March Forth

I've often been accused of being extremely cynical when reviewing major artists. Negativity is a major aspect of my life, and it's one I participate in on a day to day basis. Moaning and complaining are every five minutes means I have a rather annoyed girlfriend. And as Johnny Rotten quite bluntly put it, "Anger is an energy." There's a major difference between critiquing newly formed adventurous bands and well established bands. We're talking about constructive criticism... Apposed to my typical destructive cynicism.

Today we're looking at March Forth, a laddish band with serious characteristics. Formed in Ontario Canada, they cite Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine and Pearl Jam as influences. The first thing I noticed when listening to this EP, was the hilarity of the lyrics. Not many bands introduce humour into their music, whilst keeping the seriousness behind it. They have a Facebook page, Last.fm, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Twitter, MySpace, Reverbnation, Tumblr, YouTube account and a promotion website. That’s pretty good going for a band with one other EP under their belt. They've taken the previous 'rap-rock' out of the format and focused on sounding retro, whilst keeping all the popular mod cons. 'Lady For The Night' opens with a rhythm guitar riff and the electric guitar soars on top of that. The bass needs to be tweaked and pumped up just a little to fill the void space. Singer Anthony D'Elia sounds marvelous live, but on this EP and especially this track, the vocal comes across thin and ultimately weak. The drumming could also be tweaked, but with funds being (what I presume) slim, recording and production are always going to be a problem. I'm sure if Steve Albini was in the studio, this would sound 10x better, without a doubt. I'm not knocking their skill level; it’s the recording that sounds standard. The final verse to this song features the most outrageous and hilarious lyrics on the EP, "Quarter past two, it's getting late, gotta make a move right now. I know what I got to do, I just don't know how. " Here we have Anthony questioning his confidence, but we know what’s coming... "So I man up, stand up, walk to her, say 'girl, how you like your eggs?'. What I meant to say was, 'lady, wanna spread your legs?'." Cue the awkward smile by Moiez.

'Backseat Bingo' is a major structural improvement over Lady For The Night. The bass is at perfect volume and sounds great, as does the drumming which is 50's/60's Chuck Berry-esque. Vocals have been taken care of, with screeches and random segments of 'ohhhhhhh' during the Led Zeppelin breakdown. I have to give it to them; they manage to sound modern even with the instrumentation sounding aged and common. Eddie C. Lanes is the man behind guitar, and what a fantastic job he's done on this track. 'Careful What You're Wishing For' isn’t as strong as the previous few. Lyrically it's too stark, and musically it's far too empty. The drumming standout, as does the left sided guitar solo towards the end. Too many breaks and changes can clutter a track, and that’s what happens here. It's sounding messy, take out some of the harsh left sided guitar, and introduce smoother bass. The vocals don't cut it for me on this track. I'm not sure what's happened, but the verses are far too quiet and predictable, whilst the loud vocal at 2.15 needs throwing out.

This EP shows future resilience and commitment to a direction. The final track 'Shades of Grey in F#m' has lovely guitar work at the beginning and very aggressive guitar work towards the end. The bass is strong and sounds a little heavy; it clogs the sound a little too much and obscures the drumming. The drumming really does need to be recorded differently lads, it's far too soft and becomes minimalized by the bass in the final mix. Guitar work is sounding smooth in most places, sharp in others, but the left/right twinges work a treat. - Music Review Database

The band have a classic rock influence that comes through on their post-punk base. The result are songs with dynamic swings and great, deep grooves. - T.O. Snob's Music

There’s a band that’s been on my radar for a blog for some time called March Forth from the Toronto area. They have a bit of a garage rock/punk type deal going on that I dig. The one thing that I have always liked about this particular style of music is the harkening back to the classic '70s sound with the grunge sensibilities of the '90s. It a good mix that March Forth does very well. - "Do You Know Jack?"

The boys behind March Forth have grown a ton in six months. The band is still relatively young—a fact I smiled upon fondly when I reviewed their self-titled debut in April—but over the past few months a lot has gone on behind the scenes. The quintet has become a quartet. The group has reevaluated its sound and let hip-hop take the back seat. And it seems these decisions were, for the most part, good ones—The Revival is a stronger record than its predecessor in terms of songwriting, musicianship, and production quality.

