|
BIO
Arthur
Unveils Watch The Years Crawl By: Rockers’ Sweet
Side Exposed
Arthur
is a band -- that is, when they’re not busy being
another band. It’s all a bit confusing, but it
adds up to a dream long delayed that’s finally
coming true. It all started in 1997, when Michael
Arthur Herrera, best known as the frontman for
punk-pop legends MxPx, began writing a batch of
songs that didn’t quite fit the MxPx mold. To keep
things separate, Herrera created a side project
under his middle name, Arthur, for these tunes,
which make use of a wider dynamic range both
musically and emotionally. Herrera found an outlet
for these melodic, pop-tinged rockers without
having to look very far afield. MxPx’s drummer
Yuri Zane Ruley joined in on the project, and
Herrera brought in bassist Neil Alexander Hundt, a
high-school buddy of his and Ruley’s who would
remain in the fold later by becoming MxPx’s stage
tech. The rhythm section started going by their
own middle names as part of the Arthur project.
“We were presenting another side of our musical
selves, and using our middle names was in keeping
with that theme,” explains the drummer.
During
MxPx downtime, and just a year after the release
of MxPx’s major label debut, Slowly Going The Way
Of The Buffalo, Arthur went into the studio to
start recording material and finalize the project
by adding guitarist Tom Edmund Wisniewski to the
Arthur line-up. In 1999, they released their debut
EP, Loneliness Is Bliss, on their own label, Rock
City Recording Company. Arthur played around the
Pacific Northwest, gaining fans from the MxPx
audience as well as earning a following all their
own. Three years later, they began work on a
full-length Arthur album, but the hustle and
bustle of MxPx delayed that process for eight long
years.
Arthur
songs are mainly about love and relationships.
Sometimes presented in a very innocent way,
they’re born out of a love of 50's doo-wop tunes.
Don’t let that description inspire visions of four
guys on a street corner snapping their fingers and
singing a cappella versions of Platters songs,
though. While Arthur’s first full-length album,
Watch The Years Crawl By, does boast a few songs
where the influence of 50’s pop and rock & roll
can be heard (“Tuck You In,” “Out of the Blue”),
this is first and foremost a contemporary indie-rock
record, or as Herrera jokingly dubs it, “pre-post
alternative.”
The
long-mooted album that spent the better part of
the last decade as a near-mythological fantasy
whispered about longingly among Arthur admirers
has been unleashed at last. Arthur, Alexander,
Edmund, and Zane, as they like to be known in this
context, have finally finished work on the rather
appropriately titled full-length album Watch The
Years Crawl By. As the band’s namesake wryly puts
it, “This record was started before the industrial
revolution of recording and finished in the golden
age of digital recording.”
While
the songs undoubtedly diverge from the mainstream
of MxPx output, there are still enough sonic
reference points to provide easy access for fans
of Arthur’s punkier alter ego. Still, the album’s
stylistic experimentation, love-centric lyric
themes, and multiple melodic surprises offer
something only hinted at in MxPx. In the end, all
that matters is what happens the moment these
songs make impact with your ears. The band
collectively agrees that they “want Arthur fans to
enjoy this rare moment in the band’s history.
Arthur never did very much because we were busy
with MxPx but what we did do was something
special.”
|
