Music
Press
". . . local outfit the Young Sportsmen are gonna be a highlight in Seattle's music scene....mark my words. The quartet's keen power pop summons the spirit of classics acts like Cheap Trick and Elvis Costello, but their modern attitude and harmonies also recall more current artists like Ted Leo and the Pharmacists." - Megan Seling
". . . local outfit the Young Sportsmen are gonna be a highlight in Seattle's music scene....mark my words. The quartet's keen power pop summons the spirit of classics acts like Cheap Trick and Elvis Costello, but their modern attitude and harmonies also recall more current artists like Ted Leo and the Pharmacists." - Megan Seling
" . . . bringing to mind the very best of The Figgs at their poppiest perfection, Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Brendan Benson and Sloan. All five songs are excellent, not even close to delivering a duff one!" - www.notlame.com
" . . . bringing to mind the very best of The Figgs at their poppiest perfection, Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Brendan Benson and Sloan. All five songs are excellent, not even close to delivering a duff one!" - www.notlame.com
"Familiar Glow is a rollicking, energetic pop-rock fiesta rife with bouncy rhythms, tight harmonies and singalong choruses. I'd mention a standout track if that were possible. Each of the five tunes are separate but equal parts of a whole that does itself an injustice when listened to individually. But that's always been the case with these guys. They don't just write great songs, they write great records." - www.randomville.com
"Familiar Glow is a rollicking, energetic pop-rock fiesta rife with bouncy rhythms, tight harmonies and singalong choruses. I'd mention a standout track if that were possible. Each of the five tunes are separate but equal parts of a whole that does itself an injustice when listened to individually. But that's always been the case with these guys. They don't just write great songs, they write great records." - www.randomville.com
"Young Sportsmen have released five shattering, pumping, bass-run, drum-pounding, air-guitar shredding power-post-punk-pop songs.....There's something truly exceptional about the energy on this mini-album, in line with earlier work of Ted Leo or the Futureheads. We can expect Young Sportsmen's first full-length to be a solid sequence of appealing gems. Can't wait to hear it happen." - www.threeimaginarygirls.com
"Young Sportsmen have released five shattering, pumping, bass-run, drum-pounding, air-guitar shredding power-post-punk-pop songs.....There's something truly exceptional about the energy on this mini-album, in line with earlier work of Ted Leo or the Futureheads. We can expect Young Sportsmen's first full-length to be a solid sequence of appealing gems. Can't wait to hear it happen." - www.threeimaginarygirls.com
"An excellent Debut. Not a bad song on here. Five songs in all, and I imagine if there were 10, there'd be 10 good songs." - KEXP DJ and Associate Program Director
"An excellent Debut. Not a bad song on here. Five songs in all, and I imagine if there were 10, there'd be 10 good songs." - KEXP DJ and Associate Program Director
Discography
EP - "The Familiar Glow of Colliding Particles" (2006)
LP- Death to Palaces (2007)
Lp- If You Want It (May 2008)
Photos
Bio
Young Sportsmen are a mod-infected rock band delivering catchy power pop gems in the spirit of classic acts like the Kinks, the Who, and the Jam, while also summoning the modern pop sensibilities of bands like the New Pornographers and Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. Playing around town regularly since September 2005, Young Sportsmen are amassing a strong, dedicated fan-base, getting consistent rotation on KEXP and The End, and are enjoying strong sales of their debut EP, "The Familiar Glow of Colliding Particles."
The band started when a collection of songs written and recorded by Maxwell and Nelson, as well as several tunes Maxwell penned for the Fongs, made its way to Burke Thomas, former Muzzle drummer and all-around solid human. In between his commitment to both Pris and Vendetta Red, Thomas graciously offered his services on the throne, and a band was formed under the name Dirty Bomb. On a small West Coast tour in early 2004, drummer Jeff Roeser (6 Minute Mile, Pris) flew down to Oakland to sit in with the band for an all-ages show, as Thomas had pressing obligations with Vendetta Red. Roeser had never played with the band before. The show was an absolute blast. It was quite clear that Roeser was the guy, a heavy hitter with taste and style. Dirty Bomb, with old friend Jason Lackie on bass, now had a lineup that was permanent. The weather was changing. Flash forward through a slew of exceptional shows and one final name change, and you find yourself in April of 2005, at the home of Andy Smith (Crown Aruba), where the band would lay down five songs that would become their first EP, the Familiar Glow of Colliding Particles. Lackie, ever generous, mixed the EP with the band, but ultimately had to leave the band when the project was completed. Lackie was sorely missed, but Young Sportsmen had a job to do. Maxwell took a chance and contacted bassist Richard Davidson, whose exceptional band, Radio Nationals, had recently decided to call it quits. Davidson had also been a member of Dear John Letters, a pure pop band of true quality. His pedigree far surpassed the expectations of the Sportsmen, who feared a long search in a city suffering from a dearth of available bassists. When he agreed to join the Sportsmen in August, 2005, everything simply clicked, and the band has been looking ahead ever since. They are lovers of real music-the Kinks, the Who, New Pornographers, the Jam, the Futureheads, XTC-whose hearts are full of pop and volume. Their shows will remind you that you walked through a rainy city at night for a reason, that it's ok to enjoy yourself in public, to shake your ass a bit, to get drunk and hum. Young Sportsmen want it to stick, and will continue to throw it a little harder until it does.
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