We are releasing a 7" this summer on Surprise Attack Records out of Philly PA!  It will have 6 brand new songs on it and its going to be fucking awesome!  This is directly from the Surprise Attack Records webpage!!  Keep checking back for new songs and shit!  Also, we've got some sweet fucking shows coming up wtih IN THE FACE OF WAR and Blood In/Blood Out, so if youre around, come out to those shows!!!



"This summer we will be releasing a brand new 6 song 7" from Erie, PA's hardcore punk pizza loving HANK JONES. Hank Jones have been around for a few years now with numerous tours and an energetic live show that can't help but make you want to circle pit & sing along. The band has a full length CD out entitled "Saturday's Of Thunder" on Undecided Records. You can hear some previous songs by checking out their Myspace page here. Mid March Hank Jones will be entering Diecaster studio (War Of Ages, Jesus Wept, Struckdown, Train) to record the 7" tracks. The 7" will be out in time for their summer tours. We can't wait!"

Hey!  well, this is a kinda old interview, but we finally got it scanned so read on!  Just so everyone knows were holed up in good ol' 125 writing some new songs for a sweet little 7" were doing this summer for tour!  We'll announce all the information about that in the next few weeks!  We are stoked!  So read this!  Go buy our record!  See you on the road!!!

Hang out in one of the many Pennsylvania punk scenes long enough, and you’ll no doubt run into Hank Jones blasting out a bunch of feel-good chaos. For a band compared to both Minor Threat and Andrew WK, it’s hardly surprising to find these guys putting the positive back into hardcore, but don’t be fooled by the fun exterior - the band are driven by more serious issues, as frontman Mike Torti explains. Questions by Matt.

How would you describe Hank Jones to the uneducated?

Hank Jones to the uneducated? Well, i'd say we are a solid mix of punk and traditional hardcore. A vast majority of our songs are fast, and to us punk and hardcore kind of blends together, so really just think of Minor Threat meeting the Suicide File and Bane. I guess thats a decent description.

What are you trying to bring to the punk/hardcore scene?

We try to bring back a fun and positive atmosphere to the shows that we play while still addressing topics that are serious to us. Too many bands talk about nothing and write about nothing and thats something that I try to stay away from. We are just trying to stay away from being just another run-of-the-mill band and trying to be a little different, either through the music we write or through the message we bring to the table.

Your debut album ("Saturdays Of Thunder") has just been released on Undecided Records - how happy are you with how it turned out?

We are very pleased with how this record turned out. We were on a very tight budget when we recorded the record the album, but we managed to get it all done in about 12 hours, and with that in mind we are very happy with how it sounds. Alex and Cliff at the label have been doing a great job with getting the record out to everyone, so i'd say that im pretty pleased with how the label has been treating us. We've been upholding our part and we've been on a couple tours already this year with some more planned for the winter months, so everyone is happy.

How did you hook up with Undecided?

Well, when we recorded the record we never really had plans for getting signed, we just wanted to record a full record instead of just doing another 4 song demo like every other band seems to do. When we finished the recording process I sent a copy to my friend Patrick who was going to school in florida. He told me that he really liked the record and asked if he could give a copy of it to Alex at undecided records, since he interned there over the summer time. We said why the hell not and he sent it over. Patrick said that Alex really liked it and was going to get a hold of me soon and the next day he called my cellphone and from that point on its just been going great. Who knows if we could have signed with another label or not, we never sent out "press kits" or anything, but honestly were not really bummed at all, we are very happy with how the label has handled everything thus far!

What's the meaning behind the title "Saturdays Of Thunder"? And who is Hank Jones anyway?

Both are from the Simpsons, but to tell you exactly from what would give it all away. Lets just say that we had a guy who was #3 in the country in Simpsons trivia had no idea. So good luck, haha!

Is the no-nonsense hardcore route something you aimed for as a band right from the start, or did it just happen naturally?

It was something that came naturally from the beginning. I mean, our demo was not really like the CD, it had breakdowns, it had more slowed down parts, but the attitude in the band was there, and we evolved from that demo to the CD. 2 of the songs from the demo are on the CD, Where Did It Go? and Our Lives, even though we rarely play Our Lives. Although, that may change, hahaha!

What do you make of the Andrew WK comparisons? Or do you prefer the Minor Threat reference?

We definitely try to make shows fun like Andrew WK does, even though we do not come even close to the amazing time that he makes his shows! The minor threat reference basically makes more musical sense, just in the fact that we play fast punk/hardcore, and thats one of the few bands we all can agree on in the band.