The band I previously compared to Linkin Park and N.E.R.D., I would now be more inclined to slot next to vintage Jet or Franz Ferdinand. Eddie C. Lane’s frantic guitar work—particularly on the EP opener, Lady for the Night—is reminiscent of the pop-rock of the early 2000’s; Anthonie D’Elia’s increasingly confident yelp fits that bill to a T. While most of March Forth’s earlier lyrics centered around heartbreak, tracks like the vintage sounding Backseat Bingo are more occupied with the rockstar celebration. Verses like, “So I man up, stand up, walk to her, say ‘girl, how’d you like your eggs,’/ What I meant to say was lady, wanna spread your legs?” blur the line between cheese and bravado—which what rock and roll is all about, really.

The album isn’t perfect. Sure March Forth are a tighter band, but a large part of their initial charm was their novelty—their music was rose-tinted with ambition. Now that the boys’ genre switch has landed them on a more populated path, they’re going to have to do a lot more to stand out. Whether that involves resurrecting past influences, or pushing even further forward, we’ll see, but if there’s one thing to be sure about, it’s that March Forth are dexterous. Given their speed and adaptability, I have no doubt that that horizon isn’t so far off. Once more, I look forward to hearing what they do next. - Grayowl Point

When I was in grade six, I loved Linkin Park. It was the late 90’s, I was 11 years old, and Eminem and Blink-182 co-ruled my CD collection. Adrenaline soaked anthems laced with nihilism and rebellion: these were the emotions of a generation. So, when Linkin Park found the perfect balance–imposing the hard-hitting vocals of rap over the driving powerchords of alt-rock–on 1996’s Hybrid Theory, it was no surprise that the band’s debut immediately went platinum.

Since then, a series of groups have attempted to channel that magic. Pharrell William’s N.E.R.D. shouldered into the rap-rock genre with moderate success. More recent pop-ups, like 3Oh!3, have permeated mainstream culture with a couple cringe-worthy riffs on the formula. But no one’s touched the cultural phenomenon that was Linkin Park—hell, even the Jiggaman was caught in that cultural alchemy. Rap-rock was the supernova of the 90s: a fiery explosion that erupted out of nowhere, then, once it gained everyone’s attention, rapidly burned away.

And that’s why March Forth is something unique: one of few new rap-rock acts to immerge out of the folk loving 2011's. Not-surprising, all the main-players of the movement are present on the band’s influence list – Eminem, Linkin Park—but when one does the math, something doesn’t quite add-up. Band founders, Nabeel Ahmed, Anthony D’Elia and Moiez Ismail were four years old when Hybrid Theory dropped; some members even younger. Think Beyonce channeling Etta James in Cadillac Records: there’s a feeling of nostalgia, but the revisited product is never the same. With each new generation comes a new way of seeing things. And in March Forth’s case, this is one of the group’s strengths.

March Forth is more pop than nu-metal. All of the instrumentation is organic; the lyrics, more concerned with subtle heartbreak than full on breakdowns. And then there’s the reintegration of the prechorus—a device once stripped completely from mainstream pop music by verse-chorus-verse-formula fembots like Britney and Christina

And finally, unlike Linkin Park, these guys aren’t a bunch of spiky-haired, tattooed-out bros from California. March Fourth is composed of five teenagers from Vaughan, Ontario. When they launched their self-titled demo in Toronto, all proceeds from the show went to MusiCounts, a charity set up to subsidize school music programs across Canada.

“Our high school was pretty fortunate. We had a variety of instruments, but there are a lot of schools that don’t,” Ahmed said in an interview with York Region, “We wanted other kids to experience that because it gives you something to do. It gets pretty boring in the suburbs.”

March Forth is five fresh-faced musicians with unique tastes and even more unique visions. The album may have its rough patches—the vocals lack the confidence of more practiced musicians, the chord progressions get repetitive—but, recorded out of pocket by a band not even completely out of high school, it’s an ambitious debut. I have no doubt that these guys will carve a musical niche for themselves somewhere, and once they do, I’m excited to see where they go with it.

