Contributed by Scott E. Clemmons
From Billboard
SEVEN MARY THREE
"Water's Edge" - Mammoth
Fans of Live and R.E.M. will appreciate the similar vocal style
of Seven Mary Three, which balances rage, melancholy, and madness.
A complex musical atmosphere is formed by a flurry of unstable
guitar riffs, pounding drums, and moody melodies. From the album
"American Standard."
The Commercial Appeal
Former Va. college band scales charts to new status
March 15, 1996, Friday, Final Edition. (Memphis)
Fred Shuster, The Los Angeles Daily News
Just six months ago, the Orlando, Fla. - based quartet Seven Mary Three
was a college band with a homemade CD for sale at its gigs.
Recently, the group's hard-rocking single, Cumbersome, dropped from
first to third place on Billboard's album-rock airplay chart, and its major-
label debut, ''American Standard,'' was No. 31 and moving up the albums
chart.
''We knew our songs had hooks, but we never thought they'd get so much
attention,'' singer-guitarist Jason Ross, 23, said from a tour stop in
Austin, Texas.
The quartet emerged from the music scene surrounding the College of
William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., which also spawned the Dave Matthews
Band. After signing with Mammoth/Atlantic, Seven Mary Three relocated to
sunny Orlando, home of the equally melodic Collective Soul.
''Orlando has a very diverse music scene,'' Ross said. ''There's a big
club circuit, and all the local bands really support each other. It's not
all just metal and industrial stuff.''
Seven Mary Three song a success for eclectic Mammoth
Record company strikes gold hit
Chapel Hill Herald. March 14, 1996, Thursday
Mark Schultz
CARRBORO -- Some folks in Carr Mill Mall have struck gold -- a gold
record to be exact.
And if Mammoth Records has its way, the gold award, produced by the group
Seven Mary Three, will soon share its space on the wall with a platinum disc.
Mayor Mike Nelson announced the gold-record recipient at last week's meeting
of the Board of Aldermen.
Chances are elected officials never heard of the Florida-based band or
its hit single, a hard-rocking song called "Cumbersome." But fans have, enough
to make the album "American Standard" gold (500,000 copies sold). The song has
been played on local radio station WDCG-105 FM.
"We're all excited," said label manager Steve Balcom. "We went gold a
month ago. We're trying to get it platinum. That's the goal."
Going platinum would require a million sales. As of last week, "American
Standard" had sold 800,000 copies for 7-year-old Mammoth Records, which is
distributing the album in alliance with Atlantic Records.
Signed just six months ago, Seven Mary Three consists of Jason Ross on
vocals and guitar, Jason Pollock on lead guitar, Casey Daniel on bass and
Giti Khalsa on drums.
The popularity of the college band took off when an Orlando radio station
began playing "Cumbersome" off the band's self-produced debut CD. For
"American Standard," the group re-recorded the songs with improved sound quality and
added two new ones.
"I think there's a basic theme through the whole work," Ross said in a
release. "It's all about forgiveness.
"There is definitely a hint of guilt in some of the songs," he added.
"Many of our families have gone through divorce, and fidelity is a big issue for
this band: Can a man and a woman, or a man and a man, or whoever -- can they stay
together?"
A small company, Mammoth has just 20 employees. But it boasts an eclectic
stable of artists, including alternative rocker Juliana Hatfield, songwriter
Victoria Williams and jazz act The Squirrel Nut Zippers.
"Over three-quarters of our employees started as interns; that creates a
unique culture to the company," label president Jay Faires said. "We don't
scavenge the majors looking for established executives. We rely on the
unrelenting enthusiasm and determination of the staff that we promote from
within."
That enthusiasm has paid off for Seven Mary Three, whose "Cumbersome"
was a Top 10 Billboard rock track for four weeks and whose members have now
appeared on "The Tonight Show," "The Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Night
with Conan O'Brien."
"It puts the label on the map," Mammoth publicity director Keith Hagan
said from the label's New York office.
"We've always been highly respected in the industry," he said. "Now we're
going to be backing it up with sales figures."
Seven Mary Three, Hot Under the Collar
The Buffalo News, March 7, 1996, Thursday, city edition.
