Trenchtown

Facts Sheet
TRENCHTOWN

• 2 Years Warped Tour

• #1 & # 3 Song on XM (Unsigned) Channel

• Represented by Rick Smith at Wild Justice Entertainment (Seether, Saving Abel)

• Represented by A | C | M Public Relations

• Holds “full gear” sponsorship deal with Best Buy

• National distribution contract w/ Best Buy

• Self Titled EP Produced by Billy Graziadei of Biohazard/Suicide City

• Invited and licensed under SESAC
- Artist Report

QUOTES/REVIEWS Under Previous Name (Maryz Eyez)

•"The new sound coming through your stereo blending elements of rock, punk, 60’s, reggae, island, grunge, and more rock... They, (Maryz Eyez), have not only touched upon, but sexually assaulted greatness”
-State of Emergency.net (UK)
Liam Thompson

•“One band that definitely left an impression on me with their live show was Detroit’s Maryz Eyez” You can tell that those guys put everything they have into a live show”
-Music Connection Magazine,
David Bash of the International Pop Overthrow

•“Maryz Eyez has the right formula to become a national act”
-Kalamazoo Today
Thomas Lundberg

•“The four members switch lead vocal duties and instruments throughout the set and album. They are producing some of the best four part harmonies I’ve heard in a Rock Group”
-Recoil Magazine
Eric Mitts

•This album rocks, hands down I give it a 10 out of 10. At times I felt I was back in the 60’s again but then I’d get a punch in the face taking me through a time zone witnessing eras of Punk Rock, Reggae-Nation, Classic Rock, and Seattle’s Grunge right back to the Rock Pop and Rock and Roll we all love today.
-Steve Ultz
myspace/cdreview

www.trenchtownmusic.com
www.reverbnation.com/trenchtownmusic
www.myspace.com/maryzeyez

Contact:
Eric Wagler
trenchtownband@gmail.com
_____________________________________________________________________ - Music Connection, CD review, State of Emergency, Recoil, Kalamazoo Today

BY CHRISTY BUENA, EDITOR MONDAY, JULY 19, 2010

If you're a fan of old Unwritten Law mixed with a hint of ska punk influences, then you'll love Trenchtown. These guys hail from Hermosa Beach, the same city as punk pioneers Pennywise, and could be described as the lovechild of Green Day and Sublime. Having been a part of the Warped Tour two years in a row, the band has made a name for themselves and recently released a new self titled album, Trenchtown EP.

We had a chance to ask front man Ryan Wagler a few questions about the band's inception, goals and plans for the future.


1. How'd you decide on the band's name?

We wanted a name that described who we are as well as what we are doing. We searched hundred of words trying to find a name that would fit who we are, found some but they still didn't define what we were doing. Then we searched hundreds of songs trying to find lyrics that would accomplish this. An old song by Bob Marley summed it up, a song called Trenchtown. "We free the people with music". As a band, we all came from the same town in Southern Michigan. We had similar experiences growing up. I went to music when I needed an escape. That's what we hope to provide to those who need it.

2. How did you all meet and how did you develop your sound?

Well like I said, we all met in junior high/high school. Of course myself and Eric (bass) are brothers and Nichols (guitar) is our cousin. We shared a love for Green Day, Nirvana, and Sublime back then and still do. Not so oddly enough, many people comment that our music sounds kind of like a mix up of Green Day and Sublime. Our sound is not manufactured or intentional though. We sound like a piece of everything we love to listen to. Rancid, Lagwagon, Bob Marley, Jimmy Buffet, NOFX, Goldfinger, Sublime, Zack Brown, Muse, etc... It's all in there somewhere.

3. Are you guys working on any projects at the moment?

We just released an album earlier this month. "Trenchtown EP". We had been working with producer Billy Graziadei from the band Biohazard on the project for about 9 months. He's produced all the recent Biohazard albums and has worked with Slipknot and Sick of it All. He really helped fine tune our sound though. Came in during our rehearsals and didn't mind arguing with us about how a verse/rhythm/vocal style should go. We're all a little thick headed when it comes to outside critique on our songs but we took most of his suggestions. Now that we have time to reflect, I think everyone agrees he knows what he's talking about.

