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Hot Rod Circuit
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The main fact that one would glean from even a cursory glance at the history of Hot Rod Circuit is that this is a band that doesn't believe in small career choices. The Somerville, Conn.-based quartet, looking forward to the release of their third album and first for Vagrant Records, Sorry About Tomorrow, just doesn't have the capacity to do anything by degrees.
When the band got started five years ago in Auburn, Ala., they christened themselves Antidote and promptly won Musician Magazine's Best Unsigned Band competition in 1998. They released their debut album, Mr. Glenbowski, and began building a potent following in the Auburn scene.
Within a year the band felt they had exhausted the immediate area and were sensing a need to explore a slightly bigger pond. Rather than consider a larger market close to the fan base they'd already built up, fate intervened and sent the band on an elaborate detour. Guitarist/vocalist Andy Jackson had just sent his wife, Brona, and their three children to visit her family in New England, a trip that turned into an impromptu scouting mission.
"She was going to go up for a week to visit her mother," says Jackson from the band's Philadelphia tour stop. "She got up there and hung out with her sisters and went to a couple of clubs and saw that there were a lot of places for us to play, and it was close to Boston and New York. I'd never been up there. So she called and said, 'You know, we just need to move here.' "
The very night of his wife's call, Jackson showed up at the evening's rehearsal to announce the results of the inadvertent fact-finding detail. After talking up the area's obvious advantages and making a case for moving the band's operation 1,500 miles north to a location where the only people they would actually know would be Jackson's in-laws, he made a startling suggestion and the band made an equally startling decision.
"As crazy as it sounds, I went to band practice that night and told the guys, 'We need to move,' " says Jackson. "We'd been talking about it the week before; doing something with the band, getting out of Alabama, going to the West Coast or the East Coast. So I said, 'You know, we're good enough to do this. I wanna take this chance.' Believe it or not, that night, everybody said 'Okay.' We rented a Ryder truck the next day, packed up all our furniture and equipment and drove to Connecticut."
The band acclimated themselves relatively quickly, securing both part-time jobs and local bookings within a week. The band's bass player had dissented with his bandmates over the move and remained in Auburn, so Jackson's wife actually played bass with the band for a brief spell. An area Hardcore band (not to mention a Christian Rock band) already sporting the name Antidote forced the band to consider new names. Hot Rod Circuit was born.
Guitarist Casey Prestwood met bassist Jay Russell through Prestwood's job at Subway, and the two started hanging out together. Russell, in the spirit of the band's sacrifices, dropped out of college and joined right after the name change. For a year, the band and their families lived in a band house atmosphere.
"It was hectic," understates Jackson. "Casey and Wes (Cross, HRC drummer at the time) lived in a bedroom on one side of the house, me and my kids had a room, and my wife had a room. Definitely not the environment for the kids at first, but it worked out and it didn't last that long."
After some serious roadwork, the band signed with Triple Crown Records and released their debut EP and their first full length, If I Knew Now What I Knew Then, to positive response. After close to a year of hectic touring, HRC's longtime drummer Wes Cross decided to exit the band.
"He just got burned out," says Jackson of Cross's departure. "We were on the road all the time. It's what we do and what we love to do. We're 100 percent about staying on the road as much as possible. We were just finishing up a tour, and he said, 'That's it. I can't do it anymore.' He just wasn't that happy on the road."
Drummer Michael Poorman came to the band through the recommendations of mutual friends. Although Poorman resisted long enough to force HRC to find an interim drummer for their full domestic tour, he finally relented and joined the band as permanent drummer. Two weeks after Poorman officially signed on with HRC, the band went into the studio to record their second release, If It's Cool With You, It's Cool.
"We crammed all those songs and recorded within a week," says Jackson. If It's Cool garnered the band more acclaim, and led them back on the road where they typically spend nearly eight months out of the year. Feeling that they had done all they could with Triple Crown, the band began to entertain label offers, ultimately settling on Vagrant Records as their new label home.
"We've been friends with the Get Up Kids for a while, and that's where that connection came from," says Jackson. "If the last record seems rushed, it's because we rushed in so we could hurry up and be done so we could get on Vagrant. We feel we made the right decision. They're like family there. It's not like they're some corporation that we work for. When we call there, we're talking to our friends."
For Sorry About Tomorrow, Hot Rod Circuit's new album due on Tuesday, the band made a conscious effort to spend more time on the writing process in order to come up with material that would hold up better for them and for their fans. They also toured the material before entering the studio with producer Brian McTernan.
"All my life, I've just thrown songs together," says Jackson of his creative process. "Whatever happens, happens. I've never really thought about lyrics, and a lot of them just came out. Some of them still do. But on this record, we wanted to take time to write songs that we could play on an acoustic guitar that would stand on their own. I think we found a happy medium between our last two records. The first record was more melodic and heavier and the second record was poppier, and I think we combined both of those things and found that place where we could fluctuate back and forth between them."
There is also a greater sonic depth to Hot Rod Circuit on Sorry About Tomorrow, as the band explores the tensions between their myriad influences, which run the gamut from Hardcore to Pop to Classic Rock. Underneath it all, HRC has fashioned a foundation of pure kinetic energy that brings together all of their varied influences into a single sonic charge that is strong in the studio and undeniable on stage. There is also a discernibly stronger emotional depth to the material.
"For me, the title Sorry About Tomorrow is an apology for when I leave to go on the road, and the aftermath of how my family feels the next day," says Jackson. "It can be taken different ways, but that's what it means to me. A lot of the songs are still about growing up and hanging out with your friends. If you ask the rest of the band, they'll say it's all about girls."
The year 2002 looks to be an exciting one for Hot Rod Circuit. Sorry About Tomorrow is generating a lot of positive advance buzz, and the band is gearing up for their first headline tour after years of being the supporting act. And the band has one last Triple Crown release this summer, an odds-and-sods collection called Been There, Smoked That that will feature their out-of-print debut EP, a handful of singles, some live tracks, B-sides and even a couple of songs from the band's Antidote era.
As much fun as Hot Rod Circuit obviously has in the studio and on the road, the big move aspect of their band chemistry is proof positive of just how serious they are about being a band and what lengths they'll go to succeed. The move, the constant touring, the label shifts, and the sacrifices have all helped to temper the band's steel to a fine edge.
"It's all helped to make the band tighter," says Jackson. "When people hear that kind of stuff, they know that we're really serious. We moved halfway across the country to be in a Rock band. How can they not take you seriously? We were ready to eat dirt. And have done it. I still can't believe it to this day. Every time I say it to somebody, it boggles my mind to think about it."
HOT ROD CIRCUIT plays Bogart's on Sunday with Bottom Line, Further Seems Forever and Brand New.
