The Franklin Garage Scene refers to a number of bands formed by the 2006 class of Franklin Middle School of Chantilly, Virginia from late 2005 to the present. The scene still continued even after its participants graduated from Franklin in June 2006. There are a few select people of note in the scene. The most notable is Jonathan Leonberger, who was a member of every single band in the movement. Others included Matt Steele, Victor Monte, Joseph Blair, Stephen Reiter, Devin Kumar and James Rowley. The scene had two waves, the first wave occurring in 2005 to mid-2006, the second occurring from late 2006 to the present. The bands in the first wave included Exhibit 13, Perfect Khaos and Hazmat.
In October 2005, Exhibit 13 formed. Jonathan Leonberger played bass, Victor Monte played drums, Josh Lisko played keyboards, Michael Morrato sang, and James Rowley played guitar. The band was short-lived, mainly due to the inability to find a time where all the members could practice. However, one song, “Atlantic Wall,” was recorded. It only featured Victor and Jon, who played guitar and
not bass. Jon began to play much more guitar than bass. Despite being in
the shadows, Exhibit 13 has never officially broken up. Mike, Victor, Jon
and James still occasionally jam under the name Mino Tap.
Play "Atlantic Wall":
ecided to call it that. During this time it also had a slower, steadier tempo. When Perfect Khaos started, he decided to use the song as an original but as the song called for angry lyrics, he did not write them yet. Then came along Gwendolyn Brown who was a bitch, and the inspiration for the lyrics was born. Although the lyrics were dreadfully awful, they used them and the song was then called “I Hate Everything About You,” although the band called it “iheay” for short. The song took on a much faster tempo and had a punk sound to it. As the band did not yet have a singer, the lyrics were never put to use. At the second practice, Joseph taught the rest of the band how to play the song and they recorded it later that day, as well as a cover of Coheed and Cambria’s “Welcome Home.” The only other songs they played were covers, including Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Green Day’s “Brain Stew” and “Holiday,” and the Offspring’s “Gone Away.” The band never got to writing any more original material due to the fact that they were unable to come up with anything at jam sessions and even though Joseph had written a few songs, the band was unable to translate the parts from keyboards to guitar. Matt had come up with a bass line he often played, but a full song had never developed from it. By the time they had all become better musicians and songwriters, the band had dissipated. When Hazmat formed in January 2006, Matt quit Perfect Khaos to join. This left Perfect Khaos without a singer or a bassist. While Jon never officially quit Perfect Khaos, he practiced much more often with Hazmat, leaving Joseph the only one with a real interest in continuing the band. It is still a common argument between Joseph and Jon as to whether Hazmat killed Perfect Khaos. Although the band had entirely faded by March 2006, Joseph still attempted to organize practices very often; however, this only happened on 2 occasions. The situation was basically the same every time: Joseph asked Jon if he could practice the following weekend, and Jon said probably, and nothing else was said about it until the day of when Jon was unable to. Jon later admitted he was simply blowing him off on one occasion. This happened many times from April 2006 on. However, on 2 occasions, there was a practice, one in April 2006 and one in October 2006. Both resulted in a new song; however the songs never went anywhere. In November 2005, they added bassist Hala Ashraf and singer Karina Bertness
with the intention of reviving the band, however, in March 2007, those plans
were abandoned. In April 2007, BAMF was renamed to Perfect Khaos, with the
lineup being Joseph on drums, Jon on guitar and Devin on bass. This lineup
disbanded in May 2007 due to more commitment to The King's Crown.Play "I Hate Everything About You":
hey were originally called Silverwings, and then shortly after renamed themselves to Hazmat. They had 3 original songs, “Say Again (Cuz I Can’t Hear You),” about a deaf man, “Endless,” and “Welcome to America (It’s Not China),” about how American women are much fatter than Chinese women. On March 10, 2006, they played a show at Hannah Cohen’s party. The night is notoriously referred to by the band’s members as “The Gig.” The police showed up at the party because the band had violated noise restrictions. The event is looked back upon fondly. Hazmat recorded three songs: “Say Again,” “American Idiot,” and “Welcome to America.” Out of these 3, “Say Again” is the only one to be heard by very many people other than the band. James’ vocals in these recordings are often a source for humor both by members of Hazmat as well as those who aren’t. Every member of the group thought he was a bad singer, but they didn’t know how to fire him. As a result of having to do this,
Matt later said the band ruined some of the members’ friendships with James.