4. Where can fans catch you guys live? Any tours/shows coming up?

We've got some national touring options for early winter that we're waiting on more details. However, for the next few months, we got a few larger shows coming up. On August 6th we're playing the International Pop Overthrow festival at "the Joint" in LA. We've been a part of this festival the last 4 years or so and always meet some good up and coming bands. On September 4th we'll also be playing a show with long time Orange County Reggae greats "Common Sense". This show is at the Brixton South Bay in Redondo Beach. Great venue, we just watched Strung Out and Unwritten Law there within the last month. Anyway, this show with Common Sense is expected to sell out so energy levels should be nice that night. We also play every Friday on Hermosa Beach Pier for the happy hour out-of-work beach crowd.

5. Are there any bands you admire and wish to work with?

Personally, I admire good song writers and bands/musicians that put out a lot of music. Usually these people are in more than one band. Guys like Mike Herrera from MXPX and Joey Cape from Lagwagon/Bad Astronaut are people I would like to work with most. They have a ton of side projects and find different styles to express their talent. Earlier this month, we all went to a Bad Astronaut show and Burlett (our drummer) struck up a conversation with Joey Cape and gave him a disk. Two days later we were on facebook and Joey Cape had posted our music on his home page asking his followers to listen to it. We got a great response and it was definitely cool to be given props from someone who had such a strong influence on why we started doing this in the first place.



6. What inspires your sound?

I think most music is, either directly or indirectly, affected by other music. That gives me the most inspiration. And this goes beyond what our favorite artists are or what is on our ipods. If you want to grow as a musician you should surround yourself with other musicians. This means going to as many shows, both local and national, as you can and picking up acoustic guitars at parties. I'm also inspired by tragedies. Meditating on loss and suffering is very common in song writing. A lost relationship is one thing but finding a deeper loss such as purpose or life is a whole new type of tragic. I like somber songs, but those that give hope. Even if just a glimpse.

7. What are your musical goals and what lessons have you learned so far?

Our goal is to get our music into as many hands as possible. We've taken a new approach to this album. Although we do sell them online for a fixed sum, at shows we accept only donation. If you don't feel like giving a donation, you still leave with a disk. The music is more important than the $5 we get for it. I guess that's a lesson. Another lesson I've learned is how important chemistry is. Our band went on hiatus for a year or so and we all performed with other bands. Not until we reunited did I realize how important it was to have a common mind set to really make music collectively. It's like being married to 4 other men at once. It's gonna be disastrous if there is no chemistry. We're all close brothers though.

8. What's the best piece of advice someone ever gave you?

I don't know if anyone has actually said this to me, probably, but if not, I've definitely heard it before and it's the best advice. You must do what you love and love what you have. As a band, I remember times in the past when things were very tough financially. Being on your own DIY tour and living off a couple bucks a day for food can be damaging mentally as well as physically. But we were playing every night and doing what we love. Nichols (guitar) calls this a curse. But he put it best when he said, "ever since we played out first high school party, we've been addicted to the rock and roll lifestyle." It's not the party addiction though, it's the addiction to performing and spreading music.

9. What do you guys do when you're not making music?

As far as I can tell everyone has their own hobbies. I like watching baseball, Burlett (drums) goes to swap meets, Eric Wagler (bass) likes to sleep, Greg Bo (lead git) looks for dates at the gym, and Nichols (guitar) drinks coronas on the roof of his house. That being said, when you're serious enough about your music it's hard to really think about much else. We go out on nights off and kick loose but usually end up at a live music venue. Maybe it is a curse...

10. Anything else you'd like to add?

First and foremost, please go to www.trenchtownmusic.com and listen to our music. If you like, stay in touch with us. Write us a message on facebook or join our mailing list. Finally, come check out a live show. We love to hang out before and after our sets. We love to hear feedback (good and bad). We love to hear music from other independent bands. Thanks for the interview Christy.

www.trenchtownmusic.com
www.reverbnation.com/trenchtownmusic
www.facebook.com/trenchtownusa
www.twitter.com/trenchtownusa
www.myspace.com/trenchtownusa - Disarray Magazine

"BROTHERS IN THE TRENCH"

by Sascha Bush
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 5:23 PM PDT


TRENCHTOWN TAKES OVER HERMOSA BEACH

Local punk music fans are fiercely possessive about their local punk music bands. Why wouldn’t they be?

