'The Discord Syndicate play a kind of bracing, interestingly proggy brand of aggro garage-pop - smart, subtle but super-damn energetic, with terrific songwriting courtesy former folksier Nikki Schultz (formerly a member of Chastity Brown's band), whose potent wail provides a super-cool top-end for the fuzztone blasts on their last single, Black Hole Device. Their forthcoming EP, Mergers and Acquisitions, is full of this kind of stuff - arty, sure, but definitely with a powerfully punk spirit at heart.' - Jon Hunt, l'etoile magazine 'The Discord Syndicate has a bright sound with a racing pulse, with just enough reverberating electric guitar chords to be futuristic without being weird. The five songs off Mergers and Acquisitions waste no time in getting big fast, but the songs never misstep, never lose sense of themselves, and are never forgotten to chaos. The young band -- composed of veteran musicians Aaron LeMay (drums), Alex Von Der Hoff (bass), Tom Cheever (guitar), and Jeff Williams (guitar) -- has already mastered the art of tight, controlled progression, and it rests in a listener's ear as sweetly as candy. And then there's Schultz, with a voice that is such an unexpected match to the rock-symphony of Discord Syndicate that it is perfect. She, too, can expand her vocals like a bird of prey spreading it's wings, and her voice soars over lyrics about abandoned cities and guitar riffs that are almost too big to swallow.' - Natalie Gallagher, City Pages 'Worlds away from her previous gig in Chastity Brown's band, Nikki Schultz fronts a stormy, hard-rocking new quintet called the Discord Syndicate, also featuring drummer Aaron LeMay (Mark Mallman) and some other experienced dudes. They're playing Memory Lanes on Friday with Nightosaur and Frankincense to tout a debut EP, 'Mergers and Acquisitions,' reminiscent of Concrete Blonde and the Heartless Bastards' heaviest stuff.' - Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune The Discord Syndicate came together out of an ending. Four friends from different bands began playing together to take their own experimentation and orchestration as far as they could, to create songs that built a wall of sound, with an apocalyptic grandeur about them. Drummer Aaron LeMay (International Espionage!, Mark Mallman) provided the drive, bassist Alex von der Hoff (The Hasbeen) lay down moody pulses and guitarists Tom Cheever (The Hasbeen) and Jeff Williams (Euphoria) traded off atmospheric licks that turned into the roar of a missile crash. It was working, the walls shook. But it needed that last something to fully explode. Cue the entrance of Nikki Schultz (Chastity Brown), a singer-songwriter known for her own folk-pop. Taking the instrumental arrangements, Schultz teased out the narratives of control, desire and survival embedded in the power chords, ratcheting up her own voice to be both brash and hypnotic. The result of this collaboration is the EP, Mergers and Acquisitions, and it's not business as usual. Recorded with Brett Bullion, Mergers and Acquisitions sounds like a lyrical Joan Jett sitting in with an At The Drive-In studio jam. From the opening salvo of Black Hole Device to the cosmic hush of the closer, Tribute, there is a gritty, gutty, beautiful tone that takes our science-fiction present and throws a fist in the air for our future together. The Discord Syndicate plays that future.
