# Violent Change

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**Violent Change** is a [Bay Area](/source/San_Francisco_Bay_Area) [lo-fi](/source/Lo-fi_music) rock project founded in 2011 by singer-songwriter Matt Bleyle (also credited as **Gladys Bleyle**).[1][2] Bleyle is the band's sole constant member, serving as vocalist, chief songwriter, producer, and engineer, with a rotating cast of collaborators contributing across recordings and live performances.[3][2] The band has released material on several independent labels, including Melters Records, Catholic Guilt Records, It Takes Two Records, and Bleyle's own Sloth Mate Productions.[4]

Violent Change emerged from the same [Bay Area](/source/San_Francisco_Bay_Area) underground scene that produced [Ty Segall](/source/Ty_Segall), [Thee Oh Sees](/source/Thee_Oh_Sees), Life Stinks, and CCR Headcleaner, though the band's music was characterized by critics as darker and more introspective than the prevailing garage-rock sound of the early 2010s.[5] The band's recordings, typically made on cassette and released in small vinyl pressings, became sought-after objects in underground record-collecting circles.[4][2]

## Background

Matt Bleyle grew up in [Mill Valley](/source/Mill_Valley,_California), California.[6] As a teenager, he discovered punk and hardcore after growing disillusioned with commercial radio.[7] His first band, Psycho 78, formed in the late 1990s after Bleyle was recruited as a drummer by singer Bobby Adopted. The band rehearsed in a grange hall across from [San Quentin State Prison](/source/San_Quentin_State_Prison) and opened for British punk group [the Partisans](/source/The_Partisans_(band)).[4]

Bleyle then co-founded the Abi Yoyos in 2001 with Shawn Mehrens and Jeff Mitchell.[6] The group's name was drawn from an African folktale adapted by folk singer [Pete Seeger](/source/Pete_Seeger).[8][6] The Abi Yoyos released a 7" single, "The World Is Not My Home,"[8][9] and the full-length album, *Mill Valley.*[10][6] The Abi Yoyos dissolved in 2007.[2]

Bleyle next formed Sopors, described by [Aquarius Records](/source/Aquarius_Records_(store)) as "a short-lived SF band that existed in the same scene that birthed pop geniuses the [Ovens](/source/Ovens_(band))," praising the band's "insane catchiness" and "most irresistible hooks" set against "churning lo-fi riffage."[11] He also briefly played with Yankee Kamikaze,[1] and participated in the hardcore group Caged Animal alongside [Tony Molina](/source/Tony_Molina).[4] He contributed to Rat Columns, a project led by Australian songwriter David West.[4]

## History

### Formation and debut EP (2012)

Violent Change began as a series of home recordings Bleyle started in 2011, initially distributed as hand-dubbed cassette tapes that sold out quickly.[1][7] [Tony Molina](/source/Tony_Molina) and Sterling Mackinnon, early members, encouraged Bleyle to take the recordings into a live setting.[7]

The band's first official release, the four-track EP *Suck on the Gun*, appeared on Melters Records in October 2012 as the label's inaugural release (catalog: MELT001).[1] The initial lineup featured Bleyle alongside Molina, Mackinnon on guitar, and Rohit Rao on drums.[3] A release show was held at The New Parish in Oakland, with support from POW!, Scrapers, and Die Hard.[1]

### Self-titled debut LP (2013)

Violent Change's self-titled debut album was released in early 2013 on Catholic Guilt Records, a San Francisco label run by Michael Harkin, in a pressing of 330 copies on black vinyl.[12] The album was assembled largely from cassette recordings Bleyle made between autumn 2011 and summer 2012, the majority recorded by himself alone. Four tracks--"I Don't Know Why," "Detention Camp," and two Molina-penned songs, "Word Around Town" and "No One Left To Blame"--were recorded with the full band; Mackinnon also contributed accordion to "Sleeping Fuhrer."[13] The live band at the time of release consisted of Bleyle, Mackinnon (guitar), Jake Bayley (bass), and Blaine Patrick (drums).[13]

