If Billy Joel is the Piano Man, then Something Corporate's lamenting CEO, 19-year-old Andrew McMahon, is the Piano Boy.
Both rooted in rich deposits of piano rock, Joel and McMahon can carry a note, rock a crowd (albeit a crowd separated by several decades) and pound the keys with precision skill, but they abandon all similarities at their respective piano's 88 teeth.
"Billy Joel never yelled 'Fuck you Jordan' at the end of his songs," McMahon said. "And it's just a wild guess, but I bet he never had to load/unload his own piano either."
Jordan, McMahon's high school menace of which the band's hit song, "If You C Jordan," is based upon, has become a cult figure of loathing for the rising young musicians, which is why they cast Chris Owen, a.k.a. "the Shermanator" from American Pie, as the obnoxious high school villain in the song's music video.
"Chris even looks like the real guy that I hated in high school. It all worked too well," he said of the video, which features the band in preppy school uniforms rocking the halls and defending their honor at an up-class private school.
While "Jordan" blossoms into fame on national charts and Something Corporate rockets from minuscule throw-away band to youthful piano-rock pioneer, McMahon likes to look at the group's recent deliverance from certain radio death in much slower terms.
"Yeah, everything's happening fast -- today I'm here, yesterday I was there, tomorrow I'm somewhere else -- but time still feels normal," he said. "We still feel the way we did when we started years ago. Before we were signed, the five of us were friends and we'd hang out at each other's houses. We still hang out now, but it's on the road in a van. Little has changed."
McMahon admits that what has changed has been for the better, including the public's sudden interest in the debut EP, Audioboxer, a six-song wedding of teen angst, riffing piano hooks, masculine crybaby anthems and McMahon's tingling everyguy voice.
The EP features "If you C Jordan" and "Walking By," a song McMahon wrote for his current girlfriend.
"She's a pretty humble girl, so she thinks about it as our song and not as that song everyone's singing in their cars," he said. "In one sense it's a song for her, in another it's a song for the band as well."
The five members of the group -- McMahon, Brian Ireland, William Tell, Clutch and former ASU student Josh Partington -- have just wrapped up a brief jaunt around one half of the globe in preparation for the new, full-length disc due May 21.
"We toured London and had people actually show up to see us," McMahon said. "We didn't even release Audioboxer overseas and the kids were there singing along to every word. The response we're getting worldwide is amazing."
As for McMahon's piano, which he describes as the "abhorrently heavy beast," it's often considered a sixth member of the band only because it requires infinite amounts of maintenance and care on the road, not to mention back-straining lifting, rolling and maneuvering.
"We've learned how to work with it better over the last few months, but when there's stairs, high stages or tight fits, the piano can make an already long day so much longer," he said. "The last time we played Arizona, we played the Nile in Mesa and we had to get the piano down the tiny staircase to the basement. It was not pretty."
Besides the scattered appearances on MTV and a main stage slot at the Warped Tour this summer, Something Corporate can be seen next Thursday at Nita's Hideaway, a venue that boasts a stage no higher than several feet.
"My back and piano thank you," McMahon said.
Reach Michael Clawson at Mike8831@aol.com.
