The Prize Fight

The Prize Fight formed in August of 2002, marked by the coming of the band’s official line up. Trying their best to gain a local following, the band worked extremely hard in order to promote the 5 song demo that they recorded before they had officially become The Prize Fight. Because of their extremely devoted work ethic, the band managed to play out nearly every weekend in both the Pennsylvania and the New Jersey scene. In December of the same year, the band caught the attention of up and coming label ECA Records. The timing could not have been more perfect for both groups. ECA shared the exact same work ethic The Prize Fight had, so another recording was immediately put into motion. By February of 2003, the band put out the “Words Don’t Mean Anything” ep. Though only 5 songs, the ep seemed to be very well liked, not only by kids in the PA/NJ scene, but by people all over the US. With the help of ECA Records and utterpunk.com, The Prize Fight booked their first two US tours in the summer of 2003. Despite some serious van troubles, things had never been better. Touring and dealing with adversity brought the guys closer together than ever before. After the summer, the band returned to Pennsylvania so drummer-Ryan Zimmaro and bassist-Mike Coonan could finish up their senior year of high school. Because of money issues, as well as some other personal reasons, singer-Johnny Hunter, horn player-Dave Hagenbuch, and guitarists-Nick Margiotta and Bob Jones decided not to return to college in order to take care of their respective situations. The band continued to play out every weekend. Except, this time around, they had moved beyond the PA/NJ scene, and began frequenting other New England states. They received great responses in New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, and also began headlining a lot of the local shows in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Throughout this entire time, The Prize Fight had been turning heads overseas. E Records, in Australia, bought the licensing rights for the EP, and set up an Australian release. At the same time people from all over the world were mailing the band to show their support. In fact, they received so much support in the UK that a small promotion company overseas called Big Monster Hits Little Tokyo set up a 3 week tour in the UK. The tour took place in February of 2004, even though that meant that Ryan and Mike would have to take a month off from school, and most of the other guys would have to quit their jobs. Since that time, The Prize Fight has been through some very significant changes. Very recently, horn player-Dave Hagenbuch decided to leave the band in order to attend college, putting an end to the whole “pop-punk with horns” idea. Recently, the band has been writing and recording a bunch of new material in hopes to put out a full length by the end of the year. Ryan and Mike have both graduated high school. With things not working out between some members of the band, The Prize Fight, continue to strive for what they believe in and love to do. In September of 2005, the band sent in a demo recording of "This Apartment" to be on a compilation put out by TDR Records. After being contacted by the label, talking back and forth, signed a record deal! Look for The Prize Fight CDEP to be released mid-winter 2006 on TDR Records.