February 2004: Pagoda’s one year anniversary as a band. They play two major shows, one at The Blue Star with Lines Leading North and Jes Frantz, and another at Remy’s with Rombis and Rotoglow on Valentine’s Day. Pagoda spends the later half of the month writing more material, including “Stars Fall On”.
Janurary 2004: After a brief hiatus for Christmas, Pagoda gets back at it. Bondorew is in Zambia for much of the month. There is a show at Cornerstone Coffee House, and when Bondorew returns they play Messiah College‘s Battle of the Bands and take third place, behind their friends in Hammers to Fences and The Method.
December 2003: Jeffrey Bondorew is unanimously voted back in the band. Pagoda writes “Stars Fall On” under Bondorew’s direction. Pagoda’s first major paying gig is played at The Blue Star in Lancaster on December 12th, with hometown heroes and fellow Christians “The Mint”. Songs such as “Look Me In The Eyes”, “Silver Spoons and Sinking Rooms”, “One Week Until August” and “Tabula Obscura” are debuted at The Blue Star. Plans are made for additional shows at in 2004; and Laux, Evans and Jess West begin an aggressive campaign to find gigs.
November 2003: Jeffrey Bondorew rejoins the band for a performance that Pagoda plays at the Cornerstone Coffeehouse in Lemoyne, PA. Pagoda also plays at theAppalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg, PA, and fans follow from the Cornerstone Coffeehouse. Nick Machlan does a guest appearance at the show, singing “Rumours of my Demise have been Greatly Exagerrated“. “Shake Your Fist” is written under Franchina’s direction, as well as “Almost Always” under Saxton and Lox and “Look me in the Eyes” under Young Savage. OnePagoda.com becomes officially active, and Pagoda’s premier membership program is started up with pagodarock@hotmail.com
October 2003: Pagoda begins playing regular shows at the Tourist Inn, and is well received by the MC “Digital Dave”. Pagoda returns to Echoes Recording Studio to record: “Rumors Of My Demise (Have Been Greatly Exaggerated)”, “Pulse”, “Miracles Dance In They Alleys”, and “Tidal Machines”. Pagoda plays a show at Eastern University on Oct. 22. The Pagoda website is officially born. “Man in the Movies” and “Shake Your Fist” are written.
September 2003: Mike Franchina is suggested as a new bass player, and is introduced at practice. Mike had been present at the three prior Pagoda shows. After a few practices, he is unanimously named the new bass player for the band. Work is begun teaching him as much material as possible, and he takes to the music very well. GSC records “C’mon Girl”.
August 2003: Evans transfers his credits to Eastern University, in St. David’s, Pennsylvania. Also: Laux, Machlan and Evans make a road trip with their friends Timothy Long and Philip Bert to California. On this trip, Grantham Sound Crisis (GSC) is theoretically resurrected.
August 2-3, 2003: Pagoda records at Echoes Recording Studio for the first time. Over the two days, “Of Things To Come“, “My Heart Set With The Sun“, “Bayonet” and “Love Song For No One At All” are recorded. They are very pleased with the experience and the results. They meet and befriend the owner of the studio, Todd. They spend the night of the 2nd at the home of Jon and Sharon Evans.
June 2003 – August 2003: During this summer, Pagoda truely becomes a more cohesive unit. They practive in the Rafiki House basement. “My Heart Set With The Sun“, “Miracles Dance In The Alleys“, “Love Song For No One At All” and “Tidal Machines” are written during this time period. In late July, they loose Nick Machlan as their bass player when he moves to Maryland.
Late May 2003: Laux spends some time in India. Practice is held in his absence. When Laux returns, he is aMessiah College graduate.
May 2, 2003: Pagoda plays Hopefest. They go on first, and while there are few in attendence, they play exceedingly well. They also contribute “Of Things To Come” to the Hopefest Compiliation CD (also featuring Perfekt Gentleman, Saline, The Psalmist and Last Tuesday), which was sold for $3. “Rumors Of My Demise (Have Been Greatly Exaggerated)” is played live for the first time.
Late April 2003: More home-made recordings are attempted, including “Bayonet”, “Deeper Than Our Senses”, “Hiram and Summer” and “Shame, Shame”, which features Nick Machlan on lead vocals.
April 16, 2003: Pagoda plays the Rafiki House show. Due to poor equipment and a general lack of interest, the show does not go exceedingly well. Bondorew does not show up for the show, and has already stopped attending practice.
