above the underground $2.59

About above the underground

"Above the Underground contains ten songs which run the gamut of styles and influences from the last fifty years of rock and roll. From the blues and country honk of the Rolling Stones, the blissed-out pop perfection of the Beatles, intimate confessionals of singer-songwriters like Nilsson and Randy Newman, and the ragged glory (quiet and loud) of Neil Young to more modern bands like the vulnerable aggression of the Smashing Pumpkins, the experimental yet accessible sounds of Radiohead, and the alt-country-meets-indie rock of Wilco and Ryan Adams."



These days it seems like all you ever hear about are garage bands; "the new movers and shakers on the rock and roll scene." Don't get me wrong, we love us some garage rock, but we've always been a basement band.

From the very earliest days of the Avids while sitting in a basement in 1994 deciding that we would acquire (read: beg, borrow, and steal) some musical instruments and learn how to play these instruments so we could be in a band together, to our current rehearsal space in yet another basement, we have existed for over ten years quite literally underground.

Unlike the garage band who needs only to open the garage door on a hot summer day to be "performing publicly," (even if it is only to the neighborhood kids riding their bikes) we rarely had visitors to play for in the basement. Instead we fiddled with delay pedals and acoustic guitars, keyboards and 4-track recorders.

Individual players came and went over the years but the original core trio remained intact: David Mark on drums and percussion, his brother Jonathan Mark on the bass and backing vocals, and Paul Gott on lead vocals, guitars, and piano. Recently that trio has become a quartet with the addition of David Messore on Guitar.

Although we've recorded our songs, jams, and experimentations numerous times, not until now have we put together a single cohesive body of work for public release. Our debut album entitled "Above the Underground" contains ten songs which run the gamut of styles and influences from the last fifty years of rock and roll. From the blues and country honk of the Rolling Stones, the blissed-out pop perfection of the Beatles, intimate confessionals of singer-songwriters like Nilsson and Randy Newman, and the ragged glory (quiet and loud) of Neil Young to more modern bands like the vulnerable aggression of the Smashing Pumpkins, the experimental yet accessible sounds of Radiohead, and the alt-country-meets-indie rock of Wilco and Ryan Adams.

We hope you enjoy the album and come out to see us at those rare occasions when we leave the basement to come perform in your area.