Frantic Recovery

http://www.roanoke.com/entertainment/insideout/music/wb/xp-152268

Frantic Recovery determined to enjoy life -By Tad Dickens

Two members of the band have muscular dystrophy, but they don't allow it to prevent them from pursuing music.

Distorted chords burst through a big amp, ringing dirty as drums pound out time in a Salem garage.

It's a post-punk, post-grunge sound, definitely influenced by Nirvana. So are the lyrics:

"I see you there looking right at my head/Why don't you pick another one instead/You point your finger just left of me/The whole time you were laughing at me

"I don't even wanna play/I'll just sit here in the shade/Save it for another day."

The song is "2 4 6 8." The band is Frantic Recovery. The lyrics are a response to life.

Frantic Recovery singer/guitarist/songwriter Wilson Long was 9 years old when he learned that he had muscular dystrophy, a hereditary disease that causes muscles to atrophy. About 10 years later, his younger brother, Byron, learned he also had the disease. Byron was 7.

Instead of letting it get them down, they started taking it out on instruments. Now they have a record, "Blurred Faces," and a CD release party set for Friday at the Coffee Pot.

Wilson Long, now 28, says that half the songs are about being young, coping with his disease and thinking about death. Doctors told him he might not live past 18. That doesn't mean the songs are total downers, he said.

"The songs say 'Why be bitter? Enjoy life while you have it,' " he said.

Add his guitars, Byron's drumming and bass lines from Joe Castiglioni, and you have rock.

"We tell people that we're heavier than Dave Matthews but lighter than Metallica," said Byron, now 15. "We don't pay attention to the writing. We just know what we feel."

Early diagnoses

It started with Wilson Long walking on his toes a lot. Cramps in his calves led his parents to take him for a diagnosis. Afterward, he thought about dying early, but it didn't stop him from living his life. He went to school. He worked. And at 19, he started playing guitar. A year later, Byron was diagnosed. But Byron's thoughts weren't dark.

"I saw how well he was doing," Byron said of his brother. "It helped me a lot to get through it."

Two years ago, they decided to start a band. Byron wanted to play drums and learned quickly by finding music videos he liked. He played and rewound those tapes to teach himself how drummers like Dave Grohl of Nirvana were doing what they did. His feet were strong enough. His arms are stronger.

"Go ahead, show him your muscle," Castiglioni tells Byron. And the teen exposes a right-arm gun, apparently strengthened from pounding the trap set.

"They say you can't build up your muscles" when you have muscular dystrophy, Byron said. "I've proven them wrong."

The brothers were diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Symptoms are generalized weakness and muscle wasting first affecting the muscles of the hips, pelvic area, thighs and shoulders, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association Web site. Duchenne eventually affects all voluntary muscles, then the heart and breathing muscles. Survival is rare beyond the early 30s, according to the Web site.

But so far, the Long brothers are "kind of defying diagnoses in terms of health, in terms of everything," Wilson said. With atrophied leg muscles, the brothers use wheelchairs most of the time.

They live at their parents' home. Wilson is focusing on songwriting. Byron is a sophomore at Hidden Valley High School.

Their family has been a big support, they said. Their sisters, Holland and Maggie Long, help them set up equipment and do onstage troubleshooting. Their parents, Jim and Beth Long, always come to the shows, they said.

"Our parents were like, 'go do whatever you want to do,' " Wilson said.

"Go jump off a building," Byron added.

Wilson jumped back in: "You're already in a wheelchair."

The room filled with laughter.

"Life's short," Wilson Long said. "Make fun of it."

That sense of humor and collective persistence is impressive, said their father, Jim Long.

"I'm not sure that they know there's anything they can't do," he said. "They're good boys and really enjoy life and are as normal as you can possibly be with wheels."

Making a band

Wilson Long and Castiglioni used to work together at WSLS (Channel 10), but hadn't seen each other in years when Castiglioni answered the Longs' myspace.com bulletin searching for a bassist. Castiglioni switched from his main instrument, guitar, to provide the solid bass lines of Frantic Recovery.

The name came after Byron hurt a leg playing football. Football!

"That was a pretty dumb idea," he said.

As they sat in a restaurant parking lot, Byron told them he needed a "frantic recovery."

The trio made an album, "Two Wheelchairs and a Microphone" -- a title they reject now, because it makes them sound like a joke band. Now the band simply calls that record "TWAM."

The new record, "Blurred Faces," is a full-on studio production. The lyrics are often provocative.

"9 years old, afraid of death/I got tired of making friends/So I started making enemies," Wilson Long sings in "9 Years Old."

"You're contrived and you're a lie and at the end of the night you might die!" he screams in "Y.M.D."

Adam Baber, who recorded "Blurred Faces" at the Red Room studio in Roanoke, said the experience was a delight.

