As if the sting of Thrice’s hiatus announcement yesterday wasn’t enough to bring you down, Thursday successfully one upped them as a bearer of bad news by announcing that they are coming to an end.
Mutual fans are taking a huge hit from the news as both bands have been around for the better part of 13 years. Thrice just finished their tour supporting their album release Major/Minor, while Thursday still has some upcoming dates.
Yup. Yesterday thrice, today Thursday. Crazy coincidence for two bands that have led such parallel and intersecting lives. We would’ve spaced our announcement out and given the dust a chance to settle but we are about to play a bunch of shows and we didn’t want anyone to miss the chance to see us one more time, so here it goes… —thursday.net
This may be sad news for music, but both bands tunes will live on in our play lists and through the impact they have had in the music world.
If you would like to catch Thursday on tour before they are officially done, check below.
Nov. 23 – New York, NY – Irving Plaza
Nov. 25 – Toronto, ON – Opera House
Nov. 26 – Pittsburgh, PA – Altar Bar
Nov. 27 – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall
Nov. 28 – Cleveland Heights, OH – Grog Shop
Nov. 30 – Atlanta, GA – The Loft
Dec. 01 – Cincinnati, OH – 20TH Century Theatre
Dec. 02 – Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
Dec. 03 – Pontiac, MI – The Eagle Theater
Dec. 04 – Rochester, NY – Montage Music Hall
Dec. 26 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
Dec. 27 – Washington, D.C. – 9:30 Club
Dec. 28 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place
Dec. 29 – Boston, MA – Royale Boston
Dec. 30 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre Of Living Arts
Here are links to view the announcements from each band:
Getting the news that you are going to be able to interview a member of your favorite band is almost more scary than exciting. I mean, you don’t want to look like an ass in front of someone who inspires you every day! So writing questions was nerve-racking to say the least, but more importantly was an amazing process. I was able to write questions geared towards specific members and was also able to skim through older interviews from YouTube and magazines to try to ask questions at an angle and perspective that most couldn’t do if they really didn’t give a crap like I do in the first place!
I arrived at the Granada only to have a very intimidating line of people staring at me, most likely wondering if I was going to cut in line or something. So being as nervous as i was, trying to act oblivious to stares wasn’t going to be easy. After getting in touch with their tour manager I cut through the line back to the bus area where he introduced me to Teppei Teranishi. While I said hello very calmly and collected, the only thing I could think was how awesome this guy is at lead guitar, and how much of an intricate role he plays in this band. I could only hope that fan interviews were way cooler than a, “these are the questions my boss gave me to ask you even though I know very little if anything about your band,” kind of interview.
We sat down in a few chairs next to their bus behind Einstein Bagels and had a 30 minute conversation about the early years, the new record, his experience being a full-time band member and record engineer, musical influences and the meaning behind Major/Minor. Going from the interview into the show was only fuel for my racing adrenaline. Every band on the bill brought their all and Thrice did no different. They played an arsenal of new songs and peppered in some of their crowd favorites only to close the show with Phoenix Ignition, and To Awake and Avenge the Dead, two of my personal favorites from the old days.
Here are some of the questions and answers from my interview with Teppei Teranishi. You can listen to the entire thing and view photos below.
Todd Anderson, Midcoast Station: I guess to start off, the first time I saw you guys was at the 2003 warped tour stop in Wichita Kansas. You guys were on first and I was only able to catch the last two songs of your set but it completely floored me and completely changed my life. I had no idea that a band could produce that kind of a sound as far as mixing styles. I grew up a product of the Midwest and we hadn’t quite fully been exposed to that new west coast fusion of punk and metal, were you guys influenced by a certain band? or was it just something that kind of happened? Teppei Teranishi, Thrice: It’s definitely kind of something that just happened, we’ve been a band for 13 years now and so I know its something that’s fairly common now to blend all of those kind of styles together, but mostly when we started you know, I’m not saying we created this by any means but there weren’t a lot of people doing it for sure, I remember we sent out our first demo to labels , and we would actually get responses back saying “pick a style” this is crazy, your singing but screaming and its heavy but melodic. I think it was just a conglomeration. At the root of things we’ve always just done what we wanted, and so you know i grew up listing to heavy metal as a kid, i learned to play guitar by listening to bands like Metallica and then i started getting into punk and hard-core and stuff like that, but yeah i guess it was just all of our likes and influences just kind of coming into this one big pot.
