Overview
The Early November
After two decades, it would be all too easy for a band to just phone it in—capitalize on the fanbase they’ve built up in that time and just make a watered-down version of themselves. Not for The Early November, however. Ever since forming in New Jersey in 2001, the band, now consisting of frontman Ace Enders and founding drummer Jeff Kummer, has constantly been striving to find the best and most definitive version of itself. With this self-titled record, the seventh studio album of their career, the duo have come as close as is possible to doing so. It’s an album that ties the past, present, and future all together, and as such, it marks what Enders calls a “period or exclamation point in our sentence”. It’s not a new beginning, per se, but nevertheless something emphatic that signifies, in Enders’ words again, “a pivotal moment” for them both.
“The initial spark of this record was frustration,” he says. “Although we are growing in many ways, and it’s a beautiful thing to be able to do what we do, it was born out of feeling like you’re doing the same thing over and over again, and out of this ‘I don’t care’ mentality. Not ‘I don’t care about the world’, but really digging deep artistically and having the view that if this is it, then I want The Early November to finally have the album that’s good enough to be the self-titled album.”
“There have been so many highs and lows throughout the career of this band,” adds Kummer, “but it got very dark. And a lot of this record is coming out of that, but we’re still here with a collection of brand new songs, and it feels right. I feel more connected to where Ace’s mind is with this record than I ever have before.”
Hellogoodbye
When Hellogoodbye formed in the early 2000s, they were quirky, fun-loving emo rockers from California who took as much influence from the Nintendo sound bleeps of their childhood as they did modern pop-punk. The group infused its playful brand of indie power pop with sugary sweetness, catchy dance beats, and enough energy to tire a group of five-year-olds. After signing with Drive-Thru Records and establishing themselves, they scored a big hit in 2006 with the romantic electro pop ballad "Here (In Your Arms)." Instead of following up in a similar vein, the band shifted to a lush indie pop sound on 2010's Would It Kill You?, and by the end of the decade took a leap onto the dancefloor on 2018's disco-influenced S'Only Natural, an album that saw Kline coming into his own as a crooner, and which felt like the work of an entirely different band.
Hellogoodbye, named after a quote from Saved by the Bell's Screech Powers, comprised vocalist/guitarist Forrest Kline, bassist Marcus Cole, keyboardist Jesse Kurvink, and drummer Chris Profeta. They released their self-titled EP as a free download on their label's website, and the physical album hit stores with an additional track in November 2004 on Drive-Thru (where Kline used to intern). The move worked to the band's advantage, and its music quickly spread; the single "Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn" made minor waves on MTV and garnered the band a pretty notable following for having only a handful of songs to its name.
Extensive touring commenced, as they joined (which often included water guns, confetti, and costumes) bands like the Format and the All-American Rejects. The music video/live DVD OMG HGB DVD ROTFL appeared in the fall of 2005, and by the year's end the band had won the on-air MTV Dew Circuit Breakout contest, beating Over It and Tub Ring in the end. Early 2006 was spent playing sold-out nationwide dates as openers for the Academy Is... before hooking up with Motion City Soundtrack and Straylight Run in the spring for the MTVU Campus Invasion Tour. A spot on May's Bamboozle festival preceded a summer spent on the Warped Tour. All this activity ultimately led up to the release of their highly anticipated full-length Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!, which finally hit stores that August. The album was a chart success as "Here (In Your Arms)" raced up the singles chart.
Upcoming Events at The Vogue
