The Poison Arrows

The Poison Arrows trace a bifurcated path that began with the formation of an initial, pop-leaning incarnation in Knoxville, Tennessee, during 1996. That lineup served as a bridge project linking two more established acts, drawing guitarists Jason Morris and Justin Sinkovich directly from the alt-rock group Thumbnail while bassist Scott Westmoreland and drummer Ben Martin entered as local-scene acquaintances. The quartet tracked enough material for a complete album across 1996 and 1997, yet Sinkovich soon relocated to Chicago to launch the expansive post-rock ensemble Atombombpocketknife. Those early recordings stayed vaulted until Sound on Sound Records issued them under the Poison Arrows banner in 2001. After Sinkovich disbanded Atombombpocketknife in 2004, he revived the Poison Arrows name to pursue a parallel path as a remixer; several solo electronic pieces surfaced on assorted compilations in the same period, preceding the standalone debut EP Trailer Park, which appeared later that year. Once that EP was out, Sinkovich assembled a full band by recruiting bassist Patrick Morris, previously of the post-rock stalwarts Don Caballero, and drummer Adam Reach, who continues to collaborate with Sinkovich’s former Atombombpocketknife bandmate Che Arthur. The refreshed unit laid down fresh tracks whose basic elements received wide-ranging remixes from figures including Suicide’s Martin Rev and Califone’s Brian Deck; those reworkings surfaced in 2006 as the download-only set Premix. The Poison Arrows’ definitive renditions of the same material finally emerged as the EP Straight into the Drift in March 2007.