Acres - Silos

Acres are from New Jersey. I think. Anyway this ep is great. It's very midwest style screamo so if you don't like sloppy melodies and some noodling alongside your heartfelt screams and displays of emotion then this isn't for you. But if you want four songs that won't let up until you're riding the emotional roller coaster of song with them. Really really great ep.

black everest

Black Everest are a screamo band from Germany. Their demo has 5 songs in 12 minutes. Nothing groundbreaking, but good screamo doesn't need to break new ground, it just needs to thrash around and tear at its vocal chords.

This demo is too good to be this short. I need more songs but there aren't any yet. This band needs to be more well known.

They've pressed their demo on a 7". To order it email blackeverest(at)web.de . "Postage for all around the world is 3,50€ and for Germany 1,50€. The record itself is offered for 2€."

Touché Amoré - Home Away From Here

 Touché Amoré are one of my favourite bands out there right now. 

note the pg 99 shirt....

 They've moved into a more hardcore style, away from the screamo inflected hardcore that really hooked me but their new album was still really really good. I think the style change is a result of signing to Deathwish or it may just be artistic development.

This is the first video from it and I think the first music video they've made. It's called Home Away From Here and really illustrates what Jeremy Boln has been talking and writing about, how they're pretty much always on tour. Yet they rarely come to Canada...

live on the radio!

listen to me live on trent radio in a half hour. I’ll be playing One Eyed God Prophecy, Karenza, Render Useless, I Spoke, Nai Harvest, Old Gray & Loma Prieta.

Listen here http://www.trentradio.ca/stream.htm

Karenza

Karenza was a 90's screamo band from Etibocoke Ontario Canada. Their sound is really raw and aggressive, almost black metal in the lo fi, dirty production. If One Eyed God Prophecy played black metal screamo  instead of sludgy metal screamo. The songs are clearly written as a emocore punk songs, the tones of the guitar and the production fuze everything into a overwhelming noisy mass. Very very good. Much thanks to this blog for all his work

Who Programmed This?!? Week 8

The latest episode of my podcast Who Programmed This?!? featuring brand new music from Sirs, Park Jefferson, Lizards Have Personalities & Run, Walk! as well as Canadian bands American Geography, Animal Faces and One Eyed God Prophecy

Thoughts Paint the sky - Goldener schnitt

Thoughts Paint The Sky have a new album coming out the 25th called Nicht Mal Mehr Wir Selbst. This is the latest track they’ve released and it’s pretty great

http://soundcloud.com/tpts/goldener-schnitt

Ukrainian, Russian & French Screamo, lofi Emocore & more

The latest mix of what I've been listening. this covers November 2nd to 5th. It starts off pretty screamo heavy and then goes in an odd direction right at the end. 


Things start with a band called Oh, You Skeleton!  Their last fm page says they are from Germany but there's an argument about where they're actually from. There's not a lot of info aside from the fact at least one member posted on cross your heart with a knife back in the day. Just a little lo fi but they're still quite good.

Things get way less chaotic and of a much higher fidelity with Oh, Deer!  They are a Ukrainian band from Zhytomyr. They play a classic form of screamo, going from thin angry guitar lines to crushing heaviness on a dime. The dude sounds like his voice is destroying itself in the process of escaping with his words.

 Violence For Hurley are next up and they are lower fi and way more violent. They are from Murmansk russia and their  brand of screamo is much more chaotic and explsoive, the rage is less controlled. Unfortunately  they broke up last summer.

We stay in the  screamo vein but get much more sophisticated with Mihai Edrisch. These songs from their two LP's L'Un Sans L'autre & Un Jour Sans Lendemain. I like the  second LP better, I find the first a bit abrasive. The songs that work on the first disc really work because there's a very real sense of dissonance. But when that doesn't work, and it doesn't always, it just drives me away.

All these songs are quite good. They manage to make intricate, distinct guitar lines harness the chaotic energy and smash you over the head with it. Also, the drummer was in Daitro till they decided to break up.

