In the modern mash-up of genres where any noun can be followed by “core” and a new music style is born, few bands are content being called good old rock ‘n’ roll. But Philadelphia’s Restorations isn’t trying to be anything it’s not.
Veteran to the Philly music scene, Restorations is composed of developed artists who have more to offer than just chugs and four-chord songs. The band is comprised of Jon Loudon on guitar and vocals, Dave Klyman on guitar, Ben Pierce on guitar and keyboard, Dan Zimmerman on bass and Carlin Brown on drums. Feeding local punks a taste of quality songwriting since 2008, Restorations is about to release its second full-length album titled “LP2.”
Without getting into the politics of genres, Restorations can be characterized by melodic guitar leads, catchy song structure, raspy low vocals that manage to keep pitch and even an organ. Restorations has a style that remains familiar but will constantly keep you guessing.
Restorations will be playing at the First Unitarian Church on Friday, April 5..
The Temple News: How’d you guys get started?
Jon Loudon: We started this band as a project to just hang out locally. We were all in hardcore bands for the longest time before this band and had toured extensively and were looking to do something kind of low key and close to home and that escalated to what we’re doing now, I guess, for better or for worse.
TTN: How’d you guys meet each other?
JL: I’ve known [Klyman] the longest.
Dave Klyman: We met in college.
JL: We went to shows together – that sort of thing. And once we were both in bands, all of our bands played together. I met Ben at the second show of my first band.
DK: Playing shows together.
Ben Pierce: I met [Brown] the day I joined the band, and that was the day [he] joined the band.
TTN: So you guys are from Philly?
JL: Yeah, [Klyman and I] went to Temple. [Pierce] went to Drexel. Jeff, our old drummer, went to Temple. We played shows there for the longest time.
TTN: Any good stories out of the Philly scene?
JL: I don’t know. It’s been a long crazy trip. [Klyman], any good show stories?
DK: The freshest one in my mind is Paint it Black hitting us up the day of a secret house show and being like, “Hey, can you guys do this?” and us being, “I think?”
JL: But that’s sort of the way Philly rolls every now and again. You get phone calls every now and they’re like, “This is going to be the best show ever!”
TTN: What have you guys been up to recently?
JL: Hanging out. We are putting out a new record April 2. That’s been done since the fall, so we’ve been hanging out figuring out what is we are going to do.
TTN: What’s that album called?
JL: “LP2.”
TTN: What was the writing process behind that album?
JL: It was pretty easy. We kind of just hung out on this one. We had a year to write it.
DK: Put the five of us in a room and see what happens.
JL: It was a lot of fun. Kind of laid back.
DK: We don’t think we actually knew that we were working toward something.
JL: We were just writing songs.
Carlin Brown: We would write something and then throw it away and then bring it back and then rewrite it.
DK: Then it became apparent that we should probably make a cohesive record.
TTN: How would you describe the style of music you are trying to go for?
JL: It’s just rock ‘n’ roll to me, man. We sound exactly what we are. We’re just a bunch of old punks playing rock ‘n’ roll music.
TTN: What’s next for you guys?
JL: Put the record out. We have a record release show…which is really awesome. Really looking forward to that. And then we’re playing a couple of one offs. We have a tour coming up this summer that I can’t talk about yet, unfortunately.
Dan Zimmerman: It’s not with Rush.
JL: We’re not touring with Rush. That’s pretty much all I can say about it.
TTN: Where did the band name Restorations come from?
DK: It was supposed to be Shirley Temple of Doom.
JL: No it’s true. [Klyman and I] sat in a bar for about two hours spit balling band names. The only thing that stuck was Shirley Temple of Doom. So we called the band Restorations, because it was the only serious name that we had.
TTN: Anything you guys want to throw out there?
DK: I just can’t believe that we aren’t touring with Rush.
Jared Whalen can be reached at jared.whalen@temple.edu.
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