"We chose Midtown because they have such a unique sound that can't be grouped into a single category," Koerner said. "They play music that everyone seems to like."
Midtown drummer Rob Hitt said that after playing at Penn State, the band will head out on a month-long headlining tour before taking off for the summer to write some new material.
The serious tone of the band's latest album, Forget What You Know, and the more rock and less punk sound of the songs contained on it, were something that Hitt said just kind of happened over the course of writing the recording.
"A lot of our fans were kind of shocked by it at first," he said. "I think most of them are into it, but that was the reaction that we were getting when it came out."
Hitt attributes Midtown's success to all of the hard work the band has done over the years through constant touring and the do-it-yourself approach the band used when it first began.
"It's almost been exactly seven years since our first E.P. came out," he said. "We just took everything one show at a time. The key to touring is really to just get used to dealing with people all of the time."
Hitt said he thinks it's a lot harder for labels to cheat the public with one-hit-wonder type bands because of the Internet.
He said it seems like major labels are signing a lot of bands, such as his, who have been around and built followings because they are much more stable investments.
"A lot of bands in our scene are getting popular now, but what people don't realize is that these bands are not coming out of nowhere -- most of them have been around for a while," Hitt said.
He said that fans can expect the energetic live performance that they have come to know the band for over the years. He said the band will mostly be playing material from Forget What You Know, as well as a few older favorites.
Shawn Harrington (senior-engineering), singer/guitarist for local emo/punk band Strike.Fire.Fall, said he listens to Midtown and that they put on a great live show.
Strike.Fire.Fall found out this past Christmas that the band was the grand prize winners of Yellowcard guitarist Ben Harper's record label, Takeover Records, band search competition.
The band's demo was selected from 7,000 submitted on all stops of the Vans Warped Tour this past summer, and beat out nine other finalists to win the contest.
The band won the right to open for Yellowcard on its next national tour and will be flown out to Los Angeles this summer to work on its album, which will see a national release sometime after September, Harrington said.
"It's crazy. From initial demo drop-off, it all happened in about six months," he said. "It really does change your whole life."
Harrington said that he will be taking the next year off from school in order to finish up the album process and to go on tour.