April 2003: After the first show, Pagoda looks to play the Rafiki House Benefit Show atMessiah College. In communicating with the Rafiki House, they come into contact with Benjamin Jancewicz, who is interested in playing keyboards with the band. After an initial practice, he is adopted as the band’s newest member. Jancewicz proves to pick up on the songs very quickly, and his creativity is a breath of fresh air in the song writing process. Pagoda’s rough demos are well recieved and they are allowed to play Hopefest at Messiah College in early May.
April 8th, 2003: Evans splits with his girlfriend of nearly three years. This event influences lyrics to “Bayonet“, “My Heart Set With The Sun” and others.
April 4, 2003: Pagoda plays their first show with Timothy Laux on lead guitar, Jeffrey Bondorew on rhythm guitar, Nick Machlan on bass, Spam Jones on drums and Jared Saxton Evans on vocals. They open for Rodney Bistline’s brass-punk band, The Perfekt Gentlemen. They play for nearly 40 minutes and are relativley well recieved by their friends.
Late March 2003: Nick Machlan goes from making a guest vocal appearance on “Of Things To Come” to becoming the full-time bass player. Bondorew announces his intention to leave Pagoda, citing the fact that he was not “feeling it”. He agrees to play the first show, which was to happen in Dillsburg early that April.
March 2003: Bondorew’s apperance at practice becomes erratic. In his absence, Laux, Jones and Evans relive the glory days of FPP. However, in this time period, early songs unique to Pagoda emerge: “Of Things To Come“, “Blindness”, “I Am Of Age“, “Killing In Cotton”, all of which were partially written by Bondorew. Homemade demos of these songs are recorded in Hostetter Chapel with Ben Cassell, in addition to a new and better recording of “Pulse”.
February 2003: Pagoda is born in earnest. Laux and Evans beg Spam Jones, still in the area, to join them in their musical endevours. As the Wednesday Night Blues Band has broken up some time before, he is free to accept their offer.
January 2003: Laux and Bondorew meet, and there is found to be some amount of musical chemistry. Evans forsakes the use of a musical instrument in favor of singing. Evans drops out of Messiah College for the up-coming semester.
December 2002: Communicating over cyberspace, Laux and Evans discuss future musical endevours. The decision is made to return to rock music, and to forsake hip-hop. Evans arranges for Laux to meet Jeffrey Bondorew when he returns, a friend of Evans who is interested in making music.
August 2002 – December 2002: Laux is away in China for the semester. Evans attempts to keep GSC going, and records three tracks with engineer Ben Cassell. However, it is evident that GSC is fizzling.
May 2002 – August 2002: Grantham Sound Crisis is seperated for the summer.
May 2002: During finals week, a push is made to record a GSC record. Somehow, nobody fails out and a 6-song EP, “The Penny EP” is created with producer, mixer and engineer Ben Cassell. Copies are sold for 1 cent. During the recording process for the EP, Spam is brought in to drum for “Pulse”. However, due to technical difficulties, this recording of “Pulse” was lost for many moons. Instead, Laux and Evans record a last minute acoustic rendition of “The Milk Song”. “Pulse” and “The Milk Song” are the only two non-rap tracks to be considered GSC. Also, Spam graduates from Messiah College.
February 2002: GSC makes their only live performance to date, performing “The Passing” and “Elixir”.
January 2002: Grantham Sound Crisis, a hip-hop project, begin their first practices. “Pulse” becomes considered a GSC tune. The emo-rap pioneers are: Timothy Laux, Rodney Bistline, Timothy Long and Jared Saxton Evans.
Late 2001: It becomes clear that Fool Proof Plan is dead, or dying. “Pulse” is written by Laux in this time period. Evans and Laux continue to play and sing the old FPP tunes in the dorm room at least twice a week. During this time, Spam becomes involved with Jeremy Graham and the Wednesday Night Blues Band.
Early 2001: Fool Proof Plan attempts many home made recordings, thru various sources. Early versions of “The Milk Song”, and “Harper’s Fairy” are recorded with engineer Jeremiah Griswold. The four prominent FPP tracks to emerge are “Michael James”, “Sex Queen”, “Hiram and Summer” and “Sapphire Eyes”.
March 2001: “Big Jon” Mosebach quits FPP for spiritual reasons. Peter “Spam” Jones, a friend and co-worker of Evans is recruited to join the band as the new drummer.
January 2001: Fool Proof Plan is born with the addition of a drummer. The original line-up consists of Timothy Laux on guitar, Jonathan Ensslen on guitar and vocals, Jared Saxton Evans on bass and vocals and Jonathan Mosebach on drums.
December 2000: Timothy Stoker Laux and Jared Saxton Evans begin making music together with mutual friend Jonathan Ensslen in Miller Residence Hall, Messiah College. Ensslen would soon leave Messiah College to pursue other endevours. They adopt the name Fool Proof Plan.