The Starting Line on Hiatus

Confirming the fears and suspicions of most of their fans, The Starting Line have announced a hiatus following their spring tours. This is from their AbsolutePunk.net press conference thread, in case their servers can't handle the traffic:

From all the east coast to west coast states, I want to feel the warmth from the buzz that I create. But I'm really not too sure, if it's ever gonna happen, but I know that I'm not too concerned.



Imagine getting your first job when you were 15 years old and doing that exact same job for the rest of your life. Even if it’s the dream job that most people would kill for, eventually you need to stop for a minute and see what else is out there.

This is one of the most difficult decisions we’ve had to make but after eight years of nonstop touring and recording The Starting Line will be taking a break after their headline tour with Bayside, Four Year Strong and Steel Train (March 18 – April 20) and the college shows following the tour. This break does NOT mean the band is breaking up or going on hiatus it just means were going to stop for a little while and focus on other things in our lives besides The Starting Line. This break may last a year, two years or a few months, as of right now we don’t know. We’re talking to some friends about doing a quick tour to South America as well as options to tour Europe, Japan and Australia again and we're not ruling them out. We just aren’t going to be doing any full time touring or recording as The Starting Line for a while.

We’ve had our ups and downs with countless record labels (We The People, Drive-Thru, MCA, Geffen, Virgin and finally The Capitol Music Group) over the years and every time we thought we had the right team a label president would be fired, or our label would be taken over by a new company. At each of these places there were people who loved us and would do anything for us and others (usually the ones making the financial decisions) that just didn’t give a shit about our band and after going through this for such a long time we need to take a step back and figure out what’s next for The Starting Line.

Before we go we have one last tour to say goodbye to everyone and we’re working with our friends at pickRset to make this best tour ever. Head over to here and pick the songs you want to hear on this tour and we will do our best to play as many of them each night on the tour.

This is not an end but a new beginning, to celebrate this new beginning we have a some exciting news to share with everyone. Sometime this summer or early fall we plan to finally release the unreleased record that we recorded for We The People Records. We are also talking about putting together a DVD to go with the record that will chronicle the Drive Thru years. We have tons of tapes to find and dig through and interviews to do with everyone to properly document that part of our lives but we think we can have it ready by the summer.

Everyone in the band will still be busy so you won’t be able to get rid of us that easily.

Kenny just finished recording the debut record for his band Person L, expect to see a release plan and tour announced soon, rumor has it he may even make an appearance at this year’s Bonnaroo. You will also get to see the most recent addition to the Starting Line, Brian Schmutz in Person L’s touring band. If you want to check out some tunes from the L peep check them out here.

Matt and Tom have been working on a new project with some friends, called The Seventy Six, and just happened to put up a myspace page today with some songs and videos. The sound of the band may come as a shock to some of you, in the best possible way. Please show your love and support and check it out. They have some big plans in the works and plan on announcing them as soon as they can.

Mike and one of his close friends will be starting a company that we will tell you all about once all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed. Of course he has a band he’s going to be jamming with as well and when we have more to report on that we’ll let you know. Most importantly Mike will be making up some lost time with his beautiful daughters. He's missed many a milestone and is looking forward to some much needed bonding time with his little girls.

Announcements like this are so hard for everyone, especially the band, and we want to make sure we didn’t leave out any information, so we’re going to stick around for the next hour or so and answer as many questions as possible.

We’ve invited many of our friends who have worked with us over the years to post in this conversation too because after many years working together some of them are just as much a part of The Starting Line as we are.

Here is a list of some of the people we invited to join us here today:
Randy Nichols (manager), Steve Tamburello (tour manager), Shawn Corrigan (guitar tech), Matt Geyer (merch guy and assistant to manager), Matt Gray (drum tech), Melissa Sabo (old school fan, ex MCA and managers assistant), Richard, Stefanie, Kristine, Josh, John and Kim (Drive Thru past and present), Dave Stein (lawyer), Paul Orescan, (Geffen Records), Evan Peters (Geffen) Lexi Ben-Meir (Geffen), Christine Wolf (Geffen), Mike Mc Koy (lawyer), Tim’Oheir, Howard Benson, David Wolter (Virgin), Bill Carroll (Virgin), Howard Petruziello (Virgin), Heidi (Virgin), Jon Nelson (Sony/ATV) Charlie Adams (We The People), Ron O (booking agent), Geoff Meall (UK agent) Jason Tate (AP.net).