TA: Well starting as a metal/punk rock act and then morphing into an alternative progressive rock act must have its pros and cons because most music fans get used to a sound and want the same kind of sound out of every record. How do you guys deal with critics and fans alike second guessing you when your next record doesn’t sound like the last? TT: We don’t really think about it or consider it. As selfish as it sounds you need to do things for yourself first, at least when you’re doing things creatively, I think once you start thinking about what other people are going to think about it, and it starts to influence your decisions, I don’t think it is your own at that point. Whats funny now though is that we are catching criticism from the other end where as now when we put out records, people say it’s not different enough.
TA: Are you finding the audiences that are coming to shows more accepting and excited for a very dynamic concert? TT: Yeah, definitely, I feel like people that are listening to our band at this point, who aren’t brand new fans, kind of at this point understand what we are.
TA: Would you say your fan base is developing and changing with you? I have your DVD and you really noticed a few people yelling for older songs like Deadbolt and T&C. TT: Yeah I feel like they are understanding what we are doing. We are pretty lucky to have listeners that are one, really loyal and faithful, and are willing to stick by us and at least give what we are doing at the time a really fair chance. But there’s always… it happens every single night I guarantee it will happen tonight, ya know I don’t know what it is about the one song but it’s Deadbolt. Every single night someone yells for us to play it! It’s totally obnoxious and we just ignore it, and it’s literally like a vocal one to four out of 1000 people.
TA: Well going off of that are you getting fans yelling for songs off of something like Beggars now? Is that something your finding to be more common? TT: Well we always have people yelling out what they want to hear which is fine, I get it, whatever, but at the same time ya know we have a set list that we made and there’s songs that we’ve practiced for this tour.
TA: Major/Minor is very anthemic both in it’s instrument sound and vocal/melody writing. Since Thrice records are very well thought out as far as a sound and theme goes. When the idea(s) of the album were first being circulated, was this planned from square one or did the record just happen like that TT: Yeah, every album just kind of happens like that. We’ve never really set out to do anything specific except for the alchemy index, which was concept record so by nature it was very focused and intentional, but every other record then that, like i said, we just kind of do what we want to do and every record has just been a product of the four of us trying to get together to make music, and wherever we are at musically, at that certain time, whether it’s stuff we are listening to or what we are being influenced by, you know it always just ends up being a little bit different. We never set out writing a record by going, “alright guys we need to make a heavier record this time”, its just always a natural process.
TA: A lot of these anthem qualities came about due to the way it was recorded at red bull studio’s with David Schiffman. What were some highlights being able to work with him again? TT: He definitely is very credited with how the record sounds for sure. It was nice, he is a close friend we first worked with on Vheissu.
TA: What lead you guys to want to work with him again? Was it a record company thing or was it just by recommendations? TT: It was by mostly recommendations. After that record we just kind of kept in touch with him through out the years, even with the records I ended up doing for us, I would always call him up and ask him questions about it.
TA: You guys had developed a relationship with Brian McTernan early in your careers, with your second and third record and then were able to work with David, how would you describe the transition from Brian, To David, to doing everything on your own. TT: It was good, it was obviously a huge learning experience. I think for me and as a band, to have made a bunch of records with a top flight producer and engineer, and then all the sudden have to come back and do that on our own, was a huge growing and learning experience I think.
TA: Did it get extremely complicated for you at points? As far as doing everything yourself, you had to play guitar and press record and had to set up the mic’s and test things out. How far did that end up stretching your limit? TT: It’s a lot of work for me. Undoubtedly it was a lot work. We were talking about it the other day and honestly it didn’t just double or triple my work it almost quintupled my work load. So yeah, it was a lot and it was pretty tiring but I enjoyed it and I’m glad that i got to do it like that.
