1994!

I haven't seen this album, or their demo, for that matter posted anywhere else, so here goes:

Two dudes! One plays guitar, one plays drums. Simple enough. This is what someone else had to say:

Intricate, melodic and mathy post hardcore from this Lancaster, PA drum and guitar duo. Imagine Hoover in overdrive or Ghosts & Vodka with vocals. Throw in the revolution summer influence of bands like Embrace and Rites of Spring and you will start to have an idea of what to expect.

Okay, I'm not really seeing it, but whatever. These guys have an original sound. It's mathy post-hardcore, I'll meet you half way. But I'm not seeing the whole Dischord comparison really, maybe I'm just out of the loop. I would say it's kind of reminiscent of Tiny Hawks to me, circa People With Out End. I guess I could say they sound a bit like Hoover, but with the sad bastard factor turned way down. To be honest with you I don't listen to too much Dischord stuff. There, I said it.

Pounding drums kinda make these songs careen into one another, while gruff shouted vocals provide atmospheric melody over top of the whole shebang. I'd say two of the biggest highlights on the record are "Steep Cliff Mountain Type Jaunt," which features gang vocals and kind of just hangs out in your brain, and the track that immediately follows, "Stutter Like You Mean It", which hosts some awesome guitar riffage. To be honest, I kind of prefer the demo versions of "Sexual Alien Vs Sexual Predator" and "Tough Guy Older Brother Shit", but maybe I'm just being sentimental or something. Maybe it's because ever since I heard "Sexual Alien" for the first time that awesome melody has just been stuck in my head...

"I'm pulsing again/I've been pulsing for years..."

Download all of it.

These guys are from Lancaster, PA, and the sort of Central/Northeastern PA area is seeing a huge explosion of good fucking music right now. From the Lehigh Valley to Philly, Pennsylvania is pretty fucking rad right now, home to bands like these guys, Algernon Cadwallader, Slingshot Dakota, Street Smart Cyclist (R.I.P.), Storm The Bastille, We Were Skeletons, and about one million other bands, which probably features at least one member of one of the bands I just mentioned.

Speaking of side projects, these guys just started one called Boyfriends. Check it out here.

I've only seen these guys live once, at Barclay House in Baltimore. It was a good show. Read about it here.

They have a myspace.

Oh and here's a video of them playing "Termineighbor 2 The Misspelling" at that show at Barclay I was talking about.



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'08 Winter Demo



Thank You Arms and Fingers

Neil Perry

Neil Perry was a screamo band from New Jersey that got their name from a suicidal teenager in that Robin Williams movie "The Dead Poet Society". Pretty br007 huh? Anywho, Neil Perry was really fast and thrashy on some songs, while in other songs they sound alot more melodic and junk. Neil Perry was formed back in '98 when You And I broke up, but they have a ton of affiliated bands, including Hot Cross, Joshua Fit For Battle, and Welcome The Plague Year. I can't tell you how many releases they have. I know they did a split with Joshua Fit For Battle and some other bands. Level Plane put out a 40 song discography called Lineage Situation. I really like this discography because of the differences in the recording quality of the songs. Below I have a four part video that came as a special feature with the discography, followed by Lineage Situation. They have some copies of Lineage on Amazon, I just bought one actually. If we have any readers who are into collecting records and shit, keep an eye out for anything put out by Neil, this shit is mad rare.

W0RD UP PUP PUP

Here's a preview of the DVD:

PT.1


PT. 2


PT. 3


PT. 4


PT. 5


LOLZ 3nj0y

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Download the Lineage Situation video here.



Lineage Situation

Failures

Featuring current and former members of bands like Charles Bronson, Ampere, Orchid, Das Oath, the Cancer Kids (and more), Failures has been tagged in almost every write up as a (go ahead and cringe) hardcore "supergroup". To be fair, with such résumés under their respective belts, the members of the bands should expect this sort of reaction.

Failures' debut LP boils, seethes, broods, and explodes, but it never slows down. The record kicks off with a few quick strums before Mark McCoy screams, "FAILURES!" Intense stuff. 14 songs in 14 minutes and 17 seconds, and then it's over. Anchored by a rhythm section seemingly hellbent on breaking their instruments, Will Killingsworth's guitar fills it's familiar frantic niche while exploring new rhythms and putting thrash at the forefont. His treble-driven dissonant attack propels Mark McCoy's (former Charles Bronson frontman) desperate howl as he sarcastically rakes just about everything you might take for granted over the coals. If they were going for "pissed", these guys succeeded.

Basically, if you're a fan of any of the bands these guys have been associated with, this LP is essential. If you haven't heard of any of these bands before, you might as well start here and work your way backwards, because you must have been living under a rock for the past 15 or so years.

Order the LP from Clean Plate.


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Failures (2008)

The Last Forty Seconds

Well, I couldn't find a picture of these guys playing, so I leave you with a picture of one of those cute little kiddies who show off all the Ape Must Not Kill Ape releases.