On one hand you seem to have a carefree, fun approach to punk rock (obvious example being the song "Pizza Party"), but there is also a more serious aspect to some of your lyrics. Which is the real Hank Jones? Do you try and keep the two sides separate?

They're both the real hank jones. We do love having fun with our music and having fun at shows, but at the same time we want to bring up issues that we think are important to us. I think its easier to get a message out there if you give off a carefree attitude, more people will stay open-minded to someone if they come off as having fun, instead of acting completely serious and one sided.

How's the Pennsylvania music scene?

I think the PA scene is pretty amazing. There are so many scenes within the state, philly, pittsburgh, state college, erie, wilkes-barre, allentown, and then all the smaller towns that help out touring bands, its just incredible. Any tour going out always hits up some city in PA, so its sweet.

I assume that you are all non-drinking, sensible, stay-in-on-the-weekend young men - but just on the off chance, have you got any crazy tour stories?

We made some mummy movies in the van and at a couple houses we stayed at. Sure, a couple drinks were involved, but just wait till you see them. its great. We also took our sledge hammer with us, and stuff was smashed with it. It was a good time, hahaha! Lookin' forward to the next one!

What's happened to your website?

yeah... well... we forgot to pay the host for a few months over the summer while on tour... and yeah, it doesnt exist right now. All the information you really need to get is on our myspace page, (www.myspace.com/hankjones), so just go there! haha, sooner or later we'll fix the webpage and it'll be back.

What's next for the band?

Well, im graduating college this fall, so we are going to play weekends and write new songs until the winter time and then we'll hit the road a little and see what happens next. Basically take it easy for a few months to get a few things taken care of and wrapped up and then after that, who knows, only time will tell!

By the Way, Which One’s Hank?

An Interview with Mike Torti of Hank Jones

By Bob Ignizio

It's disturbing to think about, but to a lot of people punk rock means Green Day and Blink 182.  Lucky for me there's still a few bands like Erie, PA's Hank Jones (Mike Torti - vocals, Nick Warren - guitar, Chris Bencivenga - drums, Shayne Moreland - bass, and Seth Pacileo - guitar) out there who know better.  These guys manage to stay true to punk's roots while adding enough modern touches to avoid sounding like a lame trip through nostalgia.  Just pick up their Undecided Records' debut 'Saturday Nights of Thunder' and you'll hear what I'm talking about. 

Utter Trash:  Okay, I gotta’ start with the obvious one.  Is there a real “Hank Jones” that you named the band after?
Mike Torti:  Nah, there is no real person that we named the band after.  All that I can say is that we got it from the Simpsons.  It'll take a little detective work to figure out the rest! 

UT:  You recently added a second guitar player to your band, Seth.  What made you decide you needed another six string, and what has Seth added to the band that wasn’t there before?
MT:  Well, we just thought that adding a 2nd guitarist would just fill out our sound and that’s exactly what it did.  We are also going to be able to expand our song writing with a 2nd guitarist, so that is going to be pretty exciting.  Mainly though he just adds a whole new dimension of fun to the band.  the rest of us are all older and its good to have someone young in the band who can keep us on the tips of our toes! 

UT:  With so many hardcore bands these days coming off as mach assholes playing mediocre metal, it’s refreshing that you don’t go that route.  Do you see yourselves as spearheading a return to the roots (Minor Threat, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, etc) of the genre?
MT:  In a way, yes.  We grew up listening to Operation Ivy, Rancid, Minor Threat, Bad Religion, bands like that, and we don’t really think of ourselves as a "hardcore" band because we don’t sound like many of the bands that get classified as "hardcore" these days.  We are just doing what we feel represents our musical interests.  Its a faster record, 13 songs in 20 minutes, its more punk than hardcore. 

UT:  How did an Erie, PA band wind up on a little indie label out of Florida?  Anything in particular about Undecided Records that made you go with them?
MT:  It’s kinda funny.  We never really expected the band to get signed.  Bands in our area seem to only ever release demos and EP's and we just wanted to step out of that running trend and release a full record.  So when we finished recording one of our good friends from Erie was going to school in Florida and had interned at Undecided for the summer.  We sent him a copy of the record to listen to because he was always supporting us at every show when he was home, so when he asked if he could give it to Alex at Undecided to listen to, we said what the hell, why not?  Alex called me up the next day and said that he really liked the record and that they were in the process of signing a couple bands and it just went from there.  We never sent the record out to any other labels, so who knows if anyone else would have been interested or not, its just one of those things we will always think, that "what if" question that haunts you, hahaha.  We are happy with Undecided, so we are definitely not regretting how things progressed. 

