Music
Press
Q & A
By Madeline Hyden
Published on Thu., February 5th, 2009
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Todd Anderson, drummer and founder of band Left on Northwood and 2008 graduate, moved to Lawrence to join the local music scene and get an education to boot. Left On Northwood’s mix of punk and hard rock prowess gives the band aspirations of the Big Time (they travel across the country for shows and are releasing an album, Gut Check Personality, on iTunes and Rhapsody on February 24), but Left on Northwood still humbly appreciates their music roots in Lawrence and the openness that the local music scene offers its partakers.
What’s the best part about being a band in Lawrence?
Left of Northwood, from left: Todd Anderson, Joe Marshall, LeRoy Pristach, Mike Dye, Cody Stapleton. The band will be dropping their new album this March.
Photo by Contributed Photo
Lawrence gives you the freedom to express yourself musically on any kind of plane. Everyone’s open to rock, rap, country, independent, house, anything. Lawrence is just a hodge podge of all kinds of music and not a lot of places in America are like Lawrence, Kansas, in that respect.
What’s the band’s favorite venue?
The Bottleneck because a lot of the early ’90s influences played there and have their pictures hanging on the wall. To know that Weezer, Bush, Nirvana, Blink-182 have all played in The Bottleneck makes it a really special place to play.
I hear you graduated from KU with a degree in music therapy. What do you miss the most about college life?
I don’t miss the parking department, that’s for sure, but I do miss the sporting events. It was such a big deal on such a big level, almost like the local music scene: Everyone is so passionate about it.
There are probably a few Jayplay readers who don’t know who you guys are. What’s something you’d like them to know about Left on Northwood?
I want them to know that we’re not only a band that records music to listen to, but we’re also a band that loves to play live, whether it’s in front of two people or 2,000 people. We not only express our music through our instruments, but also through our bodies, through our interactions with people. Our live shows take our music to whole new level.
Is there anything non-musical that inspires the band?
I’d like to call these guys my brothers and not just because I have to. We’ve grown up around each other and we all come from the same place. We all have had the same hardships, and I really consider them family. Having them as friends is inspirational. That’s what gives us such great chemistry: We care about each other on a loving, family level before a musical level.
If you could spend a day with one person, who would it be?
Keith Buckley from a band called Every Time I Die. I’d love to spend a day with that guy to really find out how to live.
Where do you see Left on Northwood in the future?
In one year, I see us with a released E.P. and a new full-length album almost done in the studio. I’m hoping for a few tours along the way. If we work the way we are working and write the way we are writing, I see a very successful future. - Kansan.com
Left On Northwood
Gut Check Personality
No category can contain Lawrence rock band Left on Northwood. So we’ll invent one: spasmo. Or, when emo and hardcore punk have a baby that can play metal riffs.
Each song on the band’s debut LP, Gut Check Personality, ascends chaotic and spastic to an emotional climax. Quick-as-a-muscle-twitch tempo changes punctuate each climax.
This album won’t please everybody. Too metal for emo fans. Too emo for hardcore fans. Too hardcore for riff-based rock fans. At times Gut Check Personality is good. At times it isn’t. Kind of like when a bored, hyperactive teen finds his mom’s stash of Valium and starts writing “poetry,” only this has righteous guitar riffs behind it.
The band will remind you a lot of Funeral for a Friend, down to lead singer LeRoy Pristach’s voice, which strains on the edge of its sonic and emotional breaking point. The band also will remind you of Coheed and Cambria and other acts with assembled-at-random names. But each track has a streak of riff rock that conjures trash-metal bands like Prong.
The album opens with a slight stumble. The lead track follows a boat that either capsizes or gets attacked by the beast from “Cloverfield.” Then the fivesome sets down seven blistering songs that will leave you adjusting your speakers between feel-it-in-your-fillings loud and oh-my-god-I-can’t-take-it-anymore quiet.
The penultimate song, “Interlude,” however, sounds wildly out of place with its power-ballad-ish piano tinkling mixed with squawking seagulls.
The highlight on this disc — and reason enough to give it a try — is the guitar work of Mike Dye and Joe Marshall. That’s evident by the second and third tracks, “Synonym for Apology” and “Pray to Win Big.” Both eschew the standard power-chords-till-we-die ethos of other post-hardcore guitarists, instead employing many start-stop riffs that serve as the melodic backbone for the song. Think Randy Rhoads and “Crazy Train” meets The Used.
