The Attachments

Woman sure know how to break, create, and occupy the minds of young men everywhere. The four members of The Attachments have all been through their share of messy relationships, but fortunately, all four are obsessed musicians. Those who wrap themselves in any form of art often use it as a way to cope and express inner feelings, whether it’s humorously, emotionally, or satirically. The Attachments use a bit of each in their self-titled debut EP, which consists of six songs with lyrical content focused on six different girls, all of which at least one of the members have dated or had an infatuation with. The beginnings of the band started to form in 2005 when chief songwriter Ben Urwand met Michael Coleman on the campus in Berkeley, California. Upon learning that Urwand was a songwriter who spent an average eight hours a day writing songs and Coleman was a highly touted keyboardist, the decision to form The Attachments came shortly after. In January 2006, their plans finally took began to take form when Urwand recruited bassist Mark Allen-Piccolo and Michael brought in drummer Rob Schwartz. Aside from their shared interests in music, they all each learned of their own problems with women. This included Ben Urwand (blue shirt) once being in love with Mark Allen-Piccolo’s (red shirt) girlfriend, a tall brunette named Karla. That was actually how they both met, as Urwand gave up on Karla after meeting Allen-Piccolo and learning of their relationship, though the fact that he found him to be a great guy made Urwand feel a bit better. Urwand then started dating Jessica to ease his pain, a girl who apparently “got around”. Jessica was also dating Michael Coleman (green shirt) at the time, eventually leading to the two meeting. Coleman also had his share of previous girl trouble, earlier moving from New York after getting slapped by a girl he had been “stalking” on the F-train. Last but not least, Rob Schwartz’s (yellow shirt) ex-girlfriend once ridiculed him in publc about his beloved yellow sheets, which was an indication to Schwartz that this one was certainly not a keeper. Man, it all sounds like some indie sitcom, doesn’t it? Either way, it gave the band plenty of material to write about on their debut EP. The Attachments are quite a collective band, with each member contributing vitally. During the usual live show, each member sings as each one to express the group’s versatility and passion. When labels started to take notice of the band’s catchy pop sound, The Attachments received several offers but turned them all down because Allen-Piccolo assured the members he had the chops to record them on their own. As the son of a sound engineer, he had always wanted to experience what his father had in recording music. What better place to start than by recording his own band?



With the soap opera above described in detail, the EP’s lyrical content should certainly be clearer to those listening. “Jessica” is about the girl who loved to get busy with many (including Urwand and Coleman), “F-Train Girl” describes the feelings of Coleman when thinking about the girl who apparently stalked in New York, “Ha Ha Ha” mocks Schwartz’s insensitive ex-girlfriend, and the closer “Karla-la” is about the infamous brunette, Karla, who was at one point loved by Allen-Piccolo and Urwand. “Jenny” appears to be about an unfortunate homely girl who wanted to be more than friends with one of the four and “Come To My Home Town” appears to be too vague to interpret. Urwand wrote all six songs, with Coleman contributing naturally to “F-Train Girl”. As far as the four-piece’s musical style goes, it is in a similar mold to that of artists in their local Bay Area scene, being acts such as The Morning Benders, The Makes Nice, and Push To Talk. Like their local contemporaries, it is not uncharacteristic to call on influences of the 60s with a keen focus on simplistically catchy guitar riffs, essential organs, and a balanced rhythm section. The vocals of Ben Urwand may appear to sound shaky at some points during “Karla-la” and the key-led “Jenny” but they are generally satisfiable at the conclusion of each song. They consider “Karla-la” to be one of their best songs and it’s easy to see why. Their lyrics of desperate romanticism is both expected and diverting. “Every single guy is trying hard to have a talk with her,” Urwand strains out, “but only one could love her and he can’t get in a word”. How delightfully tragic. Like the rest of you, I know exactly how Mr. Urwand feels. Well, to a certain extent. The chorus is lifted by a pair of backing vocals in falsetto, with all instrumental accompaniments being backed by the strongly diversifying organs of Michael Coleman. “Jessica” shows us more of those alluring keys, which hand-in-hand with Urwand’s extremely capable melodies create something generally agreeable to listen to. “F-Train Girl” is the most emotionally intensive on the album, beginning with a set of keys eventually picked up by all four members lending their appropriate instruments and vocals. The lyrical content reminds me of The Divine Comedy’s “Commuter Love”, telling the story of a man in love with a girl on the train who would never give him a second glance. “I saw you just the other night on the train,” the song begins, “You didn’t see me, read your magazine, it didn’t matter much it seemed”. The song ends with a play on Coleman’s “stalking” expenditure, remarking solemnly, “And I said I knew you from the train, but you didn’t know me, said to let you be… oh my baby, we will see”. Oh well, as Morrissey once said, “Rejection is one thing, but rejection from a fool is cruel”. You’ve likely heard numerous bands like The Attachments before but the California foursome’s debut is more consistent than most, producing six songs that are memorable, genuine, and substantial. As selfish as it may sound, if flawed relationships cause The Attachments to write songs as enjoyable as these, I hope they find the most superficially ignorant girls on the planet.
- The Attachments and their Bizarre Love Triangles!

