Tonight We Ride

Small markets sometimes hold big surprises, musically. So it is with Helena, Montana and Tonight We Ride. Originally a collaboration of Dustin "Dub" Campbell (guitars, vox) and Greg Vivrette (bass, backing vox), the duo became a post-Punk power trio with the addition of drummer Adam McDonald after gigging for a while and realizing they needed a solid core to keep their sound developing. Tonight We Ride write about three subjects: Friends, drinking and the prophesied the end of the world in 2012. These are the building blocks of Tonight We Ride's debut album, Of The West.

Of The West opens with Cain Station, an energetic number about friendships and personal connections. It's a strong opener with a distinct Lo-Fi feel that works for Tonight We Ride. Duke Of New York A#1 was inspired by the Isaac Hayes character from Escape From New York but parodies the life and times of Amy Winehouse. It's a mid-tempo song with a dark feel; humorous yet respectful at the same time. Drink Myself Into Oblivion is just what it sounds like; a fun drinking song that pulls absolutely no punches. The language is a bit gratuitous (as it is throughout much of the album), but the effect is entertaining. Prelude To Hell On Earth takes on the upcoming annihilation of existence in 2012 in a funky instrumental that's among the finest playing on Of The West. Vivrette makes his bass get up and walk around the room while Campbell riffs off of the magic he creates.

The Other Side Of The Wall marks a real change of pace for Tonight We Ride, with an all-acoustic number that sounds more singer-songwriter than Post-Punk acoustica. The edges are rough, but the core is excellent. Heaven Can Wait finds Tonight We Ride taking listeners on a honky-tonk romp in a ferociously brief bit of fun. For Richie Rowe opens with a guitar progression that sounds like it wants to turn into Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love before Vivrette's walking bass line carries the band off on a highly energetic Acoustic Punk romp. It's a song about living in the moment, sucking the marrow out of life and all that. Parker's Got A Brand New Bag keeps the energy high with a more Pop oriented yet Lo-Fi gem, leading into the closer, Cash Money. Cash Money is a decent tune, but seems a bit out of place on Of The West, particularly so as a closing tune.

Tonight We Ride manages to bring a live feel to Of The West; I can only imagine how much a live show with these guys would be. Some will chafe at the gratuitous language, but one gets the sense this isn't so much pose as prose. In spite of the rough edges, there's real pop sensibility running through the veins of Tonight We Ridge. The songs on Of The West (most of them) could be played as Pop tunes (although part of what makes them work is the "in your face" approach of the band. Make sure you get to know Tonight We Ride. They're better than I expected. - Wildy's World Blog

This Montana-based rock trio packs so much intensely fun energy into this record that it’s ridiculous! Tonight We Ride is made up of: Dustin “Dub” Campbell on vocals & guitars, Greg Vivrette on bass & backing vocals and Adam “Bomb” McDonald on drums. The music on Of The West is so damn random & sporadic that I can’t even put it into my own words. Better yet, I’ll give you a quote from Dub himself: “We love music and friends and almost everything actually. Most of us love big girls. We love Jameson whiskey. We enjoy writing songs that make the crowd scream with us and we love ‘whoas.’ We love soul music, pop music and hip-hop as well as punk rock and all genres of metal. I quote Biggie Smalls regularly in my lyrics because I loved the dude!” Based on this broken train of thought, it mends right in with the entire mind-set of the album. The funny part is that this notion of surprise and not knowing what’s going to come next makes for one damn exciting ride!

TWR claim to center their songs around three subjects: friends, drinking and end-of—the-world references to 2012. Of course the group thinks that this notion of everything ending on this date is simply ludicrous, but they’re planning on having some fun with it in the meantime. Two songs touch on this idea of the world potentially ending on “Other Side Of The Wall” and “Prelude To Hell On Earth”. The ironic twist is that these two tracks are actually preludes to an upcoming release titled In Hell that will be an entire concept album based on 2012. “Other Side Of The Wall” has the acoustic guitar workin’ it to the tune of outrageously nutty lyrics. “Prelude To Hell On Earth” on the contrary is actually one solid-as-hell instrumental where all players come together to produce excellent musicianship as one strong team. Wonder what this Montana team will think of the upcoming movie, 2012; Will we have a grand slam homerun or just maybe a 1…2…3 strikeout?

