Embraced
Photo: Alex Wise
Embraced
An Orchestrated Failure
Theory 8 Records, 2002
A few high school friends and I played melodic hardcore as Embraced. We made one record for Theory 8 Records, in Nashville, and toured the country with Underoath, Copeland, Beloved, Love is Red, and other great punk/hardcore/indie acts of the era. This record is available on sweet 180g vinyl.
“Average Men: Notes on AOF’s 15th Birthday”
Medium, January 2017
Read an essay I wrote about the band when we reissued An Orchestrated Failure in 2017. I wrote it in the New York Times newsroom on Christmas Day 2016, between tweeting for the Culture Desk and making copies.
First reunion show, 2007
We reformed with Brandon for one hometown show, somewhere out on Panama City Beach. This song, “Hold My Hand,” was the last on our lone record and, at that time, was going to be the last song we ever played together. Commence piles of sweaty bodies.
Live at The Den
Downtown Panama City, FL
January 12, 2003
This is bittersweet to watch. It was Embraced’s first show after letting go of Brandon, our singer/screamer (a valuable skillset in those days) and a great friend of mine from high school. This is a time capsule, though, both of a hometown venue that meant a lot to our band and a period when we’d readied some new songs that, sadly, were never recorded.
Second reunion show, 2011
In 2011, we discovered we’d all be home for the holidays. So we learned a Smashing Pumpkins song and played another reunion show.