The Brixton Riot

When it comes to local New Jersey bands, what’s the first group that pops into your head? If you’re me, it’s The Brixton Riot. The Brixton Riot has been around since 2007 and just recently released their second LP, Palace Amusements (a nod to their earliest rehearsals in Asbury Park). Combining American and English influences, The Brixton Riot fuse elements of 70's power-pop and punk, 80's jangle-rock and 90's indie rock into a sound that is both familiar and distinct. The Replacements, Big Star and The Jam represent only a small fraction of the band's influences. The band is comprised of Jerry Lardieri, Mark Wright, Matt Horutz and Steve Hass and if you want to learn more about them (and trust me you do, they ROCK!), check out their various sites:



http://www.brixtonriot.com

http://soundcloud.com/thebrixtonriot

https://www.facebook.com/thebrixtonriot



How did each of you get your start in music?



Steve: Neither of my parents have any musical ability, but some of my earliest memories are of listening to oldies on WCBS in my father's car. I think Elvis was my first favorite artist. Then at around 12 years old, I started listening to classic rock groups like Cream, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. That's when I got my first guitar and amp from Rondo Music on Route 22. I originally wanted to play the drums, but my parents thought that it could be too noisy for them. Little did they know the racket I would make with that guitar. Once I started playing, I really fell in love with the guitar.



Mark: I got my start in music playing gospel songs with my father, Harry, at various churches and coffeehouses in NY/NJ. But before that, I played guitar with Steve in a "band" called "Blue Condition". It was just us and another friend Anthony, all playing guitars, playing mostly Cream and Doors covers.



Jerry: I grew up in a musical family where everyone other than my mother sang and played musical instruments. My father taught my brothers and me to play piano at a very early age. He bought me my first electric guitar when I was 11 after I learned a book of chords on a beat up acoustic he had bought us at a garage sale. I played in several bands with my twin brother John through middle and high school, but that stopped once we started attending different colleges.



Matt: I started playing drums in 1983 when I was nine. Around this time my grandmother introduced me to big band and jazz music, and because of that I originally wanted to play the vibes. Before I could start learning the vibes, I had to learn basic stick control and rudiments, so my teachers started me on drums and percussion. My dad played in the drum and bugle corps when he was younger, so he and my mom were very supportive of me playing. My big musical revelation came in 1987 when my older cousins introduced me to punk rock and hardcore. I started listening to (and became obsessed with) bands like The Misfits, Black Flag, 7 Seconds, JFA, Dag Nasty, The Descendents and Husker Du. I had an instant connection with their music and their message. When I listened to these bands, everything started to make sense. That year I also started skateboarding and I discovered a lot of new punk bands through skate video soundtracks. About a year later on my quest for underground music, I found local college stations like WPRB in Princeton and WRSU in New Brunswick. These stations were like the voice of god to me. I used to tape radio shows, write down the bands I liked, and go to the local record stores in search of their albums. Around this time, I also started playing in various punk bands with friends. Shortly after that in high school, we started playing local shows with other similar bands. It’s been twenty nine years since I started playing drums and I still don’t know how to play the vibes!



How did The Brixton Riot come about? And where does the name come from?



Matt: I joined the band in November of 2008 through a Craigsl - Notes On The State of New Jersey

Hey, you! Yeah, you. Ya wanna hear some mighty fine hard-stompin’ straight-up meat and potatoes rock’n’roll that just gets right down to stirring crunchy’n’punchy brass tacks with considerable brio and zero high-falutin’ pretense? Of course ya do. Well, this particular album totally fits that tasty bill somethin’ sweet: We’ve got passionate smooth-voiced vocals that soar into the melodic sonic stratosphere with tremendous aplomb, killer riffin’ guitars that happily hack away throughout, firm and unyielding basslines, rousing jumpin’ drums, constant snappy tempos, and constantly pushin’ ahead forward-ho meaty beats that never let up for a minute. Naturally, the crisply proficient playing and nicely concise songwriting definitely don’t hurt matters any. But it’s the invigorating sense of sheer go-for-it vitality and the band’s consummate musicianship that makes this honey such an absolute pleasure to hear. If your butt doesn’t shake while listening to this fun and energetic music, then you better go to the doctor ‘cause you’re missing your ass.
- JerseyBEAT

