With Horses in Her Eyes was an awesome screamo/hardcore/skramz/fuckyou band from Atlanta. They released Prologue, a CDR, and changed their name to Histories....but sadly broke up in 2007. It's really too bad, because I personally feel like this band was doing some really killer stuff with the genre...maybe not groundbreaking, but they did it exceptionally well. The screams are some of my favorite I've heard on a screamo record in a while, incredibly frantic and intense. The music is heavy and driving at one minute, incredibly melodic at the next. Some of the poppier parts remind me of mid 90's emo like Mineral or Evergreen. The last track is acoustic, which is super cheesy and totally reminds me of 90's metalcore weenies Red Roses for a Blue Lady, but if you can look past the cheese, it's actually a pretty sick ending to a fantastic album. Anyways, really awesome record by another band that unfortunately came to an early end. I heard that a member of the band had all the remaining copies of this record in his car...the car was stolen. Bummer.
Arsen is a rad crusty emo/hardcore band from Germany who released a 7" on React With Protest in 2002. They play very dark and heavy emo/hardcore influenced by bands like Union of Uranus and Orchid, with a bit of a His Hero is Gone or Tragedy crust vibe too. This 7", Black Sunday, is incredibly noisy and heavy. The vocals are mixed fairly low in the mix, and range from high picthed screams to deep growls. It actually reminds me of Black Magic Pyramid a lot, just more "punk" sounding. Only complaint is the guitar tone which gets a little grating after a while. I don't know what else to say about this really, it's a fast, heavy and vicious 10 minutes of music. Germans scare me.
To The North is an awesome Math Rock/Indie Rock band with some emo influence. Super jazzy noodley guitar bordering on Kinsella-esque, dancey upbeat dums, and rambled shouted vocals with a heavy Australian accent. I've noticed Australia has a great scene going on. Tons of great bands, especially involved with the Hey Presto Label. Check it out if you dig bands like Castevet or Soft Floors.
Once again, I hope this band isn't new to many people but they're just too good not to post.
A lot of people like to argue over the use of the word skram to define a genre. While I agree the term is silly, so is "emo" and arguing over genre names is even lamer so suck it up because this next record is a "skram" record.
I know that this band isn't (or shouldn't be) news to anyone but lately I've sort of re-discovered them after a long break. I first found them when I was 14 and was perusing the Hardcore Holocaust site and they really stood out from the rest. Maybe it was the naked man.
Halifax is probably one of my favorite music scenes in Canada. Not only is it home to one of my all time favorite bands, North of America, it is also a hotbed of fantastic angular, weird poppy indie rock. Some amazing bands like Special Noise, Tomcat Combat, A History Of, The Holy Shroud, and The Medium Mood have come out of this scene. Halifax bands have the noisy mid 90's indie rock that was pioneered by bands like Pavement and Archers of Loaf on lock. I don't know what it is about that town...strange. (Reminds me...I always wanted to start a Punk Rock Geography blog, focusing on certain North American scenes, and their distinct sound...Chicago emo anyone?)
A slight departure from the regular posts on this blog for today. Adam & Naive are not a punk rock, hardcore, or emo band. I'm not even really sure how to classify them. Weird indie rock drenched in reverb and delay. This record really is very appropriately titled. It makes me think of hot, sweaty summer nights spent in basements dancing with your friends after a long day of eating Viet subs on the steps and playing soccer in the field. It just has a really great laid back vibe going on with it's twinkly guitars, shouted-sang vocals and meandering drums that sort of skip along. This record is definitely going to help me get through this cursed time of year we lovingly call winter.
Chamberlain (formerly known as Split Lip) was a emo/punk/rock band from Indiana. They released Fate's Got a Driver in 1995 under the band name Split Lip, and at the time played a great brand of punk rock that was obviously heavily influenced by Jawbreaker...in fact Fate's Got a Driver could be a Jawbreaker record, so I guess you can take that as good or bad. Despite the similarity, it's still a great record, one that I think is vastly underrated and overlooked. In 1996 they changed their name from Split Lip to Chamberlain in an effort to distance themselves from the hardcore scene that had made them who they were. It's unfortunate because they went on to play a pretty boring country fried rock sound that was no where near as good as the early stuff. (The singer actually releases solo records under his own name on Doghouse now...pretty boring, adult contemporary stuff my mom would dig....I guess we all gotta grow up at some point).
