Rival Schools | The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown

There was a ten year gap between Rival Schools debut album, United By Fate (2001) and their second official release, Pedals (2011). That’s a bigger gap than was between Quicksand’s debut and Rival Schools. That doesn’t mean Rival Schools was silent during that time. In 2003, the band recorded a follow-up to United By Fate…but the common problems that plague every band caused the album to never see the light of day…until now. This week, the re-mastered…maybe even re-recorded version of that second album, Found, finally gets an official release. Though it had been floating around the internet for years…this finished version is light years in quality above anything else out there.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Rival Schools:

The Switch (United By Fate)
High Acetate (United By Fate)
Used For Glue (United By Fate)
Shot After Shot (Pedals)
Travel By Telephone (United By Fate)
69 Guns (Pedals)
Holding Sand (United By Fate)
Undercovers On (United By Fate)
Choose Your Own Adventure (Pedals)
Small Doses (Pedals)
On Vacation (Used For Glue)

Buy Rival Schools new album, Found…now!!!

After revolutionizing metal with his band Quicksand, Walter Screifels formed the band Rival School putting all the pop punk bands out there to shame. He followed it up with Walking Concert, showing bands like Arctic Monkeys and the Strokes what was up. Like Quicksand, all the bands broke up. And like Quicksand, Rivals Schools broke up leaving a complete album sitting on the shelves. The 3rd Quicksand album is frequently traded as is the 2nd Rival Schools album. But these aren’t the only unreleased albums in Walter Schreifels arsenal. In fact, Walter Schreifels might be the only lead singer to have more unreleased albums then released albums. Officially, he has 2 albums with Quicksand, 1 with Rival Schools, and 1 with Walking Concert (which can only be found at the lable site). The official releases by Gorilla Biscuits and Youth of Today don’t count since he was not singing (at least for my argument they don’t count). So that 4 officially released albums. As for unreleased material…there’s a 3rd Quicksand album out there, a 2nd Rival Schools album, World’s Fastest Car (a side-project), Walter & the Motorcycles (a solo project), a Gorilla Biscuits EP with Walter on lead vocals, Moondog’s full-length. That’s 6 albums sitting on the shelves versus 4 released. Thankfully he’s released a solo album otherwise we might think he was dead.

Here is Rival Schools Unreleased Second Album:

1. Just A Second

2. The Perspective Reach

3. I Don’t Know

4. You Answer

5. See What You Got

6. Looking

7. Don’t Change

8. Shared Information

9. Surrendering Position

10. Seems So Real

11. Get Out Of This Place