So first I want to give you a little information about myself, and how I got into Maroon in the first place. I am not a super long-time fan like some of you out there (considering they have been together about seven years, and some fans have been there from nearly the beginning), but don't think that means I don't love them as much as anyone else. My brother first heard about them sometime around the summer of 2000, and I remember him mentioning to me how awesome they were, but I just never got around to checking them out, being the lazy fool I am. Well I go to college at UCSD, and I came home for Christmas break which was when I was driving my brother's car and listening to the random mix cd he had in at the time. This track came on that I had never heard of, it was this amazing voice singing this super catchy song that went something like "If you only knew what I went through just to get to you..." Well, at that very moment I was fully enlightened. This musical sound was like nothing I had ever heard before, and I knew I had to hear more, this song had changed my musical life forever. So I got home, found my brother, and asked him "who is that band on your cd that sings that song 'if you only knew...'?" and he was like "the best band in the world! Kara's Flowers!!". So my brother proceeded to burn me a cd with Fourth World and a bunch of songs from Stagg Street for my Christmas present, and from then on I made it a habit to check for new songs to download every couple of weeks or so. The music started to go through some changes, Ragdoll was an interesting song for me, took me awhile to get used to it, but now it happens to be one of my all time favorites. When I first heard Sunday Morning I was amazed at this new style, I swear it was like the best thing I had ever heard, unfortunately I have worn that song out for myself by listening to it far too many times in too short a period. Well, the songs kept coming, Tangled, Woman, Sweetest Goodbye, all totally unique and amazing, wow this is a great band. And then... summer of 2001 came along and I finally got the opportunity to see Maroon live!!! It was a dream come true, and I didn't care that I had to go to ticketmaster and ask for 6 tickets to "Evan and Jaron" please. I knew I was buying tix for the best band ever, and indeed it was the best show I had ever experienced! I have since seen them two more times, but that first show was definitely the best, although every show they put on is totally amazing, to see them for the first time was better than I had ever imagined it would be! OK, that was my loooong Maroon story, if you read it, thank you for your patience, if you didn't, don't worry, it wasn't important. On to what matters...
About my Maroon information, I have gotten all my knowledge of the band just from reading other websites and am not going to put here everything I know, just what I think you should know if you don't know the band already. If anything here is wrong, please let me know, and I am sorry if my info page seems incomplete or anything, I have not known the band for very long, so this is just the knowledge I have acquired in the last 9 or 10 months. So here it is:
When Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, and Ryan Dusick were in high school together, around 1994, they started jamming and decided to start a garage band; Adam singing and playing guitar, Jesse playing lead guitar, Mickey on the bass, and Ryan taking the drums. When the four of them took a trip together to bring flowers to Kara for her birthday, on February 6, 1994, the name "Kara's Flowers" was born, and band began playing gigs in the school gym soon after. (if you want to read more about the band members, check out A Simple Kind of Kara's Flowers where there are descriptions of the original 4.)
A producer from Reprise records happened to see them playing and was so impressed at their upbeat, unique sound that he signed them for a record deal. They went on to record "The Fourth World" which was released in August of 1997.
My knowledge of the time after the album release is a bit foggy, but I believe that the radio wouldn't play their songs because they were too far from mainstream. Well, the band eventually left Reprise, although I am not sure when this was. Ryan attended UCLA as an english major, and just graduated in the spring of 2001. They did continue working on music through all this, however.
I am a bit confused about the order of these events and releases, I don't really know the dates, but here is what I do know... Stagg Street recordings was recorded in 1999 I think, maybe earlier, and only sold at shows, although bootlegs were made, and the songs are now easily downloadable. These songs were getting pretty different from their original Fourth World stuff.
Adam and Jesse took a trip to New York where they tried out a bunch of new things with new influences, their music really started to develop around this time. Here they recorded the four-track demonstrations including songs like "Shayanni's Surprise" and "Vanessa". I think it was probably after this trip that the band recorded their demos of "Angel In Bluejeans," "Come Talk With Me," etc.
After these new experimental songs they began to change even more when they recorded songs like "Ragdoll," "Secret," and "Not Coming Home," soon followed by "Sunday Morning," "Woman," "Tangled," and "Sweetest Goodbye," among others. Keep in mind, at this point I had never seen them live, so I am just going by when the songs became available to download. The order is far from exact I am sure.
Well when Kara's Flowers' style had changed so drastically from what it had originally been, they decided it was time for a new name. Not only did they feel they were a different band, but people just couldn't seem to grasp the name "Kara's Flowers", it was always being pronounced wrong. So after much debate, the name Maroon was chosen and announced. So now the style change was kind of confirmed with the name change, and the music could be divided into Kara's Flowers and Maroon, with only the Maroon songs ever being played from this point on.
It was very shortly after the name change that the band added a member. When the music developed, Jesse began playing the keyboard/piano for many, or most, of the songs. At shows he would trade off or attempt to play both at once, his ability to do so being proof of his talent. It was clear that a new musician was needed, so after a little scandal with his old band, James Valentine of Square switched over to Maroon as the new guitarist. His talent adds to the already awesome band, with great guitar solos at shows, and now Jesse can fully focus on the keyboard, which he is truely amazing at!
As of now, Maroon has signed to Octone records and is currently working on their album. It has not been announced which songs will be included on the album, but it has been mentioned that the live hit "She Will" is being considered as a radio single, and I do know that the band has been writing new songs for the album, so it will be incredible I am sure!!! It also has not been announced when the album will be released, but considering they are just starting to record in the fall I am sure it won't be for awhile, possibly spring, but I really have no idea. I will try to post it on this site when I know any more info for sure though, so check back.
The official website is always up-to-date, so for new news check there every few days, you can link to it from the top, or you can join the yahoo club where info is always posted. (you can find the club through the official website)
Well, that is all I know, so I hope I was informative. All you really NEED to know is that Maroon is the best band ever, and you should hear as much of their music as you can obtain and should anxiously await the album. I know the release date will probably be the happiest musical day of my life! Oh and if you can possibly attend one of their live shows, GO! It will be an amazing show, I assure you, they always are. After all, this is Maroon we're talking about.
