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True Love Always.
MEMBERS
Matt Datesman,
John Lindaman,
Tobin Rodriguez, (1996-2000)
Tony Zanella, (2000-)
HOMETOWN
Charlottesville, Virginia
MOST POPULAR
Clouds
Return of the Wild Style...
Spring Collection
Torch
When Will You Be Mine?
GREATEST HITS
Bicycle Rider
Mediterranean
Party Time
Summer Trains and Tears
Sunshine
Things To Do Today - 1.) Try
ALSO
DESCRIPTION
The neo-bossanova indie pop trio True Love Always formed in late 1995 when, following the demise of Charlottesville, VA, band Operation Love, vocalist/guitarist John Lindaman and drummer Matt Datesman opted to reunite in a more intimate musical setting. After recruiting bassist Tobin Rodriguez, the host of the local radio program Love Songs, True Love Always began performing on the area club circuit, eventually recording a two-song demo. While opening for Versus in March 1996, the trio came to the attention of Teenbeat label honcho Mark Robinson, a former high school classmate of Lindaman's who offered to reissue the demo as a single, resulting in 1996's Mediterranean 7".
RELATED ARTISTS
FLIN FLON (Matt)
JOHN LINDAMAN (John)
LATIN HUSTLE (John)
OPERATION LOVE (John and Matt)
WAR TEMPEST (Tony)
Matt, John, Tobin [L to R]
at a wedding performance in Hingham, Massachusetts
Photo by Mark Robinson
[download high resolution file]
Matt, Tony, John [L to R]
in the Radcliffe Quad
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Photo by Mark Robinson
[download high resolution file]
Matt, Tony, John [L to R]
in the Radcliffe Quad
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Photo by Mark Robinson
John, Matt, Tobin [L to R]
at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
Photo by Mark Robinson
Tobin, John, Matt [L to R]
against the Rosslyn skyline, Arlington, Virginia
Photo by Mark Robinson
Tobin, John, Matt [L to R]
at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
Photo by Mark Robinson
T.L.A. adhesive sticker
T.L.A. tee-shirt
Teen-Beat 254
John, Matt, Tony [L to R]
at the Girasol Bakery on 5th Ave. in Brooklyn, New York
Photo by Mitch Rackin
FILM
SUNSHINE
Performed live (with Evelyn) at Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, North Carolina, July 11, 2010.
RÉSUMÉ
EDUCATION
WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL
Where singer/guitarist John Lindaman met Teenbeat founder and director Mark Robinson. John was a wee freshman while Mr. Robinson was on the road to graduation. They appeared together in a musical production of Pippin.
ROBERT FRIPP'S LEAGUE OF CRAFTY GUITARISTS
West Virginia school run by infamous guitar icon Robert Fripp from King Crimson. TLA's snap to it guitar prodigy, John Lindaman, learned his chops here playing with the great one. Listening to Torch, it's quite obvious learned quite a bit.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
The city from which TLA hails. All three met while attending the University of Virginia. Famous sushi bar/rock club Tokyo Rose is here.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
MISSION OF BURMA
Seminal post-punk band out of Boston that Tobin roadied for back in the day. Tobin's hometown is B-town and he enjoys returning to Beantown to visit his mom.
JAPAN
True Love Always conquered this country this past winter, not with guns or grenades, but with guitars and drum sticks. A three week tour throughout this small Pacific paradise was wildly successful. T.L.A. has released two seven-inch singles in Japan.
THE CORNER PARKING LOT
All three of these fellahs have worked at this landmark Charlottesville establishment. The Lot gives them a flexible schedule so they can tour constantly and conquer the world. Matt and John are currently employed there. John once met Ice-T there and parked his Mercedes. This is also where John loves to listen to his favorite songwriter and composer, Burt Bacharach.
ATLANTIC CITY
Drummer Matt Datesman's hometown. His mom works for a casino. He used to live right near the beach and liked punk rock.
WTJU RADIO
Local Charlottesville radio station where bass player Tobin hosts a show which exhibits only love songs. With his soccer-loving afro-style hairdo, Tobin most certainly looks the part of a late-night soul D.J.
FLIN FLON
Matt also plays in this funk rock trio with Nattles (Cold Cold Hearts) and Mark Robinson (Unrest). During their tour with Versus, Matt often opened the set with his signature stand-up comedy routine.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Fluent in the language of L-O-V-E.
FROM THE DESK OF TRUE LOVE ALWAYS
TO: You, the reader.
RE: Our story.
THE SETTING
Charlottesville, Virginia. A small college town not too far from Washington, D.C.