Bleyle recorded the album in a converted meat-locker rehearsal space in the [Tenderloin district](/source/Tenderloin,_San_Francisco) of San Francisco. The *SF Weekly* noted this location as emblematic of a generation of San Francisco musicians "exiled deep underground, or to the city's margins, where they turn frustration over a prohibitively expensive renters' market into brash and urgent music."[5] In a 2013 scene report, the *SF Weekly* placed Violent Change's debut alongside those of Life Stinks, CCR Headcleaner, and Scraper as suggesting "a music scene thriving anew, but darkened and on-edge."[5]

The *East Bay Express* described the album's songwriting as centering on "fully realized songs about strange subjects obscured by poor recording," singling out "Word Around Town" for "hijack[ing] the bittersweet melancholy of Nineties' college rock to produce a break-up song with a soaring guitar solo."[14] The Catholic Guilt Records label called it "a future classic of the pop underground" and "easily our favorite San Francisco album since the Hospitals' *Hairdryer Peace*."[12] The *East Bay Express* later selected "Walmart Parking Lot," the album's closing track, as one of the definitive local rock moments of 2013, calling it "one of the finest local rock statements of 2013."[15]

### *A Celebration of Taste* (2014)

After Molina and Rao left the project,[3] Bleyle recorded the band's second album, *A Celebration of Taste*, almost entirely alone, with contributions from Mackinnon and Blaine Patrick.[3][16] The 13-track LP was released on Melters Records in June 2014, available only on vinyl and not digitally streaming.[17]

The *East Bay Express* described the album as exploring "the sonic decay of magnetic tape and overdriven gear," concluding: "Rather than sounding torn between two styles, Bleyle makes a case for fusing them together. Call it a gorgeous wreck."[16] The record's cover song--an unreleased [Phil Ochs](/source/Phil_Ochs) track, "You Can't Get Stoned Enough"--was read by one critic as key to the album's emotional logic, "the sound of a voice crying in the wilderness."[2]

### *VC3* (2016)

The band's third LP, *VC3*, was co-released by Melters Records and It Takes Two Records in September 2016 (catalog: MELT008 / ITT-003).[18] The live band at the time included Jess Sylvester, Alexa Pantalone, and Stanley Martinez, drawn from Bay Area acts Rays and Life Stinks.[4] *Vice'*s Noisey music channel described it as "heart-on-sleeve hazy pop," comparing Bleyle's approach to [Guided by Voices](/source/Guided_by_Voices), [Chris Bell](/source/Chris_Bell_(American_musician))'s *[I Am the Cosmos](/source/I_Am_the_Cosmos)*, [Chris Knox](/source/Chris_Knox), and [Ray Davies](/source/Ray_Davies).[4] The Melters Bandcamp page placed the album alongside [Shoes](/source/Shoes_(band))' *One in Versailles* and Chris Bell's *I Am the Cosmos* as a work of "lonesome romanticism."[18]

The *East Bay Express* included *VC3* on its list of the top sixteen Bay Area music releases of 2016, writing: "Matt Bleyle plays most of the instruments on Violent Change's four records released since 2012, which sets a roughshod rock foundation beneath his arresting melodies... the struggle between grandeur and grime is more compelling than either quality can achieve alone."[19]

### Later releases (2020–present)

Following a seven-year gap between studio albums--during which Bleyle underwent surgeries and the band continued to perform live--Violent Change released the *Squandered* 7" on Sloth Mate Productions in 2020.[7] A split record with Honey Radar was released in 2022 on Chunklet Industries.[7] The fourth LP, *Starcastle*, followed in 2023, produced primarily by Stanley Martinez, who had become Bleyle's chief creative collaborator.[7]

