The Newest Framptons: Meg and Dia

Meg and Dia
Originally uploaded by TheUniversalCynic

While listening to the 2009 Warped Tour compilation, I got this insidious tune stuck in my head. It had great pop hooks and beautiful vocals. It really stood out from the screamo of many of the bands on the disc. I was in love. With Meg and Dia? Who the heck are Meg and Dia? I had to look further. Here, courtesy of their website, is the lowdown on some talented youngsters, Meg and Dia Frampton.

"Seeing the world is an eye-opening experience—especially if you grew up in the tiny town of Draper, Utah—so it’s no wonder Meg & Dia’s new album, Here, Here and Here, paints a portrait of what life has been like for this hard-working band as they’ve toured for the past two and a half years in support of their 2006 debut album Something Real (which spawned the fan favorite singles “Roses” and “Monster”). Despite being fronted and named after sisters Meg and Dia Frampton, Meg & Dia is very much a collaborative effort between five individual musicians. With the upcoming release of their second album Here, Here and Here, this group of five friends has begun to evolve into the kind of musicians they want to be—although they’re the first to admit that it’s still a collective work in progress. “On the first record, Dia and I were these little naïve girls who got this huge opportunity to make a record,” Meg recalls. “We went into it completely unaware of everything. Then we traveled the world and our perspective expanded a hundred-fold.”

It was this newly gained viewpoint that influenced all the songs on Here, Here and Here, whose title is inspired by a quote courtesy of Mozart: “There’s nothing to composing. You just need to focus on here, here and here,” he said in reference to his head, heart, and ear. If there’s a consistent theme throughout the album, it’s that life doesn’t come with instructions or a map. “All of the songs reflect the sentiment that we’ve been on this really long journey—from point A to point B—and it’s taken us a long time to learn all these different things,” Meg explains in regard to their learn-as-you-go attitude. “We wanted to create the feeling of progress, even though we’re not done yet. The whole album has a feeling of motion…that we’re trying to get somewhere while still having a little more way to go.”

Meg & Dia have certainly shown just how far they’ve come since their debut release. Here, Here and Here is a musical and emotional rollercoaster through various striations of pop-rock sounds and sensations, with each of the 13 tracks brimming with the band’s signature candor and charisma. Meg & Dia stepped outside of their musical comfort zone by experimenting with different instruments and arrangements. “Hug Me” is an upbeat rocker inspired by Brave New World and the desire to be your own person amidst a sea of expectation; “What If” is a guitar-driven, alt-rock romp that’s filled with hypothetical questions we all encounter in our lives (i.e., “What if I find my purpose first?/What if I fulfill my life’s work?/What if you’re counting on my failure made me live?”); “Bored Of Your Love,” a revealing and bittersweet duet performed with Tom Higgenson of the Plain White T’s, marks Meg and Dia’s first co-writing experience with an outside person; and “Black Wedding” is an ominous-yet-sassy salsa with fist-pounding choruses and arena-rock guitar solos.

To help Meg & Dia realize their vision, the band turned to noted producer Howard Benson, who is known for his work with My Chemical Romance and The All-American Rejects among many others. “Howard encouraged us to do a bit of soul-searching and inspired us to push ourselves creatively as artists to the limit,” Meg says. “I learned what I am capable of and to not be afraid to try any idea no matter what it is. He taught me to have faith in myself and not sell myself short just because I'm young and haven't had as much experience. His hand in the arrangements really helped bringing the songs together as a whole, making them more cohesive and emotionally solid.”

Never ones to hold anything back lyrically or musically, Meg and Dia also pride themselves on the fact that—for better or for worse—they are responsible for all of their own material. Meg mastered the GarageBand recording program while the band was demoing songs, which resulted in the final tracks not varying too much from their original form. “Organic” and “authentic” were keywords during the songwriting process, which meant that everything—from the lyrics, to the guitar lines, to the string arrangements—is 100 percent a product of the band. The result is an album that encourages the listener to use their imagination and glean their own meaning from the songs. “Today a lot of musicians hire people or just go with big, corporate writing teams,” Dia says. “That kind of thing scares me to death. “Even though we’re still learning, it’s just cool that no matter what, it’s all completely us.”
Check out the Warped Tour Compilation for Meg and Dia, along with a lot of other interesting bands.