The South Bay music scene boasts a resume going back 30 years that includes Black Flag, Pennywise and The Circle Jerks. It’s our music. We own it. Even the uninitiated can at least claim that he’s friends with a friend of - or better yet, went to high school with - a guy in 98 Mute.

So maybe transplants from Detroit won’t have the hometown advantage, but the guys of Trenchtown made a good move by dropping roots in Hermosa Beach.

The band’s self-titled “Trenchtown EP,” released July 9, represents a “rebirth” of the group comprising Michigan natives Ryan Wagler (vocals), Eric Wagler (bass), Greg Bolenbaugh (lead guitar), Mike Nichols (rhythm guitar) and Mike Burlett (drums).

Brothers Eric and Ryan Wagler spoke to The Beach Reporter about the birth, and rebirth, of the band.

A NEW OLD BAND

Trenchtown is the new incarnation of the punk/rock band Maryz Eyez. With two consecutive years playing on the Vans Warped Tour, two XM radio top-three songs, and two albums under their belts (“For All the Haters,” 2004; “Memento Mori,” 2008), Maryz Eyez got its start where many bands do: playing house parties in high school.

Starting in the mid-1990s, original members Eric Wagler, Nichols and Burlett played throughout high school, then college. Younger brother Ryan explained that he and Bolenbaugh “had our own little junior high school thing. We’d sneak into their parties, watch them play.”

Maryz Eyez had been playing for several years when Ryan joined in 2002. “I hadn’t even owned a guitar then,” admitted Ryan. Rather then bringing in a new guitar player, the senior members of Maryz Eyez gave Ryan a shot to play.

“At the first show (I played), on the way we stopped at Guitar Center, and I bought my first guitar and amp.”

Maryz Eyez quickly garnered plenty of attention in its home state, playing to homegrown fans and showcasing for various record labels.

“We toured the state … We did the Warped Tour, put out a couple of records,” said Eric. “We … got as far as we could in Michigan and moved out to the West Coast. We brought in Greg and formed a whole new band Trenchtown.”
‘It’s cold in Detroit’

Unsatisfied with what the Detroit music scene had to offer, Maryz Eyez and the Wagler brothers relocated from Michigan to Hermosa Beach in 2008. Nichols, Burlett and Bolenbaugh joined them more than a year later to regroup as Trenchtown.

“We’d locked down a major management company and …were getting to the point where we thought something was going to happen with a label, and we were almost there - but nobody put pen to paper,” Eric said.

MARYZ EYEZ HAD COME TO A PLATEAU AS FAR AS MICHIGAN WAS CONCERNED

“It’s not to say that Detroit can’t help you out, can’t hook you up. We met a lot of people … and it didn’t work out. New industry people weren’t moving into the city,” explained Ryan. “You can’t stay in one place and wonder why nothing is happening.”

Eric described Maryz Eyez as being on “somewhat of a hiatus” after moving to California. Every other month or so the brothers would fly out to Detroit for a show or Nichols and Burlett (Bolenbaugh was not yet a member) would join them in Los Angeles.

Last summer they decided to get serious about music again.

“We decided that everybody had been dedicated (to the band) before, and everyone wants to be dedicated to it again. In order to do that, you have to make an album, get some merchandise, start networking, do shows, get on a tour,” Ryan said.

“To do that, we had to start over.”

TRENCHTOWN EP

In 2008, Bolenbaugh joined as a fifth member and lead guitar, a new name was selected and a new sound evolved as a result.

Trenchtown’s music, which has been compared to Green Day and Sublime, has picked up a “reggae/ska vibe,” said Ryan.

“We don’t shoot for any particular style. We don’t sit down and say we’re going to write with this intended sound,” Eric said.

