Karate

See all 14 pictures

Play Radio

Listen to Karate Radio, featuring artists like Geoff Farina, Glorytellers, The Secret Stars, The Van Pelt and more…

• 
  Search on Spotify

  Yes, it scrobbles! Learn more

1,703,607 plays (44,241 listeners)
In your library (0 plays)

Shop now at Amazon | Send Karate Ringtones to Cell

More options

• Download
• Amazon
• Send Ringtones to Cell
• Tonefuse Search

Add to my Library

Boston, United States (1993 – 2005)

In 2005 Karate announced their demise, quietly closing the door on a 12-year run that included 6 studio albums and almost 700 performances in 20 countries. They exited the indie rock world without much fanfare, except from the small enclaves of devout fans who have followed their music since Geoff Farina’s early 90’s work with The Secret Stars. The band’s beginnings in the early-90’s Boston indie scene, their love for improvised music and classic rock, and their adherence to the DIY punk ethos of their youth made them freaks in any scene, defying classification with their strange fusion of punk, blues, jazz and rock.

The band was formed in 1993 by Geoff Farina, Eamonn Vitt and Gavin McCarthy. In 1995, Jeff Goddard joined the band as bass player, and Vitt moved to second guitar. Vitt departed Karate to pursue a medical career in 1997.

Karate’s perfectionism and attention to detail belied the off-the-cuff ethos of the indie rock world, and some considered them to be as un-punk as it gets. But fans would say that their auto-didactic music studies, compulsive control of their song arrangements, ascetic studio values, and Geoff’s work modifying old tube amplifiers and creating original album artwork, was pure DIY. Karate was even compulsive about naming this recording, which was originally called “594” since it was believed to be a recording of their 594th show, according to “The Showlist.” Culled mostly from Jeff Goddard’s elephantine memory, The Showlist is a mammoth list of Karate’s 695 shows, complete with dates, venues, support bands, and even the specific tour vehicle used to get to each show.

Read more… Edit

Popular tags: indie, indie rock, post-rock, jazz, rock  See more

Shouts: 212 shouts

Share this artist:

• Send
• Tweet

Top Albums

• Unsolved
  Karate

  Buy

  • Download Album
  • Amazon MP3 $6.99
  • 7digital Search
  • iTunes $9.99
  • Buy Album
  • Amazon $8.94
  • eBay Search
• Pockets
  Karate

  Buy

  • Download Album
  • Amazon MP3 $6.99
  • 7digital Search
  • iTunes $7.92
  • Buy Album
  • Amazon $12.24
  • eBay Search
• The Bed Is in the Ocean
  Karate

  Buy

  • Download Album
  • Amazon MP3 $7.99
  • 7digital Search
  • iTunes $8.91
  • Buy Album
  • Amazon $5.98
  • eBay Search
• Some Boots
  Karate

  Buy

  • Download Album
  • Amazon MP3 $7.99
  • 7digital Search
  • iTunes $8.91
  • Buy Album
  • Amazon $15.69
  • eBay Search

Top Tracks

• Last Week
• Last 6 months

1		Sever			128
2		The Roots and the Ruins			125
3		Number Six			92
4		There Are Ghosts			84
4		One Less Blues			84
6		This Day Next Year			83
7		Small Fires			76
7		The Halo of the Strange			76
9		The Angels Just Have to Show			75
10		The Lived-But-Yet-Named			74
10		Airport			74
12		Original Spies			70
13		Water			62
13		With Age			62
15		In Hundreds			59

Buy all tracks at Amazon MP3

See more