Endpoint (band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Endpoint
Background information
Origin	Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Genre(s)	Hardcore
Years active	1988-1994
Label(s)	Slamdek, Conversion, Doghouse
Associated acts	By the Grace of God, Black Cross, D. Biddle, Guilt, The Aasee Lake, Ousia, Wino, Armbar, Redhanded, Amaroq, Erchint, 7 More Seconds
Former members
Kyle Crabtree, Rob Pennington, Rusty Sohm, Jason Graff, Lee Fetzer, Chad Castetter, Pat McClimans

For other uses of the word, see Endpoint

Endpoint was a hardcore band from Louisville, Kentucky.

Endpoint was/is/and always be one of the largest bands to have come out of Louisville. Their initial sound was developed from a more speed-orientated punk/hardcore which songs induced large sing-alongs by the audience. Eventually the bands sound transformed into a heavy independent hardcore that most people today are more accustom to.

But another thing that most people should be aware of is the hardcore movement that is still going and has been building up since the mid seventies and amounted to in the late eighties. On the west coast bands such as Black Flag and the Dead Kennedy’s that have been gaining popularity through their anarchic sense of style since the late seventies and are still moving on through the mid eighties. On the east coast, particularly in New York and Washington D.C., major influences to the entire genre are beginning to arise. In New York and areas of New Jersey, bands such as Agnostic Front, Heart Attack, and even the Beastie Boys were considered influences to many later hardcore bands.

It’s not difficult to place Endpoint in a genre because they were nothing but hardcore, but to say they sound like another band is a completely different thing. They mostly take their influences from many genres of music and mix them together and the resulting sound is Endpoint. You could say that many of their songs were musically influenced by the band Gorilla Biscuits from New York. In the case of Lyrics, most people would say are similar to bands such as Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and Regan Youth.

A considerable amount of their songs dealt with social and political issues that the band felt strongly about. Their goal was to bring forth these songs and inform fans to the gravity of these issues. Within their lyrics and the linear notes of their albums were the bands way to let people know about issues dealing with government policies and especially issues dealing with women’s rights and abuse. A t-shirt was release in 1993 that was of orange coloration, and on the front of the shirt is a white box stating the statistics of violence against women, and on the back was an outline of a woman lying face down with the bands logo. The shirt states:

Warning: Every 26 seconds a woman is beaten in the United States. This statistic is based solely on the incidents of abuse that are reported. In truth, this number may represent only one tenth of the crimes committed against women. And this number will only increase unless people speak out against these atrocities. Please take a stand and help us smash this disgusting cycle.

Prior to Endpoint, the bands original name was Deathwatch. They had only released one album which was a split 7” with another local band named Crain. In 1989 the band changed their name and with most of the original line-up, they released a short album on cassette through the Slamdek label called If The Spirits Are willing. The album consisted of seventeen songs and was recorded in three days. The band only performed twice and practically disappeared in support of the album. They wanted the fans to get hyped about the material they were producing, so when it was time to play a show they would play better than they ever had and create a larger impact on the fans.

If The Spirits Are Willing unleashes the speed and the fury of Endpoints early hardcore/punk/heavy metal blend. Later in Louisville hardcore history, bands such as Falling Forward and Enkindel would owe it all to Endpoint before defining their own sounds. At a certain it point, it’s ridiculous to imply that a certain group of Louisville bands were a certain genre. Because of the impact that Endpoint had on Louisville’s music scene, most bands in the area sounded like Endpoint.

Within a year of it’s release, If The Spirits Are Willing replaced many rivalry bands as the cornerstone of Slamdek’s mail orders and eventually sold more than any other hardcore cassette. Like any other of Slamdek’s releases, it went in and out of print constantly sometimes being unavailable for months at a time and would eventually return with completely different packaging. If The Spirits Are Willing was never carried by any national distributors like some other bands that were released through the Slamdek label. As a result, the album was essentially available only in Louisville stores, by mail order, Endpoint shows, in out of town stores that bought directly from Slamdek. Its definitive and most common version is its 1994 reissue compact disc. However, before 1994, it went through many configurations as the cassette versions. The disc contains twenty five songs, documenting Endpoint's first seventeen song cassette, their tracks from the first Endpoint/Sunspring 7", their contribution to the Christmas 1990 tape, and five of the seven songs they recorded in 1988 under the name Deathwatch.

As Slamdek was gaining popularity mostly through Louisville fans, they were greatly shadowed by the punk label Dischord. Dischord is the home of over forty bands that particularly consisted of the Washington D.C. punk community. Ian Mackaye who is also front man of the straight edge group Minor Threat made the label into the giant that it has become. The increasing strength of the label and many others around the country made the Louisville movement practically invisible to the mainstream hardcore audience.

