Every fan of the independent band, Dispatch, has a favorite song. The group, which was born from three singer-songwriters in Vermont’s Middlebury College in the mid-90s, released its fair share of underground hits. Some like the melodic “Two Coins,” others like the edgy “Headlights.” All Dispatch fans, though, can agree on one thing: “The General” is a classic. But the track, which after its release would go on to be one of the biggest file sharing success stories of the early 2000s, almost never came to be thanks to a passed out engineer and some rickety equipment.
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“The recording of ‘The General’ was really ramshackle,” says Chad Urmston, one of Dispatch’s co-founders, along with Brad Corrigan and Pete Francis. “Pete was sick. And the guy recording it – we were just doing a one-off with him. Brad and I had to press record on the tape machine and run into the room to lay it down because our engineer drank and smoked himself to sleep on the couch.”
Despite the technical difficulties, however, the band was able to finally cut the song, which includes the sticky refrain “I have seen the others / and I have discovered / that this fight is not worth fighting.” The track, which was popular amongst high school and college audiences, went on to fill thousands of dorm rooms and car stereos on late night food runs. It was one of the reasons acoustic music and jam bands rose to such prominence in the late 90s and early 2000s. And “The General” helped Dispatch gain a massive following, one download and one share at a time.
“It’s really a timeless anti-war song,” says Corrigan. “It’s a really great way for people to come together and sing such a powerful chorus. Every generation faces violence and everyone tries to deal with moving past it.”
It’s impossible to talk about Dispatch without talking about Napster. The band was so intertwined with the early file sharing company that its members spoke during a congressional hearing on Napster’s behalf. To this day, neighbors of the members still approach with apocryphal stories. For Dispatch, Napster functioned like a global underground radio station. With it, thousands shared the bands songs, along with other songs from bands like Guster, Howie Day and O.A.R.
“I’m proud to be one of the Napster poster children,” Urmston says. “It was so obvious to us that Napster was a good thing. In so many ways, it gave us a long career. It really felt like Napster broke us in a way that was totally unrealistic otherwise, being an unsigned band.”
Dispatch, whose members formed the group from two other bands in college, worked tirelessly in its first years. Corrigan says he was constantly on the phone – upwards of six hours a day – booking gigs on campuses and in clubs. It was particularly difficult to get into clubs at the time, so Dispatch leaned into school gigs. It paid off, first in burritos and pizza, later in money. For Urmston and Corrigan, who both began in music as pre-teens, the group’s trajectory was the culmination of many years of labor.
Urmston met Corrigan in college through Francis (who is no longer playing with the band). Together, the trio would hustle from dorm room to venue and, later, to Boston-area apartments with their acoustic guitars and songs with accessible lyrics, thoughtful ideas and magnetic harmonies. Despite the creative synergy, the band members, as any close collaborators and friends might do, butted heads at times. But it was a creative tension that forced the cream to rise to the top.
“Each of us was intentionally trying to bring out the best in each other,” Urmston says. “We were pushing each other to be the best we could. It’s taken some growing up to really appreciate that each other, instead of being in competition.”
As the band matured, Dispatch would play higher-profile gigs, including late night TV show performances and concerts at famed venues like Madison Square Garden and Red Rocks Amphitheater. The band incorporated more electric instruments in their sets, too. On stage, they traded instruments, with one member, say, playing guitar on one song and switching to drums on the next. Dispatch also shared bills with bigger name bands, including Dave Matthews Band.
In the years since, Dispatch has taken a few hiatuses (the first after a “final show” played to more than 160,000 people). Over the course of the group’s arc, the members have grown, changed and changed again. Throughout, however, the members have maintained a charitable presence, continually working to raise money to fight famine and political injustices in countries like Zimbabwe and the U.S. Dispatch, which rose to fame with heartfelt, passionate hits, has not yet written it’s last bridge. The band, which released its latest LP, Location 13, in 2018, soldiers on (so to speak) and hopes to release a new record, summer of 2020.
“As we swim through this most recent chapter,” says Urmston, “it hasn’t been without its difficulties. It’s a bittersweet feeling to continue to play without Pete, who was our third leg for so many years. We’ve been through so much together. In the last few years, I think we’ve realized honesty can equal love. And if you’re working on something, that means you care about it.”
See how Dispatch is mobilizing the music & faith communities to help end mass incarceration here: http://www.callingallcrows.org/unlocked-voices
Just announced livestream fest here: https://www.livexlive.com/live-events/festival/live-from-out-there
