BAYSIDE

by Mike Ferrari
photo by Jac Vanek








I had stumbled across these guys by accident last year wandering into Looney Tunes record store in West Babylon. I had remembered the name from the WCWP rotation and went to check them out. I knew they were on the successful Victory Records label out of Chicago, which had signed fellow Long Island acts Taking Back Sunday and the Reunion Show. I then found out that they too were from Long Island.

I was impressed that they managed to pull off a successful acoustic show in the tight confines of Looney Tunes and later enjoyed their debut album, “Sirens and Condolences”

Bayside formed in Long Island, NY during the winter of 2000, developing their own style based on soaring vocals, powerful guitar work and brooding lyrics. A scant three years later Bayside was signed to Victory Records and in late 2003 they began recording their debut album, “Sirens and Condolences”, with producer J. Robbins of Jawbox.

Looking for a guerilla method to connect with fans directly the band started a “cult”, utilizing Friendster and Myspace as well as their own Baysideisacult.com web site– building a groundswell of fans for the “Sirens and Condolences” release.

Interestingly it was the original bassist Andrew Elderbaum who penned most of the lyrics on “Sirens and Condolences” with guitarist/vocalist Anthony Ranieri singing them. “Poison In My Veins” was the single you
may have heard and although the band failed to explode the way label mates Taking Back Sunday did, they have sold a respectable 40,000
copies to date.

Less then a year after “Sirens and Condolences” was released a disappointed Elderbaum and drummer Jim Mitchell left Bayside (and has since joined a band called Novena) and the band has since replaced their rhythm section with Nick Ghanbarian on bass John “Beatz” Holohan on drums (Ghanbarian was an original member of semi-famous locals The Movielife and Silent Majority).

In the fall of 2004 Bayside returned to the studio to record their latest
self-titled album. The reason why the went with the self-title of Bayside is
according to Ranieri, “Nick and John are two of the best musicians I have ever played with, we named the album ‘Bayside’ because with them in the band, we are one unit and we wanted to reflect that.”

The new album retains Bayside’s muscular emotional intensity, as well as
their heart on their sleeve emo lyrics, though the new material is not as brutally dark as “Sirens” – however there’s still plenty of angst to go around. Listen for the new single “Devotion and Desire” which Bayside hopes with the help of pop producers Shep and Kenny that it will find it’s way on your radio soon and look for a full review of the new CD next issue!

You can catch Bayside in our area:
Tuesday
September 6th, 7pm
at Looney Tunes in West Babylon
September 15 in New York City at Avalon
w/ Silverstein, Action Action, June, The Forecast
October 8th in Farmingdale at the Downtown
w/June, The Forecast, I Am The Avalanche
WWW.BAYSIDEROCKS.COM

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