You know "The Snob's" posts are too the point, and usually short... I received this in the mail not too long ago, and tossed it in for a listen...and weeez like what we heard! The Attachments are 4 Nor-Cal lads based in Berkley. They make catchy music that sounds imported from the 60's British Invasion. The Zombies meet Herman's Hermits. We love simple rock n' roll that isn't awash in "Mutt Lange-Def Leppard-Thousand Backup Voice" production. This is the way it's supposed to be...4 dudes playing their instruments and having fun. I raise a bottle to you! - Retro Music Snob

Don't know what it is about March, but I keep finding out about excellent local bands. Here we have The Attachments out of Berkeley and their unique brand indie pop. Sounds like Weezer had a love child on the beach with one of The Beatles. Here's a song off their latest release.
- Macktronic

When it comes to attachments, most folks want to open them only if they come from people they can trust. Fortunately, this Berkeley indie-pop rock band has proved that its songs should be opened and downloaded immediately. The group's story began when Ben Urwand, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, posted an ad in Craigslist's "strictly platonic" category. "Sensitive twenty-something (pretty sure he's straight) seeks male companions to discuss relationship problems." His in-box was soon swamped with e-mails from girls pretending to be guys. Michael Coleman was the only male to reply. After their first meeting, the two realized that they preferred talking about their favorite rock bands. For the follow-up meeting, Coleman brought two recently heartbroken friends, Rob Schwartz and Mark Allen-Piccolo. Before they knew it, their men's support group had become a rock 'n' roll band. After several "meetings," Coleman found a girlfriend, who pointed out to Urwand that all of his songs were about attachments to girls.

Lineup: Ben Urwand, vocals and guitar; Michael Coleman, keys and vocals; Mark Allen-Piccolo, bass and vocals; Rob Schwartz, drums and vocals.

1. The Attachments' music should be filed between:

The Velvet Underground and Weezer -- or the Kinks and Randy Newman.

2. The soundtrack to what movie would your music best match?

Our negotiations with Woody Allen's lawyers have recently come to a standstill. Woody loved our neurotic relationship songs and felt they would be perfect for his upcoming rerelease of "Annie Hall." The money was good but we felt his film violated our artistic integrity.

3. If you could collaborate on a song with any person, living or dead, who would that be?

We would want one of the geniuses of pop -- Brian Eno, Quincy Jones, John Cale -- to produce one of our songs.

4. If a junior high school asked you to play a cover song at the next talent show, what song and school would you choose?

Ben went to Sydney Grammar School -- a private, all-boys school in Australia. He always wanted to play at one of their "dingledongers" (Australian word for talent show). Being sensitive to the needs of his audience, he would probably choose "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," by Cyndi Lauper.

5. What is the meaning of life?

Knitting, crossword puzzles, Civil War re-enactments, Sunday drives.