 Things stay emotional but get way more punk with a lo fi emocore punk band called The Whoopass Girls. The main songwriter/shouter is the same dude that's done henry bemis is a superhero, the loneliest cowgirls, screaming & dreaming and the sky looks pissed.

This is most punk band to date. I love every single thing about this band. Very skateable but still screaming your guts out. There are tracks here from all 3 EP's he put out under this name and they're all awesome. Get ready to destroy what's around you

We lose the emo completely but get incredibly catchy with Ancestors, from Toronto. These songs are short, to the point and each make a unique musical statement. I can't deal with how catchy these songs are in combination with how punked up they are. If this doesn't make you jump around the room you must be dead.

We head out to Vancouver for some slow burning math rock from American Geography. I'll be playing them on my radio show this Tuesday. A lot of their stuff is stoo slow and mathy with too much post rock in it but these songs kick some serious but. The math heads should like this  and they need to be better known.

Things finish off today with a single track from the gangsta rap supergroup Tha Dogg Pound. If you don't like gangsta rap you won't like this. Too bad for you.

American Geography

 I found this on gonna get sued which is a very awesome blog run by the one of the dudes from Book Of Caverns. They are a rather obscure mathy, post rocky screamo band from Vancouver. They have one of the members of Wrought: Ironsmile who played a lo fi emocore. 

The post rock on this album is mixed with some math rock so I can actually get through the songs. A lot of them are slow burning and never necessarily boil over but they still manage to kick ass.

Also very unknown, more people need to know this. More for the math people than screamo people probably

Merchant Ships & Family

here is another mix of what I've been listening to, this time from october 24 to november 2nd. It's all Merchant Ships and people connected to the band. Slurred Terms might be a strech for inclusion here but the dude was in William Bonney which had dudes from merchant ships in. Things start off very screamy and get much much emoier by the time we're through.

We get things started with a pair of tracks by Merchant Ships, one an untitled demo from an untitled album and one from an ep called I Want To Forget Everything Bad That Ever Happened Ever

 Then things get a lot calmer for a moment with  Midwest Pen Pals with tracks from their only ep Inside jokes. I think this was a transition band between Merchant Ships and Park Jefferson

My Head In Clouds play a rather standard, emotional hardcore based screamo on their Demo! I'm not sure if there were people from Merchant Ships on this, but people in this band are now in Park Jefferson.

We get back to the originals in this mix, Merchant Ships for a bunch of songs from  Bummer Times Demo, Extra Songs, For Cameron & Shipsography.tr

Things get much more emo and occasionally acoustic with Park Jefferson which is where Nick Stutsman is currently writing songs. He's one of my favourite five new lyricists right now. There are tracks from their Acoustic EP, Childhood, Demo, Better Boy.

Things get louder again with  a great screamo band who may or may not be dead, William Bonney. These tracks are from their Fall Demo. More from then later.

Things get really emo and almost completely acoustic with a bunch of songs from Nick Stutsman. Dude is really prolific and has done splits with some really cool people. These are songs from a split with Slurred Terms, more of them in just a bit, a split with Cameron Boucher, singer of Old Gray who are awesome, from an split with Scott Switzer called Whatever, Forever.

We return to Park Jefferson for some emo with some solid bands behind them. Some tracks from their split with Bicycle Sunday and a track from their new album Weekdays.

Things get acoustic with a one man acoustic project called Slurred Terms. Dude was/is in William Bonney depending if they broke up or on hiatus. These are songs from EP's called Home Is Home & Total Strangers

 We end things on a wild and screamy not with the latest from one of my modern favourite bands (maybe RIP) William Bonney. They just keep getting better, these songs are the best they've done but they did lost a littel bit of their personalities. These tracks are from a split with Droughts

Garage Punk, Screamo and Thrash Metal

Here's another mix I made of the music I've been listening to lately.

Things start off nicely with some garage punk wrapped up in a ball of fuzz with Flashlights from Brevard Florida. They are a scrappy punk band that plays their amps at 11 and sound like they never venture out of their garage.

