Ampere is a

screamo Screamo (also referred to as skramz) is an aggressive subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics".Jason Heller, "Feast of Reason". ''Denver Westword'', June 20, 2002Access date: ...

band based in

Amherst, Massachusetts Amherst () is a New England town, town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,263, making it the highest populated municipality in Hampshire County (althoug ...

known for their short (10–15 minutes) but extremely loud and intense live shows. The band has put the importance of

DIY punk ethic "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi ...

s at the forefront of their lyrics and are known for the particular attention they bring to their vegan principles.

History

The members of the bands have been involved in the DIY punk scene for a number of years with the most notable being guitarist Will Killingsworth, who played guitar in

Orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

, Laceration and Bucket Full of Teeth and who continues to run his Clean Plate record label and Dead Air recording studio where the band records all of their music. He was also in the hardcore "super group" Failures, as well as Vaccine and Won't Belong. Drummer Andy Skelly played drums in both The Last 40 Seconds and Wolves, Stephen's previous bands were Montcalm, The Last 40 Seconds, and 175 Grams. He concurrently played guitar in self-destructive supergroup Aerosols. He also briefly ran Distort, an independent record store in Northampton, MA (May '06 - December '06). Meghan played bass in Unicoroner, and sang in Stop The Clock and Relics on their first 7-inch and split 7-inch with Furnace. Much like

, Ampere (especially earlier albums such as "All our Tomorrows End Today") often borrow some of their lyrics from philosophers and revolutionaries such as

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationis ...

. They have preserved some of the "intellectual" punk seen in bands like

, Sinaloa,

Native Nod Native Nod was an American emo band formed in the early 1990s and based in the New York metropolitan area. During their short stint as a group, they released nine songs, divided amongst three seven-inch EPs, ''Bread'', ''Answers'', and ''Lower G ...

, Current, and others. In all of their endeavors, Ampere has persisted in their commitment to intellect, art, and sincerity. The band actively tour in the US and completed a tour of Europe with Sinaloa in March 2006. A split record on

Ebullition Records Boiling is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapour pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding atmosphere. Th ...

between the two bands was released in time for the tour, along with a 7-inch of their early recordings and a four-way split 11-inch with Death to Tyrants, Wasteland and

Daniel Striped Tiger The Neighborhood of Make-Believe is the fictional kingdom inhabited by hand puppet characters on the children's television series ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'', which originally aired on PBS (and its predecessor NET) from 1968 to 2001, and its ...

which was recorded live at Dead Air. Since then, a split 12-inch composed completely of cover songs was released with Das Oath. 2007 was a productive year for the band, encompassing a brief Japanese tour as well as three new split records; a 6-inch with Ringers on

No Idea Records No Idea Records is an American independent record label based in Gainesville, Florida which focuses on punk rock and its sub-styles and produces both vinyl records and compact discs. The label also organizes The Fest, an independently operated ...

, which, after the first press was re-released as a 7-inch (both versions of the record came with limited runs of T-shirts featuring the album art), a 9-inch with

Funeral Diner Funeral Diner was a screamo band from Half Moon Bay, California, located near San Francisco. During their last few years, the band established a strong cult fanbase through a near constant string of releases and a touring schedule during which t ...

put out jointly by Clean Plate and The Electric Human Project (this release included intricate etchings between the grooves), and a 7-inch picture disk with France's Daitro on Clean Plate/purepainsugar. In 2008, an Australian-tour-only split 7-inch with Off Minor was released. Both bands contributed a previously released but compilation-exclusive song from an Animal Rights benefit CD on Exotic Fever. It is Ampere's most limited release to date (aside from the cassette format of the demo tape) at a scant 300 copies. Each band took 150 for their respective jaunts down under and made different packaging. In June 2011 the band's second LP titled "Like Shadows" was released on

. In August 2015, a split 8" with Italian band

Raein Raein is an Italian hardcore punk band that features members of La Quiete and the post-rock band Neil on Impression. The band broke up in late 2005, but after a hiatus of almost 2 years (in which they played 2 shows) they got back to play togeth ...

was released on

. Pierce and Skelly continue to play together in indie/

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...

band Kindling, who have a 12" forthcoming in Fall 2015 on

. Killingsworth and Minior also play together in punk band Longings, with an LP coming out on Framework / Echo Canyon Records in September 2015. Additionally, Killingsworth is a present member of No Faith, Demonbrother, and The Toll. Minior is also a member of Siamese Twins and Chemiplastica. Killingsworth and Skelly played together in Ritual Mess with Geoff Garlock and Jayson Green, also of

, and James Clarke.

Members

* Will Killingsworth -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

* Meghan Minior - bass * Stephen Pierce -

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Andy Skelly -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Discography

;Studio albums *''All Our Tomorrows End Today 10-inch/3-inch CD'' 2004 (

Ebullition Boiling is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapour pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding atmosphere. Ther ...

) *''

Like Shadows ''Like Shadows'' is the second studio album by the American screamo band Ampere The ampere (, ; symbol: A), often shortened to amp,SI supports only the use of symbols and deprecates the use of abbreviations for units. is the unit of electr ...

'' 2011 (

) ;Splits *''Ampere/Wolves Split 7-inch'' 2003 (Moganono Records) *''Ampere/Welcome the Plague Year split 5-inch'' 2005 (Clean Plate/Turnstile) *''Ampere/Death to Tyrants/Wasteland/

split 11-inch'' 2006 (Clean Plate) *''Ampere/Sinaloa Split LP/CD'' 2006 (Ebullition) *''Ampere/Das Oath Split LP+CD'' 2006 (Self-released) *''Ampere/ Daitro Split 7-inch picture disc'' 2007 (Clean Plate/purepainsugar) *''Ampere/Ringers Split 6-inch/7-inch'' 2007 (

) *''Ampere/

Split 9-inch'' 2007 (Clean Plate/Electric Human Project) *''Ampere/

Off Minor Off Minor were an American post-hardcore band from New York City, United States. They formed in 1999 with Jamie Behar, Matt Smith, and Steven Roche, all former Saetia members. However, Smith later left and was replaced by Steven's brother Kevin ...

Split 7-inch'' 2008 (Yellow Ghost) *''Ampere/

Split 2015 ;Demo and Compilations *''Demo 7-inch/Tape'' 2002 (Self-Released) *''First Recordings 7-inch''(Contains Demo and split with Wolves) 2006 (purepainsugar) *''The First Five Years CD'' 2008 (Yellow Ghost) ;Compilation *'' Keep Singing! A Benefit Compilation for Compassion Over Killing'' 2008 (Exotic Fever Records)

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ampere Musical groups from Massachusetts American emo musical groups Musical groups established in 2002 Musical quartets American screamo musical groups 2002 establishments in Massachusetts