If you find yourself in the greater Grand Rapids, MI area during the first week of December, you can spend some time and dollars for a good cause and attend the One More Day For Kids concert and book signing to benefit DeVos Children’s Hospital. Not only can you have your well-worn copy of Tuesdays With Morrie scribbled on by author Mitch Albom, but you can take in the earnest and uplifting songs of Brian Vander Ark of The Verve Pipe! Remember them? Well One More Day For Kids does, and so do we! Apparently lead Verve Piper Brian Vander Ark hasn’t given up on music, either. Here’s some of the new:
Okay, “The Heart That Keeps You” is laugh out loud bad, we’ll admit. But “Survival” is optimistic and cute, right? Fuck it, maybe not — but what about The Verve Pipe? Of course you remember “The Freshman” (and if you were a freshman in high school or college at the time, forgetaboutit), but what about this one?
The last record these Michiganders put out was Underneath in ’01, but there’s never been a definitive “we’re broken up” statement from them. Maybe they’ll release more? Who knows. They were among the best of that modern rock push, but were swept up and away by the modern rock format, never replicated their Villains heights. Still we’d love to hear something new, Verve Pipe! Just make sure it’s nothing like “The Heart That Keeps You.”
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“Freshmen” was played at every pep rally at my high school. Ugh.
okay which one of you posted on Verve Pipe?? Amrit? nah, had to be Scott…or was it? i demand answers.
Self-titled album following Villains was surprisingly k-rad.
Funnily enough, Van Der Ark’s 2003 album was titled ‘Resurrection’. As such, you can’t really label the new stuff comeback material unless this is his second chance at a second coming.
On the tip, the reason that the band has never ‘broken up’ officially is that the only permanent members were Van Der Ark and Donnie Brown. Both make money off the Verve Pipe name still and get lucrative songwriting work to keep them afloat.
You may remember the song “Colorful” which was sung by Mark Wahlberg at the end of the film Rockstar.
Written by none other than Mr. Van Der Ark as well.
Funnily enough, Van Der Ark’s 2003 album was titled ‘Resurrection’. As such, you can’t really label the new stuff comeback material unless this is his second chance at a second coming.
On the tip, the reason that the band has never ‘broken up’ officially is that the only permanent members were Van Der Ark and Donnie Brown. Both make money off the Verve Pipe name still and get lucrative songwriting work to keep them afloat.
You may remember the song “Colorful” which was sung by Mark Wahlberg at the end of the film Rockstar.
Written by none other than Mr. Van Der Ark as well.
Funnily enough, Van Der Ark’s 2003 album was titled ‘Resurrection’. As such, you can’t really label the new stuff comeback material unless this is his second chance at a second coming.
On the tip, the reason that the band has never ‘broken up’ officially is that the only permanent members were Van Der Ark and Donnie Brown. Both make money off the Verve Pipe name still and get lucrative songwriting work to keep them afloat.
You may remember the song “Colorful” which was sung by Mark Wahlberg at the end of the film Rockstar.
Written by none other than Mr. Van Der Ark as well.
Any time I went to go look for a rad Verve import single and was denied, I was always bummed to see bins loaded to the tits with these ass clowns.
Any time I went to go look for a rad Verve import single and was denied, I was always bummed to see bins loaded to the tits with these ass clowns.
I was shocked to find that Craig Wedren guested on that, uh, one album they had.
Also, man, something needs to be done about the response time of this comments form (and the subsequent double/triple posts that it brings).
Villains was good, but the album following (S/T) was surprisingly better. That last one you referred too was a shit platter with the exception of “Medicate Myself”.
Here’s my question: How long do we get on the exemption for talking about bands that we liked in high school? When does that excuse run out?
Cred warning…
The Verve Pipe were big in mid-Michigan when I was a freshman in high school… in 1994.
We all thought they were sell outs when they made it big.
Any good rape songs on this one?
But what’d you think about Sponge, Katy?
Whoever wrote this article is a complete a**hole. Brian Vander Ark (it’s not Van Der Ark) is one of the most underrated and unappreciated songwriters of our generation. The Verve Pipe put out amazing albums and his solo work is awesome too. You should appreciate good independent music, if you wanna bash horrible music, go bash Avril Lavigne and crap like that. You should truly be ashamed of yourself. Pretty much everyone else who has left comments here sound like complete morons and have no idea what they’re talking about, especially the guy who called them sell-outs, what are you retarded? Were they just supposed to play small shows in Michigan for the rest of their lives? No, any musician with talent deserves to get their music heard by as many people as possible. Ignorant people like yourself are so g*d damn stupid. TVP’s Underneath album is amazing, every song on there is a pop gem. I suggest you guys think before you write ridiculous garbage like this.
when someone calls a band ‘verve pipe’ and not ‘the verve pipe’ as the true title of the band is, they clearly have not spent enough time researching to form their opinion. it’s ok, we’ll let you off the hook on this one. also, clearly you’ve never seen them live. i’ll open myself up on this one but who cares, it’s my opinion; i truly believe they are the greatest live band ever. not u2, not elvis, not green day for you douchebees, but the verve pipe.
take some more time listening and maybe you’ll change your opinion. if not, that’s cool.
brian as a solo artist is also unparalelled in his genre. you may want to compare him to john mayer, jack johnson or someone like that. he is, however, very different from those folks…for the better imo. his songs resonate real life stuff and his melodies can be haunting and uplifting, depending on his mood. one more caveate, he is not bound my restrictions of any record label. he’s developing his following the right way…take some time and research his, ‘bva backyard bbq’ campaign. freaking genious.
I always liked The Verve Pipe, I even liked that song “Hero” that was the last video MTV ever spun of theirs, then they kind of went away. I only heard Brians solo record Resurrection, (havent heard the angel one), but I gotta say – I dig what he’s doing now. He could be washed up, living off Freshman royality checks, but hes out there playing for the fans writing new material. Kudos!
Man…what a bunch of A-Holes…
BVA is has an amazingly strong voice and his lyrics actually have some substance. I’d be willing to bet that most of the bashers haven’t really listened to more than a few lines…