listen to me on the radio!

Tomorrow between the hours of 10 and 11 am I will be broadcasting on Trent Radio. My show this week is all screamo. Animal Faces, Todos Caerán, Book Of Caverns, Lizards Have Personalities and Xerces are on tap for tomorrow 

listen here! 

Cousins, Tin Vespers, Candle Cave Ensemble Pt. II, Jos Fortin & Claire Ryan

The Planet Bakery was packed on Friday as four bands put their own stamp on the night. There was something for everyone. It started off with singer songwriter Claire Ryan, followed by folk singer songwriter Jos Fortin. Tin Vespers linked the folk of the previous singers to the rock and roll of the Candle Cave Ensemble Pt. II and Cousins who finished the night.

 

Claire Ryan started the night off with her heart on her sleeve. Her songs were sad and slow but had a good solid rhythm to them. The symbolism in her lyrics can be a little overwrought at times but mostly her lyrics were melancholy and filled with details. Think a deeper voiced Julie Doiron.

The next artist,Jos Fortin, is very similar to Claire Ryan but a better guitar player. Jos songs have more of a folk feel to them, with a little bit of country mixed in. His songs are more story telling songs and I don't know many songwriters that use words like tincture. There was lots of volume difference inside his songs and in a room where people won't stop talking those softer parts tended to get lost.

Tin Vespers where up next, the bridge between the singer songwriters that started the evening and the rock and roll that would finish it out. They are a five piece band and are fascinating. They have an accordion, drums, keyboard, a three stringed guitar and a cello. Meg is the lead singer, plays the three stringed guitar while both the accordionist and the cello player contribute to the lush harmonies.

Their music is rather hard to explain. They have a majestic sound that reaches out and grabs you in a bear hug only reluctantly letting you go for the next song. They know exactly when to push forward and when to hang back. Either way they're great and utterly captivating. 

After Tin Vespers the CandleCave Ensemble Pt II made things a lot louder. They played a very straight ahead, danceable style of rock with surf and garage rock thrown in to flavour the riffs. They had a great wall of sound, straight up with no frills to get in the way of dancing.

Cousins closed out the night with their thumping brand of aggressive, noisy rock and roll. They are a reverb soaked two piece from Halifax with riffs going off in every direction. They have a sharp, pointy guitar tone that rips out of the speakers and a singer that never abandons his desperate, searching vocals that usually stay melodic. They play a kind of blues. It is very distorted and put through a noisy punk rock filter but it is still blues at the basis.

The night had really had an evolution. Claire Ryan and Jos Fortin where rather soft and Tin Vespers was not particularly loud though they had their moments. The Candle Cave Ensemble Pt. II were the loudest band and Cousins topped everything nicely with their rather unique primitive bluesy punk rock.

Jowls & The Reptilian

They're both on tour right now. Gonna be in Toronto tonight. $5 show but the train ticket to Toronto is 6 times that. Anyway. Both Jowls and The Reptilian are awesome bands. One is a an awesome newish screamo band and the other is a harder to categorize twinkly, indie shouting band.

Jowls debut ep Cunt Punch is one of my favourite ep's of the year. The name may put some people off but that's okay. They are a two piece from Grand Rapids Michigan. They play what I think is screamo but could just as easily be post hardcore. Their split with the Reptilian sounds like they're more of a post hardcore band but only time will tell.

Jowls - Cunt Punch

Jowls & The Reptilian Split

The Reptilian have been around a while longer and they have a rather unique sound I think. They're is a  lot tapping, a lot of twinkly guitars and a whole lot of shouting. They are one of the shoutier bands on the Count Your Lucky Stars roster.

 

The Reptilian - Full Health

The Reptilian -  We Have Become

IWontStopWonderingUntilYouStopBreathing

IWontStopWonderingUntilYouStopBreathing started as a three piece Jeromes Dream worship band. Then they became a two piece and are now a one man band. Regardless the music is awesome. They have evolved from being a worship band to being a really solid screamo band. Lots of high pitched screams and some pretty sweet guitar riffs. This is their complete discography, in order I think.

5 Track Demo

iwontstopwondering - split with Half Awake

IWontStopWonderingUntilYouStopBreathing Split With In Braille

IWontStopWonderingUntilYouStopBreathing - Rehearsal/Live

IWontStopWonderingUntilYouStopBreathing - Motionless

IWontStopWonderingUntilYouStopBreathing - IWontStopWonderingUntilYouStopBreathing

IWontStopWonderingUntilYouStopBreathing - New Horizons

witches with dicks

Angry pop punk if there is such a thing. There are dashes of speed punk throughout but it all stays rather poppy in construction but the execution always come across as pissed-the-fuck-off. They’re a power trio and they fit nicely in with the other orgcore band’s I’ve heard. Think an angrier RVIVR, with just as much energy as the Menzingers but they’re more focused on kicking the shit out of their tunes.

 

Laptop Demo

http://www.mediafire.com/?nrrv2ql5k77w9

Those are the first 21 songs I have recorded on my laptop. They're all acoustic. 21 songs, 4 covers and 17 originals. The covers are Blitzkrieg Bop, I Wanna Be Sedated & 53rd & 3rd by The Ramones and Pay To Cum by the Bad Brains (who named themselves after a Ramones song)

Hope you like em.