After the cool debut EP The Brixton Riot decided to live up to their namesake and emulate Husker Du and The Replacements with this new LP. “Hard To See The Sun” and “Canvas Shoes” are very memorable rockers. But the band’s mid-tempo numbers don’t stick as well, but the band is redeemed on the hilarious “Hipster Turns 30.” A crafty tune that features a great strumming rhythm and memorable lyric.

When the band moves from its core 90's sound on “Carmelita” it gets interesting with a funky beat and waltz in the middle eight! Fans of both Thin Lizzy and The Lemonheads will also dig the fast tempo riff work featured on “Ocean Avenue” and “Losing Streak.” Overall, Palace Amusements is great driving music with a vintage tone and punk-like energy. - Powerpopaholic

These Jersey rockers are back with their full-length debut after 2008's fine Sudden Fiction EP, and they serve up more of the Replacements-meet-Smithereens rock that we enjoyed then. "Signal to Noise" lets you know right off the bat that they can seriously rock, and its "keep my head down/'til I hear that sound" refrain will stay in your head. "Canvas Shoes" channels the 'Mats, and "Hipster Turns 30" might be the album's best track with its mix of wry lyrics and a clever melody. With apologies to Nick Lowe, this is pure rock for now people.
- Absolute Powerpop

Palace Amusements by The Brixton Riot on Modern Hymnal Records is a great throw-back to everything that is good about rock music that is missing these days from the island known as Brooklyn. These Jersey guys reminds us of the hooky parts of Jets to Brazil, Ted Leo RX and the more memorable parts of 70's and 80's jangly guitar punk.

I’m not sure there is any irony in a song title like “Hipster Turns 30? when the lyrics sober you up and say ‘get a mortgage and buy a car’. In fact I’d venture to say it’s probably more fandom on the sleeve than anything else. Hard working musicians with 9-5's doing what they must in order not to drown in the hum-drum doldrums of the working stiffs union. You can tell every note and tone here is plucked just in the right spot and amusement created out of passion. This kingdom of rock is held in the highest of regards like a well crafted champion beer with a pedigree of influences that lends itself to something so familiar you’ll be happy you visited.
- Review Stalker

I don’t listen to a lot of guitar rock. I liked the singles when guitar rock was big in the early ‘00s, but when the crop of “The” bands died down, I was left with a lot of second-rate stuff that didn’t do it for me. So it was much to my surprise when Palace Amusements by The Brixton Riot (check the “the”!) fell into my lap. It’s straight-up guitar rock, but I couldn’t get the songs out of my head. From the catchy opener “Signal to Noise” to the slow-burning “Pinwheel” to the crunchy “Losing Streak,” I just loved it and I couldn’t really explain why. So I went to the source: Jerry Lardieri, vocalist and a guitarist for the band.

I shouldn’t have been surprised to find that the band is composed of long-time friends who just fell into a rhythm after playing together for a while. “When we started out, it was a lot more jangly. When Matt joined the band–he’s a big Husker Du fan–he brought a much louder drum style,” Lardieri said. There is still some jangle to be had, as “Hipster Turns 30” dials back the distorted charge for a mid-tempo tune. But on the whole, the drums and guitars go hard: their attack on “Canvas Shoes” is matched by a passionate vocal performance, while rambunctious performances are posted for both in the country-flavored “Carmelita.”

“ We’re big Wilco fans, from before Wilco got into the experimental stuff. We’re big fans of A.M. and Summerteeth,” explained Lardieri. But through the course of our talk, Lardieri mentioned The Jam, The Buzzcocks, Curtis Mayfield, The Afghan Whigs, Dinosaur Jr. and even Oasis—which gets a humorous shout-out in “Carmelita.”

