|
diversions
Hangman's strategies
spell success
By Ryan Ritchie
Daily Forty Niner
Living in the city
that bridges Los Angeles and Orange Counties is bound to form
interesting relationships.
For four Cal State Long Beach students, Long Beach has become
not only the city where they go to school, but the place where
dreams begin.
With members originally from the Yosemite area, the Sacramento
area, Pasadena and San Clemente, it hasn't taken long for
Strategies for Hangman to become the epitome of what living
in Long Beach is all about.
Warren Woodward, a fourth-year film production major, played
locally with Grant Myers, a fourth-year kinesiology major
and Ben VanderBeek, a fourth-year computer science major,
for a few years in other bands before Paul Field, a second-year
biology major met VanderBeek's brother and solidified the
lineup.
Taking their name from a They Might Be Giants song, the band
lists seminal indie rock bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate,
Fugazi and No Knife as some of their obvious influences, along
with Field's home in San Clemente.
"There's not an unsafe time to walk around the street
or whatever," Field said. "At 3:30 in the morning,
you're fine. Here, it's a little more scary I guess."
Strategies are unlike many other bands in the sense that they
have three songwriters and three singers. Each of the three
songwriters is the primary singer on the songs they write,
which can lead to conflict right off the bat.
"The three of us that write songs kind of have different
spiritual and political views," Woodward said. "Especially
in the beginning, our songs were a lot more different. You
could tell very specifically who wrote the songs.
"We've kind of honed to where I think stuff we write
speaks now more for all of us."
In October 2001, the band recorded with Tom Ackerman, drummer
for Los Angeles band, Sunday's Best. The recordings were released
in December as the "Remember Pretraumatic Bliss?"
EP, but the three songwriters have been hard at work since
then.
"Those songs were all pretty new when we recorded it,"
Woodward said. "At this stage, everything we write is
getting better and better at a pretty quick pace.
"If we actually had fans, it might be frustrating for
them because they'd never get to hear the songs (on the EP)."
This summer the band embarks on its first tour, where they
will be joined by Riverside's The Brute Medium. Like many
other self-financed bands, Strategies will be hitting some
smaller market cities if it means saving a few dollars.
"If there's a choice between two cities and one draws
a little less people but we can stay there for free,"
Woodward said. "At this point, we're going for stuff
like that."
A few months ago the band was rumored to play with Incubus,
but the show never materialized.
"There was supposed to be this secret show with this
rich kid," Woodward said. "For his birthday, he
got a bunch of money to book whatever band he wanted. It was
a pipe dream."
"We told everyone," Field said.
The future of the band is uncertain. Field plans on going
to dental school at UCLA but never said that will be the end
of his tenure in the band.
"Everything looks like we're going to be doing this for
a while," Woodward said. "It's only getting more
and more fun for us as we keep reaching more levels. There's
no reason to stop."
|
|
Curtis
Bailey
Strategies for Hangman hit the road this summer
on their West Coast tour.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Search our site
DEPARTMENT
OF
JOURNALISM
ONLINE 49ER
DEPARTMENTS
ADVERTISING
ADMINISTRATION
DAILY
49ER ALUMNI
SUBSCRIPTION
SERVICE
GIVE
FEEDBACK
|
