Tempo No Tempo

Releases Shows
myspace.com/temponotempo

When Tempo No Tempo began in 2004, the quartet was just four UC Berkeley freshmen fooling around with music. United by little more than a vague desire to be in a band (and a shared love for Fugazi and The Faint), the guys began rehearsing in their dorm rooms and slowly wedged their way into the Berkeley co-op and house party scene.

After some early shuffling, a concrete lineup took shape with Tyler McCauley and Chris Cadena splitting vocal duties while respectively playing the guitar and keyboard. Alex Kaiser mans the drumkit and Jason Wexler rounds out the group on bass. Together the boys craft decidedly uptempo rock music, balancing post-punk rhythms with offbeat pop tendencies reminiscent of mid/late 90’s emo (i.e. back before emo became totally embarrassing).

2006 saw the release of The Get Down, a self-released EP that Pitchfork enthusiastically called a "jagged, melodious blast from start to finish." Garnering comparisons to bands like Maritime, Q and Not U and Bloc Party, The Get Down received national college radio airplay and prompted San Francisco radio station Live 105 to name Tempo No Tempo one of the "Best 20 Bands in the Bay Area". Countless shows followed with Tempo No Tempo sharing the stage with bands like Scissors for Lefty, Ima Robot, Persephone’s Bees, Port O’ Brien and The Death of a Party.

Constantly recording at home and honing their craft, the band recently completed Repetition, a new EP that will be released on November 13, 2007.

Tempo No Tempo press

Tempo No Tempo Press
AjiSignal, November 12, 2007 (click for full article)
If too many of the dance rock bands obsess in creating slick, shiny songs, Tempo No Tempo separates itself with an ability to embrace noisier and darker sounds while keeping things driving and melodic. It’s a skill that reminds me of Washington, D.C.‘s now-defunct Q and Not U, a band that similarly mixed synths and guitars and threw in enough musical and lyrical curveballs to make you think while you were dancing.
The Owl Mag, November 12, 2007 (click for full article)
The lead single “Repetition,” shows a maturer approach to a tired dance-punk genre (thank God), and the album moves toward a more experimental/psychedelic territory. We anticipate an even better 2008.
Popmatters, November 9, 2007 (click for full article)
If danceable, catchy songs are what you’re after than the Bay Area quartet should be an enticing prospect.
Macktronic, November 2, 2007 (click for full article)
Their debut EP (The Get Down) is as good a collection of dance/rock/goodness as anything I’ve heard in a while.
Neiles Life, October 18, 2007 (click for full article)
Tempo No Tempo are a dance/rock outfit from the sunny state of California. Picture Bloc Party……..without the British accents of course!
The Deli SF, August 14, 2007 (click for full article)
Tempo no Tempo is the kind of band that you just want to be friends with. Not only do they come across as really interesting guys, but their music is so much fun that you can’t help but want to be a part of it.
Pitchfork Media, March 12, 2007 (click for full article)
The Get Down’s simple pleasures are a fine entry in the latter category, evoking Bloc Party and Q and Not U with its poppy dancepunk flavor. It’s a jagged, melodious blast from start to finish, and it’s marked by a sort of good-natured urgency.

- Brian Howe

The Owl Mag, March 2007 (click for full article)
It’s no surprise that Tempo No Tempo have received overwhelmingly positive attention. With the debut of their EP The Get Down, it’s clear they deserve it. In all six tracks are crystalline instrumentals set to malleable, dancefloor-ready rhythms, topped off with anxious, driving vocals courtesy of Chris Cadena. Talk about your perfect party music!

- Gabrielle Goodbar

Nascent, March 2, 2007 (click for full article)
TNT are from Berkeley and obviously not interested in assimilating into the dying dance-punk masses. How do we know this? Because, for one thing, they have normal haircuts. This is very important. Also, of course, there’s the music.
Pitchfork Media, January 24, 2007
Berkeley’s Tempo No Tempo brew the kind of steaming caffeine-punk I never get tired of when it’s well-prepared, but then, I drink way too much coffee. The ironically titled “Static” can’t sit still for an instant, tweaking hard on a multi-varietal cup, beans blended from the heavily farmed growing regions of Thunderbirds are Now!, Gang of Four, and Q and Not U. Yeah, it’s dance-post-punk all over again, but you know you still crave it.

Like good baristas, Tempo No Tempo pull their shots hard and fast to deliver a compact and effective dosage. Ripe synth peals careen into a driving guitar blur and galloping bass (instantly establishing the track as an even jauntier version of Maritime’s “Tearing Up the Oxygen”). It’s all about momentum from here, an on-rails yet perilously teetering shimmy, guitars bombing down straightaways or slashing through laddering vocals. “Nothing’s going to change,” Tyler McCauley howls. S’cool; ain’t broke.

- Brian Howe

Fat Amp Music (click for full article)
A pop sound you can dance to, a dance sound you can certainly rock to and a rock sound you could pop to.