We get underground and skramzy with a band called Sailboats. They only released two songs before breaking up though there is always talk that they recorded an LP that will eventually be put out by Discos Huelgas. Half of this band became Loma Prieta.

Speaking of Loma Prieta, they're the next artist on this split. This is a whole bunch of their music, tracks from 2006's Our LP Is Your EP, 2008's Last city, 2009's split with L'Antietam and 2009's Dark Mountain. I think Lom are awesome but they are an acquired taste. The vocals are always ear shattering high pitch screams and the guitars are usually raging pissed off punk style. Great stuff you like abrasive screamo.

We end things out with some tracks from the latest lp from Megadeth. Megadeth isn't my favourite thrash band but these songs are pretty good. TH1RT3EN isn't groundbreaking nor does it show any artistic development at all but these songs are good, solid thrash metal. I do wish Mustaine would keep his politics to himself though, metal is apolitical at best and left wing at most.

Random Mix time!

Time for another mix. This one has some stuff that I listened to awhile ago and some stuff I just listened to today.

We start with Tera Melos, an experimental post hardcore math rock band from Sacramento. They mash up a whole bunch of genres and rarely have conventional song structures. The Skin Surf is insidiously catchy.
We move to a much more obscure band that plays much weirder music, called Altered States. I’m not really sure how to describe the music other than experimental post rock. Except it’s not really using the rock and roll language, almost more like experimental ambient with more foreground elements than usual. Strange but I like it.

Things get instrumental and kinda heavy with Talons. They play instrumental post rock that is more post metal than a lot of bands. Think Explosions In The Sky but heavier.

We get noisy with an Australian punk band called TV Colours. They play lo fi, abrasive, noisy punk rock with vocals that are just as distorted and angry.

We head over to Britain for some tasteful post rock with light electronic touches around the fringes courtesy of Gallops.

Back across the pond we get a a track from the solo project of the Bobby Darling, guitarist for Gatsbys American Dream, called Places and Numbers. It kinda sounds like a singer songwriter if instead of acoustics singer songwriters used synthesizers to wrap electronica around their songs.

We head down to Olympia Washington for a few tracks courtesy of Broken Water. They play a shoe gazey kind of punk with really catchy vocals and female singer. Kinda pop songs wrapped up in noise that doesn’t ever become too abrasive or overpowering.

We come up to Canada for some hardcore punk from Ancestors from Toronto. They end up somewhere in between skate punk and hardcore with some nice guitar based melodies.

We stay in Canada for one track from an Edmonton hardcore band called Cope. It’s a tad chaotic but I like it still.

We stay in Alberta but head up to Fort McMurray for some post hardcore courtesy of Desiderata. This is only the intro to their album but I think it’s quite good.

Still in Alberta next up is a band called Fuck Tower. They were a two piece post punk band from Calgary. They were together lest than a year and recorded a demo that was never released. I like this quite a bit and wish it wasn’t so lo-fi.

Now we head over to Austria for some crusty metal courtesy of BØREDØM. Their album is called World Bores To Death which I’m assuming is a shot at/reference to World Burns To Death whom they’re not dissimilar to. Good stuff, this is how I like my crusty metal.

We head back to the states for some tracks by an excellent screamo band called The Kodan Armada. Dude wrote a song about how his father raped his sister. Legit emo. Nuff said.

We head over the the UK for some brand new mathy, screamo influenced punk rock courtesy of Run, Walk! The next four songs are from their split with Sirs, a great American screamo band. It’s a dual project between Top Shelf Records in the states and Holy Roar from the UK. It’s a great record and you can pre order it here

Things end this time round with a couple of brand new tracks from my favourite new post hardcore band Cattle Drums. These are demo’s, from their up coming full length I think and beside from being slightly quiet they absolutely slay. Think a less pissed off At The Drive In with just as cryptic lyrics.

Enjoy!

