Off Minor

After Saetia Broke up, three of the five dudes formed Off Minor. The name comes from a Thelonious Monk song. I don't think this lineup recorded, because on of the bassist left and was replaced by one of the other guys brothers. The "new" bass player now runs Permanent Hearing Damage Recording Studio in Philly, and has worked with alot of bands that you probably enjoy.

Have you ever heard that saying about The Beatles and Elvis? Basically, you either are a Beatles fan or an Elvis fan. You can be both, but, at the end of the day you like one more than the other. I think the same goes for Hot Cross and Off Minor(Abridged Screamo History Lesson: Post Saetia, Behar, Smith and Roche formed Off Minor and Werner and Drudry formed Hot Cross. When Smith left Off Minor he played in Hot Cross). I was originally going to do a combined post with both those bands, but the Hot Cross is taking longer to upload than I anticipated and I have some time on my hands. I want to do this and at least one more post before I dedicate myself to a research paper I have been putting off for way too long.

Off Minor is no longer active, doing the whole "indefinite hiatus" thing. Their style of music was heavily reliant on intricate time changes and somewhat nonsensical progressions, relying more on jazz dynamics than those of their hardcore contemporaries. You can call them a Screamo band, but its more "punk-jazz" than anything else. I heard that when they played live they wouldn't stop playing music (or making noise) in between songs, rather using hand signals to communicate with each other. The musical ability possessed by this band is mind-blowing, granted that upon first listen some of the less-dedicated listeners might write this band off as too out there to really get into, which again brings me to the Hot Cross/Off Minor comparison. Hot Cross relied more on dueling guitar virtuosos and were relatively conventional in their song structures, whereas Off Minor focused more on intricate melodies involving the entire group and bounced between conventional structure and more experimental or abstract structures. My favorite release by Off Minor would have to be "The Heat Death of The Universe", so if you are intimidated by the amount of material presented, you should at just check that album out. On a side note, I think that I should start pointing out one release and recommending that to first-time listeners in the event that there is an overwhelming amount of music to sift through. Below is their discography, to the best of my knowledge, except for their split with Life Detecting Coffins, and a video. You can buy their records everywhere, by the way. Word.



***


Innominate


Off Minor (Self-Titled)



Off Minor & Killie Split


Off Minor & Ampere Split


Off Minor & My Disco Split


Off Minor & St. Alban's Kids Split


Problematic Courtship & I Am The Resurrection Split


Some Blood


The Heat Death of The Universe

Adobe Homes & Beau Navire Split

So I'm at school right now, sitting in the computer lab waiting to go sleep through a movie about Japanese internment camps or something. I am using the high-speed internet to my advantage and getting about a week's worth of blog-trolling in, and I stumbled upon this gem over at Circling The Drain (tight blog, if you have never been there before). I have not gotten the chance to download this album yet, but I am 110% positive that is is fucking dope. The pre-orders should have been shipped I think (still waiting for my copy, RAMY) but this is the first time I have seen the rip online. I didn't want to wait until I got home to repost this, so below is some copy/pasta from CTR.

Finally, this split is almost out. Preorders will ship as soon as we receive our copies. One-sided 7" featuring one song from each band. "Eyelids" by Beau Navire and "I Don't Think I'm Glorybound, Bound, Bound" by Adobe Homes. Adobe Homes dabbles in a nifty group chant on this one and takes their chaotic sound up a notch. Beau Navire go a little heavier on "Eyelids." Still the same Beau Navire we know and love, only heavier. Did I mention it was a little bit heavier?

-Black With Sap Records' Webstore

BUY THIS RECORD AND SUPPORT MY FRIENDS. The labels and bands involved are great people and I am beyond stoked regarding this vinyl. Word.

(This is what I woke up to today)


***


Adobe Homes & Beau Navire Split

Beau Navire - Life Moves

Beau Navire, as many of you should know by now, is a screamo powerhouse containing members of Loma Prieta and Iwrotehiakusaboucannabalisminyouryearbook. I can also say that these guys are some of the nicest dudes you will meet. Anyways, they have been pretty busy recently with two splits on the way (Adobe Homes and Suffix), a European tour that will include Cry Me A River, and a one-sided full length on React With Protest and Moment of Collapse. Beau Navire posted a link to the streaming of their album on their facebook via the Moment of Collapse website.

Anyways, a good friend of mine gave me a downloaded copy of the new album, entitled "Life Moves". I wasn't going to put this up just because I have a feeling I will be asked to take it down, but if its floating around the internet already I don't see any harm with sharing it. I know that I plan on buying this album, and you should too. Help them get to Europe and stuff by buying the Adobe Homes split and the pre-orders(are they up yet) for this record.

Beau Navire delivers some of the most solid American Screamo music I have ever heard on this album. Incorporating elements from both their affiliated acts plus expanding on traditional screamo dynamics, Life Moves is going to really blow people away. This record can be lumped into any of the vast categories that tend to divide the emotional hardcore scene, making it accessible to any fan of the genre without causing the band to loose its edge and more raw elements. I have greatly enjoyed watching this band evolve, over the internet for the most part, from an obscure California group to one of the leading American Skramz acts. Below is the album, and if it gets taken down I will let you know. Word.




***


Life Moves

El Sueño del Ranchero

El Sueño del Ranchero was a short lived experimental-grind band from Mexico City, Mexico that existed for one year. That year was 2004. The band broke up right before they were going to record a five song ep, making this lone demo the extent of their recorded material. After El Sueño del Ranchero broke up, the members decided that they wanted to continue playing music together but wanted to go in a new direction. They changed their style of playing and adopted the name "Arse Moreira".

