Tye Battistella Formerly of Reno Divorce, Now Shreddin' Six Strings With The Queers

Screaching Weasel, Dwarves and the Queers at the Gothic Theatre

Hats off to our hombre Tye Battistella formerly of Reno Divorce and now shreddin' the strings with The Queers. A few months back Tye took an early retirement from Reno Divorce to focus on a few other areas. Out of the blue, Joe Queer calls him up and asks him to come out of retirement and play a few shows with the band and see where it goes. Best of luck to Tye and hopefully he will be hitting a lot more shows with the Queers and further honing in on all of his punk rock harmonies.

Reno Divorce Album Release Party 12.31.12

New years is fast approaching and we know the plans need to be made asap. If ya need a road trip, plane flight or greyhound ticket, get on it now. This show is a guaranteed packed house and one great night coming up. Huge things are coming up for Reno Divorce and it's all we can do, to keep a lid on it. Stay tuned.

Get your tickets from the Marquis Theater

Buy your copy of Lover's Leap right here

Reno Divorce album release party on 12.31.12

Reno Divorce's Brent Loveday Bets On Sobriety To Win, From Denver Westword

Interview with Brent Loveday of Reno Divorce with Denver Westword

Link to original article on Denver Westword

Get your copy of the album now

"Brent Loveday had a moment of clarity on the road. It came one night in Oklahoma City, while he and his band, Reno Divorce, were on tour, and it happened somewhere in the midst of kicking out the side window of their new tour van, then horsing around and hanging his head out of it and cutting himself on the shards of glass left behind as he was throwing up.

"I felt like shit," Loveday recalls. "I felt like a total joke. And I kind of said to myself, 'This is the farthest you're ever going to go if you continue down this road.'" 

Loveday's mother had passed away three years earlier, and when that happened, he sort of went off the deep end. "I didn't want to deal with her death," he confesses. "I've lost both parents now. So I just turned to drugs pretty hard-core, and for the last three years, what's kept us afloat is the years that I was sober — that reputation that I'd built, and the songs that I wrote when I was sober.

"I just kind of reached the point where I was squandering everything that I ever did," he goes on. "Sooner or later, people are just going to be tired of my antics or whatever. Being in this line of work, all you see are people getting wasted. And I envy people that can go and just have a drink that doesn't turn into a bender. I got to accept that about myself, that I'm just not wired that way."

   
So about a month and a half ago, Loveday started rehab, and he says he's still getting his wings. But considering that he got sober once before and stayed that way for eight years, he knows what he's facing. "I just made a decision," he says. "I owe it to myself and friends and family, and I owe it to the fans I've made over the years to tackle that problem. So, I mean, it feels great. It's a really positive thing for me and my family, and, of course, everyone around me is pretty stoked on it."

The irony of pursuing sobriety for Loveday is that he now feels the substance and gravity of what he's written. Now that he's in rehab, for instance, songs like "Rep to Protect," the fiery opening cut of Reno Divorce's new album, Lover's Leap, take on a whole new meaning. "I got kind of a reputation as a party dude and not having my shit together," he notes. "So when I'd kind of act like a fuckup, I would jokingly say, 'I got a rep to protect.' Like this is my reputation. But ironically enough, I'm in rehab now. When I sing it now, it's got a different connotation to it. It was kind of a joke that spun out of control."

What's not a joke is Lover's Leap, issued on the Raleigh, North Carolina-based Rusty Knuckles imprint; the band will celebrate its release on New Year's Eve at the Marquis Theater. It's a thoroughly solid effort inspired by Orange County punk and country, and it's fueled by a band that now includes guitarist/vocalist Tye Battistella, bassist Nick Golding and drummer Ruben Patino, the strongest lineup in Reno's sixteen-year history.

Action still from the new video Lover's Leap, by Reno Divorce

Loveday admits that he went into making the record with low expectations, thinking it wouldn't be the band's best effort. He didn't feel prepared for it, and some of the songs weren't up to snuff, in his opinion. In fact, he didn't have a lot of lyrics written for it. But about halfway in, he realized that Lover's Leap, the followup to 2009's Tears Before Breakfast, might be the quintessential Reno Divorce album.

He credits a lot of its success to being able to record a lot of tracks either in his basement or at Patino's Green Door Recordings studio. There was more creative freedom that came with not having to look at the clock and think about the hours of recording time adding up. "You can kind of take your time, to an extent," Loveday points out. "Just some cool stuff unravels that way, when you're not under that financial pressure."

You can hear the results on tracks like "Always Be Your Slave," a song that Loveday says he wrote from the perspective of being in someone else's shoes and thinking how he would react to having to deal with himself. "It was like I was in this bad relationship where I was a total dick and selfish," he reveals. "The girl was like, 'I do everything for you. I never question your whereabouts, and all you do is just walk all over me.' It's about at the end of that relationship, where it just feels real hopeless. I kind of just reversed the roles and took a walk in her shoes, and that's what I came up with."

