Ten Thousand Leagues just finished a west coast tour and I got to see them play. Awesome as always. Before I saw them up here Facebook told me about this demo, and I snatched it up. I am assuming they had this for sale, but I didn't have any money so why bother looking at merch. The demo songs are sick as fuck, and include a Spitboy cover. They even have real ass new songs that aren't on the demo, so get ready for some new jams. I love the Ten Thousand Leagues guys, best dudes in the world. Really glad I got to see them play twice this summer. One of the sickest bands out there right meow, for real though. Peep this shit and stay stoked on these guys. If you have money buy things from them because they had car trouble and need your money more than you do. Word
Tongue (pronounced No Tongue) are the poster children of the Kali spirit. Stacked lineup of friends: Ryan from Megan & Amelia/DEERS!/Matsuri, Andrew from Matsuri/Ten Thousand Leagues, Conrad from John Cota and Nik from Calculator. If you are in California you should check out this show and this show on the Ten Thousand Leagues tour so you can see No Tongue. They are a pretty new band, which makes me excited to see what they can put together before the Mayan History Channel Apocalypse. Below is their demo, all hail bands that you need to copy/paste the name. Word.
Dude, Byron Fischer just got done with his first LP, "Haiymakks". All the other Megan and Amelia recordings are on the blog, so for some fucked up reason you looked over those gems buck the shit up and download them.
)()()()EDIT()()() This was the original photo up there, but my dog wanted it changed so of course I obliged.
Megan & Amelia is the haunting, somber solo project of Ryan from DEERS!/Matsuri (both R.I.P). Everything up to this record was self recorded, but for "Haiymakks" he got Max from John Cota to record him. On a kind of side note, Max has been recording a shit ton of California bands recently and all his work is so fucking good. I don't know where he works or anything but if you want to get recorded real nicely you should holler.
Anyways, back to Megan. The new album is fucking amazing. Six of the most depressing songs I have ever heard. The first song is a ukulele/xylophone lullaby. Number two is crooning, verbed out vocals over layers of electric guitars. "Mountain Mountain" has what sounds like a toy piano drenched in reverb. "Demoing" is my favorite song on the album, but I can't really tell whats going on. A whole lot of something. Cray shit, best shit. Track five is a re-recording of a demo song, but is so much cleaner and prettier, dig the backing vocals and the sleigh-bell. "Haiymakks" ends on a high note with "Fuck Mountain", which has basically a full band. Also, "I'm not a shit friend, I'm not a bad son" is one of the best lines. Period. Who did the gang vocals?
I don't know if there are plans for releasing this album, but, I hope it gets the attention it deserves. I know Ryry wants it to be put out, and I wish him all the luck in the world. Megan & Amelia plays a good bit in the bay, so go check that shit out when you get a chance. I would imagine that the live sets are super dope. Download this shit, buy it when you can. MOOCHXCREW. Word.
How do you feel about watching a grown ass man weep? What about when this grown man is weeping while he sings? Meet Mo. He plays acoustic jams under the name Father;Lonesome, and this dude makes some of the saddest music I have ever heard. Or seen. Watching him play in my old living room was really intense because we were all just sitting on the couch and he was just swaying back and forth crying and stuff.
Mordekai is from San Jose and was on tour with Matsuri the last time they went on the road. I didn't know what to expect when I heard this dude was on tour with them, but I was pleasantly surprised. When I first met him I asked him about his name and shit and he weaved me a super fucking depressing tale about being a father and shit. A lot of his songs are about his young daughter and his love interest(s?). it would then make sense that most of his band related artwork has to do with his daughter as well. Real life punk shit you guys. Child support and shit. Real. Life. Punk. Shit.
Anyways, Father;Lonesome makes some really great music and I have a bunch of it below. When he was at my place he told me that he read Chug and then gave me alot of shit for free, which ruled. He has an EP and then is featured on a compilation that is to benefit a dude named Omar, who is sick or something. Sorry that I don't really know more about what that dude has or whatever, all I know is that he has a disease and his friends, some of whom are my friends, put together a compilation to help him out. I have that benefit compilation for download below, and I strongly encourage you to email Texas Toast DIY or Olhar De Vidro and give them some money for the For Omar compilation. Aside from Mo, I think all the tracks are solo songs from the Matsuri bros.