UT:  Unfortunately I’ve only heard your most recent album, so could you describe for me how Hank Jones has changed and progressed from your previous album?
MT:  We released a 5 song demo back in February of 2004.  That demo was us just trying to write songs that we thought kids would like, it wasn’t really a good representation of us as individuals and not really a good representation of our musical tastes.  There are things on that record that are kinda excluded from our record, mostly breakdowns and lame ass lyrics.  Not saying that I have improved in my writing, but the topics I feel that I tackle on the record are just way more important than what tried to say on the demo. 

UT:  Aside from music, what sort of things do the members of the band like to do?  Are you politically active at all?  Any unusual hobbies?
MT:  What do we like to do?  Seth is big into skating, Nick and Chris are both art majors so they do screen printing and work with that a lot.  Nick also is into comics a lot!  I book shows in the Erie area, but besides those things, there really are not any unusual hobbies. 

UT:  Do you enjoy touring and being on the road, or is it just a necessary evil to get your music out to people?
MT:  We enjoy touring and being on the road but we do miss home and that does wear down on us as time goes on.  It is a necessary evil for bands to tour, but you make it what you want it to be.  If you want to have fun on the road you will, but if you go into touring thinking "man this is going to blow" then yeah, it’s going to suck.  You just have to keep a positive outlook on everything while you go.  I personally love going to places I’ve never been to before and meeting amazing people!  On our last tour we played in Chattanooga, Tennessee at this place called The Green Martian and we had a real pizza party at the show, it was amazing!  Some of the places we've played we went in thinking “man, they have shows here?  Where are we?”  Those shows usually end up being some of the most fun times on tour! 

UT:  What do you hope the future holds for Hank Jones? 
MT:  To tour, tour, tour and to be able to come home and not be broke!  We plan to start writing some new songs and recording a couple in the fall, so you can all keep an eye out for those songs! 

UT:  Anything else you want to add that I didn’t ask about?
MT:  Go check out this band This Is Hell on State Of Mind Recordings!  One of the best new bands out in hardcore right now!  We've played a bunch of shows with them and they're fucking incredible!

http://www.skratchmagazine.com/CDreviews.php

http://www.decapolis.com/music_/pages/HankJones-SaturdaysOfThund.shtml

http://www.geekburger.com/review/hj/saturdays.asp

http://www.munchkinmusic.be/IE_5_0/Reviews.php?toDo=showAlphabet&pageNumber=9&pageLetter=G

http://sceneitall.net/viewreviews.php?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=2904

http://www.poisonfree.com/reviews/records/rev_detail.php?reviewID=1589

http://www.musiccherry.com/archives/2005/06/hank_jones.htm

http://www.hanginghex.com/pages/zine/oldreviews6.html

http://www.lambgoat.com/albums/view.aspx?id=1661

http://www.allschools.de/recordReview.php3?ID=15318  (european, no clue!)

http://qchc.webtrip.ch/reviews.php?op=albumreview&id=1206

http://www.punknews.org/reviews.php?op=albumreview&id=4114

http://www.wrankmusic.com/reviews/albums/hjrev.htm

Thanks to everyone who came out to the showcase this weekend it was a blast! we have 3 shows coming up over haloween weekend, so PLEASE check them out and come out! For more info just click on the show on our main page! The Hangout show is a benefit to help keep forward hall open, so PLEASE come to this and help us raise money to keep this amazing venue open!!!!

Also, we are still working on our tour routing, its only for a week or so, but check it out and see if you can help us out on any of the dates!! We dont have much time to tour in the winter, so we are trying to hit as many places as we can!!


10-28
The CODE, The AKA's, Hank Jones

Brave New World, Pittsburgh PA
6 PM FREE!!!!!!!


10-29
Lexis Jumps, Hank Jones, The Shit, + 5 more bands!

Sportsman Club, Meadville PA
3 PM, 8 Bucks


10-30
The AKA's, The CODE, HANK JONES, Struckdown, + More!

The Hangout, Edinboro PA
4 PM, 8 Bucks


Hank Jones X-Mas Tour!