On a happier note, "GED Sweetheart" is Loveday's song to his wife, whom he's been married to for twenty years. While some people marry their high-school sweethearts, he married his GED sweetheart. (They got their GEDs within a week of one another, "and of course," says Loveday, "she scored better than me.")

"Sunsets and Corvettes" was partly written during the first incarnation of Reno Divorce, in Orlando, Florida, after a teenage Loveday saw Social Distortion for the first time. He says it was on par with someone seeing the Beatles or the Stones, or Elvis in the '50s. Even though he had listened to a cassette tape of the band and had seen the documentary Another State of Mind, which includes early tour footage of Social Distortion and Youth Brigade, he says nothing could have prepared him for seeing the group live and seeing how Mike Ness commanded the room.

Reno Divorce's new album, Lover's Leap

"Mike Ness's stage presence back then — you couldn't compare it to anything," Loveday marvels. "He was probably 27 years old at the time, but he just commanded a room full of 600 people. You know, all eyes were on him, and they didn't avert for a second."

Social D has clearly had a big impact on Loveday, who ranks Prison Bound as one of his top three most influential albums. It gets top honors, he says, because it's essentially a punk band shedding its punk shell and making a country record. "To me," says Loveday, "I really admired the balls that it took them to release that." Second on that list is T.S.O.L.'s Revenge, whose riffs Loveday says he struggles with playing, and right behind that is Dag Nasty's Field Day, another record where the band departed somewhat from its original sound.

"I liked when a punk band, with their unique perspective of the world in songwriting, went and did something that sounded more like popular music, because it just had an edge to it and an approach that was different," he explains.

While Loveday had been dabbling on guitar from the first time he saw Social D, he was fifteen when he had a breakthrough. He was messing around on the guitar one day and stumbled upon a T.S.O.L. riff, and that's when it all clicked. A few years later he formed Reno Divorce with his best friend, Tony Owens, in Orlando, and then Loveday and his wife moved to California to be closer to his son, who was living in Colorado with his mother. But once he got there, he couldn't find people to play with, and he was broke all the time, so he ended up moving to Denver in 2001.

"It was the best thing that ever happened to me," he says of his move to the Mile High City. "I resigned myself. I was depressed about it. Then when I got here, I couldn't believe how backward my thinking was about what this place was about."

Nothing like new beginnings."

Reno Divorce feature interview in Denver Westword

Reno Divorce Will Be Conquering The World With Their Brand New Album, Lover's leap

Reno Divorce - Lover's Leap, the brand new album from the Denver punk quartet

Good things come to those who wait. For all the fans of Reno Divorce your patience will be rewarded in a huge way. The time has finally come for the release of Lover's Leap, their new full length album. After working through the recording sessions and finessing the tracks to be their strongest release to date, the fella's are beyond proud of the sonic boom they are about to release upon the masses. We cannot express in this pixelated text, just how ecstatic we are to be working with Reno Divorce. After listening to these new tracks over and over for the last few months, we can attest that Lover's Leap will be a game changing album for the Denver quartet.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, here are some key dates to be looking out for. Early next week we will be announcing the pre-sale of the new album, Lover's Leap. The pre-sale will be an exclusive internet only release through Rusty Knuckles Music on December 4th and on Itunes. All orders with the new album, will be shipping the week of December 4th 2012. On February 12th, the album will hit stores worldwide and be available in most every outlet. 

To get the party started, check out a few of the still shots from the upcoming first single and title track, Lover's Leap, shot on location in Denver, CO. The first single and video will be going live in a few short weeks. More details on that shortly.

Get in touch with fellas on Facebook

Or check them out at RenoDivorceBand.com

Video still from new single Lover's Leap by Reno Divorce

Brent Loveday frontman and lead guitarist of Reno Divorce

Ruben Patino, drummer of Reno Divorce

Tye Battistella, rhythm guitarist and back up vocals in Reno Divorce

Track Listing for Lover's Leap

01 – Rep to Protect

02 – You Created a Monster

03 – Lover’s Leap

04 - Ill Gotten Gains

05 – Sunsets and Corvettes

06 - Stumble (Intermission)

07 – Time Flies When You're Having Fun

08 – Make Sure Your Sure

09 – I’ll Always Be Your Slave

10 – Every Second Counts

11 – Three Time Loser

12 – G.E.D. Sweethearts

13 – Don’t Let It Slip Away

Reno Divorce Biography

"Ten years strong and armed with an uncanny arsenal of three minute vignettes that peer into the seeder side of life, Reno Divorce has earned a reputation for punk rock storytelling at its finest.  Whether on a festival stage or in a smoke filled, gin-soaked juke joint off the beaten path, they execute their brand of Orange County inspired punk meets honky-tonk blues with bravado and intensity.