TA: Because of a difference in creative opinion you had to leave Island Records and ended up at Vagrant records. Not to downplay Vagrant’s help in shaping the later part of your career, but how do you balance staying true to what you want and what the label wants from you, and is the type of label you are on now more open to your creative demands? TT: Yeah, at the core of it, we’ve never let anybody tell us what to do with our music. I mean, Island was really cool when we signed to them, they understood the kind of band we were, and we were really clear about the fact that we weren’t there to deliver hits or be some huge pop success, and that we were going to make the records we wanted to make and that was that.
So the Island that we signed to were totally cool with us and they wanted to sign us and they were in on it just like us for the ride but about half way through the label went through this huge turn over, like over half of the employees including the president and CEO changed over, so basically like the new kind of Island didn’t really understand us and so that kind of where the creative differences came in. We actually recorded the Alchemy Index under Island and delivered them the record and they were like ahhh.. what’s this? So for the most part it was a mutual decision to part ways and Vagrant has been, in a very good way, very hands off as far as, that kind of stuff. I think we delivered this record to them and they had not even heard a single song off it.
TA: Have you guys had a chance to walk around Lawrence today? Do you have any cool memories of Lawrence in the past? TT: Yeah we used to play the Bottleneck way back in the day and then we actually distinctly remember playing in KC at the El Torreon. It was a long long long time ago, it was actually before My Chemical Romance got huge, we were on tour with them and they actually opened the show and it was a lot of fun!
TA: I was able to do a review of the new record and I described artist as a culmination of all the work you had done before that and Major/Minor a culmination of everything you’ve done since Vheissu. Do you know whats next for you guys after this album? Is there anything planned just yet? TT: With every record we have never really been intentional about planning anything, so we don’t even know what the record is going to sound like when we start writing it, even with Major/Minor, I don’t think I had a full grasp on what the record as a whole was going to be like until like ¾ of the way through the writing process.
Some of the most important artists in the world have painted pieces that no one will understand. They create a series of works almost like tracks on a CD compiling their feelings into color, canvas after canvas, searching for meaning in a world that doesn’t make sense. Thrice has continually produced albums that highlight that exact idea. They write records in ways and move in directions that not all of their fans might understand. On September 20, Thrice will release “Major/Minor” on Vagrant Records, which to me, after my very first listen, makes perfect sense. It’s the one album that I believe is going to make sense of all the work that Thrice has done the last 13 or so years. I put my headphones on and everything just immediately made sense. I guess after creating music by utilizing a slew of different musical tactics, they have developed an arsenal of writing and arranging techniques, all which boisterously burst through on “Major/Minor.”
Out of all the albums in Thrice’s musical catalog, “Major/Minor” is the most solid and well-rounded record since “Artist in the Ambulance” (2003). Though “Major/Minor” and “Artist” are two completely different records, each was created almost like a final project or thesis. Their freshman E.P. “Identity Crisis” and sophomore E.P. “The Illusion of Safety” explored the realm of punk rock’s fusion with metal riffs and hooked choruses. They were aggressive and uptempo, all which culminated in the refined and polished “Artist in the Ambulance.” In the next five years, “Vheissu” (2005), “Alchemy Index” series (2006), and “Beggars” (2009) would each explore a range of instrumentation, (keyboards, strings, electronic samples, hand percussion), advanced writing techniques, song arrangements, and a refined guitar/bass tone. All would stretch the boundaries of the genre Thrice helped shape with other Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos regulars alike, but all would emphatically result in 2011’s “Major/Minor.”
Vocally, Dustin Kensrue delivers with his sincerest and most honest record yet, belting triumphantly in tracks like “Yellow Belly,” “Promises,” and “Blur” while sailing high in tracks like ”Anthology” and “Treading Paper,” highlighting his range and ability to capture the ever so important hook. “Words in the Water” is Dustin’s highlight, capturing pure emotion not only in his melody but in his lyrics. He is one of those vocalists that hasn’t received the credit and recognition he deserves. Dustin sings about humanity and love, and wears his faith on his sleeve. He has the tone of voice and presence that makes you care about what he has to say. He cuts to the core by providing the listener with his honest take on humanity and his hope for something better, almost pleading with the listener to really pay attention and to look at what we are turning into as a human race.
