the last couple of weeks have been really busy. we recorded a live set full moon studios that is supposed to air on 100.7 this weekend(june 5 or 6). call those motherfuckers and ask, i guess. it was much fun. thanks to j, lisa, and everyone else for that.
played some killer shows in charlotte(thanks kurtis and paul for coming out) and in chapel hill with our pals from black skies. black skies are pretty awesome but they drink waaay too much. we imported hawks from atl to come up and sweat/grab on people. they rule. goddamn i've been on a bender!
next on the agenda is getting our new record "dose" out on vinyl. due to the fact that we are poor it will not appear until september(maybe earlier in athens). our pals over at team clermont are going to help us pump that fucker to the masses and we will soon be rich men snorting cocaine off of stripper's asses. shortly after the album comes
out there will be a east coast/midwest tour. can't fucking wait. our friend candy is helping out with that one. she is the best and we love her. thanks to all our people everywhere. hope to see you soon. i like joints. bad andy.

Well...you know you've made it when you make the top 10 local releases in a music mecca such as Athens. We came it at numba 8. Buy it! itunes/CD baby/Napster etc....or from us at the merch booth Feb 21st when we play with the Deaf Judges and CHRISSAKES at the Caledonia!

http://flagpole.com/Music/Features/TheBestLocalAlbumsOf2008/2008-12-24

Pride Parade - Descendants

Recorded and mixed by Kyle Spence at Ronnie Jone$ound

Pride Parade marches through 11 tracks of angry anthems on its first release, Descendants. This five-piece powerhouse packs three guitars, a bassist and vocalist into a band whose music speaks for itself.

The album comes straight from college campus aggression one would expect to hear in Athens, Ga., but this sound is not cliché or typical. The chorus of "Mr. Man" shouts, "I have no regrets" and "Leave Me Alone." While reminiscent of Nirvana in lyrical content, these men add solos and harmonies which are all their own.

Pride Parade does not sound as much like mainstream music as it seems like the kind of thing fans would follow at live shows. This is not dancing music, but the kind of music one would want to see live to be in a mosh pit letting out the frustrations of life.

No other artist comes to mind when one listen to this album, so Pride could be categorized as completely original and anyone who is a fan of rock or punk music should check them out.

The CD's insert claims, "It was wrong to believe in the power of my own dreams," but the music proves dreaming can reap rewards. Pride Parade will go far among fans. (Self-released)

www.myspace.com/prideparade69

-Ellen E. Aldridge

Flagpole Magazine 7/2/08

"As opposed to the Clinton days, when we all lit cigars with hundred dollar bills and wore kitten moccasins, it's safe to say that most everyone's pockets are a little tight right now. If you're one of the people who still buys music (hello to both of you!), you really need to carefully consider your purchases. My attitude when sifting through the ever-deepening sea of new (and old) music that I've never heard is always hopeful, but guided by a pretty simple principle: You should either go for something that's never been done, or you should go for something that's been done exceptionally well.

Pride Parade represents the latter category and represents it to the fullest. Andrew Prater and company are two-for-two in gob-smackingly amazing band names, following the notorious Brown Frown. Descendants finds Athens' own bad news bears picking up where their old act left off, with marked improvements made to just about every aspect of the music.

The music? Gimmick-free rock. You can more or less trace the roots back to the Pacific Northwest circa the early '90s. But instead of coming off as the umpteenth band mining a long-stripped set of influences, Pride Parade sounds more like a missing link from the era, a lost chapter in the Sub Pop catalog. Sad, slow and steady is the order of the day here, and the consistency of this record - in both senses of the word - is thick and solid. When white folks pick up electric guitars and evoke the blues, it's always a tricky line to walk, but this stuff hits the mark in a way that is almost graceful.

Moments of deviation from the formula bubble to the surface of the muck. "All of This Was Pinetrees" wouldn't have been out of place on the Dead Man soundtrack, but generally it's a good ol' bummed-out rock trip. It'd be a great party record if the overall mood wasn't drunken defeat. When Prater evokes Journey on the album's longest and best song, "USA Up All Night," people might pump their fists, but it'd be less in celebration of victory than in solidarity of being among those who have been beaten, and those who anticipate more of the same in the future. It's a recession, folks... we need records like this. It's definitely worth spending your hard-earned cash on."

Jeff Tobias

These are the first four songs ever recorded by new Athens band Pride Parade. Originally intended as a demo, the band decided that the record sounded so good, it should be released. I concur.

Comprised of three ex-Brown Frowners (Andrew Prater, Bubba McDonald and BJ Bracewell), along with Aaron Sims and Allen Owens, Pride Parade is conversely open-armed and tightlipped. On one hand, these guys sure have made a lot of word-of-mouth noise happen around town (which may, in fact, not be their fault at all), but refuse to give their songs any names and have only just played Athens for the first time during AthFest. Further, the name Pride Parade is questionable in and of itself: do they mean a gay pride parade, a parade with a patriotic theme, a collusion of the concept of each whereby identity politics are rendered a total joke or, which is most likely the case, are they just being difficult? Who knows.

What matters here is the music, even though there's definitely some conceptual work happening. This music is dirty. It's earthy and working-class and heavy and populist. It's also distinctively Southern without being anything close to traditional Southern rock. Just as Mudhoney can be the most authentic representation of hard rock from the Pacific Northwest, Pride Parade runs neck-and-neck, already even, with Music Hates You for the Southern title. But that could be extreme on my part. At any rate, Pride Parade is definitely a contender.

Pride Parade's music is heavy metal distilled through the disappointment of post-boom grunge and the exhaustion of the service industry. The lead guitars are slaps to the back of the neck rather than exercises in dexterity. The rhythm guitars are, at once, jolting and bottom-heavy. The vocals are both accusatory and possessive of an us-versus-them quality, which is different than the we-versus-you quality that Brown Frown had. Forget Clinton, Obama, Biden, Kucinich, Edwards and them. Vote Pride Parade in 2008.

Gordon Lamb

Flagpole Magazine 07/04/2007