That’s why the band’s new full length, “Lover’s Leap” will find a home with fans of Social Distortion, Rise Against, and Hank Williams, alike. Once again, they’ve teamed up with legendary recording studio, The Blasting Room (Rise Against, The Descendents), to offer their fans a glimpse into the last few years of life in the fast lane and the result is the band’s strongest record yet. Lead singer/songwriter Brent Loveday’s lyrics take the listener on a tour through vice and virtue and all the while keeping it in time and making it rhyme. Tracks like “You’ve created a Monster” and “Ill Gotten Gains” showcase their punk rock roots, while songs like “Lover’s Leap” and “Make Sure Your Sure” show the band’s penchant for rhythm and blues and the love of a good hook.  

Reno Divorce may very well be punk rock’s best kept secret, but with the release of “Lover’s Leap”, they won’t be for long…"  

Brent Loveday of Reno Divorce: "Originality Is The Evolution Of Influence"

The fellas in Reno Divorce returned to their home turf of Denver after a kick ass tour in Europe and immediately hopped right back on stage for their first hometown show this past Saturday night. Below is a great interview with Brent Loveday that touches on much of what Reno Divorce is all about and some of their history. 

We can tell you with absolute certainty that the new album is going to be a game changer. Reno Divorce has pulled out all the stops and has fine tuned their sound in something well beyond what anyone might expect. Once this album comes out, forget about seeing them at your local dive of a venue, they will be on a lot bigger tours and hitting large capacity venues. More details soon on the full release date and all aspects of the new album "Lovers Leap" due out this fall.

Brent Loveday of Reno Divorce feature interview in Denver Westword

Get in touch with Reno Divorce on Facebook

Keep up to date with them on their main site

Reno Divorce at Rock N Ink, Chemnitz, Germany - photo by Karsten R. Schäfer

Link to original interview post on Denver Westword

"Reno Divorce (due tomorrow night at the Marquis Theater) began in the middle '90s when frontman and guitarist Brent Loveday founded the outfit while still living in Orlando, Florida. Some early, glowing press came the way of the band's 7-inch. But it wasn't until Loveday relocated to Denver and discovered a place he felt like he could live that things began rolling. Since then, the guys have been on a handful of tours and shared the stage with many of their heroes. The band's surprisingly earnest, but never pretentious, combination of melodic punk and roots rock, peppered with something a little more aggressive, has resonated with fans across a relatively broad spectrum of musical taste.






This fall, Reno Divorce will release Lover's Leap. If you've caught any of the outfit's recent performances, you already know that the songs going on that album have a rare emotional poignancy that is more than just honest -- it's poetic. We recently spoke with Loveday about the band's history, his run-ins with his heroes and the way Reno Divorce seems to transcend its obvious influences, not just in the music but in lyrics that go deeper than rock often does these days.


Westword: When did you start Reno Divorce?


Brent Loveday: I started Reno Divorce in Orlando, Florida in 1996. It went for a couple of years, and we had a seven inch on Skank & Skull Records. It just kind of fizzled out. Of course the band fizzled out right at the time this stellar review in Flipside came out. I couldn't believe it. I moved to California, and I'm sitting in this shitty apartment in Tustin, you know, and Maximum gave it a pretty good one. Compared it to Jason and the Scorchers, which is great. Tex and the Horseheads. So I was stoked about that, and thought, "Man, I can't believe the band is broken up." Then I opened up Flipside and...it's probably still on our website. It was the greatest review I've ever gotten.


When did you decide to come to Colorado?


In California, I couldn't get nothing going. My in-laws moved to Las Vegas, and my son moved with his mom to Colorado. So basically when we were in California, we were just going back and forth to Colorado. Vegas was closer. We tried that for a year, and finally, I went, "You know what? It's the same thing; we just keep going for birthdays, Halloween, every holiday. Let's move to Denver." It turned out to be the best decision of my entire life.


Our first apartment was Capitol Hill. Then we lived in Congress Park, then Mayfair and now Park Hill. We moved here in 2001. Two months into it, the original guitarist from Reno lived here, and then we found a drummer and a bass player, and it started rolling pretty quick. Maybe within six months our debut album, which was supposed to be a demo, Naysayers and Yesmen, ended up getting four "Ks" in Kerrang! It was a pretty wild ride in the beginning.


Speaking of that, you opened for Wire on September 6, 2002. How did that happen?


You remember the Wire show?! Yeah, I put in for that show, man. I love Wire. They came to the Bluebird. This was when we were starting to get a little momentum. Not much. We were still playing a lot of East Colfax bullshit. We got that gig, and we thought it would be huge. Sold out. We got there, and those guys were totally cool. But maybe a hundred people showed up. Go figure. You never what's going to be hot and what's not.


You had a different bass player at that time, right?


We had Seth Evans. He was this mastermind, phenomenal bass player. He was one of these dudes where you play with them and think, "Why is this dude playing in my band?" He's really good. We did a European tour with him and two U.S. tours, and finally, it was too much for him. He and his girlfriend had a kid and it was too exhausting.


How did you get hooked up with a European tour at that time as a relatively new band around here?