Who Programmed This?!? for October 11th 2011

This is the podcast for my radio show Who Programmed This?!? as broadcast through Trent Radio between the hours of 10 and 11 am central tuesday the 11th of october.


I played Animal Faces, a slightly mathy screamo band from Toronto, Book Of Caverns, a screamo band from edmonton who are more epic than most, Gift Eaters, a defunct screamo band Edmonton, Shiner, a 90’s emocore band from British Colombia, Loud?, a new emo band from Woodbridge Virginia, Book Of Dead Names, a defunct (I think) screamo band associated with Song Of Zarathustra from Minneapolis Minnesota.

I also played some Alexander Korda, fuzzed out screamo edging towards emo violence from Arizona, Bev.Clone, from Grand Rapids Michigan who had the singer from Constatine Sankathi and finished with Agna Moraine’s Autobiography who had the guitarist and bassist from Bev.Clone and the singer from the aforementioned Constatine Sankathi.

As Saetia screamed, there is no happy here.

Who Programmed This?!? for October 4th 2011

 This is the podcast of my radio show called Who Programmed This?!? broadcast originally through trent radio between the hours of 10 and 11 on October 4th.

I played almost exclusively bands of a  great Canadian musician named Dave Wenger. I started with M Blanket, a punk pop emo band, proceeded to Ache Hour Credo who are much moodier with a thicker, more obviously emo sound and ended the Dave Wenger tribute with a little bit of Daddy’s Hands, a weirder indie rock band that was very influential in some circles.

I finish the show with a couple cuts from the latest Ampere album which is so awesome.


Enjoy!

newest mix

Here is another compilation of songs I've listened to between september 30th and october 8th 2011 that I think are awesome.

We start where we ended last time with 3 bands by the inestimable Dave Wenger.

The first is M Blanket. This is Dave's second band, very much a punk pop emo band. They were active from 1992-1995

We then move to what was a transition band for Dave Wenger, Ache Hour Credo. They only ever officially released two songs on two separate compilations. They are a lot moodier than M Blanket, with a darker more obviously emo sound.

After Ache Hour Credo dissolved, Dave Wenger moved to Montreal and formed Daddy's Hands. They were a lot less emo, and way more post punk. Bands like Wolf Parade or Frog Eye's claim his as a major influence, indie rock with lots of different bits, like a saxophone,  thrown in for flavour.

Then we move to a more punkish emo band called In Between.  They play a 90's kind of emocore citing Hot Water Music, Silent Majority, Turning Point and Gorilla Biscuits as their sound touch stones.

We head over to Edmonton for some more screamo courtesy of Gift Eaters. They played straight ahead screamo with some post punk influences. They hand made a bunch of their releases, doing cd-r's and tapes. I played them on my radio show today.

We head down to Los Angeles for a moment for some brand new groove based thrash metal. Five Finger Death Punch are nothing spectacular or new but these songs are decent. Like is too strong a word, I listen to this because I get my metal fix from it.

Now we get underground and screamy again with a split from two really cool bands Adaje & Shark Bait. They both play rather straight ahead screamo. The one is from Louisiana and the other is from Tennessee. Good stuff.

Now we head across the ocean to Suffolk England from some melodic hardcore courtesy of Basement. They play a kind of melodic hardcore that is becoming more and more popular these days. In the vein of La Dispute and Touché Amoré but nowhere near as aggressive. Basement is shoving a screamo sensibility into their melodic hardcore though it is mostly melodic hardcore.

And finally we end with post hardcore focused indie rock courtesy of Sainthood Reps. These guys are getting some flack because apparently its easy to pick out the influences that they wear quite openly. I still like this though, it's nothing groundbreaking but it's quite good for a debut. Makes me think of a less punk version of Make Do And Mend

Bubonic Bear - Fleshworld

Bubonic Bear are a two piece who play sludgy metal. I really liked their Half Length and looking forward to their new album, This is two tracks from it.

