The Honor System

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The Honor System
Origin Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genre(s) Punk rock
Years active 1999–present
Label(s) Asian Man Records
Double Zero
Grey Flight
Suburban Home
Associated acts Slapstick
The Broadways
The Lawrence Arms
Baxter
Rise Against
Alkaline Trio
Tuesday
Whale|Horse
Website MySpace
Members
Dan Hanaway
Tyler Wiseman
Chris Carr
Rob DePaola
Former members
Tim McIlrath
Nolan McGuire

The Honor System is a punk rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed after the breakup of The Broadways.

Contents

[edit] Members

[edit] Current

  • Dan Hanaway: vocals, guitar (formerly of Slapstick and The Broadways, later of Whale|Horse)
  • Tyler Wiseman: guitar (formerly of Tuesday, later of Whale|Horse)
  • Chris Carr: bass (later of Whale|Horse)
  • Rob DePaola: drums (formerly of The Broadways)

[edit] Past

Tim McIlrath, previously of Baxter (alongside future The Lawrence Arms drummer Neil Hennessy) and now frontman of Rise Against, played bass and provided backing vocals on the band's first demo cassette. [1]

Nolan McGuire, now Alkaline Trio's touring guitarist, played on the band's first two releases.

[edit] Style

While the other band formed from the breakup of The Broadways, The Lawrence Arms, moved toward more introspective lyrics, Dan Hanaway's lyrics with The Honor System retain many of his former band's socio-political sensibilities, covering issues including police corruption ("Nails", "The Blaming Game"), criticism of the common media ("The Blaming Game", "Losing Connection", "Hz"), the emphasis placed on wealth within society ("Fool's Gold", "Muffled By Concrete"), the behaviour of American corporations and social inequality.

Musically, the band built upon The Broadways' melodic punk, weaving guitars and non-traditional song structure, incorporating more complex structures and patterns and, especially after Nolan McGuire's departure and the introduction of Tyler Wiseman, a harder sound. Dan Hanaway's vocals are smoother than in his earlier work, e.g. Slapstick and early The Broadways, more akin to his songs on Broken Van.

[edit] Releases

The band's initial lineup consisted of Dan Hanaway, Nolan McGuire, Tim McIlrath and Rob Depaola. Their first release was a three-song cassette released in 1999, comprising three songs: "Fool's Good", "Facelift" and "Single File".

Chris Carr replacing Tim McIlrath, the band recorded and released their first full-length album, Single File, on Asian Man Records in 2000, featuring rerecordings of the first two songs from the demo cassette.

The band's second release, the six-song EP 100% Synthetic, was released on Double Zero Records in May 2001. Later that year, Nolan McGuire left and was replaced by Tyler Wiseman. [2]

After a couple of national tours [3], a self-titled three-song CD, limited to 1000 copies [4] was released, featuring the songs "Moving Day", "The Sound Of Sinking" and "American Math". This was followed three months later by the band's second full-length recording, Rise And Run.

Shortly after the album's release, the band went on hiatus. [5] Dan and Tyler went on to create the band Whale|Horse, eventually being rejoined by Chris Carr and releasing an EP, "Count the Electric Sheep".

[edit] See also

Slapstick Family Tree

[edit] External links

The Honor System on MySpace