The Icarus Line

The Icarus Line is a rock band from Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The band currently consists of Joe Cardamone on vocals, Alvin DeGuzman on guitar, Don Devore on bass and Jeff 'The Captain' Watson on drums. They are known for playing an abrasive form of rock music both compliant and contrary to music trends from the late 1990s and early 00's, their loud, energetic stageshows, and for their seemingly reckless or 'tough' attitude off-stage.

History

The Icarus Line was formed in 1999 with original members Cardamone, DeGuzman, Aaron 'Icarus' North on guitar, Lance Arnao on bass, and Aaron Austin on drums. They released the Red and Black Attack EP later that year. Jeff Watson became the band's drummer in 2000. Their first full-length album was Mono, released in 2001 on Los Angeles record label Buddyhead records. The album was seen as a fresh take on punk that was influenced by such bands as Born Against & Refused. To support it, the band toured hard for several years. By 2003, Arnao had left the band and was replaced by Don Devore, who was formerly a member of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania rock band Ink & Dagger (also featured on Buddyhead records). In 2004, the band released their second full-length album, Penance Soiree. Radically different from their debut, on this record The Stooges' influence came to the forefront, along with a noisy and washed-out Jesus and Mary Chain guitar sound. In early 2005, Aaron North left the group, and the remaining members began work on a new album.

Attitude

The Icarus Line is in particular known for their on-stage and off-stage actions which show their sense of bravado and anti-mainstream sentiment. Notorius incidents the band has been involved in include:

• During a live show at the Hard Rock Cafe, breaking into a memorabilia case at the club to take out the framed guitar inside, in order to play it. Unbeknownst to the band, the guitar had once belonged to Stevie Ray Vaughn. The incident was widely reported in rock journalism circles.
• Spray painting the tag '$ucking Dick$' on a van that belonged to another rock band, Cave In. The band asserts that this was a joke, and not a hateful action. The same tag later appeared on the tour bus of The Strokes, but on this occasion the band tried to claim it was nothing to do with them.
• The Icarus Line's guitarist is one of the co-runners of the notorious Buddyhead records, and the Buddyhead website, which is known for publishing the phone numbers of famous celebrities on its Gossip page and for its no-holds-barred reviews of records which are often profanity-laced.
• Being banned from playing at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California after Aaron North threw his guitar into the club's expensive light-system.

Influence

One of the earliest marks of the Icarus Line was how they appeared in the majority of their concerts and shows dressed in all black with the exception of a red necktie (thus explaining the title of their EP: Red and Black Attack). The point of this uniformity was to remove any aspect of fashion or style from the band and force onlookers to focus on the music instead of caring about what the band members had on. However this anti-fashion statement was turned into a fashion statement itself when the rock band the Hives used this uniform set-up for its own performances and music videos, substituting the red tie for a white one. Ever since then, although the Icarus Line still prominently uses the colors black and red, they have stopped using the black & red-tie uniform in performance.

Discography

• Red and Black Attack EP (1999)
• Mono (2001 [re-released in 2003])
• Penance Soiree (2004)

References

• allmusic.com. An outstanding resource providing reviews and discography of the band.
• theicarusline.com The official website. Seems to go unupdated.
• buddyhead.com Record label and music site run by Aaron North and Travis Keller.