Underdog Alma Mater

Forever the Sickest Kids

Success in the music business requires a magical combination of talent, perseverance and opportunity. The six young rockers in Dallas, Texas band Forever the Sickest Kids easily possess all this and more. They're unquestionably gifted, ambitious and hard working, and in the eight months since they formed, they've repeatedly created their own opportunities - sometimes accidentally. Five days after their official formation, singer Jonathan Cook was flipping through the Pure Volume web site when, with a click of his mouse, he inadvertently spent $350 the band didn't have on a front page song placement. Worse still, Forever the Sickest Kids didn't have any songs written yet. So, over the next two days, the band members got together and banged out a track called "Hey Brittany," then recorded it with their friend/producer Jeff Rockwell. "Buying that Pure Volume spot was an amazingly great mistake," laughs guitarist Caleb Turman, noting how "Hey Brittney" quickly becoming the band's first big break. "The song just took off and after that everyone was suddenly interested in us." It's easy to see why. "Hey Brittany" is a confectionary gem that combines elements of power pop, pop-punk, electro-pop and `80s radio rock into an unforgettable sing-along that resonates with the energy and vitality of youth. Contrary to popular belief, "Brittany" isn't Britney Spears, but rather a girl who was engaged to be married, yet made no attempt to hide her affection for the members of the Forever the Sickest Kids. Since it was first posted, "Hey Brittany" has garnered over 2.5 million Internet plays and triggered a bidding war between eight major labels. Motown emerged victorious, and recently released the band's EP Television Off, Party On, which features five fizzy, electric songs that should whet listener's appetites until the band's full-length debut comes out in March 2008.

Like "Hey Brittany" Forever The Sickest Kids' other songs tap into a place where boundless exuberance meets romantic disillusionment, and while the music is hardly a downer, it echoes with some bittersweet life lessons. "Believe Me I'm Lying," starts acoustic and builds with syncopated electronic beats, then busts into an exuberant, guitar-blaring pop song with yearning lyrics ("Go ahead and cry yourself to sleep and think how you hate me so bad). The sugar rush of "She's a Lady" is even more biting, as Cook sings, "I'm in love with a critic and a skeptic/ a traitor, I'd trade her in a second" over a bed of fist-in-air guitars and slithery synth lines.

"Our songs are about real stuff that's happened to us because that's what kids want to hear about," guitarist Marc Stewart says. "They want to listen to stories about things that could happen to them as well, or that already have happened to them."

While some of those stories, like "She's a Lady" and "Becky Starz" are about girls that have hurt the guys' feelings, Forever the Sickest Kids aren't entirely innocent of emotional button pushing. "Believe Me, I'm Lying," for example is about an occasion when Turman was caught red handed, leaving his girlfriend in tears.

"I was hanging out with some other girls, but I told my girlfriend that I was going out by myself," he explains. "So, the girls and I decided to get some coffee, and as we're walking to the car, my girlfriend pulled up and her headlights were right there in my face. I was totally busted."