Verse En Coma

Verse En Coma was a short lived band from Virginia, I guess. They are part of the extensive Pg. 99 family and only have one release as of now. Their Last.fm page says all that you need to know:

VERSE EN COMA was formed by the songwriting backbone of MALADY (Jeff Kane, Kevin Longendyke, Jonathan Moore) and joined by Darkest Hour/City of Caterpillar drummer (Ryan Parrish) and multi-talented vocalist Brian Markham. Most of the songs were written towards the end of Malady but re-vamped and enhanced with the joining of Parrish and Markham to the group. The results are an impressive and varied recording, which was engineered and executed by the band themselves over a several-year period.

Somewhere between the present day and unfortunate endings of Pg.99, City of Caterpillar and Malady, a “lost” recording was created but shelved for several years. Five dynamic tracks that collided with both artistic and industry red tape comprise the VERSE EN COMA debut release, “Rialto“. Finally though the dust has settled, the hurdles have all been jumped and “Rialto” will finally see the light of day as a dual-format 10″+CD release through Robotic Empire.

I couldnt find a video of a live performance, which sucks. I've been listening to this album really hard these past few weeks. I snagged it off some other blog, I forget which one though. Anyways, snag this, then snag that shit from Robotic Empire. Word

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Rialto EP

Lady

Lady is the baddest bitch. For real.



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Jack Yo Shit


Bitch From Around The Way


Bitch From Around The Way 2

The Saddest Landscape & We Were Skeletons Split

Alright, so if you are one of the more dedicated fans that both of these bands have acquired, you would already have this album by now. Its been leaked for quite some time. I know if the record is out yet, because I haven't checked the Topshelf web store in a minute, but I can that you can at least get the pre-order (snag it up while you can, FIRST PRESSING BRO).

We Were Skeletons are from Lancaster, PA. There are three people in that band. They have two songs on this release. "No Funeral" is way punk, super bass heavy. Sing along included as well. "Medication" is also more punk than skrimzork. The band's sound seems to be changing, moving away from the melodic hardcore of their full length (which is the fucking jam) and possibly going back to their punk roots? The new shit sounds more like "Summers" than the LP. STILL THE SHIT THOUGH. If you love the WWS boys you should jump on their TUMBLER and get the tracks by Matt (drums) and Justin's (Guitar) side project/claim to fame: ROCK AND ROLL TRUCK. There was talk of putting up either Raf (bass) and Justin's previous band's demo or EP or whatever (Hopalong Cassidy), as well as some of Justin's solo work.

The Saddest Landscape are from Boston and New York, right? Does one of them live in Jersey? I don't know. There are four people in that band. They have one song on this release, called "Shifting My Clarity". This shit is pretty fucking boss. Really intense and hard hitting. The instrumentation is pretty really impressive. Halfway through shit gets all spacey and post rock, bro, right before its all epic and shit. Then, the end, is full of Mike York feedback (He did the WWS song too). I'm not a huge gigantic fan of The Saddest Landscape, but, this song is pretty fucking awesome and I listen to it a good bit. Have they posted their summer tour dates yet, like made em public or whatever? If they did, check them out. If they didnt, well, just wait because its pretty cool.

BUY THIS RECORD AND THEN SELL IT LATER FOR ALOT MORE MONEY. wuuuuuuuuuuurD.

Yesterday was 4/20, and we hope that all of you had a most excellent holiday. We sure did. Below is the download link to that split, and videos that have nothing to do with the wws/tsl seven inch.

This first video is for us old heads:


This second video is for the baby heads:


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The Saddest Landscape / We Were Skeletons Split

Megan & Amelia

Megan & Amelia is the solo project of Ryan Fleischer, bassist of Matsuri and DEERS!(rip). The Demo below, which I believe is all the recorded material that exists, is only two songs. The first song, "Son", is a short somber melody which incorporates a whistle in the vein of Andrew Bird. The second song, "Vai Vai", is a longer electric song that uses ambient background sounds and a tambourine. The whole demo clocks in at just under ten minutes, but over 80% of that is "Vai Vai".

If I had to compare Megan & Amelia to any other artists I would have that it sounds like a suicide letter written by Owen and Iron and Wine. Although the songs are not sad songs (i.e, he isn't crying or anything) you still get the overwhelming feeling of sorrow when you listen to Ryan sing. I don't know if this is what he was going for, but its what came out. I don't talk to him alot, but I hope that Ryan continues forward with this project and can put out a more proper release in the future. Below is the two song demo, and although I have no proper contact info for him I'm sure that if you wish to get ahold of him you can figure it out.
Word.


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Megan & Amelia Demo

Voyage In Coma

Voyage In Coma is a relatively new band from Baltimore and Washington, DC, respectively. Three of the dudes live in the greater College Park area, one live in Baltimore and I have no idea where the fifth lives. I assume there are five people in the band. The members of this group were in An Aria, Lonely Are The Brave, and The Lost Tourists. At one point in time the bassist from Age Sixteen was playing with VIC, but that has come to pass.

We played a show with this band January at Charm City Art Space but got there just as Voyage was ending. I had no idea who the band was at the time but heard some of what was going on from the sidewalk out front and was into. When we went inside I was stoked to see Steve, Billy and Henry and instantly got bummed about missing their set. If you have not heard of these dudes other bands, you should check them out. If Steve or Henry send me material I'm going to post it on here. It's dope.