What I loved about Tonight We Ride is just their crazy, hype energy. Every song offered extreme personality especially by way of Campbell’s performance/vocals/lyrics who seemed to pour himself into every song. This group just likes to have fun, party it up and maybe make a few good songs out of it. The crazy part is that early on you might not want to take this band seriously because of their overly light-hearted approach. As you listen though to the record, you hear awesome chemistry between all three members along with an electrifying presence/force. You can’t help yourself but listen all the way to this rocked out group with a bit of punk influence. They may kid around and joke it up on record, but in the end TWR are definitely no joke as a band.

The record actually starts up with the sound of a drink being made, ice and all, on “It’s Cocktail Time You Pussy Motherfuckers”. The mentality from the get go is telling you to let loose and to get this party rollin’. The first ACTUAL song, “Cain Station”, puts the three members in a very humorous & fun-spirited light. This track even gives off some attitude along with their signature “Whoa…ohh…ohh…ohhh…whoa’s”. Next up, “Duke of New York A#1”, has such a straight up, cool rock sound that turned into one of my favorites on Of The West. “Drink Myself Into Oblivion” is all about getting lit up full of energized music to feel good to. Tonight We Ride invite you to share some laughs, some beverages & some good tunes friends. One number titled “Heaven Can Wait” decides to go with hee-haw rock with some good-humored goofiness at its finest—Yeah Buddy! The record ends on a high note with “Cash Money” due to its feel of just being a kick-ass rock song by three cool guys.

In the end, I see now that Tonight We Ride just want to have good times while not holding anything back. They’re letting it all out, no exceptions, and are having a blast while doing it. All they expect is the same in return, so BYOB!!! For more on Tonight We Ride and their new release recorded in one’s living room, Of The West, SKOPE out www.myspace.com/twrmt.

By Jimmy Rae (jrae@skopemag.com) - Skope Magazine

“Cain Station” starts out with some nice multi-part harmonies that seem to take use of Pennywise, Against Me, and even This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, ensuring that listeners will sing along after a listen or two. “Drink Myself Into Oblivion” straddles the line between country, punk, and bar-rock. Fans of acts as wide as Mojo Nixon, Rehab, and even Hank the IIIrd will find something to caterwaul on about here. “Prelude To Hell on Earth” allows the instruments a moment to shine, with pacing reminiscent of Bad Religion and dramatic action similar to At The Drive-In and Fugazi working together to make a haunting track that belies any humorous undertones that the band may have.

“Find My Way Home” is a hot track, full of vim and vigor – the vocals call forth the Misfits and the aforementioned Pennywise as the swirling guitar eddies and splashy drums keep the heaviness going nicely. “Other Side of the Wall” goes back to the acoustic / country-infused well, but stands as the disc’s most emotional effort. The sheer anger and (still) desire of the lead singer burns well above the acoustic trappings that were laid down on the track; anyone that listens to the track will be able to find something in common with the lead vocalist. “Heaven Can Wait” allows the bass some time up front, as the vocals come forth as some sort of hybrid of “Dominated Love Slave”-style Green Day and Duane Peters.

“Cash Money” finishes up the album, and it may be the most intense track to be had during “Of The West”. The band that burns twice as bright burns half as fast, and I would have to believe that this applies to Tonight We Ride. The band is so strong that they could have attached four or five more tracks to “Of The West” without the disc suffering in the slightest, but their decision to do so has made this album on of thee best punk efforts thtat I have heard this year. If you like punk that is not afraid to take on odd genres and is able to take itself likely, you will like “Of The West”.

