The Bravery - Euro Rock from an American band!

The Bravery, like many "naturally" formed bands, was born in 2003 by combining musicians from 3 different sources. The 2 founding members, Sam Endicott and John Conway, had played with several different bands through college. While they were living in New York, they placed an advertisement for a guitarist in the newspaper. They got a 2 for 1 deal when Michael Zakarin answered the advertisement and brought bassist Mike Hindert with him. These 4 musicians were introduced to drummer Anthony Burulcich by mutual friends from the New York band Bishop Allen. The band played their first gig at the Stinger Club in Brooklyn in November 2003.


Being more of a Euro Rock band, The Bravery moved to London in late 2004. From there, they toured the UK, France and Holland. Their debut, self-titled album was released in February 2005.


I can see why The Killers were jealous of this band! In my opinion, they're better than The Killers! Bassist Mike Hindert, though he certainly has his own style, reminds me of original Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes. His playing is very melodic. Yet, he keeps the rhythm section cohesive as well. Founding member and keyboard player, John Conway, adds great atmosphere and electronica style melodies to their music. Guitarist Michael Zakarin is great with rhythmic and melodic roles. He does some innovative work on the first album, a couple short, but blistering and tight guitar solos on the Sun version of the second album, and some great acoustic work on the Sun version of the second album. Anthony Burulcich certainly seems to be an ample drummer. Not having heard the band live, except for a few performances on late night talk shows, I don't think I've heard Anthony's full potential. In fact, I think it's safe to say that I haven't heard The Bravery's full potential period. Nevertheless, their debut album and The Sun And The Moon are definitely worthy additions to anyone's rock collection.

Focusing more on The Sun And The Moon for a moment, I like both versions of the album. Oh! Did I forget to mention that explicitly? Yes, that album is available as a 2 CD set. The same songs are on both CDs and in the same order. However, the second CD is quite different from the first. Where the first is very guitar oriented with bass and keyboard taking somewhat of a back seat, the second is much more rhythm oriented. In other words, bass, keyboard and occasionally drums are more prominent. If the album had to be released as a single CD, I would say to keep the acoustic songs from the Sun side, combine the styles for several of the tracks, and include both the Sun and Moon versions of Believe.

As far as influences, without reading them from other sources, I'd say that bands like Simple Minds, U2, Duran Duran, The Cure, and even --believe it or not-- The Clash played a big role. Although I have ZERO experience in the studio as a producer, working with a band like The Bravery would be a dream come true for me. I would love to be heavily involved with the making of their next album. Being a musician myself (although not professional) and a huge fan of Euro Rock --especially Progressive Rock--, I think I could pull the very best out of everyone in The Bravery and make their third album a very memorable one indeed. OK. I woke up from the dream now. Man, that would be awesome though!

If you have and like The Bravery's debut album, go out and buy The Sun And The Moon Complete (2 CD set). You won't be disappointed!