KNOX HARRINGTON has been melting faces, blowing minds & raising cleft asshole awareness around the greater Portland area since 2006, but the roots of the band & their sound go much deeper…
The band was founded as a musical support group of sorts by childhood friends and native East Portlanders Josh Davis (guitar & vocals), Adam Martin (bass & vocals) and Matt Bush (guitar & vocals). After a decade of writing and playing music together, including a few years in Jersey City, NJ, the trio had fallen out of the habit of playing anything at all. Individually they all reached the same conclusion; to make music is good and to not make music is very bad.
Starting a new band seemed like the logical thing to do, but drummers and singers could be so hard to find, not to mention unpredictable. The solution? Power trio! Matt plays drums and everyone sings! They decided to write an album’s worth of straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll and just enjoy the process. However, after a few months of writing and rehearsing, it was agreed that their songwriting ambition had surpassed Matt’s drumming abilities, and local veteran head-beater Jeff Nelson (a co-worker of Adam’s) was brought on board to bring the rhythm section to a new level. With Matt once again filling out the duel guitar assault, the Knox Harrington lineup was complete.
Knox Harrington describes their music as “high voltage rock ‘n’ roll,” after their heroes AC/DC. Their sound is loose, heavy and energetic, rooted in the bluesy power rock of the ‘70s and influenced by punk, hardcore and metal of all eras. What sets Knox Harrington apart from your average bar-rock quartet is their musicianship. They lovingly execute their high voltage rock with gritty three-part harmonies, searing guitar leads, rolling-thunder bass lines and drumming that perfectly balances tastiness and heaviness. Matt explains, “We were total band nerds, that’s actually how Josh and I met as 9th graders. Arranging big harmonies, improvising solos, throwing in random time changes; it’s all a way for all of us to push one another and ourselves as players. Plus it sounds bad ass and it’s more fun.”
Unfortunately, after playing on the 2010 session for the forthcoming album and a few final shows, Jeff left the band for health related reasons. After searching a bit, the boys eagerly recruited the hard hitting yet musically minded Ben Buker. “After I saw the posting and checked out their stuff it was pretty clear that these guys took the music seriously, without taking themselves too seriously,” says Ben, of when he first contacted the band.
“The first time we started jamming we knew he was our guy. He completely gets what Knox Harrington is about,” adds Adam.
With Ben behind the kit, the foursome hit the ground running in early 2011 booking a string of shows while working diligently behind the scenes to self-release their debut LP “Call Me Bonedark.” The album, which was recorded and mixed with Adam Pike at his Toadhouse Studio in North Portland, features ten original tracks along with one bottle-smashing cover of Beck’s “Fuckin’ With My Head (Mt. Dew Rock).” All of the song titles on “Call Me Bonedark” were inspired by the artwork of former bandmate (and Josh’s former roommate) Ben Moro, for whom “Bonedark” is one of many aliases. About recording the album Josh says, “We wanted it to sound like a bunch of friends drinking Wild Turkey and playing rock ‘n’ roll, so we passed around the bottle and played some rock ‘n’ roll.”
Who knows what the future may bring for Knox Harrington? As the band powers through their first independent release they say that their motivations and inspirations will remain the same, plus one: melting faces, blowing minds, selling CDs and raising cleft asshole awareness everywhere they go.
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