Pride Parade

"Listening to their new four-song demo(recorded by The Tom Collins/Harvey Milk drummer Kyle Spence), it strikes us as Lizard-esqe (much of the noisy stuff could fitt nicely on The Jesus Lizard's first full-length), with a dose of grunge-era Dinosaur Jr. and deep Zeppelin."
- T. Ballard Lesemann - Charleston City Paper

As opposed to the Clinton days, when we all lit cigars with hundred dollar bills and wore kitten moccasins, it's safe to say that most everyone's pockets are a little tight right now. If you're one of the people who still buys music (hello to both of you!), you really need to carefully consider your purchases. My attitude when sifting through the ever-deepening sea of new (and old) music that I've never heard is always hopeful, but guided by a pretty simple principle: You should either go for something that's never been done, or you should go for something that's been done exceptionally well.

Pride Parade represents the latter category and represents it to the fullest. Andrew Prater and company are two-for-two in gob-smackingly amazing band names, following the notorious Brown Frown. Descendants finds Athens' own bad news bears picking up where their old act left off, with marked improvements made to just about every aspect of the music.

The music? Gimmick-free rock. You can more or less trace the roots back to the Pacific Northwest circa the early '90s. But instead of coming off as the umpteenth band mining a long-stripped set of influences, Pride Parade sounds more like a missing link from the era, a lost chapter in the Sub Pop catalog. Sad, slow and steady is the order of the day here, and the consistency of this record - in both senses of the word - is thick and solid. When white folks pick up electric guitars and evoke the blues, it's always a tricky line to walk, but this stuff hits the mark in a way that is almost graceful.

Moments of deviation from the formula bubble to the surface of the muck. "All of This Was Pinetrees" wouldn't have been out of place on the Dead Man soundtrack, but generally it's a good ol' bummed-out rock trip. It'd be a great party record if the overall mood wasn't drunken defeat. When Prater evokes Journey on the album's longest and best song, "USA Up All Night," people might pump their fists, but it'd be less in celebration of victory than in solidarity of being among those who have been beaten, and those who anticipate more of the same in the future. It's a recession, folks... we need records like this. It's definitely worth spending your hard-earned cash on.

Jeff Tobias
Flagpole Magazine
7/2/2008 - Flagpole Magazine

"These are the first four songs ever recorded by new Athens band Pride Parade. Originally intended as a demo, the band decided that the record sounded so good, it should be released. I concur.

Comprised of three ex-Brown Frowners (Andrew Prater, Bubba McDonald and BJ Bracewell), along with Aaron Sims and Allen Owens, Pride Parade is conversely open-armed and tightlipped. On one hand, these guys sure have made a lot of word-of-mouth noise happen around town (which may, in fact, not be their fault at all), but refuse to give their songs any names and have only just played Athens for the first time during AthFest. Further, the name Pride Parade is questionable in and of itself: do they mean a gay pride parade, a parade with a patriotic theme, a collusion of the concept of each whereby identity politics are rendered a total joke or, which is most likely the case, are they just being difficult? Who knows.

What matters here is the music, even though there's definitely some conceptual work happening. This music is dirty. It's earthy and working-class and heavy and populist. It's also distinctively Southern without being anything close to traditional Southern rock. Just as Mudhoney can be the most authentic representation of hard rock from the Pacific Northwest, Pride Parade runs neck-and-neck, already even, with Music Hates You for the Southern title. But that could be extreme on my part. At any rate, Pride Parade is definitely a contender.

Pride Parade's music is heavy metal distilled through the disappointment of post-boom grunge and the exhaustion of the service industry. The lead guitars are slaps to the back of the neck rather than exercises in dexterity. The rhythm guitars are, at once, jolting and bottom-heavy. The vocals are both accusatory and possessive of an us-versus-them quality, which is different than the we-versus-you quality that Brown Frown had. Forget Clinton, Obama, Biden, Kucinich, Edwards and them. Vote Pride Parade in 2008."

