Stretch Arm Strong

In 1994 the South Carolina punk band Stretch Arm Strong came together with an original roster of Matt McCarty on vocals and bass, guitarists Scott Dempsey and David Sease, and drummer John Barry. Their earliest release was a split single shared with the regional act Bedlam Hour. The group later tracked a full album that has never surfaced. When bassist Chris McLane entered the lineup McCarty shifted exclusively to vocals, and after Dempsey started his own label Insurgent Sounds the band put out a six-song EP whose first pressing disappeared within months. McCarty stepped away to marry, prompting McLane to become the new frontman and bringing Donnie Raines aboard on bass. Raines was released after only one split single with Prevail, whose Shawn Williams contributed bass to the album Rise. Uprising issued Compassion Fills the Void in 1997, and before the 1999 album Rituals of Life—Stretch Arm Strong’s first for the Tooth and Nail imprint Solid State—Jeremy Jeffers joined as the permanent bassist. Revolution Transmission followed in 2001. Engage appeared in mid-2003, and Dempsey handed in his resignation the following year. Early in 2005 the band became the initial signing to We Put Out Records under the East West umbrella, which released Free at Last that same year, and soon afterward guitarist Glen Calder and bassist Chris Andrews were added.