Title Fight
The Last Thing You Forget 7-inch / CD (Run For Cover)
Release Date: June 23, 2009
1. Symmetry (mp3)
2. Introvert
3. No One Stays At the Top Forever
4. Memorial Field
5. Loud and Clear (mp3)
6. Youreyeah
7. Room 200
8. Evander
9. Anaconda Sniper
10. Goldwaite
11. Neckdeep
12. Western Haikus
It has been more than a year since we last heard any recorded material from Pennsylvania’s Title Fight as they cranked out three quick blasts of lightning-hot, hardcore-tinged pop punk on the 2008 Kingston 7-inch. Still, our small town East Coast heroes have been busy, touring and playing shows with the likes of Paint It Black, Fireworks, Transit, This Time Next Year, Make Do And Mend and Crime in Stereo, while also finding the time to record four brand new songs with hardcore super-producer Jay Maas (Verse, Soul Control, Transit, Shipwreck, Cruel Hand). In addition, they’ve signed with up-and-coming punk label, Run For Cover, the very imprint that is responsible for the awesome record you now hold in your hands.
Here’s the deal: The Last Thing You Forget is available as a three-song 7-inch or a twelve-song CD (what the what?). It’s really not that difficult. The vinyl version contains three of the previously mentioned new songs. The CD also features these tracks. However, it boasts an exclusive fourth new track as well as everything the band has recorded prior to The Last Thing, including Kingston and five songs from a 2007 split with The Erection Kids.
Let’s focus on the 7-inch first. This energy-packed slab of wax begins with a hailstorm of blazing riffs, double time rhythms and throat-shredding vocals. While the core of Title Fight’s signature sound still remains – unexpected tempo changes, chugging guitars, rapid-fire drums, infectious vocal tradeoffs and catchy-as-all-hell melodies – the band brings an added sense of purpose and urgency, not to mention a better understanding of the dynamics between its members.
The opener, “Symmetry,” is the grittiest, most open-throttle song that Title Fight has ever written…but it’s also the most cohesive and vibrant. “Introvert” continues the full-bore sonic attack before switching gears for a swirling, menacing instrumental storm with far-away vocals. The 7-inch’s closer, “No One Stays At The Top Forever,” is a bit of a departure, beginning with its predecessor’s slow, foreboding tone and the most raw, hardcore intro the band has ever attempted. It briefly kicks into familiar territory with a catchy outburst, but not before reverting back into harsher mid-tempo territory.
As previously mentioned, the CD version of The Last Thing Your Forget contains these three new barn-burners, the exclusive “Western Haikus,” plus all the band’s older material. While Title Fight’s five songs from the split with The Erection Kids are nowhere near where the band is now musically, shades of Lifetime, The Movielife, early Saves The Day and even Weston shine through brightly. Plus, there are plenty of catchy choruses, pounding rhythms and driving riffs to inspire numerous jump-around-and-dance moments. Considering 3/4 of the band was 16 at the time, it shows a ton of promise.
Kingston definitely made good on that promise, and while the three songs aren’t quite on par with the excellent new recordings, they showcase a rapidly improving quartet with an impressive array of rugged melodies, unforgettable choruses and top-notch songwriting chops. Utilizing some real moments of restraint and quickly shifting dynamics, it showed that Title Fight was ready to stake their claim on the punk and hardcore scenes with a ton of enthusiasm and no shortage of knockout hooks.
All in all, The Last Thing You Forget is a terrific document of where Title Fight has been and more importantly, where they’re going. It’s an essential release for lovers of anything punk as the band’s sound touches on 90′s emotional punk to explosive hardcore to pop punk and just about everything in between.
The Last Thing You Forget (tracks 1-3, 12) was recorded by Jay Maas at The Getaway Group in Wakefield, MA. Both Kingston (4-6) and and the split tracks (7-11) were recorded by Joe Loftus at JL Studios in Wyoming, PA. Run For Cover will be releasing the record on Jun 23, 2009. For more information, go to www.myspace.com/titlefight or www.runforcoverrecords.com
Press Contact: Chuck Daley / Beartrap PR / chuck@beartrappr.com / (704) 649-7128
