ARTIST: Biology
TITLE: Making Moves
LABEL: Vagrant Records
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 214kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 46m total
RELEASE DATE: 2005-09-27
RIP DATE: 2005-07-30
Track List
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1. Programming The Populous 4:08
2. Sophisdecay 4:27
3. The Measure Of My Worth 4:39
4. Opinions Are Like Addictions 3:41
5. Public Art 4:22
6. Arbitrary Stimulation 3:22
7. New English 3:45
8. Born Again Virgins 4:35
9. Employment 5:13
10. When Future History Became 3:08
Current History
11. Damaged Goods 5:32
Release Notes:
The marriage of visual art with that of music has become essentially
non-existent. That riff, which currently divides the two mediums, is something
Francis Mark hopes to remedy with a new band that fuses the visual with the
aural in a way that hasnÆt really been done since The Velvet Underground and
Andy Warhol formed a cohesive unit in the 1960s.
Will this discontent breed progression or insanity? ûSophisdecay
Mark, popularly recognized as the vocalist and drummer of From Autumn to Ashes,
has taken his dissatisfaction with the current state of music and catalyzed it
into the creation of a band that is also an art collective. "I think somewhere
along the line the word æartÆ became a dirty word," explains Mark, who has been
painting since he was 15. "I want to raise peopleÆs awareness on that."
His method of raising peopleÆs awareness is unique and wholly unconventional in
todayÆs musical landscape. Rather than follow the normative pattern of rock
shows, Mark hopes to introduce a new visual level to the experience with a
traveling art gallery, costumes, set pieces and even an eight-foot robot the
group has constructed. "I want to have it look a little more theatrical than
just five guys in ripped jeans, holding guitars," he explains.
The collective will consist of artists as well as the musicians in the band,
mostly friends of Mark. "I feel the art collective is just as big of a part of
it as the music," he says. "The art contributors are just as important as
whoeverÆs playing bass or playing drums."
IÆm feeling dreadfully honest/ and I might give too much away. ûDamaged Goods
The formation of Biology was not only a direct reaction to MarkÆs discontent
with the divide between art and music, but also as a way to express emotions and
lyrics he was unable to let out through From Autumn To Ashes songs. After
spending a summer playing an acoustic guitar every night ("because of course
youÆre not going to set up and play drums at that hour and have the police on
your doorstep"), Mark played some songs for FATAÆs manager. On that same
faithful day, with words of encouragement ringing in his ears, Mark ran into a
friend from high school who runs a recording studio on Long Island. "ThatÆs what
really prompted me to do it," Mark says of BiologyÆs birth. "That I had that
outlet with the studio."
Mark cemented a lineup of guitarist Josh Newton (FATAÆs current bassist) and
drummer Cornbread Compton (of Engine Down) to back his guitar and vocal
stylings, and recorded a debut, entitled Making Moves, that Mark calls "the most
honest thing:" heÆs ever done. Influenced by Sonic Youth, Violent Femmes,
Interpol and You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, BiologyÆs music howls with
the energy and candor of seminal bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and Quicksand
while forging their own path through the soundscape of rock.
It may seem scripted like a movie/ how they pay me to sing about what moves me.
ûNew English
Biology offers Mark a chance to write the songs he wants to write without
compromise. "The beautiful thing about this is IÆm free to do anything," he
says, explaining that his attraction to the hardcore scene has always been less
about the music and more about the energy and that, musically, Biology makes
just as much sense to him. "Nobody knows anything about it as of right now. ItÆs
liberating, really."