Fear Before the March of Flames (sometimes abbreviated as FBTMOF or Fear Before) is an experimental metalcore band that resides in Aurora, Colorado. Their current sound can be described as experimental metalcore, drawing influence from the likes of Converge, The Blood Brothers, and Botch. Some even consider them to be mathcore because of their technical riffs and song structure.

Interview by Carlo Gironi | carlo@staff.truepunk.com | with David. Hi David! How are you doing?
Damn good, we are at the Equal Vision offices right now taking a break from recording our new record.

Can you introduce the band’s members and tell the story of how you got together?
We are four dudes (David, Adam, Mike, and Brandon). We all went to the same high school together and some of the guys were in previous bands together that came and went. In the summer of 2002, I (David) was asked to join the band as a vocalist on a whim and that was the start of fear before the march of flames.
Where do you come from? How is the indie/punk/rock scene in the place you come from?
We are from Denver, Colorado. The scene… lets see. I can honestly say that the scene has changed a lot since the start of our band. I think a lot of kids are more supportive of the scene than when we first started. You see a lot more people at shows now than there used to. Lets hope its not a trend and they all go back to what they did before they liked hardcore. But it’s awesome to see more tours hit Colorado. I think Colorado was once a state that bands didn’t mind skipping over.
 

Where did you get the name Fear Before The March of Flames from? It sounds like it has got a deep meaning, and I think long band names are quite popular these days, don’t you think?  
All the short names were taken. Our name came from a headline in the newspaper. It refers to some wild fires in Colorado that were burning when we started the band.

Do you consider yourself an indie or emo band at all? What do you think of the emo hardcore scene of nowadays?
I don’t know anymore. I think trying to label something is impossible. there is always going to be a million people who disagree with your opinion. My grandma calls our style ‘heavy steel’! That works for me. Haha

You released your debut LP on Rise Records - then re-released via Equal Vision Records; how did you get in touch with the guys at EVR?
We were on tour with Bear vs. Shark when we were on the East Coast and EVR came out to see a couple shows. We kept in contact ever since.

Have you released some other stuff before your new LP? I know you formed not too long ago but have already done some great stuff.

When we were just a Denver local band we released a 3 song
EP/demo we did ourselves. We sold a lot of those on our own. They are long out of print… which is good. Haha

Your sound is basically rock, and it has also some post hardcore influences according to me; where do you get your inspiration from ? Other bands, music, books, movies, life …
All of the above! How would you describe FBTMOF to a person that have never heard of you?
Haha, ummm usually say something like, ‘this is kinda different, you might like it!’. Luckily I don’t have to do that often because I’m never good at it anyways.
 

What are some of the bands that you guys in the band regularely listen to?
Lately we have been listening to a lot of 90’s radio bands.
 

What about your lyrics? What do you sing about ? I noticed this song “The Lisbon Girls, Oh The Lisbon Girls” - what is that about?
The Lisbon girls are a reference to the movie ‘The virgin suicides’.

Note: Jonathan Gill (jon@staff.truepunk.com) wanted to name his daughter, if he were to ever have one, Lux until seeing this movie.

Have you got some plans of touring to support you new album? If so, where and with whom?
The new record we are recording right now doesn’t come out till September so we don’t have tour planned out that far in advance, but we will be heading out before that in June with 18 Visions and Underoath. We can’t wait for that, it should be an awesome tour. And in July we have some Warped Tour dates. And I believe we just confirmed a spot on Hellfest.
Speaking of tours, I read that you are always busy touring with a lot of bands. Can you tell us some funny fact that happened to you on tour?
All I have to say is that, if fear before the march of flames and bear vs shark tour together, I hope you don’t own a hotel near the club we play

The critics say your sound is a cross between Blood Brothers, Botch, and the likes. What do you think of these comparisons?
Cool, we like both of those bands!

You will be producing your next LP on EVR with Matt Ellard\ (who by the way worked with Converge, Between The Buried and Me and others) - what do we have to expect from these new songs? Do you already have a release date and most important, have you already entered the studio?
Our release date for our new record will be released on September 7^th. Tentatively titled, “The God Awful Truth”. We have about 70% done. So far, we couldn’t be happier with how its turning out. Matthew Ellard knows what he is doing. All our 12 hour days are paying off. The new songs are still ‘fearbefore’, but they are very different. These songs are darker and heavier than we have ever been before. Not much singing on this record. We have had some time to grow as a band and song writers. We are very proud of this batch of songs. Its our best work yet.

