- Ron Whalen (Vocals)
- Vocals
- Chuck Sweet (Guitar)
- Chuck was once had visions of becoming the next lead singer of Jethro Tull. He trudged forward pursuing this goal through open mics and by unrequited flirting with pretty recording execs. A loner by nature, he picked up the guitar, and proceeded to accompany himself, as no one else would. Years passed. A miracle occurred. In his pursuit of vocal perfection, he inadvertently mastered the guitar. One drunken night, alone on the corner of M Street and Pennsylvania, while attempting to wow passers by with his climaxing guitar abilities, or, as liars might tell you, selling his body for crack cocaine… he had "what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity". Why not join a band playing guitar and give up all of this Scott Anderson wanna be crap? So he did. And that band, friends, was Permanent Ascent.
- Tony Miller (Guitar)
- Tony grew up in a small town outside of Cincinnati OH. Spending every
waking hour listening to music, he soon realized that rock music was a deep
part of his soul. He picked up a guitar for the first time when he was 16
and hasn't put it down since. Growing up listening to heavy metal he
quickly acquired a taste for rock! While learning and growing as a
musician, he stumbled through several small bands until he graduated high
school. A few months passed and he joined the US Air Force. After basic
training and technical school, he got stationed in Georgia. While there, he
played in everything from folk rock to punk. Six years later, he got
stationed in the nation's capitol and joined a local punk band for a year
and as we all know, bands come and go, and, well… they went. After that, he
immediately hooked up with a crazy ass bunch of hooligans known as Permanent
Ascent and the rest is history!
- Alex Melton (Bass)
- Alex was born in the land of rain and fog. Growing up on the streets of Seattle, he quickly shed his MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice tapes from his collection and entered the land of Grunge. But then he heard of this crazy unruly music they were calling punk rock. He engulfed himself in the music as it fit well with his place as an outcast from the majority of the kids he was in contact with. But… But he still didn't feel whole. There was a piece missing. He search high and low, inside and outside of his soul to find that piece that completed him. One day he was taking a lonely stroll on the beach, brooding as the rain clouds formed and his walkman blasted local punk rock straight into his brain, he came across a shadowy figure. He couldn't make out any details, it just looked like a shadow without a body attached. Alex clearly saw the pistol the figure held as it shot Ska straight into his walkman. The clouds broke and a beam of light surrounded him and in a motion of complete joy he opened his arms and basked in it's glow. He floated two feet from the ground slowly turning and laughing as the 2-tone, 70's era, 3rd wave and skacore flowed from his headphones.
He was whole.
Witnesses say that all the sick and crippled in the surrounding area were immediately cured and they all participated in a spontaneous dance number. Some say that for the next 24 hours not one death occurred on the entire planet. Others say the entire story is retarded.
Deep in the punk and ska scene, Alex was in a couple local punk and ska bands, but the Age of the Hipster was looming. Feeling the coming battle, Alex knew the scene wasn't ready. It fought amongst itself and was too elitist. He left for the Marine Corps, traveled the… well.. country, and settled in Northern Virginia. Armed with his aggressive punk rock arsenal and the up-beat feeling of Ska, he has found the balance to fight pretentious Hipsters and musical elitists that consumed the music he loved.
As part of Permanent Ascent from the start, and embracing all musical styles, he has worked with them in this fight. When the time comes, they will strike the Hipster Capital that was once his home, and remove them from power. No longer will he stand idlely by and listen to a lecture by a half-wit shit tell him the his music isn't good because the band doesn't use odd time signatures, or the name isn't twelve words long and isn't "ironic" or "artsy" or "a play on the plight of youth in fucking Canada".
- Deron Cain (Drums)
- An Earth native, Deron began playing guitar in the eighties at the age of sixteen, where he played in a number of Metal and Hard Rock projects throughout the Virginia/DC metro area including the thrash bands Red Harvest and Nostromo, the former being signed briefly to Capitol records. Deron left the scene in the early nineties to serve in the United States Marine Corps for eight years; this gave him the opportunity to see a large portion of the world and to blow it up using your tax dollars. Upon his return to Northern Virginia he decided to try his hand at being a drummer, where he held down the beat for rock bands such as Starryville and jazz mavens The Chop before joining the group of punk rock hooligans know as Permanent Ascent.