Strait A Students on purevolume™

Pop Punk / Comedy / Alternative

Originally formed in August 2005 by founding members Ryan Richardson, Gabe Rodriguez, and the Memphis-native Dave Stanley, the Strait A Students have endured a long year of ups and downs. Starting with a handful of songs containing a strong 90´s punk influence, the band released their first EP in October 2005 entitled, “The Oryentation EP“.

After a few shows, the Strait A Students decided it was time to round out their sound and introduced Joel Sanders on rhythm guitar in November 2005, but it was only a month later that Dave Stanley decided to leave the band to pursue other musical interests. Rather than looking for a new bass player, the Strait A Students elected Joel to take over Dave´s bass position in the band.

In April 2006, the Strait A Students put out their 2nd release entitled, “Creeding Your Heart Out“ containing 5 new songs and a parody of Dr. Dre´s “Keep their Heads Ringin“. Before the official release of the new EP, Joel had a family emergency putting him in Europe for 6 weeks. This inevitably caused Joel Sanders and the Strait A Students to split ways in early April 2006. Due to the timing of the (even then) already “old“ new release, Creeding Your Heart Out was released as a free “download only“ EP to owners of the 2005 release.

Not long after Joel´s departure, the Strait A Students picked up a new bass player in Nick Jennes as well as a new lead guitar player in Elliot Starks. The new lineup lasted 4 months until Nick and Ryan mutually agreed they could no longer work together. In August 2006, Nick left the Strait A Students and Joel Sanders immediately took his second try at the role. Joel played out the remaining shows booked (including a performance where the band met legendary drummer Alan White), but soon realized he wasn´t ready after all. Once again the Strait A Students were bass-stricken, and by this point, the band was very tired of the ever-shifting lineup. The future of the Strait A Students was looking grim, but a sigh of relief was just around the corner...

October 2006 marked the turning point for the Strait A Students introducing Ian Graham on bass guitar and backup vocals. Ian learned nearly all the band´s songs in just 3 weeks and immediately invested in a high-powered bass rig to compete with the tube-powered dueling guitars.

Since the addition of Ian, the band has been playing out nearly every week in and around the Bellingham/Seattle area.

On July 14th, they released their new demo cd as a teaser for the upcoming album to be released before the end of 2007. The new album will be entitled “The Pursuit of Hopelessness“ which is also the same name as the 4th track on the currently available demo.