The Archaeas

A wild garage-punk band from Louisville, Kentucky, the Archaeas play fast, loud, raucous rock & roll songs dealing with (in their words) "tension, anxiety, ominous energy, and the release that comes from vanquishing those mental foes." Their sound is informed by no-frills hard rock, old-school punk, and more contemporary garage-punk acts, brought to life by the hard-driving guitar work and throaty vocals of Violet Archaea. After starting out as a one-woman project on the 2016 EP Archaea, they expanded into a trio and made a big sound on their first LP, 2020's Archaeas. The Archaeas were founded by guitarist, singer, and songwriter Violet Archaea. Violet's two key influences were Mark Sultan, the Canadian blues-punk musician who performed one-man-band style as BBQ, and the Japanese garage-punk trio Guitar Wolf. In particular, Violet was impressed by Wild Zero, a raucous sci-fi film starring the band in which they save the world from invading aliens with the help of a passionate rock & roll fan and his transgendered girlfriend. As a trans woman, the film and its non-judgmental outlook resonated especially well with Violet, and some of her first Archaeas performances found her handling guitar, drums, and vocals while the movie was shown on a screen behind her. Describing the Archaeas as a "one witch band," she released a five-song EP in September 2016, titled Archaea. In time, Violet expanded the Archaeas into a trio with the addition of Chyppe Archaea-Crosby on bass and Chase Archaea on drums. Their frantic, no-holds-barred shows earned them a reputation in Louisville and on the garage punk scene nationwide, and the Florida-based Total Punk label issued a single on the band, "Rock N Roll" b/w "Replica," in February 2020. Goner Records from Memphis stepped in to help the group put out their first album, Archaeas, which became available in September 2020.
© Mark Deming /TiVo