Holier Than Thou? started when Jeff & Noel (who worked at a record store together) had been jamming on some '80s hardcore song ideas and Jeff was also having nightly discussions with his housemate, d.r., about how factional hardcore had become and they would inevitably wind up asking one another, 'whatever happened to that crossover stuff from the mid-'80s, where punks and metal-heads got together and just made rad music ?

5 songs were written on the first night that these three got together to jam (2 of which were eventually scrapped). The solidification of the sound really came when Noel asked his current high school math teacher, Kevin, if he wanted to "play some rockin' jams" after school. When continuing to write songs with Kevin (more of which were sometimes scrapped) it quickly became apparent that the vibe was best when it was something like D.R.I., Corrosion of Conformity, Suicidal Tendencies, R.K.L., and Black Sabbath 33 rpm L.P.s played at 78 rpms. Plus a little Iron Maiden & very early Metallica thrown in as well.

So, the '80s hardcore inspired stuff mostly disappeared and the crossover songs remained and the sound grew from there.

Speaks :

The idea was based on the fact that every show we went to was restricted in scope and preaching to their own choir: strictly an anarcho-crust punk show, or a straight edge show, or a death metal show, or this-that-or-the-other very specific genre, with 3 or more bands that all sounded the same and sung about the same little niche of politics/themes/bullshit that represented that sub-genre's motif. We missed going to shows where you might see an Oi band, followed by a rockabilly band, followed by a metal band, etc., etc.... We also missed bands that didn't preach, but just shredded their instruments and had fun... the sort of thing that we used to ride skateboards very aggressively to when we were 14 years old. Hence, the metal crossover element very much appealed to us, as a departure from the very 'holier than thou' Goleta hardcore 'scene' (really, about 7 different groups of about 20 kids each just stroking each other off & not even interested in letting anybody new in to their exclusive little cliques). I think that it also helped that none of the band members agreed upon politics or lifestyle choices in the beginning, so the only 'platform' was to have fun.

Apparently we were feeling the same thing that many others were, around the country, and found ourselves in the beginning of a crossover revival ! We had the great fortune of Six Weeks Records' Jeff & Athena seeing us play, listening to our demo & putting us on their label; we started playing shows with bands like Municipal Waste, Dr. Know, and (our heroes) R.K.L. (Jason Sears, Bommer & Derrick Plourde R.I.P.) ! We just got lucky by being there at the right time I guess. That led to us touring the U.S. (with Annihilation Time & partially with the Waste), getting to do 2 European tours, one of which we did a lot of with M.D.C. (Mikey Offender R.I.P.). All of this while we held down day jobs back in Goleta... It was really just a hobby.

We put out 2 E.Ps, 3 L.P.s & tons of one-off kinds of things for tribute albums, benefit records, compilations... not all of which have been shown here on this site (yet... maybe I will get around to it), but after 6 years of this 'hobby' it was time for me to go back to school & start really doing what i had always dreamt of doing... So, we broke up in July of 2005, playing our last show at SoCal Fest (with our buddies, Municipal Waste), had a rad time & called it a night.

Source : drmawhinney