Saddest jams you have ever heard. Acoustic punks at its finest. Real life shit. Download it and feel at home when you are sad as fuck, because thats what I do. Sorry it took me so long to put this up Mo, but every time I hear it I just zone the fuck out. I love you though. Download this stuff. It's all real good. You won't regret it. Below is a video too. Word.
Since the last time I posted about this project Megan and Amelia (Ryan of Matsuri/DEERS!) has put our two more demos. "Our First" is made up of two of the original songs and three new ones. Still lo-fi and awesome. Reverb drenched vocals and shit. "Secret Buffalo" has what sounds like a ukelele, in "Mountain Mountain" he uses a piano and "It Never Dies" kind of has a more conventional feel to it. "Our Second" just has one long song on it, and that shit is the mother fucking jam. Seriously. Put that shit on repeat. Great structure and instrumentation, and even though its obviously recorded on jank mics through a jank whatever it sounds real warm and nice. No shit, I have repeated this song at least 5 times in a row. While I would argue that it is almost always better to listen to music with headphones than computer speakers (unless you have a boss ass system in your closet like this guy) you really wont catch a lot of the subtleties of Megan and Amelia unless you are wearing headphones. I would also imagine that these were mixed with headphones so this is how they were intended to be heard.
When I saw Ryan on Matsuri's last lil tour they did we talked about Megan and Amelia and good bit. He was telling me that he wanted to have other people play with him, live at least. I don't know if that has materialized or anything but I hope it does. Facebook tells me that he has been playing a good amount of shows in the bay, which is fucking awesome. I love Ryan and I love Megan and Amelia, and you mother fuckers really need to download this stuff. At least blow up his bandcamp. I couldn't find any videos, sorry.
I forgot! Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and post this stuff up, but, I'm going to go rip/upload another group that is affiliated with Megan and Amelia and post that up today too, because I have some time on my hands. Mega post Tuesday. Support my friends! Word.
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.
Matsuri are one of the best skramz bands around today. They are also some of the nicest dudes you will ever meet. They run a d.i.y label called TexasToastDIY and have hella shows at their house, ironically called Texas Toast, in San Jose. Guess what their dogs names are? Texas & Toast. I fist met these dudes in 2009 in Delaware on tour with Moldar. We played in some sketchy boatyard on the back of a trailer or something, and both CA bands ripped it so hard. Afterward we chilled even harder. Ever since then we have stayed in touch, playing together on our '10 summer tour and shit. Matsuri just toured on their amazing new album "Endship" with Ordstro and they played at my house. It was such a good time. The video below was filmed by my roommate in our dining room. Matsuri was in between drummers when i first met them, now they have a new drummer and added a one of the Moldar guitarists after their demise. Ryan from DEERS! might be their bassist now? He was supposed to tour with them this winter but didn't, so I don't really know what the deal is. If you are going to California hit these dudes up for a really good show and hella grub. They also have a disto and are putting out some really great records, so please go support them. Keep D.I.Y alive, but feel free to snag all their shit from below.
мища is 2 parts Vikings! and 1 part Drug Money. I play drums in this band, and we have been around for about a year. At first it was just James and I, but then Alex joined the band after like 3 shows or something. We did a New England tour this summer and got to play with some really great bands like Pathos, C'est La Guerre, The Sharpest, and We Were Skeletons. Our name was supposed to mean "bear", but when it was written to was written incorrectly. So when you write our name it dosn't mean anything, but if you say it (its pronounced Mischa) it does mean "bear". Before we went on hiatus we played our last show at David Krasner's house with Pianos Become the Teeth, Age Sixteen, Wren Lloyd, and Pansori. We also got the chance to play with Matsuri and Moldar(RIP) on their summer tour. That shit was bomb. We are trying to play a show or two when I go home in December, and we are getting ready to book another tour for this summer. We were going to go to Europe but its starting to look like we won't have enough money. If you have a house or can get shows, wherever, and you wouldn't mind us stopping by you should talk to us on our myspace. Before I left we recorded two songs for a 7" split with Bears!, which is going to be put out on Bear Records next year. You can buy all of our stuff from Unity Through Harmony, and you can get our mini disc from Noise Park Activities, who we still owe like twenty five dollars. Heres a video from a while back in Hampton's Garage.
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