Check them out: www.theattachments.com;myspace.com/attachments

Next gig: 9:30 p.m. Friday. With Poor Bailey, Push to Talk, the Makes Nice. $7. 21+. The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/19/NSGFIR2LBT1.DTL#ixzz0W3GFqASM
- San Francisco Chronicle

Ben Urwand, Michael Coleman, Rob Schwartz and Mark Allen-Piccolo.

Remembers those names.
And rememeber the name of their band "The Attachments."

And for the love of God stop listening to music because of their damn label!
Because in this case, Mark, their bassist, recorded the EP and I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up making his own label. Yes, that's right, fifteen years from now your kids are going to become music snobs and they're going to tell you they will only listen to music that comes from The Attachments label. ;o)

The music.

These guys have SIX senses, their superhero sixth sense is a keen sense of melody. When you listen, you will hear the excellent vocal blend and it all melts together with perfectly placed Indie Pop ambience when you mix in the guitars, keys and drums.

I asked a few questions to better understand The Attachments and well...because I'm a curious gal. The guys were more than happy to give me some answers.

1. Indie/Pop/Rock is the genre you place your band under...when I
think Pop, I think Justin Timberlake, do you think Indie music has its
own "pop" realm?

"well, obviously we have absolutely no connection to current pop music
(none of us listen to that stuff). at the same time, our music is
ridiculously poppy, but it's more in the sense that the beatles were
poppy. unlike most indie bands, we place our biggest emphasis on
writing catchy tunes. but we still feel we're an indie band, so "indie
pop" seems just about right."

2. When I listen to the tracks on your MySpace page I immediatelythink
bowl haircuts and finger snapping, do you think you have a 60s or 70s
rock sound? Is that what you're going for?

"we're not really "going for" that kind of sound, but it's kind of
inevitable that we'll sound like that because of our musical
influences. i for one grew up on 60s music -- i could sing beatles
songs before i knew how to speak -- so i can't really help writing
that kind of music."

3. Women. I am one, and I don't even understand myself half the time,
can we thank the female ghosts of your past for being an inspiration
for the feeling in your songs?

"some of the girls in my songs are real, some are constructed, but even
the made-up ones are based on some kind of experience i've had in the
past (or, more likely, some kind of experience i wish i'd had). it's
true that most of my songs are about girls, but is there anything else
worth writing songs about? and in any case, if you want people to come
to your shows you have to write about girls. guys will only come to
shows if their girlfriends bring them. and girls will only come if
you're singing about girls."


Now you know them. You know some of what they are all about.
So take a listen, get attached and buy their self-titled EP. You will LOVE it!
- Bring Me Up

F Train Girl
The Attachments
We'll start things off today with an unassuming sonnet to a girl on a train (ah, the elusive ones are the best kinds) that sounds like something that could take me along the tracks, looking out the window at the passing countryside. The Attachments are four young guys from Berkeley (CA) who really just want to pay a bit of homage to the Beach Boys, spoon in bed, and write you haikus (see their MySpace). What could be wrong with that?
- I am Fuel, You Are Friends

The Attachments
The Attachments

Rating:
We think it's good

Genre: Indie Rock, Rock/Pop

buy it >>



The Attachments put the "fun" in dysfunctional relationships. Their self-titled EP is an ode to broken hearts and unhealthy romantic delusions, all set to bouncy pop rock. If you're looking for something catchy and casual, you've found the right band. The Attachments will make the perfect counter to your post-break-up, Joy Division binge. But if you crave something with a little more substance, something more than "fun," you'd better keep looking. The Attachments don't seem to pledge any allegiance to tension or profundity.

Of course, nobody ever said that pop rock had to be deep. And The Attachments do a great job at making lemonade with life's lemons (that take the shape of women). The lyrics are cheeky and clever, sung in a cracking tenor, with some nice hooks and not too much groveling - a sort of Weezer-Lite. They've got their instrumental clout too: for a little EP, there’s a range of musical styles. "Jenny" is built on gospel chords, "Come to My Hometown" works a pensive jazz organ, "Ha Ha Ha" goes country, and doo-wop harmony abounds throughout. Also, there's the impressive fact that the EP was recorded and produced by the band’s own bassist. Now that's profound.
- The Owl Mag

As you’re all totally aware, MySpace Trawl is our weekly feature where we lift the lid on some of the music that sadly goes unnoticed by the majority of people.

