Diamonds in the Rough 08.16.09: Chevelle
Posted by Leo Rivera on 08.16.2009
A thinking mans hard rock
As the summer begins to come to a close and with the fall clearly upon us, it traditionally means one thing in the music industry: new album releases and lots of them! As it stands right now, fall 2009 is shaping up to be the biggest new release season for rock music in well over five years. The sheer amount of big names set to release albums between September and November is astonishing. This Fall see's the highly anticipated return of Alice in Chains, the first Creed album in 7 years and releases from heavy hitters like 30 Seconds to Mars, Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin. And when you round out the list with new albums from bands like: Five Finger Death Punch, Flyleaf, Skillet, Thousand Foot Krutch, Default and The Used, then modern rock fans have a lot to be excited about.
Throughout the next few weeks, I am going to be focusing on a lot of the bands mentioned above. This week I would like to unofficially kick off the Fall music season by focusing on another major modern rock band set for a big release this Fall, I am referring to the talented trio known as Chevelle.
With one platinum album and two certified gold albums under their belt, Chevelle also boast an impressive list of hit singles including: "The Red", "Send the Pain Below", "The Clincher" and "Well Enough Alone." This Fall Chevelle returns with an intriguing fifth album titled Sci Fi Crimes. The album is set to be released on August 31st, and if Chevelle have proven anything, it is that they get better with each passing album. They are constantly maturing and evolving as a band and some of that maturity can be attributed to what they have had to deal with over the years, not just as a band but as a family.
The band Chevelle officially formed in 1995 in Graysville, Illinois but the members have known each other far longer than that. Chevelle was formed by three brothers that bonded over their common love and passion for music. Singer and guitarist Pete Loeffler, drummer Sam Loeffler and baby brother and bassist Joe Loeffler started the band when they were just teenagers and named it after their father's favorite car. They started out modestly playing small outdoor concerts and clubs in and around the windy city of Chicago. They eventually figured that they needed a concrete live set and a marketing tool to promote the band. They recorded a demo known as the Blue Album and for the next three years (from 1995-1998) proceeded to play at whatever clubs accepted them.
With three years of touring behind them, the Loeffler brothers felt seasoned enough to record their full length debut album. Appropriately titled Point #1, the album was recorded in just 17 days at Electrical Audio Studios and was produced by Steve Albini. Around this time, the band signed on with independent label Squint Entertainment which happened to be a Christian record label. Point #1 received mixed reviews by various Christian websites and magazines. Some praised the album while others criticized the band for their repetitive song structures; nevertheless Chevelle received many awards for their debut album. They won the GMA Dove Award for "Hard Music Song" in 2000 and 2001 for the songs "Point #1" and "Mia" respectively, they also won the Dove "Hard Music Album of the Year" in 2000.
Between 1999 and 2002, Chevelle toured with the top bands in modern rock including: Sevendust, Machine Head and Filter. These tours helped Chevelle raise their profile considerably, and when Squint Entertainment went out of business in 2002, the band had no problem getting a deal with music heavyweight Epic Records. Later that year they released their second album and major label debut titled Wonder what's Next. The album gained traction off the hit single "The Red" which reached #3 on the mainstream rock charts, it also helped that the video was on steady rotation on MTV and radio played the haunting song constantly. The album would also yield two more singles "Closure" and the lighter "Send the Pain Below." The best way to describe Chevelles sound is melodic hard rock with an emphasis on the darker more brooding side of the spectrum, think Tool meets late 1990's Staind. Wonder What's Next also features songs like "Comfortable Liar" and "Don't Fake This" that really drove the point home of what this band is all about: provocative hard rock that packs a brutal punch.
By 2003, Chevelle had become a household name among modern rock fanatics as Wonder What's Next became certified platinum by the RIAA, selling over one million copies at a time where record sales were plummeting. As their success grew, so did their tours, in 2003 the band toured on the coveted main stage of Ozzfest, where they also recorded their first live album, Live from the Road. 2003 would prove to be a breakthrough year for the band of brothers as they also supported Audioslave in Europe and were one of the main acts on Disturbed Music as a Weapon II tour.
