Band Athenaeum begins second leg of its career
8-12-99

By Jeri Rowe, Staff Writer
News & Record
The Depot

A year ago, Athenaeum was leap-frogging around the country to support what Billboard magazine called a sure hit.

Life was one big blur. As the Greensboro band watched, "What I Didn't Know" became a Top 10 single. Their shows sold out. Their label, Atlantic Records, called them a top priority. Adoring fans compared them to The Beatles.

They seemed perched for stardom, ready to see their debut release "Radiance" go gold (500,000 units sold) and turn the four 20-something North Carolinians into poster boys of the power-pop movement.

It didn't happen. Their debut release, "Radiance," sold 80,000 units.

"I was stressed out for a couple of months," says Mark Kano, Athenaeum's 25-yar-old guitarist, singer and primary songwriter. "Everyone around us -- the label, our management and all of our friends -- thought that 'Radiance' would do really well, and I was shocked that it all stopped at about 100,000 (copies).

"I kept thinking 'What did we do wrong? Was it us? Was it the label?'" Kano says. "But it wasn't any of that. I realized that we had to let go of the past and move on."

Today, the band is preparing for the second CD and second leg of its career, which begins Saturday at Ziggy's nightclub in Winston-Salem -- without one of its original guitarists, without its original management company and without a push from a big-time record label.

Athenaeum brushed the big time 18 months ago when Atlantic Records released "Radiance."

Billboard magazine called Athenaeum one of the country's best power-pop bands. The magazine's editor, Timothy White, one of the country's most prominent rock journalists, described "Radiance" -- an album named after the Greensboro street where Kano once lived -- as a debut that contained some of the "biggest modern-rock radio smashes to arrive on the threshold of the new millennium."

Billboard magazine foreshadowed the band's good fortune. Two of its songs -- "Flat Tire" and "What I Didn't Know" -- cracked the top 40. Meanwhile, the band's first single, "What I Didn't Know," sold 50,000 copies and reached No. 9 on the country's modern-rock chart.

The band's video of "Flat Tire" appeared on MTV. Meanwhile, a snippet of "Unnoticed" squeaked onto the teen-friendly flick "Varsity Blues," and two other songs -- "Flat Tire" and "No One" -- got a full two minutes on the TV show "Melrose Place."

But fans didn't scramble to buy "Radiance," and, after several months of pushing the debut release, Atlantic Records executives decided against releasing more singles. By last fall, record executives wanted something different: a new CD.

Kano and the others say they believe Atlantic supported them well. Other experts on the local music scene aren't so sure.

"My personal thought is that Atlantic is one of those companies that throw spaghetti at a wall and see what sticks," says Chris Evatt, co-owner of the Zoo Bar, the first local bar Athenaeum played. "When it hits the big numbers, checkbooks open. When it doesn't, bands are written off and they look for the next big thing."

Compared to other new bands, Athenaeum's "Radiance" did well. The band sold more CDs than had other North Carolina bands on the national scene: Jump Little Children, Far Too Jones, Jolene, Whiskeytown, The Backsliders, Dag and Cravin Melon.

But Athenaeum is still struggling to make it. And that doesn't bode well for a band working in a numbers-oriented industry where many experts perceive profit -- not the developing of new talent -- comes first.

With their two-album deal with Atlantic, the band members know they may be dropped if their second recording falls short. That possibility, they say, keeps them hungry.

"You can't say, 'Oh, we've got albums 3,4,5 and 6 to do our best," says McKinney, 24. "You can't do that in this business anymore. You get one shot out of the deal, and that's it. That's the way things are."

Athenaeum spent 10 months on the road in 1998. Band members covered half the country and played 200 shows. They slept little, saw no privacy, survived on a fast-food diet and went through seven vans before traveling in a green-and-gold tour bus once used by blues guitarist Keb Mo. The band's road-warrior lifestyle paid off. Athenaeum matured. They got to know the insides of music business, and they performed with such buzz bands as the Goo Goo Dolls, Big Wreck and Semisonic. But above all, they became a better players and better performers.

But the tour took its toll. In January, the band returned to Greensboro without a guitarist and without a management company.

Band members fired Metropolitan Entertainment Group because they felt the New York-based company wasn't doing enough to get the band's name in front of its fans. Band members replaced Metropolitan with two heavy-hitters: Leah Simon, a modern-rock radio promoter, and Rick Krim, a former MTV executive who now recruits unsigned bands for EMI Music Publishing.

Then came the departure of lead guitarist Grey Brewster, a former UNCG student. He said he wanted to pursue other musical interests. Last week in a brief interview, Brewster declined to talk about his departure: "Their thing is their thing, and I've closed the chapter on that."

The band has yet to find a replacement.

"It's almost like a marriage," McKinney says of the search. "You hope you can be with this person for a long time."

Since jumping off the road, McKinney and the others followed a much slower pace. They stayed in and around Greensboro. When they ran into someone they know, they often hear the same comment's over and over: "Man, you guys must be rich."

Not quite. The band did get royalty checks every three or four months from Atlantic. But that money covered the rent and paid the bills. It wasn't extravagant, the band members say. Not by a long shot.

The band pocketed at least $12,000 for the "Melrose Place" spot. The slot on MTV's "120 Minutes" grabbed the band just enough money to buy a decent six-pack of beer: $7.45.

"It wasn't quite the luxury that a lot of people associate with having a song on the radio and selling a lot of records," McKinney says.

For the last few months, surrounded by five guitars and a bass, Kano has worked on new songs for the band's second release. He sat in a spare bedroom, wrote the words on a yellow legal pad and recorded everything he liked on his 8-track recording machine.

Then, he, Brown and McKinney practiced in studios in Chapel Hill and Kernersville. They honed Athenaeum's infectious power-pop sound and stretched it by playing slide guitar, using various percussive instruments and making Kano's bourbon-smooth voice sound edgier.

Now, the band's steps out of its musical greenhouse.

Last week, Kano and the others flew to Los Angeles to begin picking a producer. Their second release could come out next spring. In the meantime, the band will start its 12-date swing through the Southeast on Saturday. John Crook -- Kano's former roommate who now fronts Jolene, a North Carolina band signed by Sire Records -- will fill in on guitar.

"When you're playing the same songs, night after night, they tend to lose some of their excitement," says Brown, 22. "But now, we're working on new material, and I'm real excited. And the most exciting part is that we're creating music."

Want to go?
What: Athenaeum with Evan Olson Explosion
When: 10 p.m. Saturday
Where: Ziggy's, 433 Basity St., Winston-Salem
Tickets: $10
Information: 748-1064

ATHENAEUM'S OTHER AREA SHOWS
Aug. 20: Tremont Music Hall, Charlotte
Aug. 26: Cat's Cradle, Carrboro
Aug. 28: Five Points Pub, Raleigh
Sept. 10: Legends, Boone