Despite a solid promotional schedule, opening slots with acts like Reel Big Fish and gigging for every high school prom and graduation that would let them, the punky pop of Kara's Flowers Fourth World passed the public by and the record company decided not to go with a second album. Allegedly tensions in the band were high and Adam (RAR) and Jesse drove cross country to a music school in New York while Ryan and Micky resumed their studies at UCLA (sidebar your honour: I love the fact that all American Universities have acronyms, you don't get that in England!) Time apart did the foursome the world of good and when they reunited in 1999, they had a renewed sense of purpose and vowed to make it all about the music. As you do. Ahem. Anyway, the guys got together and recorded a nine song demo cd known as The Stagg Street Recordings. Still very much Kara's Flowers, it's an interesting stage in the evolutionary process to Maroon 5 as Adam's songwriting skills have clearly developed and they started experimenting with different genres. One highlight from this era is Angel in Blue Jeans is a definite step into M5 territory - the bass is a little more funky and r'n'b influenced and a little less punky... Also check out the demo of the kid, which sees them returning to their favoured homage of beatles and beachboys sounds, to great effect. Tomorrow ~ the caterpillar becomes the butterfly...