Top Tracks: Drink Myself Into Oblivion, Prelude To Hell On Earth

Rating: 8.5/10

Tonight We Ride – Of The West / 2009 Self / 11 Tracks / www.cdbaby.com/Artist/TonightWeRide - Neufutur Magazine

The guys in Tonight We Ride are awesome. They’re the type of guys who have at least two hundred thank yous (including seventeen bartenders, who get their own section), thank people twice, give people nicknames in their thankyous, and stick a picture of Montana in the corner of the booklet with the phrase “Ya’ll can f*ck off we’re from montana.” I feel like I would be friends with these guys, and hearing their album Of the West only confirms that.

That carefree, fun-loving character shows through in their music as well. This is a bar band (if you didn’t catch the subtle clues from the first paragraph); imagine the Hold Steady at a hoedown with less piano and a lot more hollering. But instead of the disaffected cool that the Hold Steady cultivates, Tonight We Ride has a much more enthusiastic take on life. There’s hollering and shouting kicking off and closing several tracks, most notably “Heaven Can Wait.” It’s the attitude of goofy pop-punk bands like Last Tuesday, but applied to a much more rock aesthetic.

And that rock isn’t the hardest of rock, because this is a bar band, not a modern rock band. It’s pretty great. It’s the type of music that endears a listener to it. The imperfections of vocal tone are a great thing as opposed to a terrible thing, because it feels so real and honest and fun.

The highlights here are closer “Cash Money,” “Drink Myself into Oblivion” and “Prelude to Hell on Earth.” The first two are rollicking bar tunes, suitable to be sung along to with beer in hand and bros around. The third is a different turn, with their hoedown mentality traded for a Spaghetti Western mentality. It’s an instrumental track, and it sounds great. It’s apparently the prelude to a concept album about 2012 that is forthcoming, which has me incredibly excited.

In short, Tonight We Ride is awesome. If you like fun, energetic, enthusiastic rock’n'roll, Tonight We Ride is here to kick you in the pants and make you like it. You might just end up thanked in the next album as Joe “We kicked him in the pants and made him like it” Smith. Highly recommended for fans of Hold Steady, Last Tuesday, Riverboat Gamblers, etc. - Independent Clauses

Growing up, punk music conjured up images of graffiti and brownstone, safety-pins in earlobes, torn tee-shirts and mohawks (not faux-hawks). Nowadays, punk stylings have branched off into retail outlets (HOT TOPIC) and rock operas (GREEN DAY’s ‘AMERICAN IDIOT’). Purists may reject such indulgences but to me, that’s just rock n roll. While its initial defiance may be long forgotten, punk music never, ever brought to mind images of the state of Montana but it’s home to the punk rock trio TONIGHT WE RIDE. Having played in bands since high school, the thought of lead singer and guitarist DUB, bassist GREG and drummer BOMB just seemed like the right thing to do. The Helena-based band’s debut CD ‘OF THE WEST’ boasts punk rock with a decidedly country and western twist recalling early X and walks that delicate line between partying hard (DRINK MYSELF INTO OBLIVION) and the apocalypse (OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL PART II). Despite the humor, ‘…WEST’ has its deep moments. The song CAIN STATION is sung from the point of view of a person with a brother in Iraq.

ROCKWIRED spoke with the lead singer and guitarist DUB of TONIGHT WE RIDE. Here is how it went.

I never would’ve expected a punk band to be from Montana.
They’ve got a cow-punk type thing going on up here.

Like X. They kind of hand a country tinge to what they did.
Yeah, and there is a lot more of that kind of thing popping up.

You guys have a great CD! Now that it’s out there for people to hear and the work that has gone into making it is behind you, how do you all feel about the finished work?
Honestly, I couldn’t be happier with that CD. I like it more every time I listen to it. We recorded that thing for absolutely no money in our living room. People are pretty surprised to find out that we did it for nothing and did it ourselves. We did it with a TASCAM 16- TRACK RECORDER and some computer software.

Wow! Real rock n roll!
There is a nerd back-end to it though.

How long did it take to put it all together?
We actually put a time limit on how long it was going to take to put it together. We had been in bands before and fucked off and had done a bunch of stuff and had never nailed anything down in terms of saying ‘we’ve gotta get this done by this amount of time.’ For this CD, we put a two week time constraint on it from start to finish. We had to have it done in exactly two weeks up to the day.

