Porch Mob

Porch Mob began one day in 2001 when Washington, DC-area local Dave Stone realized that he needed an alternative to life in a cubicle. He’d had a background playing bass and a little guitar in mostly punk and hardcore bands since the mid-80’s, although his musical interests had grown beyond the confines of punk and hardcore. The power and intensity of punk, however, was still too gripping to to sacrifice, so first and foremost, Porch Mob was a punk rock band.A few of the early members of Porch Mob felt the genre had lost much of of what had originally drawn them towards it, though, mainly a defiance of easy categorization and a disdain for imitation. It seemed many new bands were intent on ensuring their irrelevance by choosing to follow too closely the well-worn paths trailblazed by punk pioneers decades ago. Partially due to this, Porch Mob ended up often putting a very unconventional twist on what has become a very conventional form of rock. Without denying their influences, Porch Mob has made sure to focus on creating rather than imitatingPorch Mob endured many line-up changes from 2001 until its most recent lineup of Stone, Jon Shaffer, and Dan Tate. One effect of this is that the band has only been able to release one album so far. Self-released, on the homemade Can of Worms label, it was a surprisingly cohesive document (also called Can of Worms) of what three line-ups of Porch Mob were able to accomplish over two days in the studio, and one night at DC’s Velvet Lounge.Can of Worms consists of 5 studio and 5 live tracks, ranging from straight ahead, Washington DC-style hardcore with Chameleon, to up-tempo rock with Square Peg, to the 3/4 time anti-media monopoly manifesto, Comacracy. The album ends with a proper tribute to one of Porch Mob’s biggest influences with an impressive version of Bad Brains’ At the Movies. Other tracks notable tracks on the album are the attention grabbing, almost instrumental intro, Carbon Copy, and the in-your-face rocker, Nothin’ to Prove, possibly the best track on the albumCan of Worms can be purchased on Interpunk for just $7.25.The band dissolved the Shaffer, Stone, Tate line-up in May 2006, when Tate moved to NYC, and Stone temporarily stopped playing music altogether to focus on school.Shaffer continues playing bass in The Electricutions, who recently released their 7" record debut, and are actively gigging in the DC area, with plans to play some out of town shows in the northeast soon.Porch Mob was also featured on the Maltsoda Records tribute to west-coast skate-core legends RKL, For Those About to Trip, under the name Damage Done, which is available at www.maltsoda.com