Top Track: Pause

Rating: Young Hoot (Decent) - Grayowl Point

The members of March Forth feel lucky they were exposed to instrumental music in high school. Now they’re using their talents to help other young people have the same opportunity.
The Maple band is donating proceeds from its demo CD release show, tomorrow at The Central in Toronto, to MusiCounts.
The Canadian charity supports school music programs across the country through grants, scholarships and other initiatives.
“Our high school was pretty fortunate. We had a variety of instruments, but there are a lot of schools that don’t,” said March Forth guitarist and vocalist Nabeel A. “We wanted other kids to experience that because it gives you something to do. It gets pretty boring in the suburbs.”
This week’s show, dubbed March Forth with March Forth on March Fourth, is just the beginning for the local band.
“It will be an annual fundraiser,” said bassist Moiez Ismail. “It will probably get bigger and bigger every year.”
March Forth formed last August shortly after the six-member band that Nabeel, Moiez and vocalist Anthony D’Elia performed in together split up. The 19-year-old childhood friends decided to soldier on and sought out a new lead guitarist and drummer by posting an ad on Craigslist. Matthias Balaban, an 18-year-old drummer from Oak Ridges, spotted the ad and responded while friends put them in touch with 19-year-old Markham guitarist Rishabh Varshney.
By all accounts, everything clicked from the first moment they played together.
“When Matthias came out, it was just straight chemistry,” Nabeel said. “For 10 minutes it was really awkward because he was just tuning the drums and we were just sitting there. And then he started playing a beat and we just started jamming and it just took off.”
Despite most of the band members being students — Anthony and Matthias are recent graduates — they’ve invested a fair amount of time and money into their music, including laying out the cash to professionally record their self-titled, four-track demo disc earlier this year.
“We all just came to the conclusion that it’s go hard or go home,” Nabeel said. “It’s like you get one shot when you’re young.”
“It’s not going to be the end of the world if we don’t make it because we know we tried. That’s what matters,” Moiez added. “As long as we tried, we don’t have to be those what-if guys.”
March Forth’s ultimate dream is to take the stage at England’s famed Glastonbury festival. But for now, they’re focusing on trying to build a name for themselves closer to home.
They hope their blending of hip hop and rock will help March Forth stand out from the indie band pack.
“That’s the kind of music we’re trying to get out there,” Nabeel said. “We want rhythmic verses with hip hop verses and then powerful choruses.”
The mixing of those two genres has led some people to draw comparisons between March Forth and American band Linkin Park.
“That’s the band that we’re kind of default associated with because they’re rock and hip hop. But in terms of sound, we’re really nothing alike,” Nabeel said. “We stay true to more real instruments, more rock, whereas Linkin Park, they’ve got more (synthesizers) going on.”
“We try to stay away from the power chords,” added Moiez.
March Forth’s repertoire is quite varied, too.
“If you want to jam out there’s tracks for that. If you want a storytelling track, we’ve got that, too,” Nabeel said. “If you want to cry yourself to sleep, we’ve got that.”
Likewise, there’s something for almost everyone’s taste at their live show, including plenty of “bad jokes,” Moiez said.
“It’s definitely a nice night with a lot of warm memories because we try to make everyone feel as welcome as we can,” he said.
Joining March Forth for the concert at The Central (603 Markham Street), will be a pair of Vaughan bands — The Noble Truths and DieMorphis.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the $8 cover charge will be donated to MusiCounts.
If you can’t make it to that show, March Forth will be playing at Parts & Labour, 1566 Queen Street West in Toronto, Friday, March 11 as part of the Canadian Music Week festival. - Vaughan Citizen

March Forth is an upcoming alternative rock/rap band from Vaughan, Ontario. It only seemed fitting to release their first demo CD on March 4th, 2011 by having a CD release concert. The concert will be held at The Central, located at 603 Markham Street in Toronto, Ontario. The concert will also raise money for a charity called MusiCounts, which funds music programs in schools across Canada. The show will feature two other local bands in addition to March Forth.

The band will be gearing up to perform at the Canadian Music Festival as well just one week later, which happens between March 9-13, 2011. You can check out March Forth on Facebook at www.facebook.com/marchforthmusic. - SNAP Newspaper