Chevelle returned to the studio in 2004 to record their follow up album This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In) . Released in September the album debuted at # 8 on the billboard 200 chart and was certified gold (over 500,000 copies sold) in just 6 weeks! The album is a lot more aggressive than Wonder What's Next and Chevelle make that clearly obvious by slamming the proverbial hammer down right off the bat with the opening track "The Clincher" easily the heaviest song they had recorded to date and a great head banger. The aggressiveness continues with "Get some" which is another raucous rocker. The album then slows down with the first single "Vitamin R (Leading Us Along)" which is what Chevelle fans had become accustomed too, still brooding like "The Red" and "Closure" yet more up tempo and progressive, which was a welcome improvement, it was their most focused and well thought out single. "Vitamin R" reached #1 on the mainstream rock charts; the song "Still Running" (which is also on the Punisher movie soundtrack) is another heavy track that features a lightning speed guitar riff by Pete Loeffler.
On this album, one could really begin to see just how good Chevelle was as each brother was really coming into their own as a musician. The "Clincher" showcases Joe Loefflers thundering bass sound, while "Vitamin R" and "Panic Prone" illustrate just how mature Pete's vocals had become and his ability to sing melodically and improved drastically from their previous album, while Sam was proving to be just an absolute beast on the drums as shown throughout the whole album (but his best was yet to come!).
While Chevelle was enjoying great success commercially and critically, they were unraveling behind the scenes. Joe Loeffler in particular was having a hard time coping with the success in the band, having started when he was just 14 years old, it is not hard to imagine that he felt a lot of pressure and did not live like any normal teenager would. While on tour in 2004 the youngest Loeffler snapped and reportedly quite the band several times, one time to many apparently. Because eventually the two older brothers took him at his word and replaced him as bassist with brother in law and long time friend Dean Bernardini. This of course caused Joe to go into a huge uproar and claim that he was in fact kicked out of the band, there has been drama between the brothers ever since. Nevertheless Chevelle moved forward headlining a tour that featured no less than 30 Seconds to Mars and Taproot as opening acts, quite the feet for a still relatively new band, considering that the other two bands are headliners in their own right. Chevelle also supported Nickleback in an arena tour that took them across the U.S.
In 2006 Chevelle recorded their fourth studio album Vena Sera, and was produced by Steve Bernadini who also helmed Point #1. Vena Sera released in early 2007 was easily their strongest and best effort to date, one of the main reasons for this is that the album is more progressively modern rock and less brooding, that and Sam Loeffler is on an absolute tear in this album! Vena Sera is nothing else is a coming out party for Sam who has become one of the very best drummers in modern rock today. If you don't believe me just listen to songs like "Braniac", "Straight Jacket Fashion", "The Fad", "I Get It" and "Saturdays" to hear for yourself! As a matter of fact Pete and Dean more than hold their own on all of those songs, which happen to be the best songs the band has ever written. "The Fad" starts with a guitar riff that signals that a mosh pit is on the way and is just an incredible song from start to finish; the same can be said about "Braniac." "I Get It" features a sick breakdown mid-song that shows that Chevelle get's it (all pun intended). The Single "Well Enough Alone" is reminiscent of The Deftones and I actually thought it was the first time I heard it, the song was written about the departure of Joe and was an instant hit.
The Album debuted at # 12 and sold well, the band toured with Evanescence and Finger Eleven. But the tour was not without its casualties, in late 2007 while on tour in Australia Chevelle's manager died of cancer. This was a sad end to a rough year, as earlier in 2007 while on tour in Fort Worth, Texas the bands trailer was stolen, inside were guitars, basses, drum amplifiers, risers, backdrops and tee shirts. And to add insult to injury, the items were sold on e-bay, luckily the bands fans bought most of the items and returned it to them.
These tragic setbacks only added fuel to Chevelle's fire and the band was back in the studio by 2008 to record their fifth album titled Sci-Fir Crimes. The first single "Jars" has already surfaced in radio stations and if the song is any indication, we are in for yet another great album from this massively talented trio. Chevelle are currently on the Summer long tour titled the Stimulate This tour, which is co-headlined by Staind and Shinedown and is currently packing amphitheaters across the America.
In my opinion this tour is the perfect way to kick off Chevelle's Sci Fi Crimes tour and I can't wait to see what the rest of the album sounds like, and if past albums are any indication, it will rock, because one thing is for sure, Cbhevelle always delivers the goods!
