The Features

The Features
The Features in December 2009
Background information
Origin	Sparta, Tennessee, USA
Genres	Indie rock, indie pop, neo-psychedelia
Years active	1994—present
Labels	Spongebath Records Fierce Panda Universal Records Serpents & Snakes
Associated acts	Kings of Leon The Privates The Preservatives De Novo Dahl
Website	The Features
Members	Matt Pelham Roger Dabbs Rollum Haas Mark Bond
Past members	Don Sergio Jason Taylor Parrish Yaw

The Features are an American indie rock band from Tennessee.

Matt Pelham, Roger Dabbs, Don Sergio, and Parrish Yaw attended middle school together in Sparta, Tennessee, a rural town that at the time had a population of less than 5,000. Pelham, Dabbs, and Sergio started a band when they were in the eighth grade out of boredom, and they started playing covers of Camper Van Beethoven, Neil Young, Guns N' Roses, and others. As they continued through high school, they continued to play together at local events like parties and talent shows, then graduated to playing at various bars and clubs around nearby college town Murfreesboro and in Nashville.

Once they graduated from high school, Pelham and Dabbs moved to Murfreesboro to study music at Middle Tennessee State University while Sergio and Yaw went to Tennessee Technological University in nearby Cookeville. It was here that Pelham and Dabbs brought classmate Jason Taylor on to play drums, and Sergio brought Yaw on to play keyboards. Murfreesboro was a much larger town than Sparta, and The Features began to play at various bars and clubs around town, eventually dropping out of college to focus on the band. Within a few years they had become a fixture of Murfreesboro and nearby Nashville, and soon signed a deal with Spongebath Records, a local independent label that featured several of the biggest rock acts in the Nashville area such as Self, The Katies, and Fluid Ounces. Their first release, a six-song self-titled EP, was released in 1997. In 1998, the band recorded a full-length LP for Spongebath. The album was never released, although two tracks from the sessions, "Thursday" and "Rabbit March", were released as a limited 10" vinyl record. Around this time, original members Don Sergio and Jason Taylor both left the band. Taylor was replaced by Rollum Haas.

In 1999-2000, they recorded their second full-length LP with Matt Mahaffey at his studio in Murfreesboro, which was also never released. In 2001, they released The Beginning EP. Their incessant touring and critical buzz led to a deal with Universal Records. Universal re-released The Beginning EP in 2004, and followed with their first-officially released album, Exhibit A. The band gained a lot of exposure opening for a small town Oklahoma band entitled Kings of Leon on various tours. Due to differences between the band and Universal, their contract was dissolved shortly before the scheduled recording sessions for their second album, leaving The Features without a label. In the wake of this decision, keyboardist Parrish Yaw left the band, to be replaced later by Mark Bond. The Features went on to record and self-release the Contrast EP in 2006 and the Some Kind of Salvation LP in 2008.