RIVER CITY REBELS
Bio:
The River City Rebels are a punk/rock & roll band based in White River Junction, Vermont. The band has a long and detailed history, clouded with many line up changes over the years. Throughout the bands entire history, Dan O'Day has been the primary songwriter of the band. He began as the band's guitarist but eventually became the bands lead vocalist.
They began as a ska band called The SKAtenders with future bassist Chris Juksoky as the lead singer. The last songs the band wrote were titled "Fuck You" and "We Will Fight" which both later became River City Rebels songs. Shortly after these were written they changed the band name and direction they were heading in musically. There was some tinkering in the line up before the band made their first formal recording under the new band name.
Once they settled on their new name, they recorded their first 2 songs "Military Attitude" and "That's the Way". These recordings were released on a split 7" with the last 2 SKAtenders songs on the flip side. Scandal Records, based in New Jersey, released the split on July 4, 2000.
Meanwhile, Victory Records owner Tony Brummel was won over by the band's impressive live show and signed them to a 5 album contract.
Their first release titled Racism, Religion, and War... came on August 29, 2000. The album contained 14 short, energetic punk rock songs including the fan favorites "Hate", "Fuck You" and "The System". While Ward Aimi took over vocal duties, guitarist Dan O'Day continued to be the band's primary songwriter along with his then girlfriend Bridget Jones, who wrote the lyrics for "Hate" and several other songs.
The album received mediocre reviews, but garnered a cult following. Many fans admired the angry punk rock tone of the album as well as it's anti-political and anti-religious statements. The album spoke to many people, despite being barely thirty minutes long in length.
August 21, 2001 saw the release of RCR's second disc titled Playin' to Live, Livin' to Play. This release had a heavy Bruce Springsteen influence to it and saw the band's biggest hit to date in "Small Town Pride" as well as "6 AM", "Life of a Rebel" as well as a cover of The Ramones classic "53rd & 3rd".
Line-up changes were again prevalent with vocalist Ward Aimi and guitarist Gabriel Rich leaving the band. Dan McCool relinquished his trumpet duties to become the band's third vocalist.
With the exception of a few tracks, this album was written by individual members and barely rehearsed as a full band until they arrived at the studio. There was a great deal of tension in the studio and after the 4 days it took to record everything, the engineer refused to mix the tracks. This forced it to be mixed in a haste without any input from the band. The band had several complaints, including the horns being too low in the mix, but nothing could be done at that point.
Shortly after the albums release, tensions came to a head and vocalist Dan McCool was kicked out of the band. Guitarist Drew Paley also left the band and formed The Static Age.
With the band's third disc titled No Good, No Time, No Pride released on October 8, 2002, the band once again changed direction musically. Having finally finished college, the band was able to take the act on the road and the experiences clearly brought the band to the next level . The album produced such live staples as "Drunken Angel", "Such a Bore", "No Good" and "Life's a Drag". The album also featured guest appearances by Duane Peters and Kerry Martinez of the U.S. Bombs.
Their fourth album Hate To Be Loved was produced by Sylvain Sylvain of New York Dolls fame. The album featured appearances by Vic Ruggerio (The Slackers), Lisa Fisher (The Rolling Stones) and Jesse Malin (D Generation). Released on September 21, 2004, the album produced such songs as "I'm So Vain", "Her New Man", "No Easy Way Out" and "Hate To Be Loved". The album was a tremendous departure in sound for the band as they finally seemed to find a style they were passionate about and truly excelled in writing. Original vocalist Chris Juksosky, however, was not fond of the new direction of the band and quit immediately following the album's release.
Following a few years hiatus and MANY line up changes, the River City Rebels released their fifth record, Keepsake of Luck on September 25, 2007. It was released on Silver Sprocket Records, and is their most ambitious record to date. Combining elements of punk, rock and roll, soul, folk and literally every genre in between, Keepsake cemented the Rebels place in the world of underground music. Unfortunately, due to being on a smaller label than the band's previous outings, the album received minimal advertising and label support. Whereas the album had the potential to be on every rock critics Top 10 list, it went almost unnoticed.
With the band down to just two members in Dan O'Day and Brandon Rainer, both of whom are also original members, the band began to strip down their sound. They recorded the self-released disc In Love/Loveless both in Vermont and Florida. The album was self-released and sold exclusively on tour.
River City Rebels @ MySpace