For three decades, Ten Foot Pole has nurtured an international underground skate punk reputation and fan base with thought provoking, aggressive alternative music, playing hundreds of international shows to crowds that prefer non-radio-hit-song-bands, and “WINNING” OUT NOVEMBER 11, 2022 fearlessly sporting a nice-guy punk attitude. Their tenth full length release, Winning, October 2022 on People of Punk Rock Records, includes eclectic styles, from their classic 90’s double-time anthems to more modern, heavy progressive punk… blending melodic/poppy parts with some hardcore bridges reminiscent of their 80’s hardcore roots.
Ten Foot Pole started in the 80’s as hardcore band Scared Straight, in the Oxnard California Hardcore (Nardcore) scene, with the first US tour in 1985. The lineup and style evolved, as TFP helped create the genre of 90’s skate punk, including releases on Epitaph Records and touring heavily with bands such as Face to Face, NOFX, No Use for a Name and Millencolin. In the 2000s, TFPtouring slowed as songwriter/guitarist/singer Dennis Jagard developed his career as a concert sound engineer, for artists such as Prince, Jimmy Eat World and “Weird Al” Yankovic. But new TFP music kept flowing, as well as the addition of acoustic shows and songs, emerging from Dennis’ audio career travels with an acoustic guitar.
Ten Foot Pole has sold over a half million physical albums, though their DIY underground ethic and sincere songwriting style was never about chasing sales or radio airplay. The years of playing in squats, dive bars and tiny “festivals,” has given way to playing some bigger and nicer venues, but the credibility, the heart in the music, and the support of the die-hard fans, still rocks like an underground band.