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Washington Post - ExpressTHE BRAKES' ZACH DJANIKIAN said by phone the band was on its way to Dewey Beach, Del., part of a mini beach tour.
And maybe it's good for the group to get some sun.
The Philadelphia-based quintet is still adjusting to something no group of twentysomething friends should have to deal with — the loss of a bandmate and, more important, a best friend.
Photo courtesy The BrakesOn May 4, founding Brakes drummer Josh Sack died from acute myelogenous leukemia, a disease he was diagnosed with last August. Sack was 22. His death came two days prior to the release of The Brakes' first full-length album, the live compilation "Tale of Two Cities" (Hyena). (Listen to the whole album at iMeem.)
Despite The Brakes cutting back on shows in the wake of Sack's diagnosis, Djankian said his death was still a shock.
"I think it's always a shock no matter how much you think you know what's going on," he said. "It doesn't matter. Once it happens, it kind of turns your life upside down. It was definitely a shock a shock to your system. We're still walking around with that heavily upon us right now — it's going to take a long time."
The band booked a full-length tour to support "Two Cities," cancelling a series of gigs in Texas to mourn Sack. But, on May 13, the tour continued.
"At the same time we felt like we needed to play because that's what he would have wanted us to do — even when he was sick," Djankian said. "It's interesting because when you get thrown something that hard at you, you throw hard back — that's kind of how I think about it. Life moves on no matter how you think about it."
Photo by Tibor
The Brakes are doing their best to move on, using this tour as a chance to celebrate Sack and his playing on "Two Cities." The album was recorded during April 2007, when the band played two different residencies at once, with electric shows at the Knitting Factory in New York and acoustic shows at Milkboy in Philly. The CD is a best-of from those shows, with six songs from each venue, capturing a band whose identity is hard to pin down. Landing somewhere between freewheeling pop and sophisticated rock, The Brakes have shared the stage with jam bands like Moe and indie-rock acts like The Hold Steady.
The band has still yet to proper studio album, instead releasing a series of EPs. Djankian, who handles lead vocals, guitar, bass and tenor saxophone — all the The Brakes' musicians are multi-instrumentalists — said the band opted to do a live album because the stage is where the group plays its best.
20080609-brakes-cd.jpg"We had gone in the studio before, not with any real purpose," he said. "The overall thing was, we could never really get it to the same place we thought we could get it live. And we didn't have any experience in the studio, we had these residencies. It sounds completely what we wanted it to sound like."
He said having the two different residencies at the same time helped push the band — it made everyone feel like they were on tour.
"I think that when you do that, first of all, you have to keep your momentum going when you're doing a residency," Djankian said. "To do it in two different cities you get the feeling that you're tour. Your doing shows each week and there's no time to lag."
Intentional or not, "Two Cities" comes off as a celebration — Sack's lasting contribution to the band. The energy is high and the performances are tight, especially on album standout "Into the Ground."
"We were trying to capture the essence of whatever we were doing is," Djankian said. "I think one of the main things that has sort of nagged at us sometimes is our own identity and trying to figure that out. So, what better way to do that than to record it and listen to it?"
And now the band is in the middle of regrouping, with Spence Cohen, a friend of a friend, stepping in on drums for now. He's been with the band for just under two months.
"We're sort of rebuilding," Djankian said. "I think everybody feels that we're on the cusp of a new and exciting thing."
» Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; with Carney and George Stanford Mon., 8:30 p.m., $10; 703-522-8340. (Clarendon)
Written by Express contributor Rudi Greenberg