Karate is an American band, formed in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

in 1993 by Geoff Farina, Eamonn Vitt and Gavin McCarthy, with Jeff Goddard joining in 1995. The band split up in 2005 before reuniting in 2022. The band is characterized by fusion of

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

emo Emo is a rock music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of and hardcore punk from the Washington D.C. hardcore punk scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore and pioneered b ...

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, with the jazz influence becoming more dominant in later releases.

History

In 1993, Karate was formed by Geoff Farina (vocals, guitar), Eamonn Vitt (bass) and Gavin McCarthy (drums). In 1995, Jeff Goddard joined the band as bass player, and Vitt moved to second guitar. Previously in 1988, after moving to Chicago, Goddard had form the band Jones Very, with

Vic Bondi Vic Bondi is an American singer-songwriter and one of the founding members of political Chicago hardcore punk band Articles of Faith. He went on to form Alloy, and Jones Very after AoF's demise. At the time of AoF's original breakup Bondi was wo ...

and Jamie Van Bramer. Vitt departed Karate to pursue a medical career in 1997. Their music was primarily released on

Southern Records Founded 1992 by John Loder, Southern Records is an independent record label (Loder also ran the recording facility Southern Studios). It is based in London and until 2008 had offices in the United States, France and Berlin. The label is closel ...

Break-up

Farina developed hearing problems due to twelve years of performance with Karate and was forced to disband the group in July 2005. Disbanding with fanfare the group had recorded six studio albums and had almost seven hundred performances in twenty countries. Their final show was played in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, on July 10, 2005.

Post break-up

In 2007, the former band members decided to release the live album ''595''. It is a recording of the bands 595th performance on May 5 at Stuk, Leuven, Belgium. Sent to them by a sound technician, Karate were so astonished by the quality they decided to release it as an official live album. Karate's perfectionism and attention to detail is well known among the music scene; which played a part in the naming of ''595''. It was originally to be called ''594''. However, McCarthy discovered a flyer for a forgotten early show, so the band quickly changed the title to ''595''. In 2005, Goddard played bass on the Chris Brokaw album Incredible Love. Farina has developed a solo career, releasing three albums and a number of EPs. He has worked with

Chris Brokaw Chris Brokaw (born August 1, 1964) is an American musician, best known for his work with the bands Come and Codeine. Life and career While studying at Oberlin College, Brokaw met many people who became figures on the American indie rock scen ...

, releasing work as ''Geoff Farina & Chris Brokaw''. McCarthy has been part of a number of bands including E which released albums in 2016 and 2018. In 2021,

The Numero Group The Numero Group is an archival record label that creates compilations of previously released music, reissues original albums, and creates album reconstructions from a variety of musical genres. The label, known as Numero, was founded in 2003 b ...

, digitally reissued the band's first two albums and first single. In 2022,

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...

reported that the band would be reuniting for their first live tour in 17 years.} It was announced in November that the band would play

Primavera Sound Primavera Sound (commonly referred to as simply Primavera) is an annual music festival held in Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona, Spain that takes place between the end of May and beginning of June. The first edition took place in 2001 in Poble Espanyo ...

festival in 2023.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Karate'' LP/ CD (

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18534) * ''In Place of Real Insight'' LP/CD ( 1997, Southern Records 18543) * ''The Bed is in the Ocean'' LP/CD ( 1998, Southern Records 18554) * ''Unsolved'' CD/ 2×LP (October

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

/March 2001, Southern Records 18584) * ''Some Boots'' LP/CD (October 2002, Southern Records 18599) * ''Pockets'' CD/LP (August 2004, Southern Records 28114)

Live albums

* ''595'' CD/ 2×LP (October 2007, Southern Records)

EPs and 7-inch records

* ''Death Kit/Nerve''

7-inch In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separat ...

single (

, The Self Starter Foundation PSP1) * ''Karate/The Lune''

split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...

7-inch with The Lune ( 1996, Lonesone Pine Records LPR1) **song – "The Schwinn" * ''The Crownhate Ruin/Karate'' split 7-inch with The Crownhate Ruin ( 1996, Art Monk Construction ART11) **song – "Cherry Coke" * ''Operation: Sand/Empty There'' ( 1997, Southern Records 18553) * ''Cancel/Sing'' EP CD ( 2001, Southern Records 18594) * ''Concerto al Barchessone Vecchio'' EP ( 2003, Fooltrib

FT02) * ''In the Fishtank 12'' EP (February 2005 in music, 2005, Konkurrent Records –

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)

References

External links

Geoff Farina
s official website
Gavin McCarthy
s official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Karate American post-rock groups Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts Musical groups from Boston Musical groups established in 1993 1993 establishments in Massachusetts