Rival Schools

Rival Schools

Rival Schools is a New York post-hardcore band formed in 1999. The group brings together members with roots in a range of influential hardcore and punk acts from the 1980s and 1990s, including Gorilla Biscuits, Quicksand, CIV, Youth Of Today, Burn, Project X, Judge, Moondog, Warzone, Side by Side and Iceburn. The band first develops out of a short-lived project called World’s Fastest Car, which includes Artie Shepard of Mind Over Matter and Bad Trip before the project ends after demos. Following a disagreement between Walter Schreifels and Artie Shepard, Shepard goes on to form Errortype: 11.

Line-up

The group features Walter Schreifels on vocals and guitar, Cache Tolman on bass, Sam Siegler on drums and Ian Love on guitar. Ian Love leaves the band in 2002.

Releases and activity

Rival Schools records an EP with Jonah Matranga, known for his work with Far, New End Original and Gratitude. That release, Rival Schools United by Onelinedrawing, appears in 2001. The band’s first full-length album, United By Fate, also appears in 2001 on Island Records. After that album, the band issues the singles “Used for Glue” and “Good Things”, both of which receive heavy rotation on MTV in the US and the UK.

After Ian Love’s departure, the band’s second album does not appear as planned, although eleven tracks from those sessions later circulate online, including “Just a Second”, “The Perspective Reach”, “I Don’t Know”, “Your Answer”, “See What You Got”, “Looking”, “Don’t Change”, “Shared Information”, “Surrendering Position”, “Seems So Real” and “Get Out of This Place”. Rival Schools part ways in 2003. Schreifels then forms Walking Concert, which releases an album in 2004. The band later reforms for shows in 2008 and remains active.

Name

The band first uses the name Rival Schools United by Fate, taken from a video game, before changing to Rival Schools for legal reasons.