Many of the bands we've previously looked at aren’t at it just to kill some time. In fact, many of the artists out there would probably love more exposure, but sadly the music industry won’t give it to them. So here’s where we come in to help. We try and select as many different-sounding artists as we can to show that there’s more than crappy old bubblegum pop and nu-rave music available to you. With our recent exploration in to the world experimental electronics, we decided to look at something that nearly everyone is familiar with. Indie. Now please don’t despair if you're sick of wankers in porkpie hats pretending they're Oasis, because we’ve found a band that we think are doing something different in the indie scene. Give a nice warm welcome to The Attachments.



Believe it or not, the UK doesn't hold the patent on indie music. Shocking isn’t it! We were quite surprised too when we checked out The Attachments' MySpace profile and discovered that they hailed from America. Unless we’re being horribly stereotypical – which we probably are – it was pretty much an assumption that Americans were brought up on a diet of country, rap, R&B and metal. This isn’t a lot to us. Feel free to abuse us if indeed that is incorrect. Though we do like to believe that we’re right.

While a few top UK indie acts have broken through like Radiohead, Oasis and Coldplay, a lot of indie we have over here like Babyshambles and Dirty Pretty Things have failed to make even the slightest of dents. So if Americans won’t accept our – admittedly shoddy – exports, what must their own stuff be like? With the country being slightly bigger then the UK, hecklerspray had the daunting task of sifting through the cack and finding someone we liked. But then we found a band that hail from a place typically more associated with movies than indie music – The Attachments from Berkeley, California.

The tracks that have been placed on The Attachments' MySpace make up half of their self-titled debut EP release. Three tracks showcasing that this band doesn’t stick to the same safe music pattern. Yes, they could do the same thing over and over – and still have folks eating out of their hands – but it’s good to hear a band experimenting with different styles. First track Karla-La begins with a no-nonsense drum roll and plunges straight into the main body of the song. With no horrible chanting that a lot of bands decide to shove in a song under the naive impression that they’ll be given the headline slot of a festival so that 40,000 drunks can sing it back at them (hello Kaiser Chiefs) it is a welcome relief that The Attachments don’t need to do this. With its simple but effective guitar work underneath keyboard that will spread like a disease and lock into your head, it’s a great little tune that, when you hum it on the bus, everyone around you will ask who it's by. Good songs make our heads nod and this song achieves this.

Second song F Train Girl has a lot more emphasis on the key work this time. Again, that's a positive in our book as sometimes when a band emerges with four members, you have to ask yourself what exactly what each person contributes to the overall sound. Songs like this that can isolate one particular instrument and showcase an individual's skills give an overall impression that this band is talented and haven’t just got a mate involved to hammer a few keys.

Citing various inspirations – including once-covered Trawl band, Grandaddy – we believe a few of The Attachments' influences have definitely rubbed off in this track, particularly The Kinks and the deeply missed Elliot Smith. With a gentle keyboard to start off with, the song builds and builds to add more beautiful layers underneath wispy sounding vocals. The lyrics in this particular song seem quite personal and it would fit particularly well in any film or TV scene when heartache is in the air. We also admire the band's sense of humour – one of their biographies is written in four haikus, and those that know hecklerspray knows hecklerspray loves haikus.

As we mentioned, the tracks on The Attachments' MySpace page make up half of their EP. Costing $7, it isn’t going to burn a hole in your finances. For anyone in the UK tempted to buy a copy, we urge you to do so. Because it is flipping brilliant, plus it will only cost you about £3.59 due to the brilliant exchange rate. Then there's the added benefit of free shipping, meaning you’ll be getting six tracks for less then what iTunes would sell it to you for.

So is the land of hope and glory starting to push through more indie sounds? If there as good as The Attachments, we certainly hope so.

Read more:

The Attachments MySpace page
- Hecklerspray