Arts & Entertainment
 

Honest music wins in 'Last Place'

With realistic goals, Houston band works on perfecting sound, not breaking barriers

On the Scenes

Dusti Rhodes

What do you get when you cross a rocket scientist, a cheese head, four Cougars and a community service project? The Last Place You Look -- well -- its album anyway.

The local act, comprised of two UH alumni, two UH students and one Wisconsinite, worked with Habitat for Humanity in order to cover the cost of recording TLPYL's self-titled EP. Their producer, Kelly Snook got less than $100 for her work, and the band spent 46 hours building houses for the less fortunate.

"But not Derrick," said guitarist and UH alumni Richard Sherwood, referring to the shy slacker sitting next him in the band's practice room downtown at Francisco's.

The band has practice on Tuesday nights but this Tuesday, bassist and senior music major, Kevin Pool is working and singer, UH alumni Justin Nava, is running late. 

"As you can see, being here is not our strong point," Sherwood says.

The band started out when drummer Andy Moths, a Milwaukee native, saw Nava playing at Helios during an open mic night and the two became friends. 

"Maybe six to eight weeks later he finally found out that I played drums," Moths said. "He freaked out and got me to play his old drummer's set, and he was sold."

Sherwood and Nava knew each other as far back as high school, but they weren't exactly friends.

"Nava was actually the reason that I would never play my guitar in public," Sherwood said.

"I was one of those dorky kids trying to get attention by carrying my guitar with me," admitted the tardy Nava.

"I was like 'I'm never gonna be that guy, I hate that guy,'" Sherwood said.

A couple of years later, Nava showed up in Sherwood's garage and joined his band, Six West. After an appearance on the Disney channel with The Moffats, the band called it quits, and Nava started playing on his own.

When Nava teamed up with Moths, Sherwood offered to play guitar. Pool knew Nava from their job at Starbucks and asked UH sophomore communications major, Derrick Young to play guitar.

Young had been looking for a new sound; he said the band he was in before, The Last Place You Look, was not growing enough musically, and he himself was growing tired of their same pop-punk format.

Six months later, the five piece has an independently released EP, a small northern tour under its belt, and is hoping to record its next album or EP soon.

The band is as honest about its music as they are about themselves. They have no trouble admitting what they are struggling with both in and outside of the band.

When asked about conflicts between members, fingers point to Nava, because Pool isn't there. 

"I needed someone to argue with me. I needed someone to make me stop and rethink my ideas," Nava said about Pool.

The two may be conflicting creative forces but the guys agree that the contrast benefits the band in the long run. 

When it comes to their music the band has no illusions about what it is doing. 

"We aren't creating a new genre or anything," said Sherwood who added that the band doesn't concentrate on breaking or fitting any musical molds. 

He said the band may be compared with The Used or Taking Back Sunday but the difference lies in Nava's vocal styling.

Although The Last Place may not set the pace as pioneers in music, it does manage to bring something new to the pop/emo/screamo sound. Nava's crooning vocals are not as wimpy and whiny as Taking Back Sunday thanks to his baritone voice. 

Their EP is available at shows, so check out www.thelastplaceyoulookonline.com for dates.

Rhodes writes a weekly column on local arts & entertainment. 
Send comments to dcshobiz@mail.uh.edu.