Prawn & Tumblr

I never really got into Prawn before this. I listened to their stuff but it always too post rock for me I think. Anyway, this record isn't out yet but it's pretty awesome. There is lots of good 90's style emo and even some twinkle daddies style shouting if a lack of twinkling guitars.

Also, I have started a tumblr. It's way easier than this so I'm probably gonna stop posting here soon.
http://aplacetoburn.tumblr.com/
It'll be the same stuff only with more hipsters and boobs.

Warped Tour 2011 V 2.0

Every year the Warped Tour puts out a compilation of the bands that will be performing on their tour this year. The 2011 edition has 51 different artists in about 3 or 4 different genres. There is lots of pop punk/easycore, lots of metalcore and lots of post hardcore. There is as little bit of hip hop while lots of the post hardcore has electronic influences.
Needless to say there is a lot of garbage on these two discs. Bands like A Skylit Drive, I Set My Friends On Fire, Attack! Attack! and Asking Alexandria might give you an idea of the terribleness contained here.
So I've gone through and cut out the really great bands that somehow got mixed up into this terrible mess. Bands like Big D & The Kids Table, The Menzingers are good examples of the punk and I'm surprised that I actually kind of like the songs from Paramore, A Day To Remember, Hellogoodbye and Against Me!
Good stuff if you like punk and the watered down mainstream bullshit that gets labelled punk.

Rap Heavy mix

Here’s another new mix. There are 40 songs from 10 different artists.

We start off with Hammerlock. Two songs of the garage rock, proto punk they play from the Bay Area

Then it’s time for the rap. We start with seven songs from Lloyd Banks of the G-Unit crew. I’ve soured on 50 Cent and most of the people associated with him but I still find Banks to be interesting. These songs show a slightly more emotional, introspective side of him at times. Guests include Eminem, Jadakiss &  Ludacris.

Now it’s time for a half hour from southern gangsta Killer Mike. These songs are as political as they are gangsta and they don’t let up. Animal with Gucci Mane is not necessarily the best song but if nothing else it is funny. The rest of the album is a drug dealer kinda talking about jesus and knowing enough about politics to name Palin and Pelosi. The beats are of the boom bap variety.

Then we head to the Bay Area for some hyphy courtesy of E-40. In the past two year’s he’s put out four albums, all iterations in his Revenue Retrievin series. These songs come from the second album released in 2010, Revenue Retrievin - Night Shift. Lots of club songs and songs about drugs. A couple of shit talking songs and songs with weird hooks.

Listen to things get intelligent and cinematically produced with Talib Kweli. I’m not sure which is more impressive here, Talib’s rhyming abilities and intelligence or the lush, layered beats that still manage to to force you to nod your head. Talib is probably one of the best conscious rappers out there today and this album is a clear testament that. Sean Price kills his guest spot on Palookas and Jeane Grae kills it on Uh Uh.
We stay in New York for some more underground rap this time courtesy of Saigon. After literally years of label trouble The Greatest Story Never Told has finally been released and it is pretty awesome. These are great songs though they might slide by a little at first. the only criticism i can make of this album is that it is a sleeper. If you’re not paying attention you’ll miss some awesome gold.

Now things get random. We head to Germany for some emo violence from Katyn. The first song is a raging punk song that transitions quickly from ear splitting ragee to relative calm and melodious quiet while the second is completely acoustic with soft clean vocals.

So now it’s back across the sea up to Canada for a pair of songs from Barn Burner. They play stoner metal with awesome dirty vocals and a lack of sludge. The riffs are always awesome and I lack the words to describe how happy I am to find stoner rock that sounds like this. It’s heavy and stonery but doesn’t verge into extreme metal territory or try and envelop too many different styles.

One track from a nu metal band that put an album this year called CrowneVict. I didn’t think nu metal bands still exist but I do have a sweet spot for bands that sound like Dreadnaught and this song is kinda cool I guess.

The last song is a track from the solo album from the guitar player from Mastodon Brent Hinds. Bank Robbin Bandits is a southern, bluesy song that rambles on and on. The whole album is really good.

So yeah.

Ampere - Like Shadows

If you don't know who Ampere is, shame on you. They are one of the key intelligent screamo bands that still make gripping, emotional music.

They are arguably a supergroup with the guitarist Will Killingsworth playing in Orchid, Laceration and Bucket Full of Teeth; Drummer Andy Skelly played drums in both The Last 40 Seconds and Wolves, the singer Stephen has played in Montcalm, The Last 40 Seconds and Aerosols. Meghan also played bass in Unicoroner, and sang with Stop The Clock and Relics

This is emoviolence if there is such a thing. There are 15 songs in 13 minutes and each song is as punishing a hardcore anthem as the previous and next. The crushing power of this band might let up for a moment but that's only so you can breathe for a frozen moment before the next attempt at crushing you into the dirt.

