Twelve bands featuring Penn State students and alumni will face off this Saturday night in HUB Alumni Hall for a chance to perform at the 2009 Movin' On festival, a 12-hour outdoor concert on the HUB lawn. These local bands vying for a spot alongside an unannounced national act range from pop-punk, emo, ska, jazz-fusion, reggae-folk and blues-rock.
We Are Forever
We Are Forever has been "doin' it without a street team since 2007," according to the band's MySpace page.
Tyler Coleman, drummer for the Altoona-based band, said this statement is a reflection of how the band takes a different approach to networking than other bands that carry the same pop-punk label.
"A lot of bands go out and get street teams, but we like to be more hands on and personable to our fans," he said.
Along with playing Saturday and giving acoustic performances, Coleman said the band members are recording a new EP that redefines their style.
"We're just going back to the stuff we listened to as kids and the music we love," he said.
Although he said playing at Movin' On would be really good exposure, We Are Forever is also looking for a chance to get its music out to a broader audience.
"We're not in it to make money or for girls or anything," Coleman said. "We're just in it to have fun."
The Sweet Mack
Two members of The Sweet Mack will trek from Ontario to join their third bandmate, Penn State senior and golf team member Mattie Leon for Saturday's performance.
Leon (senior-integrative arts) said he is excited his friends at Penn State will get the chance to see his band perform before he graduates. He added people should not expect anything out of the ordinary from his pop-rock band's stage show.
"We're just three guys playing their instruments," he said. "There's definitely no choreography, no breathing fire or leotards and no fireworks -- yet."
As lead vocalist and on-and-off guitarist for the band, Leon said he shares writing responsibilities with fellow bandmate, Adam Montgomery, a sometimes guitarist, sometimes bassist.
"We're pretty collaborative now," he said. "It's like he'll bring in some cool riff and I'll write on top of that, or vice versa."
Table Ten
Reggae-influenced folk band Table Ten will journey outside of its comfort zone to join the lineup Saturday.
The group has played every Monday at the Phyrst, 111 1/2 E. Beaver Ave., after open-mic night since fall 2008.
"I remember I would lose my voice at football games and then I would have to sing on Mondays," Zach McCue (senior-political science), vocalist for the band, said.
Expanding its horizons beyond the Phyrst, Table Ten will depart from playing cover songs for Saturday's performance and will provide only original tunes, McCue said.
"They're rhythmic songs that are really enjoyable to listen to," he said.
He added this "rhythm" is not provided by a drum set, but by hand drums which give the band its signature sound.
"It's something people haven't heard out of a State College band," McCue said.
So Long, Pluto
For Scranton band So Long, Pluto, coming out with a full-length album on iTunes within the first year of the band's creation says something about future success.
Joe Kincel, lead vocalist and guitarist for the band, said this album entitled Come Revisit El Paso! is doing so well the band had to order a new shipment.
"That's a reflection of what we do live," he said.
Concertgoers can expect So Long, Pluto's live performance to be better than what is represented on the album, Kincel said, adding the band rarely delivers a "calm performance."
Kincel added he struggles to pinpoint the band's exclusive genre and influences.
"It ranges from John Mayer to Radiohead," he said. "When we get together, we all have an influence on what becomes a So Long, Pluto song," he said.
Although the band has been compared by others to Panic! At The Disco, Kincel said he wants anyone who is listening to the music to judge it for themselves.
The Groundbreaking Ceremony
Jonnie Baker, frontman for the Groundbreaking Ceremony, is confident in his band's ability.
"We don't want to toot our own horns ... but we feel pretty good," Baker said. "We have a really good live show."
Baker, the most recent addition to the band and Penn State Class of 2008, said The Groundbreaking Ceremony has been together for about four years, playing a mix of pop-punk, post-hardcore and dance punk.
"It's all over the place," Baker said. "We like that we're not static and stuck in one genre. It's never not interesting."
Baker said the band is also committed to maintaining direct communication with all of its fans, whether it be chatting online via MySpace or just talking with fans after a show.
Atlas Soundtrack
For Drew Jackson, vocalist for hip-hop/reggae/funk band Atlas Soundtrack, the main influences for his band's music stem not only from music but from life itself.
"Issues of the human being influence us rather than bands," Jackson said. "Our big focus is always to narrate through our own standpoint on issues that we've all come across."
The band has been performing in State College since fall of 2007 and has been playing every Thursday night at Zeno's, 100 W. College Ave. Jackson said the shows have been beneficial for building a following.
As far as the Battle goes, Jackson said the band will be "bringing their A game."
"There's no special dances or fireworks, we're just going to show everybody what we got and give the truest impression of what our music embodies," Jackson said.
