Time Flies

There are 2 punk bands named Time Flies: 1) From USA. 2) From Finland. 1) Time Flies started in one way or another in 1996 at the height of the Youth Crew revival. We went through a number of changes before we ever even got started. We had bad names, lots of random players including ex-members of Converge, Merauder, Mayday, Dillinger Escape Plan and others. Finally by the spring of 1997 we had four solid guys, a handful of songs, and recorded a demo in July of that year. We played our first show on August 2, 1997 in Norfolk Virginia. The show was with Battery, Ten Yard Fight, Stretch Armstrong, Blade Crasher and For The Living. We began to play a number of shows in the VA/DC area opening for bands like Battery, Good Riddance, and Ensign. It was about this time that Brian joined Dillinger Escape Plan and left the band to be replaced by Cen from Grip and Dayspring. A little more than a month after our first show we took our first long road trip. We played in New Bedford MA, Hartford CT, and then returned to play a matinee show in DC and evening show Richmond Virginia on the same day. It was those 2 shows that we played with 97A. About a week passed after those shows and Chris Kelly from 97A offered to do our seven inch on his label, Teamwork. We recorded in March of 1998 in Boston with Brian McTernan at Salad Days. We did a short tour that included Canadian dates in the end of July and early August 1998 with Ten Yard Fight and a few ending dates with Fastbreak. Our seven inch, Can’t Change the Past e.p. came out in the end of August of 1998. At the same time InVAsion (now Malfunction) also released a seven inch that included some extra songs we recorded during that same session in March at Salad Days. We had a record release show in Richmond with Ten Yard Fight and Fastbreak and it was a great show. About a month or two later we started talking about signing to Indecision Records. By early October we had signed the contracts with Indecision and started working on our first LP, later to be called On Our Way. In March of 1999 we began recording for about two weeks with Brian McTernan again at Salad Days, which had just re-located to Washington DC. We were his first project in the new DC location. We recorded as a four-piece shorty after recording Curtis began playing guitar and we got Charlie from Count Me Out to play bass. We got the chance to tour with at that time a new Indecision band called Death By Stereo. We embarked on what we called a US tour with Death By Stereo and Count Me Out in July and August of 1999, that really consisted of some random dates throughout the US and a few shows in California. On Our Way was finally released in the end of August 1999. From then on we continued to play a number of shows. After a few more months not only were we sharing bass players with our brother band Count Me Out, we were also sharing drummers. So we took a few months off, and then came back with a few new songs that we were trying out. We played some great shows that included the Mouthpiece reunion in New Jersey and the Wilkes-Barre PA Posi Numbers Festival in 2001. These were great shows for us and we really felt the love from the kids. After Posi Numbers We decided to do a West Coast Tour with Count Me Out in July 2001. We tried to make the band a full time thing, experimenting with some new songs that were a bit different than the earlier Time Flies songs. They were a bit more “poppy” with a little more melody. People seemed to enjoy the songs. We even considered changing the name. After a few more months, Colin had an opportunity to drum for American Nightmare, and took that opportunity. We decided shortly after trying to make it go on with another drummer, that it just wasn’t the band anymore without our original four. That when we decided it was time to call it quits. We played our last 2 shows on June 16, 2002 in Wilkes-Barre PA at the following year’s Posi Numbers Festival, and the following week on June 22, 2002 in Richmond VA at the deceased Twisters. We started as a straight edge band, we ended as a straight edge band. It was a great five years, and we loved every minute of it. Mostly we just enjoyed being out on the road with each other and hanging out. We never set out to be bigger than we were. We were just great friends enjoying the ride like it was a vacation. All we ever wanted to do was put out a seven inch, play some shows, and have kids enjoy what we did. We accomplished what we set out to do. Thanks to everyone for the good times and the support. Thanks for all the houses we stayed at and for all the shows we played. Mostly especially thanks to the kids that sang along and the people that helped make it what it was supposed to be…Fun. - Kurt Powers, March 2004 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.