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RELIENT K'S NEW MMHMM ALBUM DEBUTS AT #15 ON BILLBOARD TOP 200, SCANNING OVER 51,000 FIRST WEEK OUT Mmhmm
Tops Internet Sales Chart; Los Angeles, CA – November 10, 2004 – Mmhmm, the fourth studio album from Canton, OH power-punk rock band Relient K, debuted at #15 this week on the Billboard Top 200, selling 51,473 albums and nearly doubling their street week numbers of their last release, the Grammy-nominated Two Lefts Don't Make A Right... But Three Do, which debuted at #38. Mmhmm, which was produced by Mark Townsend and Relient K lead vocalist Matt Thiessen with various tracks mixed by Tom Lord-Alge, marks the band’s first release on Capitol Records. Their previous three albums were released by independent label Gotee Records, which is releasing Mmhmm jointly with Capitol.
Relient K has seen amazing momentum in street week sales with their very first album scanning 900 units, their second release scanning 9,000, the third album scanning 30,000, and now culminating in the past week's 51,473 albums sold. Relient K has sold over one million albums total to date. Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right…but three do and its predecessor, 2001’s The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek, are both approaching Gold status. Mmhmm was also the number one seller in the nation over the internet this past week, with 8,534 albums snatched up. Prior to street date, Relient K regularly achieved “most played” status on purevolume.com (http://www.purevolume.com/relientk), where they streamed a track a week from the new album.
The band, which is on the road an average of 150-200 dates a year, just completed a street week club tour and will follow up with a nationwide tour later this winter. www.mmhmm.com or www.relientk.com For additional
information on Relient K: Ken Phillips
R e l i e n t K Matt
Thiessen – lead vocals/guitars
But Thiessen, who formed Relient K with “the other Matt,” Hoopes, while in high school in Canton, Ohio, doesn’t keep track of numbers or business. He’s too busy on the road, sharing stages with bands such as Yellowcard, Switchfoot and Less Than Jake and writing inspired, inspiring songs with quippy yet hopeful lyrics. “I had no idea where my head was at / But if my heart says I’m sorry can we leave it at that,” he asks in “I So Hate Consequences”; while giving credit where it’s due in “My Girl’s Ex-Boyfriend”: “He’s the guy that you should feel sorry for / He had the world but he thought that he wanted more / I owe it all to the mistake that he made back then / I owe it all to my girl’s ex-boyfriend.” “It’s my personality to be cheesy and tell dumb jokes,” admits the singer, a self-confessed Beach Boys fanatic. “For the last four or five years, I’ve been taking the puns I think of on a daily basis and planting them in songs.” That explains song titles such as “Which to Bury; Us Or the Hatchet” and “The Only Thing Worse Than Beating A Dead Horse Is Betting On One.” But there’s another side to Relient K’s sensibilities, the two moods often sharing the same song. “This record is also very personal,” Thiessen furthers. “There’s a lot about making mistakes, failing, and picking yourself back up, and the importance of forgiveness.” mmhmm, produced by Thiessen and Mark Townsend and mixed by Tom Lord-Alge (Oasis, Rolling Stones) and Jr. McNeeley, captures all sides of the young band’s potent musicality – excepting, thankfully, the side that used to perform a Top Gun cover songs medley. “It was cool, really!” defends Thiessen. Since Relient K’s first show on New Year’s Eve 1998, the frontman notes that, “it seems like we progress so fast that by the time our records are out, we’re like, ‘that’s not where we’re at anymore.’” But mmhmm contains the classic Relient K elements that have made them fast fan favorites, contagious, unique, tongue-in-cheek rock and Thiessen’s signature wordplay. Though there’s ultra-melodic, propulsive pop-punk, Relient K’s songs are set apart by lovely piano moments and some almost classic-rock guitar overtones. From the beautiful piano and soaring, timeless stylings of “Be My Escape” to chiming bell sounds in “More Than Useless” to the spunky “Maintain Consciousness,” the lineup carve their own niche, at once familiar and fresh. Relient K’s sense of humor is never gratuitous or gross, and it’s cut with pathos and earnest -- but decidedly un-whiny -- vocals. Thiessen is self-deprecating about Relient K’s prolific output. “We’re like, ‘we’ve got a great song, let’s put a two-minute piano outro to make it not playable on the radio,’” he laughs. “We sort of sabotage ourselves.” Hardly. Drummer Douglas nails it when he explains that, “I feel like with this record when we’re rocking heavy, we’re rocking heavier than we ever have and when we’re letting up with low-key moments, it’s more mellow than anything we’ve done in the past. We’re hitting our peaks correctly.” His singer concurs, adding, “The record is a little darker than some of our previous work, but it’s encouraging and positive as well.” With increased success and focus come the usual questions, like where the name—and spelling of—Relient K came from. Cast your memory back to a four-wheeled vehicle made by Plymouth in the ‘80s. Yep, the Reliant K. “The other Matt drove one, and when we’d go to shows in it, everyone made fun of him. It was sort of an inside joke,” explains Thiessen. “Since we were 16 when we chose the band name, and worried about getting sued, we changed the spelling.” In fact, the current spelling is the second version; first the moniker had a Spanish flair: Reliant Que. “But we’re not that cheesy anymore,” Thiessen hastens to add. As to the undeniable thrill of releasing mmhmm via a major label, Capitol/Gotee, Thiessen is still processing those heady emotions. “We’ve been courted by major labels in the past, so it felt like I was always telling my mom, ‘we’re getting signed this week,’” he recalls. “But something would always fall through the cracks. So I stopped telling her.” Still, in the band’s several years on independent Gotee Records, Relient K continued to build fans, airplay and sell units (over 1,000,000 total to date), attracting the attention of Capitol Records in 2004. And yes, Thiessen has finally told his mom Relient K is on Capitol. So, the band is named after a joke car, wrote some of their earliest songs in the break room at Wendy’s restaurant (ask Thiessen; he was a fast-food manager for three years), enjoys playing music from Tom Cruise films and has a song called “May the Horse Be With You.” Plus, their drummer wears shpants. “They’re not shorts, they’re not pants.” says Thiessen. “He’s just marching to his own drummer. When something is Dave’s idea, it’s going to be weird.” Shpants aside, the press has already taken note of Relient K. Billboard called their music a “heady mood lifter” with “taut musicianship, personality-packed vocals and inventive lyrics.” And Alternative Press observed that the band offer “welcome asylum to acne-rockin’ punk fans bored with crassness.” But it’s truly the fans, Relient K’s lifeblood, that sum up the band’s appeal best. As one of their more mature devotees raves on Amazon.com: “This is the best group I have heard in over 30 years. You can put this CD on and clean your entire house by the end, it is that motivating.” And a younger fan has the last word: “Relient K is the best band to jump around idiotically to. Buy this CD or you'll waste your time going through life without listening to Relient K.” Well said. ###
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