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Rival Schools

rivalschoolsmusic

About Me

NOTE: This is a Rival Schools fansite and in no way do I have any contact with any member of Rival Schools. Please feel free to leave comments for the band if they so happen to stumble upon this site one day. I searched all over MySpace for a Rival Schools site in order to add their Music to my profile...Since I couldn't, I had to make my own!

Born out of a hearty hardcore pedigree, the members of Rival Schools stepped to the plate with a phenomenal history and the qualities that would point towards an amazing future.

Singer and guitarist Walter Schreifels began making waves as the guitarist for '80s hardcore pioneers Gorilla Biscuits and then went on to influence the entire post-hardcore movement with his influential work in Quicksand, as well as production for acts like CIV and Hot Water Music.

Drummer Sam Siegler has seen almost as much in his day, performing with an impressive list of bands that includes Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Judge, Shelter, CIV, and Glassjaw before finding his place in Rival Schools.

Guitarist Ian Love honed his chops in NY's Burn and Die 116, and bassist Cache "Utah Slim" Tolman is an alumni of exploratory jazz metalloids Iceburn, as well as a former bandmate of Siegler in CIV. With such an expansive amount of experience, it was only natural that these musicians would find their common bonds and create a new group that took their collective talents to even greater heights.

Coming together in the first year of the new century, the group quickly gained a reputation for powerful rock before they even started to record. Combing the live intensity of Quicksand with more exploratory guitars and a newly melodic singing approach from Schreifels, Rival Schools took the urgency of the new metal trend and gave it a solid heart and a thoughtful mind.

In an age when music was becoming dominated by completely unbelievable faux rock, the band disposed of clichés and focused on unbiased creativity. In an even more adventurous move, the group decided to make their first release something of a concept record and turned to Schreifels' own label, NY's Some Records, for the project. The idea was to start up a series of EPs wherein multiple groups would combine to create a single band, and Rival Schools looked no further than former Far frontman, current Onelinedrawing member, future New End Original singer, and sometimes touring partner Jonah Matranga to complete the equation.

The resulting EP, Rival Schools United By Onelinedrawing, saw the band's initial excitement explode onto record with tracks like "Take One for the Team" and "Contraire," but the best was still to come. With allegiances to Island Records still existing from Schreifels' Quicksand days, the label scooped up the band's upcoming music, and summer 2001 saw the release of their first full-length LP, United By Fate.

The record is a powerful document with adventurous songwriting, explosive energy, and melodically abrasive guitars, results that anyone who was paying attention should have been expecting all along.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/3/2006
Band Members: Walter Schreifels
Ian Love
Cache "Utah Slim" Tolman
Sammy Siegler
Record Label: Island Records
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

Where Have all the Song Gone!???

To all Rival Schools friends who may be wondering where all the songs have disappeared to:We had "Used for Glue", "Travel by Telephone" and "Undercovers On" up on our MySpace player, but the bastards ...
Posted by Rival Schools on Fri, 04 May 2007 09:37:00 PST

To All Bands...

All bands...you're more than welcome to be a friend of this page...but please don't try and advertise your band when this is purely a page for RIVAL SCHOOLS. This page is about their music, not yours....
Posted by Rival Schools on Thu, 07 Dec 2006 08:02:00 PST