holiday.

Holiday have a knack for pop tunes and personal lyrics and songs about girls, but with a habit of layering the wild, joyful, distorted guitar leads and pounding drums over all that sweetness. - The Hartford Advocate

The name Holiday. couldn't belong to anything other than a pop rock band. Just as the connotation suggests, Holiday. tags itself to a band producing sing-a-long pop rock from Providence, Rhode Island. However, the boys aren't as sugar-coated as the name suggests.

By Kelly Chordas

teozine: Have you found new influences both individually and as a band since your conception? Or have they always remained similar and/or the same?
holidaytheband: D: I'd say that our sound as a band is only influenced by our individual tastes, and those have changed for some of us. (i.e. myself and Titus). We used to listen to a lot more Weezer, Green Day, etc... but now we seem to be really into alt-country and new pop/rock acts like Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Brendan Benson and Phantom Planet. 

teozine: Speaking of song writing, I know each band has their own individual process for writing them. What's yours?
holidaytheband: T: I'll write the songs (more like demo's/ song skeletons, whatever) and bring them to practice, where we flesh them out together. Then we fight until the song is ready to be played live. You know a chorus here, a drop kick there...that's typical though right?!
teozine: Of course it is.
holidaytheband: T: Yeah I thought so.

teozine: When you play live, what's your style? Are you guys a band more into "rocking out" or stand there and just play?
holidaytheband: D: We stand there and just rock out.

holidaytheband: D: We really do rock quite a bit
teozine: Is this because you find you like live shows much better when there's a visual stimulation (as members of the audience) or you just do it?
teozine: As in, it's natural?
holidaytheband: C: Yes, well it comes with the music and we just let loose on stage.
holidaytheband: D: It's also just more fun for us to rock out, even when no one else is there. - The Eye Opener

Q: Do you have any crazy stories from the road?
A: Our van itself is pretty crazy. It kept breaking. The internal lights blew so we had to go out and buy glowsticks to tape to the dashboard... It's pretty badass. Lookout when you see our van coming.... - Decibel Magazine

If you, as I did, started singing ye olde 80’s Madonna feelgood anthems when you read the name of this band, then hurrah! Holiday are a 4 piece guitar-based rock quartet from sunny (sometimes) Boston comprising of members Titan, Dylan, Steve and Nick. They were nice enough to drop us a line and tell us of their marvellousness, so we popped along to their website and had a look and woohoo! They’re not half bad. Lots of slap bass, smoky bar vocals, funky falsettos, nice bit of acoustics. We like.

They claim to love Sting, not for his musical prowess, but for the fact that he can have sex for three days at a time, and one of them is a smart arse who has a degree in political science and cites his hobbies as partying and watching CNN. Remind us never to come to your place for a shindig! (kidding.) They do a nice line in merchandise, along with their current CD, well worth it at $8, and a turntabley t shirt that I fully expect to get a free one of at some point. In blue. Thanks.

Visit holidaytheband.com for more details.

Ones to Watch by Vicky Folksman and Heather Sconza - The Indigo Guides

There's a constant loveable aspect to the music, that's sure to get stuck in your head for days...Songs like, "Up Late," make feet involuntarily tap and heads bob against their wills... - Popzine Online

Former URI students holiday. followed, taking the stage to a warm welcome from a crowd obviously familiar with their tunes. Fans clapped along to selections from their debut CD Words That Rhyme, and the band seemed happy to be playing on their old turf... - The Good 5 Cent Cigar

holiday: Words That Rhyme (Melanie) (www.holidaytheband.com)

Uh-oh. Is the local scene turning pop-punk? Well, first, would you be surprised? I mean, hell, we can't get away from it no matter how far we run. As for holiday, let's look at the evidence. First, you have the band's sound. It's aggressively melodic, with self-referential lyrics that wouldn't sound out of place on the soundtrack, to say, American Pie 7. You also have pretty tight performances and good propulsive arrangements, plus a loose, comic, and casual presence, all of which should add up to our own version of those damn pop-punks, the likes of which I won't name here. But a more thorough investigation of holiday's excellent new Words that Rhyme reveals a much more multidimensional band, one that respects the pop music of the '60s and '70s as well as the '90s. In parts, you can hear the echoes of great, gritty pop writers like Elvis Costello, Ray Davies, and Mitch Easter in addition to more modern punk-pop references.

