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.