El-Ahrairah was a screamo band from Richmond, VA that played from fall of 1999 (originally called Sirhan) to autumn 2001. As a five-piece originally, the band recorded a six song demo in spring of 2000 with Jay and Duncan from Flashbulb Memory at their Mixed Signals "studio" (Duncan's parent's house). Jay and Duncan recorded a lot of Richmond bands at that time including City of Caterpillar for their demo tape.
The original lineup was:
Brendan Trache - Vox
Jon Zanin - Drums
Ryan McLennan - Bass
Bryan Litchfield and Tyler Dunaway - Guitars
Shortly after the first recording the band added second singer Edward Max Fendley. There were plans in 2001 to release a 7" on Gene Byard's label, Bug
Recordings (likely BUG 06), and also a split 10" with The Body. Sadly neither release
ever materialized, but in July the band went back to Mixed Signals to record another demo.
At some point there was indeed another demo recorded after the July 2001 recording but nobody seems to remember when or where. Most song titles are lost/forgotten.
The band continued to play shows and tour, but by October they were done. Brendan and Tyler would go on to play together in Stop It!! almost immediately after. Ryan later played in Wilderness Medicine and went on to start Owsla Records which would release a lot of amazing music from bands like Sinaloa, Life At These Speeds, The Pine, and The Shivering. Jon Zanin played in a number of other bands before and after El-Ahrairah, but would pass a few years afterwards. May he rest in peace.
Special thanks to Jason, Ed, Tyler, Ryan, and Will for helping me piece this together and putting up with my endless questions! You can find download links to the three demo recordings in the descriptions of these YouTube videos.
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