In 2024, Bleyle released a separate collaborative LP as Cuneiform Tabs, a correspondence recording project with Sterling Mackinnon (of The False Berries), compiled from eighteen months of recordings exchanged between California and the UK, limited to 200 copies.[20][21]

### Sloth Mate Productions

Bleyle founded Sloth Mate Productions as an independent record label, co-operating it with Stanley Martinez. In 2024, *[Bandcamp Daily](/source/Bandcamp_Daily)* profiled Sloth Mate as part of a feature on Bay Area tape labels, quoting Bleyle on the release show for Oakland group Children Maybe Later's 2022 debut *What a Flash Kick!* at The Rite Spot, a Mission District bar and venue: "There was something magical about that combination. Maybe it was hearing songs about vampires while people were eating spaghetti."[22]

## Musical style

AllMusic describes Violent Change as "a lo-fi noise pop group led by San Francisco garage punk regular Matt Bleyle, submerging heartbroken melodies in tape fuzz," noting that the band's "heart-on-sleeve power pop tunes" are "submerged in feedback, effects, and tape hiss so that the lyrics (which are often breakup-themed) are barely intelligible," while "the feelings of loneliness and heartache are clearly audible."[3]

Critics have placed the band in the tradition of [Guided by Voices](/source/Guided_by_Voices) and the lo-fi aesthetic of [Pavement](/source/Pavement_(band)), while also noting debts to post-punk and the Dunedin sound of New Zealand.[2][4] The *SF Weekly* situated Violent Change within a cohort of San Francisco bands that, unlike the preceding garage-pop scene, channeled the city's economic pressures into "brash and urgent music" with a distinctly "darker and on-edge" qualit, and noted that Violent Change's debut insert artwork bore the slogan "Hate is not an enemy."[5]

## Discography

### Violent Change

Year Title Label Catalog # Format 2012 Suck on the Gun Melters Records MELT001 7" EP 2013 Violent Change Catholic Guilt Records -- LP (330 copies) 2013 Basement Chain Melters Records -- Cassette 2014 A Celebration of Taste Melters Records -- LP 2014 Violent Change 7" Melters Records -- 7" 2015 Everybody Loves Chris Melters Records -- Cassette/Digital 2016 Violent Change S/T CS Sloth Mate Productions -- Cassette 2016 VC3 Melters Records / It Takes Two Records MELT008 / ITT-003 LP 2020 Squandered Sloth Mate Productions -- 7" 2022 Honey Radar / Violent Change (split) Chunklet Industries -- LP 2023 Starcastle Sloth Mate Productions -- LP

## References

1. ["Violent Change dropping debut EP 'Suck On The Gun', record release show at New Parish tonight"](http://www.thebaybridged.com/2012/10/22/violent-change-dropping-debut-ep-suck-on-the-gun-record-release-show-at-new-parish-tonight-102212/). *The Bay Bridged*. October 22, 2012. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20140501091047/http://www.thebaybridged.com:80/2012/10/22/violent-change-dropping-debut-ep-suck-on-the-gun-record-release-show-at-new-parish-tonight-102212/) 2014-05-01 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Leach, Jasper (June 28, 2023). ["A Decade (plus) of Violent Change: Interview with Matt Bleyle"](https://moondogmotel.substack.com/p/a-decade-plus-of-violent-change-interview). *Moondog Motel*. Retrieved April 8, 2026.

1. ["Violent Change – Biography"](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/violent-change-mn0003551022/biography). *AllMusic*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Scott, Tim (September 16, 2016). ["Listen to Violent Change's Beautiful and Weary Loner Pop"](https://www.vice.com/en/article/listen-to-violent-changes-beautiful-and-weary-loner-pop/). *Noisey*. Vice. Retrieved April 8, 2026.

