Apollo Up!

Apollo Up! is a post-punk or pop punk indie music band based in Nashville, Tennessee, chronologically aligned with the post-punk revival of the early 21st century. Billboard.com describes the band as post-hardcore: "cerebral but impassioned," with tricky song structures and unexpected dynamic shifts. Their sound has been compared to Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, and Fugazi.Singer/guitarist Jay Leo Phillips, bassist Mike Shepherd, and drummer Jereme Frey, each former or ongoing members of local bands Lotushalo, Shiboleth, On Command, and Forget Cassettes, formed the band in late 2002. Their debut album, Light the End and Burn It Through, was released by indie label Theory 8 Records in January 2004. Phillips divided his activities between Apollo Up! and dream pop trio Forget Cassettes, touring with both bands and working on the latter's second album, Salt, before concentrating on Apollo's second release, Chariots of Fire in June 2006. The group continued to gig locally and toured, playing, among other venues, at Cincinnati's Desdemona Festival in 2006. The band released a 5-song EP, Walking Papers, in 2008.