The Dear & Departed

Playing guitar-driven pop-punk with strong melodies and a stylish goth undertow, the Dear & Departed are five young men from California who don't have to struggle to look like hipsters from overseas -- all the band's members were born outside the United States. Vocalist Dan Under and guitarist Darren Parkinson hail from England, drummer Joel Bourne was born in Australia, guitarist Simon O'Gorman comes from nearby New Zealand, and bassist David Williams is a Welsh native. After assembling in Southern California, the Dear & Departed wasted little time making an impression, winning influential friends in the bands AFI and Avenged Sevenfold, both of whom took the band on the road as an opening act. The buzz over the group led to a contract with the independent label Science Records, who put the group into the studio with producer Chris Vrenna in late 2006 (Jade Puget of AFI also helped with production details). The result, the album Something Quite Peculiar, was released in May 2007, in time for the band to support its release with a spot on that summer's Van's Warped Tour. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi