Face Value was formed in June 1989 from the ashes of goofy punk/crossover band The Bagmen after singer Don Foose (currently in Run Devil Run) left to sing for Chris Andrew's SPUDMONSTERS. The band recruited local HC scenester Tony Erba who had just seen his previous band LEK fizzle out.Erba joined, changed the name from the Bagmen to Face Value and guitarist 'Downtown' Brown joined as well and the band remade itself into a posi-HC band inspired by Erba's love of fast,youthful HC ala 7 Seconds, Negative Approach, Minor Threat and DYS.

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Soon the band began playing local and out of state shows with False Hope, Outface, Confront and Integrity, the second wave of HC bands from Cleveland.

A 7" was released on the California label Conversion Records entitled "Coming Of Age" in March 1990. The band however was not getting over in Cleveland... all the focus was on Integrity it seemed. The band spent much of the remainder of '89 and '90 playing out of state and touring with California SXE heroes Insted. When Face Value finally played Cleveland again in August 1990, the band received a wild response from a sold-out Babylon A-Go-Go and realized that Cleveland had finally taken to the band in a big way, as the straight-edge/youthful HC scene in Cleve had exploded. They made the Babylon their home base and sold it out 3 times. Erba was bringing in national HC bands like Slapshot, Tad, Government Issue, Burn, Inside Out, etc. and a somewhat not-so-friendly rivalry with Integrity ensued as both bands drew huge crowds and slammed each other in the media. The band released a full-length tour-de-force LP on Conversion called "Price Of Maturity" in '91. They also released a live 7" on the Nemesis label called "Loud" and toured relentlessly from '90 through '93 to wild responses and large crowds,doing the entire US three times. On tour in the Southeast in '92, bassist Tony Hinton had to leave the band to report to Mansfield Reformatory for a 4-year prison sentence. Several replacements followed. A second full-length Lp "Kick It Over" had been recorded and was released in spring '93 on Doghouse Records.

However,the scene by this time was changing from the positive,open-minded feel-good atmosphere that had embraced Face Value to a more dogmatic,tough-guy circus centering on being "hard" and focusing on veganism, metal-core, money-making

and Integrity thug-worship. Face Value was viewed as a relic and a caricature from the past and combined with the poor reception that "Kick It Over" received (the record saw the band playing more rock-oriented stuff without the speed and angst of their classic releases, much like latter-day SSD or DYS) signalled the beginning of the end for the band. Vocalist and leader Erba was disgusted by the face of the new scene and it's further departure from its original inception as punk rock's leaner, faster offshoot and decided to leave the band after the '93 tour in September. The last show with Erba was Dec. '93 in front of 400 people at the old Flash Gordon's with Verrucose (featuring Disengage frontman Jason Byers) and Gag Reflex (featuring Wedge and Chard who went on to form the H-100s and Nine Shocks Terror with Tony Erba).

The band still continued with fill-in singers and bassists, and went to Europe without telling the label or the fans of the band that the frontman had left. Europe was a huge market for Face Value and kids were turned off by what they felt was a sham of a band. The band cut another album entitled "Choices" with new singer Jeff Desterhaft that was an attempt to recapture their glory days by returning to the fast, anthemic style with a vocalist basically doing an Erba impersonation and even bringing back cover art drawn by Ringworm's James Bulloch like they had done on the "Price" LP but the damage had been done and the band no longer had any draw except in the small southern Ohio towns where the guitarist and rest of the band lived.

After almost ten years of not speaking to each other, the passing of time and influx of new kids into a scene that worships the 'good old days' of the past has created a situation where Erba has agreed to play a few reunion shows with the original lineup sans drummer Scott Doland, who was not asked to participate. They are, to the disbelief of kids into the more underground and extreme bands like Nine Shocks and GSMF, going to play a few shows in Cleveland, Buffalo, Philly, Louisville, Boston and Florida in late summer 2002, to finally put the band to rest in a proper fashion.

RELEASES:

"Coming Of Age" 7",Conversion Records,1990 5,000 pressed

(still being repressed by Revelation Records without consent of the band)

"The Price Of Maturity" LP 1991 Conversion Records 10,000 pressed

(that we're legitmately aware of)

"Loud" 7" live single ,1992 Nemesis Records 3,000 pressed

"Kick It Over" LP, Doghouse/Cargo Records 1993 5,000 pressed

"Choices" LP, We Bite Records,1994 ??? pressed

There is also a second group called Face Value, which is a Genesis tribute band.

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