At Franklin, Hazmat received alot of odd publicity, such as rumored battles
between them and 8 Lives Short, "Hazmat" mysteriously appearing on chalkboards and test folders and
other strange rumors. By June 2006, Hazmat had also dissipated, due to a
lack of practices.Play "Say Again":
Techno Song" was posted. It was
a techno song recorded and composed entirely on keyboards. In March 2007,
he recorded a song called "Religion" about religious intolerance and the
problems it presents. This song was originally a song for BAMF, but he
decided to use it for Kingdom of Poseidon after BAMF died and posted it on the
Myspace. He also recorded a cover of No Doubt's "Snakes" intended to be
posted after Emilia McGinn recorded vocals for it, but she was never able to, so
it was eventually posted anyway in May 2007. In May 2007, a parody cover
of "Say Again" (originally by Hazmat) was posted. It was a soft,
piano-driven version to parody the original and its yelling vocals. As of
May 2007, a few songs are currently written however are not being recorded due
to recording issues. Also, in May 2007, Joseph recorded vocals for The
King's Crown's cover of Coheed and Cambria's "A Favor House Atlantic."Play "Religion":
The King’s Crown started in 2006 when Joseph told Jon about Audacity.
Jon then used it to record a cover of Coheed and Cambria’s “In Keeping Secrets
of Silent Earth: 3” with him playing guitar and bass and Victor playing drums.
They released many other Coheed and Cambria covers, including "The Crowing" in
February 2007 and "A Favor House Atlantic" in March 2007. In January 2007,
they recorded a cover of Iron Maiden’s “Invaders," however, due to poor
recording quality, it was never released. The band was originally in
tended
solely for recording purposes, however, Devin Kumar often jammed with them and
became permanent bassist, moving the band towards being both a live band as well
as a recording one. Starting in April 2007, they began to record a few
originals including "Scissira," a metal song with an evil sound and horror movie
quotes spliced in, "Less," a ballad, and "All Access," a party rock song
inspired by Havok in Hollywood's "99 Ways to Fly." In May 2007, the band
was unofficially renamed to "All Access" however currently goes by both The
King's Crown and All Access. In May 2007, they were asked to play at a
party and asked Joseph to sing for the gig. He said yes, although
eventually learned he couldn't make it and the gig ended up being cancelled,
however permanently joined the band as singer, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist.
The King's Crown is currently scheduled to play at the Greenbriar Community
Center on June 18, 2007 with Backdraft.
Play "All Access":
keyboards, and
Matt on bass. The name "BAMF" originally stood for Badass Motherfuckers, as in
"Badass Motherfucking Supergroup," and was only intended to be temporary,
however, a new name was never thought up and therefore BAMF stuck. At the
first practice, they invited both Matt and Devin to play bass, and Devin ended
up becoming their bassist simply because he fit better and Matt became the
band’s official photographer and manager of everything outside the music and
attended all their practices. After simply a lack of motivation to
continue scheduling practices, the original lineup of the band died in March
2007. Devin, Jon and Joseph (on drums instead of guitar) continued jamming
and in March 2007 released "Kingdom of Crowns," a 2-minute song that arose out
of a jam and the triplet riff from the BAMF song that later became Kingdom of
Poseidon's "Religion." This triplet rhythm is also in the Slayer song
"Raining Blood," which is a source of irony considering Joseph hates Slayer and
did not realize the rhythm was in that song as well. They also released
"The Jam Pub," a 8-minute long jam about the happenings of that day, including
going to Jerry's, Taco Bell, The Icy Troll Cave and stealing a hedgehog named
Murphy O'Reilly from Kmart, featuring Matt and Jon on vocals. In April
2007, this lineup was renamed to Perfect Khaos due to a liking for that band
name and similarity to the original Perfect Khaos.
Exhibit 13:
http://www.myspace.com/exhibit13
Perfect Khaos:
http://perfectkhaos.tripod.com
Hazmat:
http://www.myspace.com/hazardousmaterials
The King’s Crown:
http://www.myspace.com/thekingscrown
Kingdom of Poseidon:
http://www.myspace.com/kingdomofposeidon
BAMF:
www.myspace.com/perfectkhaos