Ark. progressive rockers PMtoday to perform at The Inner Bean

Courtesy of PMToday

Brothers Ryan, Connor and Cuinn Brogan make up PMtoday. The Wichita based band are scheduled to play with Abandon Kansas and Jonas Sees In Color at the Inner Bean today at 8 p.m.

Jacksonville, Ark. progressive rockers PMtoday are in the middle of a cross-country tour promoting their latest record. Brothers Connor and Ryan Brogan have been playing together in PMtoday since 2004.

“We don’t plan to make it big and that’s not our goal,” said Ryan Brogan, the band’s drummer. “Our goal is to be as creative with our music as we can, exploring different influences and instruments and build something new. Basically, we write music for us that we love. If we just so happen to make it big off it, then that’s a plus.”

Despite a few line up changes, the band has been steadily playing shows and touring.

“We aren’t out there to try and sell ourselves,” Brogan said. “We’re not trying to get big, or trying to sound like everything else to get big. We just want to play and show people what we think music should be.”

The band recently replaced guitarist Kevin Middleton with the Brog’s brother Cuinn. Having three brothers in a band can have advantages.

“We have more time to write and practice and not worry about them needing a ride to practice sessions,” Brogan said.

In August 2007 the band released ‘And Then the Hurricane,’ with this record the band members made a conscious effort to step up their game.

“We started writing this record when we lost our guitarist and gained another,” Brogan said. “We decided to take our music to different level at this point, we wanted to make it more technical, more creative. Overall just better music.”

Their epic ten-track album is a blend of progressive and indie rock, similar to acts like Coheed & Cambria and Circa Survive.

“The songs on ‘And Then the Hurricane’ are definitely more guitar-heavy than our previous EPs,” Brogan said. “Connor wrote all of ‘And Then the Hurricane’ with help from me for structuring and such. We are pretty proud of how it turned out and the responses we’ve received about it.”

The band has also been searching for a permanent bass player, and has been trying out different musicians on the road.

“As of now we have a bassist playing for us from Texas,” Brogan said. “Things are going well.”

Living out on the road isn’t easy but the members of PMtoday have some advice for other traveling bands.

“Its really hard, you’re out on your own so you basically need to take everything,” Brogan said. “Try to save as much money as possible by trying to stay with people from the shows or friends rather than wasting money on hotels. That and a lot of venues and promoters can be shady and not pay you the money you deserve, so you have to compensate by selling your CDs to people.”

PMtoday will be performing today at The Inner Bean, 1328 Exchange with Wichita’s Abandon Kansas and Greensboro, N. C.’s Jonas Sees in Color.