Thursday, January 28, 2010

BREACH - "It's Me God!"

Now I know I normally would make a post about a band and their whole "career" and not just an album but this is the exception.



The other day I decided that I would give Breach's "It's Me God!" a listen. It had been at least 7 years since I had last listened to it. I was blown away at its ability to impress me in the same way it had when I first heard it back in, I would say 1999. What an album. It is everything that is awesome about post hardcore, it is even a little mathy and they mix it with their own sort of, dare I say metal?

Here is a little Wiki info on the band:

Swedish band formed in LuleƄ 1993. First full length album released in 1995. Pelle Gunnerfeldt from Fireside (band) recorded and mixed several of the groups albums. Shortly after the release of Kollapse the band announced that they had decided to split up. The band played a reunion show in Stockholm on the 6th of December 2007. The band ended the show by destroying all their instruments, leading fans to speculate that this would be the bands final show. Tomas "The Dove" Turunen made a spectacular drum final commented by the Swedish journalist Per Bjurman as; "one of the greatest drum performances in his life so far".


I say you should seriously just give this album a chance.


Here is the link to download "It's Me God!" Breach's album from 1997.




There is one person out there, an old friend who really loves this album the way I do. So this one goes out to you my man! xo

Friday, January 8, 2010

THE GREAT REDNECK HOPE

This one is for Julia, mother of my child, love of my life , best friend and sharer of great tunes.


I got The Great Redneck Hope's 10" 'splosion! 5 or 6 years ago and totally loved on it hard. I am not normally into stuff like this. You know, the manic, crazy, tech, grind stuff with chug parts but TGRH are far superior to anything in the genre of "techgrindorwhateveryoucallit" stuff. They just fucking rip it up and hold their own! More recently (well like 2 years ago) I got the "Behold the Fuck Thunder" 1-sided 12" and again was blown away. At the same time I got their first 7" "Why Humans Think Computers Can’t" which is terrible at least from my point of view. They had obviously not found their sound yet, it truly shows.

TGRH really just seems to love what they are doing and really just seem to be having fun. I am sure other than the musicianship being incredibly focused, they don't take themselves seriously like most of these techy bands do. Their song titles say it all, 100% jokes. I have put both the 'splosion! and Behold the Fuck Thunder! to download below.

Here is a live set or at least I think it is a whole set in two parts:




Here is some info I have found about The Great Redneck Hope:

2000-Present. The Great Redneck Hope (TGRH) formed in 2000 with only Dan Harvey and Jeremy Grobsmith as the only members. After writing a 7 song set they played their first show, recruiting their original vocalist Derek Barnett only 1 day before the first show. After that show Aaron Retka joined the band as the bass player. Aaron Retka then recorded a 3” demo, which sounded pretty bad, and they toured on it for some time. They then released “Why Humans Think Computers Can’t” (recorded by porkchop of Catheter fame) which showed a primitive TGRH with vocalist Derek Barnett not yet perfecting his vocal style. That album formed the basis of TGRH’s sound and in 2003, they released “‘Splosion” (recorded by Stan Wood at Volume Studios Chicago, IL) which featured 9 songs with a more perfected vocal attack and increased musicianship but sub-par recording quality. After extensive touring through out all recordings, they released “Behold The Fuck Thunder!” which was recorded at God City (Kurt Ballou of Converge fame) and reflects the bands most polished instrumentation and best recording quality. After much touring after “Behold…” Derek Barnett parted ways with TGRH and they adopted a new vocalist, Bradley Roach. They toured a few more times and played SXSW with Bradley Roach but never recorded with him. After their winter 2006 tour, bassist Aaron Retka left the band and The Great Redneck Hope went on hiatus looking for another bass player. They played local shows for a while after finding a new bass player until sadly going on haiatus in early 2007.

Here are the links to download some rippin' TGRH releases:
Link to 'splosion!
Link to Behold the Fuck Thunder!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

DODEWAARD

I don't know much about this band nor have I ever really. I just know that they are an awesome screamo band from the Netherlands. About 5 years ago I got a split LP they did with another Dutch band called The People Listening, Wonder. PLW are really good on their own but they never touched me in the same way the Dodewaard had. It might be because they are a little more sassy than I prefer.