Do you think it is difficult for a young band to get hooked up by some label? I ask you this, because in the last year I saw a lot of unknown and untalented bands getting signed by major labels and all…how do you relate to this thing? Are you willing to get signed to some major or you just do not care?
This is a good question. Our new record ‘the God awful truth’, is a loosely based concept album on the death of the music industry. So in September you get to hear our thoughts in full.

But for now I will say, A lot of bands are clueless and a lot of labels don’t know what a good band is. And that is why there are so many shitty bands out there. We turned down a major label last year just as fast as they offered us the option. I’ll keep my soul for now. Maybe when I’m 45 and still live with my parents I’ll change my mind.
 

Any final comments?
Thanks for the interview. Look out for us on tour this summer and our new record in the fall!

We love you.

Californian metal-core combo As I Lay Dying hope to send love ‘n’ understanding - not trashcans - into the moshpit.

Interview by Steve Tauschke | steve@staff.truepunk.com | with As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis.

You’d be excused for expecting some backstage tension by bringing together a Christian band and a satanic-metal outfit whose distaste for Catholics is well documented. But when San Diego’s faithful fivesome As I Lay Dying found themselves sharing a band room with ungodly Polish black metallers Behemoth, the results surprised everyone.

“Originally we were a little bit intimidated because Behemoth is very outspoken about how much they hate Christians,” says singer Tim Lambesis, “but I would consider those guys friends of ours. Their view of us as Christians is much different to that of Christians in, say, Florida who are maybe more forceful. It was an eye-opening experience for us and them to meet and sit down and talk.”

And talk they did.

“As Christians we believe in the bible and we believe very strongly and our faith is very important to us,” states Lambesis. “Behemoth describe Christians as very judgmental and I can relate to why they would be so hated because judging other people is not something we’re supposed to be doing. If you really follow the teachings of Jesus it’s all about love and forgiveness.”

That fateful tour, set to be repeated when both As I Lay Dying and Behemoth perform together again on this summer Sounds of the Underground tour, formed part of the opening package for metal headliners Six Feet Under and marked AILD’s first foray into uncharted metal waters.

“Previous to that we’d always gone out by ourselves or with hardcore bands,” says Lambesis. “But we didn’t really care. Now we’ve been on the Taste of Chaos tour and we’re about to go to Canada. So far it hasn’t all been metal and hardcore bands so we’re playing to a whole lot of new fans. It’s fairly diverse but it’s been great for us being the heaviest band on the tour because we stand out. Even if people don’t like heavy music they remember who were are and we’re really making an impression.

Lambesis formed As I Lay Dying in 2000 with drummer Jordan Mancino, debuting with Beneath the Encasing of Ashes the following year. At the time, San Diego’s music scene was enjoying the last wave of the mid-90s pop-punk explosion.

“It had a very big punk scene,” nods the frontman, “and as far as the underground was concerned hardcore was much more popular than metal so we were kind of the outcasts, that’s why most of the early shows we played were at hardcore shows rather than metal shows. As we became more successful the metal scene in general became bigger. The local scene has metal bands trying to sound a little bit like us but we didn’t start it, we just brought life to a scene that was basically dead when we first began playing.”

The clash of genres also brought conflict back when territorial metal and hardcore camps displayed little mutual admiration for one another. Lambesis recalls the odd stoush.

“When we first started playing, the hardcore kids and the metal crowd would end up fighting at the shows because they have their different styles of moshing or dancing or whatever,” he says. “They’d fight over things that are pretty insignificant. When we first started touring we went to Florida and it was one of the first times we played there and because we’d originally come out of the hardcore scene, that’s where we grew up and so a lot of our music fans are fans of hardcore and when they came to the show there were some metal heads who were very much used to a metal mosh.

“I don’t know which side it came from but someone picked up a big metal trashcan and threw it into the middle of the pit and knocked over a couple of people and a big fight started. Three years ago I remember being on tour and every other night of the tour there would be a fight. It doesn’t happen any more and we’re grateful for that. The last few years they’ve learnt to understand each other and they realise that they both just love music and want to have a good time.”

