Ultra Bleach isn’t the first punk band formed at a local house show, but members place significance on how that inclusive, creative community can connect people from different backgrounds and personal experiences. Hearing about the band and how it started, one might wonder what prevents more people from making stuff without meeting online, or knowing each other in real life — or whatever the latest equivalent of flier for “New Band Seeks Drummer: Must Have Transportation” is?
For this story, the band members prefer to represent themselves on a first-name basis for a variety of reasons including: rapidly shrinking privacy, modesty, search engine de-optimization, contrariness and just for fun. It’s an affectation that feels right when sitting around the Northside kitchen table of Ultra Bleach’s original guitarist and interlocutor, Robert “Bobby” Barrow, to hear about how the band formed on the occasion of its latest eight-song release (per Associated Press Style rules: Barrow, Graham Olsen, Grace Smith and Carl Hill all have full names, even if you won’t find them credited in the liner notes, or registered with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.)
Everything started at a house show nobody seems to remember much, apart from it launching the band. It was loud. My friends were there. Someone was smoking a cigarette. It could have been a million shows three years ago. Bobby is the only connective tissue between the members of Ultra Bleach, and on the formative night in question, he was bummed to find himself without a band after years of making noise with friends around town. So he approached drummer, Graham, about starting a new one.
While it seems like there are two dozen guitarists for every drummer in Richmond, and that the odds of finding an unattached Ringo in the wild are ‘lil to nil, as fate would have it Graham was free. And he was also keen to start a new project after playing with local rock progedies, Black Naked Wings, from the tender age of 7. “I had 14 years of playing music with the same people,” he says. “At the end, we couldn’t listen to each other anymore.”
Everyone remembers what happened when Ultra Bleach’s next recruit, Grace, entered the room. “You guys turned around and said, ‘Hey, want to be in a band?’” she recalls. “Sure, okay. I don’t play any instruments, so I have to do vocals.”
After original bass player John Nixon left to become a firefighter, Carl joined out of a pure interest in playing music rather than an already established connection. Carl trusts in authenticity when it comes to creative expression, noting how it will lead you to the people you want to be around; she also says it didn’t hurt that Bobby is a triple Libra [meaning his sun, moon, and ascendant (or rising) signs are all in the zodiac sign of Libra].
Clocking in at over 20 minutes, Ultra Bleach’s new self-released cassette plays more like an album than an EP or demo. Recorded by Liza Bowers and Graham’s dad, Andrew Olsen, across three floors of Bobby’s house (where the band also practices), the music is a product of community. Even the glittery text that dresses the front cover of the tape utilizes a rubber-stamp embossing technique Bobby credits his mom for teaching him. “It’s fun,” he says. “I like the human touch.”
Below we asked the members of Ultra Bleach to weigh in on their new self-titled release, track by track, to add something to your screen while you stream. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
“Box”
Bobby: This is the only Ultra Bleach song where I wrote the lyrics. I was thinking about how high housing prices have pushed more and more people out of their living situations and further into precarity. The first line of the song is, “You can live in a box if you’ve got $2,300 a month.” Just a random number that sounded good. At this point you could tell me a newly built apartment costs any amount of money and I’d believe you.
Carl: The concept behind this is so simple and universal — everyone’s gotta live somewhere. But housing has become exploitative.
Grace: It was so fun for me to learn lyrics written by another bandmate and I think Bobby is such an excellent writer. I think this song is so fun musically, but also so topical lyrically. And that’s the balance I try to strike with a lot of our music.
“Consistently Ugly”
Grace: This is my favorite song of ours. There’s so many distinct parts and surprises, and I really get to freak it on the vocals. I had shaved my head recently and was in the process of growing it out, and it sucked. So I wrote this song about growing your hair out.
Carl: I love when Grace sounds absolutely feral — it’s giving Crass.
“Eat 2 Live”
Carl: This might be my favorite one to play, other than “Throw Up and Die.”
