User:MusicforthePeople/Telethon (band)

Telethon is an American rock band from Delavan, Wisconsin, formed in 2014 under the name Fitness. They changed their name due to a number of groups sharing the Fitness name. They have released two albums, Witness (2015) and Citrosis (2016).

Witness, Citrosis and The Grand Spontanean (2014–present)
Telethon formed on 17 December 2014 as Fitness. The line-up consisted of vocalist/guitarist Kevin Tully, guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Nate Johnson, guitarist Jack Sibilski, bassist Aaron Logterman and drummer Erik Atwell. The group recorded their debut album, Witness, throughout the last week of December 2014 and the first week of January 2015 in the basement of a university library. The album was released on February 5 through Waste Coin Records. Sometime afterwards, Logterman left the band and was replaced by Alex Meylink.

The group recorded their second album, Citrosis, over the course of five days with Jack Shirley in September 2015 at Atomic Garden Recording Studio, located in East Palo Alto, California. On November 5, the group changed their name after realising the number of bands also called Fitness. On February 5, "Mineral King" was released as a single. On March 16, "A Funny Thing Happened to Me Today" was made available for streaming, and a day later, was released as a single. Citrosis was self-released on April 1, 2016. According to WUWM, the band describe the record as "a quasi-concept album, meant to be listened to in its entirety." The band held an album release show in Minneapolis.

On July 28, 2017, it was announced that the band would be releasing their third album, The Grand Spontanean, in September. In the same announcement, BrooklynVegan premiered "On Companionship" and "Punctuation!". The record, produced by Shirley, is a 30-track concept album that is split into five acts: Bad Reputation (tracks 1–8), Cold Sweat (tracks 9–13), Fight or Fall (tracks 14–20), Running Back (tracks 21–26) and Remembering (tracks 27–30). According to Impose, it " tells a story about the importance of happenstance & spontaneity". It features a number of guest appearances: Laura Stevenson (appearing on "On Companionship" and "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve"), Chris Farren (appearing on "Stillwave"), the Hold Steady's Franz Nicolay (who performed several instruments throughout the album and a spoken word part on "The Sudden Walk"), Less Than Jake bassist/vocalist Roger Lima (providing guest vocals on "The Runner's High") and Peter Hess (who performs strings and horns).

On September 8, a music video was released for "Succinct, the Optimist", directed by Pedro Cerda & the Unmade Productions. On September 26, Billboard premiered a stream of The Grand Spontanean, before its release through the band's label Halloween Records on September 29.

Musical style and side projects
Punknews.org has described the band's sound as "power pop punk". Witness has been described as garage rock. Max Qayyum of Punknews.org mentioned how the group "managed to weave [a number of genres] together throughout this record". He listed "Milwaukee Distance Blues" and "Kingfisher" as highlights of the record. Discussing Citrosis, Piet Levy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted how "[t]here's barely even a moment's pause" on the album. He mention how the group can go "from the bouncy, Strokes-style post-punk of "Blizzard," to the Dick Dale-indebted surf-rock instrumental "Dread," to the dryly sarcastic "A Funny Thing Happened to Me Today."" Billboard writer Bryan Rolli said The Grand Spontanean "soars with robust emo anthems that take cues from the twin-guitar attack of Thin Lizzy and the heartland sentiment of Bruce Springsteen".

A number of the songs written for Citrosis were released by frontman Kevin Tully, under the name Peptalker, due to not fitting within "the album sonically or thematically or both". Erik Atwell and Jack Sibilski have played in Atlas on Strike.

Discography
Studio albums

Singles

Members
Current members
 * Erik Atwell – drums (2014–present)
 * Nate Johnson – vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards (2014–present)
 * Alex Meylink – bass guitar (2015–present)
 * Jack Sibilski – lead guitar, bass guitar (2014–present)
 * Kevin Tully – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2014–present)

Past members
 * Aaron Logterman – bass (2014–15)

Exteneral links

 * Telethon on Bandcamp
 * Telethon on Bandcamp