That track plays a pretty pivotal role in Palace Amusements. The song numerically kicks off the second half of the album, and it’s a big connector track.The powerful “Pinwheel” and wry “Hipster Turns 30” don’t flow neatly into the upbeat rockers “Ocean Avenue” and “Strange Matter,” so “Carmelita” fills the gap. “There was a lot of argument about how to organize the record,” Lardieri said, noting that the band went back and forth with a number of configurations. They each made changes to the order before settling on a “definitive mix,” and it shows: the album flows neatly through moods while keeping an earnest, passionate feel throughout.

It’s detailed touches like that one which ultimately draw me to Palace Amusements: from easter egg lyrics to song order to repeated revisions of the songs (including cutting a whole intro to a tune because it didn’t work in the context of the album), the band put an unusual amount of effort into making the album work. It’s one thing to have great songs, like Brixton Riot does; it’s quite another in this fast-paced media age to thoughtfully, painstakingly, carefully perfect an album.

There’s plenty of great hooks and guitar riffs to be had within the twelve tracks of Palace Amusements, and that was what hooked me. But the members of The Brixton Riot appreciate the album experience, and that’s what keeps me coming back to this satisfying experience.
- Independent Clauses

The Brixton Riot’s Palace Amusements is 12 tracks of modern indie pop influenced by the past. The New Jersey quartet spices up their fairly common melodies with exaggerated guitars that tend to have an old-school flair to them. Though most of the tracks are upbeat and catchy, some stand out more than others. Take “Our Cover’s Been Blown,” for example. The bass heavy cut is hooky but not in such a generic way, and like previously mentioned, the retro guitar tones are a nice touch. Palace Amusements was a pleasant surprise, as none of the numbers were particularly dull or dry. Each had something unique to them to make them shine even a little bit.

“Pinwheel” ended up being another favorite on the release. The mellow cut brings down the energy of the album a little bit, yet keeps the use of outstanding bass grooves going accompanied by a more dominant drum beat. Even with the more relaxed verses, the chorus packs a punch with the strenuous, wailing guitar. The four-piece takes on a circus like feel to it for the shortest piece, “Carmelita.” Out of the tracks on the release, “It’s Been Too Long” is ultimately the strongest song on Palace Amusements. The piece fluctuates between high-energy guitar riffs, passion fueled vocals and an ‘80s ballad, containing outlandish drumming.

In its entirety, Palace Amusements just flows from one solid song to the next without disappointing the listener. There really is a little bit of everything stuck into the DNA that makes up the disc.

- Aquarian Weekly

Upon hearing the name The Brixton Riot one might immediately think of the Clash or a bunch of working class greaser punks with cuffed black jeans and a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve of their white than white Hanes tee shirt. Pretty cool image but don't start pulling your union card out of your chain wallet just yet. When my old Facebook buddy Matt Horutz sent me a link to his bands new album I took it like any other solicitation to the blog. As some of you reviewers know, being sent a link to someone's band camp doesn't illicit the same excitement as actual hard copy has throughout the years. The fact that he put the bands new disc in the mail for me the same day was a pretty cool gesture.

Here is a record that immediately had me hooked. Instead of getting the Clash sound alike the bands name might have hinted I got what can easily be considered a Power Pop standout. One that instantly resonated with this listener and pretty much set the mood and pace for the rest of my day. On Palace Amusements this Jersey band delivers an album highlighted by excellent song structure, hooks and harmony matched with a certain Punk brattiness thrown in for good measure. There's a distinct warmth to the songs that feels honest and unforced. Think Late 70's Power Pop meets 90's Pop Punk. I keep thinking the Replacements meet Pavement on the way to a Bouncing Souls show in Asbury Park. Check out the song "Ocean Avenue" if you have any doubts. The band will be playing a record release show at Maxwells with Eastern Anchors, Roadside Graves & Lieder on March 23rd. Come out and go nuts. - United By Rocket Science

With all the genre bending bands out there sometimes it is nice to just hear an honest indie rock record like the debut from New Jersey band The Brixton Riot. Right from the opening swirling guitar intro on "Signal To Noise" you get a very comfortable vibe from the quartet as the song shifts into a foot tapping mode and the verse takes off with confidence. This combination sets the tone of the record and offers up pop, punk and power.

