Biography
Emerging from Boston's insular early-1980s hardcore punk community, Moving Targets functioned as an underrecognized yet pivotal bridge linking that raw style, along with contemporaneous local strains such as collegiate art rock and folk-rock, to the alternative rock sound that dominated the following decade.
Kenny Chambers assembled the group in 1981, supplying its songwriting, searing guitar attack, and emotionally charged vocals; the initial power trio also featured bassist/vocalist Pat Leonard and drummer Pat Brady, whose muscular style anchored the rhythm section. After several years struggling for stage time amid the crowded Boston club circuit, the band gained its first notable visibility in 1984 through the various-artists compilation Bands That Could Be God, issued by Conflict/Radiobeat and assembled by Gerard Cosloy, who would soon lead the Homestead and Matador labels. Three tracks on the album were captured at Fort Apache studio with its co-founder Lou Giordano, whose prior work with the Minneapolis band Hüsker Dü marked a clear influence on Moving Targets.
Continued sessions with Giordano yielded a fifteen-song demo that secured a deal with the Boston punk imprint Taang!, the same label that later introduced Lemonheads and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Those recordings formed the core of the band's debut album, Burning in Water, released in 1986—an essential post-punk statement fusing hardcore urgency with '70s progressive and classic rock textures. The record openly reflected the example of Boston's own Mission of Burma, another art-punk outfit equally adept at anthemic material, as well as Hüsker Dü's New Day Rising, which appeared the same year.
Having absorbed the lessons of Hüsker Dü's 1984 double album Zen Arcade, Moving Targets seemed to foreshadow New Day Rising by merging punk's drive and intensity with respect for more conventional song forms. Rather than mere copyists, the trio absorbed disparate sources and forged a singular identity; Burning in Water advanced punk songcraft to a new level while retaining a distinctly Bostonian character. The album signaled the arrival of a band whose reach extended across Massachusetts underground circles and, through successful overseas tours, to international audiences as well.
Live, the original lineup proved especially potent. Chambers delivered incisive guitar lines and raw vocals across meticulously shaped compositions, while Brady executed intricate fills and crashes within unforgiving tempos, evoking a punk counterpart to Keith Moon or Neil Peart. Leonard contributed a singular melodic approach to the bass, sustaining momentum alongside his bandmates without rushing or treating the instrument like a guitar.
Internal tensions soon dissolved that lineup, halting momentum; Chambers spent several years as second guitarist in the early punk-metal outfit Bullet Lavolta even as he kept composing for Moving Targets. Bassist Chuck Freeman joined, sharing duties with Leonard on the follow-up Brave Noise, which appeared in 1989. Its CD edition appended Burning in Water, creating an indispensable package for admirers of thoughtful, melodic post-punk.
The sound of Fall adopted a smoother, more layered, measured, and stylistically broader approach than the preceding pair of releases, following an almost expected evolutionary arc. The band mirrored Hüsker Dü's later shift toward pop-punk and folk-punk, tempering overt Mission of Burma echoes and incorporating the mainstream hard-rock guitar vocabulary Chambers had honed during his Bullet Lavolta tenure—developments that largely signaled positive maturation and yielded satisfying material.
That trajectory persisted on 1993's Take This Ride, though by then only Chambers remained from the founding roster; he recruited bassist Jeff Goddard and drummer Jamie Van Bramer, both formerly of the Boston band Jones Very. The chemistry had changed, most noticeably in the absence of Brady's forceful drumming, leaving the group closer to a Chambers solo vehicle. He did issue solo recordings, including Double Negative in 1990 on the European Cityslang label (with Goddard participating), the 1993 sessions released the following year as No Reaction, and Sin Cigarros in 1996. Goddard later performed with Lune and Karate, Leonard stayed active in local groups, and Brady eventually worked as a firefighter.
In 2016 the U.K. punk label Boss Tuneage issued the limited-edition archival set The Other Side, gathering demos and rare studio recordings. Two years afterward Chambers formed a fresh Moving Targets configuration for a European tour that included bassist Yves Thibault of Out of Order and drummer Emilien Catalano of the Nils; Boss Tuneage marked the occasion with an expanded reissue titled The Other Side: Demos and Sessions Expanded. Three years later the band returned with Wires, its first studio album in more than two decades, followed by Humbucker in 2020.
