Personality Cult

Spitting out lean, aggressive punk rock that hovers between the taut misanthropy of hardcore and the minimalistic tunefulness of pogo punk, Personality Cult are a font of high-energy rock action fronted by Ben Carr, a veteran of such bands as Last Year's Men, Paint Fumes, and Natural Causes. Personality Cult functioned as a solo project for Carr on their self-titled 2018 debut album, evolving into a proper band with a stronger collective personality on their second full-length, 2020's New Arrows. Ben Carr (not to be confused with the dancer/backing vocalist of the same name with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones) was a familiar figure on the Chapel Hill/Carrboro, North Carolina rock scene since the late 2000s, having played in a variety of local groups, most notably the punk outfit Last Year's Men, who would in time add a synthesizer player and evolve into Natural Causes. After Natural Causes became inactive, Carr lost the lease on his apartment, and the bar where he worked went out of business, he decided it was time for a change. Carr moved to Wilmington, on the state's southeastern coast, and had a sudden burst of inspiration, writing a handful of songs in the space of two weeks. Eager to do something with the material, he decided to make an album, playing most of the instruments himself except for the drums. The project cost Carr about $200, and he struck a deal with the punk label Drunken Sailor to release the finished product under the group name Personality Cult. Eager to play shows once the album was out in August 2018, Carr put together an official lineup of Personality Cult, with Carr on guitar and vocals, Stephen Svacina (of Sweet Talk and Mind Spiders) on guitar, Johnny Valiant (ex-Black and Whites and Unwed Teenage Mothers) on bass, and Colin Sneed (Unwed Teenage Mothers and solo) on drums. It wasn't long after the first album had started getting enthusiastic press that Carr and his bandmates headed to New York City to cut album number two, with Jeff Burke of the Marked Men producing the sessions. Dirtnap Records heard the tapes and quickly signed the group to a deal, releasing the second Personality Cult album, New Arrows, in February 2020.
© Mark Deming /TiVo