Calibretto 13 (later, simply Calibretto) was a Christian
folk punk
Folk punk (known in its early days as rogue folk) is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by the Pogues in England, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in ...
band from
Kokomo, Indiana
Kokomo ( ) is a city in Indiana and the county seat of Howard County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Howard County, the Kokomo-Peru CSA, which includ ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The acoustic punk style of the band and the peculiar vocal style of singer Joe Whiteford gives the band their signature sound. Another trademark is their lyrics, which often concerned
B-movies
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
and problems in
pop culture
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* Pop (Gas al ...
and
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
. The band also incorporated influences from folk music.
History as Calibretto 13
The trio of Joseph Whiteford (guitar and vocals), Aaron Richardson (bass) and Christopher Thomas (drums) came together in 1998 and released ''Sibling Rivalry'', a split album with No More Droids, in 1999. In 2000 the band put out ''
Enter the Danger Brigade
''Enter the Danger Brigade'' is the debut album from Indiana Christian rock band Calibretto 13. It was released on 24 October 2000. All songs on the album were written by Calibretto 13, except for "The Ballroom Blitz" which is a cover of the song ...
'' with
Tooth and Nail Records
Tooth & Nail Records is a Christian rock record label founded by Brandon Ebel in California in November 1993. The label later moved to Seattle, Washington where it is situated today. It is home to many well-known musical acts, including Underoat ...
. After the band's initial recording sessions for the album, Tooth & Nail thought that some of the submitted songs were too questionable in content and asked the band to reconvene with producer Barry Poynter and record several more. Calibretto 13 recorded 19 songs for ''Enter the Danger Brigade'', and only 11 songs were included on the debut album. Seven of the remaining songs were released as an EP titled ''From the Secret Files of the Danger Brigade'' (2000). In the liner notes for ''From the Secret Files...'', Chris Thomas wrote: "
he songs
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
were kept from being on the album for one reason or another, and because we consider some of these to be our best songs we tried to make sure that you got to hear them. Of course, some of these songs are pretty crappy, too." Calibretto 13 released a second full-length album on Tooth & Nail titled ''
Adventures in Tokyo
''Adventures In Tokyo'' is the second full-length album by Christian rock band Calibretto 13
Calibretto 13 (later, simply Calibretto) was a Christian folk punk band from Kokomo, Indiana, United States. The acoustic punk style of the band an ...
'' in 2002. This was the band's final release on Tooth & Nail. After the release of ''Adventures in Tokyo'', the band made several changes.
The remaining song from the ''Enter the Danger Brigade'' recording sessions, which was not on ''From the Secret Files of the Danger Brigade'', is titled "Uncle Sam". It was, however, available for download off of the Calibretto website for a short time, along with many other demos, live, and rare tracks. With Joe Whiteford's permission, the rarities have been made available through the link below. Oddly enough, an image of Uncle Sam, which was later used by Calibretto on merchandise, was included in the interior art of ''From the Secret Files of the Danger Brigade'', despite the song not being present.
Name change to Calibretto
The name change from Calibretto 13 to Calibretto marked a significant change. The band left Tooth & Nail and moved to Standard Recording Company. They had already begun work on what would have been their third Tooth & Nail record, a full-length release entitled ''Making the World a Place''. A fair amount of merchandise had been printed bearing this title, although it was never released. Songs intended for this record would end up on later Calibretto releases. According to posts on their message board, the band did sell CDs titled ''Making the World a Place'' in paper bags, although there was never any distribution of the record beyond that. Although retaining a similar sound, Calibretto's line-up changed. Aaron Richardson left the band, and began to illustrate comics for Backburner Comics. Richardson's place was filled by Chad A. Serhal, formerly rhythm guitarist of In the face of war. Calibretto released ''Dead by Dawn'' EP on Standard Recording Company in 2003. Whereas Calibretto 13 releases were aimed towards a Christian audience, the releases under the name Calibretto were not. Under the name Calibretto, the band had two releases, ''Dead by Dawn'' EP and a split release with Mercury Radio Theater titled ''All of These Things Do Not Belong'', which was released in 2004. Calibretto played their final show on October 31, 2004, in their hometown of Kokomo.
In October, 2011, a new track entitled "I'm Dressing Up" was released on the ''Hope Can't Walk'' compilation. The track was recorded at Decapolis Labs, and features Whiteford and Thomas at their usual stations; Richard returned to bass duties, and Serhal took up a second guitar. It is currently unknown if any further material will surface, or if anything more can be expected from the band in the future.
A number of members formerly involved in Calibretto went on to play in
Harley Poe Harley may refer to:
People
* Harley (given name)
* Harley (surname)
Places
* Harley, Ontario, a township in Canada
* Harley, Brant County, Ontario, Canada
* Harley, Shropshire, England
* Harley, South Yorkshire, England
* Harley Street, in Londo ...
, Everything, Now!, Divebomber, and Encourager.
Band members
* Aaron Richardson – bass (currently artist for Backburner Comics, records at the Decapolis Recording Studio, and played on the Darling record ''Welcome the Ghost'')
* Christopher Thomas – drums (formerly in Hello Hawk which formed out of Darling, was in Divebomber, now resides in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
)
* Joseph Whiteford – guitar, vocals (currently in Harley Poe)
* Chad A. Serhal – bass (currently in She Does Is Magic and a solo artist)
* While not an official member of the band, C. J. Sutton (In the face of war) played organ on Calibretto's releases on Standard Recording Company.
Discography
Calibretto 13/Calibretto
* ''Sibling Rivalry'' – (1998) Split release with No More Droids on RMC Records
* ''
Enter the Danger Brigade
''Enter the Danger Brigade'' is the debut album from Indiana Christian rock band Calibretto 13. It was released on 24 October 2000. All songs on the album were written by Calibretto 13, except for "The Ballroom Blitz" which is a cover of the song ...
'' – (2000) on Tooth and Nail Records
* ''From the Secret Files of the Danger Brigade'' (EP) – (2001) on Tooth and Nail Records
* ''
Adventures in Tokyo
''Adventures In Tokyo'' is the second full-length album by Christian rock band Calibretto 13
Calibretto 13 (later, simply Calibretto) was a Christian folk punk band from Kokomo, Indiana, United States. The acoustic punk style of the band an ...
'' – (2002) on Tooth and Nail Records
* ''Dead by Dawn'' (EP) – (2003) on Standard Recording Company
* ''All Of These Things Do Not Belong'' (2004) Split release with Mercury Radio Theater on Standard Recording Company
Related
* ''In The Dark'' (2005) on Standard Recording Company, the first record by Harley Poe, was performed by the members Calibretto
References
External links
Standard Recording Co.Former official label website
Calibretto 13 on Tooth & Nail alumni artistsCalibretto 13 Rarities ZipCalibretto 13 Discography* Calibretto 1
Interview{{Authority control
Christian punk groups
Musical groups established in 1997
Musical groups disestablished in 2004
Punk rock groups from Indiana
Tooth & Nail Records artists