Red Hare

Red Hare’s roots run all the way back to the Washington D.C. music scene of the 80’s and 90’s, where Shawn Brown, Jason Farrell and Dave Eight immersed themselves in the braids and tangles of that city’s unique strain of hardcore. In 1987, Shawn (the original [and current] singer of Dag Nasty) and guitarist Jason founded Swiz— a harsher take on melodic hardcore released by Dischord’s sister-label Sammich and their own freshly-minted label Hellfire. A year later they did double duty with the even more raw Fury. Bassist Dave joined Swiz in 1989 till the band wrapped it up in 1990.

By 1995, Jason and Dave reconvened to immerse themselves in the angular post-hardcore stylings of Bluetip, yet found enough juice to again tap Shawn for the short-lived Swiz reboot Sweetbelly Freakdown. Meanwhile, Joe Gorelick was living a parallel existence drumming with emo-power-mathematicians Garden Variety. A fortuitous string of circumstances led him down the Jersey turnpike straight into Bluetip’s empty drum chair. Although Joe did not record with the band, his prowess was nonetheless noted and cataloged for future missions—first in 2002 with Jason in Retisonic, and now with Shawn, Jason and Dave in Red Hare.

Red Hare released their second album, Little Acts of Destruction (2018), through a joint effort with Dischord and their own label Hellfire. Like their debut, Nites of Midnite (2013), and their stop-gap 7” Lexicon Mist (2016), the album was recorded and mixed by longtime collaborator and friend J.Robbins. These 14 songs are a heady/hearty mix of the familiar and new that bristle with the energy of the hometown sound they helped shape.