Senior Discount

BEST LOCAL PUNK/GARAGE ACT: SENIOR DISCOUNT

Senior Discount churns out some SCORCHING punk rock. The band, from the Bristol/Warren area, recently released "There Were Four Who Tried...", which is chock-full of frenetic auditory antics, led by the throaty growls and hook-laden howls of alternating crooners Kevin Silva (bass) and Chuck Staton (rhythm guitar). Lead guitarist Tom Wells and drummer/cousin Christian Staton round out the ska-influenced rhythms (stalwarts such as NOFX and Less Than Jake are recognized as influences) and thrashing punk fun. You can also hear vintage Mark Hoppus on Blink-182ish cuts like "Relationships Must die" and "That Bitch Not So Bad."
Other standous include old-school punk cuts "Ataxia" and the bass-heavy, excellent closing track "We All Fall Down" But it's all about "Explode RI" complete with a catchy hook celebrating their Ocean State roots.
"We consider ourselves really proud to be from Rhode Island", says frontman Chuck Staton. "The scene here is awesome, and we think it's really important to have a strong fan base where you're from before you go out into the world. We're graduating [from RIC and Roger Willams] this summer and leaving the day after class ends for our first East Coast tour, and we just won the Providence Pheonix Best Music Poll for Best Punk Band. I'd say that plan's going pretty well." - Providence Phoenix

Fresh from the local streets of Rhode Island comes local band Senior Discount. Following in the steps of other local bands that have recently become nationally popular, such as Monty Are I and Zox, Senior Discount appears to be the next local band poised to make it big.
Senior D has been playing together since October 2003. Since then, the band has been growing in popularity, using both music and videos as tools to further their career. According to the band, they band has been influenced by bands such as Blink-182, The Suicide Machines, Against Me! and Less Than Jake. Also, the band has opened up for acts such as Monty Are I, Streetlight Manifesto and Bad Larry.

The band consists of vocalist/guitarist Chuck Staton, bassist Kevin Silva, guitarist Tom Wells and drummer Christian Staton. Besides being in a band together, they also make humorous home videos for their group called the VBW Kids.

The video group gives the band a powerful, unique public relations tool. “With the videos, there’s less of a divide between us and the crowd. People can talk to us about things, they can share things with us, they can approach us and talk about things on a much more personal level than with any other band,” said Christian Staton.

The band has plans to tour down the East Coast around late August of this year. “This our first experience outside Rhode Island,” said Chuck Staton. “We’re gonna get a lot of connections going down the East Coast. We just want to get our name out of Rhode Island, because right now we have a great following in Rhode Island, but people come from Mass., Connecticut to see us. We want to be able to go down to Tennessee, Kentucky and people come to see us.”

“We wanna play good shows everywhere in the United States and have people realize and understand what we’re trying to do. We want to make people laugh, too,” said Kevin Silva.

The band has recently released a full-length album, There Were Four Who Tried… which can be picked up at their concerts or ordered on their website, www.seniordiscountmusic.com.

Senior D has a show coming up at the Living Room on Saturday, March 17 with Darkbuster, Sasquash and the Sick-a-Billys, The Brunt of It, and Lousy Break. The show is at 8 p.m. and costs $10. Be sure to check this band out, go to a show and look for this band in 2007 as possibly the next big thing! - The Anchor

What would the Rhode Island punk rock scene be without Senior Discount? I received the album at the end of January and In with the CD was a DVD. I've got to say this is a very creative, imaginative, comedic group of guys. Funny short movies and clips of the guys screwing around. If you can, get this from the band, its hilarious! There are also more clips on the website.
If you haven't heard Senior Discount before I gotta say you are missing out. Check them out live pretty much any time at any of the local venues.
While at times the comedic exploits get a little out of hand, the band is a pretty funny group of musicians that put on a lively energetic show. You can catch the guys at the Living Room on February 26th with Suburban Legends, Patent Pending, and MC Lars.

On with the Cd review. A good album from the long time RI pop punk rockers.
Truthful, funny, rude, mean and insulting, I think the guys tell it like it is. Over all good songs with good hooks that keep you interested in the music. For me my favorite songs on the record where VWB Song, Im Crazy, We All Fall Down and Ataxia. I preferred the harder punk stuff most of all. I would love to know more about the message on the machine? Maybe you can tell us on the forum. Out of the above mentioned, I think I liked We All Fall Down the best.
On the downside, I couldn't put my finger on it, but it all felt a little thin. I don't think the energy of the band was truly transfered onto the CD and thats a shame. Its like I was listening to the band live through a closed door. Ahhh I guess the door was cracked but I couldn't see them. Regardless these guys do rock live. Chuck, Christian, Tom and Kevin, keep up the good work.
Is the Cd worth picking up? I would say so. Its always great to share in the local music scene and soak up as much of it as possible. I'll give this one a "GO GET IT". CD Baby, Interpunk and even iTunes are all places you can find this CD. - LBRI

