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The band Boys Like Girls was formed in the final months of 2005, when singer/guitarist Martin Johnson wrote a handful of songs he was looking to record. He recruited bassist Bryan Donahue and drummer John Keefe, both of which had been in bands of different setups with the frontman. Keefe brought along lead guitarist Paul DiGiovanni, who he had collaborated recently on a brief demo recording with, to complete the line-up? Oddly enough, the two learned that they were distant cousins several months later. The quartet soon opened a PureVolume account to showcase their music, and uploaded a roughly recorded demo of "The Great Escape" and an acoustic rendition of "Thunder" to their profile. By the end of the year, the group had landed the #1 spot on the website's Top Unsigned Artists chart.
Band Members
Martin Johnson - Vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul DiGiovanni - Lead guitar
Bryan Donahue - Bass
John Keefe - Drums
Musical Style
Stylistically, the self-proclaimed emo band lists its musical influences as a variety of contemporary emo and pop punk bands, such as Jimmy Eat World, The Academy Is... and Dashboard Confessional. While these tendencies are clearly audible in guitar work and drumming, punk rock influences are far less oblivious as far as vocal patterns and lyricism are concerned. Given Johnson's characteristic tenor vocal melodies? Which are, thanks to sporadically placed falsettos, at times reminiscent of Tyson Ritter's (of The All-American Rejects fame) - the band's all-around sound is geared to late '90s radio indie rock, along the lines of Vertical Horizon and Eve 6.
In comparison with the majority of their peers, Boys Like Girls has a more radio-friendly pop rock sound. Hence, Boys Like Girls has been labeled "an album full of hit singles" or "the soundtrack to summer", emphasizing the up-and-coming quartet's potential to write mainstream compatible tunes. Other reviewers considered "a watered-down copy Jimmy Eat World" a more adequate description. In general, judgments ranged from predictable mediocrity to promising newcomer debut, though not necessarily in terms of longevity.
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