Vertical Horizon

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Vertical Horizon
Origin Washington, D.C., USA
Genre(s) Alternative rock
Post-grunge
Pop rock
Years active 1992–present
Label(s) Hybrid
Website www.verticalhorizon.com
Members
Matt Scannell
Keith Kane
Sean Hurley
Former members
Ed Toth
Ryan Fisher
Seth Horan
Craig McIntyre
Blair Sinta

Vertical Horizon is an American alternative rock band from Washington, D.C., United States, famous for the late 90's/early 00's popular hits "You're A God" and "Everything You Want". Their most current release is Go, which was released in 2003 and re-released in 2005. A new album is expected in 2008.

Contents

[edit] History

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Vertical Horizon was formed in 1990 by Georgetown University undergrads Matthew Scannell and Keith Kane; after graduation in 1992 the duo relocated to Boston and, in 1992, self-released their debut album There and Back Again. There and Back Again was recorded in Matt's old high school over a period of a few days, and Matt and Keith together played all the instruments appearing on the album, though they both mostly played acoustic guitar. Both also contributed to writing all the songs, and both sang.

Matt and Keith toured for several years after this, mostly appearing with similar bands such as Jackopierce. By 1995, they were ready to record again. The resulting album, Running on Ice, again featured Matt and Keith playing acoustic guitar and singing, but with the addition of other musicians to play other instruments. Guests included Doug Derryberry, Jackopierce, and Carter Beauford (of the Dave Matthews Band) on drums. Two songs ("Wash Away" and "The Man who would be Santa") were featured on the 2nd Aware Records Compilation.

More touring followed in 1996 with Matt and Keith joined by Ed Toth on drums and Ryan Fisher on bass. A live album, Live Stages, was released at the end of the year, featuring more of an emphasis on electric guitar. Also, by this time, the band was explicit in their intent to find a major record label; band members have said that it was no accident that the first track of Live Stages opens with the sounds of a large cheering audience. Their wishes came true, and the band was signed to Sony BMG Music Entertainment/RCA Records.

Fisher had never intended to join the band permanently and left in mid-1997. Seth Horan took up bass duties for the rest of that year, and in 1998 Matt, Keith and Ed held auditions for their next bassist. Their first audition was Sean Hurley, and everyone liked him immediately. There were many more auditions, but they eventually came back to Sean, and he officially joined Vertical Horizon.

The band's first effort with RCA was 1999's Everything You Want (with producers Ben Grosse, Mark Endert, and David Bendeth) (RCA re-released the three older albums as well, with new packaging). The first single, "We Are", made little impact. The second single, "Everything You Want", skyrocketed to the top of the charts, and became one of the most played songs on the radio in 2000.[citation needed] A third single, "You're a God", also did very well and was released as a live performance on the charity album Live in the X Lounge III. It also features in the movie Bruce Almighty. The fourth single, "Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)", received moderate airplay. In 2005, a remake of the song would become a top 10 country hit for Gary Allan. The band, which had been touring constantly since the album was released, continued touring until well into 2001. They then took a break, then came back to the studio to record their follow-up, which they hoped would be released soon enough to take advantage of the huge popularity of Everything You Want.

However, some management changes at RCA prevented this. It was announced that the new album, Go, would be released in September of 2002, but as the date drew closer, it appeared that this would not happen. It seemed everyone at RCA who had worked with the band on Everything You Want was no longer there, and the new employees weren't quite sure what to do with a band that did not quite fit the emerging trends of popular music.

Eventually the band went on a short tour in early 2003, and it was announced that Go (produced by John Shanks) would finally be released a year late, in September 2003. A larger tour started in August, leading up to the release of the album. A first single, "I'm Still Here", did moderately well, but faded relatively quickly and with little fanfare.

In the middle of 2004, the band ended their relationship with RCA. A new deal with Hybrid Recordings was inked in early 2005, with plans to re-release Go in the summer, including an additional track, "Better When You're Not There", which was not present on the original RCA release. The album track "Forever" was sent to radio ahead of the release, re-igniting interest for the album and indeed the band at numerous radio stations, and amongst fans old and new alike.

In July of 2005, it was announced that drummer Ed Toth had left the band. He now plays with the Doobie Brothers. Temporary stand-in drummers since then have been Craig McIntyre, a close personal friend of the band, and Blair Sinta.

In June of 2006 Matt Scannell announced that the band is working on a new album. The official website also announced that Neil Peart, from Rush, will play drums on three tracks on the new album. It was also noted at least one of the songs is a collaboration between Neil and Matt Scannell. On a video blog posted to Matt's MySpace page on February 20th, 2008, the new untitled album is undergoing final mixing and a release date is expected to be announced shortly. According to WMUC FM. 88.1 the new album is likely to be self-titled.

[edit] Current members

[edit] Former members

[edit] Discography

[edit] Charting singles

Year Title Chart positions Album
US Hot 100 US Modern Rock US Adult Contemporary US Adult Top 40
1999 "We Are" - 21 - - Everything You Want
1999 "Everything You Want" 1 5 - 1 Everything You Want
2000 "You're a God" 23 15 - 4 Everything You Want
2001 "Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)" 58 - - 7 Everything You Want
2003 "I'm Still Here" - - - 17 Go
2005 "Forever" - - 17 18 Go
2006 "When You Cry" - - - 35 Go

[edit] Song appearances

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Several Vertical Horizon songs have been featured on the soundtracks of popular television shows. The song "Everything You Want" was played on the WB drama Roswell, "Finding Me" appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer's fifth season premiere, and "Echo" was played on The WB's One Tree Hill. "Goodbye Again" was played on The WB drama Smallville while "You're a God" and "Give You Back" were both played in the pilot episode of Alias.

"You're a God" also appeared in Bruce Almighty. "Give You Back" was played in the 2001 Sylvester Stallone auto racing movie, Driven. An instrumental version of "Everything You Want" was featured in the intro of the women's suffrage movie Iron Jawed Angels. The song "Heart In Hand" was used in the soundtrack to the movie The New Guy.

Several Vertical Horizon songs (including "Send it Up") were used by the radio comedy duo Scharpling and Wurster in a live 2002 comedy sketch on WFMU, as examples of songs written by "Cory Harris", the leader of a fictional, archetypically dull, generic, major-label alt-rock band called "Mother 13"[1]. The Vertical Horizon songs were later replaced for the commercial release of the sketch on New Hope for the Ape Eared on Stereolaffs records.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Interview with Jon Wurster in The Onion A.V. Club, The Onion A.V. Club, May 5, 2004

[edit] External links