We’ve invited others too and hopefully they will all join us to talk about TSL, past, present and future.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last eight years and see you all this spring and don’t forget to go to pickrset.com/bands/thestartingline/ to pick what you would like to hear and buy tickets to the tour.


Matt, Tom, Mike, Kenny and Brian

This is no attempt
To abandon anyone
It is the influence of the music we love

*By Jess, who just drowned her sorrows in a giant box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

Some nifty stuff to start your week:

June:

So maybe they didn't break up after all! Sweet.

Drummer Mark Sutor posted the following in a MySpace bulletin this morning:
"First off, we're working on scheduling more shows, so don't worry about that...we'll get them posted asap.

Secondly, the tickets should be on sale very very soon for the Metro show in Chicago. Check back often."

Those of you lucky enough to live in the Chicago area should check them out in case they do wind up calling it quits after that string. Sutor is going back to school and getting a "real" job to pay his way through it. It'll be hard to tour if your drummer's studying for finals.



Jet Lag Gemini:

Did you know frontman Misha Safonov's first band's name was Blind Rabbit?

While packaging Frightened Rabbit videos at HIP Video Promo (he was there slaving for a few days before going back on tour), Safonov said that he and his bandmates at the time found a, well, blind rabbit that inspired their name. But how did he know that it was actually in fact blind?

"It's eyes were all stuck shut," he said. "I felt bad for the rabbit. It was a cute rabbit. But 'Cute Rabbit' would be a lame band name." So they went with its other most defining attribute.

In other Jet Lag Gemini news, you'll soon be able to hear them on Fox's March Madness coverage--"Run This City" is the station's token song for the basketball period.



PlayRadioPlay

PlayRadioPlay's Dan Hunter has posted new material from his upcoming album, Texas, on his MySpace. The three songs are a re-make of fan favorite "Madi Don't Leave," the album outro "Texas," and "Loco Commotion." "Madi Don't Leave" is a bit on the slower side, "Texas" is a short ditty with minimal electronics (I know, weird for him), and "Loco Commotion" is a mish mash of hooks, fast beats, and breakdowns. The full tracklist for the album is here:

1. Loco Commotion
1.5. Suddenly, I've Become A Perfectionist
2. I 'm a Pirate, You're a Princess
2.5. A Special Thanks To Dr. Allan C. Lloyd
3. Some Crap About The Furniture
3.5. Invisible Suits and Ties
4. Madi Don't Leave
4.5. For The Whole World/Room to See
5. Without Gravity
6. See You Soon
7. I'm Afraid There's A Hole In My Brain
7.5. Taxes
8. More Of The Worst
8.5. Lady Killers Wear Funny Hats
9. My Attendance Is Bad But My Intentions Are Good
9.5. Cheap Paper With Full Color Advertisements
10. Corner Office Bedroom
10.5. Why Is Everyone Running?
11. Forgiveness, The Enviable Trait
12. Texas



The Starting Line:

Ken Vasoli and Company are driving the Absolute Punk boards crazy with their promise of a "huge announcement" that will affect ticket sales of their upcoming tour. The band and their management are holding a press conference online on Absolute Punk, leaving the site's members in frenzied suspense: Is the band breaking up? Are they starting their own label? Is Ken's side project Person L becoming his main focus? No one knows for certain until they spill the proverbial beans on March 5th--this Wednesday.



Paramore:

The inexplicably Grammy-nominated band have cancelled a string of European dates to sort stuff out internally. Hayley Williams has already clarified that she isn't pregnant. Twelve year old boys everywhere heave a collective sigh a relief.


More as it comes!

