The Architects Get Ready To Share Their "Vice"

Creating a perfect rock record is a daunting task. Luckily, Anodyne recording artists, The Architects, have the blueprint. With their third full-length album, Vice, ready to hit the streets on May 13, 2008, this unassuming foursome have constructed a powerful new album atop the structure they build with their two previous critically-hailed albums, 2004's Keys to the Building and 2006's Revenge. Through a dozen guilty-pleasuring tracks, The Architects build a tale around the idea of "vice" and what it means. "Vice is a word that is loaded with meanings; overt meanings, hidden meanings, contradictory meanings and it happens that 'Vice' pretty well sums up what this record is about," explains vocalist/guitarist Brandon Phillips. "Our last record was called Revenge because the themes that ran through all the songs were all common to the jilted, bitter feelings of a person who feels as though he/she owes the world some payback. With this new record, all the songs came to be about low life, low rent shit... things like drugs, booze, prostitution and crime. All vices and all things that most people see, hear or experience every day. One of these songs might be the anthem by which somebody cuts up some lines of coke while 1000 miles away somebody else is listening to the same song and remembering why they got clean. Vice itself is a two-sided coin and most of the songs reflect that. And besides, 2112 was already taken."

From the AC/DC-styled powerchord opening of the initial track "Cold Hard Facts" to the dramatic drum/guitar intro of "Jersey Shore" with its searing guitars slicing through a powerful rhythm section to the Jack Daniels-soaked strut of "Mrs. Doyle", Vice is the sound of a band on the verge of greatness. Undoubtedly a result of the familial connection between the three Phillips brothers - Brandon, Zach on bass and Adam on drums with childhood friend Keenan Nichols on lead guitar, the album flows effortlessly like dinner conversation at a family reunion. "The band dynamic ranges from three hours of circular arguments about nothing-in-particular to completely locked-in on-stage ESP," explains Brandon. "Mostly we get along grandly. That whole Gallager Brothers thing about fighting is kind of a mystery to me," he snickers, in reference to the infamous Oasis in-fighting.

Vice is raw and raucous rock, bred in the Heartland and raised on meat and potatoes, with healthy dollops of The Replacements, The Who, and The Clash. But that doesn't stop the Man in Black from being referenced. "My favorite rock and roll is the rock and roll that is unapologetically bad-ass," Brandon continues. "I might also add that it helps to be from the Midwest. Americana thrives here and when you are up to your chin in Americana, you learn that some things are just enduring... Johnny Cash being one of them."

Borne years ago from the ashes of seminal ska/punk upstarts Gadjits, The Architects are all grown up now, but that doesn't mean they've matured or tempered their sound. This is the sound of a band whose foundation is firmly planted in the rebellious word of rock. Brandon sums up The Architects perfectly in saying, "Here comes an unpretentious, salt-of-the-earth rock band playing rock and punk songs into a scrum of glammed-up bands, screaming self-absorbed diary entries into their Pro Tools LE systems and quasi-artsy mumblers feverishly masturbating the back catalog of the Beatles for one last on-camera money shot. Now tell me how it is that we don't come out of this smelling like roses?"

Tour dates
with Burning Brides, Bellrays
May 8 Pensacola, FL Sluggo's
May 9 Ft. Walton Beach, FL Coasters
May 10 Orlando/Tampa, FL TBD
May 11Gainesville, FL Common Grounds
May 15 Denver, CO The Bluebird Theatre
May 17 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock
May 18 Madison, WI TBA
May 20 Kansas City, KS The Bottleneck
May 21 Chicago, IL Double Door
May 22 Detroit, MI Magic Stick
May 23 Cleveland, OH The Grog Shop
May 24 TBD
May 25 Boston, MA Middle East
May 27 New York, NY TBD
May 28 Washington DC The Black Cat
May 29 TBD
May 30 Atlanta, GA The Earl
May 31 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
June 01 Dallas, TX House of Blues
June 02 Austin, TX TBD
June 05 Tucson, AZ Club Congress
June 06 Phoenix, AZ TBD
June 07 Los Angeles, CA The Troubadour

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