The new sound of Trenchtown, they explained, was the natural result of having now five people writing and playing together.

Ryan pointed out the “new” sound isn’t entirely new at all. “Unpaid Holiday,” a track from the 2008 album “Memento Mori,” was re-recorded for “Trenchtown EP” because, they realized, the song had the exact sort of sound that fit with the new music.

The “Trenchtown EP” was produced by Billy Graziadei of Biohazard and Suicide City fame. A chance meeting at a local Best Buy store paired the band with Graziadei who “took (us) under his wing.”

“We were at the right place and the right time,” Eric said.

“We hadn’t really planned on going to the studio until we met Billy. He liked the stuff we’d previously recorded …We realized that with what he could offer, and the songs that we were writing, it was time.”

Trenchtown spent nine months creating its “Trenchtown EP” at Graziadei’s Underground Sound Studios in Gardena.

“Billy was very hands-on with our music,” Ryan said. “Before we recorded the album he’d make us play, take all these notes, took them home, and he must have listened to (the songs) for a long time because the next week he’d come back with all these suggestions, minor changes here and there.”

The result is the six-song self-titled EP, which the brothers say is getting a great response.

“As far as crowd reaction, ‘Ay Oh’ is getting the best response from the fans,” Eric said.

“If I had to pick a favorite, I’d pick track three, ‘Murderer,’” said Ryan. “It sounds most powerful to me. It’s a different song than we’ve ever written. It’s a hypothetical situation about an innocent man being murdered by the courts that framed him.”

“WE FREE THE PEOPLE WITH MUSIC”

Bob Marley’s song “Trenchtown” not only inspired the name of the band, but the lyrics resonate among the members.

“We free the people with music” is about escape,” Ryan said. “We all grew up in the same town, we all went to the same school, and we use music to escape.”

It was the perfect name for the reborn Maryz Eyez. Besides, everyone kept misspelling the old name.

Trenchtown is scheduled to play every Friday throughout the summer at The Lighthouse, located at 30 Pier Ave. in Hermosa Beach, from 4 to 8 p.m. and Hennessey’s Tavern, located at 8 Pier Ave., from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

For more information about the band, visit www.trenchtownmusic.com. - The Beach Reporter

August 24, 2010

On Friday August 20th Skope TV got on the phone with an exciting band that started in Detrout while in high school but now resides in Hermosa Beach, CA. The band we are talking about is Trenchtown and they mix punk, rock, reggae, and dub in a way that is addictive. If you have any doubt just grab the FREE MP3 of “Ay Oh” now. We got to talk with Ryan all about forming the band, the self-titled EP, Hermosa Beack vs Detroit, and so much more! - Skope Magazine

Trenchtown
by Madison VanderMeer

4.5 stars
Trenchtown EP

Detroit's hometowners Trenchtown have been around the block. Founded in 1996, D-Towners Mike Nichols, Mike Burlett and Eric Wagler released their first studio length album, Mary-Go-Round, while attending Western in 1999. It wasn't until 2002 that the band gained an additional asset — Ryan Wagler on rhythm guitar and vocals. In 2008, longtime friend Greg Bo joined, making the quintet complete. Relocating to Hermosa Beach, CA, inspired their transformation to ska-punk.

The whole thing kicks off with "Ay Oh," a perfect introduction to the Trenchtown sound, featuring upbeat rhythms, a traditional ska drum pattern and an invitation to "Ay oh, ay oh, Come on now!" From there the EP melts into a kind of ska ballad, "Paralyzed," slower and more deliberate than the preceding track.

The third track brings their punk influences to the forefront, until the chorus, when the ska creeps back in as eerily as the words being sung — makes sense, since the song is entitled "Murderer." "Unpaid Holiday" is as bittersweet as they come, mixing a cheery melody with lyrics insisting that "We'll waste away." Frankly, that's fine with me — as long as I'm wasting away listening to this album.

Worth a listen: "Paralyzed" - Real Detroit Weekly

Post Published: 23 August 2010
Author: Aldo Singer

There should be an ‘Advisory Warning’ sticker on the self-titled EP from Trenchtown informing all music elitists out there to put your egos in your back pocket and enjoy this fun record.

