Taking their name from a somewhat obscure and possibly subpar Richard Lovelace poem, To Althea From Prison lasted from 1998 through 2004 and never really broke up. Early on there was either no drummer or a drum machine. In 2000 the esteemed Andrew Toy joined on drums, a wee freshman in high school. The rest of the lads were incoming college freshman. After intense rehearsals the boys played their first nervous show at the old Wild Child Café (later the 4W5 and now something else probably). Someone went wild with the strobe lights and the set was plagued with vocal feedback but the audience was enthusiastic and the show was mostly dubbed a success all around. Influenced in equal parts by Sonic Youth, various/all New Wave bands, bad local hardcore shows and their dads' psychedelic LP's, the music was a unique and sometimes uneasy mixture. Stylistic elements came and went, and the revelatory purchase of a new piece of music gear often changed the band's entire sound/direction. The group is proud to have preceded the current new wave-ish craze in pop music by a good 5 years; The difference is that while most of today's popular new-wavey groups, i.e. Interpol and the like, went with the edgy joy division-esque approach, TAFP was more for the (seemingly) sunnier and perennially misunderstood stance of groups like XTC, The Waitresses, or Wall Of Voodoo. So while they enjoyed their own music very much, the band was sometimes met with blank stares in the post-grunge era, even from blind people. The group played shows around the Philadelphia area whenever busy college schedules and lax college work ethics permitted, with local colleagues like Racoon (later Dr. Dog), Petland, Eliza Letters (now Autumn Affair), The Situation and Omnisoul. Recorded documentation is mostly from live shows, although a few semi-proper demos and one mostly-proper EP, Songs From Watertown, do exist. The EP came late in TAFP's lifespan, however, so it isn't necessarily representative of the band's sound on the whole. The demos and live recordings are more accurate if somewhat more lo-fi. There is still a website up somewhere, and select recordings can be heard below.
Songs From Watertown EP
Live at University of Delaware 11/21/02
