US - Bucks County, PA

Yo, this is Mitch Koehler, AKA Rich Roller, and I am the vocalist of Carried Away, a metallic hardcore band from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I want to shine some light on the state of hardcore and punk music from Pennsylvania – mainly Bucks County and beyond, because the bands deserve it.  

(co-produced, mixed and mastered by Alex Kopertowski)

Right now, the bands I know of and support are my ex-roommate’s new band, On Patrol (ex. Mishap) and their Cesspool Collective crew, who put in a lot of time promoting awesome DIY shows and benefits for local friends. 

Uzi Kids are another band I’ve heard good things about. I saw they're opening for Blistered and Malice at The Palace coming up August 3^rd, and more recently, The Barbary show in Philadelphia a few weeks ago with Jesus Piece. It’s pretty cool hearing what young bands have to offer. 

Timebomb is another Philly/Jersey band from around here, I think they’re out on Harvcore Recs, and I know they’ve played This is Hardcore a couple times…So if you’re going to TIH festival this summer, I’d suggest catching their set. I like their drummer’s chops a lot!

We used to have bands like Wrong Answer from our area, but they are no more as far as I know. I’m real lucky because I got to play bass for WA’s second to last show at the American Legion hall in Willow Grove last year. It was sick, I hopped right up for “Struggler” and even though I kind of fucked up the ending of the song, it was awesome to play in front of 100+ people in one of my favorite bands. Definitely went out strong. 

Outside of Bucks County/Philadelphia was a band called Sawed Off (also on Harvcore). I used to love whatever they’d put out, so I’m thinking of putting together a Tourette Benefit show around this area (because I have a complicated case of Tourette Syndrome) and getting Sawed Off to play a reunion set. That would be cool. 

Wrath&Ruin are another friggin’ heavy band from PA and I respect their style. My boy Dylan Tasch recorded their most recent EP as well as On Patrol’s 2016 demo. Wrath & Ruin also has members from the goliath hardcore act, Agitator, who I had the fortune of seeing back in 2010 w/ Title Fight, Wolfblood, Accident Prone, and Mother of Mercy. All great bands, and I’d be happy to put on a benefit show for half of these bands with Carried Away.  Hopefully the DIY Tourette Benefit show works out this fall, because we’ll promote the hell out it and get all our friends out.

All Tic'd Out is a Tourette Benefit comp featuring DIY punk/hardcore bands around the world. All proceeds go to our Tourette Association chapter of Eastern PA, which benefits research and TS awareness.

Before I forget, Scuzbot from Bucks County (Bensalem) Pennsylvania, have a new record coming out, and a single you can stream. Unfortunately, I no longer play bass in the scuz, but the band is still going strong and so I wish them nothing but success in their coming shows, record releases etc. Scuzbot has always been this sorta underground band people know about, but it’s amazing because we were never actually a touring band or anything like that. But anyway, the new album rules. Go check it out!

I’d also like to give a shout out to GoodTimes from the Jersey Shore, as they have a full length LP coming out this year, and it’s going to kick ass. 

Vengeance is another awesome band from New Jersey featuring members of Underdog, Blacklisted and the legendary Floorpunch. Their music can be streamed as well through Six Feet Under Records.

There’re probably 20 other bands I could think of, but for me these are bands that have stood out to me this past year. PAHC forever.