16 - Kokomo/Indy, Indiana (held)
17 - St. Louis, Missouri (held)
18 - Chattanooga, TN (held)
19 - Birmingham, AL (held)
20 - Louisville/Lexington, KY (held)
21 - WEST VIRGINIA
22 - Pittsburgh/Johnstown, PA
23 - Cleveland, OH (held)

so today we kick off our 2nd tour this summer!!  we are playing at the hangout with Mustard Plug and The Code!!!  Doors open at 5 PM its 10 bucks, so come out if you want to help us out kickin' off tour again!!  here are the dates we have and where we'll be, some of the shows are close and REALLY fucking sweet!  see you tonight!  if not, see you in august!!!

July 15th in Edinboro PA @ The Hangout w/ Mustard Plug
July 16th in Hebron OH @ Hebron Legion Hall w/ 12 Tribes
July 16th in Cleveland OH @ VFW 868 w/ Modern Life Is War
July 17th in Covington KY @ Lookout Heights Civic Center
July 18th in St Albans WV @ The Brickhouse w/ Cash In
July 19th in Indianapolis IN @ Bubba's Bowling Company w/ Bones Brigade
July 20th in St Louis MO @ The Slaughterhouse w/ Bones Brigade
July 21st in Metamora IL @ Metamora Legion Hall
July 22nd in Springfield IL @ Project Peace
July 23rd in Evansville IN @ Club 1123 w/ Hollywood Hangrenade
July 24th in West Frankfort IL @ Hoshi's w/ Hollywood Hangrenade
July 25th in Chattanooga TN @ The Green Martian w/ Stop Calling!
July 26th in Birmingham AL @ Dragon CD & DVD w/ Stop Calling!
July 27th in Augusta GA @ Sector 7G
July 28th in Pittsburgh PA @ Brave New World Records w/ Modern Life Is War, Crime In Stereo, Dead Hearts
July 29th in Harrisburg PA @ The Championship w/ The AKA's, Commercials, Gym Class Hero's
July 30th in Philadelphia PA @ Drexel Newman Center w/ One Dead Three Wounded
July 31st in Baltimore MD @ Charm City Art Space w/ Ruiner

http://www.myspace.com/hankjones

Booyakasha!  

So whats up!  Alright, here's whats going on for july!  We are leaving in a week or so for a couple weeks and hitting up a LOT of the midwest.  Check the tour dates, we are playing a couple shows with BONES BRIGADE who fucking SHRED in Indinapolis and St Louis!!  

CLEVELAND HERE'S THE 411 MOTHER FUCKERS.  We are playing with MODERN LIFE IS WAR now at the VFW 868 post, so COME OUT!!  Its our seccond date of tour and I PROMISE PROMISE PROMISE it'll be way better than before, hahaha!  Redemption will be sweet, Plus, The Pledge from Dayton are playing and they're a bunch of fucking RAD DUDES!!  So come out and party with us, we'll all go get pizza afterwards down the street again!  FUCK YEAH MAN!

We are still looking for 2 shows, one in Tennessee (WE WANT CHATTANOOGA, SO SOMEONE FUCKING HOOK IT UP DAMNIT) and one at the END of tour on the 30th of July ANYWHERE on the east coast!!!  So if you know of something thats NOT posi numbers fest, let me know!  Reply back to this and let us know if you wanna have some sweet hank jones up in your piece.

GO TO FYE, BEST BUY, TOWERS, TARGET, HOT TOPIC or ANY OTHER STORE AND BUY OUR RECORD AND LEARN THE SONGS!!!!!!  FUCK YEAH!!!!!

All you dudes and dudette's in Louisville, dont sweat it, we WILL be there this summer/fall!!  

For those who have NOT been to one of our recent shows we have a new drummer now, Jed McAtee.  Our old drummer, Chris!, has now moved to bass guitar after the departure of our bass player Shayne.  He left on good terms and we're all still great pals, so things are all aces!  We have played a few shows with the new line up already and things are tightening up, so by tour shit will be sweet, I promise!  So come out and say hi to our new drummer Jed!!!

Okay, that was a decent update, COME SEE US ON TOUR!!!  DONT MISS US!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hank Jones
Mike, Chris!, Nick, Seth, and Jed

Okay, so myspace wont let me update the show date information, so here is all the information concerning the show in Delaware on friday!!!!!! COME OUT TO THIS!!!!!! FRIDAY May 27th in NEWARK, DELAWARE CDC Let Down Hank Jones Your Worst Nightmare Watching Tigers Die 5 Bucks 6 PM THE UCC CHURCH 300 MAIN ST DELAWARE!!! okay, repost this if you live in the area, COME OUT TO THIS SHOW!!!! Its going to be a fucking blast!!!