Originally not planned as a 7" at all, Slamdek's twenty-first release marked many new beginnings. The Endpoint and Sunspring 7" where Endpoint recorded two songs in November 1990. One of them, "Promise," was for a 7" compilation, A Change For The Better, on Vicious Circle Records. The other, "Priorities", was a spare song that was recorded just because the band was in the studio. The Split 7" also created a bond between the two bands that lasted up until the two played their final shows. And in December 1993, a second split record was released. Written In Rock paid tribute to Rick Springfield who was an early inspiration for both bands.

After a bit of a line-up change and finally being able to secure a new drummer, the band released In The Time Of Hate through the Conversion label based in California. The album didn’t receive much acclaim as the previous releases or the future albums but all in all it was a very well constructed album that continued their punk/hardcore influence.

Later, the band signed to Doghouse Records, which was at the time a small independent label. After they were signed to the label, Endpoint released the monumental Catharsis album in 1992. Endpoint became one of the more popular hardcore bands on the Doghouse label and allowed the company to become what it is today. Later that same year, the band released an EP that was in many ways very similar to the popular thrash metal band Metallica’s Garage Days. Endpoint’s EP payed tribute to early punk bands such as The Misfits and Rites of Spring to emo bands such as Ian Mackaye’s (Minor Threat) Embrace.

Around this same time, the band went through a major line-up change replacing two bassists and yet again another drummer. This line-up stayed strong through 1993 with the bands ninth release Aftertaste. This particular album was not considered to be one of their greatest feats, but at the same time, showcased the bands talents with a completely different style than previous releases. This record-featured songs with much slower tempos, les streamlined song writing, less furious lyrics and even an acoustic song. This steady dissolve, if you can call it that, is most common amongst bands of the genre. Even though the band had changed their sound, their lyrics and opinions remained strongly political with continuing messages concerning women’s rights within their linear notes.

While Endpoint continued, band members became involved in many side projects. Guitarist and co-founder of Endpoint, Duncan Barlow and bassist Kyle Noltemyer became involved with a band called Step Down, which eventually became Guilt. Guilt was probably the larger of the side projects that any of the other band members became involved with. Guilt was later signed to the major label Victory that was associated with popular hardcore bands like Snapcase and Earth Crisis and recently Hawthorne Heights and Spitalfield. Drummer Pat McClimans became front man of the band Scab, later drumming for Falling Forward, and ultimately playing for another major Louisville local, Metroshifter. Metroshifter could have possibly been larger than Guilt and at one point Endpoint, but by the end of Endpoint, Metroshifter was still a major player in the Louisville scene, but could have been bigger if it weren’t for the dissolution of Endpoint.

In 1994, the band finally decided to call it quits after a seven-year career. On December 31 the band had played their last and largest show for over two thousand people. And in 1995, the band released their last record appropriately entitled The Last Record. This album, although said to be nowhere near as critical a record as was Catharsis, but is probably the most accomplished work from the band.

Duncan Barlow’s Guilt project eventually broke up and reunited with endpoint front man Rob Pennington to form another major band called By The Grace of God until the year 2000. Pat McClimans and guitarist Chad Castetter both left Metroshifter and formed and general rock band called MT Rhoades and His Lonesome Woods Band. Rob Pennington formed a band called Black Widows in 2001, which eventually changed their name to Black Cross due to copyright reasons. Black Cross was the unification of two fallen bands, By The Grace Of God and another Louisville local The National Acrobat. The appreciation of early 90’s hardcore (or DC hardcore) and association of Black Flag’s aggressive period created as what people know today as Black Cross

1 Members
2 Discography
- 2.1 Albums
- 2.2 Compilations

[edit] Members

Rob Pennington- Vocals
Duncan Barlow - Guitar
Lee Fetzer - Drums
Rusty Sohm - Drums
Chad Castetter - Guitar
Pat McClimans - Bass
Kyle Crabtree - drums
Kyle Noltemeyer - bass
Jason Graff - bass
Jason Hayden - bass
Curtis Mead - bass
Ben Clark - bass

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Crain And Deathwatch Split 7" - Slamdek
If The Spirits Are Willing - Slamdek
Endpoint and Sunspring Split 7"- Slamdek
Endpoint And Sunspring Split 7"-Written In Rock: Songs Of Rick Sprinfield - Slamdek
EP2 7" - Break Even Point
Idiots 7"/CD - Doghouse
Every 26 Seconds 7" - Doghouse
Slamdek Discography 1988-1991 - Slamdek
In a Time of Hate
Catharsis - Doghouse
After Taste - Doghouse
The Last Record