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| Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at El Corazon |
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(click for full-page printable poster)
GENRES
Pop
Punk
Rock
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The Fall Of Troy's Farewell Tour!
Fall of Troy
Envy On The Coast
Twin Atlantic
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
El Corazon 206-262-0482
109 Eastlake Ave E, Seattle, WA (MapQuest)
7:30pm (doors open at 7pm). All Ages.
$13.00 advance tix from TicketsWest.
$15.00 at the door.
History has proved that every time a prevailing culture grows stagnant, a new artistic uprising takes place in order to wash away the past and look toward the future. For the past seven years Mukilteo, Washington's own The Fall Of Troy has been ignoring fleeting musical and fashion trends as its members have embarked on a quest to cultivate their own unique brand of progressive rock--and that process is culminating with the release of the trio's fourth album In the Unlikely Event (October 6, 2009/Equal Vision). Cinematic in scope and vision, In the Unlikely Event sees the band expanding its sound in every sense of the phrase: the heavy songs are bone-crushing, the melodic passages are instantly memorable and, most importantly, the avant-garde experimentation doesn't overshadow the music's inherent accessibly. In other words, get ready because with In the Unlikely Event, The Fall Of Troy hasn't only reinvented itself, but the band is also hoping to help alter the current musical climate in the process.
"I want to be part of another revolution," explains The Fall Of Troy's guitarist/vocalist Thomas Erak. "I want to see the good bands in this world come together and shift things again. We need another Nirvana, we need another Rage Against The Machine, we need another Bad Brains and At The Drive-In, you know?" While Erak is quick to point out that he's not equating his own band with these aforementioned acts, you can hear all of their influences on In the Unlikely Event. One catalyst for Erak's enthusiasm is the fact that the album is the first The Fall Of Troy recording with new bassist Frank Ene. "Thomas and Andrew were very welcoming of my input," explains Ene. "The recording process was a very organic experience; a plethora of ideas were floating about and I feel like we really captured some great stuff." Forsman confirms the new bassist's sentiment, adding "the formula this time around was for Frank and I to lay down the structure and then Thomas kind of painted over it, so I'm really excited with how it came out."
Recorded with Terry Date (Deftones, Pantera) in Seattle, Washington, In the Unlikely Event was the band's first experience working with a seasoned producer, and the act insists it had a marked effect on the end result. "Terry provided a relaxing atmosphere for us to work in," Ene says when asked what the studio setting was like. "He's a master at what he does and I am very grateful for the time we had in the studio. He was very good at bringing out the best in us," he continues, "and he definitely gave us advice and made suggestions that turned out to be really beneficial for these songs."
The result is an album that unquestionably sounds like The Fall Of Troy, but could also cross into countless other scenes both inside and outside the punk subgenre. In fact, the opener "Panic Attack" (which was written about an actual breakdown Erak suffered in the studio) is a perfect example of the way the band is able to seamlessly switch from melodic passages to head-bang worthy metal-inflected riffs and still keep the structure unique and cohesive. "We're still striving for perfection and I think if you feel like you've already achieved that you shouldn't make music anymore," Erak responds when asked where the band found the creative inspiration for the songs on In the Unlikely Event, adding, "we're never going to stop moving forward." Correspondingly, the disc spans the complete sonic spectrum from the infectious rockers like "Single" to the Black Flag-influenced vitriol of "Straight-Jacket Keelhauled," all while managing to retain the band's rich sense of identity.
Another huge difference on In the Unlikely Event are Erak's vocals, which see the virtuosic guitar player expanding his range in order to bring these songs to a new level both sonically and lyrically. "Obviously the first thing people are going to talk about is that In the Unlikely Event isn't as abrasive and screamy as our other albums," Erak acknowledges. "We're always going to have those elements in our music, but at this point, we want to create songs that mean something to people for more than five minutes... what about five years or five decades?" While most bands are content fitting into a preconceived subgenre, The Fall Of Troy have prided themselves on the fact that they're musical outsiders that don't have any rigid rules when it comes to creating their art--and the fact that they've been embraced on tours alongside everyone from Deftones to Coheed And Cambria is tangible proof of that. "I wouldn't ever want to be pigeonholed into anything," Erak explains. "We live up to our own expectations, we write our own music and no matter what we do it will always sound like The Fall Of Troy."
