All Time Low
www.alltimelow.com
latest CD: Nothing Personal (2009)
Nobody wants to have to grow up in public. But when you’re young, talented and creating something that strikes a chord with enough people, sometimes you’ve got no choice. For the members of All Time Low, who cut two strong indie releases and inked their Hopeless Records deal before they’d even finished high school, that’s just the path they had to take. And with their new album, So Wrong, It’s Right, these 2006 graduates from the Baltimore suburbs prove they’re growing up just fine.

Produced by Matt Squire(Panic! At the Disco, Cute Is What We Aim For), with help from the band’s longtime collaborator Paul Leavitt (Over It), So Wrong, It’s Right finds All Time Low cranking out 12 infectious, impeccably played slabs of classic pop-punk that recall ATL’s early inspirations (Blink-182, New Found Glory) as much as they push the whole genre forward. “A lot of bands that start out being called ‘pop-punk’ either shy away from the term or end up trying to force their sound in a different direction,” singer/guitarist Alex Gaskarth explains. “We’re proud of who we are, and we’re trying to take pop-punk back to where it used to be: a place that’s about having fun, being positive and building a community.”

Since forming in 2003 when Gaskarth and guitarist Jack Barakat teamed up with bassist Zack Merrick and drummer Rian Dawson, All Time Low have steadily risen to the center of that community. With a four-song EP and an album, The Party Scene (both on the Maryland indie Em... [read more]

Hey Monday
www.heymondaymusic.com
latest CD: Hold On Tight
If every Monday were as invigorating and infectious as Hey Monday, there’d be no reason to look forward to weekends.

“We liked the name Hey Monday because it’s very contradicting,” says Cassadee, the band’s firecracker of a frontwoman with spunk to spare and an enthusiasm as disarming as it is endearing. “Most people don’t really say they’re happy about a Monday, they view it like it’s the first day of the rest of their week, but Monday can also just be a new beginning…”

Barely out of high school, Cassadee’s new beginning is a dream come true. Discovered at a regional music conference where the teenage siren would sing for anyone willing to listen, she attracted the attention of record label scouts at a time when most of her friends weren’t even old enough to drive. Less than two years later she’s preparing for the release of her band’s first album, Hold On Tight, a joint venture between Columbia Records and Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz’s Decaydance Records. Produced by S*A*M and Sluggo [The Academy Is, Gym Class Heroes, Metro Station], the album is a free-spirited spin through life’s post-adolescent twists, turns, trials and triumphs.

“We have a variety of styles, but they’re all pretty-much fast and upbeat, because we wanted a fast, upbeat and happy kind of record that makes you tap your feet and puts you in a good mood,” explains Cassadee. “There are heartbroken songs, being in love songs, a song about someone who parties too much… If it’s n... [read more]

The Friday Night Boys
myspace.com/thefridaynightboys
latest CD: Off The Deep End (2009)
It may seem like Fairfax, Virginia’s The Friday Night Boys have led a charmed lifethus far, but to say they don’t deserve everything that’s come their way would bean out-and-out lie. Like many of today’s breakthrough musical acts, The FridayNight Boys—which features frontman Andrew Goldstein, bassist Robby DallasReider, guitarist Mike Toohey and drummer Chris Barrett—got their start on theInternet. However where their story goes from there is where things really getinteresting.

Just one year after this group of tight-knit high-school acquaintances formed TheFriday Night Boys, they decided to self-record The Sketch Process EP anddistribute it online—but even The Friday Night Boys themselves were surprisedby the way it took off considering that they only played regional shows at thatpoint. “I put it on iTunes and the first month we had a decent amount of hits, butsecond month we had a whole lot of hits and it just kept increasing,” Goldsteinexplains. The EP would go on to be the catalyst for the band’s appearance onMTV’s Total Request Live’s “On Your Radar” segment for unsigned bands.As you can probably guess, The Friday Night Boys didn’t stay unsigned forlong—and they were introduced to Fueled By Ramen by one of the band’s earlysupporters: All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth, who also decided to make The FridayNight Boys the first signing to his brand new imprint, The Party Scene. “We hadplayed some local shows with All Time Low when they were in high school andAlex always u... [read more]