Topshelf Records

theworldisa:

Tonight

https://www.facebook.com/events/264494060315579/

sonovolaf:

code orange kids / full of hell

propertyofzack:

PropertyOfZack spoke with the members of Pianos Become The Teeth over a month ago at one of their select dates with Converge for a great interview. The band and I discussed the success of their second album, past tours with Touché Amoré and Xerxes, Topshelf Records, their recent tour with Coheed And Cambria, and the future. Check it all out below!

For the record, could you state your names and roles in Pianos?
Mike: I’m Mike, I play guitar.
Kyle: I’m Kyle, I sing.
David: I’m David, I play drums.
Chad: Chad. I play guitar.
Zac: I’m Zac, I play bass. 

So this is your second of three shows with Converge. How was the first one? I guess this tour is really rad to be a part of at all.
David: I’m really stoked. Converge has been one of my favorite bands for so long.
Chad: Yeah they’re all one of our favorite bands.
David: First show was in Richmond. This is only our second show. It was awesome. Just the excitement of being on a show with Converge. Playing right before them it’s like, “Okay. Now I’m really nervous.”
Kyle: It’s cool too because I feel like the lineup is… I mean it works, but it’s also a little bit diverse, which I think is really cool. 

Were fans receptive the other night?
Zac: Richmond is hard to gauge. Our reception every night is kind of hard to gauge.
Chad: I definitely saw people singing along and getting into it, but there wasn’t people like stage diving and stuff, you know?
Zac: People stand with arms crossed and either sing along or look very confused.
David: We feel awkward all of the time.
Mike: I think one of the best comments somebody every said was, “Well, that was interesting.”
Zac: We were planning on opening all three shows. That’s what we thought was happening. We thought we were the opening band. Then we got there and found out that we were playing right before converge.
Kyle: Which is weird because we’re not really on the tour.
Mike: It’s incredible it’s just very weird room.
Kyle: Makes us more nervous.
Mike: Especially when you walk into a venue like this and it’s like, “Oh.. Right. Well.. Two floors, huh?” 

You guys have toured pretty extensively since the release of the record with the Touché tour and then the Xerxes tour. Have you noticed a steady increase in interest from fans?
Mike: I feel like in some places, yes. I feel like we would have never done as well in some of the major cities in Canada if it wasn’t for that Touché tour. We did a show in Toronto that was incredible. I don’t think it would have been that cool if we hadn’t done that Touché tour or touring behind the record. I feel like it’s a slow increase, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Kyle: Very slowly, but it’s always been an increase but it works out.
Zac: It’s hard to gauge that too, because a lot of places that we’ve played, especially in america going in and out of Canada in places we’ve never played before, I haven’t played in a long time. It’s kind of hard to tell. 

Read More

Absolutepunk is streaming Riala right now. If you like it, you can pick it up from the Topshelf Bandcamp or the Topshelf Store.

propertyofzack:

From Chad McDonald:

It’s 6:40 AM. We arrived in Baltimore last night at 10:30 pm after an 18 hour van ride back from Baton Rouge, LA. We drove straight back to Baltimore after the show, which I think is the reason I am now awake at 7 AM on a Saturday. Over night van rides always mess with my sleeping schedule.

The last few shows of the tour were fine. Birmingham, Alabama was one of the better shows of tour for us. A few guys came up to the merch table and said they had seen us play in a garage outside of Birmingham 4 years ago. I vividly remember that show because we kept getting shocked during our set because the garage’s power supply wasn’t properly grounded. It’s odd to think how different that tour 4 yearsago was from this one. Two completely different experiences in the punk touring spectrum - from house shows and art spaces to bar venues and music halls with a well known band.

I wrote this a few years ago in the summer of 2010 after returning from a 41 day tour that was mostly house shows and art spaces:
Tour is fun because of the uncertainty that goes along with it. Not knowing what the show will be like, what kind of people you’ll encounter or where the night will end is a liberating feeling that you don’t often get to experience. You have the slightest bit of control over your daily destiny and it is up to you and your band mates to figure out how you’re going to eat, where you’re going to sleep, who’s going to drive, etc.

If I were to write an end of tour round up right now it would go:
This tour was unlike any of our prior tours. Each day we had a scheduled arrival time, load in, sound check and set time. Uncertainty regarding the shows did not exist. We were never surprised by a broken PA system or a dilapidated punk house or no one showing up or not getting gas money at the end of the night. Everything just seemed to fall in to place, which is very unusual. We entered a new touring reality where punk time does not exist and everyone involved with the show is a professional. Shows start on time and run smoothly and at the end of the night the promoter pays you what you agreed on beforehand. The audience didn’t seem to like us very much, but some people said nice things after our set. We got a lot of blank stares and disinterested faces in the front row each night but eventually your skin thickens and you play harder.

Read More

theworldisa:

I’m not there. I will be meeting up with the band tomorrow morning. Oh boy. See you at one of these? I’m excited to hate the world with Daylight

• 5.24.12 - Altoona, PA @ Fort Apache VFW w/ Daylight
• 5.25.12 - Columbus, OH @ The Legion of Doom w/ Daylight
• 5.26.12 - Howell, MI @ Bled…

kidsistereverything:

Other bands TBA.
Email harrynama@gmail.com for more info.

http://www.facebook.com/events/306939342721797/?ref=ts

THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE & I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE INTERVIEW - 1/9/11

Questions by
-Mike Ward

Answers by
-Greg Horbal

Alright. First let me say how much I love everything that you have done. The subtleness to your songs is really amazing. Almost an Explosions in the Sky esque to them. When you write songs, do you ever compare your works to other groups that you are influenced by as if to say ” does this sound enough like…” ? (If so, who are some of those groups?)