The Last Forty Seconds was an emotive hardcore band that formed in or around 1999 and broke up in the early 2000's. Members of this band went on to form The Saddest Landscape, Wolves, and vocalist Andy Maddox currently fronts screamo giants Ampere. Their only output is this 12" release and a split with Sundowner (recorded by Will Killingsworth of Orchid) which I haven't been able to find a vinyl rip of (SO IF YOU HAVE IT RIP IT!). This LP features 6 solid songs that remind me of bands like Funeral Diner, Orchid, and Portraits of Past. I think that'd be enough incentive for me to download this record.

Or even purchase it from Slave Union.

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The Last Forty Seconds

Hightide Hotel

Hightide Hotel is an emo band from the Lehigh Valley/Philly. They are made up of members of Street Smart Cyclist,
Every Monster Truck Ever, Hollows, Western Survival, and Snowing. Their style of music is more up-tempo, and is kind of like some of the midwest bands (Braid, Cap'n Jazz, blah blah). I've seen them live twice, once in a house in PA with Street Smart and Algernon Cadwallader, and again at Street Smart's last show with Slingshot Dakota. Their album, Porch Luck, is one of my favorite CD's. Hightide is also doing a split with the band By Surprise, which is being put out on Runner Up Records. On their myspace they have up two songs that are not on the album posted below. If you live in the tri-state area, you should go see these guys as soon as you can. Sorry guys, no videos today!

ch33rz and b33rz!


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Porch Luck (2008)

Punch

Punch plays in-your-face hardcore punk! They also sing about things like veganism and I believe some if not all of the members are straightedge. This sounds like old school shit with a twist to me, and I love it. The band features a female vocalist and I would say that she kind of sounds like a female Jake Bannon (Converge). Punch features Val of Loma Prieta on drums.

To be honest, I don't really know much about hardcore punk like this and would really appreciate any suggestions on bands that sound similar/may have influenced Punch!

Sorry I don't have a bigger picture of the album art by the way!

* * *



Eyeless EP (2008)

Video of new Native Song

Here's a video from Native's blog of them playing a new track, "Pony Boy". I'm really excited to hear some new output from these guys. Check out the drum fill at 3:00! Awesome stuff.


Native - "Pony Boy" from Hannah Rosner on Vimeo.

Castevet

After reading the recent Zen post on these guys, I decided that I would download this release and give it a shot. It sounded pretty promising.

I was not dissapointed. In fact, I was so excited I had to get online and do this post.

Castevet's debut record kicks off with a slow, dreamy post-rock like build up that could very well take the record in a very different direction before the vocals kick in. While maintaining a melodic, clean sound that could easily be described as pretty, the vocalist sings in a growl that sounds like something between Marc Paffi (Bear Vs Shark), any 90's emocore record, Phil Douglas (Latterman, Iron Chic), and the dude from 1994. Musically, these guys are diverse. The band cites their influences as "ghosts and vodka, colossal, braid, caspian, casket lottery, small brown bike, american football, dianogah", and say they sound like "melodic beard punk". I would have to say that's about as close as anyone is going to get to describing the sound these guys have created. They are one of the few bands around today who are pushing new, fresh ideas in the emo/post-hardcore genres; they have created a sound that is truly original, something that preceding Chicago area bands like American Football, Cap'n Jazz, Braid, and the Promise Ring (to name only a famous few) did over ten years ago. They are part of an increasingly DIY American (and international) music scene that is overflowing with bold ideas, new sounds, and intelligent nods to the past; these are the records that will be going for hundreds on eBay one day, right alongside Rites of Spring LP's. This is the music that the cool kids ten years from now will be listening to.

You could've told me that this was a 7" released in the midst of a prolific and accomplished band's career and I wouldn't have second guessed you for a second. For a debut, the quality of these songs are absolutely outstanding.

These three songs will be featured on Castevet's upcoming full length Summer Fences which is due out this summer on Count Your Lucky Stars Recordings.

I know it's only February, but I'm gonna go ahead and call it: this is one of the best releases of the year. At least until the full length drops.

peep their space.

* * *



I Know What a Lion Is (2009)

L'Antietam

L'Antietam is from New Hampshire, a state that you might figure not a lot of punk bands come from. And you'd probably be right. Although Furnace and Bravo Fucking Bravo are both from the same general area, and I would suggest checking them both out (Bravo even featured L'Antietam's bassist John on the bass for a while).

The band formed in 2005 while the guys were still in high school, and put out a self titled debut on the German label Adagio830, followed up by a four song 7" entitled "We Like it When the Red Water Comes Out". The debut was comprised of screamy hardcore songs that caught the attention, but still seemed to lack something. The 7" brought some of the ideas brought to the table on the debut to fruition, creating a spazzy, noodly sound full of passion and energy.

