
CHAD PRICE PEACE COALITION
An artist entering his staggering fourth decade writing and performing music that weaves in and out of seminal pop-punk, alt-country, metal, and a fascinating indie folk-prog hybrid, Chad Price has made the most of his time.
In 1993, Chad Price stumbled into the ultimate rock and roll fantasy when his favorite band, Los Angeles punk stalwarts ALL, tapped him as its third singer. Coming out swinging with Breaking Things, Price contributed 90s heft to the rejuvenated band’s already-storied catalog and quickly ingratiated himself with their fiercely loyal fanbase. Chad continued to sharpen his songwriting chops with ALL’s three other prolific writers, saying, “I was in the music business to party for years. I gradually got better at writing just from doing it.” Price helped guide the band through its sole major label dalliance (1996’s Pummel) before finding a late 90s spiritual home at Epitaph with Mass Nerder and Problematic rounding out the decade.
As Price managed to keep up with ALL's breakneck release and touring schedule, he was beginning to open up new musical veins that unmistakably skewed toward traditional folk and Americana. To help bring these new ideas to life, Chad formed the Colorado-based Drag the River with fellow country-curious musicians Jon Snodgrass and Paul Rucker (Armchair Martian) and J.J. Nobody (the Nobodys), releasing his first artistic left-turn, Hobo’s Demos, in 2000. With the help of an impressive rotating cast of punk/alt-country players and support from Suburban Home Records, over the next 13 years Drag the River criss-crossed the country with the likes of Rocky Votolato and Lucero and released seven smart and scruffy studio albums, including 2008’s plaintive You Can’t Live This Way and 2013’s gloriously cranked-up self-titled swansong.
Ever the king of overlapping, cross-pollinating projects, Price countered Drag the River’s guttered heartland rock by continuing to push himself in two directions at once. His first solo album, 2009’s Smile Sweet Face, plays like a bruised morning after a rowdy Drag the River show. He remembers, “I think when I started playing more solo shows about 10 years ago I started putting more effort into the songwriting. When I quit drinking a couple years later I feel like my brain just opened up and wanted more info.” His follow-up, 2018’s One Week Record expands Price’s personal songs’ sonic territory with more instrumentation but remains direct and unfussy, gamely following One Week Records’ mission statement–“10 songs in 7 days.” Counteracting these sporadic solo releases, Chad formed A Vulture Wake, a truly unexpected detour into prog-metal, grinding through its strident debut The Appropriate Level of Outrage, two subsequent Eps and the sophomore LP One.Kingdom.Animal.
All those miles and artistic transformations have now led to the welcome arrival of a new project – Chad Price Peace Coalition and the album A Perfect Pearl. Price unpacks the group’s origin story: “A year or so ago I did a show singing with a ALL cover band. I really liked the guys and we bonded over our love of prog-rock. The idea of expanding the sound started influencing my writing.” Cory West (drums, lead guitar, and keys) and Anthony Medici (bass, lead guitar, and vocals) were the perfect partners in fleshing out Chad’s latest ten songs. While A Perfect Pearl certainly delivers Price’s signature rough-hewn vulnerability, the limber trio format kicks up some sublime musical moments that, yes, feel distinctly inspired by prog giants like Jethro Tull and Yes.
Opener “FAWN” may have crunchy guitars and throbbing Americana tremolo, but the twinkling Fripp-ish guitars and unpredictable, lilting melody signal that this is yet another artistic detour for Price. The subsequent songs flash artifacts from Chad’s other musical identities, but Peace Coalition feels like thrilling, new terrain. There’s “Rainbow,” a desolate transmission picked up on a dizzy Leslie speaker, and the low-key, dusty rock opera of “Sunflower,” with its jarring harmonic shifts. “Tongue” is a wonderful slow-burner that skirts Price’s alt-country bona-fides before blossoming into cathartic sheets of sound. Deep on side two, “AM” nudges up the tempo a bit, but instead of retreating into basic rock and roll, it coils into a menacing circular repeating pattern, threes over fours–or maybe vice versa. Chad Price Peace Coalition's A Perfect Pearl is a distinctly compelling listen, and like the best rock albums, it provokes and ultimately rewards an attentive listener.