Fitness, by Northeast Regional

Fitness

by Northeast Regional

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phyl14 good job for your 7" boys. Cheers from France.

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200 copies made. Tor Johnson Records. Released in February 2024.

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1.	Agencies 02:14	buy track
2.	Isometrics 02:41	buy track
3.	The Timekeepers 03:22	buy track

about

FFO: The Hives, Meat Wave, Drug Church, Spiritual Cramp, Squint, Strange Joy, beating a riff into the ground, counting Soundgarden time signatures at the gym

Northeast Regional, the power-punk band from Richmond, VA return with a fierce new three-song EP, Fitness.

Off the back of last year’s flooring debut album, Brand Managers of the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast Regional bring a leaner, meaner sound to Fitness.

“We tuned our guitars down for this record,” says guitarist/vocalist Jeff Byers. “I listened to a lot of Oasis and Superdrag while we wrote this. It does not sound like Oasis or Superdrag.”

Leveling up from a solo project to a full-blown band, Fitness benefits from writing as a group and actually playing a couple of live shows before recording (for Brand Managers, the band had never played a show before recording sessions began).

The songs on Fitness build on Lungfish’s “less is more” songwriting approach but increase the BPMs. In lieu of hypnotic arpeggios, the three-guitar attack from Byers, Mike Morris and James Doubek echoes Rocket From the Crypt’s hefty rock riffs, Party of Helicopters’ metallic leads, The Hives’ hyper punk energy, Meneguar’s sense of melody, and even elements of Danzig all to coalesce into a colossal wall of sound.

With the rhythm section of Tyler Worley and Zach Nelson holding down a groove amidst the feedback, Northeast Regional holds the listener in a vice grip. Fitness, appropriately, is a showcase of a noisy punk band locking in and never letting up.

The title alludes not just to the playlist-ready nature of the songs for your next HIIT session but also the lyrics, which explore the idea of being fit for society through expectations and rules — explicit or unwritten — among communities.

“I don't know, I may have watched too much Survivor in the past couple of years,” says Byers.

Lead single “Agencies” deals with Byers’ complicated relationship with media and the nature of money/venture capital in the space. While written in 2022 and recorded in early 2023, the song is a bit prescient given recent news of recent layoffs across the industry.

“Media can be a cold industry. It’s nothing new to say but you’re renting space on a lot of digital platforms for your creative endeavors but no one is owed use of any tech platform,” says Byers. “Many people’s work can disappear overnight and the people running these platforms don’t care about your three-song vanity hardcore release on a semi-dated medium. It can be a tough pill to swallow when you put a lot of yourself into a project.

“The song also touches on how money influences a lot of media narratives which get filtered out through various publications and podcasts. So, it’s about media agencies controlling narratives but also the agencies of people creating content, dare I say, ‘under capitalism.’”

The artwork was created by Chris Taylor (pageninetynine, Portrayal of Guilt).

Despite the namechecked bands, Fitness is not a throwback. It’s a soundtrack for a moment of modern living, complete with mass layoffs, polarization, economic uncertainty, and going against the grain of an “always on” culture.

credits

released February 9, 2024

Jeff Byers - Vox/Guitar
Mike Morris - Guitar
James Doubek - Guitar
Tyler Worley - Bass
Zach Nelson - Drums

Recorded by Pedro Aida at Audio Vérité in Richmond, VA in February 2023.

Mastered by Brad Boatwright at AudioSiege.

Artwork: Chris Taylor

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about

Northeast Regional Richmond, Virginia

As with many defense contracts and journalism careers, Northeast Regional began in the northwest quadrant of Washington, DC and ended in a satellite city.

Power pop, post-hardcore, feedback, catchy choruses & meditative dirges.

FFO Militarie Gun, Timeshares, Fiddlehead, & Superchunk, guitar-rock ... more

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