, penning lustrous piano pop that’s seductive and punchy. “Keeps Me Alive” starts with a somber piano intro before the beat snaps in and transforms the track into a sexy, soaring pop ballad. Star’s breathy vocals bring a feline quality to her songs. In “Addiction” she coos “Every day and every night, yeah it gets me high,” adding some headiness to the song’s squelching groove. “Bad Dream” is pure piano swagger where Star struts around in her bad girl persona: “The devil himself he took the good out of me.” We think there’s plenty of good to be found, especially if you like your good to break bad sometimes.

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN TEXAS AND NORTH CAROLINA - Just 48 hours ago, he had no weekend plans, but last night Jitta On The Track, the winner of the OurStage/Real Hip-Hop Network “Rise” Competition, played his first date on Drake’s “Club Paradise” Tour. While Twitter buzzes about his performance in Houston, Jitta took a minute to give us a shout from his tour bus. More soon:

Brittany Campbell

You want untapped, gutsy, street cool? You go to Brooklyn. And if you’re lucky, you just might find an artist half as interesting as Brittany Campbell. The singer-songwriter/producer/guitarist cross-pollinates doo-wop, Motown, new wave and pop rock for a completely fresh and revelatory sound. Like Amy Winehouse, Debbie Harry and Santigold, Campbell’s an original. On “Call Me Baby,” vintage guitars strut against a beat while Campbell summons the soulful angst of a 1950s teen, singing “There’ll be no mercy now / Wherever you are is where I’ll be.” “Nerd,” with its handclaps, 8-bit synths and bouncing beat is instantly infectious even as the singer delivers dubious lines like, “Guess you haven’t heard / God, I’m such a nerd.” As if. “Goody Goody” is the track you’ll want to put on repeat. New wave synths, surf guitars and Campbell’s powerful voice make for a smart and sexy rocker with a vintage edge. Have mercy.

The Kicks

One normally doesn’t think of Lowe’s as an arbiter of music, but you gotta hand it to them—they nailed it when they placed The Kicks’ “Good Morning” in their “Fresh Cut Grass” spot. The sailing power ballad is catchy to the extreme, burrowing down into your brain and setting up camp. As great as that track is, it isn’t the only ace up the Nashville band’s sleeve. The Kicks straddle pop and Southern rock spheres, taking big hooks and roughing them up with a little grit. “Hawk Eyes” is a ballsy little rocker that slips into a garage rock groove, deft as Jet. But unlike the erstwhile Aussie band, The Kicks take their rock all over the place. The soulful “This Feeling” reads like vintage R&B, while “Sore Thumb” has an almost ‘80s attitude. Like Lowe’s, these guys never stop improving.

Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown

Tyler Bryant was only eleven when he got the calling. It was in a music store where Roosevelt Twitty, a sixty-three-year-old bluesman, was playing. A decade later, Bryant’s come into his own as a blues musician. He’s got a song on Guitar Hero 5; a feature in the film Rock Prophecies alongside Santana, Beck and Slash; and serious hype from Vince Gill, who called Bryant a “future guitar god.” One listen to Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown and you’ll realize the future is now. The band delivers sweaty and swaggering rock with plenty of blues gristle. From the droning, shivering “Say A Prayer” to the bruising guitars of “The House that Jack Built,” to the delta blues moan of “Kick the Habit,” Bryant and his comrades know how to give listeners a visceral thrashing. If you worship at the altar of whiskey-soaked, cigarette-singed, explosive blues rock, well, you just met your gods.

The Arts & Crafts Movement describes its music as being “noisy and ugly, tender and awkward.” And that’s true, but it’s also searching, discontented, romantic … and probably a million other things. The Philadelphia band is of the same ilk as Silversun Pickups—think of them as their tormented younger brothers. Their raucous post punk weaves from sinister to sensitive and back again. The wild rumpus begins with “War Chords,” where piercing guitars is answered by a counter offensive of rolling drums and bass. Singer James Alex’s reptilian voice is hard at times to decipher, but the message is clear: Watch your step. His warning carries over to the bracing “Punks of Privilege.” “We are anarchists, turning chords and truth into heroic hymns,” he sings, “You’ve been warned.” But don’t let that stop you.

Champagne Morning

Champagne Morning seems to have it all figured out. The band, based in Kiev, spends part of their time creating euphoric indie pop, and when they’re not doing that, they drink champagne. It might explain the mix of revelry, chaos and camaraderie that permeates their music. Take, for example, “Miracle,” a psychedelic mash of jaunty piano, guitars and drums that bounce along, feckless and free. “Fly High” keeps the party going with a neo-soul/rock groove, blissed-out female backup singers and an American rapper by the name of Fanamonon who somehow ended up in the Ukraine just in time to spit some lyrics on the track. Even “Pain Plane,” which starts off as a moony solo number, bursts into a crescendo of joyful noise at the end. Like the best drunken nights, you can only brood for so long before your friends show up to shake you out of it.