The Backroom proves there's an art to pop songs
The first song on The Backroom's first full-length album is so clean and unabashedly catchy that I'm not ashamed to say I woke up this morning with the tune in my head. It's a simple, pop-driven song that negotiates Ben Fold's heartbreaking story lines with Semisonic's ("Closing Time," 1998) sad guitar twists and supports pretty traditional, but still affective, love-longing lyrics ("I just want to see you again/I tell all of my friends to go home/So we can be alone"). A song like this proves there's an art to writing "easy" pop songs -- an art that follows such a fine line that one foul "ooo" or "ahh" could set the whole thing Hanson-bound (Hanson's early stuff, anyway).
Maybe it's no surprise, then, that the album's first run sold out within months of its July release. But maybe I'm just being a girl. The Downers Grove-based band's manager tells me Song No. 1 (otherwise known as "Lost Without You," but who pays attention to song titles these days anyway) is nearly explicitly a girl-fan favorite. To which I replied, "Screaming girls?! No thanks." Unsurprising for anyone who knows me, I immediately rejected the track -- until I heard it again.
It's kind of a shocker that the pop trio got its start just a few months shy of four years ago, though the band's start-date is a little misleading considering that two of its members (Keith von Kaenel and Matt "Matt G." Greenfield) have been playing in bands together for years. "We grew up together," von Kaenel says. "We rode around on Big Wheels together."
Admittedly, von Kaenel's thoughtful, nearly acoustic style shines during the first song. But for him, The Backroom was his chance to take these ballads, which seemingly flow out of his cerebrum so easily for him, and rock them out a bit. As such, the second half of the album -- the CD is aptly titled "Reagan Era Rocketship," in honor of the three '80s-born friends' birth decade -- is a stepped-up, high-tempo offering of the same pop that gives The Backroom its edge. Washed over with a classic-rock sheen that could've bridged the '60s and '70s underground scenes, the sound manages a throwback without all the pretentiousness that inadvertently spews from a bunch of 20-somethings who weren't actually alive back then (me included).
As a kid who grew up with the sounds of the '70s at his back, von Kaenel says he respects the poetry of that era's musical contributions and is kindly flattered by Backroom fans' comparisons. But the band's mission remains, sans historical context: They're a pop group, plan and simple.
"It's a pop kind of music to begin with, so we're not concerned with selling out," he says when I asked him if he minds that I consider his music radio-worthy. He doesn't (Q101 take note).
I caught von Kaenel on the road, at work, on his way to Chicago -- he's delivering prescriptions, or something. It's kind of hard to hear him, but I think I can make out, through all of the street raucousness and truck noise, that this 25-year-old Downers Grove native would never be as comfortable making music with anyone else except Backroom bassist Greenfield and drummer Matt "Matt J." Jankowiak, who Greenfield had known through Catholic school.
The three fused under probably some of the least punk-rock circumstances in the business (or does the normality of it all make it doubly punk-rock?): in a Dominick's liquor aisle on Christmas Eve. It's appropriately noted online that they found themselves surrounded by alcohol before noon, so we'll give them that. Greenfield and von Kaenel caught Jankowiak there by accident, and it turned out to be one heck of a lucky one.
"He wasn't even playing drums at the time," von Kaenel muses. And yet, somehow, he and Greenfield got him to think about it for this "project" they were brewing. A demo was passed on, Jankowiak took a listen, he liked it, and by February, the threesome was in the "backroom" of someone's garage, plugging away at what turned into a 16-song demo in 2004 and the 15-song "Reagan Era Rocketship" early this year. Note that neither von Kaenel nor anyone else from the band will comment on "their favorite president" or 2008's presidential election, as they are not a political band. Duly noted.
Although the album's technical release date on 07/07/07 -- you know, the "luckiest" day in, like, forever, when the line to Las Vegas' drive-thru chapels trailed down the block -- bares no significance to Reagan's tenure, the date ended up superstitiously doing the band some good. It must have. Beyond the album's initial sell-out, The Backroom has canvassed the local scene to positive results and even appeared on the Steve Dahl show last week.
"It's good to appeal to a wide range of people," von Kaenel says, noting that their local fan base runs the demographic gamut, from 14- to 50-year-olds showing up at shows.
The disc also acted as an enabler for the band's self-made record label, Remedial Records, which The Backroom started six months before the album debuted with fellow indie rockers Grand Theft Cardio and The Soccer Sons. It's a stand-in really for what The Backroom hopes will be replaced by a larger outfit someday, though von Kaenel says he has no bones about keeping it around and adding other artists someday.
For now, the suburban trio seems satisfied enough with touring the Midwest -- they'll get to the coasts at some point, he swears -- and eventually working on a follow-up for a No. 1 song that sticks in your head like a reoccurring dream.
The Backroom
Where: Martyrs', 3855 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago
When: 9 p.m. today
Tickets: $7
Phone: (773) 404-9494