Up, Up And Away

If Early States ought to have been intimidated by the traditionally aggressive cauldron of hardcore and metal bands bubbling out of the greater Sacramento area, they seem not to have noticed. In fact, they seem downright indifferent to the fabled demographic of their immediate proximity; a place where bands like Tera Melos shattered the glass ceilings of post-punk with dizzying mathematical permutations and broken instruments; a place where spatial metal heavyweights Deftones and Far ignited the tinder of disenfranchised Central Valley denizens and went knock, knock, knockin’ on Billboard‘s door; a place where the sheer strip-mallian essence floats so pungently in the humid troposphere, you’re damn near required to bleed Orange Julius should you be so unfortunate as to be shanked in the citywide food court. It’s this kind of focused apathy that seems to be setting the band apart from its peers in the local music scene, and it’s definitely getting it noticed outside of it as well.

Early States is fronted by 18-year-old Zack Gray. His affluence in songwriting has yielded the band (also including Shaun O’Brien, 20, on guitar and keyboard; Brandon Lee, 22, on drums; with recent additions Tom Hatch, 18, on bass; and Nick Silva, 18, on lead guitar) a fluffy bed of uber-pop melodicism and expansive indie-rock pomp.

“We weren’t apprehensive,” says Gray with regard to the divisiveness of the band’s sound. “If anything we looked forward to introducing people to something new. We want to be one of the bands that takes [the scene] in a new direction.”

While the band boasts an average age of 19, their focus remains steadfastly on the progression of their still fledgling career. Having just finished recording their debut EP Powerlines, Early States is forging ahead with not only their CD release show at Club Retro, but also with the spoils of their headway with major Los Angeles-based music licensing firm Immediate Music. The band was recently signed a licensing contract with the company, who is responsible for the composing and licensing of music cues and pieces for television and in the promotional campaigns of 70 to 80 percent of the top 50 highest-grossing films seeping out of Hollywood’s glistening underbelly, including the entire Harry Potter series, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and even ­Spider-man. Not a bad spot to be for a band that only formed about a year ago.

“Being the first band to sign with Immediate Music hasn’t changed our direction. It has only made us more driven and ambitious,” notes Gray. “We’re honored that a company as prestigious as I.M. wants to work with us. It’s definitely some great validation.”

The band is planning on shopping their music to proper record labels come January 2009, and figures to utilize the time in the interim to “tighten up any loose screws” and to focus on the release of their EP.

Powerlines was officially release at the Nov. 21 CD release show, but the album hit Purevolume a week prior for free (with the band on the front page), and has made its way on over to music Mecca iTunes, then Amazon, then to basically wherever music is sold on the wild wild Web. Additionally, the band has acquired an endorsement from Dickies clothing.

“Our band is our number one priority and we look forward to being able to give it our full, undivided attention,” explains Gray. And the drive with which he’s espoused his songwriting couldn’t cut closer to the quick of the proverbial angst-loaded post-grad.

Powerlines ushers in atmospheric nodes in all the right places, begging here and there for a unique thread to tether, but still maintains an unmistakable knack for hook-y transitions and guitar-smothered verve. Gray’s adolescent renderings of universal themes such as “love and conflict, to wanting to get away, to finding happiness in yourself instead of looking for it in other people,” while prudent, don’t belie the vastness of his visionary palate.

“Although those are the main themes that can be found on Powerlines, I really enjoy listening to people’s interpretations of what they think the songs are about and how they relate them to their own life,” says Gray.

Early States are hoping to tour in Spring 2009, but will be working on new material and playing local and regional venues to begin the arduous task of getting their name plastered in the fertile minds of show goers; more importantly, the quintet has already eschewed the reticence of the young band syndrome, and expects nothing but great things in the future.

“We believe that we’re a very hard working band, especially for our age,” says Gray. “We think we share the same focus as the bands we look up to and aspire to be like.”

!!! Wants You to Slam

When the collective runoff of ballyhooed Sacramento bands Black Licorice and Popesmashers joined forces after a mid-’90s tour, they probably didn’t realize their labor would yield the seeds for the forbidden fruit of dance-punk. They probably didn’t even realize that what they were doing was all that unique. But however you slice it, the niche-malleable !!! (yes, you can pronounce it in any number of thrice repeated bursts of syllables—most commonly Chk Chk Chk, but don’t forget Pow Pow Pow, Bam Bam Bam or any other such triadic inference) introduced to the fringe-stream a hypnotic freak beat mythos that spawned more bastard-children experimentalists than had Wilt Chamberlain studied Blondie rather than basketball. Their symbiotic mastery of marrying organic jams into heady blips of post-punk funk has afforded them opening slots on major tours (2006’s opening slot in support of Red Hot Chili Peppers in the UK), and has paved the way for the moderate successes of their last two studio albums: 2004’s Louden Up Now and 2007’s acid-punk/funk field guide Myth Takes. The band is currently on a brief West Coast tour, slowly wrangling their brigade from various corners of the country to once again coalesce and steer the vessel even deeper into uncharted waters, or as guitarist Mario Andreoni alluded to Submerge, to blindly forge straight into the dock. Either way, bring a life vest and some deck-safe dancing shoes.

!!! has its foot planted nowhere specific musically. How liberating as an artist is it for you to not feel pressure to homogenize your craft to fit into a niche?
Well, we do tend to work on things that have a strong rhythmic foundation so”¦ From there, it’s pretty wide open though. I don’t worry too much about the rest.

The indefinable aspects of your music often surface as the focal point of it as well; abstracts become hooks, dissonance becomes harmony. Are you ever concerned that by way of the indefinability of your music that your songwriting is guided toward that indefinability rather than emerging from an organic jam?
If part of me was concerned about that, I’d want the other collective parts of me to punch that part in the face.

Being one of the forbearers of the progressive dance/funk scene, what trends do you see infiltrating the mix that you guys are really into? Which trends are you seeing that you think are detrimental?
Being a fan of lots of old obscure/odd/forgotten dance tunes, I tend to really like freaky re-edits—creative DJs or producers reinterpreting songs, making them longer, adding bits. What I dislike, though, still comes down quality. I want a good tune. Subjective, I know, but I don’t keep up on what [the] latest things [are] in any musical genre—sort of blissfully unaware.

Is the band still spread out across the country? And if so, how is your chemistry affected when you reconvene for small tours like the one you’re on now, or when you get back together to create music?
Yeah, most of the guys live in Brooklyn while Allan [Wilson, horns, percussion] and I live on the West Coast. We toured most of last year and that probably had more of an affect on our chemistry than the separation ever did. I’m frankly used to [the separation], although it’s certainly not the easiest way to make music as a band.

In what ways do you feel making an artistic statement with your music is important? How does that stack up against playing music just because you enjoy it? And where do those two roads cross paths for !!!?
When creating, I don’t make the distinction. If we’re working on a tune and it makes me smile, gives me goose bumps or some other crazy feeling, I go with it.

What are the band’s plans for a new album?
Working on new tunes now. Ideally, I’d like to have most of it recorded by end of this year, but we’ll see. It’s still early in the process. The goal is to keep making better records, which I think we’ve done. I’m sure it’ll slam though.

In what ways has the Sacramento music scene changed since you guys began playing?
!!! came out of a pretty tight downtown community. Once that “ended,” I’m not sure who picked up the torch. I sure hope there is some weird small scene brewing in Loomis, or Rancho, or Folsom”¦doing more than just anger-rock that is, which seems to be a pre-requisite to getting any “pro” rehearsal slot—in just about any city. People outside of Sacto always wonder about what was going on around the time we formed; it was really great to be around so many smart, supportive and open-minded music snobs.