You say you're doing fine, but that's not what it looks like

I bought Rival Schools' United by Fate one day at School Kids Records in Athens. I think I had heard maybe one of the songs from the record. I mostly decided to buy it because a few of my friends wouldn't stop talking about how awesome it was. I remember going over to the R section, finding a copy, and going up to the counter to pay for it. I don't remember how much it was but it was probably $12 or $13. Then the guy at the register told me that he was pretty sure he had seen a copy of the cd in the used cds section. He said that if I didn't mind buying used cds, that I should go over and try to find it 'cause it was probably still there. So I did, and I found it, and it was like $9. I thanked him for cluing me in, especially since he could've gotten more money out of me if he wanted to.

Whenever you'd see anything written about Rival Schools, you'd always read the same things about them. The first being that they were originally called Rival Schools United By Fate, but had to shorten it since it was also the name of a video game. But they made up for it by naming their record United By Fate.

The second thing that you'd always read was that the band was made up of ex members of Civ, Quicksand, Gorilla Biscuits, and Youth of Today. Lead singer Walter Schreifels was a member of the legendary hardcore band Gorilla Biscuits as well as Quicksand and drummer Sammy Seigler played drums on the first Glassjaw full length Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence (definitely one of my favorite albums ever).

So with all of these really talented musicians coming together, you just knew this record had to be amazing. And it is. United by Fate was one of those cds that I used to listen to before going to bed at night. Kind of a weird choice to lullaby me to sleep, since their music is a passionate, punk driven style of post-hardcore indie rock. I'd usually fall asleep somewhere between Used for Glue and World Invitational and then be sad the next day that sleep had deprived me of hearing the rest of the cd. Walter has this really great raspy voice and every song is good from start to finish.

Rival Schools also put out an EP with One Line Drawing called Rival Schools United by One Line Drawing. It's basically a Rival Schools EP with One Line Drawing (a.k.a. Jonah Matranga) singing and playing on a few songs. Really good stuff though.

Rival Schools toured for a bit before breaking up. Walter's new band, Walking Concert just released an album called Run to Be Born. You can still buy some cool Rival Schools stuff at Merch Direct. It looks like they even restock some items, and their shirts are pretty damn cool.

Get these records.


(from United By Fate)