First, let's take a look at Craig's band, and what he has to say about it (note: band members are listed in Role: Member, Band)
Band Name: Dreamatorium
Vocals: Anthony Green, Circa Survive
Guitar/Backing Vocals: Jon Simmons, Balance & Composure
Bass: Nikki Monninger, Silversun Pickups
Guitar/Keys: Teppei Teranishi, Thrice
Drums: Nicholas Pizzolato, Moving Mountains
About the fantasy band draft: The 4th annual AP fantasy band draft is a group of 47 posters on the AP forums that take turns picking five members of active bands in a snaking draft order (meaning that after it runs 1-47, the draft runs back in reverse order 47-1). The active band part caused a lot of controversy. The word "active" was defined as having done touring or recording within the past year or to have solid touring recording plans for the coming year. One person in this draft took this statement to mean that you could draft dead artists, as long as they were active within the year, and selected Amy Winehouse. Shit hit the fan. Comments started flying in and the pick was deemed illegal because an artist can't be active if they are dead. Anyway, when all the picks were made (people had to have a drummer, bassist, guitarist and singer), members were asked to sumbit a write-up describing their band. Then, each of the 47 members were asked to rank their top 15 bands in order. Each band would get points for the votes. A 1st place vote=15 points, 2nd=14, etc. The points were then tallied up and the top 10 are now going into the public poll on absolutepunk.net. My band was lucky enough to make the top 10 and the vote begins this week. Anyone can vote as long as they have an AP account. I will update this post when the site-wide poll goes live.
About the band: I'll start off this part by posting the write-up I had to submit (in mock press release form) to describe my band: "Dreamatorium began as a simple conversation between Moving Mountains’ drummer Nicholas Pizzolato and Thrice’s Teppei Terranishi on Thrice’s headlining tour. The two began to realize they shared a love for both the distorted, crunchy guitar tones of some of their favorite musicians and for the NBC comedy Community. Together, they would recruit members to work around the first premise, and decide to name their band Dreamatorium to fulfill the second (Dreamatorium also symbolizes the idea that this band was previously only thought possible in the mind). Anthony Green was called in to front the band, because as Teppei said, “He has one of the most powerful and emotive voices I have ever heard, and the uniqueness lends itself to the band’s versatile style.” Green commands the majority of the vocal duty on the band’s debut, and is also the band’s primary songwriter. Next, Pizzolato called Jonathan Simmons who agreed to aide in the lyrics and songwriting with Green, adding to the band his personal and relatable lyrics and a unique perspective as the band’s youngest member. The band was having a hard time finding a bassist, until they stumbled upon Silversun Pickups’ “Panic Switch” on the radio. Immediately, they knew the person behind that muddy bass line had to join their band. And thus, Nikki Monninger completed the band’s lineup on bass and backing vocals. The band’s debut full-length has elements of the ambient post-hardcore of Moving Mountains’ Waves work and the later Thrice material, mixed with the gritty alternative rock of the other members bands. A super-group that works as a cohesive whole is a rarity. But, paraphrasing Abed’s line in Community, Pizzolato said, “Dreamatorium is more important than any of us.”"
As you can see, I had a lot of fun putting together the band and imagining a dream scenario where they would come together. I think this band would be the darkest ambient post-hardcore band out there right now. My big key in picking the band was picking guitarists with very similar tones. I can see the guitars in Balance And Composure fitting in with Teppei's crushing riffs and the distorted tones of Nikki Monniger's bass talents would be enough to seal the deal. When you add in one of the best vocal performers of our generation in Anthony green (who I stole from Don's band) and the crashing crescendoes of Nick Pizzolato behind the kit, This would be a band that could pull of some massive post-rock/ambient soundscapes. Actually, one of the coolest things about this draft was getting to talk to Nick about his "bandmates" at one of Moving Mountains' recent show. He said it would be an absolute thrill for him to be in a band with Anthony Green and Teppei, as he said they as a band look up to Circa and Thrice a lot. That's a memory I'll always have about this draft, regardless of whether I win.
