Suburban Tragedy
Truly Sunday
About Suburban Tragedy
Formed in high school by Palm Harbor, FL residents and friends Nik Sharp, Jon Stride, and Paul Calvagna, Suburban Tragedy began as a band called Cling. Cling got signed to Zero Hour records before the bandmates were even out of high school, but hit a bit of bad luck when their record label went bankrupt before Cling's debut album could be released. Marshall Berle (nephew of Milton Berle and "discoverer of RATT and Van Halen") was then asked to put their album together, which he did, just before the band took time off to go to college. Discovering that the college life was not the life for him, Nik left school to persue his music career, and started a new band with Eric Bice, a Los Angeles session drummer. Their band wound up opening for acts such as Outkast and Kid Rock on a USA Network televesion program called "FarmClub." Nik loved his new band, but missed his old bandmates, and so he persuaded Jon and Paul to form a new band with Eric and himself. The name "Suburban Tragedy" was adopted due to the fact that the family members of the band thought that it was a tragedy that they'd all dropped out of school to pursue careers in music, and the band was born with Nik on vocals and rhythm guitar, Jon on lead guitar, Paul on bass, and Eric on drums. In 2002, "Fun for the Kids," Suburban Tragedy's first independent CD, was released, and sold over 4000 copies in the Pinellas County area. Soon, 97x, an alternative rock radio station in the Tampa Bay area, took notice of the band's popularity and featured their first single off "Fun for the Kids" (called "Been Around") on their hour-long feature called "LocalMotion," which ran from 11pm to 12am on Sunday nights. Two years later, their second independent release, an EP titled "Stereo Typed Life," had similar success, and the two albums together sold over 10,000 copies in Florida alone and are now out of print. After "Stereo Typed Life" was released, 97x again helped to boost the Suburban Tragedy craze by asking ST to write their morning show theme song. The song is now well known in the area, and continues to play every morning as the start of the 97x morning show. In addition to having them write the morning show song (often referred to as the "Wake Up, Wake Up" song, as the lyrics say "Wake up wake up/it's another morning x show/with Fisher and Boy in the morning"), the station also began putting the band on larger tour spots opening for acts such as The Darkness, My Chemical Romance, Alkaline Trio, and Staind. 2005 was a big year for Suburban Tragedy. Their third release, an EP titled "Tonite We'll Watch the Sun Come Up," was released on Trump Card Records (the band had signed to Elevation 7 Records and was going to release it on that label, but later switched to Trump Card), and the singles "Epitome of Me" and "Demons and Angels" became local hits, gaining some much-deserved air time on 97x in actual daytime listening hours. Shortly after the recording but before the release of the new EP, an additional guitarist named Derek Robins was added to the lineup and Nik switched to full-time vocalist. In December 2005, Suburban Tragedy was chosen as the opening act for 97x's 5th annual Next Big Thing concert at Coachman Park in Clearwater, FL. This was a major show for the band, as they opened for over 15,000 screaming fans and major acts Staind, My Chemical Romance, Trapt, Story of the Year, Rise Against, Our Lady Peace, 30 Seconds to Mars, Alkaline Trio, Anberlin, and Motion City Soundtrack. After this, the band's popularity took off. "Epitome of Me" became a regular on 97x's "Furious Five at 9," a portion of the show where listeners called in and voted for their favorite songs played on the station, even holding the first place spot for awhile. In March/April 2006, the band had "creative issues" with drummer Eric, who quit and later joined Sentdown, another local Florida band. Despite this loss, Suburban Tragedy immediately sprung back into action, and Jason Rawlings joined the band as their new drummer. On January 6, 2007, Suburban Tragedy released their fourth EP, titled "Fresh Out of Happy Endings," on CoDependent Records. At their CD release party which took place at the Majestic in Clearwater, FL, over 300 people were in attendance. Currently, Suburban Tragedy continues to play shows in Florida, gaining popularity and a larger fanbase every day. They are working on a full-length album and planning a nationwide tour. To find out more about Suburban Tragedy and listen to their music, you can visit their website: http://www.myspace.com/suburbantragedy
Taken from Last.fm
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