There are a few small hiccups, namely the title track, “Gut Check Personality (Song for Sarah),” a recycled emo anthem of despair and disillusionment. The band’s efforts to this point had separated it from the stampede of black-clad emo bands singing about ex-girlfriends and God and early 20s rage. This song brings them back into the herd, unfortunately.
“Gut Check” precedes the best track on the album, “Culling Song,” which manages to balance a breakneck pace and a foot-tapping rhythm. It’s catchy, simple and fun and plays well loud. If Gut Check were filled with tracks like this, my recommendation would be through the roof.
Instead, this gets a mild “give it a try at least once” suggestion.
If you don’t mind screaming vocals, unfocused and relentless rage and schizophrenic tempo spasms, this album will reward your patience with complicated nuances.
— charles gooch { special to ink } - www.inkkc.com
Deadwood Derby Finals
featuring the Kaw Valley Project / The Old Black / Dead Girls Ruin Everything / Sterilize Stereo / Left on Northwood
When: Friday, May 4, 2007, 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Granada, 1020 Mass., Lawrence
Cost: $5
Age limit: All ages
Categories: Alt rock, Music (other), Pop, Rock
Description: The finalists are:
Kaw Valley Project (Rd 1 winner)
The Old Black (Rd 2 winner)
Dead Girls Ruin Everything (Rd 3 winner)
Sterilize Stereo (Rd 4 winner)
Left on Northwood (wildcard*)
Doors 7 p.m., music starts at 7:30 p.m. sharp. Set order will be determined 15 minutes prior to doors by random drawing.
Listen to our podcast preview of the finals
featuring interviews with each of the bands and samples of their music. More Derby info here.
*note: The wild card band is selected by a panel of judges (from lawrence.com, Hunt Industries and A&E Legal Services) who were at all four rounds, not by the judges' scores from individual rounds. The main factor in this year's wild card selection ended up being crowd response and participation. While several other bands also had very strong musical performances—it was virtually a dead heat between Havok on Polaris, The F Holes, Ten Hour Drive, Log Lady, and Left on Northwood—the band chosen clearly had the strongest crowd support of all four rounds.
Event posted Jan. 22, 2007
Last updated May 3, 2007 - lawrence.com
The Deadwood Derby
Air date: May 17, 2007
Description: On May 4th, five stalwart entries fought tooth and nail for the title of the Deadwood Derby 2007 Champion. The competition was fierce, the drinks strong, the crowd and musicians sweaty. At the end of the night, Dead Girls Ruin Everything prevailed with a set of rock so tight that a pipe wrench was necessary to extract the audience from the venue when they finished. Fellow gladiators Sterilize Stereo, Kaw Valley Project, Left on Northwood, and The Old Black brought their best game and kept the folks at the Granada rockin' all night. But in the end, to quote the great Christopher Lambert, "There can be only one." The Turnpike was there to capture this spectacle of musical combat, which we now bring to you via the internet medium. So stop searching for animal porn long enough to take a peek into the heart of the Lawrence music scene. - The Turnpike / lawrence.com
Discography
Albums:
Left on Northwood Demo (August 2007)
Gut Check Personality (2009)
Photos
Bio
Left on Northwood is a fast-driven melodic rage-thrasher five piece from the screamo lands of Lawrence, KS. Most of their tunes can be described as an under pressure engine room in a submarine coupled with ascending vocal uppercuts. The listener’s body explodes; it builds up fervor under pressure until its granite casing rips apart sending projectiles of eloquent torment in every direction. As the performance progresses it gives audiences time to fill their lungs for more dynamic chilling guitar solos and murky sonatas over lightning overtones.
The band has been on a dedicated and creative trek since its beginnings in 2006. Their DIY attitude and experience has paid off with their highly anticipated debut album, independently released in early 2009. Despite their Midwest location, they have shared the stage with national acts such as Envy on The Coast, The Fall of Troy, Twin Atlantic, The Whigs, Hester Prynne, The Ataris, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Funeral for a Friend, Mayday Parade, Madina Lake, The Deer Hunter, Meriwether and more.
Band members include Leroy Pristach on vocals, Mike Dye on guitar, Cody Stapleton on bass/vocals, Todd Anderson on drums/vocals, and Joe Marshall on guitar/keys. Look for their second album in the near future as well as live performances on the road with Kiss and Tell this summer 2010 in the Midwest and the West Coast.
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