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Rogue Nation

"Rogue Nation started in 2002. The music is a cross between hardcore with elements of thrash — more of a heavier style — bands like Integrity, Madball and things like that," says smiley bassist Mat Perlman (of Be:Cause Industries and Skate4Cancer).
   
"We broke up in 2004. I thought we’d never do it again. We’re getting back together because of Nathan Terin’s book called Call/Response," he continues. "Nathan said he wanted to try to get some bands together to do a hardcore show, and he mentioned Rogue Nation. We all remained friends after we split, so we talked it over and we decided to do it because it’s for a good cause, so why not?"
   
Rogue Nation was a tiny local phenomenon in the early part of the 21st century. The band got its hyper brand of inspired new-millennium hardcore together, recorded a demo, and five months later had a spankin’ new disc on a roaring California label which also released material by Fall Out Boy, among others.
   
"Our CD is called The Sedition and it was on Uprising Records — released in 2003. Five months after we recorded it we were on our first tour. That was one of the craziest things for us," Perlman says. "Every single show people just went nuts."
   
The reformed Rogue Nation lineup includes Perlman with Ben Haddad (ex-Reality’s End, Dirty Work) on guitar and singer/lyricist Omar Kinnarath (ex-Intafada).
   
"Our drummer is Fidel Romero. He’s from Mexico. He and Ben have been friends for years. And we have another guitar player, Tom Elvers. He’s also in another hardcore band called Still Fighting," Perlman says.
   
"It’ll be interesting to see how it holds up. We have no new songs," he continues. "I think it’s important for people to understand our message: Think for yourself, look into things, and have a good time doing it. That’s why we’re doing this show for Nathan’s book."
 
This book Perlman is referring to is called Call/Response: Present, Past and Beyond Volume I. According to the press release, it’s "a big, hardcover, LP sized book with 64 pages of punk rock in colour and b&w. At least $10 from the sale of each book goes to support Kids Help Phone."
   
Terin has scheduled an all-day book launch party for the release of Call/Response. Visit callresponsebook.com for complete details. The bar show component of the multi-event bash takes place at the Royal Albert on Feb. 5 with a reunited Rogue Nation, Comeback Kid, Still Fighting, and a new Cro-Mags tribute band called the Bro-Mags featuring current and former members of Breath Grenades, Unwanted, Umpires, Daikon and Outrage 204.
   
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