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It could be said that This Last Sunday began when the youngest of its four members (The Kipso Kid) was born, because from that point on, all four of their lives would lead up to it. In another way, it began at the 2003 Grissom-Shades Valley football game (which Grissom lost), when Scott and Steven decided to meet together on the last Sunday of Fall Break to jam. From this the name was derived. And so the group officially came into being on October 12, 2003, (on the last Sunday of Fall Break) when Steven, Scott, and Luke got together at Steven's house, in his living room, to jam for a little while. Scott brought along his trumpet, Luke his sax, and they used a tape and recorded themselves playing jazz music, band music, familiar tunes, and other types of musical things for 90 minutes, using a very cheap karaoke machine which came to be known as "The Guy." This first "volume," titled "The Rose That The Monkey Threw," would prove to be quite different from their future recordings, yet just as brilliant. The three young men were proud of their work, totally unrehearsed and spontaneous (as all the volumes were), and ready to make another recording with the fourth member, Tommy, who had been out of town the first time. And so on October 26 the full group met again in Steven's living room to play. Scott and Luke brought trumpet and sax, and Tommy brought his bass, as well as a harmonica. They met difficulty soon, however, when they discovered that Tommy's bass wasn't working. After a careful analysis and dissection of its hardware, they were still unable to find the cause or fix it. And so it was that Tommy played Steven's guitar instead, an unplanned, yet fateful decision. For 45 minutes the quartet played music similar to Vol. 1, but not at the same level of brilliance. Towards the end of this short period Tommy began playing a bluesy shuffle on the guitar, and the group joined in, with Steven on piano, Scott singing, and Luke on harmonica. It was a new sound for the group, but a good one. They were elated with their performance and were discussing its awesomeness when they realized that the tape had stopped. On rewinding it, they realized that virtually nothing they had played had been recorded correctly. Only faint bits and pieces of music remain on that half of a tape, which was dubbed Vol. 1.5 and titled "Nymphs and Shepherds." Undaunted, however, they found another tape and quickly set to work again, with a renewed creativity and a fresh, new sound. They began with "Last November," and moved on to many other great songs, with Tommy and Steven switching out on the guitar. The recording session ended somewhat early when Tommy had to leave after about 40 minutes, and so the recording ended soon after that. This work was called Vol. 2 - "Castles and Kings," and it marked the beginning of a new sound for This Last Sunday. They became more of a mainstream "band," with a singer, lyrics, guitar, and all of the trappings. And so they continued to play and record. Vol. 3, "Jammin' at Midnight," was recorded the night of Halloween at Luke's house in the laundry room/closet which was dubbed "The Studio." Several more new songs were written at this session. Vol. 4, "Out of Verbs," was recorded the night of November 10 in Steven's room. It continued in the This Last Sunday tradition of originality and vibrance, though less new material was written. Vol. 5, "Caviar and Sunbursts," was recorded on December 28, back in Steven's living room. The first side featured mostly re-recordings of previously written songs, while several great new songs were played on side 2. It was soon after this recording that Steven figured out a way to record the tapes onto his computer in a very crude way. The sound quality was about the same as the original tapes (i.e., pretty abysmal), but it was exciting because they could make tracks and thus make a low-quality CD. With the best songs from Volume 5, Steven compiled a 12-track CD called "Cinco de Mayo," distributed only to TLS members. The boys decided to record again, with the intent of turning it into a CD to sell. They met on January 6 at Steven's house and recorded almost all of the songs they had written so far. Steven transferred it to the computer and made the CD, titled "January." It was distributed to the band members and copies were sold to two very big fans, but no one else, as it was decided to wait until better recording equipment was available to attempt wider distribution. The better equipment came soon, fortunately, in the form of a borrowed P.A. system from Luke, Tommy, and Scott's church, Latham United Methodist Church. By plugging the system's output into Steven's dad's laptop, they achieved an almost-professional quality recording. On January 19 they made their first attempt with real equipment, and the result was so amazing, they were blown away. They recorded 6 songs that day, not quite enough for a CD, but enough to renew their exuberance and desire to record. The next week, on the 25th, they finished recording with four more songs and a second take of one of the original 6. With these 10 songs, they made their first real CD, the self-titled "This Last Sunday." These were sold for $1 to anyone and everyone. It is unknown exactly how many CDs were sold, but it was at least 100, since the final total of the funds from these sales came out to be about $125 (The discrepancy here lies in the fact that some people generously paid more than $1 for the CD). This money was saved in hopes of financing future TLS endeavors, but after the break-up it was distributed equally among the 4 members (and probably squandered soon afterwards). TLS also made their public performance debut in January, at the GHS Symphonic Band Camp Student/Faculty Recital. Needless to say, they were the only act not involving a band instrument (Luke only played harmonica). They performed "Last November" and "The Shuffle." It was not the epitome of stage presence or entertainment excellence, but it was decent. Scott used a word sheet, and kept his hands in his pockets, and all four guys had not yet grown accustomed to the limelight. However, they worked on improving that, most notably as they rapidly approached their performance at Olio, at Grissom--a "Battle of the Bands"-type event. The performance went over well and is fondly remembered by all TLS members and the fans who were there to listen and cheer. TLS continued writing music, of course, debuting one new songs, "The Goodnight Waltz," at Olio, which turned out to be their last performance. There were big plans for TLS after Olio, including a second CD, T-Shirts, and other advances. Soon after Olio the band recorded "The Goodnight Waltz" at Steven's house, but this was the farthest they every progressed at making new music. More songs were written, continuing up through the summer of 2004, but they were never recorded. By the fall of 2004 the members came to the decision to disband, if only to dispel the notion that they were still an active band. There were a few reunions, of course, since the members remained best friends. They held a reunion in December, in which they played with Matt Emerson and Matt Wurtele. During the summer of 2005 they played together a few more times along with the highly-skilled musician Steven Kim. They played and recorded a couple old TLS songs, including a few that were never recorded, as well as a new version of "Don't Let the Light Go Out." It is with great sadness that the four split up to go to their respective colleges: Tommy and Luke to Alabama, Scott to Auburn, and Steven to Vanderbilt. Scott was the first to leave, but before he did they held one last "sleepover," a TLS tradition, as a sort of "last hurrah." They played several of the old tunes and Luke, Steven, and Scott even came up with a new tune, a medley rendition of the traditional "This Old Man." This Last Sunday was truly an awesome experience for all four of the members, and the fans made it even better. Thanks for listening. |
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