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Lit
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Lit may be known as a Modern Rock act -- a group often grouped alongside the likes of Vertical Horizon, Blink-182, Eve 6 or Stroke 9.
But the band -- singer A. Jay Popoff, guitarist Jeremy Popoff, bassist Kevin Baldes and drummer Allen Shellenberger -- recorded their new CD, Atomic, with a whole different era of music in mind.
"We went for a really Classic Rock sound on this album, and that's what we grew up on," says Baldes. "So the albums we brought into the studio were, like, Boston and Foreigner, Billy Joel, Ted Nugent. And we wanted the album to be spontaneous. So that's what we were going for. Nothing against any new bands, but we weren't pulling in the new Disturbed album, we weren't pulling in the Blink-182 album and (looking at) what they (were) doing."
Such inspirations aside, Atomic actually continues very much along the Modern Rock path Lit established with their 1999 major label debut, A Place In The Sun. Fueled by hit singles such as "My Own Worst Enemy" (a No. 1 Modern Rock hit for 11 weeks) and "Miserable," the CD eventually topped one million in sales and pushed Lit to the forefront of the crowded Guitar Pop field.
Atomic sounds as if it could have the same kind of hit-spawning potential. "The Last Time Again," with its buzzing opening guitar lick is an immediate attention grabber that packs a made-for-radio hook in the chorus, while crisp rockers like "Drop D," "She Comes" and the Nugent-esque "Lipstick and Bruises," boast plenty of melody and guitar crunch. But Baldes says Lit wasn't trying to play it safe by following the same formula that worked so well on A Place In The Sun.
"If you listen to this album you are not going to hear a song that sounds like 'Enemy,' " he asserts. "We might have written about the same content, but that's kind of like, at this point in the game, what we feel comfortable writing about -- chicks, cars, partying too hard. So that's what we write about. We're not afraid to try new stuff."
Perhaps the members of Lit can't be blamed for playing to strengths, considering it took the band considerable time to evolve their sound into its current potent Pop form and reach a national audience.
The beginnings of the Orange County, Calif., band date back more than a decade. That's when the Popoff brothers (whose father was a popular DJ on the Los Angeles top 40 station, KISS-FM) and high school friends Baldes and Shellenberger came together in the current lineup.
But it wasn't until 1996 -- after some seven hard-fought years of gigs on the Los Angeles club scene -- that Lit finally started to build a presence in record stores with the release of the EP, Five Smokin' Tracks From ... Lit. Despite the slow climb, Baldes says the band members never doubted that their opportunity would come.
"Back in the day, you'd get anxious," Baldes admits. "You get excited and a little overzealous, but every year for this band got better and better. You'd look back at the year before and go 'God, we're so much farther now than we were then.' And it just happened to do that over the course of 10 years so we would never give up because we kind of knew the next year would get better and better."
But before the breakthrough with A Place In The Sun happened, Lit still had to take a few more baby steps. The first of those was recording their independently released first full-length CD, Tripping The Light Fantastic. That CD captured enough attention to lead to a major label deal with RCA Records in 1998. What's interesting about Tripping The Light Fantastic is that it captured Lit in more of a heavy Rock setting than the Pop-oriented feel that emerged on A Place In The Sun. Baldes says the poppier direction came naturally to the band.
"I don't know if A. Jay was all excited about screaming all the time. He wanted to sing a little more," Baldes says of the musical shift. "It was just a matter of tastes, I guess. We grew up on Iron Maiden and Metallica and we grew up on Elton John and Billy Joel, all combined. Those were the flavors we were around as kids. Jeremy and A. Jay's dad was a Top 40 DJ, and the first concert they ever went to, that their dad took them to, was an Iron Maiden show. Those guys being the main songwriters, you can imagine all the different tastes they have for music, and so do Allen and I. We love everything."
LIT performs on Saturday at Bogart's with Pressure 4-5 and Handsome Devil.