This is a super-varied CD. There are 16 songs and they all go off on different tangents although you can hear a similarity running through it too. To give it a ‘label’ for the purposes of a review I would call it melodic punk but it ventures into pop and rock. I can hear elements of later MADCAP and even a heavier PLACEBO, and the vocals actually really remind me of Brian Molko from PLACEBO mixed with Fat Mike. The songs are certainly well written and well played and you can hear that they have poured a lot of effort and passion into this album. I can definitely appreciate what they are doing and how they are experimenting and stretching boundaries, but this is way softer and way more produced than what I am usually accustomed to! But that’s just my preference... I’m addicted to super-raw hardcore punk but, like I said, I can still certainly appreciate this. - No Front Teeth Zine UK

"I’m always skeptical when I get some local band’s self-released album. Chances are you’re going to get a horribly produced piece of crap. I was quite surprised, no shocked, at how great the latest release by Rhode Island’s Senior Discount was. This punk rock affair comes at you hard and heavy and never lets up till the very end. The band also doesn’t take themselves or life too seriously, as most of their songs will have you rolling on the floor with laughter, but at the same time saying, ‘that’s so true.’" - Rock Is Life

There would have been a time where I might have put Senior Discount on my top 10 favorite bands of the moment. As a teen, I was a pop-punk connoisseur, not just the stuff you'd find on MTV but obscure bands and underground legends such as the Descendants, Up Syndrome, and Just A Joke. Senior Discount has elements of all these bands that I loved - the teenage angst ridden songs that anyone could pogo to. "Relationships Must Suck" would fit right at home on blink-182's "Cheshire Cat," complete with the juxtaposition of two singers. Don't even get me started on "That Bitch Not So Bad"; besides the intro, the rest of it is patented Goldfinger. And, "I'm Crazy" has a vocal pattern that holds a striking resemblance to Sum 41's earliest releases.

But, that's where the problem lies. It's not that the fact that the music is fun and good listen - I'll definitely tell my friends who haven't forsaken the genre about the band. It's just that the music has all been done before. Senior Discount has done a great job at making music that the most popular bands in the genre would have made, but unfortunately, they haven't done anything that will spark the interest of the masses; they'll only succeed in bringing up feelings of nostalgia for old fans of pop-punk like me.

Senior Discount does show potential, though. While "A Thinly Veiled Cry For Help" holds pop-punk roots, it has that poppy, dark feel that many bands of the genre tried to aim for and couldn't achieve. The intro of "VBW" reminds me of a Swinging Utters and Mike Ness songs, which is all good. However, it is the rest of the song that stands out from the rest. The remainder of the track is influenced many bands that have preceded Senior Discount, but somehow the band has been able to put their own spin on it and make something completely new.

Keep your eye out for these boys. They've created something solid, and in a few rare cases spectacular, with first full-length album. Who knows what they could accomplish next? - Suburban Horror

If I had to choose one blurb to describe There Were Four Who Tried, I would have to say "Straight up punk rock from the mid to late nineties with a tinge of ska thrown in for good measure." Simple and direct, the little blurb describes the album quite well but does fall short on both the most positive aspects of the album and on the less than satisfactory ones too.

"Straight up punk rock from the mid to late nineties" is a relatively good summary about Senior Discount, after all, the album follows the angst ridden pop-punk styles that blossomed in the underground during that period. Fast and driving, the songs are written around a three chord melody and pull in easy references to bands like Another Damn Disappointment or Reset - or, most accurately, Dude Ranch / Cheshire Cat era Blink182. With a slight grainy distortion vibe added to the pop-punk tunes, the album sounds raw and fresh - the same sound the SoCal trio perfected back on Dude Ranch. But the biggest similarity comes with the vocals, as one singer has a more melodic delivery like Mark Hoppus and the other counteracts it with a nasally voice like Tom DeLonge. The ska tinged aspects comes in the form of Smile, BVW Song, Explode RI and That Bitch Not So Bad which sees them throwing in the occasional horn and upstroke portions like Against All Authority does.

Lyrically, they're not much different than the aforementioned acts either. With a sarcastic take on love and relationships, the lyrics are angst ridden and fun. I'm Crazy sees them quickly spouting of reasons for why everyone thinks he's crazy (I'm crazy, my own cum tastes like lime, yes I'm crazy, I'll tell you again, I'm crazy, my left eyebrows' my friend") and Smile is a nice little "fuck you" to anyone who put them down. Relationships Must Die is fairly obvious with a chorus that you can't help but shout along to. The lyrics are just fun, catchy, and memorable; although for me, the most powerful ones come on Espit Kickchitt - one of the slowest tracks on the album with one simple riff repeated throughout that tells the story of suicide and regrets.

