Face To Face

Face to Face's story began in Victorville, CA in 1991 when Trevor Keith (song, guitar) and Matt Riddle (bass) at high school decided to leave their metal bands to play punk rock. A friend introduces them to Rob Kurth who became the band's drummer at the time called Zero Tolerance. A second guitarist, Mark Haarke, will make a short visit to the band for 2 months before being called into service in the Middle East. They will remain in trio and take the final name Face to Face. As they turn on the local scene, they meet Dr. Strange Records' Bill Plaster who proposes to release a first album. In two weekends, a good part of Don-t Turn Away is recorded at the Westbeach Recorders (Hollywood), the titles "Nothing New," "Pastel," and "Disconnected" will be put in a box a few months later, while Dr. Strange was preparing for the release of the record that finally came out in '92.
The first press of the record is quickly exhausted and Keith turns to one of his recent encounters, Fat Mike, for his reissue. The latter has just created Fat Wreck Chords, a promising label including Lagwagon and NOFX in the ranks. Again a success, this re-release allows the band, with the help of Fat Mike, to leave for the first time in Europe alongside Lagwagon for three weeks of tour in Germany. Face to Face returns from this first experience abroad and decides to integrate a second guitarist in the person of Chad Yaro. After a tour with NOFX in the United States and Canada, the quartet feels the need to cross a course and signs with Victory Music/JVC who makes them record with Thom Wilson ( Dead Kennedys , The Offspring , The Vandals , Youth Brigade , T.S.O.L. , The Adolescents ...) The EP test Over It ( An unknown EP titled Econo Live (published on the band's Lady Luck Records label), will be released the same year. Taking advantage of its success, F2F toured with NOFX , The Offspring and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones during the year With these first repeated tours also comes the defection of Matt Riddle who wants to take another direction. He will join the 22 Jacks then Pulley before moving to No Use for a Name .
At the end of the year, Scott Shiflett took Riddle's place and the band began to compose under Keith's leadership, who beat the big part of the job. Victory Music deposits the balance sheet but by contract the quartet remains under the control of PolyGram who assigns them to Major A&M on which will release their eponymous album. From then on criticized by the punk rock community, they continued to shoot (notably on the Warped Tour and with No Doubt) and it was then that their manager Rich Egan founded the Vagrant Records label. It is therefore naturally that he supports the band by releasing the Live (1998) album recorded in Roxy (Hollywood), the band being held to no commitment to the major regarding live recordings. As a result, Rob Kurth was ousted, his live and CD performances being deemed insufficient by other members of the group. They finish the promotion tour of their eponymous and pose for a while to write their next album. They audition more than 20 drummers before making their choice on Pete Parada and change direction with Ignorance is Bliss, rock album that virtually no fan will understand or appreciate. So it's a new setback for the band that, with the help of Rich Egan, had just legally got rid of A&M to sign at Beyond Music. The following promotion tour of the opus is a total fiasco and an end is put to it after only 2 weeks. Yet F2F wins in the history of other fans, notably by signing the title "Devil You Know (God Is a Man)" which appears on Buffy's BO against vampires. EP So Why Are't You Happy? (composed of Ignorance is Bliss falls) is distributed with the album in limited quantity in Best Buy channels. After the cursed tour, Face to Face returned to California unworked and, icing on the cake, the second guitarist Chad Yaro left the combo which would not be able to change his mind (even if he recorded the next album parts) and thus remained a trio. A first VHS (unknown) was released at the time under the title The First Seven Years...
It will only take them a few months to react and compose a new album, punk rock this time, Reactionary (still at Beyond Music). Released in June 2000, in the midst of the Internet boom and the Napster phenomenon, Face to Face marks a big blow by letting fans download and choose their 12 favorite songs via the internet. They also tour in support of Napster, when P2P software is attacked by majors and bands such as The Offspring or Metallica.
More active than ever, the trio returns to prepare an edition of their collection of covers under the title Standards & Practices , released on Lady Luck under Vagrant's license, with whom they end up signing in good and due form for the release of an EP split with Dropkick Murphys (Feb. The 3 members feel that this is the end and decide to end the adventure. At the same time, Kung Fu Records publishes Everything is Everything , a best of with a DVD which is not other than the bands of The First Seven Years . The farewell tour, The Only Goodbye Tour , took place in the United States in 2004 and saw My Chemical Romance open for them. In 2005 it was a new best of CD released on Antagonist Records at the end of 2005: Shoot the Moon: The Essential Collection presents 19 hits of Californians and an unreleased one. The following year it was the DVD version Shoot the Moon: The Essential Video Collection that was released on October 17 '06 with the film of their last concerts at the House of Blues in Hollywood, clips, and a film directed on the band Punk Rock Eats its Own: A Film About Face to Face .
Trever Keith will be at the origin of Viva Death (with Josh Freese on drums as well as Chris Shiflett) before setting up his own hip hop/indie label, Antagonist Records, and founding The Legion of Doom which will have a very great success in 2006 / 2007 with the album Incorporated whose specificity is to mix 2 songs from different emo bands to make one title. He also has 2 other solo projects, named Pablum . and Kid Stardust (apparently dead in the egg even though an album titled Melancholics Anonymous was programmed on his label). Pete Parada will join Saves the Day (until March 2007) and Jackson United . Scott Shiflett will found Jackson United, continue with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and join Keith at Viva Death.