History
The band started playing together in Garrity's garage in the Phoenix community of Ahwatukee in early 2003. They played their first show on July 17, 2003, at Skateland in Chandler, AZ. Shortly after the band's first show, they added bassist Jess Myers. The band continued to play all over the Phoenix metro area throughout their high school years. In December 2004, the band went into the studio with producer Matt Grabe to record their debut EP, "You Brought This On Yourself", which was released locally in May 2005.
The group changed their name to Anarbor stemming from the fact that former guitarist Mike Kitlas' sister was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[1]
Their self-released EP, Hearing Colours, Seeing Sounds, was released digitally in March 2008 and peaked at No. 62 on Amazon.com's Top Album chart.
Their debut Hopeless Records release, The Natural Way, came out on August 19, 2008. The four song digital release debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard Top Singles Album Chart. In October 2008, Jess Myers announced her departure from the band, due to excessive touring and her interest in going to college.
An acoustic version of Anarbor's song "Passion for Publication" appeared in the compilation Take Action! Volume 9.
The band released Free Your Mind on March 10, 2009.
On April 20, 2010, the band released their first full-length studio album, entitled The Words You Don't Swallow, which peaked at number 50 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart[2] and number 16 on the Heatseekers chart.[3]
On March 8, 2011, the group released an EP of cover songs and remixes entitled The Mixtape.
In 2012 the band released two singles: "Whiskey In Hell (Rough Cut)", which was released on February 7, and "Damage I've Done", released on October 2.
On May 6, 2013, Anarbor announced that their new album would be called Burnout and that it would be released via Hopeless Records on June 4.[4] On the same day they released a lyric video for a new song, "Every High Has a Come Down".[5] On May 14, 2013, Anarbor released a lyric video for another song off of Burnout, titled "Who Can Save Me Now", via the official Hopeless Records YouTube Channel.[6] On May 29, the entire album was uploaded for streaming on YouTube.[7]
On September 20, 2014, The band announced on Twitter that they did not break up, but are "taking a bit of a break". A year later, the band posted on Twitter that they were working on new music.[8]
Throughout early 2016, the band posted on their Facebook that they were in the process of recording and mixing their new album. They announced on April 13 that they had finished the new album.
On July 29, 2016, they released their self-titled album. No longer on Hopeless Records, they released their album independently.
In November 2016 Anarbor went on a US tour supporting Headlining Emarosa along with Cold Collective.
In the month of July 2017 they went on tour with Sundressed, touring the West Coast, Pacific Northwest and parts of the Midwest in the United States.
On July 29, 2017, the band had released an official statement that drummer Tyler Hedstrom had died on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, by suicide at the age of 17. In the events after, the band and family had set a gofundme goal of $15,000 in order to pay for Tyler's funeral expenses. The fundraising was pulled after the band and family had raised over $20,000. The band performed the song, "Pushaway", for the first time at Tyler's memorial service.
In 2018 the band released “The Ep”, a 3 song Ep, as the first record to feature Danny Stravers on guitar.
In 2020 they released the “Tangerine Ep”, another 3 song Ep with the song “Tangerine” as a strong sign of their shift to a much more poppy sound.
In 2022 they released 5 singles leading up to the release of their latest album “Love & Drugs”
Television
The song "Let the Games Begin" was featured on an episode of MTV's series The Hills. In addition, Anarbor's music is featured daily on ESPN's top-rated show Sports Center.
Anarbor was chosen to write and record the theme song for Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins. They filmed a music video, "You and I", which aired on Cartoon Network that showcases the tune, in addition to playing on the movie's trailer. Anarbor's tune "Let the Games Begin" has also been chosen to be the theme song to "Good Day L.A.", a national talk show broadcast from Los Angeles.
"Let the Games Begin" was also featured on the NFL kickoff show, on NBC, during a recap of the 2008–2009 season.
"Let the Games Begin" has also been featured in the episode "Boards of Glory" in Stoked, a hit Canadian cartoon on Teletoon.
"Let the Games Begin" is the theme song for MLB Network Countdown.
Anarbor competed on the MTV comedy "Silent Library" which first aired on July 21, 2010.
"Always Dirty, Never Clean" was featured on Jersey Shore season two, episode one.
"Passion for Publication" and "Let The Games Begin" were also featured on Jersey Shore season two, episode four.
"You and I" was also featured in the episode "Brofinger" from Stoked.
Anarbor was featured on the MTV show "10 on Top" which first aired on April 2, 2011.
