DETROIT, MI  [Tuesday Mar.9.2004]  /Mix103FM.com/ -- Q: What were Maroon 5 called before they were Maroon 5? A) The Clone Defects, B) Kara's Flowers, C) Beige 9, or D) The Mouth Breathers ?

Answer? Kara's Flowers, but don't feel bad for getting it wrong. Kara's Flowers went pretty much unnoticed by all who heard them, lost in the sea of alt/lite bands of the mid '90s. In fact, Kara's Flowers were so boring that even singer Adam Levine didn't care what their audience thought of them. Gig after gig, the band performed in the face of utter indifference until Levine decided to play some tunes he'd been working on---songs with a decidedly un-Kara's Flowers sound. Audience reaction was not good, but says Levine, "I craved to alienate those people because they were so dumb. It was L.A. and with everything that was going on in music, I had this weird dislike for the kind of close-minded attitude the scene I found myself in had. We were really burned out on how everybody was doing the same thing. We wanted to do something that would alienate our fans, but eventually help us develop a more unique sound."

The effect of the metamorphosis was to turn some fans away completely, says future bandmember James Valentine, who caught one of those early shows. "It was like a line had been drawn in the sand among their fans. Some of them were like, 'Wow, that's the coolest thing I ever heard.' And others just completely jumped ship." And thus was born Maroon 5, the band behind the single "This Love," appearances on Saturday Night Live, and the subjects of much MTV airtime. And things keep getting better every day, says Levine.

"Things happen all the time these days that make us think we've made it," he said. "Then something else happens that's even cooler and more amazing, and we think we've made it again. We keep making it every couple of weeks."

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