Picture, if you will, a small, suburban California town called Ukiah, circa 1991. Now, as I’m sure all you disillusioned little goth/punkers out there have concluded by now, suburbia sucks. There’s very little to do, in truth. So let’s throw a few highschool kids into the mix. A few punk-rockers, trapped in Ukiah. Now what’s the logical thing to do? Is it: A.) Start a band, B.) Kill people.
If you said A, not only are you correct, but you and I should probably sneek away from the guys who chose B. God knows what they’re capable of when they get worked into a frenzy. They’re like Viking berzerkers, I tell ya. Err…Wait…What was I talking about?
Ah,
yes, AFI!
Sooo, AFI (an acronym for “A Fire Inside”) was finally in it’s infancy, and began playing a few local shows. Unfortunately, the fun was short lived, as shortly after Highschool graduation, AFI disbanded, in order to allow it’s members to run off to college. But this was not the end! Christmas break pulled through (as it seems to do so very much in this life), and brought the boys back together again. Shortly thereafter, AFI began pressing their first releases (which I’ll be damned if I post in the discography due to their mind-numbing obscurity), beginning a legacy which would wind it’s way around the hearts of many faithful listeners in the many years to come.
Fast forward to the new millenium. After enduring a number of lineup changes (now consisting of Davey Havok on vocals, Adam Carson on drums, Jade Puget on guitar, and Hunter Burgan on bass), and having been signed to Dexter Holland’s (The Offspring) Nitro Records for a number of years, the band releases their best work to date, the prolific and poetic Art of Drowning. Filled with mournful tales of regret and loathing, and yet peppered with the ever-present fog of timid hopefulness, AoD is a masterpiece brought to us by a band that defies labels in a music industry which suffers from an addiction to them.
But, to quote The Jazz Man (the first film to feature vocal
sound), you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
It’s 2003, and twelve years since the band’s humble beginnings as a highschool garage-punk hobby, AFI has certainly found the “new evolution” they’ve been looking for. They are a juggernaut of musical prowess, combining such a ridiculous number of genres and influences that it boggles the mind (and may even cause migraines)! And they haven’t even hit us with their best shot. March eleventh marks the date that the band’s sixth full-length album, released on Dreamworks Records, will be unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. Sing the Sorrow is set to rock foundations, even those of long-standing AFI fans, and to bring an element to punk music which is rarely seen from it’s “oi-oi-oi” pseudopolitical-centric scene:
Emotion.