As I Lay Dying pinched their moniker from the title of the 1930 novel by American author William Faulkner, who in turn derived the phrase from Homer’s The Odyssey. Indeed, the book’s stream-of-consciousness narrative is a long way from AILD’s precision metal-core that has via the spray of critics’ ink and saliva been favorably likened to the classic “Gothenburg sound” characterized by the Swedish city’s loudest musical exports, In Flames and At the Gates.

“At the root of the Swedish metal sound are the classic metal melodies of bands like Iron Maiden,” explains Lambesis. “They were one of the first metal bands to introduce a strong sense of guitar melody. I think we’re also influenced by Swedish bands but more so by Iron Maiden and the hardcore sound.”

Certainly, the quintet’s latest album 2005’s Shadows Are Security, juxtaposes both hardcore and Scandanavian death metal leanings in addition to a notable absence of spiritual soapbox diatribes. Lambesis, who also doubles as AILD’s in-house producer, anticipates the band - drummer Mancino, guitarists Phil Sgrosso and Nick Hippa and bassist Clint Norris - will re-issue their independently released and now out-of-print debut album this year on the Metal Blade label, setting the stage for yet another rigorous spell on the road.

“It’s hard on relationships and people that we love we hardly ever get to see,” Lambesis says of the punishing schedules. “Physically, I don’t feel worn out so much but we miss people back home.”

The state of the world is not exactly at its best.Politics and the greed of corporate machines are suffocating the little bit of life that is left out of our planet and draining it of all purities. Injustice seems to be everywhere yet most people are content to sit at home and watch the latest reality TV shows.This is what fuels the fire behind Burnt Cross, a two piece anarcho-punk band from Brighton, in the United Kingdom.The duo formed in 2007 never really expecting much of a reaction.They have since self-released two albums, The Reality of Sacrifice and Carcass of Humanity and have received an overwhelming response.I recently had the opportunity to talk to BC’s Robert Marriott and get a better insight as to their views on life, music and where they are headed in the future.

Q: What are the most important issues that you try to convey in your music?

A: The loss of civil liberties has always been something that has concerned us.As an activist, seeing how the police are behaving and the new laws that are constantly coming out to try and silence any sort of protest against the companies that seek profit no matter the cost to fellow humans, animals or the earth, it makes me so angry.They have brought out terrorist laws against people just for leafleting on the streets over here and I know it’s just as bad in America.Things like the state database with ID cards soon to be in place really scare me, though not as much as the fact that people seem to be so apathetic about it.We don’t want to be seen as a preaching band but I find it hard singing about love or how great it is too be drunk when all this shit is going on.

Q: You guys write some pretty angry songs. Has having children changed the way you view these issues now?

A: Paul has three kids ranging from 5 months to 17 years and although that means he can’t be as active as myself he still finds time to get out and do things.His daughter who is 12 has been out on lots of animal rights demos with us because she’s very passionate about animals.It hasn’t changed how we view these issues. In fact, not wanting the kids to grow up in this type of consumer, capitalist madness makes it even more important to do what we can.

Q: I know that you and your brother were doing music over 15 years ago. Is the music similar to what you were doing before? Did you always have such strong messages?

A: Yeah we were in a band called Active Response which really was just a teenage punk band who mainly played local shows.Our lyrics and sound were similar to what we are doing now, so not much has changed.This is why we found it fairly easy to do two CD’s in the first year of forming.We never released anything in our old band so that’s also why we did Burnt Cross.We didn’t expect other people to hear what we were doing and we wanted to have something for ourselves to look back on. The fact that people seemed to like it spurred us on to release it.

Q: You have a couple 7 inches out now, tell us a bit about those.

A: We released two 7 inches in Jan/Feb of this year thanks to a friend near where I live who liked our song, “”(S) mother Earth”". He has his own record label called Tadpole Records and releases local hardcore/punk bands.He was a bit dubious about putting out a single of a band that doesn’t gig so we limited them both to 200 copies due to financial reasons.The first 7″” has two tracks and the second has three, all from our Carcass of Humanity CD.There seemed to be lots of interest from people who mainly get vinyl, wanting us to do this so we went for it and we’re glad to say they are going really fast. In fact, I think they will only be around for about 4 months!

Q: For a band that uses a drum machine you seem to have gotten a really great response. Did this surprise you?

