First to the Fence

This is the original bio I wrote for fttf back in 2002

I've been waiting a long time for "First to The Fence" to arrive. My entire musical roots and foundation were all built on the music of a small college town called Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kalamazoo is mostly known as the birth place of Tim Allen's Cocaine habit and for a few random Elvis Sightings. But In the early 1990s The music scene was burgeoning with original and inspirational music and art of all varieties. Nearly every weekend my friends and I would pack up in the car and head to Kzoo to see a show. But, over the past 10 years and with the exception of a few good punk bands. I've watched Kalamazoo's originality get replaced with normality and it's inspiration be replaced by imitation. I personally can't think of anything more boring than listening to a band who's songs you memorize before they're even done playing them.

I decided to check out First to The Fence on a whim having met their guitar player Jeff through his other band (Thought Industry) and thinking he was a nice guy. So truly, I had no idea what I was in for. It turned out that what I was in for was roughly 35 minutes of the most aggressive, emotional and innovative music I had heard in a long time. Walls of interesting guitar parts colliding with melodic bass lines, astonishing drumming and desperately emotional vocals. They even threw in a touch of electronica adding samples and various other noises to the mix. When it was all over and done all I could say was "Where the hell did that come from?"

The same is true of the self produced, four song demo CD First to The Fence recently released. From the first moments of the frantic acoustic guitar intro to "Los Paranoijos" you know you're in for the ride and when Atom (Poling - Vocals) screams "I'll be back before too long" you know you had better hold on. The second track "Autocar" is my personal favorite and starts with a crushing guitar part that leads into an extremely cool chorus and once you figure out the lyrics I'll bet you can't help singing along. "Till May" has some great guitar work, an extremely powerful ending and the bass-line is wonderful. The last track "Climb/fall" shows off their fondness for blending the power of metal with the emotion and attitude of Punk Rock.

The true power of music to another musician is hearing a band that makes you want to go to your instrument and play and they make mewant to play. Yeah . . . I've been waiting a long time for First to The Fence to arrive, and they have . . .

By Joby Purucker

• Atom Polling - Vocals
• Jeff Borkowski - Guitar
• Jason Gerds - Guitar
• Mark Larmee - Bass
• Mike Burlett - Drums
• Cam Taylor - Drums

• Atom also played with Holiday Lanes and Sylvia Trench
• Jeff also played in Supercopter and Thought Industry
• Mike also played with Maryz Eyez and Leisure McCorkle
• Mark also played with Hornet, Spit for Athena, Kiss Me Quick (as a temp), Clear Days Always and Holiday Lanes
• Cam also played with Posi, Thought Industry and The Mad Butchers

None yet

E.P. 2002

1. Los Paranoijos
2. Autocar
3. 'Till May
4. Climb/Fall

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