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First Posted: 5/5/2014 With a relentless touring schedule and two successful albums &#8212; not to mention the label of &#8220;band to watch&#8221; from Rolling Stone magazine &#8212; Fitz and The Tantrums are poised to take it to the next level.
Area music-lovers can catch them on the way up as the sextet from Los Angeles will appear at Penn&#8217;s Peak in Jim Thorpe tonight.
Founded in 2008 by longtime studio engineer and aspiring musician Michael &#8220;Fitz&#8221; Fitzpatrick (lead vocals and keyboards), the band soon consisted of Noelle Scaggs (vocals and percussion), James King (sax, flute, keyboards, percussion, guitar), Joseph Karnes (bass), Jeremy Ruzumna (keyboards) and John Wicks (drums and percussion), all veterans of the L.A. music scene.
After a successful debut EP recorded at Fitz&#8217;s home studio, first album &#8220;Pickin&#8217; Up The Pieces&#8221; was released in August 2010. After 20 months of live performances, the album co-produced and co-written by Fitz and Chris Seefried, peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and spawned the singles &#8220;MoneyGrabber&#8221; and &#8220;Don&#8217;t Gotta Work It Out.&#8221;
&#8220;More Than Just a Dream&#8221; followed in May 2013, and its initial two singles, &#8220;Out of My League&#8221; and &#8220;The Walker,&#8221; each topped the Billboard Alternative chart.
Keyboardist Ruzumna, who spoke with The Times Leader from a recent tour stop in Memphis, Tenn., said the band will be on the road for the remainder of the year and will hit the major festival circuit with appearances at the Hangout Music Festival on May 17, Bonnaroo on June 15, Lollapalooza on Aug. 2 and the Austin City Limits Festival in October.
&#8220;It was crazy,&#8221; he said of the making of the second album. &#8220;We were out on the road while writing and recording and never really stopped touring since the first album came out.
&#8220;Of course we&#8217;re very happy with the success of (the second album) so far,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;We knew we liked it, but you never know what will happen when you take a chance and change the sound on the second one.&#8221;
Ruzumna said the band was perhaps mislabeled as &#8220;retro&#8221; due to the sound of its first offering and consciously allowed more of who they are to come out with the second album, with most songs written and composed by the entire group.
&#8220;Both records were from the heart, but it was not intentional that the first album sounded like that; it just came out that way,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But with the new one, we allowed new elements to slip in because we are a contemporary band.&#8221;

Catch Fitz and The Tantrums on the way up