Sub Cam

we managed to catch up with Atl heavyweights Sub Cam (short for Suburban Camouflage) inbetween their busy schedule. These guys just finished their second album which is sure to hit the ground running. Check out their sound at Sub Cam's myspace page. With their first album they introduced us to the perfect mix of light to heavy, melodic songs about life experiences; and with this new album, titled Invisible Lie and produced by Tony Copley with Ledge 7 Entertainment, they are ready to take music fans by storm. Sub Cam formed in 2005 and has managed to maintain the same lineup since, giving way to understanding how good they have become. They are Jacob Lehman - Lead Vocals, Guitars; Isaac Fletcer- Lead Guitar, Vocals; Mike Ely- Bass Guitar and Eric Hodges- Drums.



They just got done playing a few dates throught the South East and have their CD release show at the 8 Ball Room in Duluth on Saturday, May 30th. I recommend you be there. These guys have a way of winning over the crowd. They have a sound that is sure to please everyone from metal heads to power pop freaks. They claim influences from Tool to Led Zepp to Alice and Chains and you can definitely hear it in their sound - all though they mix in just the right amount of power pop and thoughtful, emotional lyrics. I will admit, my first impression of hearing their music was so so but after listening to all of their songs and really taking it in and listening to each instrument I begin to understand why these guys are sure to become a major act out of Atlanta - and they made me a fan. Jacob had this to say about Atl music scene: The Atlanta music scene is overall a great music scene. I have never lived in another town, but we have played all over the south east . Atlanta has a diverse music scene and being such a big city it tends to be very spread out. Some of the other towns we have played in like Nashville tend to have a lot of venues closer together. There are little areas where there might be 6 or 7 venues in a few blocks. There is undoubtedly tons of talent in Atlanta and a wide variety of music. We get a great reception in a lot of towns, but the music scene varies from city to city. Some places we play only have a few venues that do rock for the whole city others have 10 to 20. Over all there is a lot of opportunity for musicians in Atlanta if you are willing to work very hard.


Apr 30 2009 8:00P
Ledge 7 Studios (Mixing) Dallas, Georgia
May 2 2009 8:00P
Soho’s Columbus, Georgia
May 30 2009 8:00P
The 8 Ball Room (ALBUM RELEASE SHOW) Duluth, Georgia
Jul 16 2009 8:00P
Spinnaker’s Beach Club Panama City, Florida
Jul 18 2009 8:00P
TBA TBA, Georgia

They love to play the Masquerade when in Atlanta (which seems to be a running theme with Atl bands) and The House of Blues at Myrtle Beach and any venue in Nashville when out of town. They recommend fellow Atl bands The Killer and the Martyr, Stonerider, Uncrowned, and add if you are interested in instrumental music that is really great then check out The Ruination.




Jacob had this to say about his favorite song from the upcoming album Invisible Lie: If I had to choose one...I would probably go for Petals. It combines a majority of my favorite influences and styles. The song is very dark and energetic. The chorus is very catchy and the verses are very erie sounding. The song is about a girl who does everything for the wrong reasons and comes up short on all aspects of her life. It is a symbol for people who pretend like everything is fine when sometimes things are far from it. It is a wake up call for people who will not be honest with themselves or with others leading themselves to a very dark place. Wake up people!! You only live once!

These guys had something different to say about our research into whether local bands support file sharing. So far, all but one band and now Sub Cam have agreed that file sharing is a great source for up and coming bands and that money should now be made through other means. Read beatlanta's blogs about file sharing and the future of free. Sub Cam didn't disagree that it was a good thing but added some pretty good points. Here is a little of what they said: ....it depends on the situation. Overall I think file sharing is a bad thing. I know people will always turn each other on to new music and I'm all for that. I do feel that if people want to see artist do more with there careers and give there fans more for there money they need to pay for there music...Sharing a single from an album to help promote the band in certain situations can be a great thing. If sharing a song for free essentially creates more exposure for a band than I say do it. There is a fine line though between gaining exposure and devaluing your music and career. I can agree somewhat. The line in my opinion is not so fine though. Here's why...if you give your album away for free then a lot more people are going to here it. And lets say a certain percentage of pe - BeAtlanta (www.beatlanta.com)

There are plenty of up and coming rock bands in Atlanta. Some people go out and support those bands because they’re very talented while others just support them because they’re a great group of guys and Sub Cam just happens to fit both those criteria.

