Senior Discount

Infobox musical artist
Name = Senior Discount

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Img_capt =
Background = group_or_band
Origin = Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Genre = Punk rock, Pop punk, Ska punk
Years_active = 2002–present
Label = None
URL = [http://www.seniordiscountmusic.com/ Official website]
Current_members = Chuck Staton Alan Sousa Tom Wells Christian Staton
Past_members = Kevin Silva

Senior Discount is a punk rock band (with some ska-influences) based out of Warren, Rhode Island, a suburb of Providence. In addition to playing music, the band is also highly involved in the production of film. The band consists of Chuck Staton on vocals and guitar, Alan Sousa on bass and back-up vocals, Tom Wells on guitar and back-up vocals and Christian Staton playing the drums.

As of May 2008, Senior Discount (often shorted as "S*D") had won Best Punk Band in the Providence Phoenix Best Music Poll two years in a row (2007 + 2008), and they were also chosen as semi-finalists in the 2008 95.5 WBRU Rock Hunt. They had come in 3rd out of 807 bands in the eight-month long RI section of the Emergenza Festival in 2007, and they sold out a 350-person capacity movie theatre in Providence for the one time showing of their full-length documentary/comedy, "VBW Attack: The Senior Discount Movie", which is now out on DVD. They've also garnished at least 15 positive reviews of their debut album, "There Were Four Who Tried..." including positive reviews from AbsolutePunk.net and Maximum RockNRoll.

Senior Discount has also played over 200 shows and shared the stage with such acts as Gym Class Heroes, Boys Like Girls, The Bravery, The Ataris, Just Surrender, A Wilhelm Scream, the Street Dogs, Zox, Bad Larry, Westbound Train, Monty Are I, Daly's Gone Wrong, Big D and the Kids Table, Brain Failure, Catch 22, Darkbuster, Stealing Jane, Rehab, River City Rebels, Someday Providence, Mickey Avalon, Streetlight Manifesto, Sasquatch and the Sick-A-Billys, the Bloodshot Hooligans, Tip The Van, MC Lars, Badfish, Mastamindz, Whole Wheat Bread, Suburban Legends, Patent Pending, Steve and the Statonists, SBT and many many more.

Musically, Senior Discount is known for their fast and energetic live show (which revolves around their usual arsenal of songs including "VBW Song", "Smile", "Relationships Must Die", "I'm Crazy", "Nothing's Left", their homosexual-praising sing-along "Tom's Not A Virgin Anymore" and most notably, "Ataxia") but overall produce a much more diverse body of music, and call upon a multitude of influences.

Senior Discount is also known for creating a new style and reason for producing works of video. When Senior Discount is about to perform a large concert, often a 15 - 20 minute video is released beforehand by Senior Discount and the VBW (Senior Discount, paired with all their closest friends) to promote for the show. These videos have gained popularity throughout the last four years, and often include stunts and/or pranks (usually on guitarist Tom Wells), live footage, real stories, VBW games (such as Dirty Facts) but are mainly comprised of sitcom-based material that is scripted by S*D vocalist/VBW frontman Chuck Staton and stand-up comedian/S*D bassist/VBW mainstay Alan Sousa, and the videos star all of Senior Discount and the VBW.

The videos usually have nothing to do with the show Senior Discount is promoting, besides the fact that they are released with the intention of putting a focus on the Senior Discount members and raising awareness of the show. The videos revolve around semi-fictitious storylines in a sitcom-based production with quick cutaways and a large amount of physical humor, with jokes mainly influenced from the absurdity side of comedy, and anti-humor.

Their type of humor has been compared with such mainstream successes as Family Guy, Jackass, Stella, Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the South Park creators), Will Ferell, and Dave Chappelle.

Senior Discount released their first movie on DVD on August 5th, 2007. It is entitled "VBW Attack: The Senior Discount Movie"

History

2002

Chuck Staton and Christian Staton joined Kevin Silva after he had a short run with a few musicians years before and had called themselves "Senior Discount". The cousins Staton had no musical training and decided starting a band was a good way to learn. At this point in time, they were all about to begin college, and decided that their bachelor's degrees would come first. They would be a band for the next few years while they were in college, and build themselves as much as possible, and then when they graduated, they could begin touring and making the band fulltime.So, for the first year they continually practiced, producing their first recordings, entitled "The Life Starts Now EP" which contained studio versions of the songs "Wendy's", "No Reason Boner", "Pathetic Fallacy", and "Birth Of Tragedy". It also contained live versions of the songs "Hindsight", "Jumping Jahosafatts". and "Ataxia" recorded at an open-mic night at the Century Lounge in Providence, RI. Senior Discount used this year (August 2002 - August 2003) as mainly a means to learn to write songs and play instruments, not to expose themselves to the public until they thought they were ready to do so.

NOTE: At this live recording session, they also recorded a jumbled and embarrassing cover of "What I Got" which the band threw together onstage, which is extremely rare.

2003

As the band started playing live shows in the summer of 2003, Tom Wells became Senior Discount's merch guy/guitar tech, and eventually in October 2003, became the fourth member of Senior Discount. For the remainder of the year, Senior Discount began promoting themselves heavily all around New England, and played any and every show they were offered, including a show in an odd factory with A Wilhelm Scream. It was at this point in time that they bonded with local bands Bad Larry (RIP), and Slik Willy (now Arcading Landing).

