opened a book, and there it was

we're currently on tour. check our tour dates at www.eggrecords.com

help to get some of the unworthy music off the radio!

It really gives unknown nads a chance to get their names out there.

Already have. Been there, done that.

The group got together in 1995 while Jeremy Digby, Dustin Bartholomew and two pals were still in high school. They basically learned to play their instruments while performing at coffeehouses and parties. Inspired originally by “the whole Seattle thing,” according to Dustin, they saved up some money and did some recording. One of the friends dropped out and Dustin jumped behind the kit.The naiveté of youth coupled with self-confidence in their burgeoning songwriting ability, had the band sending unsolicited tapes to labels in 1998. Somehow the tape made its way up the chain at Sire Records to president Seymour Stein. He flew out to Arkansas to see the then trio. “That was great. It was pretty much our first club show when he came down to see us play. It was almost overwhelming,” Dustin says.Next thing you know, Skirt has a record deal and is in the studio recording their debut album, Faith Loves You, after picking up Tim and Matthew. Released in April on Egg Records in conjunction with Sire and last year online via Emusic.com, the album is the sound of young men questioning the ways of the world. Opening with the squealing guitars and thudding rhythms of “Lazy,” the band seems powered by youth, but the piano-based ballads that crop of towards the end of the album (“Fisher” and “Perfect”) show that these four know the power of dynamics. “Belt,” from which the album’s title comes, combines an almost-funky bass line with crunching guitars and a wide-open hook. Then there’s the near emo-core tension of “Daddy,” where chiming chords counterpoint chopping guitars and Jeremy sounds world-weary and sad beyond his years. Consistently, Jeremy’s lyrics are deeply personal, but connect to the larger world with universal truths and themes. The power of Faith is a testament to the power of the group.“We recorded it pretty much live, we had to overdub some guitars and the vocals, but the basic tracks were done live,” says Dustin. “For as young as we are—were—we’ve done quite a bit of recording. For the album we were in the studio for 20 days or something.”The obvious question though is what’s there to do in Arkansas?“Not much,” Dustin laughs. “There’s not much else to do, know what I mean? There’s not a whole lot going on.”Why stay then? “We’re pretty centrally located for touring actually. We’re five hours from Dallas, five hours to Memphis, four hours to Kansas City, five hours to St. Louis and close to a lot of big cities, so it works out really well. Driving is really easy.”The band is friends with artists, musicians and poets—as well as artists of the digital age. Friends of the band designed and did the artwork for the enhanced portion of the CD, for free of course. Of course, Fayetteville’s arts community is centered around the university. “This is the biggest one in Arkansas. (Laughs) It’s not huge though,” says Dustin. “Still, this is the cultural center of Arkansas.”At first, being a non-mainstream sounding band in that town was “pretty weird,” Dustin admits. “Everyone thought we were pretty weird.” But they’ve come around, making the quartet the kings of Fayetteville, thanks in no small part because of the charismatic passion of Jeremy as a front person. He breathes life and fire into his lyrics, igniting songs onstage. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the guys are kind of cute. Maybe that’s why they draw nearly as many females as males to their concerts or maybe it’s simply the strength of the songs. Either way, Skirt is in it for the long haul. Skirt has performed with bands such as ECONOLINE CRUSH, FROGPOND, RADISH, THE GRAND ST. CRYERS and many more. Their song “Counting” was recently featured on the original soundtrack to the New Line Cinema film “Drop Dead Gorgeous”.

weezer, Mxpx, wilco, elvis costello, pearl jam

The Big Apple