*By Jess, who has rekindled an old flame. That's right, she's rediscovered her love for Coco Puffs.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:


- The new Rooney album, Calling The World; especially "Believe In Me," "Love Me or Leave Me," the title track... Well, darn it, the whole thing with the exception of "Are You Afraid Of Me," which is too slow for an upbeat band and sounds out of place on this record.

- The new Junior Varsity, Cinematographic; especially "I Went Blind," "The Sky"--they're filming a video for that one right now!--and, again, dammit, the whole thing. It's really hard to narrow down. The instrumentation on this album is absolutely sick. If you like shredding, sarcasm, and killer hooks, this is for you. It also features a cameo on "Wunderdrug" by Ken Vasoli of The Starting Line, which leads me to...

- The new Starting Line, Direction; especially "Island" (the first single), and "21." It's classic TSL fare: catchy, earnest, and just a tiny bit lyrically old at times: Kenny, we get it, you grew up on the road and people bitched about your hair. We know. And we love you anyway. This record also marks the band's departure from Drive-Thru and onto major label Virgin.

- The Soho Dolls are starting to get their British behinds in American gear, and damn, they're good. Think Shiny Toy Guns, only better. And hotter. Oh, yes.

- Under the Influence of Giants. Not only do they make the best dance rock I've heard in quite some time, but they're also really down to earth. I sent them a myspace message asking where I can purchase their new song "On My Own" so I could listen to it on my upcoming flight to Texas, and it turns out, they answered me within five minutes asking for my e-mail so they could send me a present. Keep in mind that I've never met them and they didn't have much incentive to send it to me because I said nothing about being a music writer in my message. They're sweet. And schweeeeeet.


The Bad:

- I don't care how much buzz, hype, etc. surrounds Feist--I can't wrap my head around a song that counts "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10." I suck at math, and even I know there's two numbers missing.

- While the thunder was keeping me awake last night, I decided to watch Cops, in which I counted no less than four instances of arrests without suspects being read their Miranda rights. Oink!


The Ugly:

- As a fan of Neil Strauss' The Game, I was crazy excited to watch the premiere of The Pick Up Artist on VH1, in part so I could put a face to the characters I'd read about. While Mystery is pretty hot, I can guarantee you that "Matador" and "J-Dog" would be regarded as a tool and gay, respectively, by me if I was to be approached by them at a club. "Matador" has slicked back hair and an angry, devious looking face. "J-Dog" looks like the crackbaby lovechild of Thom Yorke, Paul Reubens (better known as "Pee Wee Herman"), and Johnny Rotten. I pray that Pradip, Spoon, and the rest don't follow figurative and literal suit.


*By Jessica, who should probably start packing soon

What to buy on June 19th

The Junior Varsity's new album, Cinematographic ("sinn-uh-matt-o-graphic").



They played some new songs from it at their show in Middletown last night, and they were pretty amazing. Asa Dawson's live vocals have improved tremendously (not that they were anything less than wondrous before), Chris Birch's beats were stomp- and danceable (I did a bit of shaking, I'll admit), Nick Dodson's synths were fun and trippy (not that I've ever been on a figurative "trip," but I imagine if I was, I'd hear such neat sounds), and Andy Wildrick and Sergio Coronado continue to shred like mothereffers (and mothereffers can really shred).

Because I made the band cupcakes, I was invited into their van to preview the new CD, which features a guest vocal by Ken Vasoli (better known as "Kenny from The Starting Line") on one of the songs. The tracks are all well-written, meticulously performed, and straight up good. It has a lot of songs you're going to be singing in your car with the windows down during the summer, as opposed to Wide Eyed, their more mellow, introspective (but still damn fine, for sure) debut.

I didn't take any pictures because the lighting was weird in the venue and everything came out looking like big white blobs, but I will note that within six days, two lovely Illinois gentlemen wore the same red striped shirt (Nick Dodson of TJV and Mark of Spitalfield). I think there's something in the water there that makes people super sweet, super talented, and super (if inadvertent) walking evidence of Carl Jung's collective unconscious.

Come back soon, boys. We rather enjoy you here!


*Jess, who eats too much raw cake batter and will likely get salmonella from it someday (and who uses a lot of parentheticals).