Born Yesterday

From Louisville Punk/Hardcore History
Born Yesterday Stats
by logo
Record Labels: none
Started By: Jacob Miller,Ryan Dawson
Based In: Louisville
First show: Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom - 9/8/01
Largest show: 2000+ people
Last show: N/A
Reunion show: N/A
Number of Members: 6

Although offically conceptualized much earlier, Born Yesterday was offically started in 2001 when Jacob Miller and Ryan Dawson met at Twice Told Coffeehouse during one of the popular open mic nights. The two realized that by combining Ryan's raw songwriting talent and Jacob's singing and production abilities that something great was possible. The two guys found a drummer by the name of Ben Lovely and began playing shows at venues such as Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Twice Told and Headliners.

The original lineup featured Ryan playing bass and Jacob playing guitar however, with the addition of a 4th member to play bass, Ryan would be free to play lead guitar. In late 2001, Michael Kolesar joined Born Yesterday to take up the bass duties.

Born Yesterday at Twice Told in 2002
Twice Told circa 2002 (L to R): Jacob Miller, Michael Kolesar, Ryan Dawson, Ben Lovely

In 2002, the band's most popular song Green Mother made it to #1 on WLRS's Kentucky Friend Radio Hour top five countdown due largely to votes from fans of the show and the band. The band also did a couple radio interviews as well as had several other songs played on WLRS including the song Feel.

The band played several shows together at venues such as Jillian's and The Rudyard Kipling. However, in late 2002, Ben Lovely left Born Yesterday to play guitar for High Road Crown and Ryan Dawson left to play solo shows under the name Thirtysilver. Down but not out, Jacob and Michael remained together and recorded a couple songs by themselves. One of these songs was the song Fallen Angel which featured Jacob's longtime friend Ben Owens playing lead guitar and Kimmet and Doug's drummer Pete Klarman sitting in on drums. The song was an instant hit on the KFRH.

Ben Owens stayed on as the full-time lead guitarist with Born Yesterday and the band added Jason Blackman as the drummer in early 2003 to fill out the lineup. The new incarnation of Born Yesterday played their first show together at TekWorld Arcade on January 3rd, 2003.

Born Yesterday in 2003
circa 2003 (L to R): Ben Owens, Jason Blackman, Jacob Miller, Michael Kolesar

Born Yesterday played many shows in 2003 and 2004 at venues such as TekWorld Arcade, Phoenix Hill Tavern, Expo 5, Tailgaters and Twice Told. In early 2004, Born Yesterday took the rest of the year off from playing shows to focus on their personal lives, songwriting and more studio recording. During this time, Jacob briefly moved to Florida and unsuccessfully tried starting another band similar to Born Yesterday there. However, the call of Louisville was too great and he returned back to town in 2004.

In 2005, Born Yesterday played their first show back on January 22nd at Twice Told (now relocated in Buckner, KY.) They debued new songs which were an instant hit with their fans as well as playing some of the old classics such as Fallen Angel and Painfully Numb.

In August of 2005, Jason Blackman left the band due to creative differences. In his absence the remaining members Born Yesterday has been recording new and old songs like mad in an attempt to release a high-quality album. The band is in the process of selecting a new drummer and new shows will be announced as early as April of 2006.