Samiam
Pop Punk. As rough as life gets SAMIAM know how essential it is that the music remains uplifting.
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Berkeley, California's SAMIAM have played a pivotal role in carving the pop - punk niche with peers like Green Day, Operation Ivy, and Jawbreaker. Their debut album for Ignition Records YOU ARE FREAKING ME OUT, is a testament to their hardcore - with - hooks sensibility while exposing a somber side without letting the band's guard down. In the process, SAMIAM have evolved into pure pop but manage to retain their punk edge. Titled by a bar patron who was spooked by drummer M.P.'s daydreaming gaze, FREAKING's songs can't be pinned down, no matter how familiar the formula. The album's opener, Full On, catapults the listener into a thirteen song opus of ringing chords and harmonizing vocals.
It's hard to imagine a band with such spunk to be so lyrically downtrodden. On FREAKING's first single, She Found You, Beebout sings, "Your life has been a message in a bottle / dumped in the ocean, never reaching any shore," while staccato riffs break into soaring chords with the chorus, "Just when I thought you were breaking down / she found you." As rough as life gets -- and SAMIAM don't skirt any issues -- they know how essential it is that the music remains uplifting. Part of SAMIAM's charm is their song's personal tales of tormented relationships -- yet Beebout's had the same girlfriend for nine years. "I tend to write about girls in a negative way, which would seem like I'm breaking up a lot, but I still have plenty of ammo from previous engagements. You get to write about the same few people pretty often."
While Beebout's lost some of his poetic ambiguity over the years, he's now reassessing his past judgments. On Full On, he sings Remember when we met / seemed so innocent / but I was different then / now I know how the story ends. Things I just assumed were right were completely wrong, he admits. The songs on YOU ARE FREAKING ME OUT are about resigning to accept a lot of shit for what it is.
The SAMIAM cast's tenure in the Bay Area music school predates the band's formation in 1988. Beebout was the frontman for Isocracy who were touted for shows which, in the course of forty - five minutes, played three songs and tossed trash at the audience. Guitarist James Brogan and Loobkoff were members of Social Unrest and Sweet Baby respectively while Rubin was a member of punk jesters The Mr. T. Experience. Samiam was initially labeled a punk rock supergroup, asserts Brogan. SAMIAM never churned out redundant chords nor predictable melodies. Meanwhile, the band's alumni have done time with projects as diverse as Depeche Mode, Masters Of Reality and Redd Kross.
SAMIAM recorded three albums for San Franciscos New Red Archives, beginning in 1990 with their eponymous debut. In 1991 they released Soar with the production assistance of Bad Religion/Epitaph honcho Brett Guerowitz, and Billy the following year with Armand John Petri of Goo Goo Dolls fame. "If you listen to the songs from our first three records," Loobkoff says, "they go on tangents. At the time, we thought were being original, but when I go back there I start thinking. . ." Beebout adds, "why couldn"t we have thought about writing clear, concise songs."
With three independent records under their belt and a committed DIY - aesthetic that has taken them as far as Europe, Australia and Japan, SAMIAM"s demand heated up during 1993 and 1994. "For the first five years of our band, we just totally thought of Samiam as something to keep ourselves busy, Loobkoff recollects. Although the anticipation escalated when Atlantic Records released Clumsy in 1995, the band treated their fourth album like any other, touring America with Green Day, Bad Religion and the Toadies as well as perfoming on the WARP tour and headlining three European tours. Produced by Lou Giordano (Bob Mould a.k.a Sugar), Clumsy represented a giant leap in the band's sound.
In 1996, SAMIAM recorded YOU ARE FREAKING ME OUT in San Francisco under the direction of Steven Haigler. With Haigler's dossier rife with artists like the Pixies, Local H and Quicksand, SAMIAM had met their production muse. Haigler helped propel the band to record moments on YOU ARE FREAKING ME OUT that previously would have been labeled by SAMIAM themselves as "goofy. One revelation was covering The Beatles' "Cry Baby Cry," which SAMIAM showcases as a fulfilling reprise. "How many times have you heard a Beatles cover and thought, that's so dorky?" Loobkoff wonders about the mass of Beatles interpretations. "They can be totally competent yet totally meaningless." The rendering of the track, their first recorded cover, is paralled to the way SAMIAM expresses growth -- not haphazardly for the sake of experimentation, but taking what exists and incorporating their own energy. # # #READ MORE
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Comments (313)
nice
ok, Saludos, Greetings
J B Muro
back for another go. still diggin the hot "full on"
--stockwrock
The Vid is a good starter.
Great tight sound.
Wish you the best.
"The Jewells"
GREAT VIDEO:o)
HAVE A ROCKIN NIGHT
ALL THE BEST
SINGULAR ,,
ROCK ON !!