Straight Faced was an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band formed in

Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 duri ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, in 1992.

Origin

Straight Faced began as a

hardcore band named "Above All" in 1991. The founding members were Eric Glenn Stewart (1973–2007), Ron Moeller, Matthew Polentz, and Samuel Marrs. All members were friends who grew up together in Huntington Beach, California in the late 1980s. Stewart set them up in a warehouse in Santa Ana that his father used to run a construction business out of, and taught the other members how to play. With a handful of originals and cover songs, they played one backyard party. Shortly after the addition of Kevin Grossman as second guitar, Above All broke up due to a rift that split the band in two. At the request of Ron Moeller for his birthday, he and Grossman rented a rehearsal studio and recruited their new friend Johnny Miller to sing. The bass player for that night never showed up so they asked Jack C. Louis to fill in at the last minute. Within a few months, Eric Stewart joined the newly formed group. One week before their first show they brought Marrs in to replace Louis on bass.

Early years

Grossman dubbed the reconstituted group Straight Faced. The group played its first shows in early 1993 and quickly released ''

Self Will Run Riot The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhood ...

'', a five song 7", after being approached by Bob Becker of

Fearless Records Fearless Records is an American independent record label that was founded in 1994. Fearless is based in Culver City, California, and is best known for its early pop punk moments captured in the ''Fearless Flush Sampler'' and ''Punk Bites'' releas ...

at their second show. At this time, Stewart was asked to leave the band. He was replaced soon after by Damon Beard, who had been playing with Polentz and Louis in Adverse Reality. Straight Faced recorded their first full length, ''

Guilty Guilty or The Guilty may refer to: * Guilt (emotion), an experience that occurs when a person believes they have violated a moral standard Law *Culpability, the degree to which an agent can be held responsible for action or inaction *Guilt (law) ...

'', and released it with Lethal Records, but due to the lack of a signed contract, quickly took the recording to Bob Becker to release on Fearless. They returned to the studio to record '' Broken'' in 1996 before setting off on their first European tour, a 7-week stint opening for their friends,

Ignite To ignite is the first step of firelighting. Ignite may also refer to: Music *Ignite (band), a melodic hardcore band from Orange County, California * ''Ignite'' (Econoline Crush album), 2007 * ''Ignite'' (Shihad album), 2010 * "Ignite" (Eir Aoi s ...

Epitaph Years

After Grossman and Marrs’ departure in 1997, the group enlisted David Tonic and Kevin Norton and signed with

Epitaph Records Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most acts signed to the label were punk and pop punk acts, while there are many post-hardcore and emo bands ...

to release '' Conditioned'', their third LP. Following this, Kevin Norton left the group. Damon Beard filled in on bass until also deciding to leave the band a short time later. Beard was then ultimately replaced by Jeff Hibben. A fourth full-length, '' Pulling Teeth'', was released on Epitaph in 2000 before the group disbanded some time thereafter.

Members

*Johnny Miller - vocals (1992-2001) *Ron Moeller - drums (1992-2001) *David Tonic - guitar (1997-2001) *Jeff Hibben - bass (1998-2001) *Damon Beard - guitar (1994-1998) *Kevin Norton - bass (1997-1998) *Samuel Marrs - bass (1992-1997) *Kevin Grossman - guitar (1992-1997) *Eric Stewart - guitar (1992-1994) *Jack Louis - bass (1992)

Timeline

Discography

*''Self Will Run Riot'' 7" (

, 1992) *''Guilty'' (Original release on Lethal Records, 1994) *''

'' (Fearless Records, 1995) *'' Broken'' (Fearless Records, 1996) *''Revolve'' 7" (

Hostage Records A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or refr ...

, 1998) *'' Conditioned'' (

, 1998) *''Confidence'' 7" (

Victory Records Victory Records is a Chicago-based record label founded by Tony Brummel. It operates a music publishing company called "Another Victory, Inc." and is the distributor of several record labels. It has featured many prominent artists including Thur ...

, 1998) *'' Pulling Teeth'' (Epitaph Records, 2000)

References

External links

Straight Faced
at MySpace
Straightfaced
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Straight Faced Musical groups from Orange County, California Hardcore punk groups from California Fearless Records artists Victory Records artists