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Shiny Toy Guns
Posted by Tim Karan on 24-Jan-07 @ 11:44 AM|
HQ: Los Angeles, CA
NOW PLAYING: We Are Pilots (UNIVERSAL) THE STORY SO FAR: The headline reads: "Small town musicians with big city dreams start flourishing online. Major label bidding war ensues." In the 21st century, stories like this are worth their weight in pre-release buzz and, for that reason, are featured prominently in practically every destined-for-success story in the contemporary e-book. And though each of these near-clichés play a role in the story of Shawnee, Oklahoma, natives Jeremy Dawson and Chad Petree, their rise to cyber stardom has hardly followed any script. After moving to Los Angeles around the turn of the millennium, Dawson and Petree refined their electronic rock chops in a band called Slyder and then, three years later, conceived Shiny Toy Guns. Today, the band-vocalist/guitarist Petree, vocalist Carah Faye, bassist/keyboardist Dawson and drummer Mike Martin-are armed with one of the most blogged-about debuts of the year, major-label backing and a creative ceiling as high their imaginations can stretch. "We're an example of how a band can do anything," says Dawson. "KROQ in L.A. took us to number one before we had any idea of what record label we were going to sign with. I think that's really an inspiration. It goes to show that even the biggest places are out there digging under rocks. It says to me that there's probably a guy in his garage right now who can do what we're doing." Although Dawson's probably giving the nation's garage lizards more credit than they've earned, it's the idea of self-empowerment and limitless ambition that Shiny Toy Guns infuse into every inch of their expansive debut, We Are Pilots, featuring songs like "Don't Cry Out," which channels the spirit of Andy Bell and Shirley Manson, the Massive Attack-esque "Shaken" and KROQ fave "Le Disko." Originally released in 2005 with songs like, the album has been re-imagined and re-recorded twice in the past two years as the band's resources finally caught up with their ambitions. "We started with really primitive computers and made do with what we had," explains Dawson. "Then as we were able to develop and perform live, we'd go back and do another pass. For version 3.0 we were able to go into a nice studio and record [the songs] the way that we'd envisioned them to begin with." Of course, it's all too easy for new bands to convince themselves that their hype is justified and that it's only matter of time until their rock really does change the world. However, where Shiny Toy Guns set themselves apart from the Prima Donna pack is that they'll go to almost any extreme (say, having toured Hawaii, Alaska and the northern Canadian territories this summer) to try and change someone's world-if not the whole damn thing. "If one person comes to see us, that's enough," insists Dawson. "The point is to send that someone home in the passenger seat of a car, staring out the window, saying nothing, because visually and audibly they were maxed and they weren't able to handle everything they heard and saw. That's what we're working toward." WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW 'EM: Though their body-bending synth rock recalls past purveyors of glitter and spandex, it's Shiny Toy Guns' compassion for the human condition that really fuels their future-forward anthems of empowerment.--Tristan Staddon YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE: Depeche Mode / Garbage / Erasure UNDER THE INFLUENCE What Album's Had The Greatest Influence On You? "A record that was really pivotal for us was Radiohead's OK Computer," says STG keyboardist/bassist Jeremy Dawson. "I remember when it first came out, I didn't like it but then eventually realized, 'These are not real people. These are just not human beings making this music.' There's not a hit song on there; nothing my Dad's going to understand. But it's a timeless piece of abstract art." ALT |