Each guitar track, rhythm, and lead have my favorite tone out of any record yet. Crunchy, but clean enough to hear the colors in the chords, which allows the bravado of the rhythm section to nail each grove and carry the chord changes in the songs. Not only is the record sonically huge, it’s engineered and mixed wonderfully, most likely thanks to the help of producer David Schiffman (Weezer, Bayside, The Bronx). Having produced “Vheissu” (2005), it seems the relationship between Schiffman and the band is a good one, turning up the rock factor and accentuating the dark progressive feel that Thrice has been known for in the later part of its career.
This is hands-down my favorite album with Eddie and Riley Breckenridge. Whether it’s the mixing or the song arrangements, I haven’t felt this big of a bass guitar and drum set match up, tone, and presence in Thrice’s history. Each bass tone that is struck drives home the emotion in every single song. Along with Riley’s impeccable ability to provide the perfect drum arrangement, the Breckenridge brothers mainline the energy in “Major/Minor.”
Plain and simple this record feels right. I raised my hands in the air with a rush of adrenaline more than I have with any album in the last five years. Each song has a unique way of keeping you on your toes. They leave you marinating in the verse and it’s nothing less than a celebration when the chorus comes thundering in. Each track is rounded around a memorable moment, whether it be vocally or instrumental. No matter what record Thrice has written or will write, the band is always exciting to listen to because it isn’t afraid to grow and not afraid to disappoint. Its attitude and bruiting musical agenda reverberates the entire record, whether it be heavy, riffy, ambient, organic, uptempo, quiet, loud, electronic, and of course, major and/or minor. Thrice – Major/Minor (Preview) by Vagrant Records
Thrice is:
Dustin Kensrue Vocals/Guitar
Ed Breckenridge Bass,
Riley Breckenridge Drums,
Teppei Teranishi Guitar
Visit the Thrice website for information on Thrice’s upcoming Fall tour dates, or click here to pre-order “Major/Minor.”
With thirteen years of experience and six albums under its belt, Orange County’s Thrice will release their seventh studio album, “Major/Minor,” on Vagrant Records September 20. The band will release an early vinyl LP September 6.
Your average alternative rock release (or ANY record release for that matter) is a simple attempt to recreate what made people like the band in the first place. Not with Thrice. A typical release by this alternative quartet is anything but the same from any previous writing session. Judging by the lead track, “Yellow Belly,” and the second single release, “Promises,” unveiled August 17, Thrice doesn’t plan on going anywhere but up. Recorded at Red Bull studios in their home state of California, both tracks feature a truly solid rhythm section, smooth and tactful lead playing and one of the most honest and heartfelt voices underground rock has to offer.
In recent interviews, select Thrice members have said that this record will have more “mathy” elements. The album has a very prominent 90′s alternative flavor, most likely drawn from older influences in the band’s inception. Sonically, I haven’t heard this big of a sound since 2003′s “Artist in the Ambulance,” which is my favorite record of all time. But, realistically, when does the point come in a band’s tenure that they have nowhere else to go? Judging from the material I’ve heard via the band or bootleg concert videos posted on YouTube, I honestly don’t think the band is trying to prove anything to anyone. Members are now taking the last 13 years of writing experience and their ability to stray from any form of comfort zone and from what I have heard have written two amazing rock tracks. I am stoked for “Major/Minor” and you should be too.
Getting the news that you are going to be able to interview a member of your favorite band is almost more scary than exciting. I mean, you don’t want to look like an ass in front of someone who inspires you every day! So writing questions was nerve-racking to say the least, but more importantly was an amazing process. I was able to write questions geared towards specific members and was also able to skim through older interviews from YouTube and magazines to try to ask questions at an angle and perspective that most couldn’t do if they really didn’t give a crap like I do in the first place!