I don’t think we ever approach anything from the standpoint of “does this sound ENOUGH like…”. There have definitely been moments while writing where we finish a part and are like: “Oh man, this sounds like ‘Band X’” or “this sounds like ‘Band Y’.” If it feels too close to ripping off another band we tend to try and change the part. We’re more interested in developing our own sound than trying to follow in the footsteps of anyone in particular.

On the cover of your latest record, there are about ten guys laid face down on the ground. Was this some sort of metaphoric shot saying that you all died doing something that you truly loved (playing music) or was this just a cover you guys thought would be clever?

Honestly, we all just kind of thought it looked good! We had been discussing that image for months before we took the picture. We wanted to take a photo of everyone in our band and everyone in Deer Leap together and had originally been intending to include all of our gear out on the lawn. We kept running into issues, though. For one, Deer Leap live in New Hampshire and we’re all in Connecticut so we don’t get together too often. And then when we were finally all together and got ready to take the photo, the skies turned black and it looked like it was going to rain at any minute. We grabbed our less precious gear, threw it on the lawn and took the shot moments before it started to downpour.

So on the record Mixed Signals Comp, there is a song that is a bit different from most of your other works. Is there a reason behind why you guys chose the song ” To the Janitor, To the King” as your single as opposed to some more of your abrasive tracks?

We had intended to use a song called ‘Getting Sodas’ for the comp, but as the recording date approached we just didn’t have the song done. Parts kept changing, vocals and lyrics were not completed and it started to get really stressful. We had sat in Derrick’s room a few nights before we were supposed to go record and Tom showed us the first verse of “To the Janitor, To the King.” I remember all of us getting excited. We worked through a very rough version of what the song would end up being in the following hour, and made the call to place that song on the comp instead. We were all really stoked how it came out. I think we’re going to be using a very similar styled song for a single we’re going to be doing for Run For Cover next year as well.

Listening to your albums from the beginning of your discography, is there any one song that you are most proud of writing?

Honestly what I’m most proud of right now are all of the new songs we’ve been writing for our LP next year. I feel like we’ve finally started to reach our potential as a group. I have to have something like 15 demos on my iPod and they are all I’ve been listening to. I cannot wait to show this record to everyone.

The song ” Blank #6” sounds like a deep song that simply did not require anything more done to it to make it better. Was there an event in any of your lives that brought about the abyss that lies within the guitar riffs?

I don’t think there was an exact event that inspired the song, but that song and all the songs we write reflect what’s going on in all of our lives at the time.

Questions by
-Mike Ward

Responses by
-Keith Galvin (Deer Leap)

I like the way that you guys kicked off your Demo record with that simple subtle track. By seemingly doing so little you’ve accomplished so much. Was that song more of a slow jam, or was there an even that inspired a song like that?

Originally there was a song we used to play for the Intro at our shows. We planned for that song to be on the demo but never got around to recording it. I did however, record bits of it on my loop station and wound up with that short intro that is on the demo. It had a lot of mood and it fit really well as the opener to the demo. We wanted something soft and ambient to lull your senses before the beginning of Hazle came booming in.

When you guys described your musical genre on Topshelfrecords.com, you wrote, “Three friends that make rock music”. This being the case, who are some of your influences?

That description was kind of our take on the long winded bios you see a lot of bands write about themselves. We just wanted it to be short and to the point. But influence wise we’ve all got a lot that we share and some that are unique to each of us. We’re all very influenced by American Football, Appleseed Cast, and Jimmy Eat World. So we bring a lot of that to the table when we practice together. I’m also a big fan of Mogwai, Radiohead, and Circa Survive, so I think a lot of how I write guitar-wise can be traced back to all those bands in some way or another.

This is one thing I just can’t go without asking, where is Sha- Booms? Did it have enough of an influence on you that you guys had to have a song about it, or is it simply a song name?

A lot of our song names come from books, television, and movies. That name comes from the show Eastbound and Down. We all love it and really wanted to name a song after it. We have difficulty coming up with names and referencing pop culture is always a fun thing for me. Like when I notice a band references something I like I get a little excited, which is kind of lame but fun. As we continue writing, however, I think we’re going to steer clear from the references.

I love when bands cross genres in albums. Sigur Ros did this when he released his album Takk. You guys have such a mix in song variety whether it’s writing an instrumental piece or one that’s slow and subtle or its something loud and abrasive. Do you find it difficult to write a cohesive album with so many possibilities available to you?

Absolutely. Our writing process is all over the place. We never really sit down and think about writing a song. Usually our songs evolve from improvised jams we have at practices. So as for writing a cohesive batch of songs, we haven’t really aimed to yet, we just write songs as they come to us and hope it all fits within whatever our sound has become. But I think since writing the songs for our split with The World Is… we understand what “our sound” is, which is something that we didn’t know when we started the band. That’s why the songs on the Demo are all over the place, we were just writing songs, which I think is the case when any band starts out. We never really sat down and said “This is what we should sound like”, it just happens naturally over time as you play and write together.

Lastly, are you guys working on any more albums? Are you focusing more so on touring now-a-days?

We have a handful of new songs that we are hoping to record asap. We’d really like to record and then focus on some touring, we are just all extremely busy all the time and it makes focusing on the band very difficult. But we do have some new songs that we are extremely excited to play and record. 

All of our recordings (the demo and our split with The World Is…) are on our bandcamp. You can also get the split at http://tsr-store.com.

pianosbecometheteeth:

Spain: We are stoked to announce that we will be playing this years Resurrection Fest. It will be our first time in Spain! See you then!

hxmskrmz:

Pianos Become The Teeth Shirt Design. You can grab it from Topshelf Records’ Big Cartel

explodingdragons:

A Great Big Pile Of Leaves - Learning Curves