PENINSULA'S ART & RANSOM CELEBRATES ITS FIRST CD 

BY LAURA PEDERSEN, Read This! writer 

The equation for your basic high school band looks something like this: musically-inclined friends + garage on a Saturday + microphones from Craigslist = a good time.

But few of these bands make it to the next level of the equation: musically-inclined friends + garage on a Saturday + microphones from Craigslist + producer and distribution contract = a good time and a professional 10-track album.

Art & Ransom, an indie rock band based in San Mateo, has become one of those lucky bands, thanks to the release of its first CD, “We Couldn’t Even Believe What We Saw.” 

They’ll celebrate by playing at a release party, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Jungle Digital Imaging, 542 High St., Palo Alto. Make Amends and Bird Announced Land will also perform.  Admission is free.

The offer to produce an album came as a surprise to the band, whose members are more focused on carrying a good tune than competing in the world of CD sales. 

“It kind of came out of nowhere,” said Matty McBride, lead vocalist and a senior at Serra High in San Mateo.
 
The group also includes Ben Joseph, a senior at Menlo School in Atherton, on bass; Clara Brill, a senior at Menlo School, on violin; Matt Rankin, a senior at Serra High on saxophone/keyboard; John Moxley, a senior at Serra High, on drums; and Peter Moxley, a sophomore at Serra High, on guitar.

McBride, Moxley, and Rankin have been friends throughout high school; McBride and Joseph have been friends since preschool. They all attended the same jazz camp.

“Junior year, we decided we need to put together a band, so we basically spent a year just jamming,” Joseph said. 

That changed when McBride wrote the band’s first song, “Bird.”  Soon, the group added Brill and Moxley -- and started writing and rehearsing more songs.

The style the group developed has always been nebulous, but that’s something the band wants to keep. 

“There are a lot of elements, but I guess you could say the indie rock category,” McBride said about the band's style. “We just try to keep it as interesting as possible.”

Art & Ransom’s early shows were mostly at people’s houses, with a few appearances at battles of the bands and music festivals. 

It was at one of those festivals that producer Marc Dickow saw them play, at Joseph’s invitation.  Dickow was impressed and offered to sponsor the production of an album. 

One of the biggest questions the group has yet to answer is where to go from here.  Most of it rests on whether the album is a success.  Joseph, who will start classes this fall at Columbia College Chicago, said the group probably won’t continue after this summer.

“The test is if we decide at the end of the summer that we can spend the next year recording and touring and performing music,’’ he said. “Then, hell, we’ll take a year off.  But I think that’s a very lofty goal.”

For now, completing the album has been incredibly rewarding.  Joseph said, “Having a finished product that you’re actually happy with is probably the most satisfying thing in the world.”

“We Couldn’t Even Believe What We Saw”  will be available at the party for $10.  Starting Saturday, it will also be available on iTunes and Napster.

Laura Pedersen is a junior at Notre Dame High in San Jose.