We were relatively new. You know All? I'm a huge All dork, right. And Scott Reynolds was in my favorite era of All. He had a new band called the Pavers. When I heard them, it was like Scott's All writing, but his band was AC/DC. It blew my mind, and I totally obsessed over that band. It was one of the few records I ordered from the record shop. A buddy of mine lived in Chicago, and he was a stock broker, but he still dabbled in music, and he said, "I'm going to get you on a tour. This record's too hot; you've got to get out there." Naysayers hadn't been properly released, and we were just burning CDs. So I said, "This is the band, the Pavers. If you can get me on a tour with Scott and those cats? It's all over."


Two months later, the guitar player from the Pavers' wife called -- my friend had emailed them or whatever -- and she said, "We need a support band. How about a U.S. tour?" We did the Midwest from Buffalo all the way through. The tour went well and both bands were great. So Scott had a record deal thing going on with Boss Tuneage Records in London, and he passed it on. The guy said, "Hey, Scott recommended you. I'll put this out."


He had so many releases, even big independent bands and obscure indie rock stuff, and Kerrang! gave us that review, and he said, "You guys have got to come out and support the record." The guy from Boss Tuneage, he kind of got out of the record businesses. He had too many releases and he only focused on a few bands and we weren't one of them. So we got the rights back to it, and Street Anthem wanted to put it out with bonus tracks.


Where did you go on that tour?


It was a lot of Germany, a lot of Belgium, some Holland. Our band was cut short a few dates because my dad had a stroke, and I had to cruise back to the States. But it was a good tour, and to this day, people who saw us on that rough tour still come and see us.


When you came to Denver, what were your impressions?


I tell you what, my geography, in general, is awful. I don't know what I thought of Denver. I thought it was fucking Cincinnati or something. Just a run down, steel mill town. Which is the opposite of what it was. The first impression my wife and I had was based on our staying with our guitar player in Aurora out in the sticks. So we thought it sucked. My son was staying in Arvada, so we would go there. It was like one end of the spectrum to the other.


Then I went down to get my haircut on 13th Street, and I thought it was a cool town then. It was a cool barbershop. Aces or something. Next to Cricket on the Hill. The chick had a cool spot with cool posters up, and she was spouting off about all these cool bands, and I thought, "It has potential. It wouldn't be the end of the world if we had to live here."


The first band I saw was The Volts. They blew my mind. I also saw Fast Action Revolver; they were great. Brian Hagman was in that band. I saw them at a warehouse punk show -- the kind that's always teetering on whether the cops would come or if a fight would break out. That nervous energy was in the air, which made it even cooler. I guess it was a legitimate venue, but it was kind of a dive, maybe the Raven or the Roxy. A lot of bands were playing but those were the ones that stuck out.


The first venue that Reno Divorce played was something like Herman's Hideaway on a Wednesday. Our drummer knew someone, but he didn't know about punkers, and we got there and we were playing to our wives and girlfriends. But the last time we played Herman's, we had an almost sold out gig, so that kind of felt validating. If you get the punkers to come and see you at Herman's, it means a lot.


Our CD release show for Naysayers was at the 15th St. Tavern. People trip on, "We'll never play the Gothic or the Bluebird." And you get in there and go, "Oh, it's cool; we're playing here." The Tavern, for me, was that caliber a stage. Even though it was a shitty place off 15th and it smells awful, it was so legit and so authentic. It was what I was aiming for, and to have our CD release show was incredible.


Did you ever play shows with King Rat?


Do you remember the Undead in Denver compilations? Our first gig with them was the CD release for that at the Bluebird. When that came out, punk was the hottest thing in Denver. It did a lot for Denver. Even when Undead II came out, it was still great. What was really cool, we would tour and we would take these compilations with us to sell as merch. People in Hanover, Germany, would hear these Denver bands and get turned on to them. On a national and even the international level, it was good for everybody.


Obviously you've had out releases since Naysayers.


Well, we had Naysayers and Yesmen, You're Only Making It Worse, we did an EP called Laugh Now, Cry Later -- those two ultimately got combined. Then we did our biggest release, Tears Before Breakfast, on Ice Cream Records, and now we have one in the can called Lover's Leap. It's just a matter of waiting on the business end of things. I can honestly say it's our best release to date. It was mixed and mastered at the Blasting Room, all done by Jason Livermore. It will probably be out in September. I think People Like You Records will put it out in Europe and maybe Rusty Knuckles in the States.


You just got back from Europe two days ago?


We were gone I think 31 days, and we played twenty-nine shows.


That's like Black Flag scheduling!


It was, dude. If you look at the routing on the map, it's like a pentagram, right?


Dukowski, did you book this tour?


For real. It was harrowing; there were a lot of long drives, a lot of Friday nights with forty people and Wednesday nights with four thousand. It was just weird. Extreme highs and extreme lows. That's the way it should be. We did a lot of Germany, which is, of course, where our market is. We did the Czech Republic, we did Budapest, then we went over to France, Belgium, Holland and Italy. We got as far as Rome to about ten people. Not a big punk scene in Rome. We also did Milan. We did Poland, Warsaw.


