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The best kept secret in music
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TOUR
-Performed at Live 105’s yearly summer concert, BFD, alongside Bloc Party, Queens of the Stone Age, Interpol, The Faint, Silversun Pickups, and Cold War Kids
-Nationally toured Feb-April 2007, 27 shows across the country
-West Coast tour June-July 2007, 23 shows
-Performed at the 2006 NoisePop festival in San Francisco
-Shared the stage with such acts as Portugal. The Man, Bullets & Octane, I Am the Avalanche, The Matches, Facing New York, Street to Nowhere, and Birdmonster
-Performed at such notable venues as: Bottom of the Hill (SF), Café Du Nord (SF), Spaceland (LA), Club Moscow (LA), Art Bar (Vegas), The Bottleneck (Lawrence, KS), Java Jazz (Houston), Juanita’s (Little Rock)
RECORDINGS
-Released the Forty-four Stone Tigers EP in March 2007, mixed & mastered by Paul Miner (New Found Glory, Atreyu, Death by Stereo)
-Released their first LP, The Virgin Misconception, in May 2006, featuring Santana conga player Michael Carabello
MISC.
-Recorded with producer Jeff Saltzman (Killers, The Sounds, Smashmouth)
-Played frequently on San Francisco’s Live 105 by music director Aaron Axelsen and DJ Madden
-Played an in-studio acoustic set on Live 105 in 2006
-Frequent spins on Palomar College Radio (KKSM) and SF State Radio (KSFS)
-Strong regional fan bases in San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, San Antonio, Houston, and Kansas City
-Featured on the TankFarm Future Sounds 27 compilation - Overview
Overview – Forty-Four Stone Tigers EP
Record Label: Unsigned
Release Date: March 2007
One day, when I become unbelievably wealthy, I am moving to California. As it is now, I split time between the not-so-musical Meccas of Dallas, TX, and Columbia, MO. Sigh. There just isn’t a lot to work with. The dire circumstances of my geographical whereabouts are made even worse when I hear bands like San Francisco’s Overview. Heck, these guys are unsigned and already make better progressive indie-rock than most signed bands out there. Maybe they like it this way. I mean, paperwork can be a bitch.
As another testament to California’s large musical landscape, Overview have already played festivals and shows alongside the likes of Portugal. The Man, Birdmonster, and Cold War Kids. Not bad, not bad at all. And Overview deserve to be there. When people see a lack of label support, they usually think, “amateurs.” Not this time, especially with vocalist Spencer Drager leading things. His boyish tenor is soulful and pop-oriented. He is an experienced musician leading a talented posse of performers.
Overview display a wide array of styles throughout the seven songs on Forty-Four Stone Tigers. “Maybe Dead at 27” begins with a gloomy post-rock vibe before instantly morphing into a dancey toe tapper. The guitars command in a retro, heavily pedaled shred session, while the title track is instrumental and features a hypnotic bassline led by spacey electronics.
The mood set in each song can range from relaxed to frenzied to just plain odd. “The Two Headed Snake” is a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Handclaps lull the listener into a false sense of happiness, but the lyrics tell a different story:
Begs all day in the sun / For my money to buy smokes and rum / Searching for a new excuse / To reform his refuge / I walk by as he spits on my shoe / I said I’m working this god damn job for you.
Nothing about Overview is simple. Guitar riffs hit atmospheric levels, but then quiet so quickly it’s almost as if you dreamed the whole thing. Due to Drager's delivery, the lyrical content may seem juvenile. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Forty-Four Stone Tigers is about growing up, but it’s obviously written by someone who did so long ago. When Draber semi-preaches the line, “But everyone they want the same thing,” it just feels true. At my age I sometimes forget bad things happen outside of relationships, and Overview is hardly concerned with such “trifling” situations. Forty-Four Stone Tigers will easily find an audience in those tired of repetition and regurgitation. Three words come to mind: refreshing, refreshing, refreshing.
Recommended If You Like: Cold War Kids, Facing New York, knowing the difference between a dinner fork and a salad fork, Days Away, murdering guitarists - Absolutepunk.net
The Indie Review
By Sean Duregger
July 19, 2007
Band: Overview
Album: 44 Stone Tigers
Listening to album 44 Stone Tigers from San Fransisco Rock group Overview, I would have rather been in a crowded bar with a cool drink in my hand watching them live, engulfed in their sounds. However, I was inside my Ford Truck fighting the summer heat. It probably would have made for a different first impression. I’m glad to say now that I’m back in the air conditioning, the 2nd listen is going much better.
Overview is probably an amazing live band. There is so much going on in these songs, that one could only imagine an epic live show. For those of you who haven’t heard Overview, they are among a growing number of bands embracing rock-and-roll/experimental/jam band mentality. This record isn’t for the casual listener and is a collection of songs that will grow on you like a mutant fungus. Yes, that’s a compliment.
My only problem with the album is that it doesn’t have a few more songs, and as a whole seems a bit uneven. But, that’s a small gripe. Structure-wise, this is a very unconventional album, going from in-your-face rock and roll, to smooth, atmospheric slower tempo songs. The musicianship on this album is extremely well done and the songs very-well crafted. Sometimes the vocals aren’t on par with the rest of the music in certain areas, but I feel that Overview is a band that is stepping in the right direction and has an untapped amount of potential left up their sleeves.
