Biography
Punk-pop outfit Army of Freshmen came together in Ventura, California, toward the end of 1997. After relocating from New Jersey, vocalist Chris Jay—who already had roughly five hundred songs under his belt—pulled the group together following encounters with guitarist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Kai Dodson, keyboardists Owen Bucey and Dan Clark, and drummer Mike Milligan at area open-mike nights. Their nonstop roadwork quickly built a loyal regional audience, leading the band in mid-2001 to ink a deal with the independent imprint Blue Hand for the release of a self-titled debut album. Even with scant marketing support, that LP moved more than ten thousand units and attracted a Japanese licensee, which in turn secured Army of Freshmen’s first major break: a slot at the 2003 Summersonic festival in Japan, where they shared the bill with Radiohead and the Strokes. The group returned in 2004 with Beg, Borrow, Steal on the 33rd Street label, after which they joined the Warped Tour and made their initial visits to the United Kingdom. Their third full-length, Under the Radar, reached stores during the summer of 2006.