2009 Warped Tour Bands - Still Ironing Out the Details

These bands have been mentioned as Warped Tour 09 participants. We have some good ones. There are the classics like Anti Flag, NOFX, Bad Religion, Bouncing Souls, Less than Jake... These are the MUST SEE's... There are a lot of others on the list that are more specialized, such as ska-meisters Big D and the Kids Table, and the celt punk Flogging Molly, the more metal-tinged acts like Underoath and Thrice. Alot of the other bands are up and comers you will be better off for having seen as well. The Tour looks to be a nice primer for the school of punk, with something for every taste. From the ska, the old school, the emo's, the metallic, and the celt/folk punks. Get there early and take notes. School's out.

The list:
3OH!3
A Day to Remember
A Skylit Drive
Alexisonfire
Anti-Flag
Bad Religion
Bayside
Big D and the Kids Table
Black Tide
Bouncing Souls
Breathe Carolina
Brokencyde
Cash Cash
Chiodos
Dance Gavin Dance
Dear and the Headlights
Dirty Heads
Escape the Fate
Every Avenue
Flogging Molly
Gallows
Hit the Lights
I Set My Friends on Fire
Jeffree Star
Less Than Jake
Lights
Meg & Dia
Millionaires
NOFX
Outernational
P.O.S.
Saosin
Scary Kids Scaring Kids
Senses Fail
Shad
Silverstein
Sing it Loud
Streetlight Manifesto
Tat
The A.K.A.s
The Architects
The Ataris
The Devil Wears Prada
The Maine
The White Tie Affair
There For Tomorrow
Therefore I Am
Thrice
TV/TV
Underoath
Valencia
Westbound Train

Tour Dates - Warped Tour 2009

http://www.flickr.com/photos/captinoutrageous/2701984251/
Originally uploaded by captinoutrageous

While the venues have yet to be nailed down, the preliminary tour "route" has been mapped out. My favorite date is the one on my birthday July 30, in Milwaukee during the height of Summerfest. Sounds like a great time to me!

June 26, 2009 Pomona, CA
June 27, 2009 San Francisco, CA
June 28, 2009 Ventura, CA
June 30, 2009 Phoenix, AZ
July 1, 2009 Las Cruces, NM
July 2, 2009 San Antonio, TX
July 3, 2009 Houston, TX
July 5, 2009 Dallas, TX
July 7, 2009 Indianapolis, IN
July 8, 2009 Pittsburgh, PA
July 9, 2009 Cleveland, OH
July 10, 2009 Toronto, ON
July 11, 2009 Montreal, QC
July 12, 2009 Hartford, CT
July 14, 2009 Washington, DC
July 15, 2009 Buffalo, NY
July 16, 2009 Scranton, PA
July 17, 2009 Camden, NJ
July 18, 2009 Uniondale, NY
July 19, 2009 TBA, NJ
July 21, 2009 Boston, MA
July 22, 2009 Virginia Beach, VA
July 23, 2009 Charlotte, NC
July 24, 2009 Orlando, FL
July 25, 2009 Miami, FL
July 26, 2009 Tampa, FL
July 28, 2009 Atlanta, GA
July 29, 2009 Cincinnati, OH
July 30, 2009 Milwaukee, WI
July 31, 2009 Detroit, MI
August 1, 2009 Chicago, IL
August 2, 2009 Minneapolis, MN
August 3, 2009 St. Louis, MO
August 4, 2009 Kansas City, MO
August 7, 2009 Boise, ID
August 8, 2009 Salt Lake City, UT
August 9, 2009 Denver, CO
August 12, 2009 Calgary, AB
August 14, 2009 Vancouver, BC
August 15, 2009 Seattle, WA
August 16, 2009 Portland, OR
August 19, 2009 Fresno, CA
August 20, 2009 San Francisco, CA
August 21, 2009 Sacramento, CA
August 22, 2009 San Diego, CA
August 23, 2009 Los Angeles, CA