Most punk albums should be done in that time anyway.
I think so too. There were a couple of good things that came out of that. One, we busted it out right away and that was awesome. Two, the album has got a tight sound to it but it’s also got a free sound to it. We didn’t go back and do guitar parts a hundred times. We did them twice and used the best of the two takes. It really makes for a more interesting listen just from my standpoint. Normally you would go back and listen to it and go ‘I screwed that up!’ or ‘I could’ve done that better!’ For me- it is the inconsistencies that really make the recording.

Talk about the music scene that you guys are surrounded by in Helena.
It’s not really one city. Montana is just Montana. There is a ton of punk rock up here, there is a ton of rock n roll up here and there are a ton of bands that are going and doing it right now. We’ve got our own closed-off kind of thing up here and we’ve got a group of bars and venues around the state that everyone kind of circulates in. At any given time up here there are probably fifteen bands, between the ages of twenty and thirty-five years old, that are playing for almost no money but are just doing it nonstop. There are also a handful of bands that venture outside of the state. It’s a really big network up here. Everybody knows each other.

Talk about the genesis of the band. What got everybody onto the same page to want to do a project like TONIGHT WE RIDE?
In the beginning, it was just me and the bass player. I play guitar and I sing. Right now, we’re a three piece but when we started out, it was me and GREG and we were a two-piece and we had written most of the song on this CD but I used to play them on acoustic guitar and he played a stand up bass. I’m sure you’re familiar with all of that two-piece east coast indie stuff.

Yes.
We figured that we would skate along with that idea for a while until we realized that there weren’t any balls behind it. Me and GREG had actually played in a metal band before this band and did a tour of the West Coast so me and GREG have actually known each other for a while and actually live together. As the drummer ADAM had come back from college, we scooped him up just as quick as we could because he is an awesome drummer. He had played with GREG in a couple of bands in high school and was really into the music that we were doing. We had decided that we really couldn’t be a two-piece band any more. We had to add a drummer and we had to go all electric. We re-wrote all of the songs over the course of six months and fine-tuned them with a drummer then we pumped the CD out.

Talk about your two other band mates. What do they bring to the table both musically and personality-wise that sort makes this whole thing work?
GREG, our bass player is really into – as are all of us – into a lot of the old soul and funk stuff like SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE and ARETHA FRANKLIN. I love OTIS REDDING and AL GREEN and that is definitely a direction that we are going into, but GREG really gets into funk. He used to play a lot of funk bass and I kind of turned him on to punk rock. He’s mixed the two styles together kind of, and he is just an awesome bass player. He’s also really snappy. He picks it up right away. As far as personality goes, GREG is all over the place. He’s got three or four unicorn tattoos.

I noticed the MY LITTLE PONY unicorns on your MYSPACE page.
He’s got a thing for dumb tattoos. If you check out our MYSPACE and look through the pictures, you can see some of the dumb tattoos that he’s acquired. He really is a personality. He’s really fun to be around. He’s just wild. We really like to party hard and we really like to have a lot of fun and the CD kind of gets that message across. The thing to do would be to see us live if anything because we throw it down pretty hard live and we always try to have a good time regardless of the situation whether we are playing in front of two people or two hundred people. It doesn’t matter. ADAM our drummer is kind of quiet he likes a lot of progressive stuff. He is a much better drummer than the album gives him credit for. He is more than happy to tame it down and play just the essentials.

Talk about how music began for you?
We were all in high school at around the same time and we had all started out in different high school bands. We had started to network with this group of people in Montana. They were all people of our age group. We were sixteen or seventeen years old and we were all starting bands in high school and it is just one of those things where once you pick it up you can’t sit it down. You can’t stop doing it. I kind of got bit by the bug when I was very young and so was GREG and so was ADAM. There was really nothing else to do in Montana. We just wanted to write music, play music and have fun.