1. Lefebvre, Sam (January 8, 2014). ["Garage Is Over: The Cutting Edge of S.F. Rock Is Now Hard and Angry"](https://www.sfweekly.com/music/garage-is-over-the-cutting-edge-of-s-f-rock-is-now-hard-and-angry/article_d0773c9e-492b-5ce7-a2b8-a883065383dd.html). *SF Weekly*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Harkin, Michael (October 17, 2006). ["Straight outta Mill Valley"](http://www.sfbg.com/2006/10/17/straight-outta-mill-valley). *SF Bay Guardian*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20150906214846/http://www.sfbg.com/2006/10/17/straight-outta-mill-valley) September 6, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Hinman, Jay (July 20, 2024). ["Q&A with Violent Change"](https://agonyshorthand.com/2024/07/20/qa-with-violent-change/). *Agony Shorthand*. Retrieved April 8, 2026.

1. Zed (2005). ["Interviews: The Abi Yoyos"](https://www.scenepointblank.com/features/interviews/the-abi-yoyos/). *Scene Point Blank*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Zed (April 26, 2005). ["Review: The Abi Yoyos – *The World Is Not My Home*"](https://www.scenepointblank.com/reviews/the-abi-yoyos/the-world-is-not-my-home/). *Scene Point Blank*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. ["Abi Yoyos: *Mill Valley*"](https://razorcake.org/archive-abi-yoyos-mill-valley/). *Razorcake*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. ["Sopors 7""](https://emptycellardistro.bandcamp.com/album/sopors-7). *Empty Cellar Distro (Bandcamp)*. October 6, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. ["Violent Change LP – Available NOW!"](http://catholicguiltrecords.blogspot.com/2013/03/violent-change-lp-available-now.html). *Catholic Guilt Records*. March 2013. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Shane, Jason (June 5, 2013). ["Violent Change releases debut LP on Catholic Guilt Records"](https://web.archive.org/web/20140326234610/http://thebaybridged.com/2013/06/05/violent-change-releases-debut-lp-on-catholic-guilt-records/). *The Bay Bridged*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. ["Violent Change"](https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/violent-change/Content?oid=3501974). *East Bay Express*. 2013. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Lefebvre, Sam (August 12, 2015). ["Pressure Drop TV's Decisive Moments"](https://eastbayexpress.com/pressure-drop-tvs-decisive-moments-2-1/). *East Bay Express*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Lefebvre, Sam (July 9, 2014). ["Violent Change"](https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/violent-change/Content?oid=4013926). *East Bay Express*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. ["Violent Change, A Celebration of Taste"](https://bostonhassle.com/violent-change-celebration-taste/). *Boston Hassle*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. ["VC3"](https://meltersmusic.bandcamp.com/album/vc3). *Melters Records (Bandcamp)*. September 16, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Lefebvre, Sam (December 20, 2016). ["The Top Sixteen Bay Area Music Releases of 2016"](https://eastbayexpress.com/the-top-sixteen-bay-area-music-releases-of-2016-2-1/). *East Bay Express*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Bischoff, Björn (June 6, 2025). ["Cuneiform Tabs haben sich gefunden, damit wir vergessen können, wo wir sind"](https://www.hhv-mag.com/feature/cuneiform-tabs-haben-sich-gefunden-damit-wir-vergessen-koennen-wo-wir-sind/) (in German). *HHV Mag*. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. ["Graded on a Curve: Cuneiform Tabs, *Cuneiform Tabs*"](https://www.thevinyldistrict.com/storefront/graded-on-a-curve-cuneiform-tabs-cuneiform-tabs/). *The Vinyl District*. August 8, 2024. Retrieved April 10, 2026.

1. Vito, Zachary (August 26, 2024). ["Little Tape Labels Keep the Bay Area Popping"](https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/little-tape-labels-keep-the-bay-area-popping). *Bandcamp Daily*. Retrieved April 8, 2026.

## External links

- [Sloth Mate Productions on Bandcamp](https://slothmate.bandcamp.com/)
- [Melters Records on Bandcamp](https://meltersmusic.bandcamp.com/)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Violent Change](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Change) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_Change?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.