The song is a good example of how the rest of Palace Amusements plays out as each track has a personality that follows a more straight-ahead indie music style comparable to the early 90's which shows that The Brixton Riot is capable of handing out upbeat rockers and tuneful mid-tempo numbers that give you doses of ripping guitar lines. This Big Star meets The Replacements concoction is highlighted on the mood shifting "Canvas Shoes" and "Hipster Turns 30" that both feature a relaxed guitar strumming that increases its intensity with a feverish vocal climb as both songs turn it up a notch towards the end and become instantly memorable.

The Brixton Riot have released a solid debut that should really attract fans of the late 80's/early 90's jangly rock era. Palace Amusements sounds like it is from a band more seasoned as the debut has a multitude of catchy moments and was engineered by Frank Marchand (Bob Mould, The Thermals, Calexico). The results are an enjoyable "window's down" type listen and The Brixton Riot give a true modern flare to a style that is way underrepresented in the current music scene.
- The Fire Note

“More power, less pop” is the mantra of Brixton Riot, a New Jersey quartet readying their new record, “Palace Amusements” for release. This full-length record follows the band’s 2007 debut EP, “Sudden Fiction”, which helped to grow a solid fanbase throughout the northeastern US. Engineer Frank Marchand (The Thermals, Bob Mould) was behind the mixing board for the new release.

The songs of Brixton Riot are lyrically sharp, and the band creates a sonic landscape that is very reminiscent of the post-grunge era. Bands back then were rediscovering melody but weren’t quite ready to surrender the gritty guitar tones. It’s not unusual to hear juxtapositions of 70s powerpop and classic garage rock even on the same song. Many of the tunes revolve around life as a modern musician, but anyone who is working for a living is going to relate to the themes the band puts under the microscope.

Among the highlights is the energetic and catchy lead off track “Signal To Noise”, the driving rocker “Hard To See The Sun”, the savory “Canvas Shoes”, and the sweet satire of “Hipster Turns 30”.

With its heady blend of Lemonheads meets Gin Blossoms, Brixton Riot sounds like a long lost friend from the late 90s alt rock scene. Both the vocals and the songwriting style remind me of The Caulfields a great deal. “Palace Amusements” will be available March 13 on Modern Hymnal Recordings.
- Now This ROCKS Blog

The Brixton Riot Hits One Out of the Park

by delarue

The Brixton Riot are sort of an American counterpart to the Jam. Unlike the punk-era legends, their rhythms are more straight-ahead, four-on-the-floor, and the presence of two guitarists gives them a roaring, sometimes shimmering edge that the British band didn’t always have. And where the Jam looked to the Who and older American R&B bands for tunes, the Brixton Riot’s latest album Palace Amusements blends a Guided by Voices assault with catchy Big Star-influenced powerpop, sometimes veering into swirling dreampop or even toward the indie side of country. But otherwise the two bands have a lot in common, particularly a sharply literate lyrical vision. Frontman/guitarist Jerry Lardieri’s presence is strong but understated: much of the time this band lets the guitars do the talking. And that’s a great thing because they’re a blast; lead player Mark Wright adds some genuinely face-peeling intensity here. On top of all of this, the album is gorgeously produced: most bands these days can barely make it through a single verse before they loop it a couple of times and then call it done, but these guys fine-tune the sonic spectrum for ringing overtones, wailing bluesy lines, roaring punk rock grit and plenty of lush, attractive jangle and clang. Hardly anyone makes albums anymore that sound this good.

The title track, Signal to Noise, is an instant insight into how they work. The title is a snide metaphor for current pop music, “a hollow sound across the nation, signal to noise ratio.” It starts out with an insistent staccato riff, a bit like Wire, then morphs into something like a cross between GBV at their most lucid and Ted Leo at his least self-absorbed. The second track, Hard to See the Sun explores suburban anomie: “Keeping to yourself ’cause you love a mystery, deleting all the ghosts from your family history – it’s fine, it won’t change,” Lardieri observes sarcastically. There’s a series of big, shimmery dreampop swells, some nice terse slide guitar licks and then an offhandedly savage Mark Wright solo that goes chord-chopping and then sidewinding evilly into the last chorus. Wright is dangerous player, the rare lead guitarist you want to hear more from.

