Overland Park, KS - Blue Valley North West High School - 1995. A young man by the name of Joshua Berwanger was fronting a band by the name of The John C. Holmes Band, later just called The Holmes Band after the well hung porn king, and often ending shows with Captain Pecker the Party Wrecker, a 6 foot inflatable penis. At the same time another boy, Justin Roelofs, was fronting The Nuclear Family, another local rival band. Following the demise of their two bands, Josh and Justin got together with Adrianne Pope in the winter of 1996 to form The Broadcast.
The Broadcast went through a number of bass players and drummers, but managed to demo a few songs in Alex Brahl's basement in January of 1997. They also recorded a few demos with Dave Trumfio, who later produced their debut album as The Anniversary. Partly because they had trouble finding permanent rhythm members, The Broadcast enjoyed little success touring in and around the Kansas City area with bands such as Simple Barney and Secret Decoder Ring (featuring Rob, Matt and Jim from The Get Up Kids). However, they experienced greater success outside of Kansas City. Shortly after the band Simple Barney broke up, Jim David joined The Broadcast and a little bit later Christian Jankowski joined. They became aware of a British band called Broadcast so in October of 1997 they changed their to The Anniversary because of a plate in Adrianne's parents' living room that said "Happy 10th Anniversary." They then moved to Lawrence, Kansas so that Justin and Adrianne could study at Kansas University.
Featuring Justin and Josh on guitar and vocals, Adrianne on keyboard and vocals, Jim on bass and Janko on drums The Anniversary bring with them a unique style of music. Exactly what is it? Who knows and who cares - it's just plain good. Touring throughout 1998 in the Midwest region with bands such as Superchunk, The Pulsars, Kent, Love is Laughter, The Get up Kids, Helium and Braid, The Anniversary began to make a name for themselves. They recorded six songs and decided to release a debut EP early in 1999, but when Robbie Pope and Matt Pryor of The Get up Kids approached them in the spring of 1999 offering them a full-length album on their new Heroes & Villians imprint label on Vagrant Records The Anniversary couldn't refuse.
Over a ten-day period in July of 1999 The Anniversary began recording most of what would later become Designing a Nervous Breakdown at Kingsize Sound Lab in Chicago with producer Dave Trumfio. Later that July, at Red House Studios in Eudora, Kansas, The Anniversary recorded two more songs, one of which was released in November of 1999 on a split 7" with The Get up Kids to precede the release of Designing a Nervous Breakdown.
Since the release of Designing a Nervous Breakdown on January 20, 2000 the band has toured relentlessly, but has still been able to sneak away long enough to record a number of other songs. In March of 2000 back in Red House Studios they recorded two more songs with Alex Brahl, one released on the Vagrant Records sampler Another Year on the Streets and the other released in a split 7" with Hot Rod Circuit. In August of 2000 The Anniversary also recorded two more songs which were featured on a Singles Club only release on Sub Pop Records. In June of 2001 the band recorded their second full-length album Your Majesty at Sonora Recorders in Los Feliz, California. It was released January 22, 2002. In late September/early October of 2001 The Anniversary recorded three brand new songs for a split with Superdrag released November 13 2002.
