The Appreciation Post

By Meredith Turits

Photo by Lara Woolfson

One could bribe The Appreciation Post with fame and fortune, but the likelihood of the five-piece being able to keep a straight face for a mere ten minutes ... well, you'd have better luck putting your chips down on the next Ice Age coming first. No worries, though. Looking at their to-do list, the Boston band doesn't have "changing the face of modern rock" anywhere on the agenda. But "Saturday morning cartoons" and "rocking your face off " - now that's a totally different story.

If one hasn't been tipped off by the band's persona or namesake - an "appreciation post" is a message board term for starting a thread in accolade of something that utterly r00lz - The Appreciation Post are nerds to the core.

"You've got the 'nerd' thing all wrong," vocalist/guitarist Jim Keaney rectifies. "Nerds are smart. We are merely geeks. We concocted the most hate-able band name for Internerds to bitch about World Wide Web-wide."

Don't put it past these vivacious mid-twenties internet lurkers to know. As their name suggests, the band spends serious time on message boards and MySpace themselves, but it's for "promotions sake," of course. Luckily, their humor and stellar geekdom play flawlessly into their music.

The Appreciation Post's EP, Brighter Sides, is the band's latest effort. The record, which dropped February 23 following a release extravaganza at Cambridge's T.T. the Bear's, is a danceable, nerd-flavored jaunt into synth-laden pop-rock. Catchy melodies, intelligently sarcastic lyrics, and tight instrumental work jive together to create a mini diamond in the rough. Sunny and spirited, one spin of the disc just isn't enough.

"We wanted to make a good-sounding record that people would listen to more than once," Keaney says. "Demos are sometimes good enough to get your point across, but we had a bunch of songs we felt were worth taking to the next level sonically." To bring their plans to fruition, the rockers teamed up with producer/engineer Mike Poorman (Hot Rod Circuit/Piebald) at his Vermont studio, Strangeways Recording. The Appreciation Post banged out the five-song EP in two sessions on either side of the summer of 2006, during which the band toured extensively - even playing a date on the Vans Warped Tour ("A perfect season for the van air conditioning to break," Keaney laments).

Although Keaney, drummer Ted Carlson, and guitarist Brad Herrick all went to school for recording, Keaney remarks that while home recordings are "zero-stress," working with Poorman vastly improved the band.

"We've done all of our previous recording ourselves," Carlson adds. "So it was easier to focus on our performance this time while the controls were in the hands of someone we trusted."

For Keaney, Carlson, Herrick, Moog-commander Roger Lussier, and bassist Vietnam Le, Brighter Sides is the band's most telling endeavor yet. On top of now having sealed the deal on their first professionally crafted release, The Appreciation Post will have the opportunity to expand their fan base and heighten exposure.

"Our fan base is my mom," Le laughs. At least, as Keaney indicates, they have a method for spreading the word: "We use the Internet and bizarre instrumental craziness to help our exposure..." But Carlson quickly interjects "...While we use drum solos to hinder our exposure." Yes, they have potential to appeal to scene veterans, as well as "n00bs" and "norms." It's their sense of humor, though - the one that makes you want to give them both high-fives and a fist in the stomach - which indicates that the likelihood of the band staying low-profile is zilch. The Appreciation Post will be touring again in the spring, and are currently shopping labels to take the EP to the next level.

"Once Brighter Sides reaches platinum record sales, [I'll] use the EP as a stepping-stone into my movie career and reprise the role of Data in 'The Goonies II,'" Le says. "But for now getting back on the road is the goal."

"Hopefully we'll have some time in the near future to write and write and write and write until Jim's fingers fall off," Herrick continues.

And, of course, there's the all-important backup plan. "If things don't work out as a music group, we're taking on the pro bowling circuit," Herrick says.

"As a band, we average like 150 to 160," Lussier beams.

www.theappreciationpost.com