Ambition Free: campus "geek rock"

Shaun McFall Gues Writer

Trivia time: what’s the one band on campus that the Chance is literally afraid to let perform? Ambition Free, the brainchild of Noah Kardos-Fein ’08, has been evolving from their humble roots in Montrose, New York since the fall of 2000. Beginning as a ska/punk school bus dream shared by Kardos-Fein and a childhood friend, Ambition Free has grown into a tight and experienced alternative rock band whose goal of a major label release no longer seems like a pipe dream.

Ambition Free has had anything but an easy time. Starting off four years ago at their first show with a ska cover of the theme of Rocky, the band was nothing to write home about.

“We had horrible songs. I don’t know how people gave us a chance,” Kardos-Fein said.

Years of constant attempts at the rock and roll dream, however, caused Ambition Free to evolve both musically and in their line up. Ambition Free now includes Kardos-Fein on vocals and guitar, as well as Steve D’Onofrio on guitar and vocals, Greg Tumbarello on bass, Bill Howard on drums, and Jim Cobb on keyboards and synthesizers, all of whom attend other schools.

Ambition Free has grown into a band that sounds more like pre-“Stacey’s Mom” Fountains of Wayne than Reel Big Fish. Their innovative blend of geek rock and synthized guitar effects creates a sound that is familiar, but also filled with unexpected turns. By the end of summer 2004, Ambition Free was averaging a show a week. Rigorous performance experience alongside bands such as Coheed and Cambria and Outsmarting Simon has turned Ambition Free into a band whose professionalism can be shocking. It is rare to find a group so young that handles itself so well both on stage and in the studio. Whether or not you are a music fan that enjoys their sound, which has become a blend of early Weezer and less juvenile Dashboard Confessional, Ambition Free will impress you. Though they are currently on hiatus from shows, as Kardos-Fein settles into his new home here at Vassar, Ambition Free’s full length album, There Can’t be Anything Like This, recorded at Nada Studios, is expected out in early 2005. Pending the success of this album, Kardos-Fein, a man who once wore skintight leather pants on stage, hopes to see Ambition Free fulfill their ultimate goal of fame.

However, fame would only work for Ambition Free if, according to Kardos-Fein, “we stuck together and someone wanted to put out our cd [but] let us do our own thing.”