As Fast As

by Johnny LoftusPortland, ME's As Fast As used to be called Rocktopus, and put out the 2003 record Something Fierce under that name. Switching to the As Fast As moniker, frontman Spencer Albee, guitarist Zach Jones, bassist Pat "Hache" Hodgkins, and drummer Andrew Hodgkins (no relation to Hache) signed with Octone Records (home of Maroon 5) the following August. In the studio by January 2005 with producer Matt Wallace, they next toured during the spring with the Wonder Stuff, and by summer's end were preparing for the release of their Octone debut. That debut, Open Letter to the Damned, eventually surfaced in May 2006. Various dates around the record's release were played with the likes of Unwritten Law and Gavin DeGraw.