And Zlotow, which was probably one of the craziest gigs we've ever played. Just people crammed into a small, underground space. The guitar player was picked up second song and crowd surfed through an entire song, right? The ceilings weren't much taller than here in the basement. My best guitar solo, I was picked up, unplugged. But it was great, totally cool people. We stayed in a four-star hotel. Then you go to Berlin and play for four thousand people on a Tuesday and you stay in a hostel. It's rock and roll, man. You get what you get.


We supported 7 Seconds on a few shows and Lars Fredericksen's new band, the Old Firm Casuals. But most of the dates we headlined. The Berlin date was a festival that was the first of May festival. We headlined our stage in Kreuzberg. We're the last band to play and it's starting to get dark. We look at the street and we start playing and all these people come out.


Berlin seems good for lots of different kinds of music. Cindy Wonderful lives there now, and she's a hip-hop artist. And Alexander Hacke of Einsturzende Neubauten and his wife Danielle de Picciotto lived there for years.


What kind of music is that? Industrial? Our guitarist is a big fan of industrial music and all of that, and we always bust his balls. We played a gig in Budapest, and in the dressing room is a poster for Xymox, and they're looking so industrial, but Xymox had played the venue, you know? Did you ever get into Christian Death?


Oh yeah.


Before we left on this tour, we played a gig with Rikk Agnew in Sioux City, Iowa.


Was it with The Adolescents? Just kidding.


It's crazy, he got a band from Omaha, and they played mostly Adolescents tunes, and he played guitar and sang a little bit. But he was selling Christian Death shirts at the venue.





When you played with Stiff Little Fingers last August, you introduced at least one song by telling a story or something about being close to your friends and family. And it was honestly moving. Why do you feel compelled to open up like that to a general audience?


I think it's best, if you're going to hear a song for the first time, maybe you're gonna hear my lyrics, maybe not, but to kind of set it up for you. We kind of joke with, "Oh, here he goes with the VH1 Storytellers." But you preface the stories and maybe people will pick something up through the hooks and whatever.


We have this new song about the way Americans raise their kids. Like if they bring home a bad grade, the first thing they do is take them to the doctor and say, "My kid doesn't pay attention. Put him on something." That's so contrasted with even Europe or the rest of the world where you sit with your kid and do their homework with them. But we live at such a fast pace that we want that quick fix and we become highly medicated. So the song is called "You Created a Monster." It's about doing the opposite of Americans' first knee-jerk reaction.


Not to pry, but what inspired that song?


I had a friend who has ADD, and it's legitimate. He's really torn up about having to put his kid on the medication. But as an adult, I see friends asking doctors to put them on various drugs and just kind of work the system. It's kind of a commentary on the healthcare system, doctors, pharmaceutical companies giving samples and lazy parents that would rather fix things with a pill.


Seeing you talk about that at a rock show was refreshing.


I'm bad about that, man. It chews up a lot of set time. That's why I do it. To put you in the moment and let you know where I'm coming from.


It was a poignant moment. Everyone who has seen you for years and think they have you figured out should see that.


We've been hearing that a lot lately, man. Our new record is definitely not a crazy departure, but it is more aggressive, and it's one end of the spectrum to the other. There are no ballads, but our hearts are on our sleeves with this next one. I've always thought of us as storytellers. We're not like a KISS or Motley Crue. We're telling people in our walks of life that we come from, these are the situations that we deal with. It's not boasting or posturing; it's our day-to-day.


Why did you want to call the band Reno Divorce, and have you ever entertaining the idea of changing it to something else?


Never. I hate to name drop, but it's kind of cool. We went to see the Ataris the other night, and Kris Roe, the singer -- I introduced myself because we're kind of working with the same booking agent -- he said, "I just wanted to tell you that's the coolest band name I've ever heard." Most people want to know what it means, and it came from when I was watching an A&E documentary on jetsetters in the 30s and 40s and how they would marry each other and then two months later, they want to get a divorce.


The fastest place to get a divorce is Reno. Back then, you go to ranch, stay there four weeks to get residency and bam! -- the judge signs it, no qualms. So the adage came, "Vegas wedding, Reno divorce." I thought, "Man, that's it. That's the end of the rope. When the honeymoon's over, it's a Reno divorce." I thought it sounded cool as shit, to be honest. I didn't think I'd build a band around it. Rat Pack, hotrods...it worked for me.


How did you get into playing music?


I heard Black Flag, and that was it. I was like, "Man, someone made music just for me." Then I got a guitar and realized, "I can probably do this." I'd listened to Metallica too, and I can't do that, but stuff I like, I can do it. I can't play Black Flag note for note. Greg Ginn's stuff is still over my head. But more like The Ramones and Social Distortion.


