Avant Garde: Difference between revisions
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(New page: '''Avant Garde''' is a progressive heavy metal band from Connecticut. It was formed in 1985 by Rivers Cuomo and Justin Fisher. ==Biography== One year after Fury's formation, ...) |
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Avant Garde was very devoted to the music they were playing and worked meticulously. The band would typically practice four times a week for several hours at a time. Anyone who the band considered to not take the music seriously was kicked out. Eric, being a partier, was the first member to go. Even Justin Fisher was confronted by Rivers about his one night of partying. In a ''[[Rivers' Edge]]'' interview, Justin said, "We didn't really drink, smoke, or do most of the things that people usually associate with rock music. We were really focused on being musicians and the people that we saw drinking or getting high back then didn't seem to be as 'serious' as we wanted to be. One night, I'm hanging out with our friend Jim Emino and a couple of girls -- ooh! -- and I try schnapps, pot and cigarettes all for the first time -- double ooh! Needless to say, I didn't score very well with the ladies, and when I went to Rivers' house the next day I got the third degree from Rivers, Eric and Leaves. They were all sitting around the Kitchen table -- we were practicing in Rivers' bedroom -- and saying, 'We heard what you were doing last night -- smoking pot -- and we need to know if you are going to want to do it again.' The underlying message being, 'We're not really into having a pot smoker in the band.'" | Avant Garde was very devoted to the music they were playing and worked meticulously. The band would typically practice four times a week for several hours at a time. Anyone who the band considered to not take the music seriously was kicked out. Eric, being a partier, was the first member to go. Even Justin Fisher was confronted by Rivers about his one night of partying. In a ''[[Rivers' Edge]]'' interview, Justin said, "We didn't really drink, smoke, or do most of the things that people usually associate with rock music. We were really focused on being musicians and the people that we saw drinking or getting high back then didn't seem to be as 'serious' as we wanted to be. One night, I'm hanging out with our friend Jim Emino and a couple of girls -- ooh! -- and I try schnapps, pot and cigarettes all for the first time -- double ooh! Needless to say, I didn't score very well with the ladies, and when I went to Rivers' house the next day I got the third degree from Rivers, Eric and Leaves. They were all sitting around the Kitchen table -- we were practicing in Rivers' bedroom -- and saying, 'We heard what you were doing last night -- smoking pot -- and we need to know if you are going to want to do it again.' The underlying message being, 'We're not really into having a pot smoker in the band.'" | ||
Rehearsals typically took place at either Justin's house, Rivers' house or "The Band Room". Justin described the band room as, "A small, burnt-out furniture factory in Vernon. There was absolutely no adult supervision and bands like ours would just go in there and rent our own piece of the floor for three or four hundred dollars a month and build our own walls. We'd practice in there, and kis would just go in there and hang out and listen to other bands. It was really kind of neat and scary at the same time. It was incredibly cold in the winter... We were all in high school. Looking back, I don't know how the hell we came up with the rent." | |||
Kevin Ridel, looking back believes the band "sucked", striving more for technical prowess and focusing less on songwriting craft. | |||
During Rivers and Justin's junior year, Avant Garde released a demo tape consisting of "Tongue of Fire", "I Must Be Dreaming" and "Black Rose." The tape was called "The Blue Demo", the name evolved from the light blue label stickers on the cassette tapes. | |||