NOTE: Senior Discount's first actual show was given to them by Monty Are I this year.

2004

Senior Discount (with the new addition of Tom Wells) recorded a new EP containing the songs "Wendy's (New Version)", "Smile", "Cum Song" and "Ataxia". 2004 also marked Senior Discount's first scripted promotional video - "The 25th Promo". They released two videos previous to this, but they are considered extremely amateur by the band and not recognized as part of the "legitimate" roster of Senior Discount videos - "The 25th Promo" is considered to be the first Senior Discount video. It was a huge hit and attracted over 7,000 views in three-weeks' time - before the advent of Youtube - due to help from Monty Are I's national exposure and willingness to promote the Senior Discount video, as it was for a show with featured both bands.

During this year, Senior Discount also created the videos "The Great Pumpkin Caper" and "The Great Turkey Caper" which really pushed forth the popularity of the Senior Discount videos, while Senior Discount continued to play larger shows and venues (including shows with Suburban Legends, High School Football Heroes, The Act, M80, Lemon Lime Tennis Shoes, The Lingo, Zox, Gavin Castleton and The Superspecs) and began working on songs for their first full-length album.

From 2004 - 2006, Senior Discount gave away over 10,000 copies of the EP to new fans all over New England. During this time they also created the promotional video style they used, and combined that with continually practicing an incredible amount of self-promotion physically and online. Senior Discount have often been called "promotion animals".

2005

In 2005, Senior Discount shared the stage with Gym Class Heroes, Big D and the Kids Table, Streetlight Manifesto, Darkbuster, the Street Dogs, A Wilhelm Scream, Whole Wheat Bread, River City Rebels, Catch 22 and others while continuing to promote themselves around New England.

They also recorded three new songs, "Relationships Must Die", a new recording of "Wendys", and "VBW Song".

NOTE: During this year, Senior Discount also played the CD release show for Monty Are I's "The Red Shift". Senior Discount also created the videos "Dirty Facts" parts 1 + 2, as well as more scripted videos, they released various acoustic recordings of their previous works, and appeared on the radio station WBRU numerous times

2006

2006 brought record-breaking numbers to Senior Discount's video viewership when the video "Ben Chauvin Presents Party Hard" brought in over 10,000 views in one week, and had 20,000 views in three weeks (again, without utilizing Youtube or other streaming video services), which crashed the Senior Discount webserver three times. Senior Discount stopped playing shows in late March to gear up for their full-length recording session, and in June of 2006 recorded their first full-length "There Were Four Who Tried".Later in 2006, Senior Discount once again joined Monty Are I for a dual-CD-release show where both bands released their new CDs.

In December 2006 Senior Discount started the Emergenza Music Festival, and spent most of the year garnishing almost unanimously positive reviews of their first full-length. They also began production on their movie, "VBW Attack: The Senior Discount Movie", and of course, continued playing shows, this year, with the likes of Daly's Gone Wrong, Just Surrender, Brain Failure, the Bloodshot Hooligans, Boys Like Girls, Someday Providence, Tip The Van, Badfish and more.

2007

2007 was a big year for Senior Discount. It was at this point that post-production began on their first full-length movie. The filn premiered in Providence where they sold out a 350-person capacity movie theatre on July 5th, entirely in pre-sale tickets. It was less than a month than before this that they won the 2007 Providence Phoenix Best Music Poll for Best Punk Band, and also came in 3rd out of 807 bands in the RI section of the Emergenza Music Festival.

Following the movie premiere and subsequent DVD release a month later on August 5th, Senior Discount attempted to tour for the first time. Unfortunately, they had hired a booking agent who was incapable and incompetent, and the tour fell through after only three dates.

Senior Discount continued to play shows and promote their full-length CD, and full-length DVD, while building their fanbase around New England, while waiting for certain members (Chuck Staton) to graduate from college.

This year culminated in a huge Rhode Island show and promotional video in November, both completely run and created by Senior Discount, and featuring other prominent RI bands Arcadia Landing, Lemon Lime Tennis Shoes, and Someday Providence. Monty Are I appeared in the video as well, but not on the show.

2008 - present

2008 has been Senior Discount's biggest year yet, with over 15 positive album reviews for their CD "There Were Four Who Tried..." (including positive reviews from AbsolutePunk.net and Maximum RockNRoll) and positive reviews for the DVD "VBW Attack: The Senior Discount Movie" as well.

Senior Discount's largest headling show to date (attendance of 500+), which was April 11, 2008, at The Living Room in Providence, RI, saw bassist Kevin Silva announce that he will officially be leaving the band. This is when VBW mainstay Alan Sousa took over on bass and the band continues to garnish more attention and fans, and to prove themselves as one of the hardest working New England bands.

Senior Discount is now writing new music (for the first time in two years) and working on their new album. They won Best Punk Band in the Providence Phoenix Best Music Poll 2008 (for the second year in a row), and they were also chosen as semi-finalists in the 2008 95.5 WBRU Rock Hunt.

Senior Discount is currently looking for a booking agency to begin touring as the band is about to finish college.

External links

* [http://www.seniordiscountmusic.com Official Website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/seniordiscount Official MySpace]