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Challenge Club : A Briefe Description of the Notorious Life of Challenge Club Together With Their Ignominious Death
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Baltimore based indie rock/pop band.
Genre: Rock: Modern Rock
Release Date: 2005
A Briefe Description of the Notorious Life of Challenge Club Together With Their Ignominious Death
Challenge Club
Record Label: Challenge Club
  • Buy CD - $8.00
  • Download Album (MP3) - $8.00

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Preview Song Name Time Buy
1. Hypothereom 2:22 + MP3 $0.99
2. Out of the Woods 4:19 + MP3 $0.99
3. Flake 2:43 + MP3 $0.99
4. Glass 4:07 + MP3 $0.99
5. Second Worst 4:46 + MP3 $0.99
6. Obsession 2:09 + MP3 $0.99
7. Columbus 3:54 + MP3 $0.99
8. Firearms 4:51 + MP3 $0.99
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Album Notes

From the ashes of no less than 3 disbanded Baltimore rock bands, Challenge Club rose like a phoenix. Passerbys stood in awe as its six members emerged from the smoldering dust while a nearby 120 piece orchestra set the scene by playing the most triumphant music imaginable. This is the experience that Challenge Club tries to recreate in the studio and on stage.

Challenge Club is a six-limbed beast. The six limbs are labeled George French, Billy Gordon, Steve Hefter, Pat Hughes, Chris Laun, Phil Turner. Chris and Steve are the primary songwriters and singers but the entire band helps to flesh out the songs and can be seen rotating between guitars, keyboards, bells, percussion, and multi-part backing vocals to accomplish this task.

To retell the whole story of how all six band members came to meet would be like drawing a confusing and incestuous family tree. Let's just say that Chris and George had been playing in a band called Army of Pirates. Meanwhile Steve and Phil had been playing in a band called Sons of Buford. Across town, Billy and Pat were in a band called the Newlyweds. All three bands ended at more or less the same time. Steve, Phil, and Billy formed a short-lived band called The Fighting Tricycles and when that ended Chris and George entered the picture and said "Hey since we're all friends, why dont we all play in once giant family-style buffet band?" Still minus a drummer they got back in touch with Pat and that was that. The name was mostly based on an inside joke involving challenging each other to various competitions (like watching all 7 Police Academy movies straight through), though some contend it was also chosen because of the difficult feat that is fitting six multi-instrumentalists on small club stages.

Though still relatively young, Challenge Club has begun to make a name for themselves in the Baltimore scene earning rabid fans and complimentary drinks along the way. In November of 2005, they released their debut CD entitled A Briefe Description In The Notorious Life Of Challenge Club Together With Their Ignominious Death.

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REVIEWS

Wicked awesomeness.
author: Cary Miller
                            
I really loved every track on this CD...now just to clarify I've been an active follower of Chris Laun and George French of "Challenge Club" since we became friends several years ago during my brief tenure at UMBC...this was of course the ever so prosperous age of the "Turkish Millionaires."  From there I watched the Millionaires evolve into a proverbial "Army of Pirates" after the fall of Napster and similar pirate-friendly filesharing empires.  I survived these troubled times on a raft of indie rock like so many of my best friends...and in the process became a huge fan of Chris Laun as a songwriter.

Now We'd be friends for years at this point, and I'd always liked his songs.  But Chris never stopped being proliffic and engaging.  In fact, unlike almost all my young peers in this "business" of weirdness...he just keeps getting better.

Now I know there are other members to this fantastic troop...and everyone does their part to rock out equally.  But there are other technical factors to consider when speaking frankly about this EP's coolness...for the first time ever I'm hearing a Hi-Fidelity recording backing up Laun's knack for progressively oddball chord arrangements.  And the band is really tight enough to make me envious at times.  I know Challenge Club is a reletively new act, but it takes ten years to cultivate and incubate this kind of overnight success.  My only problem is now I want to see some overlooked gems from everyone's previous bands brought back to life by these wonderfully mad scientists to wreck havok on Tokyo.

 - Cary Miller (Producer, Co-owner of Palisade Studios NJ, Lead Singer/Founder of Fashion Victims.)

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Energetic, powerful, great!!
author: Rafael. Madrid, Spain.
                            
This band sounds great, with good harmonies and powerful guitars and drums. I would highlight "Second Worst" as a  perfect example of how a band could sound powerful and melodic at the same time.

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Great songs!
author: www.GreatIndieMusic.com
                            
8 great songs on this cd. Challenge Club does a good job on this cd. Keep up the good work!

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Excellent!
author: Listener in Baltimore, MD
                            
Great hooks, great lyrics, diverse sound, loved it!

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12
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