Anyways the reason I decided to make this post tonight was because I was listening to my Ipod on shuffle and they came on. at this moment I began to scramble to get to my Ipod out of my coat just to see who it was. I mean I recognized it but couldn't place the name. I was awestruck by how good it was. Really great honestly, I ended up listening to all their stuff once I was home. I just check out some of their new bands and ouch, I am not into them at all.

I have put the Tour CD they made which contains all their material other than the two last songs they record prior to breaking up ( I will post them if I ever locate them). I also posted their Split with People Listening, Wonder in case anyone wants to check them out too. The Dodewaard songs however are on the Tour CD as will.

Here is some info I found through a myspace fan page:

Dodewaard was a screamo/hardcore band from the Netherlands. The band existed from 2001 until 2004 and played a total of exactly 50 shows.

They released
-A demo tape titled 'Heroine Maakt Veel Goed,'
- An untitled split LP with The People Listening, Wonder (another Dutch screamo band) on the German Adagio830 Records, and
-A 4-way split-cd with bands Petethepiratesquid, The Third Memory and Thema Eleven, released by the French Impure Muzik label.

The total of 10 songs making up these last two releases were also compiled and sold as a tour-only CD under the title 'God's Dead, You're Next'. They recorded two more songs just before breaking up, which were released as a tour-only CD entitled 'Mensen Met Een Mening.'One guitar player now plays in Headcollision, the other guitar player and bass player now play in Karaktermoord, and the drummer plays in Raik & the Chainballs.

Here are the links to download their Tour CD and split LP:

Link to the Tour CD.
Link to the Split LP with People Listening, Wonder (their songs are included).

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

A FLOWER KOLLAPSED


So here is some off the wall emoviolence from Italy.
A Flower Kollapsed bring it to next level, there has not been a band stepping into it with this much force since the hayday of bands from the end of the 90's and early 2000's. Now I am not saying that they sound like these bands. I am just saying that there has not been many bands that have been rippin' this fucking hard since that era of emoviolence. They are mostly filled with blasts of spastic mayhem but they keep enough melody to keep me interested. They also have a slightly more technical and mathy side to them that they do very well and very tight. It does not come off cheesy like it most often would with other bands. However there is a little bit of an arty thing going on occasionally throughout their releases that may be frowned upon by some of you. But seriously, a little weird for a whole lot of awesome is a a small price to pay.
Anyways I have put their 12" and 10" to download just below. Enjoy, I know I have been.

Here is a vid of them live, totally shedding!


Here are links to their to full releases:
Link to the "Brown Recluse" 10"
Link to the "Orsago" 1 sided 12"

Thursday, December 24, 2009

ERIC'S TRIP



I personally heard Eric's Trip first when I was maybe 14 years old, so 1994. I had picked up the "Peter" EP on CD (actually the first CD I ever bought in my life)at Randy's Records. Randy's is a blog in itself for me. That was the record shop I hung out after school almost everyday from age 12-16 when I left Owen Sound. Anyway back to Eric's Trip. I had picked it up because they were named after a Sonic Youth song from my favorite album at the time "Daydream Nation". The "Peter" EP was a very good intro to the band seeing as it was and still is one of my favorite releases by this prolific band. I soon thereafter got the "Love Tara" cassette on SubPop records. Still to this day "Peter" and "Love Tara" are my two most listened to albums from the band.

Now about Eric's Trip; they are Canadian hailing from Halifax. They are an awesome fuzzed out and crucial indie band. They do have a strong influence from Sonic Youth but with their own thing. Their low-fi recordings really define their sound. They were definitely into doing home recordings and it shows more on some releases then others. But seriously all of their recordings have come out great even their self released cassettes. I have never lost interest in this band because honestly they are one of the most DIY bands that ever "made it" in the 90's indie/grudge scene. They always stayed true to their own sound and never conformed. This actually never ended up effected their progress as a band. I truly respect that so much.



Here is the Wiki write up on Eric's Trip:
Eric's Trip formed in 1990 when musicians Rick White and Chris Thompson of The Forest joined Julie Doiron and Ed Vaughan (who was later replaced by Mark Gaudet of Purple Knight). They took their name from a Sonic Youth song[1] and emulated the distorted guitar of Dinosaur Jr., the folk leanings of Neil Young, and the lo-fi aesthetic of Sebadoh. Rick White described their sound as "sappy melodic pop music on top of thick distortion." Gaudet's description was more succinct: "dreamy punk".

