Something Corporate

Welcome back to The Keys To Rock!

Thanks for coming back to check out our second piano-rock band, from Orange County, Something Corporate.  If you'd like to listen while you read, scroll down and check out the Spotify playlist I've included below.  And remember, if you love piano-rock music or love exploring new bands, you can subscribe by putting your email in the box to the right.

Something Corporate

Something Corporate, and more specifically their front-man and principle songwriter Andrew McMahon, have been very influential in my own style as a piano-rock artist.  Andrew McMahon's subsequent band, Jack's Mannequin, has been, perhaps, my sole biggest influence as an artist.  But, working in chronological order here, let's stick to the band that came first, the topic at hand, Something Corporate...

In 1998, just out of high school, front-man/vocalist/keyboardist, Andrew McMahon, along with drummer Brian Ireland, and bassist Kevin Page, formed Something Corporate.  Adding guitarists Josh Partington and Reuben Hernandez, S.C. would settle in as a five-piece.  In the fall of 2000, the band independently released a demo CD titled Ready...Break which was followed with an official member change as Hernandez was replaced (and the lineup consequently solidified) by guitarist William Tell.

In 2001, having formed their distinct piano-based alternative-rock-style sound, the band signed with MCA Records and Drive-Thru Records to release their EP Audioboxer.  The band would promote Audioboxer and its featured single, If You C Jordan, with nationwide tours.

In May 2002, S.C. released their first major label album, Leaving Through The Window, which contained two singles, I Woke Up In A Car and Punk Rock Princess, the latter of which reached #33 on the U.K. Singles Chart.  It surprises me that I Woke Up In A Car didn't break into the charts, since not only is it a personal favorite of mine, but it also appears to currently be their second most played song on such players as Spotify.  Leaving Through The Window, as a whole, would hit #1 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart as well as #101 on the Billboard 200.

In October 2003, the band's second full-length album, North, would debut at #24 on the Billboard 200, with its only single being Space, written by guitarist Partington.  A few months later, in February 2004, guitarist William Tell would leave the band to pursue solo work, just months before S.C. filmed their concert at Ventura Theater, which would shortly thereafter be released on DVD.  Here is S.C.'s performance of their song Konstantine from their live DVD, shot at Ventura Theater.



A hiatus followed, beginning in the summer of 2004. They promised the break would not be permanent, stating that they just wanted to reconnect with the life that originally spawned the band.  In 2006, Something Corporate would reunite to perform three songs as special guests on a show in Pomona, CA; and in 2010 the band would come together more extensively, releasing a greatest hits album titled Played in Space: The Best of Something Corporate, and following that up with a reunion tour.

Andrew McMahon, the face of piano-rock of the early 2000's, and his young five-piece band, Something Corporate, helped define a niche in the ever-evolving landscape that is the rock genre.  McMahon has been very influential and inspirational to me as an artist, and to many many others, I'm sure.

To read more about Something Corporate or Andrew McMahon and his career of musical endeavors, check out a few of the links below.  Don't forget to subscribe, via email, to The Keys To Rock, to regularly hear about more great piano-rock bands!  You can also follow me on twitter @alecryanmusic to get information/notifications about future posts, and to hear what I have going on as a piano-rock artist!

Until next time,

Alec Ryan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Corporate#Studio_albums

http://www.andrewmcmahon.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_McMahon

https://myspace.com/soco

Ben Folds Five

Welcome to The Keys To Rock, everybody!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my first post!  If you're a fan of piano-rock music and you like what you find here, subscribe with the box to the right.  I've started this blog out of my personal love for piano-rock music.  As a piano-rock based songwriter and artist myself, hearing some of the bands you'll find in this blog has been very inspiring to me.  I would be a vastly different artist without influence from these bands.  But without further ado, let us dive in!

Ben Folds Five

   

In thinking about the true genre of piano-based rock, where else to begin than with Ben Folds Five.  If you'd like to listen while you read, I've created a Ben Folds Five Spotify playlist and embedded it below.

As a piano-rock based songwriter myself, Benjamin Folds (lead vocals, piano/keyboards, and principle songwriter of Ben Folds Five) has been one of my biggest influences.  Folds, along with bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee formed the piano-rock trio Ben Folds Five in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.   The three never brought an overly mainstream sound to their unique style of rock, which, in my mind, has shown that having a mainstream sound isn't the only way to find success.

Ben Folds has a vocal style that certainly doesn't scream well-trained-vocalist, but somehow his unique voice and wide range of lyric styles fit right in with the band's self-prescribed "punk rock for sissies" sound.

As Ben Folds Five began to find its sound in the early years, it released its first self-titled album, Ben Folds Five, in 1995.  Following was Whatever and Ever Amen, the band's sophomore album. This has always been a personal favorite of mine, having listened to it with my family on many cross country family vacations.  Folds' varying writing on this album features a pull-no-punches style of blunt lyricism and music that perfectly accompanies each lyrical mood, both qualities I admire in Folds' writing.  The album's most successful single, Brick, would reach #6 on US charts in '98.

Naked Baby Photos, an album containing a lot of odds-and-ends songs, was released early the following year.  One year later, the band released The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner which was ultimately a flop album, achieving little to no commercial success and receiving mostly average reviews. Folds has explained that this album really showed how naive the band was in thinking that the music industry would care about their most somber and musically sophisticated/different writing, though he thinks that the album contained some of their best work.

In October 2000, Ben Folds Five would break up.  Folds would then begin his string of six solo LP releases, as well as collaborations with a variety of well known artists.  Ben Folds Five reunited in 2011 and released their album The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind and would tour with that album in 2012.

As one of my all-time favorite bands, Ben Folds Five has already been a major influence for many piano-based rock artists, and I'm sure they will continue to be an influence to many generations to come.  As an artist, I like to think that true well-honed musicianship and the expression of one's truest emotions can help an artist find success.  Bands like Ben Folds Five give me hope that I may just be right.

For more extensive information about Ben Folds Five, or Ben Folds' solo artist work, check out the links below.

Thanks for reading my first post to my new blog The Keys To Rock! Don't forget to subscribe to The Keys To Rock by entering your email in the box to the right.  You can also follow me on twitter @alecryanmusic to get information about future posts, and to hear what I have coming up as a piano-rock artist!

Until next time,

Alec Ryan

http://www.benfolds.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Folds_Five

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Folds