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"Gravity" has to be released early, and Greg McGowan is taking that as a good sign.

His band Time & Distance was supposed to have its new CD, "Gravity," drop in a couple of weeks on the Los Angeles-based indie label Not Alone Records. But the label decided summer and the balance of the world couldn't wait any longer.

"Gravity" is out today in indie record stores nationwide as well as online at www.smartpunk.com, iTunes and the label's Web site at www.myspace.com/notalonerecords.

"We've gotten selected for some listening stations at some stores and to make that work they wanted to break it now," McGowan said from his home in Charleston. "I think that's got to be better than it being pushed back later."

Already "Gravity," the band's third CD, has gotten some good press with thumbs up from Guestlist and Racket magazines.

McGowan said the band, which has racked up about 2.2 million MySpace plays with its sharply penned, hooky, acoustic pop-rock, got pushed to a higher plane by record producer Rob Freeman, who worked with the band for about five weeks in February and March crafting "Gravity" in his Boonton, N.J., studio, The Pilot.

"He really wanted us to do something electric," McGowan said. "He wasn't super familiar with the old stuff so we got a little hesitant, like are we going too far. And he was like why are you worried about it? He kind of pushed so to throw out the rule book of what we thought we should be and what we should do at the time."

While McGowan writes all of the often cleverly carved lyrics, he said the songs always take their own shape and texture within the band as his writing just starts the process.

"You can say like you wrote a song but I may write something and take it into Nathan and he hears it completely different in a rhythmic sense and that might change my idea completely," McGowan said. "What is such a cool thing is playing with capable people and everybody putting their spin on it."

Like it is with any youth-filled, power pop or rock band in West Virginia trying to build a name and a scene with few all ages venues, and little community support, Time & Distance proves you can never step in the same band twice.

Organically building since it started in 2002 with McGowan out plying his songs with his guitar, Time & Distance has new, familiar members.

Out are Jeff Motekaitis and Tom Gascon, and in the band are Huntington drummer Nathan Workman, from The Excitement, which has built a name the past couple years; Preston Scott, guitarist for Stockdale (out of Parkersburg) is playing bass, and Cody Conley is also singing and playing guitar.

"We've kind of have assembled a group of people with mutual friends," McGowan said. "Cody and I are from Charleston, Nathan is from Huntington and Preston is from Parkersburg so we are kind of spread about the state."

The new Time & Distance just unleashed its new sound on The Brickhouse, an all-ages venue now based in Nitro this past Wednesday with The Wonder Years, and is rehearsing, getting geared up for summer touring dates with The Berlin Project out of Pittsburgh, and & Status, a band that is on Doghouse Records.

McGowan said the band and the music has moved on, in spite of such a drought of good venues to play in the state in the past couple years, and in spite of band changes.

"For the past couple years there has been this serious drought because of a lack of venues and people have tried to get as inventive as possible in doing shows wherever we can," McGowan said. "With the CD, it's been a couple years and a couple different lineups and to come out of all of that you feel like you've come out on top to make a record better than anything we've ever done."

The Herald-Dispatch

Time & DistanceÕs songs have been featured on MTV, Vans Warped Tour, and radio stations around the country.

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The Herald-Dispatch

ÒGravityÓ

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