Think early Daughters. I'm talking the first seven inch and maybe Canada Songs. Although they are way more experimental, you can really hear a heavy Daughters influence, not to the point of a rip-off but it is obvious that they intended to make grindcore in the vein of "Flattery Is A Bunch Of Fucking Bullshit". When the band isn't fucking your day up with the crazy shreds they are spacing out with jazzy and Spanish breaks. "Green Hills" shifts at around the one minute marker from Shredcity to Groovetown, which only lasts a minute. Two minute marker ques the acid trip, and minute three shifts back to the chaos. Aparently when they played shit got real intense. Blood shed intense. I bet that Jorge went to their shows and cried. The bassist is now in Te Lloraría Un Puto Río.

The demo was actually released on Existencia Records from Spain and The Awesome Machine in Belgium. Please download this album because it is worth the 9 minutes. Word.

***


Demo

Jon/Dave

“Jon/Dave” (for lack of a better name) consists of ex-Street Smart Cyclist, Harrison Bergeron members Jon and Dave Geeting. They are known for being handsome, living in Brooklyn, and sharing a brain. These recordings were leaked on August 26th, 2010 as a mysterious mediafire link on the Street Smart Cyclist Facebook page. According to Dave Geeting, they are “unfinished but were never going to see the light of day and that sucks. Picture this with bass and vocals!” All “Jon/Dave” songs were recorded in Jon’s basement (RIP Brooklyn Cat House) in Bushwick, NY with Tim Korn in April 2009.

-Last.fm

My favorite thing coming out of the greater PA area right now. I heard they changed their name, or rather picked a name. I forget what it is/was but it had something to do with the mail. Is Ross (SSC/Snowing) in this band now? They played a show around Christmas and I was told Ross was going to play bass. I don't really know anything about this band. Dave Geeting told me about this band, in a round-about way, a long time ago at a Storm The Bastille show, where he described it as "Street Smart Cyclist on speed". That description is pretty accurate. Mathy-noodle instrumental jams, sounding somewhat all over the place but still solid as fuck. Both Jon and Dave are fucking amazing at their instruments, I hope they make more music and I can get my hands on it.


***

Demo

Adobe Homes

Adobe Homes is a skramzy band from New Mexico. They sound sort of like Innards, but a little more raw. A little bit of chaos and a little bit of late 90's/early 2000's drive. They do the fast Orchid-esque parts well, and have the almost sing-alongs in a good number of their songs. They were supposed to tour with Innards this winter but that didn't happen, something about not having a ride. They recently put out an LP with Bear Records. Is it even out yet? I don't know, but if it is you should buy it. If it isn't up then you should get that pre order. The new shit is hot, for real. They have an lp, a demo, and a split with Growing Pains, although I do not have the Growing Pains tracks. Sorry. They are doing/did a split with Beau Navire, which I think/hope will be ready soon. Act like I didn't get that glow in the dark pre-order. Prrrrrrr. Below are three of their albums and a video. When I get that Beau Navire split I will share it with my babies. Word.



***


Ristra


'08 Demo


Songs from the Growing Pains Split

Reversal Of Man & Combatwoundedveteran

Reversal of man and Combatwoundedveteran were two of the first emo-violence bands, respectively. They played abrasive hardcore that had grindy elements but were influenced by Charles Bronson and shit. Along with In/Humanity they were sort of the first batch of these types of bands, if you will. Both bands were from Florida and shared members. Both bands also only put out a few proper solo releases but were featured on a slew of compilations and splits, which were compiled together onto single releases later on. I really enjoy both of these bands alot, and I'm sure that a good portion of the people who read this blog do too, or are at least familiar with these bands. Seeing as this is a double post, which I only did it seemed silly to do a post on one today and then the other in like two days or something. While I'm thinking about both bands I might as well post both.

The Combatwoundedveteran lineup seemed to have been sort of like that of pg. 99, in the sense that it had the tendency to change up amongst the same basic group of people. The line up RoM seems to be more constant. Reversal of Man put out two Lp's, "This is Medicine" and "Revolution Summer", and Combat... only put out one entitled "I Know A Girl Who Develops Crime Scene Photos". Like I mentioned above, both bands have albums out that are made up of their more obscure releases: Combat's collection is called "This is Not an Erect, All-Red Neon Body" and Reversal has an album falsely called "Discography"- I found this list on some livejournal thread regarding the album:

The tracks are from the following records:
1 - from the "403 Chaos" comp cd
2 - from the "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" comp 7" on Witching Hour (does this song sound
like Orchid or what?)
3-8 - from the Puritan split 12" on King of the Monsters
9-10 - from the Enemy Soil split 7" on Fist Held High
11-16 - from the Holocron split 12" on Pleed
17-18 - from the Cease split 7" on Pleed/Blacksmith
19-22 - from the s/t 7" on Valrico
23 - from the "Placebo" comp 7" on Concurrent
24-27 - from the self released demo

The only thing not included in this collection is the song from "The Brave Do Not Fear The Grave". Both bands also did a split together, called "Electric Youth Crew". Below are a video for each band and the largest collection of their catalog that I could throw together. Cool. Word.


***



"Electric Youth Crew" ROM/Combat split

-------REVERSAL OF MAN----------



Discography


Revolution Summer


This Is Medicine

------------COMBATWOUNDEDVETERAN-----------------



I Know A Girl Who Develops Crime Scene Photos


This Is Not An Erect, All-Red Neon Body