Section: Entertainment, Pg. 8B
LAWRENCE W. GALLICK; News Contributing Reviewer
It was a sweaty rock show prone to strange juxtapositions of musical
style
and image. Seven Mary Three is a band from climates south, as was evident
from
their amazed remarks about the weather. They seemed to appreciate close
quarters
if for nothing other than the sheer physical heat.
The lead singer/rhythm guitarist of the band is a man who invites
comparisons. Perhaps you've seen him spitting out the angst-ridden lyrics of
the
band's current hit, "Cumbersome," on MTV, sporting the Vedder hair against a
backdrop of Creedence Clearwater Revival-fueled rock.
Seven Mary Three is straightforward, repetitive and preoccupied with
the
politics of anger. Band members strode onstage, planted their feet and
seldom
moved, letting the circular construction of methodical stories of broken
romance
and disconnection cement themselves and the (male) crowd members in a sort
of
telepathic wall of fury. The song "Rodrigo" is a good example.
Standing next to me was a young man twirling his long hair in unison to
the
music while singing along with the song, word for word. Since he seemed so
familiar with the music, I asked him the name of the song. He replied "I
don't
know, man," and laughed.
Angry, slightly inebriated young men swayed throughout the crowd,
pensively
banging their heads to frustrated themes such as the song "Punch in, punch
out."
Occasionally a declamatory guitar lick or quiet withdrawn vocal musing
("don't
blink/don't think/of me") would break through the static wall of sexual
angst.
The politics of anger necessitate a moment of truth, otherwise no one
would
listen to these guys, and their songs wouldn't appeal. Looking out into the
bright lights, the lead singer came clean after a few remarkably similar
songs.
"People say we're angry," he mused. Then he muttered something about a
revolution, continuing "but this song is about putting your anger away.
It's
called shelf-life."
And indeed, the only real moments of musical inspiration came outside the
angry frame this band situates itself within, on "Shelf-life" and a
dissonant
Sonic Youth inspired generational anthem that doesn't appear on its CD.
Poe and her three-quarters blond band including a cello player and a
tall,
swift, five-string bassist opened the show with quick but energetic set. Poe
combines a Suzanne Vega-sounding vocal tone with quirky song constructions,
which can get as heavy (or heavier) than the Rollins Band.
It showed an impressive range of musical textures on songs such as
"Beautiful
Girl" and the current single "Psycho," combined with a dynamic and fresh
brand
of sexually assertive and smart lyrical themes.
Southern boogie, with a grunge-rock twist Seven Mary Three finds winning mix
The Toronto Star, February 29, 1996, Thursday, final ed.
SECTION: ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. G10
BY LENNY STOUTE SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Let it be known, there is no southern boogie revival on the way. True,
there
appears to be a resurgence of bands playing classic rock 'n' roll in the
area,
but their approaches are way too disparate to form a recognizable subgenre.
Our authority is Jason Ross, the more vocal of the two Jasons in
Orlando-based Seven Mary Three, and a guy who's been plying his trade on
the southern touring circuit long enough to know the difference.
"I guess in a way our time seems to have come. We're a bar band that's
been
getting back to the roots of rock 'n' roll over time. We've been playing
this
style for some time but I guess we've played so many places, there seems to
be a
collective goodwill that's built up.
"We hear some other bands down here playing straight-up rock, but they
aren't
really like us. I can't think of another band that sounds like us."
In true road dog style, SMT were out, ripping the meat from skinny bones
when
success pulled up across the street, hauling a trailer full of steaks.
Like most in its pack, the band has cut a CD which was flogged from the
stage. A copy came into the hands of a friendly DJ at megastation WJRR in
Orlando, who started spinning a single titled "Cumbersome." This is the same
station credited with breaking Collective Soul when it started playing
"Shine," off a demo disc.
"Cumbersome," with its combination of solid rock and a hooky melody, set
the phones to ringing and before long, SMT had a national profile, a charting
album and the traditional tour without end. We're talking with Ross from the Las
Vegas Hard Rock Casino and Hotel, a long Frisbee's throw from the type of digs to
which the band had grown accustomed.
"We'd always done well in the Orlando area. We could draw 500 every time
we played. We each called about 20 friends and they'd call other people. When
we came back after "Cumbersome" had been playing a month, we were drawing 1,000
to 1,500 kids and we don't have that many friends.
