The Copyrights

The Copyrights deliver a lean, energetic strain of pop-punk shaped by other Illinois outfits such as Screeching Weasel and the Methadones, drawing further from classic punk and pop touchstones that stretch from the Ramones and the Undertones through the Jam’s Sound Affects period to Cheap Trick’s earliest LPs. The group came together in 2002 in Carbondale, a modest city in southern Illinois situated nearer to St. Louis than to Chicago, with Adam Fletcher handling bass and most lead vocals, Brett Hunter and Ken Clifford sharing guitar and vocal duties, and Luke McNeill on drums. After signing with Washington, D.C.-based indie label Insubordination Records, they issued their first full-length, We Didn’t Come Here to Die, produced by Illinois pop-punk veteran Mass Giorgini, in 2003. Two EPs appeared next on It’s Alive Records: Button Smasher in 2004 and Nowhere Near Chicago in 2005. Following Clifford’s exit, guitarist Nick O’Neil joined the lineup, and the band delivered its sophomore album, Mutiny Pop, in May 2006. A string of live dates ensued, after which Jeff Funburg stepped in for O’Neil; by early 2007 the refreshed quartet had already entered the studio to track their third record, Make Sound, which Red Scare released that spring.