I saw Social D at a very impressionable age, obviously. I saw them on the tour right before "Ball and Chain" came out. They were playing all this new stuff. They were doing "Ring of Fire" and "Sick Boys." We saw them at a sold out gig in Orlando, Florida. It was me and a couple of buddies. My mom dropped us off and pulled us out during "Lude Boy." It blew my mind. I'd never seen anything like it.


Social Distortion was always just my favorite band. The melodies, the songs and the way the records were made. That show was sold out to begin with. I don't think they'd come to Florida in years. His presence and his command of the audience -- here's this young guy who couldn't have been more than 26 or 27 at the time -- they were powerful.


Obviously many people have compared your band to Social Distortion.


Oh yeah. It's our biggest comparison. And what I tell people is that originality is the evolution of influence. You've got to start somewhere. To me there are a lot more influences than Social Distortion, but sure, you don't [expect] John Lee Hooker not to play the blues. Of course he plays the blues, but he plays it like John Lee Hooker, which sounds a little different from the rest of the blues players. I think I'm always just trying to make that record that Social D never made.


Naysayers is pretty much that record.


Ice Cream Records, their A&R dude, was interested at that time. Someone called him up and said, "I've got the new Social D record." This was before Sex, Love and Rock and Roll came out. He plays it for him and the guy says, "How the fuck did you get that?" And the other guy says, "It ain't Social D, it's this band Reno Divorce."


On this last tour we would have those off nights and people would say, "You played like there were three hundred people in here but there were just thirty of us." And I'd say, "I'm here. This is what I do. I'm expressing myself. If you're here to witness it, cool. But if there were five people in here, it would have been the same show." Don't leave it on the table, man.


Let's talk about how and when you met Bobby Adams.


I'm star struck. I played with Kevin Seconds with my solo stuff, and I met Kevin and Troy, the drummer, when I was fifteen and got my picture with them. But it's all out the window because I'm star struck talking to this dude. Don't even want to look him in the eye. I go, "Man, for real, you're one of my favorite bands of all time. I'm here playing with you in Europe, I gotta ask for a guitar lesson because there's a riff I've been struggling with for twenty fucking years and I've got you here and you could just show me. I could watch you and learn it. He goes, "That's cool. Go get the guitar."
So I grab my custom, white Les Paul and set the guitar in his hands. Soon as he gets it, he goes, "Whoa, set up perfect." He shows me the riff, and I take a picture of him playing. Then he hands me the guitar, and I go, "What about this other song?" I play it this way and he says, "Damn, I've never seen anyone play it like that." It was cool, man. It was cool as ice.


You met TV Smith from the Adverts in Europe, right?


We played the Rock n Ink festival in Chemnitz, Germany. We were rushed in there, and I don't even know who was playing. A cool friend of ours told us that he needed to see TV Smith play, because it was an acoustic set that was super political and badass. TV actually came up and met us before that, and he said he had heard about us through a mutual friend.


His set? This dude was as cold as ice; he had the crowd captivated. He breaks a string on stage and tells a punk rock poem as he's changing it. He's the real deal. Ain't no bullshit. When we played later, I look out in the audience and see him. Our bass player is a huge English punk fan and after the gig, dude comes up to our dressing room and says, "That was brilliant, mates."


At that first 7 Seconds tour, we played this huge venue in Fulda, Germany. We knew it was going to be packed. We went to catering and some guys are sitting there and I go, "I'm Brent with Reno Divorce. Who are you guys with?" And they went, "We're with DYS." I saw that on a sign going in, and I thought it was a joke. And I knew Dave Smalley is the singer for DYS, Dag Nasty, All, Down By Law. And I'm like, "Did you say DYS? Where are you from?" Because I'm thinking maybe it's a European DYS. They say, "Boston." I'm like, "Dave Smalley's your singer? Where is he?" They say, "Oh he just got in a fight with the bass player. He's walking around here somewhere."


Fucking Dave Smalley comes in and it's the first time I met him. He was a super badass dude, and he wore a Reno Divorce shirt during the set. Stuff like that makes it worth it. When you play to fifteen people and drive eight hours for it? That kind of drags you down, but then you have all this other stuff that kind of keeps you in the game.


You have a Black Flag tattoo. When did you become aware of them?


I think they were broken up by the time I got into them. I got into them in '88. I heard The First Four Years, so I'm always partial to that. Especially Chavo and Keith Morris, though Dez is cool. "Wasted" is the first song I heard. That was probably a turning point in my life, hearing that. For better or worse, OFF! is like the Black Flag basement tapes.


The closest I came to seeing them was the Warped Tour in '96. After The Descendents' set, Bill played guitar, Stephen went to bass, Karl went to drums and the singer for the Pink Lincolns came out to sing, and they did four Black Flag tunes. They did "Jealous Again" and all that stuff. I've never heard anyone play those Ginn riffs like Bill Stevenson would.


Let's talk about TSOL.


You know TSOL had that schism. They made Change Today, and they made Revenge. Change Today is a really weird record. The production isn't the greatest and the songs are kind of like the Doors, which is cool. I first heard it on a skate record. Joe Wood's voice is really like Morrison but in a punk band.


