1 band, 2 distinct records.

For a young band, The Anniversary already has quite a storied history. Formed in Kansas in 1997 when the band members were starting college, The Anniversary has managed to release two completely different LPs and weather the rise of America's current "it" record label, Vagrant Records. Starting off a U.S. tour in Bloomington on Friday, vocalists/guitarists Justin Roelofs and Josh Berwanger recently had a chance to share some of the magic and mayhem.\nAfter forming in the shadows of burgeoning college careers, Roelofs, Berwanger and Jankowski, along with keyboardist Adrianne Verhoeven (now Adrianne Pope) and bassist James David, released The Anniversary's debut, Designing a Nervous Breakdown, on Vagrant Records, a small label created by fellow Kansas band, The Get Up Kids. Designing a Nervous Breakdown was the perfect record for a small band on an independent record label -- ultra-infectious and energetic Moog synthesizer-led pop in the vein of the best New Wave bands of the '80s and betraying influences as diverse as the Beach Boys, Beatles, Zeppelin, Gary Numan, Wilco and the Flaming Lips.\nBetween touring gigs, the band, minus Adrianne Pope, lived together with Robbie Pope of the Get Up Kids (he and Adrianne married in August of 2001) in a house dubbed Whiskeytown for its Western motif and party-time atmosphere. It was an environment that Berwanger describes as insane, never knowing who would be crashed on the couch in the morning and burning Playboy magazines in the backyard. \nBut that was then. Band members now live in separate residences and there is no more talk of anonymous visitors or pyromania. And as they released their sophomore album, Your Majesty, in January, their once-small and anonymous record label, Vagrant, is seeing itself become the country's new big-name musical force, now seen as one of music's main proponents of sensitive yet driving guitar-based rock and roll. The label has even been garnering major feature spots in magazines like Spin and Rolling Stone and having its bands covered in such widely regarded music magazines as Alternative Press. \n"The reason the label has exploded is just because they signed the bands that were already on the verge of a lot of success," Roelofs says. "When we first signed on the label, it was not even basically a record label. The Get Up Kids' record came out (Something To Write Home About in 1999), and that was it. All it took was the Get Up Kids record coming out and selling like 150,000 copies… Suddenly (Vagrant) had a bunch of cash lying around and they could go sign other bands, like Saves the Day or Dashboard Confessional, bands that were already selling a lot of records and appealing to mass amounts of kids."\nRoelofs remains hesitant about the label's sudden success.\n"Now it's a stigma," Roelofs says. "Vagrant has become almost a brand name. I think there are young kids who will pick up something because they know it's a Vagrant release. It's totally weird." \nYour Majesty, for a second record, is somewhat of a rarity in that it is completely different from the band's first. Whereas Designing A Nervous Breakdown was the soundtrack to a bunch of Moog-obsessed kids jumping up and down to the energetic beat, Your Majesty displays a much more mature band. The synthesizer is toned down, the vocals are more crafted, the songs more complex, and the overall sound is more genuine rock and roll.\n"A lot of people are shocked by the difference," Roelofs says. "But it was just kind of a natural progression. It wasn't like we were trying to do something different. There were almost two years in between those records, for those two years, we were finally being full-time musicians, on the road constantly. So we were able to become students real quick as far as listening to things, our influences, diving deep into certain genres. It's just that we had learned so much more as players, refining our tastes and finding out what we really like."\nHe says that the band dug deeply into '60s pop, rediscovering psychedelic music and listening heavily to artists like Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd and especially Neil Young. It's a huge switch from New Wave, but not so drastic as to change the band's reputation with its record label. Rich Egan, co-owner of the indie Vagrant has nothing but positive things to say about his revolutionary sweethearts.\n"The Anniversary is the most visionary band in indie rock right now," Egan says. "They are completely untainted by anyone else's expectations or supposed commercial viability. They challenge themselves and the listener with every new thing they do. They make art in the truest sense of the word."\nReaction?\n"Wow, that's pretty sweet!" Roelofs says. "That's cool. I hope he really thinks that about our band. (But) that's true. We're past the point now of caring what people think. We're going to do whatever we're going to do. So he's right on there."\nFor The Anniversary's next album, Roelofs already has an idea, and it's another 180-degree twist from Your Majesty. He wants to release two records, a la Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion series. But one will be a straight-ahead rock and roll record. "More Rolling Stones, more like Credence Clearwater Revival, more of a southern blues flavor," Roelofs says. The other will be stripped-down, acoustic, influenced by the old country and blues of current influences Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. And as far as the packaging, Roelofs wants to release them separately, one with full cover art and one with a more basic style.\n"I was thinking that it would be cool if we were to release the record with things to color the record in," Roelofs says. "Crayons or a little paint, watercolor set. I don't even know if we'll be able to do this. We want to do it… but it probably depends on how this record does. We're getting ahead of ourselves."\nThe Anniversary's Celebrity Run-ins