One last thing of note about my band. I just wanted to highlight 2 artists that I was going to select, but didn't for certain reasons. The first is Christian McAlhaney of Anberlin. I love his work with the band, and he was still available with my final pick in the 5th round. I went back and forth between him and Jonathan Simmons, as both write at least a portion of the band's lyrics and both are capable guitarist. Though admittedly McAlhaney is a much more talented guitarist right now (Simmons isnt even the lead guitarist in his band) I felt that Simmons had so much upside and I have been in love with Separation as of late, so I went with him. The other performer I was about to pick was bassist Nick Ghanbarian, of Bayside, who brings to the table the same guitar tones I was looking for, but I figured the rhythym section of my band would suffer from two very different styles and decide to go with the mix of ambient and distorted bass riffs that Monninger can provide. I really love how my band turned out and it turned out to be the most cohesive band I could have thought of. If anyone gets a chance to participate in one of these, you definitely should.
Now, did you really think Craig got to have all the fun with this? Of course not! Donald also made his own band, in order to compare/contrast strategies with Craig on the show. Let's take a look at Donald's band, and what he thought about it:
Band Name: Retrospect
Vocals: Craig Owens, Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows/Ex-Chiodos
Guitar: Tom Keeley, Thursday
Bass/Vocals: Brendan Brown, The Receiving End of Sirens
Drums: Alex Gonzalez, Saosin
Piano/Keys: Schuyler Vaughn-White, Foxy Shazam
About the band: Luckily, I didn't have nearly the same amount of restrictions Craig had in picking his band; really, my only rule was to not pick anyone from a band Craig picked. Because of this, I ended up picking a lot of dudes from bands that were in news recently. Starting off with one of my favorite frontmen of all time, Craig Owens. There's been a rumor going around now that Owens is slated to rejoin the band that broke him out to the world, Chiodos, and that's put me on a Chiodos kick all week. Thursday's new album No Devolucion has remained one of my most-played from 2011, and Tom Keeley would make the perfect addition and complement to Owens's vocal range, to give this band the potential to sound however they want. Owens's best work was when he co-wrote with Bradley Bell, who played keys while Owens was in Chiodos, but I can't pick him. Therefore, I went with another songwriter who changed the way I looked at music, bassist/vocalist Brendan Brown from The Receiving End of Sirens. TREOS announced they were reuniting for a few select shows this year, and Brown was the band's key songwriter during its short-lived career. With Brown's wordplay combining with Owens's flair for the dramatic, these two could really pen some jams. One of the more difficult positions for me to select was drums. I wanted the drummer to be formidable, but I wanted to highlight a drummer who's flown under the radar. This made Alex Rodriguez of Saosin an obvious choice. Amid the notable vocals (provided by Anthony Green or Cover Reber) or the guitars, there was little room for Rodriguez to shine in Saosin. Though this star-studded band also has a few big-marquee names on it, Rodriguez has proved he can play a variety of tempos, and can pound the kit with the best of them. With one last "wild card" position left, I thought for sure I'd use a second guitarist. However, when thinking back to how Owens sounded in Chiodos, and how intricate the pianos and strings were used in TREOS and Thursday songs, I thought a keyboardist would truly maximize the potential of this band. But I needed someone who could understand their place, and add to the chaos the band would unleash onstage. If there's anyone that can do that, it's Schulyer Vaughn-White of Foxy Shazam. Sharing the stage with the always over-the-top Eric Nally, Vaughn-White is still a highlight of any Foxy Shazam show, and can add a theatrical feel to both the band's live show and its recordings.
I thought about coming up with a pop-punk supergroup with this band, but one of the genres that I really listened to in high school that ended up shaping my musical tastes was post-hardcore. This band I've developed reflects that love (and possibly my yearning to be young again), and if it ever came to fruition, the world would never be prepared for it. As for how they'd sound, I can only hope it's something like this:
Now that we've seen what our "Fantasy Bands" would look like, what do you think about them? Whose band would you rather listen to? Who would be in your "Fantasy Band"? Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you next week!
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