Adelphi (band)

Adelphi
Origin Towson, Maryland, USA
Genres Rock, Pop
Years active 20022007
Labels Drive-Thru Records
Members Ryan Keaton
Alex Sophocles
Matthew Thomas
Thomas Haller

Adelphi was an American rock band, based in Towson, Maryland. They formed in 2002 and were signed to the record label Drive-Thru Records. They played their last show as Adelphi on December 30, 2007 and three members now make up the band The Everlove.

History

Adelphi was a four-piece rock band from Towson, Maryland, a suburb about 10 minutes north of Baltimore. Guitarist/singers Alex Sophocles and Ryan Keaton had been the original members of a band called Fat Austin. Along with bassist Rusty Walters, Fat Austin started off covering the popular pop-punk songs of Blink 182 and others. In 2001 the band released an EP featuring their song "On My Own" (or Brutus for their first fans), a local favorite.

By the fall of 2002 Fat Austin was known as Adelphi Rock and within a few months of the name change original drummer Peter Hennings was out and Tom Haller was in as Adelphi's official timekeeper. The quartet recorded a DIY album entitled "Don't Pass Go" in Spring/Summer of 2003 with the help of Matthew Thomas of American University. The album was pressed and self released under the name "Adelphi Rock". In the fall of 2003 Adelphi Rock recorded 3 demo songs in an effort to attract label interest. A song called "Attention" was one of the three and it quickly helped put Adelphi Rock in the #1 spot on the then-new Purevolume website, a spot which the band held for weeks. This garnered some label interest and in early '04 Drive Thru Records extended the offer of a demo deal to the band. The band would go onto drop the 'Rock' from their name, being simply known as Adelphi. Due to interest from multiple labels Adelphi instead chose to fund the completion of their own demo and recorded 3 additional songs in the winter of 2004. It was around this time that original bassist Rusty Walters was replaced by Kevin Lichtfuss. After playing these additional demos for Drive Thru records the band and label reached an agreement. Their signing was officially announced in the spring of 2004.

Adelphi was known for their innovative style and exceptionally tight live performances. Their innovation was a result of a band made up of musicians with a wide variety of influences and interests. Aside from their classic rock and contemporary musical influences, band members drew from many different sources to create their sound. Drummer Haller regularly played with a Polka band prior to and during his tenure with the band. Their relentless evolution prevented them from writing the same song twice, resulting in a very diverse collection of demos. This relentless evolution was also rumored to be behind Adelphi's split with DTR, due to unresolvable disagreements in creative direction. The band's current status as a Drive Thru band is ambiguous. To date the band has not officially been released from their contract but for all intents and purposes both the band and the label consider their relationship terminated. In late 2006 friend and producer Matt Thomas stepped in to replace Lichtfuss as bassist. The band continued to add to their collection of demos (rumored to number well into the high 20's or low 30's) for some time.

In late 2007, the band announced they would play their final show on December 30, 2007. Keaton, Haller, Thomas went on to play in the band The Everlove. Haller also drums for the John Mancini Band.

Live Sets

Adelphi completed two US tours, the first in the fall of 2004 with Homegrown, Name Taken, and Denver Harbor. The band considered the first tour a success, mostly for the opportunity to get out of record mode and into a regular routine of live sets. At the end of the first tour, Homegrown even was kind enough to cover the band in garbage bags during their last set of the final show. The second tour was with labelmates Houston Calls and Self Against City, during the spring of 2005. Although both tours focused heavily on the West Coast and Southwestern United States, the second made its way across the bottom of the country and up the eastern seaboard. Adelphi continued to frequent local venues including the Recher Theatre in Towson, as well as Baltimore's Fletchers and the Ottobar venues. The band was also known to play house parties and stage impromptu jam sessions among close friends (often with whatever "musical" implements were at their disposal.)

Demos

The following is a list of demos recorded by the band in chronological order. These songs were recorded and distributed (albeit in small circles) as well as played live at shows and on the band's two national tours. There are rumored to be more songs that were left uncompleted or recorded only in rough form (i.e. by single overhead microphone during writing sessions.) This list contains only demos that were tracked and completed, to at least some level of satisfaction, by the band.

Don't Pass Go (2003)

DTR Demo - Fall '03 - Winter '04

  1. "Ten"
  2. "Attention"
  3. "Midnight Scene"
  4. "Freddy (How to Mimic Glass)"
  5. "Bob (Engine 55)"
  6. "Innocent, Charming, and Almost Refined"
  7. 'Song Number Two (2 See Eye)"
  8. 'Song Number Three (Song Tree)"

Demo #2 - Winter/Spring '05

  1. "Walking on the Ceiling of the Sky"
  2. "The Wind Whispers"
  3. "Song #6"
  4. "Song #7"
  5. "Song #8"
  6. "Flores en el Mar" (Tracked/Mixed at Crystalphonics Studios)

Demo # 3 - Fall '05

  1. "Dope"
  2. "House"
  3. "Hope"
  4. "Junga Junga"
  5. "Patrick Swayze"
  6. "Halo 2 Ruined my Life"
  7. "Rope"

Demo # 4 - Spring '06

  1. "Aloha Bacon"
  2. "We All Come Up"
  3. "Sir Chops-A-Lot"
  4. "President Tree" (instrumentation tracked during demo #3, vocals tracked during demo #4)

3 Song Sampler - Summer '06

  1. "Aloha Bacon"
  2. "Junga Junga"
  3. "Sir Chops-A-Lot"

Summer '07

  1. "Spank UK"

Discography

Albums

  1. Sit and Stare
  2. Starting Point
  3. You've Said Enough
  4. Better This Way
  5. Too Far From Home
  6. Spring Break My Heart
  7. Falling in Autumn
  8. Wake Up
  9. Tommy Tsunami
  10. Acoustified
  11. All Too Soon
  12. Jack Eats Much Cake

EPs

  1. Attention
  2. Midnight Scene
  3. Walking On The Ceiling Of The Sky
  4. The Wind Whispers

Former members

External links

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