Then Revenge came out. That's a deserted island record for me. It's just so produced, strange and polished. I spent years trying to figure out riffs from that record. Then they made Hit and Run and they started doing the glam thing. They had a couple more after that that sucked. I saw them on the second kind of glammy record. It was just Joe, the drummer and the bass player. Jack Grisham and Ron Emory had left the band so it was really weird. They played some of the stuff from Revenge but also a lot of the garbage glam stuff.


The band broke up, and Jack and everyone else got back together and they made a couple of records. We played with them six or seven years ago at the Climax Lounge. We have a song called "World War Three." I met Ron before the gig, and I was star struck. On stage I said, "We're big fans of TSOL and we wrote a song called 'World War Three,' this is for them." They killed it. It was one of those things like the Wire show. It was a Friday night, TSOL; it was all-ages, and a lackluster turnout."


Reno Divorce, with King Rat, Warner Drive and The Skeleton Show, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 26, Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer Street, $8-$10, 1-866-468-7621, all-ages.

Reno Divorce - More Album Leaks

Our buddies in Reno Divorce have leaked another video for what is cookin' on their new album. This is gonna be another step forward in their evolution of their sound and damn if we can't wait to hear more of the tracks.

Check out their full site for updates RenoDivorceBand.com
 

You can also listen to one of the tracks off of "Tears Before Breakfast" on the video compiled by Jefe of the Road Devils for when we raced across country in the Coupe for Viva Las Vegas

Reno Divorce - New Album, Become A Part Of The Recording With Kickstarter

Our pals over in the killer Denver punk outfit Reno Divorce are looking for your help. Kickstarter has proven to be a great place to help secure crowd sourced funding and they need a few bucks from each fan to make this happen. Recording is not cheap, nor is putting albums into production. For all of that you enjoy and believe in the music, it would be great of ya to send over a few bucks instead of just streaming it all for free. We are all guilty of this as we peruse for new music, so lets help to do our part and invest in whats going to be an amazing album.

RenoDivorceBand.com

Fund this project through Kickstarter.com 

About this project

"We are a punk/ rock and roll band based in Denver, CO. This year marks our ten year anniversary, and we want to commemorate it by releasing our best record to date. After years of touring the U.S. and Europe, and sharing the stage with practically all of our heros and influences, we’ve met some incredible people and made some of the most loyal fans in the world. Which brings us here to Kickstarter. Being an independent band is a double edged sword, but its rewards certainly outweigh the risk. Being in control of our artistic vision and not compromising our “image” or “sound” has always been a source of pride for us, but unfortunately, our pockets aren’t as deep as a major label’s. So thats why we are turning to you, our fans. You are the ones responsible for us going as long as we have and the reason we’ve kept our ideals intact. Your support over the years has enabled us to record our own records and retain the rights to our music and merchandise, which is a luxury we have never taken for granted and its your tenacity and fervor that have fueled us to keep recording and touring. You have really played a huge part in our journey so thank you for all you've done and please, if you can, support us with our latest project. We wouldn't ask if we didn't believe in it ourselves and we are confident that you’ll find this record to be the best one yet! We are also extremely excited that we will be able to give back to people who help contribute with Kickstater’s rewards. Until we meet again, peace and hair grease"

More info on Reno Divorce 

With equal parts Orange County punk, honky tonk country, and rockabilly sensibilities, Reno Divorce strikes a unique chord of their own in a diluted genre of what passes as “Punk rock’n’roll”. Throw in well-crafted and deftly executed songs that straddle the line between Smithereens and and Social Distortion, and you’ve got a band that truly stands out amongst the herd. Oh, and there’s one more thing....this aint the boys’ first rodeo...they’ve played with almost all their punk hereos (ALL, Social D, TSOL, Adolescents, Agent Orange, Shattered Faith, X, The Blasters, Motorhead), and shared a tour bus with more contemporary heavy hitters, ala U.S. Bombs, The Bones, and Street Dogs. They’ve worked with the cream of the crop behind the scenes, as well. Their last record, “Tears Before Breakfast” was produced by Jason Livermore at the world famous Blasting Room and the support tours for that album were handled by M.A.D. Booking in Europe, where among other great festivals, they graced the Saturday Night Fever Stage at With FUll Force. Always captivating live, and wrought with more hooks than your uncle Bob’s tackle box, Reno Divorce has carved out a reputation as the real deal, a true “musician’s band” that pushes the envelope with every release, without sounding contrived or formulated. Brent Loveday’s deft songwriting and clever storytelling are brought to life by the band's flawless execution of no frills punk rock and roll. With Brent on lead guitar and vocals, Tim Jadowski on bass, Tye Battistella on Rhythm guitar, and Ruben Patino on the 1,2,3,4's, the band fires on all cylinders. Reno Divorce has earned honors in Kerrang, Metal Hammer, Loud Fast Rules, and (more importantly to the band) the respect of their peers. 