Hay Sugar
With its last member set to graduate this spring, former Movin' On performer Hay Sugar is looking forward to ending fiddle player Mike Rudolph's(senior-engineering science) last year at Penn State with a bang.
"We want to do what we did last year, it was a lot of fun," lead singer Madison Flego, Class of 2008, said.
With the band's members spread out, the group is looking forward to playing together on Saturday.
"Our shows are fewer and far between," Flego said. " A lot of us graduated."
Flego said the sound is still consistent with what listeners heard last year -- heavily influenced by Lynard Skynard and The Allman Brothers Band.
"Our live show comes from practicing and feeding off of each other," Flego said.
Flego said the group recently performed at the State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave., to a receptive audience.
Matthew and the Judes
By combining aesthetics from indie rock and pop-punk, Matthew Whittle, frontman and songwriter for Matthew and the Judes, aims to bridge the musical gap between fans of the "Pitchfork" scene and the "Absolute Punk" scene.
"We listen to all of these bands. They're all influences," Whittle (senior-English) said. "It's very indie-pop but there's still a three-and-a-half-, four-minute song mentality to it."
The band initially began as a solo project for Whittle, who virtually wrote all of the music himself, but since last October a steady lineup has developed. Besides the traditional drums, bass and guitar, one can expect trumpets, glockenspiels, organs and keyboards -- making the band's live show all the more interesting, Jude said.
"Our live show, as of late, has been much more energetic," Whittle said.
The band has released one EP and is preparing to release its first full-length LP, A Happy Medium, in May.
Some Downtown Avenue
After having played its biggest stage show ever at last year's Movin' On, the members of Some Downtown Avenue feel they are now taken more seriously as a group.
The band has really taken off, lead singer Chris Rizzo (junior-graphic design) said.
"Bars ask us to play, bands ask us to open," Rizzo said. "We have really honed in on stuff -- people take us seriously now."
The band feels that it shines most during its live show and has spent much of its time since last year's performance at Movin' On honing the quality of its recordings, Rizzo said.
The group has been writing a lot again, and Rizzo said the results have been eclectic so far.
"We are much like a live band. We do much better being ourselves on stage rather than getting it down on CD," he said. "That's what this second effort is on, recording."
Acalasia
Acalasia formed after its five members were forced to serve community service together after each experienced separate run-ins with the law, according to the band's MySpace page.
That time may have paid off since the group's performance at last spring's Battle of the Bands. Acalasia's sound has grown, as well its fan base, vocalist Krystal Shore said.
"We have edge, harder guitar parts and more poppy vocals," she said. "Our sound has a Paramore or My Chemical Romance feel."
The band toured the entire summer following Battle of the Bands and has performed at various places in State College including: SoZo, 256 E. Beaver Ave., The Brewery, 223 E. Beaver Ave., Hot Topic in the Nittany Mall and the HUB-Robeson Center, she said.
She added a large goal of the group is to make the live performances enjoyable for the fans.
"We have a lot of fun at our live shows. We want our fans to have a good time with us," she said.
Juno Day
At the core of the alt-rock-fusion band Juno Day is Zac Halbrook and Chris McKenna.
The two met one day in 2004 during freshman orientation and jammed on guitar and piano. After a year and a half of no contact, McKenna realized Halbrook, Class of 2007, was living on the floor above him in Beaver Hill apartments.
Since then, the two have been writing music that has roots in classic rock, jazz, indie rock and fusion. It's hard for McKenna, Class of 2008, to classify what type of music they are making, he said.
"We haven't made a concerted effort to make any specific kind of music," McKenna said. "Zac and I are both heavily influenced by a lot of jazz artists, but we're not trying to make jazz music."
One thing is for certain: McKenna doesn't want Juno Day to be a cover band. After doing one gig as a cover band at the Gingerbread Man, 130 Hiester St., McKenna decided to focus entirely on the music he and Halbrook wanted to play.
"What we're trying to do is do our own thing," he said. "Whatever that ends up being."
T.J. Cornwall
After opening as a solo artist for Ryan Cabrera, T.J Cornwall (senior-economics) had an awakening.
"It was a slap in the face. The response was amazing, I had to ask myself what I was doing in a band," he said.
Cornwall said he doesn't want to coin the recent split from longtime band Cloverleaf a "break-up."
"The other guys just wanted real jobs and that makes being in a band near impossible," Cornwall said.
He described his sound as a solo artist as more honest.
"My solo music is everything I ever wanted to do but could never bring myself to do," he said.
The response Cornwall has received as solo artist so far is overwhelming, he said. "There were 50 people waiting in line to talk to me after a show," Cornwall said.
