| The Matches | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Oakland, California, USA |
| Genres | Pop punk,[1][2][3][4] alternative rock[4] |
| Years active | 1997–2009 |
| Labels | Epitaph Records |
| Website | Official site |
| Members | |
| Shawn Harris Jon Devoto Matt Whalen Dylan Rowe |
|
| Past members | |
| Justin San Souci Matt Esposito Henry Dietzel |
|
The Matches are a United States-based band formed in 1997 in Oakland, California. It currently is composed of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Shawn Harris, lead guitarist and backup vocalist Jonathan Devoto, bassist and backup vocalist Dylan Rowe, and drummer Matt Whalen. The Matches have released four studio albums and five singles, and currently are unsigned after their contract with Epitaph Records expired.
On July 9, 2009, the Matches announced on their MySpace and Facebook pages that they were taking a "hiatus", saying that, "our time to start new projects has come".[5] On 17 June 2010 Shawn confirmed to Triple J that he had left the band.
Contents |
The band was formed as "The Locals" in 1997 by Justin San Souci, Matt Whalen, Matt Esposito, and Shawn Harris. At that time, all four members of the band were at Bishop O'Dowd high school. Matt Esposito then left the band to enroll in the US Naval Academy, and Henry Dietzel was recruited to take Matt's place. Dietzel remained with the band until late 2001 and upon leaving he was replaced by Jon Devoto. In those early years, the band played ska music—creating songs like "People on the Block", "Studio 5866", and others.
Gradually, their style started shifting towards alternative rock. Their influences included fellow East Bay punk/pop-punk bands like Green Day and Rancid, as well as more mainstream bands and musicians like Elvis Costello, David Bowie, The Who and Joe Jackson. The name "The Locals" soon led to copyright infringement complications when Yvonne Doll, the frontwoman for the Chicago indie rock band also called "The Locals", contacted the band and asked that they change their name.
The band gained notoriety for "commo-promo", or commotion promotion, in which they would bring their acoustic guitars and play outside various Bay Area venues as concerts for larger acts were letting out. In conjunction with Oakland's (now defunct) iMusicast venue, the band started producing their own shows called L3 (Live, Loud & Local), which became a launchpad for many other Bay Area bands, as well as attracting such headlining acts as Link 80, Sugarcult, and Zebrahead.
Eventually, under the new name "The Matches", they self-released their debut album, E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals (this was assumed as an effort to publicly resent Yvonne Doll while avoiding libel). Then soon after they landed a record deal on Brett Gurewitz's Epitaph Records, although they had already previously released the album E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals without a recording contract, Epitaph Records re-released it. The version released by Epitaph lacks the song "Superman", but adds the songs "Borderline Creep" and "More Than Local Boys" instead. As well as slight changes to lyrics on "The Jack Slap Cheer", and the last untitled track (often referred to as "Track 11", "Abraham's Song", or "Scratched Out"). "Audio Blood" was featured in the video game Burnout 3: Takedown. The band also worked with rapper MC Lars on the song "Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock".
The Matches' second album, Decomposer, was released on September 12, 2006. The album features work by nine producers, including Tim Armstrong, Nick Hexum, Mark Hoppus, and John Feldmann, among other punk rock mainstays. The albums also marks a change to more experimental alternative rock sound, as opposed to the pop punk sound of their first album.
The Matches were on the Vans Warped Tour 2007 supporting the new album. The Matches played the entire AP tour 2008 with other bands such as All Time Low, and The Rocket Summer – Live Photos from AP Tour. Also, The Matches were one of the many bands who played on the Soundwave tour in Australia late February and early March 2008.
The group finished their third album titled A Band In Hope and released it on March 18, 2008. This album again featured the collaboration of multiple producers: Nick Hexum, John Feldmann, Tim Armstrong, Miles Hurwitz, Mike Green, John Paulsen, and Paul Ruxton (Paulsen and Ruxton of the San Francisco producer-collective Talking House, to whom the album is dedicated in the CD liner notes).
