The Cost was a

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

band active between 1999 and 2003. They released an album, ''Chimera'' (2002), on Lookout! Records, an EP on

New Disorder Records New Disorder Records is an independent record label based in San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of N ...

, a split 7-inch with Canadian punk band

d.b.s. d.b.s. were a punk rock band from North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. From their beginnings in 1992 to their eventual breakup in 2001, they gained popularity in the Canadian punk rock scene, and to a lesser extent, the U.S. punk rock s ...

, and were featured on several compilations over the years. They toured extensively on the west coast, mainly in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

, and also across the United States. The Cost played their last show at

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

's 924 Gilman Street, the venue they called home, on July 5, 2003. Members of The Cost later played in

Communique A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...

and Middle-Aged Queers. Guitarist Sean McArdle went on to record and release solo material.

History

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

natives and childhood friends Stephen Loewinsohn and Shaun Osburn met Michael Hoffman in middle school. The three of them began playing together in various bands in the early 1990s before adding vocalist Laird Rickard and performing as The Cost for the first time on New Year's Eve 1999. Later that year, the band released an eight-song EP that was recorded live over two days. In a review of the EP, music writer Mike DaRonco of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

said the Cost "capture this really dark, chaotic sound with the accompaniment of tribal beats and gruff vocals that sounds as if the singers reready to heave any second." Rickard left the band in 2000 and was replaced by Sean McArdle. Two years later, the band released their only full-length studio album, ''Chimera'', on Lookout! Records. Allmusic's Erik Hage called the album a "tightly played and aggressive effort that succeeds most when it steers clear of the doomier, sludgy moments."

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

's Brendan Reid, in a mixed review of the album, criticized the band's

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

and

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

changes and complimented the album's "more straightforward rock tracks ('Hated Man') and the ones that sustain the quiet side of the dynamics see-saw ('Symptomatic')," where, Reid described, "the band's anger actually sounds like something more than Drive Like Jehu on autopilot."

Members

* Stephen Loewinsohn - Vocals, Guitar * Shaun Osburn - Bass, Vocals * Michael Hoffman - Drums *

Sean McArdle Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angliciz ...

- Baritone Guitars, Vocals (2000–2003) * Laird Rickard - Vocals (1999–2000)

Discography

7-inch singles and EPs

*''Split with d.b.s.'' (1999, Sellout Records) *''El Sueno De La Razon Produce Monstrous'' (New Disorder Records, Bad Monkey Records, 1999)

Full-length albums

*''Chimera'' (Lookout!, 2002)

Compilation appearances

*''A Little Something For Everyone'' (New Disorder, 2000) *''Another Juan Rides The Bus'' (Stickrod Tapes, 2000) *''New Disorder Soda'' (New Disorder, 2001) *''Lookout! Freakout episode 3'' (Lookout!, 2002)

References

External links

The Cost's page at Lookout RecordsThe Cost on Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cost, The Punk rock groups from California Musical groups established in 1999 Musical groups disestablished in 2003 1999 establishments in California