rock

Just Surrender

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American band that came up in the mid-2000s pop-punk circuit, splitting the difference between screamed catharsis and big power-pop hooks.

Just Surrender formed in 2003 in Dover Plains, New York, when three high school friends, Jason Maffucci, Andy Meunier and Steve Miller, began playing together under the name A Second Chance. Guitarist and vocalist Dan Simons, formerly of The Record Collection, joined soon after, and the group became known for splitting vocal duties between Simons and Miller rather than working around a single frontman.

Their debut, a four-song EP, was followed in 2005 by the full-length If These Streets Could Talk, released through the EastWest subsidiary Broken English and recorded at Nada Recording Studios with producer John Naclerio. The band appeared on MTV's You Heard It Here First and built an audience through PureVolume, where the record drew more than 400,000 plays within months.

We're in Like Sin followed in 2007, reaching number 27 on the Heatseekers chart, and the band toured through the following two years alongside acts including My American Heart and Hawthorne Heights. A 2009 EP, Stronger Now, sold only at Warped Tour dates before its iTunes release, and marked a heavier, more post-hardcore direction than the group's earlier records.

The lineup shifted repeatedly across these years, with Meunier and later Alex Haycraft moving in and out of the guitar and bass positions before Kyle Shellhammer and Jolly Ubriaco joined. A third album, Phoenix, arrived in June 2010, after which the band's activity slowed considerably.

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