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Throwback: Forever the Sickest Kids’s ‘Underdog Alma Mater’

By June 8, 2018No Comments

2008 was a wonderful year for many of our favorite pop-punk albums. Now a decade later, we thought it’d be a good time to look back at one of the most prominent pop-punk bands at the time–Forever the Sickest Kids (FTSK).

The band’s debut studio album Underdog Alma Mater was released on April 29, 2008. This record is full of your favorite middle-school jams such as “Hey Brittany”, “She’s A Lady” and “Believe Me, I’m Lying”.

You can catch “She’s A Lady,” “Believe Me, I’m Lying” and “Breakdown” on the band’s debut EP Television Off, Party On. Although, the recordings differ from each other despite being the same song.

The band wanted to write songs that listeners could relate to. “Believe Me, I’m Lying” was written by bassist Austin Bello and guitarist Caleb Turman after Truman left his girlfriend in tears after lying to her about going out by himself, when he was actually with other girls. Meanwhile, songs like “She’s A Lady” and “Becky Starz” are about girls that have hurt the guy’s feelings.

With the release of Underdog Alma Matter, FTSK joined the spring 2008 Alternative Press Tour with Soony More (now Skrillex), The Matches, The Rocket Summer and All Time Low. Check out this decade old tour video from The Alternative Press Tour!

The band has gone through some line up changes since 2018. Their lead guitarist, Marc Stewart and keyboard/synthesizer player, Kent Garrison both left in 2011.

So you may be wondering what is FTSK doing now? As of April 7th of 2018, the band stated that they’re still together.

Their lead vocalist, Jonathan Cook sells real estate.

Their guitarist, Caleb Turman plays guitar and sings for the indie-rock group, TEAM.

Their bassist, Austin Bello works with various artists on songwriting and producing.

We can’t really tell if their drummer, Kyle Burns is doing anything else besides drumming for FTSK, but from the looks of his Instagram, he really loves his dog. Like, a lot.

The bands last album released was J.A.C.K in 2013.

What’s your favorite FTSK Underdog Alma Mater song? Let us know!

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Tabitha Timms

I'm Tabitha, my favorite color is blue. I'm full-time college student studying to make Music Journalism my career. I hope you enjoy what I write and keep coming back for more!

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