Truly Sunday

The Band: Aaron Bond and Sean Moats, both 23, Tre' Funk, 24, and Ben Neider, 25, control the strings of Truly Sunday, a Tampa Bay "indie-punk-rock" band. And don't mislabel them as just a punk band (they don't like that). The band started in 2002 playing covers for fun then realized it needed a lead singer and brought on Bond. Name roots: "I wish we had a cool story, but we don't," says Funk. "We couldn't find any other bands with the word Truly in it, and Sunday just came naturally. It could have been named Truly Nolan."Similar to: Truly Sunday’s music often falls in the indie-rock label – If they were on MTV every other second, other bands would say “We sound like Truly Sunday”. If you must, think Yellowcard, Blink 182, and Dashboard Confessional mixed into one band.New disc out: Released in February, The View from Here was recorded over 15 months because the band says it was picky in the selection of its 12 tracks. The album has a definite flow to it and something for everyone -- from rock, punk, pop and screamo to techno. Pick it up at Hot Topic anywhere in Florida or on line at CDBaby.com/Trulysunday.Day jobs: Bond and Funk both work at a merchant service company. Neider says he buys and sells "people, places and things" and Moats is a drum teacher and plays percussion professionally. Moats brags he has played with Aretha Franklin and Frank Sinatra -- Jr! Also, ask him about some crazy stories involving Michael Bolton and Clay Aiken.Influences: Funk and Neider listened to a lot of cheese metal as teenagers. Bond is into older punk -- Lagwagon, NOFX and the Vandals. Moats is into movies. At the end of one song he plays the riff melody from the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the piano.Upcoming dates: Tampa SpringFest at the Masquerade April 2, and the Pier Fest in St. Petersburg on April 30. Then they go on tour.Downloads: Go to www.Trulysunday.com to sample their mix.- Matt Nelson nelson@tampabay.com - Tampa Tribune

Truly Sunday
3-Song Demo

Emorific new Pinellas four-piece Truly Sunday has been making some serious noise amidst the local scene's new generation over the past several months, and this brief introduction shows why. Melodic and catchy but still quite muscular, these tunes mine post hardcore's mix of hook and introspection without resorting to journal-entry whining or histrionic pop-screamo catharsis. They've got great taste in influences, too; the specter of energetic, more-rock-than- emo Orlando act My Hotel Year looms large throughout. On the nit-picky side, the production could've used some work -- the guitar tones are muddy and awash in midrange, detracting a bit from the total impact. But the songs are fairly strong, the melodies are there, and Truly Sunday manages to avoid that post-core virus that makes so many bands sound exactly like 10 more well-known bands jamming together in one room. This one's solid and effective, if not overwhelmingly daring. (www.trulysunday.com) 3½
- Weekley Planet