Paper Route rocks The Basement

Abigail Miner/The Lantern Guitarist and vocalist for the night Andy Smith, of Paper Route, rocks fans at The Basement on Tuesday night. The modern sounds of an up-and-coming band, Paper Route, filled The Basement concert hall and successfully rocked the crowd Tuesday night.

The five-man band from Nashville, Tenn. are on a two-week tour with Low vs Diamond and Barcelona. Paper Route opened the show and set the mood for the night.

The only setback: JT Daly, the lead singer, was sick with laryngitis and could not perform. Andy Smith, who plays the guitar, harmonica and contributes to the vocals, did a quality job filling in for Daly on most of the songs, starting out the concert with "American Clouds" off their album "We Are All Forgotten."

Luke Field, the lead singer of Low vs Diamond, came on stage to help sing the second song, "Empty House," and the majority of the members on stage, aside from Daly, chimed in. Also making a guest appearance on stage for the third song, "We Are All Forgotten," was Brian Fennell, the lead singer of Barcelona. Even though he was reading the lyrics, Fennell managed to complete the song with help from Daly.

Music Sample: Chad Howat, who plays bass and keyboard and specializes in programming, and Josh Orr, who plays the guitar and accordion, make up the rest of the band, which started as a result of Howat's insomnia-induced beat-making.

"I figured that at least if I did stay up all night I had something to show for it," Howat said.

The band has embraced technology in their music, producing many of their beats on the computer.

"All of us thought that computers were the new guitars," Howat said. "My best instrument, I think, is the computer."

Do not think they have forgotten about classical instruments, though. During the performance they incorporated an accordion and harmonica on stage. Howat and Orr also bounced around from bass and guitar to keys during "You Kill Me," a song that thrilled the audience.

Paper Route often uses a piano in the studio for recording. Howat said the only reason they do not bring it on tour is because it takes up too much room on stage.

"We like the mix. We want to expand with acoustic and electronic instruments," Howat said.

The band credits some of their influences to the '90s.

"We like Massive Attack and Bjork," Howat said.

The hypnotic sounds of Massive Attack are definitely parallel with Paper Route. However, the pumping rhythms and upbeat lyrics set Paper Route apart and into a genre of its own. If they keep playing their cards, or instruments, right, there just might be a bright future for this band.

The band has an album coming out in April 2009.

Kimberly Snodgrass can be reached at snodgrass.332@osu.edu.