Biography
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Members
- Charlie Sexton (1990 – present)
- Chris Layton (1990 – present)
- Doyle Bramhall II (1990 – present)
- Mark Newmark (2009 – present)
- Tommy Shannon (1990 – 1993)
There are 2 bands by this name.
1: Heavily influenced by 90’s and early 00’s post-hardcore with mathy, spacey and noisy rock tendencies, Los Angeles based band ARC ANGLES just dropped the first single “Hammerhead” from their upcoming EP “Daisy”, mixed by the legendary J. Robbins from Jawbox/Burning Airlines/Government Issue, etc. Today we’re stoked to give you the official premiere of the music video for this wild barnburner of a track, taking its musical inspiration from the post-hardcore greats of the golden eras for post hardcore, embellishing Refused and Quicksand’s strangulated guitars and massive dynamic shifts and the more ragged, eccentric edges of Glassjaw, Drive Like Jehu, Every Time I Die, and At the Drive-In.
The band returned to the studio with producer/engineer, Christopher Dwyer (also from the bands Entry & Ghost Idols), who was also behind the board for their bombastic 2021 debut record, “Apocalisp”. The band was also beyond excited to be able to enlist the legendary J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels) to mix the EP. Robbins’ work on multiple seminal rock records that have been fundamental influences on Arc Angles’ sound made him a natural choice to accentuate the frenetic energy the trio brought to the songs.
The band cites the combination of working with Dwyer to refine the songs and capture raw, energetic performances, paired with Robbins’ unique ability to bring out huge, punchy warm tones balanced with articulate clarity and crispness, to produce a collection of songs that brings a ferocious assault of spacy/mathy riffs and rhythms, melodic sensibilities and urgent vocals.
“𝐻𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑” 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑟 𝑟𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑙𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑚, 𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑚, 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡.
2: A short-lived affair with ties to some of the biggest southern rock bands, one album of bluesy and gritty AOR was, until recently, all that would be left behind from the Arc Angels.
The band formed in Austin,Texas around Charlie Sexton (vocals/ guitar), Doyle Bramhall II (vocals/guitar), Tommy Shannon (bass) and Chris Layton (drums). Previously Sexton had a mildly successful solo career that peaked in 1985 with the song "Beat's So Lonely" while Bramhall, the son of Lightning Hopkins drummer and Stevie Ray Vaughan collaborator Doyle Bramhall, was a seasoned musician himself working with bands such as the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Shannon and Layton were the rhythm section for Stevie Ray Vaughan's Double Trouble and a song on Arc Angels debut was dedicated to Vaughan, who died in a helicopter crash in 1990.
Their one and only album to date garnered rave reviews, and even managed to hit #127 on the Billboard charts. After the tour the band went their separate ways (due in part to Bramhall's drug addiction) and Sexton and Bramhall resumed solo careers. Doyle Bramhall II recorded many outstanding solo albums, played for Roger Waters on the In The Flesh tour and most recently was Eric Clapton's guitarist.
After playing together periodically since their breakup, the newly reformed band (sans Tommy Shannon) plans to release a DVD in 2009, tour extensively – including two appearances at the 2009 Austin South By Southwest music festival and a short stint with Eric Clapton in England – and start work in its first album in 17 years.
Bramhall says the DVD, which includes concert footage shot in 2005 during concerts at Stubb's and Antone's in Austin as well as a documentary, will offer a frank look at Arc Angels rise, fall and rebirth. "It just sort of blew up very quickly," he explains. "We were having a lot of success rapidly, and there was a lot of stress created by that. And I was at the time very into self-sabotage, so it was sort of doomed from the beginning, unfortunately."
"We're going to write as much as we can…over the next four, five months and see what we have at the end of the summer," Bramhall says. "We're all really happy. There's not that many opportunities in bands to get that kind of second chance to actually see it through, 'cause most people don't get along by this point. We've all become really great friends and just want to go out and tour and see where we can take this."
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