Voyage In Coma is a really epic post-hardcore band, with guitar work that reminds me of earlier Pianos Become The Teeth. I was really surprised at how good their recordings turned out, and at how good the songs were in general. I normally don't get down with this kind of music too hard but I have been listening to at least half this album daily since I got it (Thanks for helping me with downloading shit Reid).

Voyage In Coma is going on a pretty short tour sometime in June I think, going up to Boston and then out to the Midwest. If you like this band please please please get ahold of them and help them book their tour. I don't know when it is/was, but Voyage is booked on some Senses Fail show sponsored by Etnies. Rock & Roll.
Below is their new album and an older one that I literally just found and downloaded (haven't listened to it yet but I'm sure its good), DOWNLOAD IT AND THEN BUY IT. Krasner is now playing bass in this group, in case you were wondering.


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You Appear Alongside Me


Cartography

Migrations

A while ago I posted this bands split with The Usual, and now they have recorded a four song Ep called "A Little Note To Say Hello". I was pretty stoked when the band sent me this release because it had been too long, in my opinion, since they produced any new recorded material. I assume the line up has stayed the same since the split mentioned above. Migrations is a three piece instrumental group from Hagerstown, MD.

"A Little Note" is darker than their previous material. Still somewhat atmospheric, the band tends to stay rather conservative in their song structure, creating steady progressions and solid melodies throughout all the songs. Imagine a chilled out Red Sparrows. I am glad that people are still making this kind of music. Also, any record that uses a sound clip from "There Will Be Blood" is worth listening to at least once. Download the E.P below and support the band in any way you can. You will not be disappointed.

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A Little Note To Say Hello

We Were Skeletons / мища Split

This has already leaked here and there, but I figured it would be cool to do a post about this split myself. I don't know if the pre-orders have been sent out yet, but the release show was on March 26th in Baltimore. Aside from the two bands on the split, The Blue Letter, Dawn Treader, Pyramids, and Pansori played. All of the bands were awesome. There are some pictures from the show floating around facebook, but I have yet to see any videos. Both bands are three piece screamo groups. We Were Skeletons incorporates hardcore elements that make them sound like Off Minor and stuff like that. They are from Lancaster, Pa.I feel weird tlaking about мища's music because I play in that band, but we play violent and grindy screamo music. For the most part мища is from Baltimore, MD.

I don't know which side is the A side and which is the B, but lets just call the WWS side the A side. Their first song, "Wolves", is short and aggressive. The second song, "The Ghost of Jean Glam", is fucking heavy as shit. How many of these guitar tracks are just feedback? These songs are their best work yet (I haven't listened to the songs from the Saddest Landscape split, although I hear its floating around somewhere. I'm sure those are amazing as well).

Our side (мища's) stars with the song "A Mid Winter Night's Dream". We had a video of this song from the day we wrote it and I'm pretty sure it was "Girls Don't Buy Weed They Just Smoke It". Title didn't stick. Anyways, this song was the one that Dawn Treader jumped in on at the end. Its heavy. The second song is "...At Least We Got Capri Suns". Fun fact: The title is a reference to our short stay in Sierra Blanca's immigration holding cells. This song is straight rockabilly.

Mike York from Pianos Become the Teeth recorded all of the songs, and he also mastered ours. I don't know if he mastered We Were Skeleton's. Ben Sears did the art for the split, he has a pretty boss tumblr or whatever with pictures he drew. You can snag the 7-inch from Top Shelf or Black With Sap. If you do, you can help both labels be able to put out more releases. Womp Womp. I had to use megaupload because my internet hates me again. Sorry.

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We Were Skeletons & мища Split

7" SPOTLIGHT #2: Two Headed Coin (Lincoln/Hoover Split 7")

Lincoln


Hoover



So, after pretty much ignoring this blog (and the entirety of the internet as a whole for the past few months) I've finally mustered up the energy to do another one of my 7" spotlight posts. Thankfully Robbie has been keeping this blog afloat while I've been wanking off for the past few months.

This split 7", along with a select few others, seems to have reached an almost legendary status within the punk subculture. It seems to be posted on just about every blog (like this one) at all interested in the punk subculture of the 90's.

The fact that both bands existed for only a short time - Hoover from '92-'94 with a brief union in '98, and Lincoln from basically '93-'94, as well as the fact that the record was released Art Monk Construction, a fairly obscure label that featured early output from bands such as Kerosene 454, Darkest Hour, Frodus, and Texas is the Reason, seems only to add the allure that has grown around this record.

Both bands emerged within the hardcore landscape in an era in the D.C. punk scene where bands like Bad Brains and Minor Threat had given way to Rites of Spring, Embrace, One Last Wish, and, eventually, Fugazi. Dischord Records put out Hoover's LP, The Lurid Traversal of Route 7, which has become a staple in any post-hardcore or emo collection. Lincoln, from the small, industrial state of West Virginia, namely Morgantown, a short drive from the state capital Charleston (and actually only a few hours where both your humble blog writers grew up) was very much a reaction to the D.C. punk scene which they must have had a close eye on. With over-driven octave chords and raw vocals they complimented Hoover's brooding, minimalist, yet epic approach on "Two Down". both bands helped pave the way for post-hardcore and screamo band into the latter part of the decade and continue to influence bands into the 21st century.

This record is definitely a must have in any collection, and is one of my favorite 7"s. Download everything else these bands recorded.

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Two Headed Coin Split (1993)