Hello everyone, and welcome to another segment of what I am now calling Music and Vine Street, where each week I have been updating you on music news in the pop-punk/pop-alternative genre. The band I am looking at today is a bit of a hidden gem, known to a small hardcore fan base but deserving of much more. They may actually get that chance too. This week I am looking at Hidden in Plain View, a pop-punk band from New Jersey formed in 2000. With 3 EPs, and 2 full albums, this band released on four different record companies and had a number of hits, also playing long stints on the Vans Warped Tour during their six and a half year run.
The start of Hidden in Plain View came in August of 2000. At the time, a band called 8 over Par had just broken up after a failed attempt to get off the ground. Luckily, members Joe Reo(vocals) and Rob Freeman(guitar/backing vocals) were friends with a few members of another band called Jersey Nonsense, which was also ending at the exact same time. With their love for music, the five friends decided to form another band in the wake of their former bands’ destructions. Thus, Hidden in Plain View was born, the name coming from a situation at vocalist Joe Reo’s day job at a grocery store where a customer remarked that something was “Hidden in plain view” when looking for an obviously visible and easy to find item. They immediately recorded a 3 track demo album, and caught the attention of DAB records, who signed them and with this backing recorded the now rare and sought after EP ‘Find’. The EP didn’t initially take off, and the record label faced bankruptcy. Because of this, Hidden In Plain View switched over to Note To Self records, and released another EP titled ‘Operation: Cut Throat’, another sound EP that at the time did not initially attract many sales. Hidden In Plain View seemed to be going the same way of the members’ former bands, and looked to be ending before it started.
However, salvation came in the form of Drive-Thru Records in 2003. The record label saw the band’s potential, and signed them instantly. To build up hype for the band, the record label had them release a self-titled EP, which contained 5 songs and would be a grounding force to help build up the band’s fan base and support. This third EP did substantially better than their two previous EPs, and made a full length album a done deal for the band. While recording their album, the band toured extensively across the US and Canada, to help build anticipation for the album and gain fans; also doing a long stint on that year’s Vans Warped Tour, which can often be a starting point for many popular fans of the genre. Originally scheduled for a late 2004 release, but pushed back in order to have time for promotion, the band’s crowning jewel finally was released in 2005. ‘Life In Dreaming’ was the band’s first major release, and is seen by many of their fans as their best work. Compared to the EPs, the album shows a more mature, edgier side of the band musically. Containing 11 songs, not many critics can find one song on this album to pan. The lead single from the album, ‘Ashes Ashes’ received a large amount of radio play and the follow up singles, ‘Top 5 Addictions’ and ‘A Minor Detail’ received even more play, bumping the band into a small underground stardom in the genre, and boosting their listing on the Vans Warped tour for that year from openers to headliners. To promote the album, backed with the popularity of the singles, the band spend all of 2005 touring; playing over 24 Warped Tour shows, touring Japan for the first time, as well as co headlining the ‘Drive-Thru Invasion’ tour in Europe, as well as a long US/Canada/Mexico tour. They also won runner up in MTV’s Battle of the Bands in 2005 because of the album.
Unfortunately, things went downhill again from here. Creative and personal differences began to surface in the band during the recording of their follow up album titled ‘Resolution’. In fact, the band was very slow to update their fans through all of 2006, with very little information on the recording process given. This was a stark contrast to the updates that rapidly came out during the recording of ‘Life In Dreaming’, and was a sign of things to come. At the beginning of 2007, Hidden in Plain View announced that they were breaking up and disbanding, citing creative and personal differences as the reason. All of them agreed that the fun was gone, and the recording of this album had been grueling to them. Even though the band had broken up though, the new album still saw the light of day six months later and was released in July of 2007. The problems in the band showed, and while not a bad album, was a watered down and less catchy sound for the band. Not selling as well as their prior releases, the album was a sure sign that something had gone wrong in the band during their recording. All would be quiet since 2007, the band members going their separate ways and going on to other projects, some of them joining other bands such as Dashboard Confessional, and others becoming producers.
That was until this year. Last week, the band announced that they will be reuniting to play a small string of reunion shows in the northeast. This came out of nowhere, and fans of the band were ecstatic. Talk immediately began of things past some reunion shows, with fans hoping for a new album and a renewed sense of fellowship in the band. The band has remained largely silent on any of these requests, but has hinted that these are possibilities depending on what kind of emotions come out of the reunion shows. Will these shows reignite the band to make a third long awaited album, and restore them to not only their former glory but the higher tier stardom they deserve? Only time will tell.
Good work Kevin, enjoyed it.
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