Hardcore band End of a Year has been playing around upstate New York for a couple of years. Often compared to Embrace, the band has its own sound but with similar personal lyrics. I spoke with singer Patrick about the band after the show.

Please tell us the usual: who are the players and their instruments, how long EOAY has been playing together, etc.

Hans and Doody play guitar, Andrew plays bass, Eric drums, and I (Patrick) sing. We've been a band since, I don't know exactly, I think 2002 or 2003. I am very bad with remembering dates.

What made you choose that particular Embrace song title for the name of your band? And getting recorded at Inner Ear... how DC can you get without living there?!

The name happened as a result of our lack of attention to detail. After our first practice someone remarked that it sounded like Embrace and suggested the name. We collectively said "Sure" without reflecting on how bad a band name that is. Since then we've toyed with changing it, but the only name we all agree is cool is "Barf Spectrum" and we had to admit it would be pretty hard to be taken seriously with that as a name.

Honestly, the DC-influence is a funny thing. We all love those bands and the ethic many of them have, but we never intended to ape that style. It just sort of happened that we have those leanings. It's become a little frustrating when I'll read a review that wants to lump us in with the rampant false-nostalgia in hardcore. That's not us. Hans really believes he is playing Roxy Music stuff and Andrew is constantly pushing us to cover Italio Disco songs. No one in the band has ever said, "Wouldn't it be cool if we sounded like Guy Picciotto fronting Swiz?"

But I have to plead guilty about recording at Inner Ear. It's a very typical thing to do if someone was looking to have a "DC sound." But we couldn't help ourselves. We were given more money to record than we had ever needed in the past and we wanted to do it right. So we made a list of the studios and engineers on our favorite records. The list consisted of dead British guys we couldn't afford even now that they are dead, and Don Zientara at Inner Ear. While we sometimes get shit from people about how predicable a choice it was, I think it was a good one. Don's sensibilities matched our own and we had a great time recording with him.

I lived in Albany last year and while it is a small city, it seems to have a thriving scene (as compared to Syracuse). Do you plan to keep that your home base?