Monday, March 29, 2010

Reunion of Something Corporate a wonderful thing

Photo credit: Drew A. Kelley
The timing couldn't be more perfect. Last night, I caught Orange County's own Something Corporate in a glorious reunion show on the Main Stage at The Bamboozle at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. The band was great and the crowd packed in front of singer-pianist Andrew McMahon, lead guitarist Josh Partington, bassist Kevin "Clutch" Page and drummer Brian Ireland was enthuasiastic. Big time.
Today comes a press release with more exciting news about Something Corporate, a band I have covered dating back to the mid 1990s when all of the members were attending high school in South Orange County:

The Reunion of Alt-Rock favorite Something Corporate includes concerts, new recordings and retrospective "Played in Space: The Best of Something Corporate"

LOS ANGELES, March 29, 2010 -- After a multi-year hiatus, Something Corporate has reunited, marking the occasion with a return to the studio and the stage, as well as a retrospective 2-CD collection. Played in Space: the Best of Something Corporate (Geffen/UMe) will be released April 27, 2010 and brings together 14 highlights from the acclaimed Orange County, California band's career to date. The first disc contains alt-rock favorites "I Woke Up In A Car," "If You C Jordan," "Punk Rock Princess" and "Space." The bonus CD includes a new recording, "Wait," an exclusive remix of "Forget December," the fan-favorite rarity "Konstantine" (played with power in Anaheim last night too!), the previously-unreleased in the U.S. "Watch The Sky," and a new remix of "I Woke Up In A Car" by Owl City's Adam Young. A version exclusive to iTunes also includes a new recording, "Letters To Noelle."

Just having played Bamboozle Left, the performance at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on March 28 was a homecoming for singer-pianist Andrew McMahon, lead guitarist Josh Partington, bassist Kevin "Clutch" Page and drummer Brian Ireland. They will also play Bamboozle Chicago on May 15 and Bamboozle East on May 1. To coincide with the announcment of these shows, the Something Corporate online merch store, http://www.somethingcorporate.com/soco/store is also relaunching. The new store features both new T-shirt designs as well as a few classics.

Since going their separate ways in 2004, McMahon founded Jack's Mannequin, released two critically acclaimed albums and defeated leukemia, while Partington formed the band Firescape. Only a brief appearance at Bamboozle Left in 2006 had brought them together until January 2010 when they re-entered a studio to "revisit a couple of demos ("Letters To Noelle" and "Wait") that," said McMahon in an interview with the Orange County Weekly, "we still loved and that we always wanted to get to."

Something Corporate's piano-driven punk-pop tunes debuted with the indie release Ready...Break in 2000 before its widely-avaiable 2001 EP Audioboxer, which included "Walking By" via Drive-Thru. The band made its major label debut with 2002's Leaving Through The Window. Played in Space: the Best of Something Corporate culls eight of that album's tracks: "I Woke Up In A Car," "Hurricane," "Fall," "I Want To Save You," "Cavanaugh Park," "If You C Jordan," "Punk Rock Princess" and "The Astronaut." 2003's North contributes "Space," "She Paints Me Blue," "Mee and the Moon," "Down" and "Ruthless."

At the dawn of the new millennium, Something Corporate was hailed as one of rock's most promising new forces. A decade later, Something Corporate is back.

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