"Also, the kids in Orlando want to be part of something that's their own.
It's a big tourist town, so it has an exclusionary side - the big clubs catering
only to big acts, the shows you have to be a certain age to get into.
"We see Seven Mary Three T-shirts everywhere in Orlando and that makes
us feel the kids are proud of what we're doing.
"It's turning into a long tour, with all the physical demands that makes
on you. But that's not really a problem, because for one thing, we're enjoying
better accommodations and traveling arrangements.
"What I wasn't prepared for is how much there is to do offstage. Going to
radio stations, dealing with the media, having to think about videos, all
that business stuff. No more lying around hotel rooms, but I realize how
necessary all of it is.
"It's only a bother because I write a lot. Short stories, poems, all
kinds of stuff and there's less and less time to get something down.
"But believe me, we're not complaining. I want to learn all aspects of
this business."
Ross and guitarist Jason Pollock had already produced the indie Churn
album, which gave their label, Mammoth Records, the confidence to let them produce
the American Standard album. It's this kind of co-operative attitude and the
offer of creative control which made the band sign on their bottom line, rather
than go shopping for larger labels.
"We had lots of talks with label manager Steve Brown about what we wanted
out of the music business and what we wanted to do with our careers. In turn, he
laid out what the label could do for us, what the realistic expectations
were. It all fit for us."
Recorded in neighboring Tampa, American Standard delivers a rootsy, retro
sound melded to contemporary rock influences. The fit isn't meant to be
seamless; on some songs, like "Devil Boy," there's more Pearl Jam than
Creedence Clearwater Revival in the mix. On others, like "Favourite Dog," the tilt
goes the other way.
"I guess that's our sound, man. We talked about getting some kind of
cohesion going, but that meant reining in some songs. In the end, it would have been
a compromised version of what we'd intended. We just let them come out, one by
one, and speak for themselves.
"After listening to it all the way through a couple of times, I think an
identity begins to emerge. I don't want to get too analytical about it, but
it's something for us to build on.
"The connectedness is thematic. They're all songs about human
relationships and the huge need for forgiveness.
"There are hints of guilt in many of the songs. Many of our families have
gone through divorce and fidelity is a big issue with this band. Can a man
and a woman, or a man and a man, or whoever, can they stay together? Should they
stay together through it all?"
Seven Mary Three raises such burning questions at Lee's Palace
Saturday.
'Cumbersome' Ended, and Real Show Began
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
February 24, 1996, Saturday, FIVE STAR LIFT Edition
Diane Toroian
SEVEN MARY THREE could have said "Goodnight, St. Louis" after singing
"Cumbersome." and no one would have cared. A good chunk of the crowd at
Thursday's sold-out Mississippi Nights show came to hear that song and that
song only. But even when half of the audience stopped listening, Seven Mary
Three didn't stop playing.
Instead, the Florida-based quartet, one of the better Pearl Jam wannabe
bands, launched into some decidedly un-"Cumbersome"-like songs, shifting
from blues to Southern-fried rock to socialist work anthem.
Who would have thought they had it in them?
The first half of the show was a study in defensive performing. No
gesture was wasted, no meaningless banter was exchanged, no detour was explored. The
band just played it safe, delivering one straight-from-the-CD song after
another as lead singer Jason Ross stared at the club's back wall. His vocals were
throaty and ernest and the playing was tight, but the whole thing seemed
rather bloodless.
Then as concertgoers cleared out, the band loosened up. Drummer Giti
Khasla and Ross launched into "Punch In Punch Out," something close to an Army
march with a hint of a jig. Harmonicas and down-home grooves followed. Those fans
already heading down Highway 40 with "Cumbersome" on the tape deck were
missing the show's best moments.
Staying In
South China Morning Post, February 18, 1996
Robin Lynam
The cover of American Standard shows a red-neck farmer chopping the head
off a chicken with an axe. The cover is a good metaphor for the music within.
Seven Mary Three deal in good old straight-up-and-down American rock 'n'
roll. There is nothing radically new here, but the group gives itself a little
extra class by using musical dynamics intelligently and effectively. A song will
move from a hard stomp to a lyrical flutter and back again almost seamlessly. So
maybe it's only rock 'n' roll, but it's clever rock 'n' roll and I like it.
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