“We’re doing this, in the first place, because we’re jealous of Green Day and we’re jealous of the Foo Fighters and we’re jealous of Queen and The Who because they are all able to give their fans an experience that cuts deeper than a catchy single, an album concept or a flashy stage show.” Or so says Brandon Phillips of Kansas City’s The Architects. While his tongue may be tucked firmly in cheek, it doesn’t diminish the overall importance and ground-breaking nature of the band’s latest undertaking… BORDER WARS, a concept album and comic book presented in five episodes.
Equal parts epic album, visual artistic expression, and heavy storytelling, BORDER WARS is a breathtaking series of five connected episodes told through a collection of comic book stories and their accompanying soundtrack releases. The concept album is the culmination of nearly two years of blood & sweat-sodden labor, consuming tens of thousands of cigarettes and thousands of midnight hours to bring fans the biggest, coolest experience possible. Set to release in five episodic forms, the band was able to cram Border Wars with a multitude of quality tracks without the constraints of adding any “filler.”
To really understand Border Wars, you first have to wrap your head around The Architects outlook on the current state of the music industry as a whole. As the world’s definition of epic shift from Beatlemania to Biebermania, the Kansas City natives look to redefine and reestablish the modern idea of “doing something big.” With a “you may well be able to outsell me, but you’ll never out-create me” approach to their latest release, Brandon Phillips and company are set to shatter the preconception that auditioning for American Idol or The Voice is the only way to succeed.
When The Architects joined forces with Skeleton Crew Records and illustrator Mallory Dorn, an enviable project was born. Accompanying the music part of the “project”, Dorn’s vivid artwork illustrates this first installment of the serialized novel. As a companion piece to their modern take on meat and potatoes rock, the book helps define the unique vision that the band has constructed.
What would begin simply as a collection of ideas from the mind of singer and principal songwriter Brandon Phillips would eventually become BORDER WARS, which tells the story of Tom & Josie, two kids from a tiny town in southwestern Texas. Their backgrounds could not be more different. Tom is the only son of a wealthy televangelist minister. Josie is a runaway, currently employed by meth cooker. Their paths weave and interact with the city’s corrupt sheriff and his reality show, an ex-cartel boss on death row, hookers, scumbags, mob lawyers, crooked senators and a pair of wise morticians, culminating into a blood-soaked denouement.
Following the split of The Gadjits in 2004, the band has pushed forward, balancing a punk mentality with a solid, blue-collar work ethic. With four well-received full lengths under their belt (Keys to the Building 2004, Revenge 2006, Vice 2008 and The Hard Way 2009) the band is no stranger to release day. Aimed for a July 16, 2013 street date for Episode One, Border Wars is intended to keep fan on the edge of their seat, jonesing for the next chapter to drop.
They’re here to remind you that music is not a temporary fashion accessory fling.

Josh Berwanger could easily be considered a veteran of the rock and roll wars. He first made a name for himself as a member of The Anniversary, a seminal Kansas band that released two glorious albums (2000’s Designing a Nervous Breakdown and 2002’s Your Majesty) and selling over 100,000 records before imploding in a breakup of Fleetwood Mac-style proportions while attempting to tour Japan. Undeterred, Berwanger put together a new band—a country-rock outfit called The Only Children–and would go on to release two criminally underrated records (2004’s Change of Living and 2007’s Keeper of Youth) before pulling the plug on that project and taking a job doing the next most logical thing possible– coaching high school basketball in Lawrence, Kansas.

Having experienced the highest highs and lowest lows involved with chasing his musical dreams for the better part of two decades, Berwanger found himself at a crossroads—should he finally hang up his guitar for good or should he soldier on, pulling together his best tunes and working with a group of friends to make the best music possible? Luckily, he chose the latter. “There’s this part of me that really wants music to be normal again. I don’t even know what I mean by that exactly, but I know what normal isn’t—designer outfits, fireworks, crazy gimmicks. I don’t know how to relate to that. I want to make rock and roll. I want to make something honest.”

Such sentiments make sense coming from a guy who, as a child, used his first communion money to buy Motley Crue’s Shout At The Devil on cassette. On his new record, Strange Stains, Berwanger manages to balance what have always been his primary influences—the spirit and ethos of classic rock with the kind of pop sensibility and knack for hummable melody that made The Anniversary such a great band back in their heyday. Tracks like “Time Traveler” and “I Can Feel the Moon” rank among some of Berwanger’s loveliest (and catchiest) tunes, while “Baby Loses Her Mind” is the kind of sing-along jam that wouldn’t have been out of place on a classic FM radio playlist.

For the recording of Strange Stains, Berwanger joined forces with old pal (and original drummer for The Anniversary) Michael Hutcherson, who brought not only brought the rhythm to the record, but a wonderful familiarity as well. “Josh and I met in 1996 while playing in local Kansas City pop punk bands,” recalls Hutcherson, “I am honored to be making music with Josh again. For all that’s changed in our lives over the years, we’ve still got a symbiotic musical relationship. No questions, no egos, just rock and roll. “

The new record—which also features additional playing from The Breeders’ Jim Macpherson—speaks not only to Berwanger’s tenacity as a musician, but also to his sense of humor as well. Even though his musical path has been strewn with a few left turns (and a couple of cliffs), he has always retained his ability to turn lemons into sweet, sweet lemonade. Regarding the origins of Strange Stains, he has this to say: “I started dating a girl and she said the only way she would continue to date me was if I got a job in corporate America that involved sitting in a cubicle. I said a quick ‘Fuck No’ and instantly started writing this new album.”

Berwanger’s songs are born out of love, heartbreak, fear and frustration. They sound as big and open and honest as a Kansas skyline and speak to the struggle, unique to someone trying to slug it out in the music business for most of their adult life. Berwanger is, any many ways, a visceral statement about what it means to keep doing what you love—even when it feels like you are doing so against all odds.
”It’s an honest and truly sincere rock and roll record,” he says. “It’s a record that speaks about love, heartbreak, idiots, and continuing to pursue what you love to do, no matter how hard that shit is.”
-T.Cole Rachel

This house is on fire.