War Stories members lick bruises, move forward

By JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 10:24 AM PDT ∞

Boy joins band; band gets signed to major label ---- the great American music success story, right?

Not so much anymore.

In the case of North County's alternative-rock band War Stories, the happily-ever-after part is still being written.

Lead singer and co-founder Evan Robinson explained that after he and guitarist Reid Curby began writing music together five years ago, they ended up getting signed to Velvet Hammer, which was part of the Sony BMG empire via Columbia Records. After going into the studio to cut their first album, they headed out on a national tour in 2006, while waiting for the CD to be released.

"We were halfway through a national tour and I got a call from our management that Columbia was dropping the band and was not going to put out the record, which had been mixed and mastered," he said by phone last week.

"That was a definitely abrupt stop to the whole label side of things."

Robinson, who grew up in Fallbrook, and Curby, who lives in Temecula, had played under the names Frantic and onethousand pictures before deciding on the name War Stories.

And freed from the Columbia contract, Robinson said they headed back into the studio to rerecord the songs from their original sessions, as well as a few new ones. The self-titled "War Stories: Vol. 1" will be issued Monday night during a show at the Casbah in San Diego.

"We'd done recordings in the past, and demos, and passed our music around on our own. This is the first actual album that's being released."

The record is being distributed by the indie label Ares, owned by the band's manager, Robinson said ---- which gives the band the best of both worlds: complete ownership of the product and access to fans.

While the band members have the kind of jobs that give them the flexibility to still pursue the music (Robinson works at the Sammy's Woodfired Pizza in Carlsbad that recently burned down, but is temporarily assigned to another), Robinson said going out on another lengthy tour is unlikely right now, even with a new CD out.

"It costs so much money to be on the road. It's a tough thing. You're paying over $4 a gallon for gas and you're in a van that gets 10 miles to the gallon, and we're a band that doesn't draw thousands of kids to a show."

So for now, the band is aiming closer to home.

"We do West Coast stuff, keeping it more local for the time being," Robinson said. "We definitely love to just go out and play, because we love to play shows. We rehearse a lot ---- it's nice to get out of the rehearsal studio and into a venue."

But if the band is taking things slow, perhaps applying painful lessons learned from their brush with the big time, it's not that they don't believe in their music, he said.

"I feel we're saying more than just the sonic sound of the music; we have a message. In an industry filled with a lot of negative music, we create something positive.

"I feel it's a nice change of pace."

War Stories

When: 8:30 Aug. 18

Where: The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., San Diego

Admission: $7

Info: (619) 232-4355 or casbahmusic.com

Web: myspace.com/warstoriesmusic