RELIENT K - Five Score And
Seven Years Ago
Matt Thiessen - lead vocals/guitars/piano
Matt Hoopes - guitars/vocals
Jon Schneck - guitars/banjo/bells/vocals
John Warne - bass/vocals
Dave Douglas - drums/vocals
With 'Five Score And Seven Years Ago' - Relient K's fifth album in seven
years and the follow up to 2004's 'mmhmm', the band's third consecutive
Gold album - some are bound to ask, has the pop-punk band, ahem, matured
a bit? Well, yes - sort of. While the new album isn't chockfull of their
characteristic puns and concludes with an 11-minute, 115-track tour
de force entitled 'Deathbed', rest assured, Relient K has not lost its
quirky sense of humour.
The first track, the a cappella vignette 'Plead the Fifth',
for instance, is written from the viewpoint of a 19th century man with
an outlandish conspiracy theory about Lincoln's death and it features
lead vocalist/guitarist/pianist Matt Thiessen using his mouth to simulate
each instrument of a drum kit. 'Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care',
which takes longer to say than to play, is a classic Relient K goofball
aside. And while the epic 'Deathbed', which includes Switchfoot's Jon
Foreman on guest vocals, has a sombre setting as its title implies,
the masterfully woven tale of a man's life and death brims with witty
observations and aural ironies.
"I really love to not be serious all the time, even
when I am being serious," says Thiessen, who likens the band's
growth on 'Five Score And Seven Years Ago' to Laffy Taffy. "It's
the same flavour but we try to stretch it a little bit. It's still melodic,
it's still rock 'n' roll, there are still a lot of dynamics. But at
the same time, we're trying to write a bit differently, lyrically."
Indeed, the album is a departure for Relient K. In addition
to the two story-songs that bookend the album, there are some love songs
- and they're happy ones. "I always write about what I'm going
through and I can't avoid the fact that I'm just really happy and there
are some good things going on," says Thiessen.
The elation is palpable on 'The Best Thing', which veers
giddily between majestic piano flourishes and punked-out bliss delivered
at breakneck speed. And the happy state of mind lights up the exuberant
first single 'Must Have Done Something Right' as well. "This song
represents something that I've wanted to create for a long time,"
explains Thiessen. "It's not a political commentary or a tear jerking
emotion-piece, it's just a feel good, fun song. Written at 3 a.m. with
a smirk on my face, the song turned out to be something that you can
tap your foot and smile to."
Infatuation is viewed through a fisheye lens in 'Faking
My Own Suicide', wherein the narrator (with a wink and a nod to the
classic 1970's comedy Harold and Maude) fantasizes about faking a suicide
attempt to gain the attention - and affection - of his dream girl.
But 'Five Score And Seven Years Ago' is more than an intriguing
mix of light and dark humour. Tracks like 'Devastation And Reform',
'Bite My Tongue' and 'Up And Up' pick up where 'mmhmm's' "Who I
Am Hates Who I've Been" left off. Classic literature from Aristotle
on has made much of the tragic hero undone by his one fatal flaw - but
Relient K has always been more interested in the everyman who messes
up in a myriad of smaller ways. "We're all doomed to make mistakes
and to try to recover," says Thiessen. "But I prefer to look
at it from the positive, and refer to it as a grace kind of thing."
Thus self-loathing is pushed aside in favour of redemption and the promise
offered by each new day.
'Five Score And Seven Years Ago' marks Relient K's first
full-length album featuring bassist John Warne and Jon Schneck - although
the two appeared on the band's 'Apathetic' EP, released in late 2005.
With original guitarist Matt Hoopes and drummer Dave Douglas completing
the line-up, Relient K is now a quintet with each of the members contributing
vocals. The backing harmonies, stunning throughout, amp up the infectious
'Must Have Done Something Right' and serve as an ironic counterpoint
in 'Deathbed'. But the biggest change was in the control booth.
Relient K recorded most of the album in Los Angeles with
producer Howard Benson (Less Than Jake, My Chemical Romance, the All-American
Rejects). "I was honestly pretty nervous," confesses lead
guitarist Matt Hoopes, "We'd never really worked with any other
producer beside Mark Townsend - he did everything from our first demo,
all the way up to the last album. But it was a good experience working
with Howard."
Benson quickly assuaged Hoopes' jitters, creating a supportive
environment and bringing a fresh perspective to the band's music. When
their tight recording schedule drew to a close, most of the band scattered
to their respective homes for a quick break before the Nintendo Fusion
tour. (Originally based in Canton, Ohio, the band now lives "all
over the place," as Hoopes describes. He and Schneck live in Nashville,
Warne lives in Denver and Thiessen and Douglas remain in Ohio.) After
L.A., Hoopes put Thiessen up at his place and the two worked in a Nashville
studio with producer Townsend, where they recorded most of 'Plead the
Fifth', 'Deathbed' and 'Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care'.
'Five Score And Seven Years Ago' is an ambitious follow-up
to 'mmhmm', Relient K's first joint Gotee Records/Capitol release, which
debuted at #15 on the Billboard 200 and at #1 on the internet chart
in 2004. It has subsequently been certified Gold as have the band's
previous two albums, 2003's Grammy-nominated 'Two Lefts Don't Make a
Right…But Three Do' and 2001's 'The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek'.
Propelled by the success of 'mmhmm' and its two Top 20 singles ('Be
My Escape' and 'Who I Am Hates Who I've Been'), the band has toured
incessantly, hitting the road with bands like Good Charlotte, Simple
Plan and MXPX and landing a main stage slot on the 2005 Vans Warped
Tour, and logging a slew of television appearances, including "The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" as
well as MTV's "TRL," "Hard Rock Live" and "Summer
on the Strip from Las Vegas." Yet Relient K (yes, named for the
Reliant K automobile, which Plymouth manufactured in the 1980's) relishes
its relative anonymity. "We're still under the radar, nobody knows
who we are," says Thiessen gleefully. Mmhmm, given the promise
of 'Five Score And Seven Years Ago', that may change.
'Five Score And Seven Years Ago' is out now.
