Local Beat: Vinyl Theatre at Rave.
Where would you rather be in January: Milwaukee or Texas?
For some fans of Vinyl Theatre, it’s a nobrainer.
Diehard followers from Texas, Florida, Washington and elsewhere will be in Milwaukee on Friday for the alternative rock trio’s hometown show at the Rave, band members said. But it won’t be just another concert. The band will premiere all nine songs from its forthcoming album, to be released by Fueled by Ramen. (That’s the label for Twenty One Pilots, Panic! at the Disco and Paramore.)
“I am very excited to share the new stuff,” drummer Nick Cesarz said. “When people hear it, I know the response is going to be great.”
In April, Cesarz, singer and guitarist Keegan Calmes and keyboardist Chris Senner went to Nashville for its first cowriting sessions ever, including sessions with Relient K frontman Matt Thiessen.
The band narrowed the playlist to nine songs from the possible 40. Calmes described them as more “straight-ahead rock” compared to the synthesizer-heavy sound on its 2014 Fueled by Ramen debut “Electrogram.”
“This is a darker album,” Cesarz said. “The melodies are a little weirder, there are sections where we get to play a little more. Before it was very cut and dry with verse, chorus, bridge. This is an evolution.”
Calmes’ favorite track is “30 Seconds,” cowritten with Gabe Simon, co-founder of the indie rock band Kopecky. Beginning with nostalgic acoustic guitar, Calmes sings of living life to the fullest, a touch of the Killers’ grandeur in his croon and driving guitar. “That song is to me the direction we’re going,” Calmes said.
Vinyl Theatre was given all of August to record the album at Dreamland Recording Studios near Woodstock, N.Y., first built as a church in 1896. Label management “kind of let us be and trusted us,” Calmes said, and hired Alex Aldi, who produced Passion Pit’s 2015 album “Kindred.”
A release date hasn’t been announced, but some new songs will drop before or during the trio’s spring tour with Dashboard Confessional, featuring Milwaukee born-and-based bassist Scott Schoenbeck.
“In middle school that was the first band I thought was really cool,” Calmes said. “I had an MP3 player you’d clip on your pants, and I’d ride around on my Huffy bike, listening to ‘Vindicated.’ Never in a million years did I think I would go on tour with them.”