Despised Youth Records is pleased to announce the signing of Southern California punk band THE HOAX.



The Hoax started as the brain child of bassist and lead singer Tyler Dunagan and guitarist Ricky "Johnny Hoax" Madson. They started with the idea of making a Christian punk band inspired by bands like Officer Negative, The Havoc, and Headnoise.



They soon got local drummer Daniel "Danimal" Cathers to join, finishing the three-piece, in January '05. Starting with a cover of J.C.H.C. the band was soon writing music and found their first show in Fall '05 with other local bands The M.O.P.I.C., D.S.B., and Dead Theory. The Hoax continued to play shows, being grateful to play with such bands as Headnoise and The Havoc. In October '07, The Hoax made a mission's trip to Russia where they put on free Outreach concerts in Kirov for the local college students.



In the summer of 2008, the band experimented with moving Tyler to full-time lead vocals and adding another bass player. Matt "Navajo Joe" Dreer played bass for The Hoax for two song recordings and one show at the Stronghold. Sadly other matters lead him to choose to leave the band, but he will still join in as a special guest at several live shows.



In January 2009, The Hoax recorded their first studio EP. At nine songs, fourteen minutes, “Fight To Be Free” was released in April '09.



The Hoax is a Christian punk band with the goal of doing the Lord's ministry wherever he puts them within the punk community.



The Hoax will begin recording their debut album for Despised Youth in the near future with a planned Summer time release. Their EP, "Fight To Be Free" will soon be digitally released via Despised Youth Records and will be available at all major online digital stores.



You can check out a few tracks from the band’s EP, “Fight To Be Free” on the bands myspace page.

Sounds good. I like it.

Nice...has a good mix of thrash and punk.

These guys sound great. Their sound reminds me of the whole movement that was occuring in the mid to late eighties in the scene that was in my neck of the woods. Memories of basement shows and community halls...
No offence to the other two(?) signings who are also fantastic bands, but The Hoax are more my speed.
Btw, who are the long haired cats in the b/w photo? At the myspace, the band seems to be a bunch of short hairs.

They are one and same LOL Those photos are bit older but we will get new ones posted in next few days.

I was just wondering....are there also going to be actual copies available of the EP or only download....Or are they only available at the band's shopw...Not much of a download person. Rather have the cd....

The EP is available at DMD:
http://www.divinemetaldistro.com/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&products_id=2017

Hell yeah! This band is great!

Glad you like this one

The Hoax will be entering the studio at the end of the month to record their debut album for Despised Youth Records. The recording will be finished by the middle of July! I'll keep you posted as more info is available. Look for a late summer release!

Is Sullen an under 30yrs of age label? I feel old when I see these bands.

Oh.. ok.. I'll never understand the family of small labels here and how they work.. but I like you guys none the less. It seems like there are 10 different labels that are actually just all arms of the same entity.. correct?