Bay Area, CA · pop-punk · melodic-hardcore

Set Your Goals

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Gang-vocal pop-punk with hardcore bones — two singers, no wasted time, 'Mutiny!'-era energy preserved intact, posi-hardcore joy undimmed.

Set Your Goals formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004, taking their name from an album by the hardcore band CIV. They released a self-titled EP that year through Straight on Records, toured early on with the Warriors and Make Move, and saw Eulogy Recordings re-release the EP as Reset in 2005.

Vocalists Matt Wilson and Jordan Brown traded and doubled lines over gang shouts and fast, riff-driven songs, a formula that became the band's signature. Guitarist Audelio Flores Jr joined in 2006, shortly before the group recorded Mutiny!, released that July and now a reference point for the era's crossover between hardcore and pop-punk audiences. Guitarist Daniel Coddaire, an original member, left in 2007 and rejoined in 2008.

Live, the songs stay short and the vocals stay communal, sets built on gang chants and the positive-hardcore attitude the band carried from the scene it grew out of. That reputation was built on the road: shows with Anti-Flag and Alexisonfire, a slot on the 2008 Bamboozle Roadshow with Saves the Day and Armor for Sleep, and a full run of the 2008 Vans Warped Tour on the Smartpunk Stage.

After buying out their contract with Eulogy, Set Your Goals signed to Epitaph Records in 2009. This Will Be the Death of Us followed that July with production by Mike Green and a guest vocal from Hayley Williams on 'The Few That Remain,' reaching No. 65 on the Billboard 200. The band toured the record with Four Year Strong, Polar Bear Club and New Found Glory.

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pop-punkmelodic-hardcore