Julie et Cetera
Out of the tradition that began with Rites of Spring, and has continued on through Sunny Day Real Estate and Braid, Sharks and Minnows plays passionate, driving rock. However, the band's varying influences meld together to produce a sound that deserves more than the "emocore" tag that's placed upon its predecessors. The band's sound owes just as much to the pop/punk Replacements / Husker Du tradition. Sharks and Minnows has its beginning in early 1999 when Christopher Simony and Chad Splangler, one-time high school classmates and long-time bandmates, recruiting Daniel Heisel, another former classmate in a punk band, to join their band. The band immediately hit upon the right formula, and the band committed several songs to tape at Red Lab in Atlanta. The best material of the session found its way onto the EP, Julie et Cetera, which is now available.
Sharks and Minnows' first live show, interestingly enough, was at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, on a bill that included Biz Markie! More recently, the band has played on bills that have included the Dismemberment Plan, the Alkaline Trio, the Pinehurst Kids, Songs:Ohia, Star Ghost Dog, Diffuser, and Phaser.
The Cost of Living
Now approach the completion of its fifth year as a band, noise pop purveyors Sharks and Minnows has seen its sound described at various times as power pop, indie rock, punk/pop, emo, or chamber pop. The "recommended if you like" comparisons have run the gamut of Husker Du, Replacements, Sugar, Jawbreaker, Sunny Day Real Estate, Dismemberment Plan, and Wilco. While trying to fit the band's sound into a strict adjective pigeonhole has proven difficult, what's clear is that the band's songwriting is in a constant state of evolution. Sharks and Minnows has its beginning in Atlanta in early 1999 when Christopher Simony and Chad Spangler, one-time high school classmates and long-time bandmates, recruited Daniel Heisel, another former classmate then toiling in a local punk band, to join their band. The band performed as a trio until 2003, when Christopher's brother Devin was added to the mix to flesh out the band's live sound, a task necessitated by the band's expanded sound on record.
Long known as a band that writes great songs, Sharks and Minnows now can be considered a band that makes great records. With a pair of Two Sheds releases (the 2000 EP Julie et Cetera and the 2001 full-length Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board) under its belt, the band bunkered down at Skylab Sound in Athens, Georgia in early 2003 with engineer Eric Friar to begin the process of recording its next record. Long known as a prolific writing band, the band had a backlog cache of approximately 40 songs to work with when it began recording! The band's goal was clear - take as much time as necessary to make a great sounding record. To that end, the band made great use of acoustic guitars, keyboards, drum machines, and anything else laying around that would beef up the arrangements of the band's solid batch of songs.
The band briefly toyed with the idea of a double album, but quickly decided against such pretension. Instead, the band culled 16 songs from the session for inclusion on The Cost of Living. The chosen tracks represented a natural progression from the indie pop stylings of Light as a Feather, while saving enough material for its next record.
With The Cost of Living, Sharks and Minnows has further shed itself of the limitations inherent in its punk/emocore roots as it progresses more and more into more orchestrated areas of pop.
Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board
In a day and age where bands are trying to stretch the limits of their craft, often at the expense of the song itself, it is refreshing to find a band for whom the description "indie rock band" is all that's needed. Sharks and Minnows is one such band, combining the feral guitars of the Replacements and Husker Du, the passion and angst of Rites of Spring and Sunny Day Real Estate, and the punk/pop songcrafting of Jawbreaker and Superchunk. Sharks and Minnows has its beginning in Atlanta in early 1999 when Christopher Simony and Chad Spangler, one-time high school classmates and long-time bandmates, recruited Daniel Heisel, another former classmate then toiling in a local punk band, to join their band. The band immediately hit upon the right formula, honed its first batch of songs onstage, and subsequently released the EP Julie et Cetera in 2000.
The band returned to the Red Laboratory Studios in Atlanta earlier this year to finish off Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, its first full-length release. Most of the songs will be immediately recognizable to fans of the band, as they have been part of the band's live set for the better part of a year now. The uninitiated, though, will be treated to a record in which the song was treated as the number one priority.
Live, Sharks and Minnows crank out the setlist in rapid-fire succession. Drawing from a repertoire much deeper than their catalog of releases (just wait 'til the next record!), the band has become an opening favorite of touring bands. Recently, the band has played on bills that have included the Dismemberment Plan, the Alkaline Trio, the Pinehurst Kids, Songs:Ohia, the Rosenbergs, Elizabeth Elmore, Rainer Maria, Mock Orange, Hey Mercedes, New End Original and the Rock-A-Teens.