A: Haha! Yeah, really surprised.Like I said, we weren’t going to release anything, maybe just put it up on my personal Myspace site, but we started to get lots of mail from people saying they love it.Not many bands were doing this type of music since the early eighties so we got lots of interest for that reason, and dare I say some people like the fact that they can hear what we are singing about. I have always loved anarcho-punk more than any other punk music so I wanted to do this type of music somehow.Even if it meant doing it with a drum machine. To be honest, we really didn’t care what people would think about us using a drum machine.If people don’t like it then it is no loss.I’m not a great guitarist.I rescued a guitar from being thrown away and play the bass by using one guitar string.The only thing we have brought is a £275 Eight-track and a cheap microphone.Although we are limited in some ways we are just happy to have the chance to do something.We are offered gigs all the time but I can’t see that happening. Paul lives a good distance from me, which means he’ll visit me once a month just to record vocals on one track. We don’t really have the time to rehearse and I’m not much of a scene person.I hate pubs and have no desire to be out and about.I’m much happier roaming the woods!

Q: You also made your songs available as a sliding scale down through Moshpit Tragedy Records, can you tell us why you decided to do this? How do you feel about the ethos of the label?

A: I think that what Moshpit Tragedy is doing is a cool thing and I can already see it’s going to catch on.We have always given our music out free.I still have about £400 to make up for what I lost last year giving 250 CD’s away. I’m not that bothered though, at least it got us out there a bit. I totally support what they are doing because not everyone can afford to buy CD’s all the time.Also it makes it easier on me not having to get all the CD’s out myself.That was hard work for the first few months.Now we can just direct them to Moshpit and they can pay what they want and download our sleeve, which is important to us.

Q: Are you happy with the help you have received from Moshpit Tragedy? Do you think they do a good job of promoting their bands?

A: Yeah I’m very happy with what those guys have done.They seem to have good promotion going on which is so important.Around 500 people have downloaded our CD in the first 3 months so that’s really helpful to us.I get lots of mail from people saying they have downloaded the CD and that’s great.They also have lots of other cool bands on their label so it’s nice to be put alongside them.

Q: What are your views on the way music is now easily accessible due to the invention of the Internet and Myspace?Do you think it is a positive or negative change?

A: Well sometimes it means there’s a lot of real shit going around, but I guess that’s fine that people have an outlet now to be heard by people worldwide.For us, it was the only way to get our stuff heard around the world with little effort and meant we got picked up by 4 different labels and managed to get on lots of comps too!I still have a fond affection for the old days of tape trading and the sound of a package dropping through your door.This is why we will always release tapes, vinyl and CD’s that we can send to people. I used to be really into that so to do it with my own music is a dream and to give our music to bands that I used to write to years ago is even better.I’ve found lots of people on the Internet with whom I used to get tapes from so now its payback time.

Q: Do you think that anything in the world has changed for the better?

A: I don’t want to be seen as a negative person.I love life, family, friends, nature, etc. But to be honest, I just despair at the way things are going at the moment. Maybe I’m getting more cynical as I get older but what’s going on in the world is a sorry state of affairs. It just seems to be driven by power and money which is totally against my nature.I know its always been that way but as of lately it seems to be going crazy as leaders try desperately to secure the dwindling resources of this planet.It really makes me sad sometimes but I can vent that in my activism and music and try my best to be happy in my personal life.

Q: What are your plans now? Will you continue to do Burnt Cross, and if so, what goals do you have?

A: We have been busy over the last year so this year will be a bit more chilled.I want more time to do things that I put aside whilst doing the music.Things like growing my own food, camping or helping out in animal rescue centers.I reckon we will release another 7″” of new songs and another CD at the end of the year.Now we are out there and I don’t have to spend so much time promoting the band or panic trying to release anything quickly.We have 1000 CD’s just about to be put out in independent record shops, so although Carcass of Humanity was released 4 months ago it’s only just getting out there, so that gives us a bit of a break. Hopefully the new 7″” will be put out in June on Tadpole Records again and we will do some patches and T-shirts when I can get the money together.We will also be doing a split EP in summer with five other bands and trying to get on as many compilations as possible.Don’t hold your breath for gigs though!

Carcass of Humanity is available for whatever price you can afford at moshpit-tragedy.com and a cassette version is available from www.fight thesystem.de.Stay tuned for more Burnt Cross releases in the upcoming months.You can also check them out at myspace.com/BurntCross.

