Being a band from the Buffalo music scene usually means death upon arrival. Sure, the Goos and even Brian McNight made it, but otherwise Buffalo's mainstream music repertoire runs about as deep as Lee Evans on a third and five.
However, bands like It Dies Today, Every Time I Die and Cute is What We Aim For have currently managed to gain notoriety in the public eye.
In the past year and a half It Dies Today has stolen their fare share of limelight. They've done things not only comparable to the biggest bands in rock, but with them.
"Playing Ozzfest was the highlight of our careers thus far," said singer Nick Brooks. "We recently played the Download Festival with Guns N' Roses, Metallica, and Avenged Sevenfold, which was huge. I mean we were on the same bill as Metallica. That was awesome."
Brooks' expectations of achieving fame were humble.
"Honestly, we just wanted to play sh*tty music in a band," he said. "Now that we've gained some popularity we're not gonna stop doing the things that we've done to get us here. We're always striving to make new and better music."
With the release of their second full-length album "Sirens" comes significant change. There are more melodic vocals, less screaming and an overall catchier sound.
"We got bored playing the same thing," Brooks said. "We got sick of the standard screamo, metalcore music and wanted to play something fresh and different," he said.
The title "Sirens" is an ode to the mythological temptresses that drew countless numbers of men to meet their demise.
"Basically it was an accident. I was writing a song called 'Sirens' and thought that it sounded like a good name for the record," he said. "The record ended up being centered around temptation."
It Dies Today, unlike most other fame stricken local bands, has remained loyal to Buffalo.
"Sure when we first started off no one came to our shows. But in the last year or two everyone has been so loyal to us. Our friends and family are here as well," he said.
IDT even capitalized the spelling of Buffalo on their tour dates section on Myspace while all others were left in lower case, to give the city that extra punch.
"Whenever we headline, the first thing we do is try to book Buffalo," he said.
Their loyalty runs deeper than their constant touring of Buffalo though. They can often be seen in concert wearing Sabres jerseys and personalized Sabres vests.
"We had this really cool old Bills shirt that we wanted to get reprinted for the upcoming tour, but our merch company didn't want to get sued," he said.
Their upcoming tour kicks off Oct. 12th and has them billed with emo powerhouse Silverstein, Aiden, He Is Legend and Man Alive.
"We are open to touring with anyone that would expose our music to new people."
Regarding his enthusiasm for the Buffalo Sabres, he said, "We got the cup."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
