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Friday,
September 7, 2001
Marching
onward to success
Dallas-based band Chomsky keeps fun in check
By Emily Ward
Skiff Staff
Energetic. Angular. Entertaining. Quirky.
Dallas
is home for a multitude of rock/pop bands, yet it’s difficult
to believe many others in the city have as much spastic enthusiasm
as Chomsky.
With
the release of their new album last month and upcoming performance
at Cyberfest in Fort Worth’s Sundance Square, this band’s
stone is certainly gathering no moss. Drummer Matt Kellum,
singer-guitarists Sean Halleck and Glen Reynolds, keyboard
player Don Cento and bass performer James Driscoll make up
this edgy group of guys who came together about three years
ago to make what is now called Chomsky. One of the most influential
motivations for these quirky soldiers is the need to have
a good time.
“One
of the things about Chomsky is that what is most important
for us is that we have fun,” Halleck said. “That
really comes off in our live show.”
In
fact, it’s tough to decide who has more fun at a Chomsky
show, the fans or the band. By the look of things, that contest
is neck-and-neck. Reynolds, who is the band’s other singer-guitarist,
said the gratification is most times mutual to everybody at
the concert.
“A
lot of times when we do a really connected show with the audience,
at the end of the show, everybody is clapping and I just start
clapping because I am just as happy for them that they were
having as much fun as we were,” Reynolds said. “It’s
like we are all working together to make the show.”
Performing
at an average of two to three shows a week, Chomsky has been
keeping very busy in the past few months promoting their second
album, “Onward Quirky Soldiers,” which was released
in August. Always keeping with them the “Chomsky Army”
(the die-hard fans), the band’s growing success has reached
the Metroplex and into other Texas cities such as Austin,
Houston and Lubbock.
“We
are still trying to work on places closer to home — places
where a lot of people already have the idea of Chomsky in
their heads,” Reynolds said. “A lot of our fans
are discussion-oriented people, so they will tell others to
go see Chomsky.”
The
Chomsky sensation first took off last year after the release
of their first album “A Few Possible Selections for the
Soundtrack of Your Life,” which received the Album of
the Year 2000 award from The Dallas Observer.
“We
don’t take ourselves to be an art/rock band, but if the
things you like about music is a lot of action and involvement,
then you can listen to Chomsky at that level,” Halleck
said. “But if you like to just relax and have a good
time, you can also listen to Chomsky at that level.”
Halleck
is in charge of writing the lyrics, though the finished product
is always the work of the entire group. Reynolds described
the song-making process in the Chomsky family as democratic.
“It’s
a pretty rare thing when a band can sit around like the Jedi
Council and decide what a song is going to be like,”
he said. “But we pull it off.”
FW
Weekly named Chomsky Best New Act in 2000 and both FW Weekly
and The Dallas Observer honored the band as the Best Rock/Pop
Band in 2001. All in all, it’s easy to say that the band
is very pleased with the way things are going.
“Things
have been steam rolling for us,” Halleck said. “But
for now, we are going to have a great time with how well things
are going. We are not done surprising ourselves, and that’s
the most fun part about it.”
See
Chomsky at the Cyber Music Festival at 6 p.m. on Saturday
Sept. 8 at Sundance Square in Downtown Fort Worth. The free
concert includes performances by Blues Traveler, Josh Joplin
Group and Carey Pierce. For more on Chomsky, visit (www.chomsky.com).
Emily Ward
e.e.ward@student.tcu.edu
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