| CD REVIEW DrawCard |
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Band : DrawCard Hailing from Sunshine Coast (and not from Brisbane as some seem to think – Sunshine Coast is actually situated a good 95 km North from Brisbane center, would you know), Queensland (Australia), DrawCard formed in 2003, set about writing and recording their self-released 6-track debut EP Pieces Of A Forgotten City, and toured both Queensland and New South Wales...all within a mere two months. No wonder the music industry became interested, no wonder the band spent most of that same year touring. In 2004 there was apparently a small line-up change (the current one including lead singer/ guitarist Paul Durkin, lead guitarist Jesse Clark, bassist Mitch Wheeler, and drummer/ samples handler Andi Durkin – everyone also contributing backing vocals), and a re-directioning of the band's musical preferences towards more Rock-influenced (main influences including Foo Fighters, Saosin, Underoath, Anberlin, After the Fall, Story Of the Year, and even Led Zeppelin) material (as opposed to the more Emo direction they were geared in before). Hop back into the studio it was, and the band's official, and Nathan Ironside produced, debut EP An Artificial Heartbeat came in 2005, exceeded everyone's expectations. For their 2009 released debut full-length (this very album, which was mixed by Silvia Massey, known of her work with the likes of Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sevendust, Powerman 5000, and more) the guys took a little longer to develop their material...also re-took two of their previous release's songs. The release was warmly received in Australia, and followed by the band being involved in the FuelTV(Australia) Mountain Dew Battle For Supremacy II skate program, and being a featured act on Australia's nationwide radio station TripleM, with both interviews and heavy rotation of the album's title track. The whole apparently caused enough waves for Nightmare Records to pick it up for for US distribution...and beyond. Also, the band played a Taste Of Chaos Tour gig when that circus came through Brisbane (must've been the 2008 edition, because according to my info sources that's the most recent one that made it through “Asia” - still, I was unable to actually find confirmation of the band's participation in the event on the tour's website), but that was actually before the recording of the album (making my 2008 edition surmise sound just right). Following the album's release in America, success was coming in from that way too...with songs being featured on MTV's Real World – Road Challenge, FuelTV, and on the Warped Tour compilation issued by Skratch Magazine. Roadwize, the band paired up with the likes of Parkway Drive,Taking Back Sunday, Underoath, Thursday, Anti Flag and Senses Fail. Which brings us full circle, and back to what it all started with: the band's music. Seen the guys' influences, it would be silly to deny the fact that there is still some Emo in their music (emphasized in the first place by the lead singer's vocal styling’s, secondly by the quite beautiful and often harmonic backing vocals)...but the Rock content does make up for that. Does that sound like a weird things to say? The fact is that at the end of the '90s there was a veritable flooding of the market of Emo bands of all kinds (EmoCore, EmoRock, EmoPop, you name it...), and I'm still suffering from the overdose I suffered from those days. As things are, there's a very fitting description of the band's music on their official website (www.) myspace.com/drawcard: (sic) “...New Rock with all the sensibilities of catchy Pop, but edgy enough to hold your interest...”! On the same site you can also check out the band's music for yourself thanks to the posting of 6 out of the 14 tracks on this 45-minute album. 83/100 Tony. |