The Turnpike Hustle

The Turnpike Hustle is a band from South Jersey that plays music drawing from Electronica, Acoustic, Indie, Ghettotech, Hip Hop, Experimental, Techno, RnB and Melodic Post Hardcore influences. Their music consists of beautifully melodic, up beat, post hardcore influenced, and sometimes pop-like or build-up-ballad and anthem-esque dynamic guitar riffs and rhythms (whether electric or acoustic). They travel over and under the smooth, almost RnB-like layered vocals of Patrick and/or Dave's rapping and harmonies, speaking of life as they know it. Intertwined with the guitar rhythms, melodies, and vocal harmonies are synth-based instruments flowing in and out, left and right, adding octaves, arpeggios, smooth pad-like waves of sound, and original licks of melody in the spaces outside and in between the layers, building a larger-than-life wave of futuristic melody arrangements. All of this with nicely done and original drum loops and programming, which even in themselves range in genre from Techno to Hip Hop to Post Hardcore and beyond, with Mike setting the mood on bass, the lowest and widest wave on which these sonic melodies coast along, all adding up to a rhythm section coming up with techniques unthinkable, such as electronically looped rolling bass beats completely unexpected in electronica and most impressively using quantized drum loops and programming under bass and guitar rhythms that have the energy of being played live without a click track creating a syncopation effect, making their rhythm section another piece that is original all its own. You can let the music speak for itself, whether it be the Hip Hop-RnB-Melodic Post Hardcore infused Ghettotech hit Get Shit Done,or the Acoustica/Electronica track I Ran Like A Cheetah, they're all great.

This band is coming out of a certain period in the cycles of genres we see. From about 2000-2002, what could be considered anywhere from the 4th-6th wave of Hardcore and 3rd-4th wave of Post-Hardcore started up right where the original styles of Shai Hulud, Hopesfall, At The Drive-In, Saves The Day, Lifetime, and bands from even further branches of the genres had left us. Being in South Jersey, as far as influence, there were the right conditions to create a hot scene, which happened to be the one that Magazines and TV shows and Kids all across the country are now calling "Screamo", "Emo", "Hardcore", "Metalcore", or whatever, since all of the bands play together anyway, from pop-punk to hardcore. At that time there was that Jersey Pop-Punk/Post-Hardcore/Hardcore sound lingering from the 90's, and of course the harder stuff from New York, Pop-Punk in general, a few kids coming away from the general punk, nu-metal, pop, or whatever scenes and looking for something new. That was 2002, and by 2005 the scene was saturated although thriving which continued through 2006 until the end of that year at which point the raw energy, the main bands, and other things started going in different directions, being influenced in different ways, and some of the stages were left to the younger crowd who had brought in fashioncore and more pop-like approach to alot of the venues which supported the start-up of the scene in the first place. After watching the newest wave of a great scene go corporate in a record amount of time, alot of decent artists in the area formed different bands, went solo, started playing completely different music altogether, and most interestingly and not only in South Jersey but all over the country for the past 2 years groups (and a large amount of duos) have been picking up laptops and keyboards, using FL Studio and Adobe Audition, Drum Loops, Programming, and using these tools along with their guitars and vocals. Even this scene could go commercial quickly, but The Turnpike Hustle aren't covering hip-hop songs (although they are making them), or selling themselves as "emo" + Techno-stuff. These guys certainly have their own style.

As the bands myspace page suggests, The Turnpike Hustle has been an idea in the mind of atleast one of the members since 2005. However, officially forming and releasing their sound-appropriate-titled Debut EP, The House Party EP in 2008, the current trio consists of Patrick O'Hare on Vocals/Guitar/Laptop, Dave Nikish on Vocals/Guitar/Laptop (Both armed with FL Studio 7, Adobe Audition, other great audio apps, and who knows how many VST instruments), and Mike "Pork" Stanley on Bass/Designated Driver, says the band.

Patrick O'Hare, who seems to be more or less the frontman of the band, is also a solo artist under the name The 90's Are The New 80's, and has been known to have played in atleast 5 other bands in the South Jersey area from 2002-2008, including the more well known Post Hardcore band Veda Skyes. You can find more information on Patrick and all of his past and present music @ www.purevolume.com/the90sarethenew80s.

Of course, what you've just heard is only what us fans can officially say on the record about The Turnpike Hustle, but let Patrick and Dave tell their story, and, well….

"The TPH’s story begins back in the day in a small South Jersey town named Salem. Patrick was a mild mannered Social Worker at his local Welfare Office and Dave was a Professional Freelance Graffiti artist. They had met while playing local shows in different bands a few years earlier. They had jammed a bit and recorded a few songs together, but nothing to serious. One day during the summer of 2008 Patrick and Dave decided to drink and jam, as creative musician often do. They headed up to their favorite liquor store; Kurt’s Liquors and purchased some delightful malt liquor. When they got inside they started talking to Kumar the friendly liquor store clerk. Kumar was telling them about how a rowdy bunch of redneck nuclear power plant workers had just been in. He told them they had been drunk as hell on Nady Ice and were causing a big ruckus, when all of a sudden they heard a loud BOOM! Patrick and Dave ran outside of the store just in time to see a large mushroom cloud coming out of the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, which unfortunately was right down the street. First thing that came two their minds was “OH SHIT”, then the second thing that came to them was an intense blast of nuclear radiation. Fortunately the radiation wasn’t fatal, but as the guys got up from the blast they looked at their reflection in the window of Kurt’s (which was unexplainably and luckily left unscathed) to see they had been fused into a two head nuclear mutant! This was a total bummer at first cause Dave had major plans that night to get it in with his girl and Patrick had a totally shy bladder. They went back to Patrick’s too drink their malt liquor and decide what to do with themselves now as a two headed nuclear mutant. After the magic muse of Olde E worked its way into their newly unified blood stream, they came up with the only option they felt was left for them in this new form. They decided to start a fucking band! Word is born yo, that was the birth of The Turnpike Hustle! They started writing songs they thought reflected the new Patrick and Dave mutant. The songs were a little bit hip hop, a little bit techno, and alotta bit ROCK! They got their new songs together and started to play some shows. People were a little taken aback at first by this two headed rock and roll mutant but once they started playing their first song, the show would blow up into the craziest 1980’s dance party you ever saw! After a few shows and a couple close calls with The Fuzz, they decided to recruit their good buddy Pork to play bass and be designated driver. Pork agreed to be the bassist/designated driver only on the condition that if the band ever got famous he could use the band’s popularity to sell his own line of pornographic coloring books. They agreed to his demands and immediately started rocking shows together. These days you can catch The Turnpike Hustle melting faces raiders of the lost ark style all across the country, so be sure to keep an eye out at your local show and liquor store for them. Peace."

You can find Tour dates, photos, and other information about The Turnpike Hustle @ DudethatbandwasSick.tk & Myspace.com/theturnpikehustle.