Add The Memorials to your long-term memory

When I first heard the Mars Volta, I was blown away immediately. When, after several months, I listened again to the first video by them I saw on Youtube (it was the Yahoo!Live sessions) I noticed that the most exciting moment (or one of the most exciting, at least) was the drummer’s performance. The man behind the drum set on those sessions was Thomas Pridgen. Being a bass player, I immediately pay attention to the rhythm section. Since the bass lines in Mars Volta’s music are not that recognizable, the drum parts just blew my mind. I could never imagine that a drummer could play so dense and yet so creative and in accordance with the music as a whole. I immediately googled him and found out about The Memorials.

Thomas Pridgen formed The Memorials in December 2009 when he decided to pursue a career with his own music and project. After departing The Mars Volta, he turned his attention to forming a new group, which would pursue his interests in a range of styles as diverse as the experiences of the band members. He called friends Viveca Hawkins and Nick Brewer, who were former students at Berklee College of Music and asked them if they would want to play in a new band with him. They agreed and met in December of 2009 (Brewer and Hawkins met for the first time when Brewer came to San Francisco, just a day shy of recording their first album) and started working immediately. The Memorials' self-titled debut album was recorded at the Petting Zoo Recording Studio (The Zoo) in North Oakland, California, as well as at Pridgen's home studio between December 14, 2009, and February 3, 2010. The record was released on February 14, 2011, and, in support of the album, the band went on a 31-date nationwide tour mainly backed by fans in 2011. The single from the album (and one of my favorite tracks by the band) is “West Coast.”

Their second album, Delirium, was released on June 5, 2012. It contains great songs, written by Pridgen and the guitarist Nick Brewer, with lyrics by vocalist Viveca Hawkins. The last news they published on their social media pages are from 2014, so it’s unclear what the band is planning. Until they give an announcement, we can all enjoy their two studio albums. Their music is best explained with their own words: “Music/songs can bring back the feelings of certain memories; such as a first love, a vacation, the music your parents played while you we're growing up, making love and babies, etc.... lot's of things are memorials to mark the time, place, and feelings you've had in life such as your first car, or your first guitar(drums!!). Music definitely implies the same mark! Just like Jacob, who fought the angel in Genesis, named the place where he fought to commemorate the date and place where he wrestled God and God did not prevail. Music can mark not only our feelings at a time, but it can also show us our tenacity, our sense of self-worth, our imagination. The music The Memorials makes is both thought compelling and it will etch out a place for the band to leave it's mark, telling the world we were here!”