Forever The Sickest Kids

by Corey Apar
Dallas, Texas's Forever the Sickest Kids got an unexpected break early on when, only a few days after forming and with zero songs to their name, lead singer Jonathan Cook inadvertently spent several hundred dollars for front page song placement on the popular music website PureVolume, forcing the band to hurriedly pound out a track so as not to waste the money they didn't even have. The local bands Ben Bradley and The Flipside had stalled out near the end of 2006, and various members from each group had only just formed Forever the Sickest Kids together, but they took on the challenge and quickly got to work. The emo-power-pop-rock song "Hey Brittney" resulted in just two days time and wound up garnering considerable attention in the very green band, which was rounded out by Austin Bello (bass, vocals), Caleb Turman (guitar/vocals), Kent Garrison (keyboards), and stepbrothers Kyle Burns (drums) and Marc Stewart (guitar). So lucky were Forever the Sickest Kids that several major labels soon came knocking, and the band ultimately scored itself a deal with Universal Motown. The five-song EP Television Off, Party On appeared in 2007 -- recorded within four months of being a band -- and nationwide touring followed its release, including three weeks on a Warped Tour side stage. Their fan base and song arsenal slowly expanded, and Forever the Sickest Kids had themselves a full-length album, Underdog Alma Mater, less than a year later, which was released in late April 2008. Time was spent surrounding the release on the road with an Alternative Press magazine-sponsored tour that featured other bands like All Time Low, the Rocket Summer and the Matches.