Zounds- Curse Of The Zounds

I'd never heard of Zounds until 20 minutes ago when this album came on. It's really good, straight forward ish punk from 1981.

They are an anrcho punk band and were quite good friends with Crass though they sound quite different.

They recorded this, their debut album, in just five days. You wouldn't know it though when you hear how every song is crafted.

This is what I like in my old school punk, lots of energy and sneering and lyrics about the randomest of things that manage to have a social and political awareness about them.

This is punk in the same sense that Television is punk. The basis and construction are clearly punk but these artists are not content with sitting around doing the same thing everyone else is doing so it comes out as something not quite punk.

Or maybe it's just straight ahead punk and I'm thinking too much. In any event, great album.

Amalthea - Decisions Should Be A Desert Bright and Clear

A really good emo band. It's swedish and it verges on screamo when they really get going but over all it's an emo piece I think. A more emo and less screamy version of Suis La Lune would not be that far off

There is some post rock in this 2007 album but it does not jump out at you until the end thankfully

what's a Radio show?

If you listen to this thingy right here you will find out!

It is me blabbering into a microphone and telling you about this incredible, abrasive, emotional music that I love so very much.

 this week I will be playing Animal Faces, Book of Caverns, Gift Eaters, Shiner, Loud?, Book of Dead Names, Alexander Korda, Bev.Clone, Agna Moraine’s Autobiography, Jowls & Sing! Sing! Prison.


Here's a reason to follow me on here instead of tumblr, that list had better punctuation.

Adelleda - Herkimer Street

Adellada are a sweet melodic hardcore punk rock band from Hamilton. They mash a whole bunch of different genres into one super fast, catchy in points and suprisingly melodic punk rock album. They describe themselves as being influenced by "Black Flag, Bad Religion, and Minor Threat to Alexisonfire, Protest The Hero, and Rise Against."

I don't really hear the more hardcore or progressive elements they cite, this is just a fast as balls, melodic at points punk rock album. Lots of backing gang vocals and a metric ton of energy  

Punk, Emo, And Dave Wenger

This is the latest mix of what I've been listening to lately, this time its from between september 24th and 30.

We start off where the last one ended with some tracks from the full length debut of Kill Matilda. I saw them last week on their Zombie Apocalypse tour and they are awesome female fronted punk.

Things get emo and more rock and roll with Into It. Over It. Evan Weiss is great. Though as much as I like II.OI. I really do prefer Stay Ahead Of The Weather.

Now its time for some modern screamo courtesy of  Reno Dakota. There's nothing brand new or groundbreaking here but it is good, modern screamo with few fills.

We stay with the screamo and get a lot more mainstream with the first three tracks of La Dispute. This is the 
first time I've actually engaged with these guys though the vocals can be a tad samey through these songs.

Now we get to the beginning of the output of a Canadian emo punk rock genius Dave Wenger. He started in high school with Moral Decay then played in M Blanket, Ache Hour Credo and Daddy's Hands.

 

Moral Decay is a metal band and M Blanket are a seminal emo punk band. More from Dave Wenger next time

the King is dead (long live the king)

This is the latest song I wrote. I had some riffs but then I forgot it so I wrote a new riff. It’s way more punk than it was before and this is rather rough and fresh but  I think it’s kinda good. It is an electric guitar which by itself doesn’t all that full. I think its ok but not much more than that.

Who Programmed This?!? 9/20/2011

This is the first episode of my radio show on Trent Radio handily cut into a nice little mp3 for your podcasting pleasure. I played Animal Faces, Todos caeran, Book of Caverns & Lizards Have Personalities

http://www.mediafire.com/?u7lj64twk6kfndk

Who Programmed This?!? 09/27/2011

This is the podcast of my radio show on Trent Radio. It was broadcast yesterday between the hours of 10 & 11 am. I played By A Thread, Wrought: Ironsmile, 30 Second Motion Picture, Rocket Science & IWontStopWonderingUntilYouStopBreathing.

 http://www.mediafire.com/?ho4mks6bgut6rh1