A few weeks back I covered the Almost Kings show at Masquerade. One of the opening bands was called Suburban Camoflauge or Sub Cam for short. Before the show I was introduced to a few members of the band by TST friend and photographer, Susie Ceruto.

They came off very personable and very friendly, but I hadn’t met Jacob. Jacob Lehman is the front man for Sub Cam. I met him a short time later and he was just as friendly. It was quite a refreshing change to meet a band that didn’t suffer from “rockstar in my own head syndrome”, so at this point I was hoping that they’d be just as talented when they hit the stage and they were.

Jacob, although a little clean cut is a great front man. He’s charismatic, he knows how to connect to his audience and most importantly he can sing. He has good voice and great range and onstage clean cut Jacob is an entirely different beast.

But as you know, a singer is only as good as the other musicians in the band and Mike, Issac and Eric are equally as charismatic and equally as talented.

Recently I had a chance to talk to Jacob and ask him a few questions about how Sub Cam came to be, what inspires their music and their new album.

TST: How did you come up with the name Sub Cam?

Jacob: Sub Cam actually stands for Suburban Camoflauge (and that is how we spell it). We used to ride around and do some “extracurricular activities” before we rehearsed. Isaac’s father was a huge supporter and inspiration for the band, and he always told us to take the van if we were going to ride around because it was “suburban camouflage”. I guess we looked more like a soccer mom than young guys up to no good. So, to honor Doug and symbolize that things aren’t always what they seem, we decided to call ourselves Sub Cam.


TST: Who are your musical influences?

Jacob: We have a variety of influences mostly early nineties music from Alice in Chains, Tool, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Radiohead, Zeppelin, Hendrix, just to name a few.

TST: How did you guys meet?

Jacob: We all went to high school together and have been friends ever since.

TST: How long have you been playing together?

Jacob: We have been playing music for over 5 years, but Sub Cam really formed about 4 years ago. We have maintained the same line up ever since.

TST: Who’s the songwriter in the group?

Jacob: I have written all of the lyrics except for two songs, and half of the music in our repertoire. Mike writes most of the other music and Isaac has written a few.

TST: What would you say your songs are about?

Jacob: My songs are generally about life and past experiences. I use personal experiences to symbolize certain aspects of life. Some are about my family problems, some are about losing my mother, some are about past events, and some of the songs are just about little things that have pissed me off in life.

TST: How would you describe your sound for someone that hasn’t heard you yet?

Jacob: We are a dynamic blend of rock styles. We have very melodic vocals with lots of harmonies. We have both a heavy side and a soft side. Our music is filled with creative solos and hard hitting riffs. Live we’re a very energetic, in your face rock band. We go across a wide spectrum of influences and styles, but is a very cohesive sound.

TST: What would you say sets you apart from other young rock bands?

Jacob: What sets us apart from other bands is that we can cross a variety of lines and still pull it off. Over all I would say that our most distinguishable traits are our dynamics and songwriting. We are very adaptable to different situations and we will manage to win over the crowd in any situation. We also have the same line up that we started out with. At this point we just play extremely well together. We fit each other’s personal styles. We belong on a big stage in a big venue, but no matter where we are we will always put on 110% of our show. Sub Cam is a band of survivors and hard workers.

We all believe in what we are doing and actually enjoy every second of it. We have the ability to make negatives positive and create something out of nothing. We have always managed to pull through and continue to grow in the toughest situations.

TST: What’s next for Sub Cam?

Jacob: We are releasing our newest record “Invisible Lie”. We have a record release show on May 30th at the 8 Ball Room in Gwinnett and we will continue to tour throughout the southeast this summer. We are about to expand our marketing and promotions to push our newest work. We are going to continue doing what we have been and push beyond the southeast and join a tour with a national act once we find the right match for our new mus - The Silver Tongue Online

This past Saturday I went to the Masquerade to check out Almost Kings and others. Almost Kings performed last so we’ll get to them last.

