| First show: | 02.07.98 | at | 205 Kent Street | with | kojak, three studies for a crucifixion, exhume (blacksburg), and sno monkey plum |
| Last show: | 11.06.99 | at | The Solar Haus | with | bloodjinn, codeseven, and azazel |
| Reunion show: | 02.05.00 | at | The Solar Haus | with | looks like rain and red angel dragnet |
| About Us |
|
Seven Ages was a hardcore band from Blacksburg, VA. We formed in the late fall of 1997 and played our first show that February. Our sound could probably be described along the lines of metal-influenced, new-school hardcore. We had two vocalists: one with a deep growl and the other with a high shriek. In the two and a half or so years that we existed we managed to record four (three and a half?) times, play countless shows, go through several lineup changes, convice our bassist to buy a trailer for our stuff (thank you, Andy), and become one of the farther reaching Blacksburg bands that we know of. We played our fair share of out of town shows, going as far North as Baltimore, MD, as far South as Greenville, NC, as far East as Richmond, VA, and as far West as Charleston, WV. It's not like we did a US tour or anything, but what we did do was fun as hell. We were actually planning on going on an east-coast tour during the spring of 1999 but one of our singers (me, actually) came down with mono the week before we were planning to leave. I (Mike Murphy) initially set up this web page the day after our first show in a fit of excitement over actually being in a band. I always had trouble remembering to keep it up to date, and now after over a year of neglect, I've decided to clean up the site with one last update and leave it as a quick summary of who we were, so anyone who's curious can hear what we sounded like, and to let prospective Virginia Tech students know that yes, there is an independent music scene in Blacksburg. |
| Members | ||
| Brian Bonner | Guitar | Brian played guitar with us from the very beginning. He was also in Ramona Forever and Horror Business, and I hear that he, Andy, and Mike Lang are currently starting a new band. |
| Andy Buckalew | Bass | Andy was always up and ready to drive anywhere to play, and that's good because he had to drive every time since it was his trailer. He was also in Ramona Forever and Horror Businiess. |
| Kevin Cannon | Guitar | Kevin joined the band after Mike Lang left. He went on to play guitar for Paint the Silent Sky, and is now in Avulsion. |
| Paul Demshur | Drums | Paul was the drummer for Ramona Forever. He picked up the drums after Bryan Flowers graduated and moved to Baltimore. He's currently one of the residents of the Solar Haus and is drumming for Willhold. |
| Bryan Flowers | Drums | Bryan was our original drummer, and a resident of the Solar Haus. He handled the vast majority of our booking and kept us motivated. We had trouble staying organized after he graduated. He is currently living in Baltimore, MD and drumming for Looks Like Rain. |
| Mike Lang | Guitar, Vocals | When Andy, Brian, and Bryan first got together they planned on starting an emo band, but they turned hardcore after bringing Mike to practice. He played guitar for a couple months and then left and started Ramona Forever. We got him back much later, though; he took over on vocals after Jason left. He also played bass for Hajra. |
| Jason Lepore | Vocals | Jason was brought into the band to offset my monotonous growl with his astoundingly high-pitched shreik. We may never know how he managed to sing like that. Jason has returned to his first love, the bass guitar, and is playing for a pop-punk band by the name of Donkey Punch. |
| Mike Murphy | Vocals | Me, I'm the guy that did the growling, and as you can probably guess from the fact that this is written in the first person, I'm also the maintainer this web page. These days I'm singing for Willhold. |
| Recordings (I am trying to figure out a way to get around that annoying download page tripod makes you go through to get the mp3s... you can wait till then, or you can take your chances now. It's your call.) |
|
Our first recording, Spring 1998
(Bonner, Buckalew, Flowers, Lang, Lepore, Murphy) After we had a few songs written we decided to record them so our friends could listen to us and sing along at shows if they wanted to. We recorded three songs with our friend Jimbob on his four-track and distributed them by taping over a bunch of Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band promo singles that we grabbed out of the freebie bin at Record Exchange.
This is the result of our first time in a studio. We recorded from 8pm to 4am one night at Salamone's in Fredricksburg, VA with half us falling asleep. Looking back, we're pretty much ashamed of this one.
Recorded at Southwest Studios in Roanoke, VA with Chuck Crush. We put this out ourselves using the few CD-writers that we could get our hands on (not that many people had them back then).
We wrote this song after being asked to be on a comp of East coast hardcore bands. We all took a long weekend in July and came back to Blacksburg from our respective hometowns to write and record the song that would represent our new lineup on the comp. We wrote it in one day and recorded it the next at Southwest Studios with Chuck Crush. Unfortunately, the comp never came out, but now you can get a copy of the song right here if you want it.
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| Pictures | ||
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| Unfortunately, knowledge of who took which of these pictures was lost a long time ago. If you took one of these pictures, please email me so I can give you the proper credit. | ||
| Blacksburg Links (Unfortunately, most of the bands linked here have broken up. Many a good Blacksburg band dies young when one of its members graduates.) | |
| Info / Shows | |
| The Solar Haus | Still putting on shows in Blacksburg. |
| The Blacksburg Underground | A page devoted to the Blacksburg scene, by Elizabeth. |
Bands |
|
| Scrum | The punk band Bryan played for before Seven Ages |
| Orchard | Blacksburg's Legendary 3-singer metal powerhouse. |
| Hajra | I don't think they ever had a webpage, but they're worth mentioning because they were awesome. |
| Ramona Forever | The emo band that shared 4 members with Seven Ages. |
| Paint the Silent Sky | "Blacksburg Scary Pop" that featured Kevin and a couple members Orchard. |
| Donkey Punch | A new pop-punk band in Blacksburg featuring Jason on bass. |
| Looks Like Rain | What Bryan is doing now. Kick ass punk from Baltimore. |
| Avulsion | Blacksburg's metal heroes, one of which is our own Kevin Cannon. |
| Willhold | Paul, myself, and three of our good friends representin Springfield, VA. |
| Horror Business | Blacksburg's very own Misfits cover band, featuring Brian and Andy. |
Other stuff around town |
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| Virginia Tech | The reason most of us ended up in this town. |
| WUVT FM | Virginia Tech's student-run radio station. |
| Member of the... | |
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