The Quad Cities psychobilly trio The Afterdarks wants to make an impression. The weapon of choice is a new 31-track CD - a collection of songs from the group's beginnings in 2003 to now, largely recorded by the current lineup.
There could have been even more. "Thirty-one's all we could fit," said guitarist/singer Jake Cowan, who gave a practical reason for the jam-packed recording: "Rather than take five albums and try to sell them individually, just re-record them, kind of fine-tune them, and put them on one album, and take one album on the road to sell."
The larger aim, said singer and bassist Joe Robertson, is to show record labels and music venues that the band is serious - that it can do more than lay down a handful of demos, that it knows how to pump out product.
Blood Sweat & Gears began as a typical 10- to 13-track full-length but evolved into a summary of the band's existence. The Afterdarks wanted to "draw a line in the sand and say, 'Here's everything up to this point. Now we can move forward,'" Robertson said. "I want to put us on the map. ... I want to actually have record labels take us seriously."
