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Gatsbys American Dream

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Gatsbys American Dream
Origin	Seattle, Washington, USA
Genre(s)	Indie rock
Years active	2002 - Present
Label(s)	Rocketstar, LLR, Fearless
Associated acts	Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground RedRedBlue Search Rescue Wild Orchid Children Waxwing
Website	Official Site
Members
Nic Newsham Bobby Darling Kirk Huffman Rudy Gajadhar Kyle O'Quin Ryan Van Wieringen
Former members
Dustin McGhye Joey Atkins

Gatsbys American Dream^[sic] is a prolific Seattle-based indie rock band. Since their founding in 2002, they have released four full-length albums and one EP. They have also appeared on several compilations with original songs and covers. Gatsbys American Dream drew their name from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Although it's widely agreed that the band is difficult to classify into one subgenre, it can be said that they draw influence from alternative, pop/rock, emo, indie pop, indie rock, post-hardcore, and punk rock.

1 Line-up
2 History
3 Discography
4 Side projects
5 References
6 External links

Line-up

Nic Newsham: vocals
Bobby Darling: guitar, vocals
Ryan Van Wieringen: guitar, vocals
Kirk Huffman: bass, vocals
Rudy Gajadhar: drums and percussion
Kyle O'Quin: keyboard

History

Gatsbys American Dream began with the disbanding of the groups One Point Two and Good for Nothing. Bobby Darling, a guitarist for One Point Two, met up with Nic Newsham and Ryan Van Wieringen, who were the lead singer and guitarist (respectively) for Good For Nothing. The Gatsbys lineup wasn't complete until Kirk Huffman (formerly of K Through Six) was recruited to play bass and Dustin McGhye signed on as their drummer, making them a five piece band. When Acceptance guitarist Kaylan Cloyd heard a Gatsbys demo, he handed it to Darrick Bourgeois, owner of local record label Rocketstar Recordings. Shortly afterward, Gatsbys signed a two-record deal with Rocketstar and worked with producer Aaron Sprinkle to record their 2002 debut album Why We Fight. Their first show after being signed drew in a crowd in excess of 500, which was largely due to Rocketstar's extensive promotion. After Why We Fight was released, the band replaced drummer Dustin McGhye with Rudy Gajadhar, formerly of Waxwing and Bugs in Amber. In 2003, the band released their second record, Ribbons and Sugar, a concept album based loosely on George Orwell’s fable Animal Farm. With this release it became apparent to critics and fans alike that literary references were a hallmark of the band. Musically, the album found them exploring an ambitious and experimental harder-edged pop sound, opting for unusual time signatures and tempo changes. Although literary references are common through most of their material, Ribbons and Sugar also began a motif of record label disdain. The lyrics of "Cut the Strings" read:

"This is awful to think who decides what should or should not stay, what ends up on the cutting room floor. Apparently it's not my choice to make."

Gatsbys' two-record deal with Rocketstar was fulfilled with Ribbons and Sugar, and the band decided not to renew their contract. Later, guitarist Ryan Van Wieringen would leave the band to further his college education. Following the release of Ribbons and Sugar, the band started to field numerous offers from other, larger record labels. Slightly embittered by the process, the band nevertheless signed a one-record deal with Chicago-based LLR Recordings in 2004. Their contractual record, the more mellow and subdued In the Land of Lost Monsters EP, was in part a response to the post-Ribbons record label attention the band had received. Most of the labels that approached them thought they were excellent musicians, but wanted the band to write choruses for their next record (a standard songwriting technique the band had, up to that point, seemed to avoid). Feeling uncomfortable about forgoing their integrity in order to get a record contract, Gatsbys continued writing music they liked in the way they wanted to write it. Newsham's lyrics for Lost Monsters reflected this struggle, criticising the music industry and expressing the band's wariness of record labels. The band's independent, individualistic approach simply brought them more acclaim as an uncompromising progressive rock band. Several months after the EP's release, the band settled on Fearless Records and released their third full-length, Volcano, in April of 2005. Thematically, Volcano revolves around Pompeii (as evidenced by the title of the second track on the record), which stands as a metaphor for the uncontrollable intensity of human emotion. The album is rife with literary and cultural references from such diverse works as children's film Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Lionhead Studio's Fable, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the action film Jurassic Park, and Orson Scott Card's science-fiction epics Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. During the tour that followed the release of Volcano, Gatsbys added Kyle O'Quin (also a member of the band Surrounded By Lions). A few months after O'Quin was added to the band, Ryan Van Wieringen met up with the band in Arizona while they were on tour there and rejoined the line up. Since then, he has been touring and performing live as part of the band. Van Wieringen did not, however, participate in writing any guitar parts for their self-titled fourth full-length album, released August 8th, 2006. The album bears all the hallmarks of a Gatsbys record: an album of musical experimentation in a pop context, peppered with numerous pop culture and literary references, which appear in both the lyrics and song titles, ranging from works by Philip K. Dick to the television show Lost. The album is, however, noticeably bitter towards the music industry, even compared to previous Gatsbys releases, scalding both current "trend" bands and greedy record labels. Though no official statement has been made regarding the band's status, the band has been relatively inactive since the release of the self-titled album. The band has played a handful of shows in and around the Seattle area, and on April 27, 2007, they played their first out-of-state show since the self-titled album's release at Colgate University. During the hiatus, most of the members have started side projects.

