Sports are less of a “band to watch” and more of a “band to love and let go of.” Formed in Gambier, Ohio at the village’s small liberal arts school, Kenyon College, Sports self-released a short and promising LP, titled “Sunchokes”, and made it available on Bandcamp in 2014. From there, they played shows with heroes of the local and not-so-local underground, toured, and sold out of their first run of cassettes. All but one member of Sports graduated from Kenyon this past spring, and the band has since scattered across the United States with future plans obstructing their ability to continue playing together. Drummer Benji Dossetter will attend medical school in the fall, bassist James Karlin is moving to Arizona to teach Latin in a secondary school, and guitarists/vocalists Carmen Perry and Catherine Dwyer have plans to move to Philly together. Jack Washburn, who also sings and plays guitar, has another year left in Gambier, finishing his Kenyon degree. Sports won’t be able to tour their forthcoming full-length release. Sunchokes made its way out of Ohio and across the country by word-of-mouth. This new album will undoubtedly follow the same path.
Sports recorded All Of Something with Kyle Gilbride, who has engineered some of the most noteworthy DIY punk records in recent years and also fronts Swearin’ alongside Allison Crutchfield. Waxahatchee, All Dogs, and Girlpool are just a few of the bands that he’s worked with, and “All Of Something” harbors the same live, spontaneous sound that makes all of those other acts so appealing. After recording Sunchokes at WKCO, Kenyon College’s radio station, Sports decided that they wanted to record its follow-up in a semi-professional environment. Father/Daughter Records will release the album this coming autumn, adding Sports to a roster of like-minded though sonically dissimilar bands that include fellow Bands To Watch PWR BTTM and Diet Cig.
All of the members of Sports have side projects; Perry is also known as Addie Pray, Dwyer as Spring Onion, Dossetter as Count Lenny, and Washburn as Cry About It. Dwyer and Washburn also play together under the name Ice Cream Social. All Of Something is a starting point for a group of musicians who undoubtedly have even bigger projects to come, and this will be the record that made them.
The Fat Angel Sings 