Philadelphia Weekly

The swelling cello and violin on the brief instrumental that opens the A-Sides' new album Silver Storms speaks to an ambition far beyond most bands'. It's a blissful work that's cohesive yet transporting the way albums used to be. It finds the band's swirling, atmospheric pop bigger and somehow better than before, ripe with long songs and grand ideas.

Singer/guitarist Jon Barthmus turns pensive reflections into breathy verses and cosmic choruses that spark like fireworks as the band--bassist Mike Fleming, drummer Patrick Marsceill, guitarist Charlie Cottone and keyboardist Chris Doyle--erupts around him. It's one of the year's brightest albums--out of Philly or anywhere else--and ought to win the A-Sides the acclaim they should've earned a long time ago.

They've already snagged a three-album deal with Vagrant, home to the Hold Steady and other huge names. Add to that opening slots on marquee shows by Cheap Trick and Todd Rundgren, and the band's upcoming cross-country jaunts with Pinback, Ted Leo and Say Hi to Your Mom.

PW sat down with Barthmus and Cottone at Fishtown's Rocket Cat Cafe--within sight of where Silver Storms was recorded--to bro down about the album and other facets of the A-Sides universe.

Do the songs on Silver Storms feel old to you now?
JB: "They don't feel that old, because we haven't really started working on new stuff together yet. So it's really all we play."

Have you done new material on your own?
JB: "I have, yeah. I've got probably the next album's worth of songs ready to go."

Is the new stuff very different?
CC: "The new song that I know ... I wrote a Thin Lizzy guitar part to it."

JB: "Silver Storms really seemed like a different thing for us. We got a different guitar player and added a keyboard player, and my home recording setup got a little better for demoing. So I feel like that's more of a starting point, and the new stuff just takes that further."

Do you feel like you're still saddled with '60s comparisons from the first album?
JB: "It's definitely going to be tough to get out of because a lot of people are lazy when writing about stuff. There hasn't been much press yet, so I'm interested to see what happens."

CC: "My friend hadn't heard the A-Sides, and when he did, he was really psyched because what he'd heard about them was that it was a real poppy, Beatles-type '60s thing. But there are a couple songs that have really, really big guitars."

JB: "It might be good that the last record didn't do super well, because then it'd be a lot harder to shake that image. But I've also gotten a lot more into using violins and cellos and other instruments, whereas on [A-Sides debut] Hello, Hello I didn't think it was in the realm of possibility, so I just did vocal harmonies like crazy. And now I'm writing full orchestra stuff."

Did Vagrant ask you to change the album at all?
JB: "No, which was an encouraging reason to go with them."

Is there a single?
JB: "I think they're starting with 'Cinematic,' just because it's been on our website and 'XPN's been playing it. Other ones they like in theory as singles are 'Always in Trouble' and 'Diamonds,' which are like seven-minute songs they're talking about doing edits of."

CC: "I think 'We're the Trees' was the obvious single."

JB: "That's the other one they might push. I think it's not really a singles record."

There's a cosmic scope to the lyrics that's way beyond typical rock lyrics.
JB: "That was definitely conscious. On Hello, Hello there was more cliched, literal stuff."

Does the band ever veto your lyrics?
JB: "No one ever has. We'll see."

CC: "They veto my guitar parts."

Why?
JB: "Because they sound like Rage Against the Machine."