Written by Judith Blakley

Imagine coming in first, second and third in a battle of the bands competition. These guys are involved in a little bit of everything, so they made such a feat happen. Society Ills (www.myspace.com/societyills) came in first place, followed by Pink Floyd Sound and rounded with Covalent James. Jordan Miller and Brendan Crow were filling in for some people in the band Pink Floyd Sound and played only that one show. These two are members of Covalent James (www.myspace.com/covalentjames) and happened to play that day as well.

Jordan also plays in the wacky band The Late Cretaceous (www.myspace.com/thelatecretaceous). It's an acoustic band with an actual dinosaur performing.

"Society Ills for Art Camp" was the name of the comic book that Jordan drew a long time ago. He's used "societyills" as his screename and when the band he was in needed a name, that was what they went with.

The guys met me and my two teen shadowers, Kelsey Jenkins and Victoria Blakley, in Jordan's basement, where they rehearse. I sat on a stool, next to the drums and Brendan (18, drums/vocals) with Anthony Sloan (19, lead guitar) standing up on the other side of the room, strumming his guitar the whole time. Tim Iverson (19, Bass) was between Anthony and Brendan and Jordan (19, vocals/guitar/keyboard) was to my right, sitting/standing/bouncing around.

The guys all went to St. Johns at Prospect Hall together in the ninth grade. Brendan and Tim decided to start a band with another guitarist. Their initial attempt lasted for three months. They asked Anthony to play bass with them and just before their first talent show, they got Jordan to sing. They've been together for the past three years.

The largest venue they've played was Club Nation in Washington, D.C. with five hundred people in attendance. Their smallest crowd was the three people they brought with them to an event.

"We got lost in D.C one time," says Brendan. "We asked for directions at the Deaf School," Anthony says "we thought they were weird and just talked funny." Jordan says that being lost in D.C. that time was "pretty crazy." Brendan says that on a different occasion in Baltimore, they "burned out in Anthony's car and it turns out we were above some sort of sewage thing and the car smelled after that."

When they played at the Cultural Arts Center in Frederick there was this guy who jumped up on the stage and started choking Anthony and knocked over Brendan's drum mikes. Just before that same show, they parked on the side and someone told them they could park there, but some crazy old man started yelling at them and screamed for them to get out of his face.

Their dream venues would be to play at the 9:30 Club (Tim and Anthony), The Electric Factory (Jordan), The Starland Ballroom (Anthony), Madison Square Gardens (Tim) and outer space (Brendan).

Jordan's goal for the band is to just "get our music heard by as many people as possible." Anthony just wants to have fun with it. Brendan wants to get famous and Jordan said that "I think I want to trash one hotel room one time."

They have all had formal musical training. Jordan had music and piano theory and was a member of the piano guild. Tim had bass lessons and Anthony trained on classic guitar. Brendan took music theory and played in the jazz band. The number of instruments in Jordan's basement was astounding. They are very diverse musically. During their rehearsal, I witnessed Jordan and Brendan trading off instruments, with Jordan taking over the drums and Brendan the guitar.

They are working on their third CD this winter with Paul Levitt as their Engineering Producer. Their two CDs, "The Storm" and "Transmission" are for sale through their MySpace account. "Transmission is now available through ITunes. You can also get Society Ills Ring Tones for your phone. When you check out their MySpace profile (www.myspace.com/societyills), you will notice that they post pictures and drawings from their fans.

Besides playing music and hanging out together, these guys like to play hide and seek in Baker Park. Brendan and Tim are river rafting guides. Tim describes himself as a vagrant and nomad and Brendan says that one of his hobbies is to "help Tim find places to live." Anthony says he likes to watch movies and sleep, but I don't think he ever puts down that guitar. Jordan likes to do short films, illustrations and drawings. He used to play soccer, but he has no time for it anymore.

Brendan describes Tim as "the local man of mystery." Tim is a very quiet person and he pretty much doesn't talk unless he's really got something to say. Tim says that this is the first time ever that they are all single and that he is looking for a girl who has to have "deep, soul-piercing eyes. She has to think I'm really really good at bass." Anthony says that he is looking for someone who has an interest in music. Jordan says that he looks for girls who are artistic and expressive, "but I'm in college and I'm not really looking for anybody." Brendan is only looking for someone with "two X chromosomes and her body has to work."

They showed their true personalities when I asked them who they'd like to meet, past or present. Jordan says Roger Waters and Syd Barrett. Anthony said David Gilmour and Plato. Brendan would like to meet Ghandi and Charles Manson. Tim said "If given the opportunity, I would like to meet Jimmy Buffett, but I'M NOT CHOMPING AT THE BIT TO MEET JIMMY BUFFETT!" The guys tease him about how much he idolizes the man.

I wanted to know why the guys chose to donate their performance to the Guitars for Bagpipes Benefit Concert Event and Jordan said "we were asked and we like to play in West Virginia." Brendan added that "whenever we do West Virginia, it's always a good show."

Since the Guitars for Bagpipes (www.myspace.com/guitarsforbagpipes) event is a benefit concert to raise money for the Martinsburg High School Thespian Troupe's performance at the 2008 International Fringe Festival (www.edfringe.com) in Scotland, I wanted to know if any of them had done any theatre themselves. Brendan said he did the school play all the way through the eighth grade. "In the seventh and eighth grades, I had one of the lead roles." Tim did plays in the seventh and eighth grades too. Tim was also "in this children's play 'Three Little Wolves and The Big Bad Pig' in the eleventh grade. I was the narrator and I had to dress up as a fairy." Jordan was the Big Bad Pig in that play. He wore a leather jacket and a Rolling Stones t-shirt. His nose was painted pink and he had a green, shiny and glittery 80's rocker wig. Jordan also played MacBeth as MacBeth in the eleventh grade.

In their senior year of high school, Jordan and Tim were President and Vice-President (respectively) for SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and their shining moment was when they threw the benefit concert "SADD presents FrownFest."

These guys were a lot of fun to sit down and talk to. The rehearsal we watched was fantastic. We encourage everyone to come out to the Guitars for Bagpipes event on Saturday, October 6 at Poor House Farm Park in Martinsburg, West Virignia. If you're a fan of Society Ills, bring lots of bags of Sun Chips. They love them and you can throw them on the stage during their performance to show them you love them!