summer 2002 - GOOD RIDDANCE AND BANE PLAY A FEW WEEKS OF SHOWS TOGETHER. RUSS AND AARON, UNITED BY THEIR PASSION FOR COFFEE, BECOME FRIENDS AND BEGIN PLOTTING TO START A NEW BAND TOGETHER. RUSS RECRUITS ZACH (HAGFISH/ARMSTRONG/EX-GWAR) ON SECOND GUITAR.
"by the spring of 2002 it was clear that, due to circumstances far beyond my control, my current band was going to be going on life-support indefinately. i wasn't real happy at the prospect of barely touring anymore. this combined with a recurring itch i'd been having to branch out and play music with some different people gave rise to the possibility of a new band. i knew i wanted a completely new cast of characters and was really compelled to pursue a drug/alcohol-free aesthetic as well. beyond that i really didn't know how or where to begin.
summer of that year saw us touring with bane and, as aaron (dalbec) and i became friends, the gears started turning in my head. i'm pretty sure it was while loading out of berrymore's in ottawa one night that i finally "popped the question" to aaron. turned out he'd been thinking the same thing."
-russ
"Bane and Good Riddance were on tour, and I had always enjoyed the work that russ had done. We starting talking and hanging out a lot on tour and realized we were both into a lot of the same stuff musically among other things (i.e. coffee, hockey, movies). We were playing a show in ontaio and russ came up to me after the show, and was like, “ we need to start a band together”. So since I was a huge fan of Good Riddance, I was real excited about it. It took about a year for us to get things together. We slowly but surely assembled everyone we wanted and, after the first time we got together for practice, I loved playing playing with these guys and I knew that this was going to be better than I had imagined."
-aaron
"russ and i knew each other vaguely through bands[i knew other members of his band better].at one point good riddance needed to do a tour with a fill-in guitarist and they called me first. it turned out i had a prior committment to another band and was already on tourat the time theyneeded me.when i told them how bummed out i was that i couldn't do the tour russ said 'dont worry,ive got something else in mind and would i be interested in working on a new project?
i was fed up with my current situation and said 'fuck yeah!'.turns out we were in similar situations bandwise as faras being the ones in the band that wanted to tour more as the current band was touring less and less.we figured we had enough time to start not just another side project to fill time until our other bands wanted to tour again,but we had time to start another full time band. we got together not long after and wrote songs,that proved to be fruitful."
-zach
winter 2002/2003 - GOOD RIDDANCE GOES TO THE BLASTING ROOM TO RECORD. RUSS TELLS BILL ABOUT HIS NEW, AS YET DRUMMERLESS BAND. BILL, INTRIGUED BY IT ALL SIGNS ON.
"russ, zach, doni and i have been friends for years. i have been procuding good riddance's records for the last 8 years, and when russ mentioned wanting to do something else musically - but maybe a little harder, like some of the things i was doing in black flag, i was all ears, because i had grown to be an admirer of his lyrics, and his delivery, (which reminds me of a blend between fat e.p. milo, and six pack single dezo, so - in my book - pretty much perfect).
zach and doni and i go way back - i produced the hagfish records, so when russ mentioned those guys, i thought, yeah, makes sense to me. and then meeting aaron i was exposed to the whole hardcore scene, which, although it sorta stems from flag in a way, i knew nothing about. i felt like there was a whole area of aggressive music that i had ignored."
-bill
2003 - THE FOUR STAY IN TOUCH VIA PHONE AND EMAIL. PLANS BEGIN TO TAKE SHAPE TO ACTUALLY GET TOGETHER AND WRITE SOME SONGS.
july 2003 - RUSS AND ZACH GO TO THE BLASTING ROOM, AND WITH BILL, DEMO THE BAND'S FIRST BATCH OF MATERIAL. THEY SEND AARON A CD OF 9 SONGS.
october 2003 - RUSS, ZACH, AND BILL TRAVEL TO MASSACHUSETTS TO RECORD A "PROPER DEMO" WITH AARON. THE 9 SONGS PLUS 3 NEW ONES ARE RECORDED. PETE FROM BANE COMES UP WITH THE NAME "ONLY CRIME".
november 2003 - THE BAND CONVENES AT THE BLASTING ROOM FOR MORE DEMOING. 3 NEW SONGS ARE WRITTEN AND PLANS ARE MADE TO RECORD A FULL LENGTH IN THE NEW YEAR.
february 2004 - ZACH'S BROTHER DONIVAN IS FINALLY RECRUITED ON BASS. THE BAND SETS CAMP AT THE BLASTING ROOM TO DEMO FOR (HOPEFULLY) UPCOMING RECORD. 3 MORE SONGS ARE WRITTEN FOR A TOTAL OF 18. LABELS BEGIN SNIFFING AROUND. THE BAND DECIDES ON A BOOKING AGENT; MATT PIKE AT THE KENMORE AGENCY AND BEGINS PLANNING SOME SHOWS FOR SPRING
"I got in the band around February, and was stoked when it was official. Zach had played me the Ft. Collins and Boston demos and I thought it was going to destroy.I was right (as usual).Here was my chance to put or shut up.
I remember the night we showed up at the studio,we had driven 10 hours in the snow, straight through ice as well.Zach had already driven about 6 hours just to get to my house. as soon as we walked in,we dropped our gear off and started to practice. balls outjack. really,I had my balls out. after a few days everyone liked how it sounded and I was in. and very stoked. I had been jealous of zach since they started the band. now I was in the band,with my balls out.
-doni
february 15 2004 - "ONLY CRIME" PLAYS IT'S VERY FIRST SHOW AT THE STARLIGHT IN FT.COLLINS CO!
april 2004 - THE BAND PLAYS IT'S FIRST STRING OF SHOWS, MOSTLY SUPPORTING THE DROPKICK MURPHY'S ON THE EAST COAST. THE MINI-TOUR PROVES FRUITFUL AS FAT RECORDS DECIDES TO SIGN THE BAND AND PLANS ARE SET FOR A JULY RELEASE OF "TO THE NINES", THE BAND'S DEBUT ALBUM.
STAY TUNED...