Canvas Shoes is just plain hilarious. With their silly accents and the music they’re compelled to make in order to conform to their peer group, the pampered children of Bushwick and Wicker Park make easy targets. But this is priceless: “Hey pretty boy, you know who you are, in your sister’s clothes, with your father’s guitar,” and it only gets better from there. The flip side of that equation is reflected in the scorching Motown rocker Our Cover’s Been Blown, an anxious and probably autobiographical look at a band staring at what looks more and more like a dead end, with “an easy road back to the commuter crawl,” as Lardieri bleakly puts it. They go back to only slightly less mean and sarcastic with Hipster Turns 30, a spot-on commentary for those on the wrong side of that number whose “accounts are overdrawn, no more rent checks from mom,” who’re finally trading in any claim to coolness in order to become their parents all over again.

Pinwheel stomps from a steady intro from bassist Steve Hass and drummer Matt Horutz to a catchy, Reducers-flavored pub rock tune, with more tremolo-picked menace from Wright, while Strange Matter sends out a snarling thank-you to the Jam’s Strange Town. But the closest thing to the Jam here is actually Ocean Avenue, punchy verse giving way to roaring chorus as Lardieri tells the bitter tale of a rocker who sees his neighborhood being destroyed by gentrification along with his dreams of not having to “turn all the amps down.”

The raging yet furtive Keep It a Secret takes a backbeat country tune and disguises it as punk, like Twin Turbine might have done ten years ago: it makes a good anthem for the era of Occupy sites. The bitter It’s Been Too Long goes deeper into a chronicle of a band reaching crisis point, with what by now is an expectedly cynical outlook:

Please spare me the speech, let’s get on with the rot
And count all the breaks that we never got
Let’s stop talking trash, let’s make a new start
Are we breaking new ground or just breaking apart?

The album ends with Losing Streak, one of the great baseball songs in the history of rock – trying to figure out if it’s pure fiction or a thinly veiled account of an actual blue-chip hitting prospect who’s going bust is maddening. When the band throws in a droll Wilco quote toward the end, that’s the only relief in sight. Like a lot of New Jersey bands, the Brixton Riot has been making Maxwell’s their home lately for live shows when they’re not playing in Manhattan; watch this space for upcoming dates.
- New York Music Daily

The Brixton Riot is a gathering of four rock veterans from the New Jersey area (The Christies and Electraluxe) and the debut EP is smooth indie power pop all the way. "Sudden Fiction" as the title suggests deals with the writing process and the opener "Battle of The Band" about the rigors of touring, has jangling guitar riffs that bring to mind REM, The Lemonheads and Wilco. Each song on this EP is a gem - my favorite being a wonderful song "(There's) Something in The Air" about the Stanley Kubrick movie "The Shining" about a writer who wants to kill. The entire EP is listenable on My Space. I can't wait for the full length. - Powerpopaholic.com

Along with bands like The Dead 60's and Jet ( don't care what you say, Jet shakes the piss out of garage rock), The Brixton Riot are one of the few pop-smart 70's power-pop/ jangley, indie, garagish rockers that write distinctive melodies without selling themselves out. The Brixton Riot approach music through their love of
groundbreaking bands like The Replacements, Rubinoos, The Jam, and of course The Clash (the inspiration for their name came from the Clash's rocker, "Guns of Brixton.")

