Arm the Poor

Arm The Poor are from Tampa and play melodic punk that combines the urgent spit vocals and bass flourishes of Rancid with the surging, emotive elements of bands in the No Idea/post-Leatherface/Fest-swarming/Beard/PBR-powered-engine Florida scene. If you tend to like the beer chuggin’ pop punk that is often lauded in the pages of Thee Razorcaque Almanacke, then show Arm The Poor some love already! The cover photo even features a coffee cup and a Guinness bottle! - Razorcake magazine

If you have been missing Arm The Poor since the band played their last tour in 2010, you are in for a treat. Vomnibus is a blistering album comprising of two previously released EPs that brings your love for the band’s sound to the forefront of your mind. Chris Krause (drums), Aaron Schaub (guitar), Marc Cody (bass guitar) and Adam O’Leary (guitar, vocals) packed emotional depth, raw punk aggression and anthemic melodies into each track. We sat down with Adam O’Leary to talk about the album, what everyone has been up to, getting back together and much more!
OSR: The band formed in 2005, but how did you connect and come together?

O’Leary: I’m pretty sure we all met through some high school battle-of-the-bands type of thing. This was maybe 2004? Chris, Marc and Aaron all went to the same high school and they were putting together a band to play in the show. I was jamming with Chris one night and he told me he had to go to this band practice, so I gave him a ride. I guess it turned out they needed somebody to sing. It was all cover songs, Misfits, Black Flag, some Minor Threat stuff if I remember. I was just in the right place at the right time.

OSR: Your latest album Vomnibus is an anthology of your first two EP’s. What prompted you to do this and not release new material?

O’Leary: We never bothered with taking the time to get our music properly mixed or recorded, everything was just “let’s track an entire ep in 8 hours”. I came across the original master discs from our first two recording sessions and was amazed the files were still readable. A couple recordings were missing parts, so Marc and Aaron had to go back and fix some tracks, but now we are able to give our music a proper release.
OSR: The music of Vomnibus charts the beginning of the band, how do you feel when you listen to these songs?

O’Leary: I’m proud of those songs. I think the music we made back then still holds up well and will continue to endure. It’s definitely different listening now. A lot of those songs were written when I was at peak self-destruct. It was a very toxic period for all of us in the band I think. The title Vomnibus is really fitting in that regard.

OSR: The album is also being released on vinyl, can you tell us more about this?

O’Leary: Yes! Marc and I started a small label called Toe-Tapper Records and we’re releasing the album on vinyl, tentatively scheduled for Spring 2021. DIY indie label from start to finish. Marc did all the album art and my wife helped with the layout. We’re planning on releasing some more ATP stuff and hoping to add more artists to our roster in the future. If you have a band, send us some songs!

OSR: When the band first got together, did you know what sound you wanted?

O’Leary: A lot of our sound comes from our rhythm section. We have an incredible drummer, Chris Krause, and Marc is essentially playing speed metal on the bass. Aaron and I are the stereophonic guitar wall of highs and mids, but it’s really our rhythm that drives our songs. With punk rock, your band lives and dies by your drummer.

OSR: In one sentence, how would you describe your musical journey over the 5 years the band was together?

O’Leary: It was like some big, beautiful, swampy fart; perfectly timed and executed, lingering in the noses of the anointed few. - The Other Side Reviews

Arm The Poor and Vomnibus collectively mark a band and series of EPs once again unified and cast out into the world in a time where Punk-Rock is all the more required. That year was 2020 and that date was the 5th of December. However, the Tampa band indeed exist further back in the timeline. What is now Vomnibus was originally birthed as From America and Scream & Defecate recorded in 2005 and 2006 respectively. However, that is the past. Now, in this hear modern age of woe the band have got back at and released Vomnibus as a full LP. Onward!

Arm The Poor capture a time where Skate Punk was entrenched, Pop-Punk was just as bonafide and jabbing discordant North American guitar-Ska was omnipresent. Has it ever been that far away from anything really? ‘My Father’s Words’ is an anthem of determination riding a breakneck drumbeat and a warped, suggestive line. Track one is an explosive entry and sets the albums energy requirements.

The discordant suggestive tone of that very meandering lead-line suddenly makes more sense within seconds of ‘Black Widow’. Track two plies an intermittent discordant Ska-jaunt ala Operation Ivy while capturing the grit of early ’90s melodic Punk. Track two keeps the Punk low and the Ska in reserve in a tale of love gone wrong. ‘Ballad Of The Dammed’ then treads on this guitar-ska-ism in its intro before falling into the genre-archetype with ease. Arm The Poor’s inherently fuzzed aesthetic is a key selling point and allows their flirtations discordant-Ska to contrast as much as it does suit.
‘Blood On Your Hands’ is a sardonic jab at American politics that’s as fresh now as I’m sure it was when it was written. Now, those who know me personally will tell you that my taste in Ska and Ska-esque Punk is something I am incredibly picky and strict over. It’s something I openly admit and yet it’s proving to be a valid point outside of myself here. ‘Blood On Your Hands’ is a song for people, who like me, prefer their Ska-Punk as an exuberant yet grit-encrusted punch in the face. Which, is also the perfect segue into making the statement that if you like The Suicide Machines, you’ll likely have bonafide field-day with track four.

‘American Youth’ pushes an early NOFX-esque crash through the halfway point before the instrumental ‘Speakeasy’ does its thing. It is past this halfway point that despite a remix and remaster of the original cuts, that Arm The Poor maintain the charm of early-to-mid 2000s production.
‘Eat Shit’ was forerunning single and another full-throttle display from a relentless rhythm section. Which, is no surprise considering the track’s need to exit the maelstrom of negativity its caught in. Vomnibus is a raucous and fun record but that doesn’t mean it isn’t pissed-off. ‘It’s Not A Tumour’ desists and relaxes. Track eight is Arm The Poor’s greatest foray into Ska. The band near-fully-embody the very flutter that has been supplementing their voracious blasts of Skate Punk with its a welcome and well-placed reprieve. Of course, eventually, the band return to their grounded Punk once again but it’s welcomely more melodic and reserved.

‘Homesick’ is a half-flung return to the snappy, snotty brash-Punk of the former but occupies a space in time far more inclined to Rancid‘s vocal interplay, as well as and the same mid-weight jabbing classic Punk. That said, it is another where Arm The Poor’s rhythm section shines. This is particularly the case post-1:35 where the track drives low in excellent contrast to its melodic earlier self. Arm The Poor may have deviated on Vomnibus, but the aforementioned closing vocal contrast will remind you of how they began.
‘Martyrs & Murderers’ closes an album of incredible flow. Arm The Poor’s splicing of two-previous releases has unambiguously paid off. The very act of doing so is precarious by default but again, Arm The Poor and Vomnibus rise triumphantly anew. Track ten completes the band’s reemergence. Harmonic vocals, an ear-worming melodic lead and a far more vibrant adoration of Ska across the board play-out and close a record now existing as it always should have. - Ear Nutrition