With their music self-described fast, old school hardcore. Mindset definitely sticks to their roots by playing hardcore the way it was meant to be played—raw, angst-ridden, brash, and unapologetic. Mindset is a band that doesn’t back down. Growing up in Maryland, they’ve been playing straightedge hardcore for the past two years. I got a chance to ask Mindset guitarist, Drug-free Mike, questions about their lifestyle, background, and future aspirations.

Interview by Roya Butler

Give us some background info on the band.
Mike: Well basically, we are 4 best friends who grew up together in Maryland. We came together after a slew of lineup changes but it seems like the dust has finally settled. You can count on seeing our current lineup for a while.

How long have you been playing?
Mike: The band played its first show a little over 2 years ago.

How would you describe your music?
Mike: I would describe our music as fast, old school hardcore. We definitely try to stay away from newer styles of hardcore and stick to what we like to listen to personally. I think we throw in some early 80’s hardcore influence as well.

What’s your current lineup?
Lightnin’ Ev-Vocals
Chad-Bass
Philly-Drums
Drug Free Mike C-Guitar

Name some of your favorite local bands.
Mike: In MD, I really like Bad Habit, Time to Escape (DC) and Coke Bust (DC) are sick, and there are a lot of other bands doing some cool stuff. As far as Philly goes, Great Ceaser’s Ghost has some rad jams, andLet Down is amazing–by far they are one of my favorite bands as of late. I’m a big fan of Triple Threat and Cut It Out, from Jersey.

What bands have inspired your music?
Mike: Bands that come to mind are Youth of Today, Side By Side, Uniform Choice, Chain of Strength. We’re also all big fans of the “”Revolution Summer”" bands that came out of DC. You may not be able to hear the influence musically but bands like Embrace and Nation of Ulysses certainly play a very large role in the general make up of our creative energy and attitude.

What inspires your lyrics?
Mike: Ev and I usually toss around ideas for songs together. Songs usually come from things we discuss…problems we see in ourselves, and in the world—the current state of the world and humanity.

Tell us a little about what your song ‘Self respect is my anti drug’ means to you?
Mike: It began as a conversation between a few of us Edgemen about how we thought it was silly when people would say things to us like “”I don’t agree with you, but I really respect your lifestyle”". It was usually a drunken kid patronizing the hell out of us and we just thought it was silly. Hopefully this song points out that we aren’t doing this for other people’s respect and additionally…maybe they should respect themselves enough not to damage their own body! Respect yourself…stop patronizing us!

What’s your song ’straight forward’ about?
Mike: Well, as the title suggests, it’s pretty straight forward. We intend to stay straight, stay young, stay positive, and stay in control of our own lives FOREVER! This lifestyle is not a trend.

How is the hardcore scene in Maryland? How does it compare with the Philly Hardcore scene?
Mike: MD is a funny scene. There are a lot of really good bands out there doing their thing and getting a lot of recognition. It’s really put MD, specifically Baltimore on the map as of late. Another interesting point is the Baltimore scene is very connected to the Central PA scene and vice versa. Most shows have a mix of bands and kids from both areas. There are a lot of young kids who have been coming out too, which is great. For me personally, I see this hierarchy: kids who have been around longer and are “”on top”" so to speak, tend to run what’s going on in the scene. Lately though, I feel like there is this whole different group of kids who are on the fringe of the social structure in the scene. For whatever reason (probably don’t have North Face jackets) these kids are kind of starting their own thing at the bottom and it’s growing. I like to see that.

Have you played in Philly?
Mike: We’ve only played Philly once and it sucked. There were a bunch of bike punks throwing beer at us and trying to pick fights. A policeman looked up our friend Jilly’s skirt and said “”Haven’t seen that in a while”". The show was in a house and was basically a frat party but the kids had Mohawks and safety pins instead of white hats and pastel collared shirts. They were more interested in partying than watching what I thought was a really good line up of bands.

Can you tell your fans a little about your new album and where they can pick it up?
Mike: The best way to pick it up would be come to a show and meet us! We’re also working on a 7 inch right now so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Any tours lined up?
Mike: We’re planning on doing 2 weeks in the summer.

Anything you’d like to add?
Mike: Glad you like our CCCCHHHHHUUUUNNNNEEEESSSSS man!

Buddy Shaub’s touring schedule with Less Than Jake sometimes gets the better of him - but he’s taking it all in his stride. The affable trombonist reveals he recently ended another taxing stint on the road with his fellow Floridian ska-punkers, barely leaving time to water the plants and check the mail before heading out again.