"They were more full of life than I've seen in most people's one pinkie nail," Baber said. "I'm proud of what they're doing. I'm proud to be a part of what they're doing. I like those guys a lot. ... They're bodacious human beings."

The band hopes this is only the beginning of a long musical life. The Longs practice individually, for hours most days, and rehearse with the band once a week. Despite their sense of humor and their ability to work out issues through music, one nagging thought won't go away.

"That's always like our biggest fear," Byron said, "is not to be able to play our instruments."

- The Roanoke Times

http://www.roanoke.com/theedge/stories/wb/133392

Band of brothers -By Cameron Austin

Byron and Wilson Long have gotten their band off the ground, despite the challenges of having muscular dystrophy.

Wilson Long plugged his light blue guitar into the 5-foot-tall amp that sat in the corner of his garage. He wheeled up to his microphone, positioned at eye level. He glanced at his two fellow band members and starting singing.

Brothers Byron Long (on drums) and Wilson Long (guitar and vocals ), along with Joe Castiglioni (bass and background vocals) have been rocking out for roughly nine months. They call themselves Frantic Recovery, and they have played at restaurants such as Champs in Blacksburg and the now-closed Green Dolphin Grille in downtown Roanoke.

Getting a band off the ground is hard for anyone. However, brothers Byron and Wilson deal with an obstacle that makes reaching their goal more difficult: muscular dystrophy .

Wilson, 27, was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when he was 9; Byron, a Hidden Valley High School student, was diagnosed at age 7.

Muscular dystrophy is an inherited disease in which the muscles that control movement progressively weaken.

There are nine major forms, which can occur anywhere from infancy to middle age or later, according to WebMD.com, a health information Web site. The various types of MD affect more than 50,000 Americans.

The disease has left the Long brothers in wheelchairs.

“When people see us, and they see that two of us are in wheelchairs, they don’t really know what to think,” Wilson Long said. “And then when they hear us play, and they see that we have real talent, they’re like 'Wow. This is going to be good.’”

Dealing with these circumstances has brought challenges that other bands don’t often face. For instance, MD makes it harder for the band to ready equipment before shows.

“Luckily, we have great family and friends that help set up at our gigs,” Byron Long said. “Without our sisters, who help set up, it’d take a lot longer.”

Once they learned how to play the drums and guitar in wheelchairs, “you’re set,” Byron said.

When Byron and Wilson were putting the band together, they said they knew their success depended on finding good band mates.

“We were looking for the right people for the band so that it would go smoothly and we could all have a good time,” Byron said .

The pair found the third band member, Castiglioni, by posting a bulletin on MySpace.com.

“My brother and I started our MySpace Web site and posted a bulletin with the subject 'We need a bassist,’” Wilson Long said. “Joe happened to see it and contacted us. He came over, and we jammed.”

By the end of the first night, the group had written bass lines to three songs. The brothers knew there was “instant clickage.”

Since then, Castiglioni said, their friendship has grown, and the three band members feel like family.

“The band is about brotherhood,” Castiglioni, 27, said. “Since Byron and Wilson are brothers, it may seem like I am somewhat of an outcast. But that’s not how it is at all. I fit in. I feel like I’m part of the family. I call Byron and Wilson’s mom 'Mom,’ too. We’re all really close.”

Frantic Recovery plays a unique type of rock music, band members said. From the Beach Boys to the Dave Matthews Band to Nirvana, each member of Frantic Recovery has different musical influences. Because of those varying interests, Frantic Recovery creates a foot-thumping rock sound that makes many concertgoers sing along.

Byron came up with what he calls a unique and well-fitting name for the band.

“I made it up randomly,” he said. “I just said the two words out of the blue, and my brother was like, 'Hey, that should be the name of the band!’ Plus, after we came up with the name, it kind of made sense. With my brother and I having MD, we need to make a frantic recovery.”

So far, Frantic Recovery has written 21 songs in the nine months they have been together. Their first demo is called “Two Wheelchairs and a Microphone.”

When it comes to the creative process, Wilson said he’s usually the one who comes up with the main ideas and lyrics for songs based on life experiences. After he arranges the chord progressions, Byron and Castiglioni then “make it better,” Wilson Long said.

“Joe brings the melody out with his creative bass lines, and Byron brings the intensity of it to a new height with his powerful drum beats,” Wilson Long said. “I mean, sometimes, I will have written the music a completely different way, and they come up with a better way to play it. We all kind of work like that.”

Although they are still a new band, the members of Frantic Recovery think they have a loyal fan base. Green and black T-shirts with the band’s wheelchair-like logo can be seen around the Roanoke Valley. The band members said that’s the best publicity.

“The best way we can get our name around is word of mouth,” Castiglioni said.

Byron added that the band has gained fans through MySpace, performances and friends who spread the word. In an attempt to get off the ground and make a name for itself, the band plans to record another demo in October.

- The Roanoke TImes