The night started off with some rapper. I have no idea who he was and my sub conscience with the help of vodka and cranberry has blocked out most of his performance which turned out to be nothing more than a few songs about weed.

And after listening to the full set I came to the conclusion that he probably had a bet going with his friends to see who could say the words ‘bitch’ and ‘fuck’ the most in a 30 minute period. He clearly won.

Next was some band that I missed all together. Sorry guys, I heard you rocked. I will definitely try to catch you next time.

Next up was Kadense. I’d heard a lot of good things about the young alternative group from people within Atlanta’s small, but diverse music circle, so I was more than ready to be entertained. And I was entertained, sort of.


Overall Kadense is a good band with a good sound but the vocals were pitchy and the performance was all over the place. The songs they performed, although good were a tad ambitious. Don’t get me wrong, vocalist Jeremy Knight has a really good instrument, but sounded at times as if he was straining to hit the notes. He never did seem to find his comfort zone. My suggestion would be that he re-writes the songs in a key that’s more comfortable.

Screaming is at times annoying, especially when that’s all a band can muster up, but there is also an art to it and when done wrong it produces a dreadful sound. And I heard that sound emanating from Jeremy’s mouth a few times. I’ll go check them out again in the future and hopefully next performance will be better.

And then there was BOB. BOB is rock group out of Washington D.C and they were amazing. Tats, dreads, full of unbelievable energy and great vocals from Front man Matt Santoro made it hard for one to look away. They were honestly the first band that night that made me think that I didn’t waste my money to come and cover this show, and I got in FREE. If I had to compare them to anyone band out there, I would say they remind me of a young Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I will be tracking BOB down and getting more information about the band because they are definitely worth the listen for all of you music lovers out there yearning to hear something new.

Suburban Camoflauge or Sub Cam hit the stage after BOB. I had the opportunity to meet a few members of the band before the show and I liked them right off the bat. They were cool and down to earth. No douchy, diva, rock star attitudes to speak of, so of course I was hoping that they would do well so I wouldn’t have to roast their asses in this review.

Sub Cam got off to a slow start. Not to say it wasn’t good, but you’re talking to a girl that would prefer if every band started rocking right out the gate. But by time they got to the second song they were in full stride.

Jacob Lehman is a very impressive lead and surprised the hell out of me with his showmanship and strong vocals. Because if I’m being honest, when I saw him earlier I thought that he was rock star accountant, dressed in a pin stripe shirt and matching tie. It’s a look that worked for him, but it was so clean cut that I thought I was walking head first into another well dressed emo act, but I was wrong (It happens sometimes).

Jacob wasn’t the only surprise. The band as a whole did great job and every member of the band, Mike, Eric, and Issac all gave good energetic performances.

It’s also worth mentioning that the crowd loved them, they knew it and they played to it, especially the women. Yeah, they took off their shirts and when you’re hot, young rock band then stripping is never really a bad idea.

Overall it was a strong, solid performance. They’re a young band, full of potential and I would suggest that everyone check them out.

Last up, Almost Kings and Almost Kings is a fitting name for this group. I’m not into ‘rap rock’, but I was determined to keep an open mind and I’m happy I did. There was a full house ready to see them perform and I believe they were worth the money.

Almost Kings was in my opinion the most entertaining group of the night. They were full of energy from the first song to the last. They were full of originality, even when they performed a cover of Soulja Boy’s ‘Crank Dat’. The crowd loved it.

Before coming to the show I had my doubts if they would have the type of sound that could make them headliners, but these guys are definitely headliner material. They play to a new audience that’s emerging everywhere. The genre lines are slowly starting to disappear and new genres are being created every day and Almost Kings plays and appeals to that new audience of up and coming music lovers that love rap just a much as they love rock. The type of music doesn’t matter as much as the experience. The people that came out to see them wanted to have fun. Mission accomplished.

I’m not - The Silver Tongue Online

This past Saturday I went to the Sub Cam album release show in Duluth at the 8 Ball Room.

I had only seen them perform once, back in March at Masquerade when they opened for Almost Kings, but now I would have the chance to see if Sub Cam could actually headline a show.

The evening didn’t kick off until 9PM. The first band was Stand Alone. It was my first time seeing Stand Alone. They were scheduled to perform an acoustic set before Uncrowned went on.

