Biography
Loud yet oneiric, the indie outfit Tennis System forged a noise-pop aesthetic dense with blurred guitars drawn from forebears such as Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, while also carrying a street-smart compositional bite rooted in the uncompromising surroundings that spawned the storied D.C. hardcore movement. Repeated personnel shifts together with the move from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles softened that punk bite, yet frontman Matty Taylor kept driving the group’s sonic evolution; the sound grew more incendiary while the words turned more introspective on the 2019 full-length Lovesick.
The project first assembled as a quartet in the Washington, D.C., region near 2008, its original roster featuring Taylor on guitar and vocals, Clinton Cole on bass, Brad Fullilove on second guitar, and Misha Bullock behind the kit. Early shows found them supporting visiting acts including Ty Segal and Pains of Being Pure at Heart; they also captured the 2010 release The Future of Our History before Fullilove and Cole departed later that year. Facing a crossroads and determined to finish the songs they had begun with their former colleagues, Taylor and Bullock headed west to Los Angeles, where they encountered guitarist Christopher Norman and bassist Marcus Russell Price. Energized by the change of scenery and the fresh configuration, the band issued the self-released Teenagers in late 2011, toured, and built an audience via festival slots and scattered online singles. In 2013 they partnered with the L.A. imprint Papercup Music to deliver the five-song EP Part Time Punks Session, featuring unvarnished reworkings of earlier material. The same label then handled the second album, 2014’s Technicolour Blind. Another round of changes reduced the lineup to a trio—Taylor joined by bassist Sam Glassberg and drummer Garren Orr—after which the group gigged locally while continuing to develop new songs. Momentum increased in 2018 when they began collaborating with Graveface Records, the concern operated by Black Moth Super Rainbow’s Ryan Graveface; the label issued the EP P A I N that year and followed it in 2019 with Lovesick, the band’s third and most intense album to date.
The project first assembled as a quartet in the Washington, D.C., region near 2008, its original roster featuring Taylor on guitar and vocals, Clinton Cole on bass, Brad Fullilove on second guitar, and Misha Bullock behind the kit. Early shows found them supporting visiting acts including Ty Segal and Pains of Being Pure at Heart; they also captured the 2010 release The Future of Our History before Fullilove and Cole departed later that year. Facing a crossroads and determined to finish the songs they had begun with their former colleagues, Taylor and Bullock headed west to Los Angeles, where they encountered guitarist Christopher Norman and bassist Marcus Russell Price. Energized by the change of scenery and the fresh configuration, the band issued the self-released Teenagers in late 2011, toured, and built an audience via festival slots and scattered online singles. In 2013 they partnered with the L.A. imprint Papercup Music to deliver the five-song EP Part Time Punks Session, featuring unvarnished reworkings of earlier material. The same label then handled the second album, 2014’s Technicolour Blind. Another round of changes reduced the lineup to a trio—Taylor joined by bassist Sam Glassberg and drummer Garren Orr—after which the group gigged locally while continuing to develop new songs. Momentum increased in 2018 when they began collaborating with Graveface Records, the concern operated by Black Moth Super Rainbow’s Ryan Graveface; the label issued the EP P A I N that year and followed it in 2019 with Lovesick, the band’s third and most intense album to date.
Albums
Autophobia
2021
Dizzy
2021
Lovesick
2019
P A I N
2018
Technicolour Blind
2014
Part Time Punks Session
2013
Singles