Eric's Trip achieved prominence as the first Canadian band to be signed to Seattle's flagship grunge label Sub Pop[2] in the early 1990s, the same label which rose to alternative rock immortality after releasing Nirvana's early work. Another two Atlantic Canadian bands, Jale and The Hardship Post, were signed to Sub Pop in subsequent years. The band had a minor hit in alternative circles with the single "Viewmaster", from 1994's Forever Again.

The band broke up in 1996, but reunited in 2001, and have played at the Sappy Records Festival in Sackville, New Brunswick starting in 2006, up to the most recent in 2009.[3][4] They also played a series of shows in 2007, including a show at the 2007 Halifax Pop Explosion.[5]

Here is the trailer for the Eric's Trip documentary.


Here are the links to download most if not all of their releases:

EP's (some were cassettes, some CDs and some 7" releases):
Caterpillars
Drowning
Float, Trapped in New York
Gordan Street
Julie and the Porthole to Dementia
Peter*
Songs About Chris
The Road South

LP's (some were cassettes, some vinyl and some CD releases):
Bootleg
The First Album
Forever Again
Long Days Ride Till Tomorrow
Love Tara*
Purple Blue
Warm Girl-Belong

*are the ones that have touched me the most, I think it is a nostalgic thing though. If you are interested in checking them out but don't wanna download everything, go with those you won't be disappointed.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

MARTYRDOD


A few years back I came across this band by chance. I was at a local record shop Soundcentral and I saw their album "In Extremis" and was drawn to it because of the artwork. It was minimal but evil looking, slightly reminiscent of Chris Norris of Combatwoundedveteran's artwork. I figured I would give it a listen. I was very pleasantly surprised at the instant hold it had on me. So heavy, so evil, so melodic, I loved it. I honestly feel that Martyrdod (who I later learned share a member of Skitsystem) are my favorite and a leader in their genre.

Martyrdod are the definition of blackened crust but the magnitude of their melodies, I would say are almost unheard of in this genre. They released their first LP the "Self Titled" in 2003 and it is has a slightly more black metal feeling at least in the vocals but still maintains a serious amount of crustiness. Then came a split 7" the "We Walk the Line" EP with Sunday Morning Einsteins in 2004. Honestly not their best recordings but still awesome. This was followed by the "In Extremis" LP which is what got me into them is tough as nails, balls to the walls crust that is just so god damn catchy. Does that even make sense? The most recently released was the "Sekt" LP, which was in this past year. I just heard this for the first time the other day and I must say I am impressed but it is not my favorite of their releases. However I am expecting it to grown on me.

Their recordings are pretty much all consistently excellent and powerful as fuck! So seriously, if you are into melodic crust and black metal this band is a must check out. You can find the links just below to all of three of their full lengths LPs and the two songs from the split EP.

Link to "Self Titled" LP
Link to "We Walk in Line" EP split
Link to "In Extremis" LP
Link to "Sekt" LP

Monday, December 21, 2009

LOST IN BAZAAR


What can I say, I had never heard of this band before tonight and I was just fucking floored with how amazing they are and the potential they have. I feel like as they progress as a band they are only going to become that much more amazing. I found them on the RahRahRah Punk Pock blog and downloaded it to take a chance and what a smart move!!! I have since tried to research them and everything I find says the same thing; Lost In Bazaar is a 3 piece from Istanbul, Turkey. That is it. No info anywhere. If anyone has more info I would love to hear from you.

They do however have two releases so far, their "Self Titled" CDR from 2008 and "Here we are Dropping our Anchors in Fertile Ground" CDR from 2009 both put out by Pati Patu Prima. Both of which I have put links to at the bottom of this blog entry. They do seem to have a bunch of split cassettes and a split 12" coming out in the near future.

If you are into the 00' style screamo/emoviolence, you know the stuff that has been coming out of Europe (I again hate to name drop but think first word starts with an L, second word starts with a Q). I will just say, they have all these epic melodies and still manage to hold true to the spazzy and chaotic nature of the genre. I know you know what I am talking about.

Anyways enjoy,
here are the links to their two releases and their myspace.

Link to "Self Titled"
Link to "Here we are Dropping our Anchors in Fertile Ground"

myspace.com/lostinbazaar