Atlanta band Upchuck reinvigorates the sound of punk
Photo Credit: Marlon Garcia
Atlanta band Upchuck is in a class of its own. The five members, KT on vocals, Mikey on lead guitar, Armando on bass, Chris on drums and Hoff on rhythm guitar, formed Upchuck back in 2018. According to the band, they met through skateboarding and troublemaking. Upchuck brings that rebellious spirit to their music, as they refuse to stay within the confines of the sounds associated with punk. By tapping into a visceral and cathartic energy, the band has inadvertently returned to the roots of punk rock; not necessarily a specific sound, though that is there too, but a feeling.
Upchuck’s debut album Sense Yourself, released last year, merges a variety of genres seamlessly. The band combines their influences, ranging from hip hop to blues to sludge to punk, to create something original. Thematically, the album explores living within social systems that prevent us from reaching our full potential. KT’s words inspire us to push against those barriers; to defy restrictions. It also sounds fucking awesome.
The album’s opening track “Upchuck” opens with the theme of police brutality. Sonically, KT’s vocals reverberate over doom riffs, picking up speed at the last minute and pushing the track toward hardcore. “Upchuck was the first song we wrote together as a band,” lead guitarist Mikey writes over email. “I was trying out new singers and Armando brought [KT] over and I said, ‘Okay, let's just start recording.’ I showed her what instrumentals I had and it took about an hour for her to write some lyrics and us to get our sound right. I thought, ‘Wow, this girl just wrote some great lyrics and a great flow to what I had’ and from there it was history,” he explains. “We actually named the band after the song because the way the police treat people of color makes us want to vomit. That's where the name came from.”
Sense Yourself is not an ordinary punk rock album. Recorded and mixed by Pat Phillips and Daniel Lane at Grey Cat Studios, it takes familiar sounds from metal, garage rock, and psychedelic to create something unique and fresh. On “Wage for War,” for example, the band fluctuates between slow doom riffs and fast chord progressions. The track “In the Wire” brings together references from post-punk and psychedelic rock. On “Perdido,” the band goes even further by adding in Spanish lyrics and cumbia rhythms. “Chris and Armando are definitely our influence for that,” Mikey writes. “Chris is in a cumbia band with his dad, so we’ve been trying to find a way to use that and merge more cumbia inspired music into our songwriting. Cumbia music was kind of our soundtrack to the Amyl tour we did last year. You could hear it from every green room we were in while on the road.”
The album, released late last year, was not the band’s introduction. In early 2020, the band put out their EP Upchuck. “We actually wrote the album before we wrote the EP. We essentially wrote the EP to put something out while we were still working on the album. Something to give everyone to listen to while we worked and tried to perfect the record,” Mikey explains. Tracks like “FREEDOM” and “Reaper” highlight the band’s ability to blend genres.
Though the band has only been playing together for about five years, they’ve managed to perfect their high energy live shows. Upchuck has already shared the stage with Atlanta’s Psychic Death, The Paranoyds and Amyl and the Sniffers. The Sense Yourself cover art, a photograph of KT mid-song at a show in 2018, is an indication of the band’s excruciating love for live performance. KT got hit in the head with a shopping cart at the EP’s release show. “Sometimes Chris and I will slap each other in the face before shows,” Mikey writes about the band’s pre-concert rituals. “One of the highlights from a show we had last year was when we all stopped and grabbed some food a few hours before the show and it didn’t settle well for any of us. KT almost puked and shit herself on stage halfway through the last song and had to run off,” he explains. Touring has brought the band closer together. “There’s nothing like going city to city playing show after show with your best friends. You really get to know each other.”
The band’s DIY ethics have led to members working on a variety of projects. “Hoff does a lot of the artwork you see–like drawings and the logo on all of our records,” Mikey writes. The band has also enlisted close friends to help out. “Marlon Garcia went on tour with us and has taken a lot of the photos you see on our socials. Matt Pikachu (Annukai Productions) screen prints all of our shirts we take on tour with us. We have a lot of talented friends in our community that we like to collaborate with on merch and other things.”
Now that the record is out, the band is choosing to focus on what is next. “We worked on [the album] for about three years, so it feels good to finally have it out and start thinking about the future and working on another record,” Mikey writes. “Right now, we have plans to go to LA in a few weeks to continue working on and recording a new record with some people we’ve been really excited to work with,” he tells us. We look forward to hearing more from these Atlanta punks.
Sense Yourself is out now on Famous Class. To purchase the album on vinyl, head to Bandcamp. Upchucks’s music can also be streamed on Spotify and other platforms. Follow Upchuck on Instagram. Go see the band live:
January 25 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
January 27 - Atlanta, GA - Aisle 5
February 12 - Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
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