Floodgate was a California emo/punk rock band formed in the early 90's. Very reminiscent of early DC bands like Rites of Spring, One Last Wish, Embrace, etc. Very frantic vocals over top of jagged and noisy guitars and groovey basslines. I don't know a ton about these guys, but what I've heard is really rad.
No big explanation today, Carlisle is a band from Florida that plays great Emo/Hardcore with a great sense of melody. I like this band a lot. I hope you do too.
Sometimes I go on downloading blitzes and some of the albums that sound really interesting get lost in the shuffle of other stuff, and I forget about it. Lync's These Are Not Fall Colors is one of those records. I'm not sure where it came from and I had never heard of the band until a few days ago. Lync was indie rock band from Washington in the early 90's. Super noisy guitars and angular rhythms drew comparisons to bands like Drive Like Jehu and Fugazi, which I would agree with, but Lync also had a great pop sensibility to them. The songs are intense and awash in noise, but under all of it are great hooks. Check it out if you dig 90's emo or grungey indie rock. No essay on this record...sorry (Or you're welcome...not sure)
Life Without Buildings was a band from Glasgow, Scotland that existed for about 3 years in the early 2000's. They played very catchy, poppy post-punk/indie-rock that reminds me of bands like Ghosts & Vodka or American Football (maybe not as technical) but the thing that sets them apart is the vocals. Vocalist Sue Tompkins rambles/shouts/raps over the music, sometimes stuttering on one word for a few bars, sometimes repeating the same line over and over. The lyrics seem very loose and sometimes seem to be almost nonsensical which really integrates them in as a part of the soundscape the band creates. The songs are deceptively simple, and upon first listen may not hook you, but after a few listens I'm definitely digging this record quite a bit. The only issue I have with this record is the song "Sorrow" which sort of floats off into a different direction of the rest of the songs, and really stands out as the weakest track. Check out the Songs "The Leanover" and "Young Offenders", they're both fantastic and will likely be stuck in your head for days.
I've found that whenever I try and write a "review" of these records, they come across somewhat corny and don't really give any insight to why I love them so much. So in true form, I'm going to ramble on about some seemingly unrelated situation and hope that it vaguely relates back to this record. Deal? Ok good.
Lion of the North and Mans are two emo/hardcore bands from Indiana. They represent the new style of emo-skram-hardcore that has been gaining a lot of popularity in the last year or so. This split is pretty fantastic, so I'll try and break it up by band.
When I first started going to shows, punk rock seemed like a secret club that I had been let in on....that may seem elitist, but I was a kid who had no knowledge of independent music other than Blink 182's Dude Ranch. I had never been to a concert, and my love of music was solely based around listening to CD's on my walkmen and playing air guitar when no one was looking. Hall shows were a complete culture shock to me...it was gritty and felt dangerous.
I don't know much about Tamiroff other than they are a band from Rochester, NY and may or may not be active still. They play twinkly emo/indie rock stuff. It somewhat reminds me of bands like Gameface, Promise Ring, Counterfit and to an extent American Football. Somewhat technical, but very melodic and catchy. They also have this cool mid 90's radio rock vibe going on, like Gin Blossoms, although saying that may turn people off a bit. This EP is called "Last Songs" which leads me to believe this band is now defunct. Blood Alley would definitely be the stand out track for me, lots of great noodley guitars and start stop riffs. Groovy.
I had a hard time deciding whether I should upload this record or not. On one hand, it's on a bigger label, something I'll stay away from as much as possible on this blog but on the other hand it is a record that I feel too many people either don't know, or have passed on. (Largely because of the stigma attached to Tooth & Nail Records, a Christian Music Label and MewithoutYou's label). A to B Life is and has been one of my favorite records for the past 5-6 years. I listen to it almost daily.
Everyone probably knows this band already, and like usual I'm the one late to the party, but if you haven't heard One Last Wish, listen up!
Mach Tiver - S/T 7"
Soft Floors - S/T