But holiday is more than a pop band. Formed at URI a couple of years ago, the band obviously has a special camaraderie. Led by quivery-voiced lead singer and guitarist Titus DosRemedios and flanked by guitarist Dylan Ryder, drummer Nick Talarico, bassist Steve Cicchelli, and keyboardist Glen DesLauriers, they can play and write well enough to be truly charming. While their songs might not plumb sublime depths of melody and meaning, they're the perfect antidote to boring, self-indulgent, big-riff rock. Neaten up the edges on this baby and, given the current musical climate, who knows?

-Bob Gulla - The Providence Phoenix

Titus DosRemedios, Nick Talarico, Dylan Ryder and Steve Cicchelli have all walked the hallowed halls of the University of Rhode Island. A couple still live near campus. They've got a band, though, and that means it'll soon be time to hit the road.

With a new album, Words That Rhyme, and their first out-of-Rhode Island shows under their belts, the four guys from URI who make up the band Holiday are ready to show the rest of New England what they've got.

Holiday built their following right here at URI. Their first show was the Musician's Guild's 2000 Halloweenapalooza, and they've played here many times since then, becoming a staple of local rock and roll. They've even got a song called "Carothers."

After branching out into neighboring communities and up into the heart of Providence's local rock scene, these guys see up as the only place to go.

"We're trying to branch out now and spread ourselves out," said drummer Talarico. "Now that the CD is out, everyone has responded positively."

The CD, Words That Rhyme, originally started out as a 6-song EP, but grew into an album as time went by.

"We were going to make an EP, and those six songs took us from February to May to record," Talarico said. "It took that long because some of the guys were still in class, and we were being nitpicky about it. Months went by, and we decided to put down another six songs, and we actually did it in three days. We feel like those six sound the best."

The record was recently reviewed on 75orless.com, and was described as "Well-crafted and ebola-catchy, with a melodic knack that's skewed juuuuust enough," with comparisons to both Weezer and the late, great Smoking Popes dropped in the midst of all that high praise.

Those present at Holiday shows are also apparently falling in love with the band, and showing it.

"The fans feel the same way we would [about seeing bands we like live]," said guitarist Ryder. "Some kids are so outrageous about it, so we're like 'Wow, cool!'"

The band's growth is well-documented on their web site, holidaytheband.com, with a complete concert history and brief autobiographies giving the story behind the band's genesis to this point.

"Before it was just Titus writing songs, but now everyone's in on it," said bassist Cicchelli.

After racking up two shows in Massachusetts this weekend, one at Common Ground on Harvard Ave. in Boston and another at Bryant College, the boys have become enamored with the touring experience and hope to put on a more widespread showcase in the near future.

"We'd like to go as far across the country with as much money as we have," said singer/guitarist and principal songwriter DosRemedios.

Since recording Words That Rhyme, the band has been working on their live sound, and is hoping that adding a few nuances will help round up some new fans.

"We've been working a lot on how we really play a set, and just the way a set flows," Cicchelli. "A lot of new fans can have a good time if they can sing along."

With shows coming up in Cumberland in mid-October and a gig Nov. 8 at AS220 in Providence, it seems that Holiday is warming up for a late year run at recognition.

"We're looking to get regional. We got a van, so we can go to New York City, upstate, colleges in Massachusetts," said DosRemedios. "We feel like we're ready to get a following."

"This is our first time, our first shot," said Ryder. "I'm the optimistic type, and I think there's no limit to where we can go." - Good 5-cent Cigar

To the untrained listner, the 11 songs (about girls and stuff) on Holiday's debut LP sound a lot like Weezer. To the powerpop sophisticate, those same 11 songs (about girls and stuff) sound a lot like the Smoking Popes. Yet it's equivalently kickass wafting through either pair of ears. Well-crafted and ebola-catchy, with a melodic knack that's skewed juuuuust enough (like that Kweller kid, methinks) to avoid the generic cliché pitfalls that tend to crop up from these familiar ingredients. Turn it up and hold that boombox high, Lloyd.

- nick - 75orLess.com