College Sound: No Champions rocks

No Champions is a fairly new band to the Austin punk rock scene. The band formed in the later part of 2008, but they are still distinguishing themselves from all the other bands in this town.

However, three of the four members, Brady Black, Jamie Martinez, and Adam Gibbs, have been playing in other bands for years.

Black and Gibbs were part of Air Tight Alibi, a dark melodic hardcore band that frequently shared the stage with Martinez' then-band Firekills during the early 2000s. Having performed together so much, it became inevitable that the three members would eventually form their own band.

"Firekills had just ended. So Jamie and I got together and started writing some songs," said Black.

Bassist Stephen Lane joined later, adding the last piece to the puzzle.

"We did a three piece thing for awhile and then we had added Steven who we've known since high school. He came in to play bass. That's pretty much how it came together," said Black.

No Champions, then went into the recording studio in February, 2010 to record their debut album "Ape Shit." However, the album wasn't released until November 2010.

"We sat on it for a little bit because we weren't sure what we wanted to do with it," said Gibbs. "So we ended up actually putting it out in late 2010 while we worked on some other stuff and then finally got together. That cd took some time to put together."

Gibbs helped record the tracks in a studio he was working for at the time, Ohm Recording Facility.

"I mixed it and tracked what I could. I didn't track myself on the drums. The studio manager and owner of that studio did the parts that I couldn't do. When I couldn't be behind the board, he was doing it. Otherwise, I did it," said Gibbs.

Gibbs also earned some recording experience from his classes at Austin Community College as a commercial music management major. He has completed his course work for graduation, however, there is one small set back.

"I finished all my audio stuff about a year ago. I still have one unrelated class to take which is not anything to do with audio. I can't seem to get into that class," said Gibbs.

No Champion currently has in the works another album as well as an acoustic album. The band performed a low-key show with just acoustic guitars and a small drum set that sparked an idea for the acoustic album.

"This is just going to be a completely different side of what (we are) because we played a couple of acoustic shows per the request of our friends from the Buzzkillers. It went off really well. We enjoyed it. So we decided we're gonna record some of that stuff as well," said Gibbs.

"It opens up a different side of us. Our electric show is really loud and fast and abrupt," said Black. "We've reworked a few of the different songs. In fact, our fastest, loudest, heaviest song is also by far the prettiest acoustic song that we do. It's bizarre, but it's a lot of fun."

With South by Southwest Music Festival (SXSW) quickly approaching in March, No Champions hopes to grab more people's attentions.

"Maybe when SXSW comes, we're just trying to impress and get the name out," said Black. "Either way, we're going to continue to write and create and have fun with it and just treat it like it's a half-job. It's like the coolest job you could ever have, but you don't get paid for it, but it's ok. It's a labor of love. We're just gonna press on and just keep pushing it and see what we can do. "