Counterfit were an emo punk band from San Diego, CA. The band moved to California in 1999 and disbanded in 2005.

I started Counterfit with a friend, Marc Allen, back in high school, in Connecticut. The band started as a skate punk band around 1997 and became increasingly emo leading up to when we moved to California in the fall of 1999. The band that arrives in California was so different from what we did in high school, that we decided to just say that band started then.

The high school form of Counterfit was an interesting mix of music that wasn’t easy to define at the time. Marc and I had two punk bands before Counterfit, but we were growing in directions outside punk rock. We wanted to play slower music with more mature, reflective lyrics. We didn’t realize it at the time, but we were migrating towards a style that would become early 2000’s emo.

We recorded an EP after moving to San Diego, On The Downside. This EP still has a punk feel to it, but that changes after I leave the band in 2000. Dan Reed joins the band after I leave and the band signs with Negative Progression Records, who release an EP, From Finish To Starting Line and a full length, Super Amusement Machine For Your Exciting Heart.

I left this band to move to Boston and immerse myself in computing for a while. Ironically, I start playing with First Aid Kit a year and a half later, and both bands eventually tour together.

Recordings

On The Downside

This was the last recording I did with Counterfit before I left California. You can hear our punk roots in it, especially on tracks 3 & 5, but you can also hear the beginnings of what becomes Counterfit’s sound too.

Video

New Noise (Refused Cover)

In 2002, Counterfit had booked a tour across Canada with Selfmademan and Moneen, who had just put out their first full length with Vagrant Records, but Adam Allen (_guitars in Counterfit) wasn’t available. Marc asked me if I could fill in so they could still do the tour. I said yes and learned Adam’s parts.

Adam and I used to be the guitars in Counterfit. Then it was Dan and Adam. It would now be Dan and me. I found this hilarious.

All of the bands on this tour became fast friends. We had gotten to know each other as we crossed the entire length of Canada and were feeling bummed that the tour would be over soon. We wanted to do something special to celebrate it as wrapped up. We decided find a way to cover a song together such that everyone on the tour would play some part of the song on stage. That would mean switching members in and out in the middle of the song! We chose Refused’s New Noise and we planned to do it for the last three nights of the tour.

No one in the audience on the first night knew we were doing this, but the Canadian punk scene spread the word fast and everyone expected it by the second night. Vagrant Records, Moneen’s label, sent out camera crew to capture it and they made this video.

This is one of my favorite musical memories.

Better Late Than Never

Here is a live video of the band in 2004, playing Better Late Then Never, from Super Amusement Machine.