Karate is an American band, formed in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in 1993 by Geoff Farina, Eamonn Vitt and Gavin McCarthy, with Jeff Goddard joining in 1995. The band split up in 2005 before reuniting in 2022. The band is characterized by fusion of

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

emo Emo () is a genre of rock music characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and from the Washington, D.C., hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands ...

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term " post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad conste ...

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, with the jazz influence becoming more dominant in later releases. In particular, Farina has cited

Minutemen Minutemen were members of the organized New England colonial militia companies trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. Min ...

, Beefeater, and

McCoy Tyner Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet from 1960 to 1965, and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Masters, NEA J ...

as major influences on their sound.

History

In 1993, Karate was formed by Geoff Farina (vocals, guitar), Eamonn Vitt (bass) and Gavin McCarthy (drums). In 1995, Jeff Goddard joined the band as bass player, and Vitt moved to second guitar. Vitt departed Karate to pursue a medical career in 1997. Their music during their original run was primarily released on

Southern Records Founded 1992 by John Loder, Southern Records is an independent record label (Loder also ran the recording facility Southern Studios). It is based in London and until 2008 had offices in the United States, France and Berlin. The label is clos ...

Breakup and post-breakup projects

Farina developed hearing problems due to twelve years of performance with Karate and was forced to disband the group in July 2005. Disbanding with fanfare, the group had recorded six studio albums and had almost seven hundred performances in twenty countries. Their final show was played in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, on July 10, 2005. In 2007, the former band members released the live album ''595''. It is a recording of the band's 595th performance, on May 5, 2003 at Stuk, Leuven, Belgium. The recording was sent to them by a sound technician, and Karate were so astonished by the quality they decided to release it as an official live album. Karate's perfectionism and attention to detail is well known among the music scene, which played a part in the naming of the album. It was originally to be called ''594''. However, McCarthy discovered a flyer for a forgotten early show, so the band quickly changed the title to ''595''. Goddard played in the band Jones Very along with

Vic Bondi Vic Bondi is an American singer-songwriter and one of the founding members of political Chicago hardcore punk band Articles of Faith. He went on to form Alloy, and Jones Very after AoF's demise. At the time of AoF's original breakup Bondi was w ...

and Jamie Van Bramer. In 2005, Goddard played bass on the

Chris Brokaw Chris Brokaw (born August 1, 1964) is an American musician, best known for his work with the bands Come (American band), Come and Codeine (band), Codeine. Life and career While studying at Oberlin College, Brokaw met many people who became figu ...

album '' Incredible Love''. Farina developed a solo career, releasing three albums and a number of EPs. He also worked with Chris Brokaw, releasing work as Geoff Farina & Chris Brokaw. McCarthy has been part of a number of bands including E, which released albums in 2016 and 2018.

Reissues and reunion

In 2021,

The Numero Group The Numero Group is an archival record label that creates compilations of previously released music, reissues original albums, and creates album reconstructions from a variety of musical genres. The label, known as Numero, was founded in 2003 ...

announced they would be reissuing the band's music after long periods of their music being unavailable due to Southern not allowing the band to. The first releases to be reissued was the band's first two albums and first single. In 2022,

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

reported that the band would reunite for their first tour in 17 years.} It was announced in November that the band would play

Primavera Sound Primavera Sound (commonly referred to as Primavera) is an annual music festival held at the Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona, Spain, during late May and early June. It was founded in 2001 by Pablo Soler as "a showcase for Spanish Noise rock, noise ban ...

festival in 2023. On September 15, 2023, the Numero Group released ''Complete Studio Recordings'', compiling their six studio albums, the ''Cancel/Sing'' and ''In The Fish Tank'' EPs, singles, and split 7"s. The 69 tracks were split across eight CDs. The

box set A boxed set or (its US name) box set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box, hence 'boxed', and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists ...

included an 80-page book by Leor Galil containing essays and photographs. On January 7, 2024, Numero Group posted on Twitter teasing new music for the band, featuring a short video of the members at the end of what they said was the "first Karate session in 20 years". Numero would later mention that a "new Karate record scurrently in the works". The album was formally announced with the name ''Make It Fit'' with a release date of October 18, along with the ''Defendants b/w Silence, Sound'' single released on July 25.

Influences

The band has said in interviews that their combination of indie rock and jazz came from studying music theory in college. Farina's guitar playing was influenced by bands like The Minutemen and Beefeater.

Discography

* ''Karate'' (1996,

) * ''In Place of Real Insight'' (1997, Southern) * ''The Bed is in the Ocean'' (1998, Southern) * ''Unsolved'' (October 2000/March 2001, Southern) * ''Some Boots'' (October 2002, Southern) * ''Pockets'' (August 2004, Southern) * ''Make It Fit'' (2024, Numero Group)

References

External links

Geoff Farina
's official website
Gavin McCarthy
s official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Karate American post-rock groups Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts Musical groups from Boston Musical groups established in 1993 1993 establishments in Massachusetts Musical groups reestablished in 2022 American indie rock groups American jazz-rock groups American emo musical groups The Numero Group artists