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By Penelope Biver
t It ' s been 20 years since Lucky Boys Confusion first got together in a basement to write songs, playing their first party in the suburbs where they grew up. What happened between then and now is a story about triumph and tragedy, the roads between paved with the love of each other and the love of music.
It ' s debatable whether these boys are indeed " lucky," or whether it ' s always been their dedication to writing great songs and having so much fun playing them that has brought this band back together after a 10- year hiatus. It could also be up for debate whether they ever disbanded – literally, yes, figuratively, probably not. But in order to understand the impetus and passion behind the release of their new LP Stormchasers and decision to play a 20th Anniversary show in the next few weeks, we have to look back at those roads they took to get here.
Those of you who are old enough will likely remember hearing " Dumb Pop Song " from their first 19-song LP Growing Out of It in regular rotation on Q101 back in 1998- ' 99. It had a very cheeky catchy chorus, " I ' m gonna steal your girlfriend, I ' m gonna steal your girlfriend." That airplay helped them grow their fan base beyond the suburbs, and soon they were headlining House of Blues and Metro. By 2000 they were signed to Elektra Records, and their debut Throwing the Game was released in May 2001. From that LP the song " Fred Astaire " caught a wave of radio momentum. The LP Commitment followed in 2003, with the single " Hey Driver " seemingly driving the record to success. The production of a video as well as features in movies such as Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Without a Paddle, and New York Minute and the video game MVP Baseball 2004 also
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FORGING AHEAD
helped. But it was while promoting of Commitment( touring, radio, publicity, etc.) that a couple of twists of fate changed the trajectory for LBC, for better or worse. " The LBC story is we ' re the ' almost ' band," frontman Stubhy Pandav concludes. " What happened was, [ the label ] sent " Hey Driver " to a test market for radio and said if this comes in at Top 10 in this station in Denver, they were going to add it to 38 more stations. Well, the song went to # 1. But four days later three billionaires bought out Warner Music Group and any band that was at the bottom, who hadn ' t recouped [ profits ], were dropped, including Third Eye Blind and a bunch of other bands. If that hadn ' t have happened, life would be very different right now. When they dropped us I was like ' fine, you dropped the ball.' It was good riddance. We were moving forward anyway."
And move forward they did. They continued to tour the country for the next few years – recorded and released the EP How to Get Out Alive in 2006( on their original imprint Townstyle but with the help of another indie label Reincarnate, which was distributed through Sony / BMG) and then Closing Arguments, an LP of B-sides and demos along with one new song. But the road got the best of them.
" We were in Phoenix on our way to a show in San Diego," Pandav recalls, " and we were just drained. We were drained, making no money, in a van. It had been a three-month tour, and we just stayed out a little bit longer than we needed to."
When the band got home it was August and they decided to take a break. " We barely talked to each other," said Pandav. " We decided to meet back up in October. At that meeting I said, ' I don ' t think that any song I write under the name LBC is gonna get a fair shot anymore,' and Adam agreed. We just decided we weren ' t going to write together anymore." Adam went off and started AM Taxi with Jason, and I started one of my many projects I ' ve been in since then, and I believe Ryan had a baby on the way."
Since 2006, all the band members went on to various other projects. In the summer of 2010, Pandav formed The Super Happy Fun Club, and their first EP Go Fun Yourself was released. Adam ' s next band, AM Taxi, was signed to Virgin Records in April 2009 for which they put out one LP We Don ' t Stand A Chance. The album was released in June 2010, but by 2011 AM Taxi parted ways with the label.
On May 15, 2012, the band received the shocking and devastating news that LBC guitarist Joe Sell was found dead on the near west side of Chicago. He was 33. The cause of death was believed to be a drug overdose. The band remembers him fondly a decade later. " Joe was hilarious," Pandav recalled. " He was the most unorganized human being but so brilliant- as a lot of brilliant people are. One time we picked him up for a four to six-week tour; he was the last one picked up. He hops into the van with nothing but a backpack. And we were like, ' Is that all you ' re bringing for a six-week tour?' And he was like, ' Oh!' So he runs back in the house, grabs this ugly suitcase, chucks it in the back of the trailer and we were like, ' Oh good. We figured you should bring something more.' He was like, ' I got some socks in my backpack.' So we asked, ' What ' s in the suitcase?' And he says, ' Oh, that ' s all books!' So for the whole tour he brought socks and books. He ended up going to thrift stores and buying clothes for the tour. He didn ' t care how he looked."
Right before Sell ' s passing, Pandav and Krier had been texting each other about getting together to write again. " Then Joe passed away, and I felt like it would have been in poor taste, Pandav admitted. " Then some more time passed and the texts started again, and we were like, ' Why don ' t we just get together?' So I drove out to where Adam lives, showed him about 30 ideas I had, we worked on two of them, and within two hours we had two songs. And I ' m not talking about just ideas; we had it structured out. On my way home, I got a text from Adam with the lyrics to the second verse of " Stormchaser." So, I could just tell he was really excited and I was really excited.
The next step was to share what they ' d accomplished with the other two remaining LBC band members. " I said to Adam, ' Why don ' t we just show this to the other guys and see what they think?' And I was really nervous,!" he recalled, because Ryan had children now, Jason had other things going on in his life. And making a record takes time, and a lot of effort, and a lot of sacrifice, and when you have a family you have to explain to them why you want to do this, So I was like, ' The songs are pretty good though '. The other two were equally excited about what Pandav and Krier had come up with. " Jason was already noodling on his bass, and Ryan was kind of like playing around, and we were like, ' Do you guys want to do this?' We decided to work on those two songs and see what happens. Then it got more and more exciting as more and more songs came to be."
The band members agree as well as their fans: Stormchasers is LBC ' s best record yet. Even if it did take almost 10 years apart, losing a man, playing with others,
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