daniel johnston, the feelies, sebadoh, super lucky cat, the beatles, guided by voices, donna&althea, guitars of the golden triangle, the clash, lee "scratch" perry, lions and tigers, devo, graham smith, clyde stubblefield, the pixies, the lemonheads, velvet underground, smzb, grateful dead, ween, cold war kids, the jam, squeeze, the libertines, homestead records, phantom tollbooth, dinosaur jr., death of samantha, astral weeks, bobby dylan, otis redding, david allan coe, johnny cash, old photo albums, confusion, heartbreak, and a "passion for learning"
Stark Magazine online
The Octagon channel all the best parts of the post-punk sound. Their songs are melodic, well written, and executed with taste and restraint. While referencing greats like Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. The Octagon's music doesn't sound stale or knocked off. Their new EP has enough lo-fi swagger and modern sensibility to place them at the forefront of the current crop of break-out bands. Certainly a band to watch this fall heading into what promises to be another over-saturated CMJ season.
Hank Shteamer, TONY
The Octagon's new free digital EP (http://bit.ly/8fA2o) is a great listen. As usual, the band sounds gritty, poetic, sad, real.
TIME OUT NEW YORK
Rough-edged local outfit the Octagon seems to have a limitless supply of memorable and crazily efficient (read: really, really short) indie-pop gems at its fingertips. Its new one, Nothing but Change—on the refreshingly unpretentious local indie Serious Business—is crammed with the kind of tunes you want to put on mixtapes for your best friends; song after song, the disc is brisk, clever, fiery and bravely poignant.
SAID THE GRAMOPHONE
"The Octagon's "The Narrow Road to Oku" [i]s a little disoriented, this sandy rock-song. It went wandering into the desert with a bottle of red wine, a Pavement album, and a few hours later is like: what the fuck? Whoever it was supposed to meet with didn't show up; whichever stars it was expecting to see didn't make an appearance. And now its shoes are tied in unfamiliar knots, its hair is filled with grains of unfamiliar minerals, and it's got a catchy song in its head - something it found in a dune, burnished and hopeful and even a little buddhist. Whereever the hell it came from, The Octagon's gonna carry it around for a while."
Record Release Review Time Out
"...[The Octagon] re-imagines tight British pop (the Jam and the Libertines both come to mind) as vivacious New York punk. The band's best songs lump vocals together, finding strength in the collective."
Jenyk.com Review
Jasper Coolidge
"Like everything you've ever heard aplombingly played in a way you've never heard - like dropping your fave pop records in a juicer and serving in a rocks glass."
Eight Sides Live
The New Haven Advocate
"They're based in NYC, but the Octagon kicks 'em out in a style area rockers will recognize as very New Haventuneful, punky guitar-rock songs, not too jokey but far from self-serious, that strike and get out without overstaying their welcome"
THE SKINNY
Rock that's both sloppy and strung-out, shades of Pavement and The Minutemen, with hooks that fall stumbling out of an alleyway before you realised they were coming. You don't expect a song like this to be so catchy: it's more intuition than craft, more accident than design.
very (perhaps overly) fond of the most recent EP--came into my sphere as one of those musical miracles that happens just when you need it, specifically. planning to see you play in philly on january 5th. ooooh la la.
Hello friends! THREAD ATLAS will be @ Tantra in San Marcos on October 30th. This is our 1st show with the new line-up and we're excited as hell! So make plans and we'll see you there!
September 1:st our 1:st single, Dare To Lick (Hunter's Red Sleeve), from our upcoming album SILENT REVOLUTION, is released and available on iTunes, Spotify and whatnot!
The album will be released October 1:st and later that month we go on tour in Germany with The Movements.