[TuneOTD] Taking Back Sunday - EL PASO

Artist: Taking Back Sunday

Genre: Rock

Location: Long Island, New York, USA

Label Type: Major

Record Label: Warner Bros

Website: http://www.takingbacksunday.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/tbsofficial

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/takingbacksunday

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TakingBackSunday

The forthcoming album from American rockers Taking Back Sunday sees the return of former members John Nolan (lead guitar/vocals) and Shaun Cooper (bass). While Adam Lazzara (vocals), Eddie Reyes (rhythm guitar) and Mark O’ Connell (drums) have been constant members since the bands formation in 1999, past members have come and gone, but now they return to the line-up of their first studio album ‘Tell All Your Friends’ in 2002. The new self-titled album is to be the bands 5^th to date and the highly anticipated follow up to 2009’s ‘New Again’, provisionally set for release in the summer of this year, with June 28^th rumoured to be the specific date.

‘El Paso’ is the first song off the new record after it was announced on their website along with a superbly innovative video back in late March. The video displays a mixture of lyrics from the song and tweets from the bands fans off social networking site, Twitter, expressing their excitement and anticipation about the upcoming album. The title of the song has nothing to do with the actual lyrics of the song, but is given the name because the band were in El Paso, Texas when writing this song.

As for the song itself, quite frankly it fails to match the imagination demonstrated in the video. The chorus line ‘You’ll never give what you get’ is ferociously repeated throughout with real passion and hunger, but this only serves to fill the emptiness the song would be left with otherwise. Whilst it lacks the dual vocals and melodies of previous TBS hits, it is probably the heaviest rock song that I can ever remember the band doing, and a possible indication into the direction the Long-Islanders are heading in. However, it could quite possibly indicate a return to their ''emo'' days of the early naughties when they enjoyed their most successful period. Back then the band members were in their late-teens/early twenties, so if they are indeed returning to these musical roots, hopefully they have picked up many different aspects on their musical journey since then and can add these to produce a mature version of the brilliant TBS of old.

The song is a decent start to the bands new era, nothing more, nothing less. However, they’ll have to do a lot better if they want the new album to hit the heights of ‘Louder Now’ (2006) or ‘Where You Want To Be’ (2004). One saving grace may well be the fact that the producer of the new album, Eric Valentine, is the same man who produced ‘Louder Now’, so here’s hoping he can help the band release something as good as that!

You can see the video for ‘El Paso’ below and you can also check out TBS when they begin their UK tour May 9^th as well as on the main stage at Reading and Leeds this summer.

Matthew Evans

[ArtistOTD] The Relay Company

Artist: The Relay Company
Genre: Electronica/Pop/Rock

Location: San Jose, California, USA
Label Type: Unsigned

Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheRelayCompany

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/therelaycompany

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/therelaycompany

The Relay Co. were originally formed in 2006 under the name ‘The Day’ by brothers Adam and Stephen Mariucci who write and record all their songs. Lead guitarist Jonathan Fernandez and drummer “Skinny” Jake Pooser have since joined the band, but the drummer slot was previously been filled by Lachlan Franckx for the bands 1^st album, whilst Ryan Rosendin has also played guitar for the band in the past. TRC are a pop rock group with great vocals and lots of talent and over the years have performed with the likes of Gym Class Heroes, OK Go, and on 25^th March will be supporting Good Charlotte. They do all their own recordings and produce their own music videos independently whilst continuing to exhibit supreme effort and determination as they aim to pursue a successful career in the music industry. The band continually strive to incorporate fresh and new ideas into their sound as well as continuing to aspire in being a positive influence for the youth of today with their catchy guitar riffs solid drum playing. 

August 2009 saw the release of their self-titled debut album, consisting of just 8 tracks. The song ‘Run’ is one which begins as a soft song, but overtime becomes an upbeat Pop song, while ‘Little White Lie’ and ‘I’ve Been Screaming’ are also highlights of the record. The latter uses a lot of piano to create the melodies, while the vocals of lead singer, Adam Mariucci supply catchy lyrics to match the bouncy beats.

The album titled ‘X’ was the bands next release in December 2010. Of the 9 tracks, ‘Marco Polo’ and ‘Love Me Hate Me’ are the two which possess official videos whilst there is an unofficial video for ‘Remedy (La Da Da)’. However, ‘Out Of Time’ is highly regarded by some to be the best track on the record, integrating a great blend of heavy guitars and hard dance-like synth lines. This particular song demonstrates more than most, the likeness of the vocals to pop boy bands, in particular, N Sync.  

In February 2011, the band released a cover of the hit single by American pop star, Ke$ha titled ‘We R Who We R’. Their version stays pretty close to the original but through simply replicating the beat with live instruments they have done an incredible job and have turned a truly awful song into a bearable and even enjoyable one!

The band strike a very similar sound to that of Fall Out Boy, especially the sound created from their 2008 album ‘Folie à Deux’. There seems to be an increasingly large number of bands within this particular scene, and they’ll have to do a lot to stand out as a pop rock band. Nevertheless, TRC seem to be heading in the right direction but there’s still a lot of work to be done for one of the US’s up and coming pop rock bands! 

To give you a sample of TRC, here is the video for 'Marco Polo':

Matthew Evans