GROUCH - "Fuck The World As Soon As Possible" - Tape - 2009

   I met Kyle when he came out to visit his girlfriend (my roommate at the time), Kyle in SF. The next time I saw him, he was the roadie for my band on tour for a few weeks. On that tour, we played with his band, GROUCH in Asheville, North Carolina. Solely based on his tendency to listen to metal in the van, I decided that GROUCH was a hardcore/metal band and I used their set time to catch up with old friends in the driveway of the house we played at. Within their first two songs, I was deep into a conversation outside about dead friends...one of those conversations where you can't just say "Oh, hold on a sec...this band sounds sick as fuk and I have to watch them." So, yeah, I figured out quickly that GROUCH was not a metal band and they were, in fact, playing exactly the kind of southern-influenced, hook-filled, melodic punk that I love more than anything...but I missed every single second of their set. It was my loss.
   GROUCH could easily be defined as simply "melodic punk", but that statement can be pretty loaded and tends to turn people off from listening. You know there's something else going on when the band members love listening to IRON MAIDEN, SLAYER, MOTORHEAD and GISM and somehow incorporate it into their songwriting in the most subtle ways. GROUCH is a step above most other melodic punk in the sense that you can tell they really mean it...they're cramming tons of hooks into each song and play with passion. Unfortunately, all they left in the world is this one treble-y demo tape. The band soon broke up as both Kyle and their drummer, Henderson moved westward to the Bay Area and Portland, respectively.
   These days, Kyle plays guitar and sings in NEON PISS, He also plays drums in the awesomeness known as DISPLEASURE. Henderson was the former drummer of SHOREBIRDS. His new band, REMAIN INDOORS was supposed to play a show with my band in Portland last week, but they broke up before that could happen. At least they recorded an awesome tape before disbanding (p.s. I need that tape.). Bassist, Chris has graciously let me borrow his bass almost every time I have been in Asheville to play music and he now plays in the long running band, KLS...a band that has been around for longer than he has been alive.

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Updated Feb 2017

Thanks to Erick for the tape cover and to Kyle for the digital files. Also to Alex for last minute fact-checking.