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Standout Track: No. 2, “Cinder Machine,” from the band’s forthcoming 7-inch, starts unalarmingly enough, with a solitary guitar. But that doesn’t last. In come the chugging rhythms, distortion, and raw screams—all clocking in at just over two minutes. Regents is made up of post-hardcore veterans, and its material doesn’t stray far from the members’ previous bands, which include Frodus and Sleepytime Trio. “It’s not a matter of differentiating ourselves from what we’ve done or used to do,” says drummer and Mount Pleasant resident Jason Hamacher. “It’s just doing what we do—not much thought or planning goes into the music that comes out of it.”
Musical Motivation: Vocalist David NeSmith penned the song’s lyrics about his Baltimore home, but he’s moving to Tuscaloosa, Ala. “He’ll fly back to practice and play shows every month or six weeks,” says Hamacher. Though the band plays with fiery precision, there isn’t much pressure behind it. “No one’s out to change the world. It’s to have fun and to still have songs that mean something to us,” he says.
Communication Breakdown: Initially, the band was a keytar-and-drums duo called Regions that “sounded like Kraftwerk meets Led Zeppelin,” but it grew into a more traditional four-piece with Drew Ringo and Dan Evans. “We slowly put it together,” says Hamacher. “Those first four songs took a year and a half to write.” But it wasn’t just the music that took a while to figure out. “It wasn’t until we wrote the band name down that we found out Drew misunderstood the name Regions the whole time. He said, ‘What? Regions? I thought it was Regents.’”