Over the course of a decade and two full-length releases, Lexington, Kentucky post-hardcore band Too Close To Touch have earned continuous praise for their skillful musicianship and intricate arrangements highlighting each member’s technical ability. The glue that held them together throughout it all was beloved front man Keaton Pierce who met his untimely death in 2022. A play on one of his many nicknames, the final TCTT album For Keeps is a celebration of the late vocalist, sourced from a library of unfinished and unreleased material and brought to life by friends in The Word Alive, Cane Hill and Bad Omens. “ ‘For Keeps’ is our last gift to the Too Close To Touch community,” guitarist Mason Marble explains. “We would never have existed without Keaton and will not exist without him in the future.” “To be able to give it closure is a blessing,” drummer Kenny Downey continues. “To have this much of him left, his lyrics and emotions captured... not a lot of people have that.” Offering an explosive mix of indie-rock cool and punk-blasted emo pop energy, the band has toured extensively with the Vans Warped Tour and acts such as Waterparks, Issues and Crown the Empire. The band’s releases include the EP series I’m Hard To Love, But So Are You, Nerve Endings (2015), and Haven’t Been Myself (2016). In 2016, Too Close To Touch won the award for Best Underground Band at the Alternative Music Press Awards. Haven’t Been Myself debuted on the Billboard charts as the #3 Alternative Artist Album, #9 Top New Artist Album, and #133 Billboard Top 200 Current Album. Too Close to Touch is Keaton Pierce (vocals), Mason Marble (guitar), and Kenny Downey (drums).
Teenage Wrist are a difficult band to define. Over the past eight years the act have continually evolved their sound, a process that’s peaking with their third full-length Still Love. Reaching new heights in both scope and execution, the album sees the duo—Marshall Gallagher (vocalist, guitarist, bassist) and Anthony Salazar (drums, vocalist, percussion)—producing the album themselves to handcraft their most expansive collection of songs to date from the ground up. The result is a self-realized collection of songs that saw the band borrowing vintage gear, bringing in friends in the form of members from 311 and Softcult and incorporating tasteful pop sensibilities to craft a collection of songs that redefines the band’s sound while staying true to their guitar-driven roots. “With this album we were just trying to get ourselves out of the safety zone and into the danger zone,” Gallagher explains. “We took a lot of risks and it was a really fun record to make.”