Benton Falls was a midwest emo/indie rock band from Santa Rosa, California, formed in 2000. The original quartet consisted of Michael Richardson (vox, guitar), Gerb (guitar), Vance Gore (bass), and Eli Deering (drums). The band's music is influenced by such bands as Sunny Day Real Estate, Braid, and Jawbox. Their first appearance on record was on the compilation The Silence in My Heart: The Emo Diaries Chapter Six on the independent Deep Elm label in July 2001 (with the track "Tell Him"), and a month after it's release, they brought out their first full-length album Fighting Starlight, again on Deep Elm Records. Soon after, Gerb left the band. In the winter of 2002 the band went back into the recording studio to work on their follow up album, Guilt Beats Hate, which was released in the spring of 2003. Due to their appearances on emo compilation records and their heartfelt, personal lyrics, the band is sometimes referred to as a "second generation" emo band, along with other similar bands active during the 2000's, like The Get Up Kids and Moneen. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.