The album was leaked on February 11, 2008. Harris wrote the following on the band's Blog in response to the leak.
On July 9, the band posted a bulletin on their MySpace saying that bassist Justin SanSouci will be leaving the band. The Matches asked people to send in demo tapes of themselves in order to audition for the recently-opened role of a new bassist.[6]
On August 7, 2008, The Matches announced that Dylan Rowe of Nashville, Tennessee, whom they met 5 years prior, would be their new bassist. He replaced Justin SanSouci at the Oakland Art and Soul Festival on August 30, 2008.
Songs "The Arm" and "Wake the Sun" were featured on the Urban Outfitters Summer 2008 Soundtrack
The Matches were also winners of the 8th annual Independent Music Awards Vox Pop vote for best Music Video "Yankee in a Chip Shop".
The Matches are officially on hiatus as of July 9, 2009.[7] They played their final show to a sold out crowd at the Fillmore on August 23, 2009.[8] Some members of The Matches have embarked on personal side projects. Jonathan Devoto performed as a solo artist on May 17, 2009 at Berkeley, CA, playing three cover tracks and four originals. Devoto then formed the band Bird by Bird, which played their first live show at Blakes on Telegraph on August 21, 2009. Shawn Harris, along with Jake Grigg from Something with Numbers, started writing for a project called Maniac. Maniac has released several covers, a self-titled EP and, in 2010, they released their first full length album, entitled Mania. [9] Dylan Rowe is currently touring with several bands as bassist, including: We Shot the Moon, Backseat Goodbye, and Bad Cop. On August 7, 2009, the band announced that they would be releasing a digital rarities album titled the Matches album 4, unreleased; graphics? title? or not needed? on August 12.[10]
| Year | Album | Contributed track | Originally from |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | A Santa Cause: It's a Punk Rock Christmas | "December Is for Cynics" | No previous release |
| Agent Records Presents the NorCal Compilation 2003 | "Audio Blood" | E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals | |
| 2004 | Warped Tour 2004 Tour Compilation | ||
| Punk Rock is Your Friend: Kung Fu Records Sampler No. 5 | "Chain Me Free" (live) | No previous release | |
| 2005 | 2004 Smartpunk: Music on the Brain | "Got the Time" | |
| Warped Tour 2005 Tour Compilation | "Dog-Earred Page" | E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals | |
| Dead Bands Party: A Tribute to Oingo Boingo | "Violent Love" (Featuring Zebrahead) | No previous release | |
| Takeover Records 3-Way Issue#2 | "A Girl I Know", "Sick Little Suicide" (acoustic), "Shoot Me in the Smile" (acoustic) | ||
| 2006 | Greetings from Norcal - The Northern California Compilation | "Didi" | |
| Punk-O-Rama Vol. 9 | "Sick Little Suicide" | E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals | |
| Warped Tour 2006 Tour Compilation | "My Soft and Deep" | Decomposer | |
| Punk-O-Rama Vol. 10 | "Shoot Me in the Smile" | ||
| Unsound Compilation | "Little Maggots" | ||
| 2007 | Warped Tour 2007 Tour Compilation | ||
| Punk The Clock Volume 3: Property of a Gentleman | "Their City" | A Band in Hope | |
| 2008 | Warped Tour 2008 Tour Compilation | "Wake the Sun" | |
| A Foggy Holiday - Carols From the SF Scene, Vol. 2 | "Happy New Year" | No previous release |
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Hot 100 | U.S. Modern Rock | U.S. Mainstream Rock | |||
| 2006 | "Chain Me Free" | — | — | — | E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals |
| "Papercut Skin" | — | — | — | Decomposer | |
| 2007 | "Salty Eyes" | — | — | — | |
| 2008 | "Wake the Sun" | — | — | — | A Band in Hope |
| "Yankee in a Chip Shop" | — | — | — | ||
|
||||||||||||||||||||