Discography

Full-length albums

Why We Fight (Rocketstar, 2002) - LP
Ribbons and Sugar (Rocketstar, 2003) - LP
Volcano (Fearless, 2005) - LP
Gatsbys American Dream (Fearless, 2006) - LP

Singles and EPs

In the Land of Lost Monsters (LLR, 2004) - EP
Volcano Bonus Disc (Fearless, 2005) - EP

Compilations

A Santa Cause: It's A Punk Rock Christmas (Immortal, 2003) - "Christmas Time Is Here"
In Honor: A Compilation to Beat Cancer (Vagrant Records, 2004) - "The Rundown"
Punk Goes 80's (Fearless, 2005) - "Just Like Heaven"
Warped Tour 2005 Compilation (SideOneDummy, 2005) - "Theatre"
Music On The Brain Vol. 2 (Smartpunk, 2005) - "Theatre"
Taste of Christmas (Warcon, 2005) - "Saint Nicholas"
Music On The Brain Vol. 3 (Smartpunk, 2006) - "Station 5: The Pearl"
Paupers, Peasants, Princes & Kings: The Songs Of Bob Dylan (Doghouse Records, 2006) - "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"
NHL07 (EA Sports, 2006) - "Theatre"

Side projects

The following bands were started during Gatsbys's unofficial hiatus. Of all the Gatsbys members, Rudy Gajadhar is the only one with no other known projects, though he played drums with Search/Rescue at a June 2007 show in Seattle.

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground is an indie band that, like Gatsbys American Dream, draws influence from a wide variety of musical genres. Of the known side projects to come out of Gatsbys, they are the only one to have played shows outside of Washington state and are the only one with any sort of official recorded release. Though the band only has 3 official members, they have been known to perform with as many as 8 additional musicians on stage. The band first released a handful of tracks for streaming on Purevolume and MySpace shortly after the release of Gatsbys American Dream. These songs later appeared on a cassette single released by ECA Records in 2006. In early 2007, the band released Live at the Pretty Parlor, a two-disc set featuring a live DVD and accompanying CD. The DVD was filmed at an independent clothing store in Seattle in late 2006 and released on the band's own label, Bombs Over Bellevue. At a July 2007 show at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle, Huffman announced that the band had completed their album and that it had been picked up by V2 Europe for distribution overseas but none of the American labels they'd sent the album to were interested in distributing it. To date, the band has mostly played shows in the Seattle area, but in mid-2007, they played their first out-of-state shows in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. On June 13th, 2007, the band made their national television debut on Last Call with Carson Daly. According to Huffman,^[1] the band's DVD found its way into the hands of Carson Daly who then pushed to have the band on the show. The band performed "Hey Momma," reduce the song's length due to time constraints.^[2]

Members

Kirk Huffman - lead vocals, guitar, percussion
Kyle O'Quin - keys
Phil Peterson - cello, backing vocals

Additional musicians

The following is an incomplete list of musicians who are not officially a part of the band, but have accompanied the band live.

Thomas Hunter - guitar
Racheal Huffman - backing vocals, percussion
Nate Mooter - bass
J. J. Jang - violin
Victoria (Tori) Parker - violin, backing vocals
Robert (Bobby) Parker - trumpet, flugelhorn, backing vocals
Joey Seward - tuba
Andy Lam - drums
Garrett Lunceford - drums

Search/Rescue

Search/Rescue is a progressive rock band whose sound is more straight-forward than that of Gatsbys American Dream. To date, the band has released several tracks online for streaming on their MySpace page. The band recently completed their debut album, titled The Complex.^[3] The album will be released in Japan in late 2007 with a possible US release in early 2008, though no label has been announced. It is unclear whether or not the band has found a permanent drummer.

Members

Ryan Van Wieringen - vocals, guitar
Bobby Darling - bass
Kaylan Cloyd - guitar

RedRedBlue

RedRedBlue is Newsham's powerpop side project with Justin Harcus of Pale Pacific. The band's name is taken from a Gatsbys song from In the Land of Lost Monsters, which was itself a reference to an army's color code from the book Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. To date, the band has released 3 tracks for download on their MySpace page. On August 23, Newsham posted a MySpace bulletin stating that due to popular request, he would start writing more songs for RedRedBlue, but that they would likely be acoustic-only.

Members

Nic Newsham - vocals, guitar
Justin Harcus - bass

Wild Orchid Children

Wild Orchid Children is another band featuring Huffman and O'Quin. In August 2007, the band started a MySpace page and posted a single song, titled "Ahead of Us the Secret" which was also made available for free download at Gatsbys fansite Snicker At The Swine. The band features musicians from other prominent Seattle bands The Divorce and Forgive Durden. The band started taking pre-orders in late October for a 4-song EP, which includes the songs that have currently been released for streaming on the band's MySpace page.

Members

Kirk Huffman - vocals
Kyle O'Quin - keys
Thomas Hunter - guitar
Garrett Lunceford - drums
Mark Gajadhar was previously listed as playing percussion and drums, but his name has since been removed from the lineup listed on the band's MySpace page.

Bombs Over Bellevue

Bombs Over Bellevue is an independent label started by Huffman. The name is presumably taken from the Outkast song, "B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)," with Baghdad replaced by the Seattle suburb Bellevue. To date, the label's only release is the live Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground DVD/CD Live at the Pretty Parlor. The label's website states that a 5-song EP by Seattle band Man in the Blue Van will be released toward the end of the year as well as a 10" vinyl-only release from Huffman's Wild Orchid Children.