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BLACKSBURG -- A Friendly Takeover is a student band at Virginia Tech that originated from pure talent, minimal music lessons and a genuine enjoyment of the sound of acoustic rock.

The band has played at several venues around Blacksburg, including Champs, Top of the Stairs and Cabo Fish Taco.

In late March, AFT was one of six bands that performed during Battle of the Bands, sponsored by the Virginia Tech Union.

And tonight at 10, the band will have an EP release party at The Lazy Parrot, where the first 150 people in the door will get a free copy of their new album.

AFT consists of Daniel Riddick on lead guitar, electric and acoustic guitars as well as vocals, Easton Taylor on guitars and vocals, Stefan Skeeter on percussion and keyboards, and Tony Lazzeroni on bass.

Lazzeroni, a senior art and art history major with a concentration in music at Virginia Tech, described the band "like four half brothers -- just enough similarities to keep us together, but each one with his own differences."

Riddick, a senior marketing major in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, referred to the band's style of music as "the broad umbrella would be acoustic rock. But there are so many different styles weaved into one."

"We all have different influences and they all kind of shine through at different moments," Riddick said.

Skeeter, a senior communication major at Virginia Tech, refers to his drumming style as "flip it and reverse it."

Taylor, a fifth-year senior marketing management and finance major in the Pamplin College of Business, described how three of the group members initially met.

"Well Riddick, Stefan [Skeeter] and I all met in Switzerland. Riddick and I both brought our guitars and we just started jamming together."

After hearing their "acoustic rock" type of music one might think the band had been playing together for years, or at the very least that each member had extensive music lessons.

However neither is true.

AFT, which formed in September, has drawn an excellent turnout at each venue it has played.

Some of the most recent shows were at Cabo Fish Taco earlier this winter and Sigma Chi Fraternity.

When AFT played at Cabo, the restaurant's first floor was standing room only. More fans cheered the band on, from the second-floor handrails, as they sang along to AFT's music.

"To see people that I don't even know and I've never met before singing the words to something that you wrote -- it's kind of surreal almost. It's cool, in a good way though. I never expected that," Riddick said.

Each member of AFT will be graduating in May. As such, AFT's immediate goal is to play in as many places around Blacksburg as possible.

"We've got a number of shows that are in the works. We are actually going to bring up a couple bands from North Carolina in the next month or so. And then we are going to go down there and play with them," Lazzeroni said.

"Right now we are trying to play in front of as many people as possible and have fun," Skeeter said.

Later this month, the band will play during Sudflood at TOTS with Virginia Coalition, Rainmarket and The Pietasters.

Sudflood is open to the public, noon until 2 a.m., and tickets are $10 in advance.