Joe Morrione
Regional Drumset Artist - United States
Overview
*Donotes influential regional endorserThe New Rivals are slinging pure aggressive, hard-rocking punk, and hurling beers at the tears of anyone who’s not along for the fast-paced ride.
This Long Island-bred quintet is having more fun than, well, just about any other band out there, and it shows in the hyper-energetic rhythms, raw and ragged riffs, and impassioned vocals on their brand new EP, Fire for Effect, and their forthcoming eponymous debut.
“It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, we’re always having a great time,” says frontman Toby Bevis. “It keeps us eternally young.”
Youthful energy is something this band of childhood buddies knows more than a thing or two about. The New Rivals owe their cohesive sound and enviable camaraderie to years of playing, practicing and honing their sound together.
“We have all been friends since middle school,” Bevis recalled. “Me, and guitarists Johnny [Hudson] and Kenny [Andersen] just one day decided we were going to start a band.” Adding bassist Paul 'Tito' McEvoy and drummer Joe Morrione to the mix, the band began to unearth its own brand of impossibly powerful, literate punk rock.
Fire for Effect, the EP that’s building anticipation for the band’s forthcoming full-length debut, is a four-song punk rock assault, brimming with electric energy that will leave listeners aching for more.
Opener “Hell is for Heroes,” highlights Bevis’ impassioned vocals, unleashing subtly self-deprecating lyrical punches like: “Think with your head and not with your pistol / The rain isn’t hard it’s only a drizzle / I spit in the wind and I’m wet on the face / and I’m always the last one leading the race.”
“Mudslinging” is pure hyper energy. “It’s the ‘get off your ass and move’ song,” Hudson says of the track. “It’s balls-to-the-wall.” Next up is the ska-inspired “Hold Your Head,” one of the first songs the band ever wrote, which bounces and bounds out of the speakers with irresistibly danceable beats.
“Heels to the Ceiling” is the only track on the EP that doesn’t find its way to the full-length. A straight-up rock n’ roll tune, led by a dark and dancey bass line, this track begs to be cranked to 11 in downtown dive bars.
Ready for more? Good, because you’ll need to call on your energy reserves for the unrelenting, 12-track full-length, beginning with dynamic opener “Sell Your Soul.”
Bevis credits Hudson with inspiring the hook-laden “Lexican Munch.” “Johnny likes to have fun with the women,” Bevis explained cryptically of the song that pairs peppy pop beats with melancholy lyrics about drunk musings on loneliness (“You were my lifeline, now nobody’s calling”).
“Joe’s Song,” which Bevis wrote about the passing of his mother, places the spotlight squarely on Morrione’s percussion, with drums that crescendo to an emotional chorus. “I wrote the song years ago but couldn’t get it to come together until Joe joined the band.”
Ready for a ballad? Yeah, neither are the New Rivals. Maybe that’s why the closest you’re going to get to one here is “Slow Song,” which the band insists they wrote because they needed one mellower track, or “A Love Song” which “is just about making fun of love songs,” Hudson says.
The New Rivals can’t resist a good hook and can’t wait to share their infectious enthusiasm with listeners across the globe. Having fun yet? The New Rivals are having a blast. Are you coming along for the ride?