| The Broadways | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Punk rock |
| Years active | 1996–1998 |
| Labels | Asian Man Records Bicycle Records |
| Associated acts | Slapstick Tricky Dick The Lawrence Arms The Honor System Whale Horse |
| Members | |
| Brendan Kelly Chris McCaughan Dan Hanaway Rob DePaola |
|
The Broadways were a short-lived punk band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1996 after the dissolution of the influential ska-punk band Slapstick. The latter's vocalist Brendan Kelly and trumpet player Dan Hanaway assumed the roles of bassist and guitarist, joined by Rob DePaola on drums and Chris McCaughan (formerly of Tricky Dick) on guitar. All but DePaola also assumed vocal duties.
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The Broadways acknowledged influence from and drew comparisons to Crimpshrine, Fifteen and Jawbreaker and their songs are typically characterised by socio-policital lyrics and a lack of adherence to traditional verse-chorus structures (both musically and lyrically).
The band released one full album, Broken Star, in 1998 on Asian Man Records. They broke up later that year, with Kelly stating a reason of "all of us growing out of where we were in our lives when we started the band". Subsequently, Kelly and McCaughan formed The Lawrence Arms, while Hanaway and DePaola formed The Honor System.
A compilation entitled Broken Van was released in 2000, comprising 6 songs recorded after Broken Star (thought to have been planned for release on a split with Baxter [1][2]) and all songs from their earlier EPs.
In 2007 and 2008, Asian Man Records announced plans to reissue both of the band's albums on vinyl and CD. Broken Star had long since sold out on vinyl, while Broken Van had been CD-only; both had for some time been out of stock on CD. [3] In late 2007, Mike Park posted a topic on the label's forum stating that he could not find a copy of Broken Van and would need a fan to provide one in order to go ahead. [4] Broken Van went on sale in July 2008, and Broken Star shortly after.
Despite having claimed that they never would [5], The Lawrence Arms performed songs by The Broadways during their late 2007 tour: "15 Minutes" and "The Kitchen Floor". Notably, Brendan sang "15 Minutes", which was originally sung by Dan; its inclusion instead of one of his own songs is probably due to its relative popularity among The Broadways' catalogue, being their only track offered as a free download on the official Asian Man Records website. Also performed during the tour was Slapstick's "Broken Down". The likely reason for this is that, since the tour was something of a showcase for Brendan and Chris's various projects, incorporating their side projects The Falcon and Sundowner, some of their older songs were added for the sake of completion and to please die-hard fans. It is unclear whether any future performances will feature old songs.
As part of the Asian Man Records 15th anniversary festival in 2011, for which founder Mike Park set himself the lofty aim of recruiting (including reuniting, if necessary) every band who had ever released on his label, all four members of The Broadways reunited to play an afternoon matinee show on the 17th of June. The festival had already seen Dan and Brendan perform in their earlier band Slapstick the day before, and would also see both go on to participate in performances by their current bands (respectively) Ratasucia and The Lawrence Arms.