The Songs For
by Mike Huberty
January 2010
Lacrosse, WI's The Songs For
With their first full-length CD, On The Fence, La Crosse, Wiscosnin’s THE SONGS FOR have created a catchy indie pop record earnest and simple in its themes of affection and redemption. At its core, the group consists of Ross Lueckar and David Bashaw who share guitar and vocal duties while bringing in guest performers to fill out the band’s sound.
As Lueckar puts it, he and Bashaw share a love of “90’s modern rock which is our common ground.” Lueckar describes his first and greatest influences as Weezer and Ash, which inspired him to first pick up a guitar, while Bashaw “went through a music program in college so he has a lot more of the traditional framing and background, where I just have the desire to make noise.” As for the name, Lueckar straightforwardly says, “The band name comes from the fact that I like incomplete sentences. Travis had an album called The Man Who and that was an incomplete sentence. I just thought it was a cool idea for a band name. The first time I tried the name I ended up doing something else because the drummer thought that it made us sound like a bunch of sissies. So it got shelved for awhile.”
For people who’d like to try the band for the first time, Lueckar says that “Bull’s Eye” from On The Fence and available on the band’s Myspace page (www.myspace.com/thesongsfor) is a good introduction to their sound. “Lyrically”, he says, “almost everything on the CD is whining about a girl. Something I’m trying to get away from in my older age. I can’t think of a song on there that’s not about a girl. Hopefully there’s nothing there as tear-jerky or wrist-cuttery as Dashboard Confessional, though.”
Coming from a smaller town has also influenced the way that Lueckar writes and according to him, it’s probably why he started playing music in the first place. “If I lived in a larger city”, he says, “I might not have as much interest being in my own band because I could see ten bands that I like every week if I wanted to. Living in a smaller town, not to say that there’s not amazingly talented bands around here, but the stuff doesn’t cater to my taste and I’m definitely a minority, so I think it’s a reason to get out there and hopefully put out something to appeal to similar-minded people.”
THE SONGS FOR will be performing as a full band at JB’s Speakeasy in La Crosse on Saturday, January 30th. “I definitely like the shows we play with a full band, I think we get a better audience reaction when we have the bass and drums and electric guitars.”, Lueckar explains. “Most of those happen at bars and it could just be the heavy drinking that makes them think we sound better and makes me think we sound better.” He elaborates, “I refer to us as the ninjas as the rock. In my mind, we’re in and out. We rock the shit out of the place, there’s just socks flying in all directions, getting rocked off”, and then he laughs and adds, “but no one seems to notice it happened.”