Kenny Chambers assembled the group in 1981, supplying its songwriting, searing guitar attack, and emotionally charged vocals; the initial power trio also featured bassist/vocalist Pat Leonard and drummer Pat Brady, whose muscular style anchored the rhythm section. After several years struggling for stage time amid the crowded Boston club circuit, the band gained its first notable visibility in 1984 through the various-artists compilation Bands That Could Be God, issued by Conflict/Radiobeat and assembled by Gerard Cosloy, who would soon lead the Homestead and Matador labels. Three tracks on the album were captured at Fort Apache studio with its co-founder Lou Giordano, whose prior work with the Minneapolis band Hüsker Dü marked a clear influence on Moving Targets.
Continued sessions with Giordano yielded a fifteen-song demo that secured a deal with the Boston punk imprint Taang!, the same label that later introduced Lemonheads and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Those recordings formed the core of the band's debut album, Burning in Water, released in 1986—an essential post-punk statement fusing hardcore urgency with '70s progressive and classic rock textures. The record openly reflected the example of Boston's own Mission of Burma, another art-punk outfit equally adept at anthemic material, as well as Hüsker Dü's New Day Rising, which appeared the same year.
Having absorbed the lessons of Hüsker Dü's 1984 double album Zen Arcade, Moving Targets seemed to foreshadow New Day Rising by merging punk's drive and intensity with respect for more conventional song forms. Rather than mere copyists, the trio absorbed disparate sources and forged a singular identity; Burning in Water advanced punk songcraft to a new level while retaining a distinctly Bostonian character. The album signaled the arrival of a band whose reach extended across Massachusetts underground circles and, through successful overseas tours, to international audiences as well.
Live, the original lineup proved especially potent. Chambers delivered incisive guitar lines and raw vocals across meticulously shaped compositions, while Brady executed intricate fills and crashes within unforgiving tempos, evoking a punk counterpart to Keith Moon or Neil Peart. Leonard contributed a singular melodic approach to the bass, sustaining momentum alongside his bandmates without rushing or treating the instrument like a guitar.
Internal tensions soon dissolved that lineup, halting momentum; Chambers spent several years as second guitarist in the early punk-metal outfit Bullet Lavolta even as he kept composing for Moving Targets. Bassist Chuck Freeman joined, sharing duties with Leonard on the follow-up Brave Noise, which appeared in 1989. Its CD edition appended Burning in Water, creating an indispensable package for admirers of thoughtful, melodic post-punk.
The sound of Fall adopted a smoother, more layered, measured, and stylistically broader approach than the preceding pair of releases, following an almost expected evolutionary arc. The band mirrored Hüsker Dü's later shift toward pop-punk and folk-punk, tempering overt Mission of Burma echoes and incorporating the mainstream hard-rock guitar vocabulary Chambers had honed during his Bullet Lavolta tenure—developments that largely signaled positive maturation and yielded satisfying material.
That trajectory persisted on 1993's Take This Ride, though by then only Chambers remained from the founding roster; he recruited bassist Jeff Goddard and drummer Jamie Van Bramer, both formerly of the Boston band Jones Very. The chemistry had changed, most noticeably in the absence of Brady's forceful drumming, leaving the group closer to a Chambers solo vehicle. He did issue solo recordings, including Double Negative in 1990 on the European Cityslang label (with Goddard participating), the 1993 sessions released the following year as No Reaction, and Sin Cigarros in 1996. Goddard later performed with Lune and Karate, Leonard stayed active in local groups, and Brady eventually worked as a firefighter.
In 2016 the U.K. punk label Boss Tuneage issued the limited-edition archival set The Other Side, gathering demos and rare studio recordings. Two years afterward Chambers formed a fresh Moving Targets configuration for a European tour that included bassist Yves Thibault of Out of Order and drummer Emilien Catalano of the Nils; Boss Tuneage marked the occasion with an expanded reissue titled The Other Side: Demos and Sessions Expanded. Three years later the band returned with Wires, its first studio album in more than two decades, followed by Humbucker in 2020.
Albums
Live