A split with Furnace was followed by the release of Family in 2006, which compiled all their previous output (minus the unmastered versions of the tracks found on the Furnace split) as well as 10 new recordings. The new recordings from "Family" were L'Antietam's previous attempts more fully realized: songs that you could imagine screaming along to in the basement intermingling with well-executed interlude tracks.

With Will Killingsworth (guitarist of Orchid/Ampere/Bucket Full of Teeth/Failures, sound engineer of many great records including Orchid's own Gatefold) behind the helm, 2007's Arthur Carr saw an expansion of L'Antietam's sound, leaving behind some of the noodly riffs (which lead singer/guitarist Derek explained he had sort of lost interst in when I talked to him) for a more straightforward and powerful melodic hardcore punk sound that still included the signature heart pounding build ups that had become part of their signature on the earlier records. This record also contains the epic "Our Elders", an instrumental track has is easily one of L'Antietam's best songs, and (dare I go there?) one of the best "screamo" songs of the decade.

The band's 2008 output was limited to two tracks on a split with the Kidcrash, but they did not dissapoint. "Gnarthur Gnarr" and "Gnarfield Gnarbuckle" take the sound L'Antietam explored on Arthur Carr and condense it in further in a balled fist of punk energy, leaving the book open on where they can take their sound next.

I'm extremely excited for 2009 because they have three releases slated for this year: a split with none other than Loma Prieta, an EP entitled Dark Brew due out in the spring, and a brand new full length record due by autumn. Below is the art for the Loma Prieta/L'Antietam split, for anyone who is actually interested.



Below I've uploaded their entire discography up to this point, including my own personal vinyl rip of the Furnace split. The L'Antietam tracks on the split are included on Family, but I uploaded this release anyway for two reasons. One, the tracks appear to be earlier versions of the songs, or are at least unmastered (since they're on vinyl), and the Furnace song contained on this record is one of my favorite Furnace songs. Very good, and somewhat longer than the usual Furnace song. Definitely worth a download. As far as I know, this is the only place you can get an mp3 of this song; you'd have to buy the vinyl to hear it otherwise.

There really isn't enough good I can say about these guys. They play amazing, powerful screamo songs that come straight from the heart, and they put on an incredibly good live show. AND they're extremely nice dudes. I had a great, great time when they played a show with us during their tour and we got a chance to party with them afterward. I would definitely recommend buying ALL of their shit from Slave Union.

Peep the myspace here.

* * *



Family (2006)



Furnace Split (2006)




Arthur Carr on cassette

Arthur Carr (2007)



Heavy Nugs and Heady Chugs Split w/Kidcrash (2008)

The Black Powder

The Black Powder is a band from the D.C. area that shares members with Fine Lines. They play a simliar style of gritty, sonic punk songs. But whereas Fine Lines sounds like "Rites of Spring playing their songs with mittens" (as their myspace so eloquently puts it), The Black Powder sounds more like if The Pixies and Fugazi got together and decided to put out a garage rock record. Citing influences from Death From Above 1979 to Refused to Malady to Minor Threat, they siphon all these unexpected sounds together into one finely tuned dynamic machine. I've seen these guys twice before and they always put on a really energetic, entertaining live show.

Click here for their myspace.

* * *



The Black Powder (2007)

Caspian

Caspian is a post-rock band from Massachusetts. They formed back in 2003, and have three releases to their name; an EP, a full length, and a split with Constants. They are currently recording, and should be releasing this recording later on this year. Also, they are playing some shows around Massachusetts and the east coast. They are going to be in Washington D.C on March 14th, so any locals should check that out, and they are doing SXSW this year. Caspian has a sound that has been compared to M83 and This Will Destroy You. Their songs are varied in length, some being over 8 minutes and some under 4, so that's cool. Also, its not just the same old song structure every time, some songs are pretty chill, some are pretty heavy, and they have buildups, breakdowns (post-rock breakdowns), and ambient parts all throughout their albums.
Here's a video of Caspian playing the song "Moksha" in 2007 at their CD release show.



* * *


Split With Constants


You Are The Conductor


The Four Trees

Braid

Braid is a band that should need no introduction. But for some reason, it seems that in the 90's Chicago post-hardcore/emo scene Braid's influence and impact has taken a back seat to bands like Cap'n Jazz, The Promise Ring, and American Football. But Bob Nanna and Chris Broach's songwriting shouldn't be ignored: they're like the....Richards/Jagger, or Lennon/McCartney of emo. Ok, maybe that was taking it too far. Just at least download Frame and Canvas and you'll see what I mean.



* * *



Frankie Welfare Boy Age 5 (1995)



The Age of Octeen (1996)



Frame & Canvas (1998)



Movie Music Vol. 1 (2000)



Movie Music Vol. 2 (2000)


Lucky To Be Alive CD Release


Lucky to Be Alive Vinyl

Lucky To Be Alive (2000)