Ultimately, whether the band is reveling in the impossibly catchy chorus of "Empty The Clip, The King Has Been Slain, Long Live The Queen" or the sweetly syncopated refrain of "Nature Vs. Nurture," In the Unlikely Event inherently sounds like The Fall Of Troy simply because every song is so forward-thinking and innovative. While many of the band's peers are chasing success, the members of The Fall Of Troy are more concerned with creating honest and lasting art--and if the initial reaction to In the Unlikely Event is any indication, those two facts aren't mutually exclusive. "I think this time it's going to take more than one band to catalyze another musical revolution," Erak explains. "The Beatles are gone and Hendrix isn't going to happen again," he summarizes. "I think it's going to take a group of musicians and performers coming together in order to bring real art back to mainstream music, movies, literature and art," he continues. "It's going to take a lot of people to do it, but I truly believe that it will happen in my lifetime and I want to be a part of it."
ABOUT ENVY ON THE COAST -
In 2006, you were introduced to Envy On The Coast, the upstart Long Island quintet with the swiss-army rock aesthetics, boundless ambitions, and hearts big enough to fit each of their growing swell of fans.
After issuing a self-titled debut EP to widespread acclaim in August 2006, Envy On The Coast -- vocalist Ryan Hunter, guitarists Brian Byrne and Sal Bossio, bassist Jeremy Velardi and drummer Dan Gluszak -- set out on national tours with arena-filling artists like 30 Seconds To Mars and Angels & Airwaves and were named one Alternative Press' 100 Band You Need To Know in 2007. Following subsequent tours alongside peers as disparate as Circa Survive and Cute Is What We Aim For, Envy On The Coast have cut their teeth in front of thousands of fans, earning their own impassioned following in the process. No question, their earliest experiences together have been unforgettable and certainly their entrance has been grand. But through it all, they knew it would mean little without a suitable second act.
With that mandate in mind, and winter approaching, Envy On The Coast descended upon two cabins in the isolated outpost of Windham, New York, to begin writing their full-length debut. After weeks of painstaking collaboration between the cabins and their own Long Island homes, the band had meticulously deliberated over, consolidated and, eventually, perfected the material that would comprise the album that would at once confirm their precocious musical prowess while further legitimizing their considerable accomplishments. And, frankly, the results aren't just inspired. They're downright disarming.
Produced by Bryan Russell at Red Wire Audio in Brooklyn, Lucy Gray refines the band's strengths -- showcasing huge leaps in technical proficiency and further honing their impressive melodic underpinnings, among them -- while simultaneously capturing the growth Envy On The Coast experienced during the past twelve months on the road. In short, it's the rare album that not only traces a band's evolution, but also transcends their many accomplishments through a truly definitive artistic statement. This, ladies and gentlemen, is today's Envy On The Coast. Not so different from yesterday that they're unrecognizable. Just leaner, fiercer and infinitely more focused on becoming the best band they can be.
"We can write a song that's aggressive and has a really heavy bridge in it that's almost like a breakdown," says Byrne. "But then we can have songs with really big choruses, soaring leads and lots of harmonies and not be afraid of it. It's funny; we go around the room sometimes and ask, 'What's your favorite song?' and everyone's got a different answer."
Inspired by the personal events and musical experiences that have filled their lives over the past year, Lucy Gray is an unrelenting exploration of the inner-workings, attitudes and creative chemistries shared by their creators. And though its conception wasn't always easy, it is unquestionably authentic.
"We were all in a van together, experiencing the same things and talking about the same things," says Hunter. "That's what I wrote about, because everyone was feeling it as much as I was. That made it that much more real."
"For me personally these songs are very much about faith," adds Byrne. "Not necessarily in a religious sense, but about believing in something enough to take a chance on it. I think people who liked our EP will like the record and people who dismissed us will give us a second chance. We've matured a lot. We're not some flash-in-the-pan."
Hunter, in particular, was determined to prove that point, often testing his own ideas of faith, unity and hope deep into the night. The result is an album of achingly personal accounts of the personal triumphs, tribulations and near-tragedies that, for better and worse, have shaped him and, by extension, Envy On The Coast.
"A lot of the songs on this record explore the concept of life and death," the singer explains. "I wrote about everyone's experiences with it -- and what comes after. I'm at a point right now where I have faith in a lot of things and a lot of questions about tons of other things. I've had stuff like this in my notebooks for years, but I'd never had the courage to put it into songs until I realized there's no reason why I shouldn't talk about the things that I want to talk about. I'm not going to hold back because I'm afraid."
Indeed, what's perhaps most striking about Lucy Gray is that while it certainly traces Envy On The Coast's evolution from Long Island youngbloods to emotionally and musically powerful forces who've realized their vast potential, it's also a rallying cry against the adversities life has dealt them.
"I'm so proud of everyone in this band," intimates Byrne. "They've come so far in the past two years and I'm sure they say the same thing about me. There are really no other people I'd ever want to make music with. It's not always easy to ride with the same dudes for weeks and months at a time, but it's a bond we'd never want to give up."
In other words, Envy On The Coast are going to be here a while. You've been properly introduced. Now it's time you really got to know each other.
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