Cash Colligan won’t have his high school diploma for another three weeks, but he’s already got something far more valuable in his line of work: a record contract.
Colligan and his fellow teenage bandmates in Las Vegas pop-rock five-piece The Cab have signed with Decaydance Records, the subsidiary of Fueled By Ramen Records run by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz. They join fellow locals Panic! At the Disco on the Decaydance roster, fitting considering how instrumental the members of that successful group have been in assisting the fast-rising Cab.
“We gave a CD to Panic!, and they liked the music and contacted us, and we became really good friends with the guys,” Colligan, an 18-year-old senior at Liberty High School who plays bass in The Cab, says. “Then we showcased acoustically for Pete at his Palms hotel room in early April during the Gym Class Heroes’ video shoot. We were sitting in the room with Panic! and Fall Out Boy and Gym Class Heroes just thinking, ‘What the hell is goin’ on?’ And then we heard Pete liked it, and it all just went really fast from there. Within a month we’d signed contracts.”
According to Colligan, The Cab had received feelers from several other labels, including majors Atlantic and Epic, since posting video footage of Panic! frontman Brendon Urie guesting at a March University Theatre performance on the band’s MySpace page (myspace.com/thecabrock). Ultimately, though, The Cab opted to negotiate only with Wentz and Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen. “Promotion was way more important to us than money up front,” Colligan says. “We’re only 18, so we’re in it for the long haul, and Fueled By Ramen is such a family-oriented label. And we saw what they did for a Vegas band already.”
The Cab—Colligan, vocalist Alex DeLeon, pianist Alex Marshall, drummer Alex Johnson and Seattle-based guitarist Ian Crawford—plan to begin recording a debut album in August, with an eye toward a release date in the first quarter of 2008. Catch them opening for The Higher at House of Blues on June 2 and headlining University Theatre on June 23.