Though it may come off ‘poppy’ at times, the guys based out of Hermosa Beach, California, bring much more to the table, blending punk, reggae, and even get a little hardcore in just six tracks. It all comes together very tight and nicely, under the tutelage of Billy Graziadei from the legendary hardcore band, Biohazard, to complement the chemistry the guys possess being in the band since their teen years.

“Murderer” brings the emo/hardcore sound from Trenchtown that helped keep them apart of the Warped Tour for two years in a row. “Let it Go” is the heaviest track on the EP. The band belts out the chorus with an intoxicating anger that taps your foot for you. “Unpaid Holiday” is my favorite song off of the album. They could warrant a Sublime-similarity reference here, not only because they stress love, happiness and loving life without worries, but Trenchtown vocalist, Ryan Wagler, comes pretty close to sounding like the late Bradley Nowell.

Plain and simple, it’s a fun record the makes you remember punk rock before it became a Broadway play. - Independent Media Magazine

Published on August 10, 2010

Trenchtown is an interesting beast. I recently had the chance to sit down and savor their new album the Trenchtown EP. Bred out of Hermosa Beach, they wear their influences on their sleeve. I was greeted with a high energy mix of LA punk and ska that was bit Greenday, a bit Rancid, a bit Sublime and all fun.

A six song EP with punk-length songs isn't more than a musical nibble, but I walked away wanting more. The EP starts with "Ay Oh" with a distinct oy punk feel. A little deeper in, Murderer is a standout song that's devious fun with ominous lyrics. Later, the closer Unpaid Holiday winds the collection down, but I have confidence it'll become a summer anthem for some.

If the band is as fun live as their abum makes them out to be, I can't wait to see them. You can check out the EP for free at their official site here. - The Deli Magazine

Trenchtown are a Californian (Hermosa Beach) based band who have a reggae-rocking surfer punk rock sound, very East coast and with a healthy dose of radio friendly feel good music. With bands like Sublime, Pepper, Unwritten Law and even Authority Zero leaving their trace influences on the band, combined with producer Billy Graziadei’s (Biohazard, Sick Of It All) touches, this self titled EP is a great little intro to the band for new fans. With leading track ‘Ay Oh’ certainly initiating the party vibe, the six songs move through a range of pace and tones; ‘Murderer’ shifting between slow groovy chorus and faster paces verses, hook filled and ironically upbeat ‘Unpaid Holiday’ and poppier but catchy ‘Let It Go’ all add some diversity to the bands output. Moving forward it will be interesting to see what the guys can produce but there are some healthy indicators based on this EP already. - Distorted Magazine

Written by Dan Savoie
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 14:18

Hermosa Beach, California has provided the stomping grounds to many punk legends, including Black Flag, The Descendents and Pennywise, but the next generation might best lie in the hands of Trenchtown, who left their Detroit homes to catch a whiff of some of the magic that might be in the air down there.

Produced by Trenchtown and Biohazard’s Billy Graziadei, the self-titled EP is properly produced with just the right mix of raw energy and slickness, making it a fulfilling debut. Sounding much like what a ska version of Green Day might, Trenchtown pack punk energy with a reggae sensibility, in a unique pop package. The six songs bounce around a bit, with hook laden, feel good reggae/pop vibes to more straight forward rockers, but the variety stays well within the realm of who the band is.

The opening track, Ay Oh, kicks off the album with bouncy beats, upbeat and swampy guitar licks, and crisp, catchy vocals. Not “letting go”, the album continues with the promising Let It Go, which might be the most straight forward rocker on the whole CD. This sing-along sounds like it would be a killer live track at their concerts.

Murder and Waiting For The Day are powerful, while the laid back Unpaid Holiday sways more on the reggae side of things. The band is a bit better when it rocks and punks out, but it’s reggae sound would be a welcomed treat on any ska festival stage. Trenchtown deserve the full CD treatment and it would be great to see these guys on the Warped Tour. Judging from the EP, they’ll be a mainstage act in no time.

Listen to: Ay Oh, Let It Go - Rock Star Weekly