Bobby: The duality of man: Eat to live or throw up and die.
Grace: I was listening to a lot of early Erik Nervous and Judy and The Jerks when we wrote this song and I think that comes out a lot in the lyrical content. Bobby titled the song super offhandedly and I thought it was so goofy and perfect.
Bobby: I think there’s a part where Grace says “Fuck this shit, I quit my job.” That resonates with me.
“Tongue Tied”
Bobby: I try to play guitar like I don’t know how to play guitar — or is it the other way around? I think that comes out in this track.
Carl: Robert, respectfully, shut the hell up. You’re so good at guitar! That’s the thing about this band — it’s just some humble, silly guys with no ego who happen to be wildly talented. It’s a good space to grow because Graham and Robert are way more skilled at their instruments than I am, but no one’s a jerk about it.
Grace: I was listening to a lot of Delta 5 when I wrote this song and was trying to do some pared-down, very repetitive and vague lyrics. I honestly didn’t really write this song about anything or anyone specifically at the time, but it always seems to find a way to be relevant.
“Cake”
Carl: To me, this song sounds like a fight. Or someone getting their teeth kicked in who really deserves it. Bass is the looming animosity, vocals are inner monologue, drums are your friends egging you on, guitar is fist making contact with face.
Grace: People always ask me if it’s sexual and I’ve literally never thought that about Cake! To me it was just doused in heavy irony, because I do not think I’m sweet at all. I’m loud and crass and blunt, which is the antithesis of what women are expected to be, ya know?
“Heckler”
Bobby: There’s a little Minor Threat in there. Carl calls this one “Throw Up And Die.”
Carl: “Eat to Live”’s evil twin. Another one where Grace leaves no crumbs. I try to make the bass sound sarcastic at the end. Like the sound of being punished by some idiot man.
Graham: I’m almost positive that this was the first song we made and I remember being so hype about it like, yeah, okay so this is what Ultra Bleach will sound like.
Grace: Graham’s right, this is the first song we ever wrote. I completely rewrote it to what it is today. It has such a visceral and aggressive sound and I felt like I had to write something to match that. I 100% wrote this song about men who are just total punishers and never let anyone else talk, and think they know everything about everything. I fucking hate being interrupted, man, it’s so rude. Sometimes I worry that I write too many songs criticizing men, but then I’m like, nah, fuck it, I don’t give a shit.
“Creep”
Grace: Shout out to John Nixon big time on this song. He’s an incredible technical and talented bass player. I remember we were noodling around in practice and I immediately started singing “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, I’m walking down the street,” just totally spitballing, which I never, ever do. I’m very methodical and private, usually, when I write. It was so satisfying to have a song click together so quickly. There are so many fucking creeps in the world and they can all kiss my fucking ass. I’ll sing this song at the top of my lungs forever.
“Radiation Decay”
Carl: This took the most takes when we recorded, and it felt like we kept playing it faster each time. I think we were delirious by the time we got to this one, just laughing and fucking everything up. By the end, I was hanging on for dear life.
Graham: I still have a really hard time remembering how this song starts. If you ever see me on stage stop and look confused, it’s me trying to remember how this song starts. Almost every time, I ask Bobby to play the first couple of notes to jog my memory.
Grace: This was our first song that I fell in love with. I really felt like we had struck our sound and I had written lyrics that felt simultaneously abstract, lighthearted, fun, and poignant. I am always on my anti-internet — social media — tirade and this song is about that.
I wish everyone would put their fucking phone down man, that shit isn’t good for you. Especially at a show — put your phone down and dance. No one cares about the video you took. When has anyone ever gone back and watched videos they took of shows anyway? Literally never. Get off the internet and make a new friend; people are awesome, life is awesome.
To mark the release of its new recording, Ultra Bleach will play Cobra Cabana on Thursday, Sept. 11 with Added Dimensions, Gino & the Goons and Teen Cobra. Doors are at 7 p.m. and cost $12.
