Hot Cross was a hardcore band from Philadelphia that formed after Saetia broke up. They also shared members with Joshua Fit For Battle, Off Minor, Halo of Snakes, Neil Perry, You and I, and Interpol. Yeah, Interpol. The drummer of Hot Cross was their original drummer, but he left before the first record was cut. Cool, huh?
Hot Cross' sound was a mix of fast New England hardcore and virtuoso guitar work. Alot of their material is known for the battling guitar parts. If you have never heard of this band, you should check out wither Cryonics or Fair Trades and Fairwells. Below is everything they put out and a video. The song from the Holy Shroud split is the same song that was on the Protect compilation.
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Off Minor is no longer active, doing the whole "indefinite hiatus" thing.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.
Saetia was a New York Screamo band from '97 to '99, although their final release was released in 2000. After they split up the members formed Off Minor and Hot Cross. Their drummer played in Interpol for a little while and now runs Level Plane Records. Heres a video, I have no idea when this was filmed.
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