What kind of place do you think that you are coming form as a songwriter?
There are three things that we really write songs about. We like to write songs that are inspired by individual people that we know. That was what this album was largely based from. We also write songs about partying and drinking and having a lot of fun and we also like to write songs about the end of the world.

How millenarian of you.
Yeah. We believe that our next album – which we are going to tart recording here pretty quickly – is going to be a concept album based around the idea of 2012-end-of-the-world thing which we don’t believe in by any stretch of the imagination. We don’t believe that it’s going to happen. It’s just one of those things that makes for fun subject matter and its fun to think about it.

And think of all of the bad movies that it’s going to inspire.
Exactly! I’m going to go see everyone of them. The idea of the apocalypse appeals to me and I wonder why anyone would write about anything else. I like to think that it would happen in my life time because it’s something that I would really like to go through. If I had the option to see the apocalypse or not see the apocalypse, you better believe I’m hopping on the apocalypse train. You know what I’m saying?

Explain if it can be explained how a song gets written once you’ve had those three sources of inspiration.
The grand majority of the time, it will be something that I have written and I will work out the words and the chords and the progression and bring it to those guys and they will really flesh it out or they will give me an idea and I will take it and expand upon it. In some cases GREG will write some stuff. ADAM does not writing whatsoever.The majority of the stuff – I write but it’s heavily inspired by GREG and those guys really work to flesh the whole thing out so it’s really a group thing, but the whole thing starts with me – not to sound incredibly egotistical.

What songs off of this album stand out for you the most and why?
There are a couple of ‘Whoa’- heavy tracks on here that have a lot of whoa-ing and not a lot of words. They are always fun to do live because when you’ve got a bar full of drunk people and they are all whoa-ing, it’s pretty awesome. What I all the ‘Whoa’ songs are CAIN STATION and FIND MY WAY HOME. Those are always really fun songs to play. FIND MY WAY HOME has got keys and strings on it and it just pumps the whole song up and makes it sound epic. Those are two of my favorite tracks on there along with OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL which is a big favorite of a lot of people and that’s just the acoustic track. That one is more a story-driven track and it was actually supposed to go on this next album. It’s a concept track that has more to do with the second track than anything else.

This is going to sound like a very superficial question, but I happen to love album art. Talk about the cowboy and the panda in what looks like a showdown on the cover.
That is not a superficial question. That is an awesome question! I wish more people would ask me about it. We have a friend named CODY ECKMEYER that does all of our art for us. That cover looks like an oil painting but he actually did it on the computer. We told him the name of the album and nothing else. He came up with an east meets west kind of theme. It’s not an east versus west theme which I was misquoted as saying one time. They tried to make it sound like it was some sort of ‘terrorist’ thing. It’s an art dynamic that I think is awesome. It makes for awesome album art.

Talk about the band’s future direction in terms of its sound. You hinted earlier that you guys are leaning towards a more soulful sound.
The more songs that we write the more soulful the stuff ends up sounding. Some of the music is getting simpler and some of the vocal parts are getting more out of control. If you listen to some of them old soul songs, it’s just two chords back and forth but the vocals are just climbing up and down the scales. For me and the band taking this approach is kind of like playing a game. Writing and performing music is sort of like playing a game. There are a hundred different ways to play it and it’s just a matter of figuring it out. Rock n roll has been around for so long that everything that you are doing has been done and it’s just a matter of how well you do it and learning the tricks to make it work. It’s really all about figuring out how to play the game and how to make it work for you. We are on our way to doing that right now. It’s a crazy game. It’s the most interesting game that you can play and I don’t know why everyone doesn’t play it.

What would you like someone to come away with after they’ve heard this CD?
I’d like for people to come away with a big smile on their face. I’ve heard the album described as feeling like “home” but that’s coming from Montana people who already know who we are. I would really like people to associate this CD with home, if that makes any sense.

Not quite.
I would like people to associate it with a feeling of warmth. I want people to feel good when they are listening to it and I’d like people to party when they are listening to it. I just want it to be something that is going to make people feel good. - Rockwired Magazine