By Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic
When the members of Shade hit the basement of ex-Suburban Sect guitarist Tim Thomas to record "Forever Now, Nowhere Tomorrow," the goal was to capture the live sound, says bassist Brad Kiefer, " 'cause that's what we think we're best at."
And the album does, in fact, recall their live sound. But it should be noted that their live sound could pass for a record, a swirling psychedelic wall of sound that makes you wonder how a local band could get to be so British.
But it's all about the inspirations -- inspirations Kiefer says are "still the same as when we started -- The Stone Roses, the Charlatans big-time, especially with the keyboards, Blur and Ride. Those would probably be the three or four biggest influences."
At first, there were no keyboards in the band.
Craig Stuart, whose brother Matt provides the hypnotizing vocals at the center of the storm, was two years younger than the others when they put the band together in late '97 while finishing high school.
"We wanted to incorporate him," Kiefer says, "but he was too much younger at the time."
The keyboards had become a major part of what the band is all about by the time recording began.
They've self-released the record.
As Kiefer explains, "We kind of just wanted to do it ourselves and kind of label-shop it from there."
Although the official release of the album is tonight, you could have bought it weeks ago in California, where they staged a five-day mini-tour with shows in San Francisco, Fresno, Hollywood and just outside of Los Angeles.
"We actually got the record in two days before we left," says Kiefer.
The tour came together when a California band called Sundown that they'd done a couple shows with invited them out to play The Gig in Hollywood.
"It was just gonna be, like, one show," Kiefer says. "And we decided if we were gonna go there for one show, we might as well set up a mini-tour type deal. So I just started booking shows before and after it."
Those shows included an in-store performance at the Fresno Tower Records.
The tour went well enough that he's already planning an even more ambitious trip -- a 10-day United Kingdom tour.
"It's possible," he says. "It would be tough, but I think our sound fits more there than here. We'd be more appreciated there."
But then, he feels the band is more appreciated anywhere than here.
"And I'm not even saying far, far out of town," he says. "I'm saying, like, Ohio -- Youngstown, Akron. There's a much better vibe going on. I mean, we have our fan base, sort of, here. But it just seems as though people aren't really interested in that kind of stuff here. They're interested in the Nick's Fat City gig and that's it."