However, there is one big downfall of this album- and that's the length. The songs are great, catchy, energetic, and un to sing along to. Sadly though, when they drag the songs on to the four, five, six minute mark you start to get bored with them. They become repetitive an stale and you can't wait for it to end. Often the songs start off solidly, but by then end the energy has disappeared. It's even more apparent thanks to the songs that are only two to three minutes long. Wendy's, Maxine, Explode RI, Nothing Left all come at you with an explosive blast and leaves you breathless showing you what they can do with a short time frame. The same energy is normally there at the start of the longer songs but quickly falters; and with the album lasting over an hour, the final few songs are unable to keep your attention.

While there are some songs in here that are definitely skip worthy every time they come on mainly due to their length, there's plenty of songs in here that will keep me coming back to it too. It's not great for a full listen, but throw it in on random and you'll have a perfect addition to your summer play list. - The Punk Site

From the artwork for some reason I was expecting this to be more in the street punk genre, but in reality the band sounds like a cross between Blink 182, MxPx and Screeching Weasel. It is fairly by the books melodic punk rock, and while it certainly isn’t anything new it is quite catchy. The album is actually surprisingly varied with a few songs slowing down and being a bit more somber in nature. I think that the lyrics are a bit lacking at time. There are some songs that are well written lyrically while others are attempting to be funny and seem a bit forced. I think that the album is also a bit too long for this style of music. At over an hour of music it is a lot to take in and some of the songs do sound fairly similar. I think maybe they could have taken a closer look at the songs and whittled the number of songs down to 12 instead of 16. The ska songs for instance seem a bit out of place and while they are well written and executed they seem to come from out of left field. There is definitely a strong albums worth of material on the album with just a bit too much padding. There are definitely songs that stand out as stronger then others and these are usually the songs that go outside of what the band usually does. This is definitely a band that has potential and it they make the next album a bit more compact and concise it would pack a lot more punch. - Unbound Zine

So just the other day I was thinking why aren't there any bands ever coming out of Rhode Island? As it turns out I must have just been off of their radar, cause not too long after pondering this, I received "There Were Four Who Tried" from Senior Discount. Lo and behold, they are straight out of Providence. The disc offers up 16 tracks of eclectic punk, pop punk, ska(ish) punk and more punk. The more I listen to this CD, the more I thoroughly enjoy it. It has pop punk sensibility without all the emo sensitivity. It also carries enough horns to please most fans of the thrid wave. Lyrically it is largely the antithesis of the traditional pop punk with lot sof rants and comical tongue in cheek coarseness. "There Were Four Who Tried" is a bang up job by Providence punks Senior Discount. The bottom line is one kick ass record with more hooks than a pirate convention. - Upstarter

Rhode Island’s natives the Senior Discount amplify their punk rock sound to a torched crisp on their debut album There Were Four Who Tried, which cranks up the volume to a loud and ruckus level that is worthy of NOFX. The band’s bruising bass tugs from Kevin Silva along with their tightly knotted guitar chords orchestrated by Tom Wells and lead singer Chuck Staton are glued together by the energetic drum loops of Christian Staton who shows a tumbling action reflective of Chixdiggit. Some tracks have splashes of ska punk accents that would catch the eye of Less Than Jake’s admirers and porous textures which show every teething pain that the band can muster out of themselves. The band really acts out their emotions in these tracks and have no apologies for insulting anyone during their rampages.

Their track “VBW Song,” which bares the name of their entourage the VBW, a group of guys that assist them in various ways, is a hardcore punk anthem that starts off slow and melodic and then cranks up the volume to a hard boil with intervals of heavy bass grooves and ska-strokes. The lyrics shed light on the band’s teething pains: “Well I can’t explain my past / But I’ve had my share of laughs / You can’t be a good star without a solid cast / In a world of mediocrity only few hold stock with me / Rise above the flock and storm the streets singing.” Every track from the album is an anthem to punk rock’s principles, sticking up for the guys who don’t conform and feeling inspired by their revolts.

The track “We All Fall Down” is something out of the ordinary for the Senior Discount who attach a series of string arrangements on the tail end of the song, which awakens a sunny sonic bloom through the episodes of attack and pummel. The other tracks display a rough and tumble interplay like ‘Nothing’s Left” and “Smile.” The ska punk grooves of “I’m Crazy” have an agitation liken to Less Than Jake and the screamo punk rock stylizing of “Ataxia” have a kindred spirit in NOFX.

Senior Discount’s hormones show an insatiable hunger for punk rock principles and music in their album, There Were Four Who Tried. Their songs show a teething pain which often segues into adulthood. A transformation that punk rock musicians try to avoid at all costs, but much like Less Than Jake, it is inevitable that these hormones, which act out on feelings of lust, will subside. For now, the Senior Discount have the rushing hormones of punk rock’s harbingers, and they want to enjoy this rush before it disappears. - AbsolutePunk.net