Reno Divorce at Rusty Knuckles Music Showcase - SXSW 2011, photo by Jonathan McPhail

Brent Loveday with Kevin Seconds Live In Denver

Denverites, get out to a great show at Illegal Pete's on Thursday October 20th. If ya don't know who these folks are, well watch the videos below to find out about their main bands.

Reno Divorce - FREE SHOW - 9.18.11

Denverites, get out to the Larimer Lounge for a FREE show with Reno Divorce and quite a few more bands. Sailor Jerry and KTCL 99.3 will be the sponsors and after they have been exhaustively recording in the studio this show will definitely be letting off quite a bit of steam for them.

Larimer Lounge

RENO DIVORCE BBQ (FREE SHOW!!)   10:15pm

LONGWAY @ 9pm
KING RAT @ 8pm
POTATO PIRATES @ 7pm
RED STINGER @ 6pm
CHINGASO @ 5pm
THE INSECURITIES 719 @ 4pm
THE MORGENDORFFERS @ 3pm

Reno Divorce & Stiff Little Fingers - Denver, CO

For those of you lucky enough to have been at the Denver show for Stiff Little Fingers and Reno Divorce, we know that it was one to be remembered. Stiff Little Fingers left their imprint on the emerging punk scene of the late seventies and early eighties with numerous classic songs and damn if they still don't resonate today.

Link to the photo set by Michael J. Fajardo on flickr

Reno Divorce Featured Band At Westword Music Showcase in Denver, CO

If you happen to be traveling, living or making a pilgrimage to the Denver metro area on June 18th, do yourself a favor and get out to see Reno Divorce's live show. Amazing band and they are sure as hell going to smoke the other headliners such as Chromeo, Murder By Death, The Sword and numerous others. Get more info on the fest and support live music. 

The fellas are getting ready for their huge European tour where they will be sharing stages with Duane Peters and Agnostic Front. Wish them off on their Euro tour the right way through fist pumping sing alongs, stage dives and pulling in friends from all over to hit the show as its going to be killer.

Westword Music Showcase 2011, Denver Colorado

Reno Divorce - Welcome To Rusty Knuckles Music

We met Brent from Reno Divorce while hangin' down at Tim Bradham's Chassis Works one night earlier this year, while he was on a solo tour. Instantly we started chatting about music and what is happening currently with bands and had an instant rapport. The next night we were able to catch Brent's show and damn if we weren't hooked. Not only does he have the song writing, stage presence and killer voice, but his demeanor is what sold us. After months of chatting and talking over ideas, we are damn stoked that the rest of the fellas in Reno Divorce are in unison when saying they want to work with us to put out their next album.

Knowing the power these fellas possess on stage and their ability to harness the power of a live audience, holy shit is the new album going to be huge. A few tracks have already been sent over to us to check out and we will be leaking a few over the summer as the fellas start working on their new songs in the studio to prepare for a fall release.

Once again folks, please welcome Reno Divorce to the team, we couldn't be more stoked on them as friends and musicians. Photo by Jonathan McPhail Photography © 2011. If you are over in Europe look for them on a plethora of festival dates along as well as shows with Agnostic Front and U.S. Bombs.

Reno Divorce on Facebook

Say It - Reno Divorce by RustyKnuckles

European Tour Dates

24.06. Winterthur – Gaswerk (Switzerland) + U.S. BOMBS
25.06. Bretnig-Hauswalde – Bike’n Roll Festival (Germany)
26.06. Berlin – Wild At Heart (Berlin)
29.06. Fulda – Kreuz (Germany) + U.S. BOMBS
30.06. Eindhoven – The Rambler (Netherlands) + U.S. BOMBS
01.07. Bad Hersfeld – Jugendzentrum (Germany)
02.07. Rossum – Ros Rock Festival (Netherlands)
04.07. Konstanz – Contrast (Germany)
05.07. Pfarrkirchen – Bogaloo (Germany) + U.S. BOMBS
06.07. Köln – Sonic Ballroom (Germany)
08.07. Eisleben – Wiesenhaus (Germany)
09.07. Lindau – Open Air Stadtfest (Germany)
10.07. Gierle – Sjock Fest (Belgium)
11.07. Freiburg – Walfisch (Germany)
12.07. Chur – Eventstage (Switzerland) + AGNOSTIC FRONT
16.07. Tabor – Mighty Sounds Festival (Czech Republic)
17.07. Weinheim – Café Central (Germany) + U.S. BOMBS

Hellbound Glory Featured On Colfax Radio

Along with another shout out from Johnny Knoxville and Dallas Wayne over on Sirius Outlaw Country this past weekend, the fellas in Hellbound Glory also got a feature interview on Colfax Radio. Listen to it below.

Link to Colfax Radio

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Reno Divorce Is Invading Our SXSW Showcase

Gettin' stoked for SXSW, check out a tune Reno Divorce called "What Were You Sayin" as they are on the showcase and coming on right after She Rides...