San Francisco’s Overview is a force to be reckoned with and a band that is definitely here to stay for a while.
Stand out Tracks:
“Melancholy in the City”
“The Two Headed Snake” - IndieUprising.net
Overview IN OVERDRIVE MODE
The talented and lucky Bay Area band, Overview have had an amazing month. After winning Live 105s annual local band contest resulting in getting the chance to play the opening set at BFD this year, the band has started to get recognition from the masses . What you might not know about Overview is they just might just be the hardest working rookies in the industry.
You just won the BFD local band contest. What was it like opening for the festival? Any highlights?
Opening the show better than we expected. We originally thought everyone would be in line when we started playing, but we ended up having a pretty good-sized crowd and selling around a hundred CDs. Live 105 is great for providing a local stage because it exposes people to a vast amount of talented, unsigned, local acts that they wouldn’t otherwise know about. Surprisingly though, the Bottom of the Hill show prior to BFD was probably the highlight of it all. In addition to getting Live 105’s attention, we got to play for many of the best Bay Area musicians, all in one sold-out room.
Any changes or new goals from the LIVE 105 radio exposure?
Our goal hasn’t really changed, we want to become more popular. Live 105 has definitely helped us grow our fan base, and we hope it will continue growing steadily for a long time.
Your live shows are heavily embraced by concertgoers. What unique elements do you bring to your performance?
Since day one we’ve always believed our CD should essentially be a portable recording of our live set. A lot of bands disagree with our feeling that a recording can actually be almost inhibiting, however we believe the audience experiences an indescribable passion through both the visual experience and natural instrument tones at a show, and this is something that a recording just can’t reproduce. The most disappointing thing to any music fan is when you love a band’s album, and then you see them play live and they’re terrible. We are definitely not that band.
You’re hitting the West Coast road all summer. Who are you going with and what are you looking forward to on this tour?
Well we just got off a long, vigorous national tour through both cold and hot climates without any roadies or merch guys to help us, so we are most stoked to bring along our friend Ben to help us out this time. We booked this tour, like our last tour, ourselves (quite a process), and we aren’t touring with any other bands. We basically book a slot on a show and see who else is playing when we get there. As you would guess, this causes some very interesting results, and we never know what to expect. One time we ended up on a goth-metal show in Sandusky, Ohio. People didn’t like us.
Your newest record is Forty-Four Stone Tigers. Where did the name come from?
Many people ask us this. Last fall we were a five-piece, and after our second guitarist left the band, we started writing new songs that very day. In four weeks we wrote all the songs on this CD and in four days we recorded everything. Four weeks of writing, four days of recording. We aren’t going to discuss the “Stone Tigers” part for specific reasons but if you pronounce forty-four stone tigers in Mandarin it sounds pretty bad ass.
Are you working on a new record?
We released Forty-Four Stone Tigers in March ’07, but our problem is that we write so many songs that by the time our album comes out we are ready to record another. So yes, we are writing, but between this West Coast tour and another nine-week national tour in the fall we probably wont get serious about a new album till the winter.
Who are some of the band’s major influences?
Big screen TVs, blunts, 40s, women, velvet, and bummer retail jobs.
Any final words to Zero Magazine readers?
Spaceship. - Zero Magazine
Discography
"The Current Feelings of Later Days" (EP, 2004)
"The Virgin Misconception" (LP, 2006)
"Forty-Four Stone Tigers" (EP, 2007)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
This shit is serious. The former-five-piece Overview is so serious about their music that they fucking killed their spare guitar player. The bands first full-length, "The Virgin Misconception", is a progressive, alternative rock statement about modern society, with a sound that is both experimental and energetic. However, the four core members of Overview are devoted to honing their craft, and wanted to create a more focused and forceful sound. To reach their ideal vocal-driven indie rock sound, they knew they had to eliminate the second guitar player.
They did what they had to do.
During a rehearsal session, breaking off in the middle of a song, drummer Sam Totty threw his drumstick at the single ceiling light, plunging the room into darkness. Singer Spencer Dräger kicked the legs out from underneath the unsuspecting guitarist, erupting in maniacal laughter that was as clear and melodic as it was unsettling. The soon to be solo-surviving guitarist Brian Damert swung his Fender Stratocaster through the darkness, bringing the battle axe down on the unsuspecting guitar players skull. Blood flew unseen across the studio space, splashing across cymbals with a wet slapping sound. The darkness, and a gorgeous mane of chestnut brown hair, concealed the grim determination showing on Greg Sellins face as he bludgeoned the figure on the floor, wielding his P-bass with great ferocity and might. Not a word was spoken, and as the dying man breathed his last, blood-choked breath, the empty darkness was filled with absolute silence. They put on a few Led Zeppelin tracks while they cleaned up, and buried the broken body behind the parking lot while listening to Doves' newest disc. Leaving their old sound in a shallow grave behind them, the brand new four-piece stepped out of the blood-stained studio and into a bright, gleaming future.
This intense experience tightened the bonds between the four, and Overview is now officially a lean, mean, motherfucking killing machine. They stand on the brink of an intense schedule of tours. They will descend upon the American heartland with all the rock that can be packed in a van, bringing it across the nation to feed to the sonically-starved masses.
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