she notes the chariots

Derek Button - Vocals

Chris Sommer - Vocals

Matt Tenney - Guitar

Shagy Kennedy - Guitar

Bryan Kaltenbach - Bass

Drew Button - Drums

In the Fall of 2001, I met and started a band with Matt Tenney. I was on vocals, Matt on guitar, and my brother (Drew) on drums. We practiced for a month or so and wrote one song, then Matt quit for personal reasons. A couple months went by and I saw Matt at a show and talked to him afterwards and he talked like he wanted to do the band thing again. I was talking to a kid at school, Brian Potts, and he wanted to start a band as well. So I talked to Matt some more and we decided to start back up, this time with Brian singing, Matt on guitar, Drew on drums and I would play bass. But there was only one problem: I didn't play the bass. So we practiced and Matt taught me how to play the bass. After a while Matt said he had a friend, Bryan who wanted to be in the band and he played bass, so he came to one of our practices and I shifted over to second vocalist, which was not an odd thing for a screamo band.

In late 2001/early 2002 (not really sure) we started looking for a second guitar player and we came across Shagy, who joined the band after coming to one of our practices. We wrote 3 (or 4) songs and in March of 2002 we went to Penny Studio's to record a demo. We handed the demo out to a select few people and received fairly harsh criticism over the demo. It was about this time that we parted ways with Brian Potts, and completely scraped the 3 or 4 songs we had written. We practiced and practiced and finally came up with 4 brand new songs. We had a number of shows set up over the summer of 2002, I'd say at least 6.. and only 1 of them happened. The date was July 18, and we were to open for From Autumn to Ashes, Coheed and Cambria, and Shai Hulud. As you can guess the show was sold out and we played all the songs well, minus Matt breaking both guitars on stage. But the crowd moved and kids danced so I was happy.

The band official went on about a 3 month hiatus after the show and Matt and Bryan disappeared from contact with me. We tried practicing with just me, Drew and Shagy but it just didn't work out. Finally we got back together and started practicing again. We played another show in November and decided to record again, this time at Tiny Apertures. The guys working there were awesome and we had some of the best times in this band at the studio (Stefan called). We finished recording our 4 song demo, aptly titled -Winter Demo- and pressed 200 copies total. The first 100 copies had a different logo on the cover than the second 100 and were all self-released. After this everything is just a blur to me, going into 2003 we played more shows in St. Louis and in Springfield with such bands as Most Precious Blood, The Promise, Dispensing of False Halos, The Aleatoric, Salt the Earth, and I‘m sure much more that I‘m forgetting. In the summer of 2003 Chris Sommer joined the band as second vocalist and we planned a one week tour with our friends Sine Nomine and soon to be friends Phasma Phasmatis. The tour went like this:

Sunday June 8th - Springfield MO

@ Springfield Skate Park

Monday June 9th - Tulsa OK

@ Mohawk Park Shelter #6

Tuesday June 10th - Des Moines IA

@ Botanical Center

Wednesday June 11th - Cedar Falls IA

@ FSU Garage

Thursday June 12th - Minneapolis MN

@ Babylon

Friday June 13th - Madison WI

@ The Snakepit (aka the temple of doom)

Saturday June 14th - Milwaukee WI

@ 2427 Pierce

Sunday June 15th - Omaha NE

@ The Power Pad (we did not play this show due to van troubles)

Monday June 16th - OFF

Tuesday June 17th - St. Louis MO

@ Grandma’s House

Just weeks before tour we recorded a 3 song demo, "Tour Demo" which contained 2 new songs and a revised version of one off our Winter Demo. We pressed 100 copies of the Tour Demo and spent even more money on buttons and shirts and embarked on tour. Tour was ... interesting. We became really close friends with the guys in Phasma Phasmatis and Sine Nomine. Minus the fighting and bickering, the tour went well, but towards the end, (as a matter of fact, before the last show) Phasma Phasmatis broke up (on good terms, even though they don't talk to each other anymore) that night our van got fucked up somehow (I thought we jack-knifed it) and we had to take a 8 hour drive home at about midnight or 1 am, not sure when we left. So we left and I never fell asleep due to my seating arrangement, and I honestly swear everyone who drove the van that night fell asleep at the wheel at least once. We got back home and Matt talked about how we were signed to a label and we were going to record again. We played a show with the Wolves the next day, then another show with Quell and Last Perfection shortly thereafter, and after a completely appalling set, Drew and I vowed to each other we were officially done with the band, but hadn't told anyone else yet. Drew finally told Matt a few days before our next show (that he never mentioned to us) that he was done with the band, so Matt and Bryan got together with Mike, the drummer of Sine Nomine and taught him a few of our songs. They played two shows with Mike and I can't comment on how well they went because I was not at either one. Finally we had a show booked with There Were Wire, ZOMBI, and the Daughters on August 24th, 2003 and after Shagy asked politely (and persistently) Drew and I came back for one final show (on our mom's birthday too). We played and that was that, a couple kids moved and clapped when we finished our set, and we were done.

-Derek