Tribute to the Past: Love Apple

Lets Bring Geek Rocktoberfest back to New Brookland Tavern

Love Apple

Winnie Cooper

When I think back to what I was listening to in 2001/2002 I think of a couple of bands. I think Weezer, The Juliana Theory, Capital and Love Apple. Sure there were tons of other bands, but these are the ones that really stand out.

When I first came to school at USC I have fond memories of going to Love Apple shows. Time has blurred my memories and I might be getting two shows mixed up, but I really want to remember a show with Superdrag (Who Sucked Out the Feeling?) where Love Apple covered “Straight Up” by Paula Abdul. I thought it was one of the best covers I had ever seen then and I still do.

Here is Love Apples History

Love Apple started out back in 1997 while Jason Sposa was in high school in Richmond, VA. Then he was writing, playing, and recording with a fellow by the name of Chris Freeman. My knowledge of these years is very limited as I wasnt there. However, I do know that these years were essential to the success of the band when Jason reformed it in 2000 while attending USC in Columbia, SC.

Jason came to the University of South Carolina in 1998 in hopes to find a band. After the first two and half years of playing in local bars and headlining shows with a drum machine, under the name “Love Apple”, he found two musicians willing to play music. The Love Apple line-up then became Scott Cooke on drums, George Cooper on bass and Jason on guitar and vocals. Things fell apart, and he went home to VA one more summer to write and created the mp3.com site. Upon his return to USC, Jason recruited me on bass. After a few times going over some synth and reverb heavy recordings in various dorm rooms, Jason once again called upon Scott and George (this time on guitar) to finish out the line-up of Love Apple.

The band heard about a show that Carolina Productions was putting on entitled The Battle of the Cover Bands. A common thread among us was certainly our love of Weezer, so we quickly pulled Jamie and The Sweater Song out of our asses and managed to win the battle on Oct. 31, 2000. With that as our debut, we now needed more than two Weezer covers, so we worked on the songs Jason had recorded with Chris back in Richmond. Simple, sweet, and catchy as they were and still are we managed to quickly move onto the scene.

It seemed that there was a show about every weekend there for a while, and a break would be found in preparations for our debut full-length. We started recording the album during the late fall/early winter of 2001. We took a break and came back to it in January to master and wrap up all the other business that goes with releasing an album. The CD release party was in Columbia at The New Brookland Tavern. This was a show that I am sure all of us will remember for a long time to come. Our fans really surprised us with an unbeatable turn-out. The place was packed and we sold over 40 percent of our inventory on that one night.

With the success of the CD release party, it was only certain that the pressure was on all of us. It was hard to deal with playing shows to 20 people after having played to a sold out crowd. It didnt stop us though. We played on for a while after that without any major problems, and were excited to play with some really great acts including a few personal heroes.

Early in 2003 Garrett Suggs(The Beatholes) joined the group on drums in place of Scott. Musically Love Apple was heading in a new direction. Lyrics grew more complex and in some cases abstract and a few new time signatures were thrown into the mix as well. We talked of plans for a sophomore recording, but there were underlying tensions and desire to move on in our personal lives. We all knew that a break-up was inevitable. We plugged in for the last time on October 9, 2003 and gave it our best for our fans, ourselves, and each other. The show went quite well with no glitches other than some broken strings and bad cables, and that was it for Love Apple.

Written by Jebb Graff with the help of excerpts from interviews with Jason Sposa.

If you’re wondering where are they now? Just go the Love Apple Myspace and you can track them down pretty easily. I’m not going to help you stalk them too much though.

I was reading through their past press linked from their Myspace and there are a lot of things in the articles that show how the times have changed.

For instance in the Daily Gamecock article it talks about how MP3.com helped them promote their music. Now the internet is a lifeline for bands.

Love Apple’s success can be attributed to a variety of factors, one of which is the placement of its music on MP3.com. Sposa said the “MP3 page helped a lot.” Even though posting music isn’t a good way to earn a profit, he said it’s a “good way to open up your music.” With its credibility on the Web page burgeoning, the band was selected by an online label to participate in a Weezer tribute album. Love Apple’s cover of the B-side “Jamie” was included on the album’s first release. When the album was re-released, Love Apple’s track didn’t appear because its sound quality was poor compared to the tracks of bands that could afford to use a studio. Though the band was disappointed, it had already made new fans around the country who began requesting that Love Apple tour their cities.

After reading this article I want to bring Geek Rocktoberfest back to New Brookland one more time. Let’s get some bands together and do it.

If you like Love Apple you will like these songs. The Greatest Weezer songs ever written. If you like these songs you will like Love Apple.

Devotion

You Gave Your Love to Me Softly

I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams

The closest young band in Columbia that I can think of to compare Love Apple to is Hello Tomorrow, who by the way have a new song up on Myspace that you should listen to now. I believe both bands share a lot of the same influences.

Love Apple is for fans of- Ozma, Weezer, Superdrag, The Rentals and so on. You get the picture.