So Many Ways formed in Chicago in 2009 and released Seer through Staple Records in November 2013. Its recorded history is spread across label announcements, two Bandcamp pages and later physical reissues. The dates and credits help put those pieces together.
Staple News is independent, with no connection to the Staple Records label that used this domain and none to the band; how the site came to sit here is set out in About Staple News. Facts below come from the label’s own dated posts, from a dated 2011 press release, from the band’s own store pages, and from Discogs entries, which are community maintained transcriptions rather than label documents.
Which So Many Ways this is
The label’s signing announcement, dated 16 October 2013, pins the identity down in one paragraph: a Chicago band, formed in Chicago in 2009, three earlier EPs behind them, releasing their fourth and first for the label that November. It names all five members: Alex Palermo on bass, Colin Corley on vocals, Jason Milbank on guitar, Johnny Kalabokis on drums and Murphy Welch on guitar.
The label’s artist page adds where it started. Milbank, Welch and Corley met at Columbia College in Chicago, living in the same dorm, and the band took shape in 2009 around a first EP. Corley is quoted there describing the members as coming from different musical backgrounds and landing on the same hardcore and metal ground.
Two Bandcamp pages, one band
Part of why this is hard is that the band’s own store is split. Seer sits on a Bandcamp subdomain ending in “staple”, where the listing reads “released 19 November 2013” over the same six titles the label printed. A second subdomain, without that suffix, carries a self titled seven track record listed as released 1 April 2011. The page supplies its own track list and release date for comparison with the later EP.
The database is not much help on that earlier record. The artist release list carries a year of 2001 for it, while the record’s own master entry says 2011 and the band’s store page says April 2011. This guide uses the band’s own April 2011 date; the 2001 entry conflicts with that primary source.
Before Staple Records there was another label
A 2011 press release, reprinted by Salad Days Magazine, covers the years the label archive skips. It dates the formation to January 2009 and is candid that the lineup kept moving: an EP recorded with Jay Maas at Getaway Group studios, then the departure of a bassist, a drummer and a keyboard player; a second EP recorded with Chris Hiser; another rhythm section change; then drummer Keith Dow and bassist Chris Catterson joining.
The constant across all of it is Milbank, Welch and Corley. That release also records the band signing to Mightier Than Sword Records, which is the label that came before Staple Records rather than after it.
The Seer release cycle in 2013
The label’s posts document a tight run. The 16 October announcement premiered a track at AbsolutePunk. A pre-order opened on 1 November. A video for another song went up on 8 November. The EP came out on 19 November. Two days later the label announced the release show: 12 December at Township on North California Avenue in Chicago, six dollars in advance and eight on the door, with Carousel Kings, Rust Belt Lights and Better Off. An Audiotree live session followed on 25 November.
The announcement also placed them on the road with a labelmate, which is where this band intersects with the catalogue covered in our guide to Senses Fail albums in order.
The tour that stopped in February
On 4 February 2014 the label published a release saying the band had left their winter tour the previous day, supporting Palisades and Famous Last Words, and asked listeners to continue supporting the other bands on the bill. The last dated label post about them found in this run is a tour van feature from July 2014. That is where the captures stop, which is not the same as an ending.
Vinyl in 2023, on a different label
Ten years after the CD, Seer was reissued on vinyl. The inspected 2023 entries name Parting Gift Records and catalog number PGR021. Three of those entries carry their own date of 23 February 2023, a colour and a stated run: 25 for a wax mage variant, 100 for a blue and pink nebula, 225 for a hellfire red. Each of the three also records five previously unreleased songs on the B side. A fourth colour is entered with no date and no run size of its own, so none is given here.
Corrections and gaps
Built from eight archived label posts, one reprinted 2011 press release, two store pages and several release entries read on 6 September 2026. No review score and no reception claim appears, because the bounded research did not find a suitable review or band-specific discussion source. No copy of any pressing was inspected, so every colour and count here is what an entry records rather than what a sleeve prints. Lineup statements are dated to the source that carries them. Our editorial standards cover how to send a correction.