Sometimes lady luck doesn’t quite look like lady luck. On a typically dreary Chicago evening in April 2003, Shawn Podgurski (bass) and Phil Naumann (guitar) were hanging out at a neighborhood bar and mulling over the idea that their fledgling rock band was perhaps missing something when they met Angela Mullenhour (vocals, guitar). The three shared a few beers and as it turned out the fake-ID-wielding-then-19-year-old Mullenhour was a musician as well and looking for compatriots. It was determined that the three would jam together later that week with then-drummer Bill Bumgardner. The four were all mutually blown away by the music they made that night, which Mullenhour would later describe as a beautiful kind of “sonic gluttony.” When the night ended Podgurski and Naumann knew they had found the missing piece of the puzzle in Mullenhour’s impassioned voice. Bumgardner revealed that he actually knew that from the moment Mullenhour walked into the practice space: “She had her shoes duct-taped together. I knew it would work out even before she sang a note.” Sometimes lady luck…
Soon after, the now quartet named themselves Sybris (an intentional misspelling of a hedonistic ancient Greek city) and began crafting a sound that’s a fusion of ambient art rock, 80s heavy metal and, oddly enough, folk. Dual guitars interlock with a powerful bass backbone, all driven by swirling and lifting drums. To complete it, there’s Mullenhour’s acrobatic voice that acts as the band’s two-headed catalyst – she has the ability to either ground their sonic chaos or run the whole thing right off the rails. At times, the kinetic Sybris sound invokes Slayer fronted by Edie Brickell (the tail end of “Blame It On the Baseball”) and at others it feels more like the lovechild of Belly and Swervedriver (“Best Day In History In Ever”). The band even manages to produce songs that could have wound up on the album of an imagined My Bloody Pixies supergroup (“Neon” and “Breathe Like You’re Dancing”).
Most importantly, the band looks to make music that is epic and beautiful, yet fun, an idea that really began to take hold when the group began to play live. Mullenhour recounts the moment at their first show when “we’d played about three songs and the room just got really quiet. People were paying attention during the quiet parts. I remember my shoe flew off during the show and I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, this rocks. This is the most fun ever.'” It’s this “fun first” approach and Sybris’ unique blend of genres that soon had them sharing stages with everyone from …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and Har Mar Superstar to Stars and The Thrills. Despite having only been a band for a year, the young and determined Sybris embarked on a few tours, one of which led them to play 2005’s South-by-Southwest festival in Austin, TX. Within the same month, the band was picked up by Chicago label, Flameshovel Records (also home to Chin Up Chin Up and Make Believe).
Original drummer Bumgardner gave way to Eric Mahle in February 2005 during the final stages of the recording of their self-titled debut full length. The album was engineered by Mike Lust (Sweep the Leg Johnny, Ten Grand, Atombombpocketknife) at his Phantom Manor Studios and then mixed by John Congleton (Explosions in the Sky, 90 Day Men, Chin Up Chin Up) at the famed Soma Studios, both in Chicago. The album serves almost as a retelling of the band’s brief history, containing a survey of material written over the first two years of the Sybris’ life. It’s an exquisitely crafted synopsis of the recent past and a heady nod to the future of this young band.
For more information, visit their website: http://www.sybrismusic.com
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