ARTIST: Powerspace
TITLE: The Kicks of Passion
LABEL: Fueled By Ramen
GENRE: Rock
BITRATE: 218kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 40m total
RELEASE DATE: 2007-07-31
RIP DATE: 2007-07-29
Track List
----------
1. Prologue: Adam Beckett 3:35
2. Quarantine My Heart (Baby) 3:37
3. Powerspace Snap Bracelet 2:35
4. Right On, Right Now 3:40
5. Amplifire 4:23
6. Be Aggressive 2:49
7. This is Not What You Had 3:13
Planned
8. Dancing in the Future 3:02
9. Choose Your Own Adventure 3:51
10. It Smells Like Electricity in 2:43
Here
11. I Met My Best Friend in Prague 3:27
12. Sleep, Everyone... 3:41
Release Notes:
Over the last ten years, Fueled By Ramen has brought the world some of the
decade's most exciting and imaginative young rock 'n' roll outfits, from Fall
Out Boy and The Academy Isà to Paramore and Panic! At The Disco. Now the label
has done it again. Meet Powerspace, your next favorite new bandà
The Miami University of Ohio and Chicago, Illinois based combo's upcoming full
length debut, "THE KICKS OF PASSION," sees Powerspace unleashing its own
inimitable sound, a brightly colored mash-up of pure power pop and
electronica-inspired invention. Tracks such as "Powerspace Snap Bracelet" and
"Right On, Right Now" literally snap and crackle with the quartet's
uncontainable charm and energy.
The Powerspace team started coming together in 2004 at Miami University, in
Oxford Ohio, when guitarist Tom Schleiter spent his freshman year at Miami
playing with Akron, Ohio native drummer Kevin Kane in another band. "The first
time I heard Kevin's drumming, I knew I wanted to play with him," Schleiter
says. "He's the best drummer I've ever worked with." The feeling was mutual.
Says Kevin, "when I heard Tom play, I was amazed."
Schleiter and bassist Daniel McMahon already knew each other from high school,
having played together in various bands and the high school jazz band and become
friends, and McMahon decided to join Tom at Miami. After Tom spent the summer
focusing on writing songs for an as-yet-undetermined new band, the bassist
suggested the two join up for a new combo upon Dan's arrival at school in the
fall.
"I had always wanted to play with Tom," McMahon says, "because he's such a great
guitar player. He's really good at these interesting instrumental things, where
I'm from more of a pop/rock background. We wanted to combine his instrumental
strengths with what I'd been learning about arrangements and all those things
that make a good pop song."
Once Tom, Kevin, and Dan began collaborating, the three musicians embarked on a
search for a lead singer. While they were excited about this new musical outlet,
they found that finding the right singer was a difficult task. The solution to
their problem came on a car trip home from Miami, when Schleiter's mom suggested
that their high school friend and fellow Miami U. student Alec Cyganowski might
want to give it a shot. "We had Alec sing over this demo we'd been working on,"
McMahon recalls. "We looked at each other and said, 'Yeah. This could work.'"
With Cyganowski behind the mic, Powerspace was complete, and the band started
playing shows around Miami University and Cincinnati. By the summer, they felt
ready to do some recording, and they laid down five songs, resulting in the
"HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PARTY" EP.
The EP quickly brought Powerspace to the attention of major label bigwigs, and
Powerspace decided to sign with the label that most reflected their own
aesthetic views and artistic goals û Fueled By Ramen.
"Of all the people we talked to, we felt that Fueled By Ramen was the best fit
with us," Schleiter says. "We all really liked the label's attitude about how to
get our music out there."
By December 2006, they were signed and ready to record, opting to work with
Chicago's Dorisland Studios. Powerspace spent much of the winter in the studio,
carefully crafting their debut album "THE KICKS OF PASSION." Taking off from
such diverse influences as INXS, The Darkness, The Wrens, and Squarepusher, the
album is bracingly creative, displaying Powerspace's multi-layered pop stance, a
glamtastic sonic approach kissed with electro textures and metallic virtuosity.
"When we started the record, we were really focused on bringing a dance element
to it," McMahon says. "But as we worked on it, it turned into more of a rock 'n'
roll record. Some of those initial ideas are still present, but they've become
part of the overall sound."
"THE KICKS OF PASSION" is alive with ingenious vigor, with soaring tracks like
"It Smells Like Electricity In Here" evincing the band's artis