Finding a niche can be one of the most difficult tasks that a band can face. Many bands struggle for a lifetime to find a sound that has wide enough appeal to reach a real audience. The Anniversary had to deal with this problem not once, but twice over the course of their very brief career. Hailing from Lawrence, KS, they started out with a huge obstacle, attempting to fit into an underdeveloped music scene. Having attracted the attention of Lawrence's biggest band, The Get Up Kids, in 1999, they signed to Vagrant Records. In 2000, they recorded their debut album, Designing a Nervous Breakdown.
With their boy-girl vocals and heavy moog synthesizer use, the band was unfairly dismissed by critics as a poor man's Rentals. However, despite these two similarities, The Anniversary went far beyond the range of The Rentals on this album. In place of fuzzed out bass, they used chiming guitars. The back-and-forth vocals of Josh Berwanger and Adrianne Verhoeven conveyed urgency rather than The Rentals' trademark apathy. Although Designing a Nervous Breakdown was a nearly perfect synth-rock record, they were bound to touring with their pop-punk/emo labelmates, such as Saves the Day and Dashboard Confessional. This instantly maligned the band in the indie-rock world.
It seemed that no matter how hard they tried, The Anniversary could not manage to be taken seriously. Releasing a split EP with Superdrag in 2001, the band did away with the synths entirely, trading them in for tambourines and harmonicas. In fact, by the time they released their sophomore album, Your Majesty, they sounded nothing like the band they were just 2 years earlier. This record found the band looking backward to the psychadelic, flower-power rock of the late 60's and early 70's. Although they had completely reinvented their sound, they successfully avoided coming off as cheesy or insincere. The change in direction did polarize some old fans, but they finally managed to avoid the wrath of the critics.
Ironically, despite The Anniversary's new, decidedly happier tone, the band itself was splintering under the constant grind of touring and recording. In early 2004, just as they started to gain some notoriety, they released a statement on their website announcing the band's breakup without any specific explanation. Since then, Berwanger has been playing with The Only Children, abandoning indie rock altogether for hippie jamouts. Verhoeven has found a place in Omaha' Saddle Creek family, recording under the name DRI. In 2008, Vagrant Records released a 2-disc B-side album, called Devil On Our Side. These songs are rather uneven on their own, but it allows the listener to follow their transition from one sound to another beat by beat. While certainly interesting, it is sad to hear such brilliant musicians struggling so hard to find an audience.
Check out the video for "All Things Ordinary" from Designing a Nervous Breakdown here:
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