All that said, The Brixton Riot's 5-song EP ( I can't wait for the full album) sets new standards, with off-the-wall twists ("Battle Of The Band" is a catchy, powerful reminder of the legacy that many go through to get their foot in the door.) Hooky bits of pop punk (the good stuff) run rampant through all the tunes on "Sudden Fiction;" so much so that I needed repeated listenings to absorb the clever lyrics and song imagery, hopelessly trying to get past the catchy, almost nursery rhyme, lasting hooks, and that's a good thing! Even with all the comparisons, The Brixton Riot do not paint themselves in a corner. They actually add some new, brilliant colors to their and our musical paintboxes! - Phil Rainone - JerseyBeat

Straight out of their "sweat box" rehearsal space, the fellas from The Brixton Riot debuted their band exactly one year ago over at the Loop Lounge in Passaic Park, NJ, following up with an opening slot for the band Cracker. Before you knew it, they even caught the attention of 106.3 FM DJ Erin Vogt, for the "G Rock Rising" segment of her show. The Brixton Riot wrapped up their inaugural year with shows in NYC and Philly with an appearance at the International Pop Overthrow Fest, along with the completion of their debut EP "Sudden Fiction".
They have an old '90's alt-grunge-rock feel to them with an extremely alt-rock vocal style. Songs that I liked included "Battle of the Band", "Fiction", and "Deal with the Devil," which had excellent lyrics. They will celebrate the release of "Sudden Fiction" in Hoboken, NJ at Maxwell's on March 22, 2008.--Tim Louie - Aquarian Weekly

Though the music on this record is somehow familiar and the type of thing I've heard millions of times before, it's kind of hard to liken this band to just one particular group or even genre. I could simply say they fall in that same "alternative" vein from the early '90s (before that word lost all of its meaning), melding jangly rock and a little bit of country influence, with nods to later-era Replacements, Buffalo Tom, the Lemonheads and maybe a little Teenage Fanclub. But then there are songs like the bouncy "The Single Life" and the spirited "Fiction", which instead remind me more of Spoon or the Oranges Band. No matter what you want to call them, though, there are some damn catchy songs on here that make this an interesting debut and a band I'd like to hear more from again soon! MTQ=5/5 - IndiePages.com

The Brixton Riot’s name is something of a misnomer: they’re not a reggae band, nor do they sound a bit British. The outfit they most closely resemble, at times is the late, great Twin Turbine albeit with a Fender instead of a Gibson guitar attack, hewing closer to that band’s more accessible post-Guided By Voices side. If there could be such a thing as “good top 40” in this decade, the Brixton Riot would rule the charts. With both guitars blazing, they roared through a tight set, one catchy song after another. Even their lyrics are good. Their best number lamented that there are “too many people in the Garden State, too many vanity license plates…you better deal with the devil or the devil’s gonna deal with you.”

While the payola required to get on commercial radio may be beyond their budget, wait til college radio gets ahold of their song about being “born with a knack for inebriation.” They did a Strokes-ish number that bounced along on a fast Motown bassline til the Telecaster player lit into a slashing, rapidfire solo. Another pretty scathing tune lit into rockers who sell out, warning that they’ll “never win the battle of the bands” by trading their boss at the corporate dayjob for another one in the music business. A little later they segued out of a slower song into a deadpan version of the Dead Milkmen’s Take the Skinheads Bowling (ed. - it's actually a Camper Van Beethoven song). On several occasions, the guitarists played twin solos and actually didn’t embarrass themselves: welcome to the Hotel California, not. The band’s only misstep was the pointless Replacements cover they closed with, although at least their frontman didn’t bleat the vocals the way Paul Westerberg would have.

Rated one of the Top 20 NYC shows of 2008 by Lucid Culture
- Lucid Culture

The Brixton Riot-Sudden Fiction. Although the name might call to mind the classic Clash tune "Guns of Brixton", this New Jersey band's debut EP is more reminiscent of The Replacements and fellow Jerseyites The Smithereens. The former is definitely in influence on the opener "Battle of the Band", which recalls "Talent Show" and "Deal With the Devil" brings to mind "Can't Hardly Wait" (and by the way, here's a video of them covering that 'Mats classic in concert). Meanwhile, the insistent bassline of "The Single Life" is mod-rock for the new century, and "(There's) Something In The Air" is a midtempo number based on The Shining. Really good stuff, and here's looking forward to a full-length. - Absolute Powerpop