Karate High School

Like most young bands, Karate High School went through some lineup changes early on in their life, finally solidifying in July 2004 around Paul McGuire (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Gabe Ausiello (guitar), Ray Bautista (keyboards), Dan Kingdon (bass), and Danny Glaspy (drums). The Bay Area outfit offered up an aggressive blend of poppy punk, hyper post-hardcore, and eight-bit blips, becoming the chief purveyors of the self-termed Arcade Edge (aXe) movement (which included, um, them). Their love of all things video game carried over into their overly caffeinated debut, Arcade Rock, produced by McGuire in his studio apartment and issued in March 2006 via EVO Recordings. Dates throughout the year with bands like Tub Ring, Four Letter Lie, On the Last Day, and Cute Is What We Aim For kept the guys busy and their fans happy, and helped to spread the Karate High love. ~ Corey Apar