"Don't play us in football."
That's advice from Alan Grubner '98 - drum player for Dartmouth-born jazz/funk/pop/rock band Stand Up Eight - to new bands trying to get started. It's a tongue-in-cheek answer to a simple question and is indicative of the band's overall style and attitude.
Although the guys in the band - Grubner, saxophonist Tony Jurado '98, bass guitarist Andy May '97, vocalist Josh Nadelberg '98, guitarist Joe Nagraj '98, guitarist Mike Roberts '00 and manager Barrett Shaver '98 - have already graduated from Dartmouth (except Roberts), they are all still Dartmouth students at heart.
The band arrived for its on-campus interview with The Dartmouth last Sunday with a couple six-packs of its beer of choice (Catamount Oatmeal Stout) and Subway sandwiches. As the night progressed, there were more bathroom and BlitzMail-checking breaks than interview questions. But in a way, it was comforting. These musicians, who spend their days thinking up guitar riffs and song lyrics, still have their college-aged priorities: have fun, drink beer with friends and play decent music.
Stand Up Eight - originally named Groovemerchant (the name was "generic and limiting," Roberts said) - formed in 1994 when Grubner helped Nagraj move in (they were in the same kindergarten class) during his freshman Fall and noticed his guitar. They soon met May and Roberts, and later, Shaver joined the group as the band's manager.
Roberts and Shaver went to high school together, and although Roberts said he was always interested in joining a band upon arriving at Dartmouth, Grubner said Roberts joined because he "was very interested to sneak into the frats" during his freshman year. Roberts met Grubner and Jurado in the College's Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble.
After battling the D-plan and toying with a few other additions to the group, they arrived at their current ensemble.
The band practices between two and three times each week, and often has two or three gigs during the week as well. Except for Roberts, the members all live within 100 yards of each other in Fairlee, Vt., but they haven't gotten sick of each other - yet.
"The group aspect of the experience is both the best and worst part," Roberts said. "It is exciting and challenging to know how best to operate as a group ... It is part of the challenge, communicating and continuously getting to know each other more and more."
For May, working in a group is a bit of challenge.
"Long drives, close quarters, bodily functions - got to open those windows quickly," May said.
Of course, the band thrives on the fact that the group is tightly knit. Stand Up Eight's songs are mostly original, and the band members all work to write music together. Normally, one member will present to the group a musical idea and let a song grow out of it. Other band members will add their own ideas, and the small concept matures into a full musical piece.
"Songs tend to develop pretty slowly," Roberts said. "We're continually adding to and refining individual and structural parts of the songs."
After the band works out a song's overall sound, Nadelberg writes the song lyrics. The band's songs cover many topics: graduation, love, finding inspiration, and even previous band members.
"[Nadelberg] muses poetically on an idea," Roberts said. "He writes very abstract, poetic stuff. Even for us, we don't know what it's about until he decodes it for us."
The band members have a huge range of musical interests. During the interview, they mentioned artists from Bela Fleck to Led Zeppelin, from Beethoven to Steely Dan and from REM to Sting.
Like their favorite artists, the band's own music is very unique. Their only CD, "Dance with Gravity," contains nine tracks, all with different sounds.
On the album, Stand Up Eight succeeds in its attempt to combine musical genres to create a comprehensive, inventive sound. In the album's first track titled "Make It Real," the band creates a straight pop rock sound reminiscent of the "Rent" soundtrack. Nadelberg's voice on this track and on the regionally popular "I Will Carry You" is smooth and clean - a sound one would expect from a Broadway musical's soundtrack.
But then, Nadelberg surprises listeners in songs like "Onche" (named for a previous band member), "Question of Faith" and "Letter Song" with an abrasive, Dave Matthews-like sound.
In fact, after listening to "Question of Faith" and "Letter Song," listeners may be hard-pressed to deny that the tracks could have been cut from Dave Matthews Band's earlier CDs. This is especially apparent with "Question of Faith's" use of distinctive saxophone solos and "Letter Song's" violin solos. Dave Matthews Band was not far from the band's mind when they recorded these tracks.
Also like Dave Matthews, the album is full of jam sessions in songs, dispersed between lyrics. But many of the instrumental solos are more reminiscent of the Grateful Dead and jazz genius Maceo Parker.
Songs like "Progression" and "Onche" both have a funky feel to them that certainly brings James Brown to mind. Some credit should even go to Michael Jackson and Prince, who are responsible for the 1980s pop sound and falsetto vocals of "Mike's Joint."
"Dance with Gravity" is an extremely impressive first effort. The band plans to record a second album this fall, and if it manages to further refine and build on its own, unique sound, it has an undeniable chance at success.
And although one of Stand Up Eight's goals is to be commercially successful, band manager Shaver said the band is not looking to sign with a major label.
"We're looking to take this as far as we can on our own without relying on major label support and by building support on a grassroots level," he said. The band has played in almost all major cities in the northeast and "as far south as New York," Shaver said.
The guys said they have turned down corporate jobs to continue the band but each of them does some of his work on the side. Roberts is currently working on a rock opera that he plans to perform with the band, Nagraj gives guitar lessons, Grubner teaches jazz violin and Nadelberg is animating a film.
But according to Grubner, the band plans to continue its quest for success "until it stops being fun."
"It is both exciting and terrifying, doing this - you never really know where it's going to go," said Roberts. "You never know when it's going to blow up."
Until then, they are all excited for their appearance tonight at Bones Gate fraternity, an event co-sponsored by the Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority. "We still love the frat parties. We love watching people make out," Grubner said.
And they also love gloating about their recent 49 to 15 football game win against College band The Riverbed. So do go ahead and see the band this weekend at Bones Gate - but don't play them in football.