Stand Alone takes the stage, they have their acoustic guitars, they’re all seated and for the next 40 minutes or so they put on a pretty good performance. Kenny (the vocalist) has a really good instrument and the songs were well written and well executed.

Some people have the impression that it’s easy to get on stage with your acoustic guitar and just sing and strum along as if you’re at Woodstock. But it’s not easy to put on a good acoustic show because everything is stripped down. The pretense, the screaming, the loud music used to cover up horrible vocals, all the bullshit that makes up a rock concert is gone.

If you’re going to perform acoustically then you have to be good, because if you’re not then the crowd will be able to tell straight away. Stand Alone pulled off a really good acoustic performance and now I’m ready to see them rock.

Next up was Uncrowned, but don’t expect this review to be very long because at this point I was still walking back and forth.

I’ve heard tons about Uncrowned, especially over the last week or so since they made their announcement about signing with Bieler Bros. Records. Up until Saturday I honestly never bothered to ‘really’ listen to their music. But now I was going to finally find out if all the hype is deserved or if they just have a good street team.

As it stands Uncrowned is a good rock band. They used the words ‘fuck’ and ‘muthafuckers’ a 1000 times but other than that I really have no complaints.

Lead Vocalist, Stephen Bazzell has a good voice, good range. He’s also very energetic. He interacted with the crowd well. Apparently, from what I was able to make out over all the screaming, they performed songs from first album, of which I’ve never heard. So I can’t say whether or not the performance vocals matches up to what came out the studio, but I can say Uncrowned is one of the better rock bands I’ve heard so far out of Atlanta.

It’s apparent that they do actually care about how they sound and not just about how loud they are. And that point is made crystal clear when you listen to Lead Guitarist/Vocalist Jack Andrad. He has a good voice and managed to follow along with Bazzell pretty well considering that there were a lot of intricate riffs, twist and turns in a few of the songs.

After finally seeing them perform I think that this record deal came at a good time because as a band they are ready to move on from the local scene to bigger stages.

At any rate Congrats on your record deal…moving on.

It was around 11:00PM when Sub Cam comes on and it’s a groupiepalooza. It’s clear that the fans are excited about the show and the release of their new album, ‘Invisible Lie’. Over the next hour the guys put on a awesome show. Jacob, as I said before is a great frontman and showman. He can sing, he’s entertaining and you always get the sense that he loves what he’s doing. But you get that vibe from all of the guys. Jacob couldn’t have better bandmates than Mike, Eric and Issac.

The guys performed songs from their old album and new album and even pulled off a kick ass cover of Marilyn Manson’s ‘Beautiful People’.

Sub Cam is a band with layers. When you watch them perform you don’t feel like you’re listening to one long never ending song. They have a variety of music. They know when to tone it down with songs like ’Patience’ and ‘Nothing’ and then they’re full throttle again. And that will always make for an interesting performance.

But what I personally love the most about Sub Cam is that they’re young, driven and ambitious. They have a goal in mind. And that ambition and drive is front and center in every performance, in every song.

They’re not a bunch of MySpace rockstars. They’re a band that’s willing to work hard at it and work for it. And when you’re watching them onstage you get the sense that you’re watching a local band that’s going to make it big.

So whoever won that Sub Cam autographed guitar should hold on to it. It’s going to be worth a lot soon.

SiN, Senior Contributor

Awesome photos courtesy of Susie Ceruto of Shock & Awe Productions. Look for more photos from the show in the Photo Gallery.

- The Silver Tongue Online

SUB CAM
Sub Cam, or Sub Camoflauge have released their new record available on Itunes, Amazon, E Music, Rhapsody, Lala, and several other online distributors. You can also purchase a hard copy of the new album at www.SUBCAM.ORG. With a record release on May 30 in Atlanta Ga, the band has been working on the new album for over a year while on the road. They are confident that this is the best album to date and worked with Ledge 7 on the project. "It was an experience none of us will ever forget." says Sub Cam. This 11 song album is called 'Invisible Lie' and there are also new live dates this month and for the remainder of the year. - Music Underground Entertainment News (MUEN mag)