Description
Rock ‘n’ roll loves a “Cinderella story” that counters the epic disasters. Every so often the stars align & magic is made - there is the odd occasion where a couple of dollars and some hard work can produce something special. This can be said for Every Move a Picture.
Hailing from San Francisco, their story begins with a childhood friendship between singer/guitarist Brent Messenger, and bass player Joey Fredrick. Fast forward a couple of years with both playing in the early 00’s in various SF combos, at times with drummer Dan Aquino. However, it was in early in 2004, that everything gelled together in what would become Every Move a Picture. But, there was a piece lacking – a guitarist, who was also a dab hand with cool keyboard sounds. And that missing part of the puzzle, amazingly, was supplied with a simple advert in the online classifieds of Craigslist. Having just moved down to SF from Portland, Oregon, Allen Davis, guitarist, keyboard player, and overall sound-whiz, answered the call. It was as if some crazy fate had intervened launching the perfect player the band’s way, & the story of Every Move a Picture truly began.
And this is where the story gets interesting. Setting up in a friend’s rehearsal space and spending a grand total of $290, the band recorded 3 songs. Davis set to mixing them into something that the outside world could hear. And what came out of the session was astounding. Somehow everything had coalesced in the hands of Davis, into something with a hint of magic. The three tracks – “Signs of Life,” “Chemical Burns” and “12AM” - made their way into the hands of a few early tastemakers, and suddenly they were blaring out of the radio in SF and Los Angeles as the likes of Rodney Bingenheimer from KROQ, and others embraced the band’s dance punk energy. The story didn’t stop there. The songs filtered across the Atlantic to the UK – with XFM spinning the band’s tracks and Steve Lamacq playing ‘Signs of Life’ on Radio 1.
Back home, the Every Move fanbase was rapidly growing as they played various underground dance parties in lofts & bars, before moving on to SF’s prestigious Popscene club, and support slots with the Kaiser Chiefs and Louis XIV. At SXSW in 2005, the 28 hour drive (straight through!) east from SF to Austin paid dividends, as they were anointed as one of the buzz bands of the festival, recording an interview with Radio One’s Zane Lowe and playing the hipster central Fader party to great acclaim. The NME discovered them, describing them as ‘test tube perfect… keyboards by the Killers, trousers by Franz Ferdinand’. And speaking of that magic - the crazy part of it all was that Every Move was still yet to even release a record.
That part of the equation was soon completed, as those original three tracks, along with two others – ‘You’re So Predictable’ and ‘St John’s Night’ were issued as a limited Blink And You’ll Miss It EP on the indie “DIY…or Else” label. This made it into the hands of leading tastemaker Nic Harcourt on LA’s uber-hip KCRW station, who immediately took to the band’s energy, offering them their first live radio session. Next up, a slew of licenses for the band’s music, from TV shows such as ‘One Tree Hill’, to various computer games, as the band’s dance punk grooves were compared favorably to everyone from Interpol and the Rapture, to the Killers. An NME live review proclaimed ‘San Francisco's smartest entry in the post-Killers nu-wave race... intergalactic synths, sharp guitars & bass heavy grooves’. Not too bad for a mere four months work.
A month later, unbelievably, Every Move was crossing the Atlantic (albeit slightly delayed as their plane lost its hydraulics leaving San Fran) for their first run of UK shows. The band’s own British invasion started with an appearance in Nottingham, at the Dot Dot Dot Festival, alongside The Rakes, Radio 4 and Ladytron. A support slot with Radio 4 followed, and the band recorded their debut live session for Steve Lamacq’s Monday night show on Radio 1. The tour ended five days later to a riotous packed house in Dublin, Ireland. And that “Cinderella story”? Well, the band still was yet to release a record in the UK. This was soon rectified by the Something in Construction label, who issued a double a-sided 7” with “Signs of Life” & “Chemical Burns.” Those exact same tracks recorded for $290 in a rehearsal space. The 45 was single of the week on Lamacq’s show on BBC’s 6Music station and raved about by Drowned in Sound, who described them as ‘Duran Duran-dragged-backwards-through- shrubbery badass indiedisco floor-filler’. Iggy Pop, The Clash, Pulp, The Faint and Blur were just some of the reference points being made by numerous websites and publications. The 7” promptly sold out the week of release.
And somewhere amidst all this the 2005 Reading & Leeds Festival called, inviting Every Move for a slot on the Carling Stage, and the band played the huge Live 105 B.F.D. radio festival in San Francisco alongside the likes of the Foo Fighters, Hot Hot Heat and Ash. The band supported The Futureheads on US dates in June, before a summer of touring with the likes of Annie and Kasabian. Phew! Somehow that magic dust is still working.
This is a video for the newest single off their record (less)... (more)
