rise against

History

In 1999, after the break up of 88 Fingers Louie, Joe Principe and Mr. Precision (ex 88FL members) formed Rise Against. They originally performed under the name Transistor Revolt, and they released a self-produced demo entitled Transistor Revolt in 2000, a year before signing with Fat Wreck Chords to release their first two albums, The Unraveling, and Revolutions Per Minute in 2001 and 2003. They later switched to Dreamworks Records and recorded their album Siren Song of the Counter Culture. However, Dreamworks Records was absorbed by the Universal Music Group and Rise Against finally found themselves on Geffen Records a Universal Music Group subsidiary, releasing Siren Song of the Counter Culture in August 2004. A re-issued version of The Unraveling was released on August 23, 2005 through Fat Wreck Chords. Their fourth album, The Sufferer & The Witness, was released on July 4, 2006, reaching #10 on the Billboard 200.

Rise Against's original lineup consisted of Tim McIlrath (vocals and guitar), Joe Principe (bass and vocals), Brandon Barnes (drums), and Mr. Precision (guitar and vocals), and recorded its debut album with renowned punk producer Mass Giorgini. Mr. Precision left the band in 2001 and was replaced by Todd Mohney. Shortly after the band signed with Geffen, Mohney left and was replaced by Chris Chasse. The move from Fat Wreck to a major label encountered disapproval and scorns from a lot of their formerly predominantly non-mainstream hardcore punk fanbase. This along with the band's departure from a raw punk sound on Revolutions Per Minute towards a more accessible, melodic and technically proficient sound on Siren Song of the Counter Culture strengthened the clarification of the band's aim to be a commercially successful outfit rather than just 'underground heroes'. Rise Against relentlessly toured the US, Europe, Australia and Japan in support of this album and it definitely served to elevate their profile to that of a more mainstream punk band such as AFI. Some of the most notable mentions include Taste of Chaos 2005 in the UK and Germany (with Funeral for a Friend, Story of the Year, the Used and Killswitch Engage), Give It A Name 05 in the UK, Reading Festival and Leeds Festival in the UK, US tour with Alkaline Trio and Warped Tour in the US.

In early 2006 they recorded two cover songs, Lifetime's "Boys No Good" and Sick of It All's "Built to Last" for tribute albums that will be released later in the year, although they have both already featured on separate versions of The Sufferer & The Witness.

Members

• Tim McIlrath - Lead Vocals/Guitar
• Chris Chasse - Guitar/Backing Vocals
• Joe Principe - Bass/Backing Vocals
• Brandon Barnes - Drums

Discography

• Transistor Revolt (demo) (2000)
• The Unraveling (2001)
• Revolutions Per Minute (2003)
• Siren Song of the Counter Culture (2004)
• The Unraveling (Reissue) (2005)
• The Sufferer & The Witness (2006)

Singles

Videography

• Heaven Knows from Revolutions Per Minute (2003)
• Give It All from Siren Song of the Counter Culture (2004)
• Swing Life Away from Siren Song of the Counter Culture (2005)
• Ready To Fall from The Sufferer & The Witness (2006)

B-Sides songs

• Join The Ranks (second version) from Fat Music Vol. 5: Live Fat, Die Young compilation (2001)
• Generation Lost from Fat Music Vol. 6: Uncontrollable Fatulence compilation (2002)
• Obstructed View from Your Scene Sucks compilation (2002) and special edition of Siren Song of the Counter Culture (2004)
• Swing Life Away (first version) from Punk Goes Acoustic compilation (2003)
• Gethsamane from OIL Chicago Punk Refined compilation (2003)
• Give It All (first version) from Rock Against Bush Vol.1 compilation (2004)
• Fix Me from the Japanese release of Siren Song of the Counter Culture (2004) and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland OST (2005)
• Nervous Breakdown from the Lords of Dogtown OST (2005)
• Obstructed (second version) from the Masters of Horror OST (2005)
• Everchanging (acoustic version) from the Warped Tour 2006 Compilation
• Built To Last from some European releases of The Sufferer & The Witness (2006)
• Boy's No Good from some European releases of The Sufferer & The Witness (2006)
• But Tonight We Dance from the LP release of The Sufferer & The Witness (2006)

Trivia

• Tim is featured on the song Denak ez du balio by the Basque Country band Berri Txarrak from the album Libre (Free) (2003)
• Tim is featured on the song Let Them Eat War on the Bad Religion's Live At The Palladium DVD.
• Tim has heterochromia and has one brown eye and one blue eye.
• Tim has a daughter named Blythe.
• Brandon has a daughter named, Stella.
• Chris Chasse's first band, Reach The Sky had Rise Against open for them, when Chris was in Reach The Sky.
• Rise Against are good friends with Canadian Post-Hardcore band Alexisonfire, the two bands have gone on tour together several times, both in Europe and in America.
• They appear in the movie Lords of Dogtown, playing a cover of early hardcore punk band Black Flag.
• Some of Rise Against's songs are featured on the soundtracks of video games:
  • "Like The Angel," from Revolutions Per Minute, is featured in Tony Hawk's Underground.
  • "Paper Wings," from Siren Song of the Counter Culture, is featured in Burnout 3.
  • "Give It All," from Siren Song of the Counter Culture, is featured in Need For Speed Underground 2, Wrestlemania 21, FlatOut 2 and MX Vs ATV Unleashed.
  • "Fix Me" is featured in Tony Hawk's American Wasteland.
  • "My Life Inside Your Heart" and "The Art of Losing" would have been featured in Propeller Arena, but the game was cancelled (despite being completed).
  • "Drones" from The Sufferer & The Witness is featured on Madden NFL 07.
• They are all vegetarian.
• All but the drummer is straight edge.
• "Last Chance Blueprint" from Revolutions Per Minute contains a quote from the movie American Beauty.
• They spent one of their day off's from Warped Tour volunteering in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina victims.
• "Like The Angel," and "Torches" from Revolutions Per Minute are featured in the mountain biking film The Collective.

External links

• Rise Against Website (Flash)
• RSS Feed - official site feed
• Rise Against on Purevolume
• Rise Against on Myspace
• Rise Against on Geffen Records - page on label site
• Ready To Fall (video)
• Fat Wreck Chords
• Interview from Alternative Press 195 (2004)