About Corm

Corm started in the suburbs of D.C. when Dan Chu (drums), John Davis (guitar), Josh Hecht (guitar) and Ben Winters (vocals) got together in March of 1990 to try out for the 8th grade talent show. They did not make the cut. Soon, Alex Ficker joined on as lead singer and Ben switched over to bass. The fivesome spent nearly every weekend together for the next few years, slowly learning how to play their instruments and write songs. The band recorded a few demo tapes (This Six in 1992 and Rule 303 in 1993) and continued to play throughout the D.C. area. In January of '94, Rob Anthony replaced Josh on guitar and the band immediately went into WGNS Studios to record its first 7", Custom Cool, which was issued in the spring of '94, weeks before their high school graduation. This was followed with the band's first forays out of state, with little weekend tours here and there. Ben left the band in the summer of '95 and was replaced by Scott Stenger. A week after Scott joined, the band left on a tour of the Midwest in support of its second single, The Conservation of Momentum (a split release between Dischord and John's label, Shute). In 1996, Corm recorded its only full-length, Audio Flame Kit, which was released that summer on Shute/Dischord. The band went on its most extensive tour that summer and also recorded four new songs which were intended to be released as two singles on different labels (Polyvinyl and Foresight). However, the band decided to split up in 1997 and played its final show at the Black Cat in June of that year. One of the songs from the Polyvinyl single ("Traded Green Trees") was re-routed to a split single with Braid that Polyvinyl issued in the summer of '97. The four songs the band recorded on its '96 tour wound up coming out on a CD called Everything Streamlined (Contrast Records) which collected the band's entire output since Rule 303. Since the split was amicable, Corm reconvened in the fall of '97 to record the last song they'd written, "I Have No Use For Empires," which was included on Everything Streamlined. During the recording, they wound up writing another new song, "Chess," which opens up Everything Streamlined. Following Corm, Dan, John and Alex started up a band called The Elusive with Ian Chu (bass) and Chris Richards (guitar/vocals). The Elusive was a short-lived project, but left behind a CDEP called Sometimes Sounds Collapse. Rob went on to play guitar in a band called The Maginot Line. John went on to play drums in Q and Not U, who released several albums and toured extensively from 1998 until they disbanded in 2005. John now plays in a band called Georgie James, while Scott continues to work on assorted musical projects. Ben played in a band called The Miracle Cures from 1993 to 1998 and has gone on to write musicals for the stage. In the spring of 2005, Audio Flame Kit was remixed and remastered at Silver Sonya/Inner Ear Studios by T.J. Lipple. It was reissued by Polyvinyl Records in November 2005. From: http://www.polyvinylrecords.com