One of the local front for me here in the City of Angels, Start Today has been helping keep LAHC on the map since dropping their 357 Demo late last year. If you crave straight-up, punchy hardcore, you can't go wrong with this young outfit.
"Most of us have all played in more metal-leaning bands before Start Today but last summer we all got together to jam a Youth Crew-inspired band," the Start Today crew wrote me via email. "We played our first show at the end of last summer and a few months later released our first demo."
From the band name to their stylistic direction, Start Today are clearly following a specific path.
"In terms of instrumentals, we all take inspiration from late '90s bands like Ten Yard Fight and Floorpunch as well as '00s bands like Carry On, and other Bridge Nine releases from that era. We also take some inspiration from a lot of bands from the Lockin' Out era of the early '00s. As far as lyrics, the inspiration comes from that same era of hardcore as well as personal experience."
As promising as their demo was, Start Today's self-titled debut EP from this past spring is even stronger. "As far as difference in sound from the demo to the EP, we tried to make something that we would all listen to, dance to, and sing along to., which is a really simple answer but genuinely what we were thinking about while writing it."
The Start Today EP was released by none other than Rebirth Records, a hardcore label owned and operated by Bob Wilson, a champion for hardcore and its community. The label has been on an impressive run with titles by Terminator, Wits End, and Bulls Shit in the last few months alone.
"When making the demo, we were conflicted on what label would fit best to our band, and we couldn’t decide until me and Tate saw the band Our Fight in Simi valley and saw they were on Rebirth Records and we realized that Rebirth was the perfect fit for us. Bob was super down to put the ep out. Bob has also been helping us book our US tour and been super cool about setting the whole thing up."
Yes, as mentioned above, Start Today have not only been playing steadily around the Southern California region, they're currently on a US tour with Stand Tall, another newer California band (Bay Area to be more specific) you should take note of. "Stand Tall are some of our close friends of ours and we all got along super well from the day we met just off the fact we were young kids making similar music that we wanted to hear."
I cover all kinds of styles of hardcore on No Echo, but I have to say that I appreciate it when younger bands choose the rapid-driven tempos Start Today favor. When asked about other current bands they bust out in their van, here's what Start Today offered up: "Our Fight, Eliminators, Everyone Takes One, Who Remembers, Steamroll, Cannonball, Wrecking Unit, Enkased, Staple, Far Away, The Difference, Fight Back, With Hate, Quick to Judge, and Smack are all dope."
Before our exchange ended, I had to ask Start Today the million-dollar question: Have they heard from Walter or Civ yet? "I actually talked to Walter at For the Children fest and he definitely thought it was funny that we named our band after a record he wrote, but I only spoke to him briefly. [Laughs] Hopefully, there will be a Gorilla Biscuits and Start Today show in the future."
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The Start Today EP is available on vinyl and CD via Rebirth Records.
Start Today on social media: Instagram
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