BATTLING BANDS Valley's own Another Found Self rocks everybody's socks off to win

The winning Mahoning County rock group has a Web site.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
CLEVELAND -- Moments before the winner of the 2006 Mountain Dew MDX High School Rock-Off was announced Saturday night at The Odeon Concert Club in Cleveland, the five members of Another Found Self huddled near the stage with nervous enthusiasm.
"This is my basement three years later," exclaimed guitarist Mark Catalano.
Together since they were sophomores, the five-piece emo-rock act -- Catalano (Boardman High School), singer Julian Smith (Boardman), drummer Nicholas Sainato (Boardman), guitarist Dom Devin (Boardman) and bassist Aric Allen (Austintown Fitch) -- took home the $15,000 grand prize, as well as a priceless sense of momentum that their musical talents were affirmed and dreams of rock stardom remain uninterrupted.
"It's awesome," Smith said. "It's a great competition and a great opportunity. A lot of bands, it seems like they lived and died by this thing, and we just used it as a catapult. We just want to keep doing bigger and better things. Whether we won or lost, we were Another Found Self before this and we're Another Found Self after it." The event pitted Northeast Ohio bands against one another.
Music genre
Emo is a subgenre of punk that is the rage with teenagers. AFS can be described as a power-pop arena rock band.
From the opening riffs of AFS' 20-minute set, the five-piece band possessed a rock 'n' roll swagger that stood out among the 17 other bands performing. Despite dropping the microphone and then accidentally unplugging it a song later, Smith overcame any unexpected adversity with an "It's only rock 'n' roll" reaction.
"You know what, things happen," Smith said. "I've been to really big shows where there have been malfunctions like that, and I think it's just how you handle them. I kept my cool. I recovered quickly."
Such professionalism also bleeds over to the business end of the Another Found Self operation. The band sold more than 30 CDs at the Rock-Off, as well as promoted its Web site, www.anotherfoundself.com.
"Stage is where we belong," Smith said. "That's why none of us are going to [college]. We want to do this band. And this is the music that we believe in.
"We've been doing this since sophomore year, and we're not going to quit just because we're not in high school anymore. We're not going to quit because there's not that built-in fan base anymore. This is what we want to do," Smith said.
Making plans
The future is now for AFS, which is using its upcoming spring break vacation in April to visit Los Angeles with former Rock-Off bands Johnny Psycho and Jaded Era. The band will be showcasing its live set as well as shopping its songs to labels.
"Hopefully, everything will be going right, and we'll be moving there permanently in September after graduation," Smith said. "We're just going to keep going."