Interview by Steve.

“I was basically only home long enough to plug myself into the wall and recharge my battery,” laughs a fast-talking Shaub in an adenoidal voice eerily similar to Steve Buscemi’s ill-fated Tony Blundetto character in the TV drama The Sopranos.

Less Than Jake’s constant state of flux has seen them tour both Europe and the US twice in 2006, with more American dates planned prior to upcoming visits to Australia via Japan to promote their latest album In With The Out Crowd.

The veteran Gainesville quintet are no strangers to Australian shores, having visited several times since their inception in 1992, most recently in late 2005 and most memorably in 1999 as part of the one-off Australian version of the Warped tour.

“That was actually a really fun tour for us,” recalls Shaub. “We crammed ourselves into a little RV and fared better than a lot of other bands who were on communal buses and would then camp with tents. That Warped tour in Australia was very similar to the US one except there was a lot more ska going on back then which was popular at the time.”

Back then, LTJ inadvertently struck a chord with mid-90s ska revivalists on the back of their unavoidably catchy 1997 album Losing Streak, a minor hit.

“It was all kind of a blur because we had just started touring and everything was new and exciting and we were sleeping on people’s floors,” says Shaub. “It was definitely a different time than it is now. As far as that style of music being popular I suppose they were kind of the glory days for our band in that respect.”

Despite getting caught up in the ska-pop hysteria at the time, Shaub insists that across a 15-year career the band has traditionally remained unswayed by passing trends and fickle fashions.

“I think we’ve fared pretty well because a lot of those bands that were popular at the time have died off now and we’re still kicking it out here,” he says. “We’ve managed to stay out of that pigeon-hole of being just a ska-punk band or whatever because I think we play a bunch of different styles of music. Our goal has always been to play to as many people as we possibly can. We never had an idea that we’d sell out if we played to too many people. I want to play to a million people every night but I think the fact that we never really hit it huge kind of does save your band in terms of longevity too.

“Once you get really big and go up the only place you can go is down and sometimes that tears bands apart too. I think everything for us was a just a steady progression from day one. It’s always been baby steps so we were always comfortable in our own shoes. We never really had that awkward moment of not knowing what was next. We’ve kept ourselves grounded with our fans and touring.”

Shaub concedes it would be nice to revisit, albeit briefly, those halcyon neo-ska days.

“I do sometimes hear little influences from that world in other people’s music but I don’t know if it’s in the mainstream,” he muses. “It’s due for another turn around the block I would think, you know, everything kind of happens in cycles. I think our next record might have a little bit more of that ska sound on it. We’ve been thinking that way lately because Losing Streak’s ten year
reunion will happen when we’re on this tour so we’ve been going back and rehearsing all of that album. While we were doing that we thought ‘wow, we should write more songs like this!’.”

For the moment, Less Than Jake are busy promoting In With The Out Crowd, produced by Howard Benson who worked with the band almost a decade ago.

“It was definitely interesting working with him now as opposed to last time in ‘98 because back then he didn’t have any break-out songs by anyone,” says Shaub. “I think we got him back on his feet, we were on a major label at the time and he was all excited to work with us. Pro Tools was just starting to get used and he was kind of learning how to do all that stuff on our record which was pretty funny. Over the last ten years he’s pretty much mastered it.

“He flew in to Gainesville back then whereas this time we went to him and the quality of the recording was far superior to what he had a long time ago. But it kills me, the whole time we did our record in ‘98 he was wearing his sweat pants and an oversized Philadelphia Eagles football jersey literally every day and we were all taking bets on whether he’d be wearing that again. When we got out there sure enough he was wearing the exact same outfit. We couldn’t believe it!

Less Than Jake is an American ska punk band from Gainesville, Florida. Originally formed in 1992 as a power pop trio, the band evolved into a hybrid of third-wave ska and punk rock, with added elements of modern rock and even metal. To date, the group has released seven original full-length albums and countless more singles and compilations. The current lineup comprises guitarist/vocalist Chris Demakes, bassist/vocalist Roger Manganelli, drummer/lyricist Vinnie Fiorello, trombonist Buddy Schaub, and saxophonist JR.



In Summer 2007, Less Than Jake embarked on a North American tour with Reel Big Fish, featuring support from Streetlight Manifesto and Against All Authority. Against All Authority was not included on the final leg of the tour.