Gordon Lamb
Flagpole Magazine
July 4, 2007

- Flagpole Magazine

Pride Parade

Dose

Independent Release

The second full-length release from Athens dirty rockers, Pride Parade, is unabashedly in your face and ready to brawl. This latest amalgam of punk, grunge, stoner metal and blues rock is chock full of abrasive, jarring guitar hooks, blistering bass lines and pummeling percussion. At first listen, comparisons to Dead Confederate, Mudhoney and even Alice in Chains come to mind, but these influences are minimal at best. Pride Parade seems to be reformulating '90s grunge-era music rather than copying it. A live show from the five-piece would probably be pretty comfortable sharing the stage with bands such as Music Hates You and The John Cougar Training Camp.

Recorded by Harvey Milk's drummer/producer, Kyle Spence, Dose picks right up where Descendents left off, albeit in a much more cantankerous mood. The production is clean and crisp, despite the sludgy-ness of having three guitars hammering away. "Just as God Made Me" is one of the best tracks on the album—a slinking, head-banging track that kicks and reels and kicks in all the right places. "Fishers of Men" is a great, slow-building, wall-of-sound piece that gives into its lighter side with a plunge into psychedelia every now and then. Andrew Praters' vocals manage to be menacing and sarcastic all in the same breath. This album is for the defeatist in us all, for the little man who's tired of being the little man, and for all the cynics in desperate need of a sardonic anthem. Dose is just what the doctor ordered.

Charley Lee - Flagpole Magazine

Athens, Ga., quintet Pride Parade shares more than a sleepy college town and a band name lifted from the LGBT community with Southern metal figureheads Harvey Milk. Like the Milk, Pride Parade's steely, heavy music revels in the unexpected, lifting from bludgeoning down-tempo trudge into Dinosaur-like guitar pop ebullience or anxious psychedelic jitter. Pangs of distortion come cut by crystal-clear guitar solos flying in from left field. On the band's excellent debut, Dose, front man Andrew Prater growls a little like The Jesus Lizard's David Yow in a muzzle, sings a little like an antihero version of Doug Martsch, and razes like a heavy metal menace, such as Khanate's Alan Dubin. With SHiLOH and River City Ransom. Donation/ 10 p.m. —Grayson Currin - indyweek.com

The Band: Pride Parade
The Buzz: Take two pieces Pixies and one piece Drive Like Jehu and you’ve got Pride Parade, a hyperkenetic Athens band big on brawn and bellow. Vocalist Andrew Prater hollers like he’s being electrocuted — his bug-eyed shouting powers these filthy bruisers.
Listen If: You own a motorcycle, or wish you did — these thundering numbers would sound great blasting from the back of one.
Key Track: “If You See Her Say Hello,” where a charming title masks two minutes of fury, Prater shouting his throat bloody over apocalyptic guitars.
J. Edward Keyes - Rolling Stone

Pride Parade marches through 11 tracks of angry anthems on its first release, Descendants. This five-piece powerhouse packs three guitars, a bassist and vocalist into a band whose music speaks for itself.

The album comes straight from college campus aggression one would expect to hear in Athens, Ga., but this sound is not cliché or typical. The chorus of “Mr. Man” shouts, “I have no regrets” and “Leave Me Alone.” While reminiscent of Nirvana in lyrical content, these men add solos and harmonies which are all their own.

Pride Parade does not sound as much like mainstream music as it seems like the kind of thing fans would follow at live shows. This is not dancing music, but the kind of music one would want to see live to be in a mosh pit letting out the frustrations of life.

No other artist comes to mind when one listen to this album, so Pride could be categorized as completely original and anyone who is a fan of rock or punk music should check them out.

The CD’s insert claims, “It was wrong to believe in the power of my own dreams,” but the music proves dreaming can reap rewards. Pride Parade will go far among fans. (Self-released)

www.myspace.com/prideparade69

-Ellen E. Aldridge
- Performer Magazine: SOUTHEAST

# 8
Pride Parade
Descendants

No violin/cello players, no synthesizers, no remixes, no drone sections, no autotone. Pride Parade is an anomaly in 2008, and for that I thank them. This album straight-up rips.

Jeff Tobias

- Flagpole Magazine