Latterman is a semi-active four-piece punk rock band from Huntington, New York. A melodic punk rock band with vocals shared by Phil Douglas and Mattie Jo Canino, their songs often contain political and/or socially conscious lyrics. The band is considered highly influential in the Melodic Punk genre with their album No MatterWhere We Go... being considered a staple of the genre. Phil Douglas and Mattie Jo Canino respectively would go on to form the equally acclaimed Iron Chic and RVIVR. Canino, Douglas and Schramm would go on to form Tender Defender in 2015, considered by many to be an extension of Latterman.
Background
The band was formed in 1999 by Matt Canino, Phil Douglas, Dan Sposato and Pat Schramm following the dissolution of Canino's, Douglas' and Sposato's previous band, Five Days Late. In 1999the band issued their first demo and self released their debut None Of These Songs Are About Girls in 2000. After Sposato's exit and a few replacements, the band finally found a steady guitarist in Mike "MR" Campbell and released their cult classicTurn Up The Punk, We'll Be Singing on Traffic Violation Records. In 2005 the band struck a deal with Deep Elm Records and released the landmark and highly influential No Matter Where We Go... as well as a re-release of the out-of-print Turn Up The Punk, We'll Be Singing. Following the release of No Matter Where We Go... Campbell exit the band and was replaced by Brian Crozier. This lineup of the band released their 4th and final album, 2006's We Are Still Alive. On October 18, 2007, music website Punknews.org reported that the band has officially broken up. Canino issued a statement via Punknews where he stated that "I Felt like a broken record going on tour and talking about sexism in punk rock every night and then some fucking bro-dudes coming up to me and saying some fucked up shit. I even got to a point where I stopped calling them out on it, and that just felt wrong. I was tired. Basically, it just stopped making sense for everyone in the band to keep on doing the band." Members have since gone on to play in bands including Iron Chic, Bridge and Tunnel, RVIVR, Laura Stevenson and The Cans, Daytrader, Pox, Shorebirds, Mutoid Men and The Brass. In December of 2011, the band reunited for four shows with the No Matter Where We Go... lineup. To coincide with the reunion shows, the band released Our Better Halves, an unreleased song for 2011's Record Store Day. Since 2011, the band has played live sporadically since their break up with having performed a small handful of shows in 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2018. 2016 saw the release of the self-titled debut from Tender Defender, a band formed by 3/4ths of the band. The band's singers- Phil Douglas and Mattie Jo Canino currently play in Iron Chic and RVIVR respectively.
