Rye Coalition is a post-hardcore band based in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. The band has released four full-length albums, three EPs, a split 12-inch with Karp, and several 7-inch records.
Rye Coalition has released most of their albums on the Tiger Style or Gern Blandsten Records labels. The band's most recent album, Curses, was produced by Dave Grohl. The album name refers to the band's 2003 deal to sign with the ill-fated Dreamworks Records. After Dreamworks Records was sold to Universal/Vivendi, the band ended up "jumping from one sinking ship to another", eventually ending up at Interscope Records. Interscope paid to record Curses, but the Rye Coalition was dissatisfied with the label. By mid-2004, Rye Coalition had managed to sever ties with the label and keep the rights to Curses, which they released on Gern Blandsten.
History
Rye Coalition began from a desire between Jersey City high school kids Jon Gonnelli (guitar) and Ralph Cuseglio (vocals) to form a band. They found their drummer in David Leto - an ex-member of legendary local Jersey band, Merel, whose status gave the group some instant interest in their home area - and a bassist in Leto's childhood friend, Justin Angelo Morey (Leto and Morey became friends while attending Our Lady of Mercy school together) Cuseglio, Gonnelli and Leto were schoolmates at St. Peter's Preparatory School. Taking a cue from local hardcore acts like Merel in their writing, the band (simply called Rye at the time) played chaotic, distorted songs with screamed vocals and more emphasis on dynamics than speed. Shortly after forming, Rye added Herb Wiley as a second guitarist.
The group's first recorded output took shape in the form of a demo entitled The Dancing Man, in 1994. The band quickly followed this with a self-booked tour of the east coast. The Dancing Man, as well as Rye's energetic live performances, caught the interest of local New Jersey label Troubleman Unlimited Records, who offered to press a 7-inch for the band. The record, entitled Teen-age Dance Session featured three songs and garnered the band further attention in the independent music scene. The 7-inch was released at a time when many bands playing similar style of emotionally charge hardcore were being dubbed emo by fans. This classification would dog Rye Coalition for a good portion of their career, much to their dismay (as the never considered themselves a part of the so-called genre).
Following the release of their first record, the band recorded two songs for a split 12-inch with Olympia, Washington's Karp, also released by Troubleman. The split would feature the band's first recording of the track "White Jesus of 114th Street," a fan favorite which remains in the band's setlists to this day. A split 7-inch with Harrisonburg, Virginia's Maximillian Colby was also release around this time. The Karp / Rye split would later be reissued on CD by Troubleman and also include the songs from the Teen-age Dance Session 7-inch. In 1995, the band crossed the Canadian border to play their first out-of-country show in Cambelville, Ontario.
Still fresh out of high school, the members of Rye struggled with the desire to pursue the band full-time as well as further their educations. Wiley parted ways with the band in 1996, following the release of the New Sherriff In Town 7-inch (the band's first for New Jersey's Gern Blandsten label), in order to attend school out-of-state. The 7-inch also marked their first time working with engineer Alap Momin of Dälek.
Rye (by now adding "Coalition" to their name - or sometimes "Rye and the Coalition") continued on during downtime from their educations, now acting as a quartet. They wrote and recorded their first full-length LP, entitled Hee Saw Dhuh Kaet, in 1997. The band chose to again work with Alap Momin, and the album was released by Gern Blandsten Records.
By this time, the band was making a conscious effort to incorporate their other musical influences into their music, and move away from the confines of their earlier sound - vocals became slightly less aggressive, while not lacking in urgency, showing Cuseglio's true vocal prowess, and some elements of classic rock and even blues are apparent on the recording. The band's trademark tongue-in-cheek sense of humor also became more apparent on the record (song titles included "The Higher The Hair, The Closer To God," and "Fucking With Beautiful Posture"). Sporadic shows and small tours followed, but later that year, Justin Morey also left the band to pursue other interests.