THE CHARACTERS
Atlantic City's favorite son, Matt Datesman
Born in Arlington, Virginia, Mr. John Lindaman
Former Mission of Burma roadie and Beantown boy, Tobin Rodriguez
The time is November 1995. A mildly popular local rock band (Operation Love) has just broken up. Drummer Matt Datesman and chanteur John Lindaman, their ears smarting from the racket, decide to do something a little more intimate. To this end they recruit Tobin Rodriguez, D.J. of the mildly popular Love Songs radio program, to fill the bass chair. While Rodriguez is but a beginning bass player, he alone understands the compulsion to play only songs of love . . . good love, bad love, and often mad love. Suddenly, True Love Always is born.
Jump ahead to March 1996. The sound of the band is a little fuller, the songs a little less shaky, and the shows a little better. Taking hints from late sixties icons Dionne Warwick, Burt Bachrach, Astrud Gilberto and mid '70s AM pop and giving props to early '90's guitar strummers Unrest, Felt, Wedding Present, and Eggs, True Love Always is a true pop machine.
While opening for N.Y. hearthrobs Versus, TLA is spotted by Teen-Beat magnate Mark Robinson, coincidentally in town to deliver some Versus merchandise to the touring outfit. Recognizing Lindaman as a long lost high school classmate, he is intrigued by the music on a two-song cassette the band has made, and by the handmade packaging. An idea forms in Robinson's head: a single with the great songs, with sleeves made individually and excrutiatingly by hand (the hands of the band members, naturally).
The deal is sealed in July, the songs are recorded in August, and the band (plus a few friends and Teen-Beat interns) toils for two months to produce the necessary 600 construction paper sleeves with 8400 handcut letters. The Robinson-produced single "Mediterranean" is a smash hit. Fans nationwide refer to the band as "those crazy guys who cut out all the letters by hand." Everyone starts to relax, only to have the single go into a second pressing almost immediatley. Back to cutting and pasting.
January 1997: TLA is back in the studio with Robinson. Due to a contract dispute, the National Symphony Orchestra in unable to recod. But TLA manages to steal a tympani . . . Working at a feverish pace, the 11 songs for the album are recordee and mixed in 26 hours. The release date for Teen-Beat 239, "When Will You Be Mine," is moved up to March 11. Mercifully, the graphics for the album are done by Teen-Beat Graphica, not by hand. "When Will You Be Mine?" is a future classic. Very intimate, very clean, and very, very, good. There is absolutely no reverb, and not really any effects whatsoever on the record. The listener is in the room with True Love Always. Sharing their songs of love, up close and personal. A Pisces, Scorpio, and a Capricorn. Singing, swinging, rocking and introspective . . . and most of all, heartfelt.
DISCOGRAPHY
SINGLES
Mediterranean
Take Me Over
Secret Scenes
Buried Treasure
Windows Fade
ALBUMS
When Will You Be Mine?
Hopefully
Torch
Spring Collection
Clouds
Very Important Love Songs
Return of the Wild Style Fashionists
COMPILATIONS
1997 Teenbeat Sampler
1998 Teenbeat Sampler
All's Fair in Love and Chickfactor
1999 Teenbeat Sampler
2000 Teenbeat Sampler
2001 Teenbeat Sampler
2002 Teenbeat Sampler
2003 Teenbeat Sampler
2004 Teenbeat Sampler
Teen-Beat Subscribers' CD, 2003
Teen-Beat No.1 Record Label
ALSO
Teen-Beat's 12th Anniversary
T.L.A. tee-shirt
Teen-Beat's 13th Anniversary
Full Teen-Beat Moon
Teen-Beat's 14th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 15th Anniversary
Shin Dig
Teen-Beat's 16th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 17th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 18th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 19th Anniversary
Teen-Beat's 20th Anniversary
SOUNDTRACKS
The Parking Lot Movie
RELATED
Flin Flon
Latin Hustle
John Lindaman
The Soft Rock
SONGS
All Along the Basement
Bachelor Bare
Cashmere
Cigarette Star
Concentric
Bicycle Rider
Buried Treasure
Darkness in the Dark
Dionne
Don't Take It Easy
Echoes In
Everyone Knows
Faust
5:32
For You Alone
Frozen Dome Poems
Furs
The Garden's Inside
Give Me the Colors
Hopelessly Devoted
I Can Only See You Smile
I've Got a Crush On You
Ill Systems
In It to Win It
In the Dark
Je Me Souviens
Junkyard
IWW
Let the Rain Blow In
The Losing Part
Making Love
Mediterranean
Modesto
More
My Shit
100 Years of You
127 M.p.h.
Party Time
Peel Away
R U Coping w/Me?
Rockets + Jets
Secret Scenes
Secret Static
September
Shame On You
Sheets
Show & Prove
Shy Song
Sidewalks and Spaces
Silence of the Mind
So Many Stars
Spelling B
Spring Collection
Stream Up
Summer Books
Summertime Time
Summer Trains and Tears
Sunshine
Sweet Time
Take Me Over
Teenage Stonehenge
Things To Do Today - 1.) Try
Tongue
Top
Torch
Tracing the Rays
Underneath
Waves
Windows Fade
The Winter Months
Yearbook