These are short, chaotic and violent songs. If you don't like screamo or emo violence then this is not for you. If you like songs that don't last a long time but leave a huge emotional mark this the band for you. Glad to see them back.

the Men - Leave Home

I'll keep this short and sweet. Do you like punk rock? Do you like garage rock? Do you like desperate, emotional music cloaked in layers of distortions and noise? If so you should definitely check it out.  The Men are a noise punk band from Brooklyn. The basics of the music tends towards older school punk and garage rock. Lots of odd noises that come out of nowhere and solo's that start as squeels and end in shredding.

The best songs on here are fairly standard punk rock tunes that take off noisily, are blasted through and are over before you know it. And yet they manage to pack some twists and turns, a sonic surprise or two in nearly ever track. And they don't necessarily need to be all that fast and aggressive to make the songs work. Shittin With The Shaw slows things down significantly but stays noisy while verging in on emotional, instrumental post rock before evolving into another turned up to 11 jam.

I may be doing this a disservice by accenting the noisy, lo fi nature of this because that doesn't matter all that much. As long as you have good songs you generally have good punk. And even if you don't have good songs if you play fast enough and loud enough you can skate by. Thankfully the songs are rock solid and the noise tweaks only make them standout more

Alestorm - Back Through Time

Time for some more slightly derivative but still ass kicking metal. From Scotland Alestorm bring you their second LP Back Through Time. 

The music they play is quite interesting if not particularly original. The formula is power metal with folk metal and a lyrical focus on pirates thus getting you to Pirate Metal.

For the most part the music is straight ahead power metal. Huge melodious guitars chasing each other and nearly every song reaches into epic nature if not length. The singer has a really good gruff voice which contrasts the melodic but still really heavy music.

When I say folk metal don't think of something with really different instrumentation like Falkenbach but a more sort of general ass kicking heavy metal. There is accordion on some of the songs chugging along with the guitars and there isn't a lack of periphery instruments floating in and on top.

If you like power metal this will probably scratch that itch. If you like folk metal this might be a bit of a stretch but there is stuff here for you. If you like heavy metal songs about sailing the high seas, drinking lots and lots of rum and scantily clad buxom babes then this is great.

Born Of Osiris - The Discovery

This album is awesome. I`m not exactly sure if there is any original going on but it doesn't really matter at this point.

 This album is progressive while still being heavy enough to snap your neck. If you don't know what deathcore is this would be a good introduction I think. It's the first album thus labelled that I even remotely like. 

Basically it's a combination of death metal, metalcore (which is itself a merging of hardcore and metal) and progressive metal with just a touch of chaotic hardcore. There is a diversity of tactics here that conspire to bring everything together and smash your head until there is only dust.

 There are so many different things being pulled in from so many different places it can be a little overwhelming. There are multiple vocalists, all of them screaming or growling or some other evil form of vocal chord torture. The guitars, and there are lots of, are always going in different directions. There is one pounding out awesome thrashy rhthyms and then at least another guitar concerning itself with melody. Or just being brutal. There is a lot of that.

I know that I probably be should be used to metal bands taking the term Long Play very seriously but i do have some concerns about listening to this kind of music for almost a full hour. If that's an issue I will update this later but I'll probably just erase this and write a better conclusion either today or tomorrow.

Mixy Mix Mix

This time round we'll run through 42 songs by  18 different artists in just under two hours. Time for hardcore and sonic youth influenced noise!

http://www.multiupload.com/WNNEW4J7U9

We get things off to a skate punky start with Abserdo who play a darkened hardcore with an awesome skate feel. Easily my favourite song title in this mix is Hit Cops With Skateboards. Fun stuff.

Then we move back in time a little for some Sonic Youth influenced noisy post rock from Broken Water. Say What's On Your Mind reminds me of newer Sonic Youth but focused on grafting strange textures together than just random noisy noodling. Even the instrumental Heal seems like they're still talking.

Then we shift into the first of two emo bands here, Candle. They put out a pair of records in the early 90's and their singer went on to scream for Yaphet Kotto. If you like 90`s emo you'll be down with this.

You can get back on your skateboard again with a pair of tracks from lo fi hardcore skate punk outfit Cerebral Ballzy. I hate the hipster audience they seem to attract but Sk8 All Day is a better skate punk song than most of what has been labelled that for about five years. Minor Threat and Bad Brains is all over this awesome stuff

Now over to Germany for some hardcore courtesy of Carol. I imagine this is baloney but to make up for having such an girly name they have a really tough, thick guitar tone. I may say this a lot but this screaming really sounds like the man's being dragged to hell groin first. Awesome stuff that is almost Beyond Belief (I can not believe how lame I am)

Things get noisy but stay punky with a split 7" from Assassins 88 & TV Colours. Assassins 88 play a lo fi punk pop with drums that try and smash your head into little bits while TV Colours throw some programmed drums, walls of guitar and wailing vocals at you until your begging for mercy on the floor. Thoroughly lo fi and thoroughly ass kicking.

We step slightly into some emo for one track from a Discord post hardcore emo band called Bluetip. Their first album was produced by Ian MacKaye and if you don't know that is you really shouldn't be reading this lol. More from them on a mix in the future I  can almost promise.

We stick with the emo thing but get noisier and and head to Richmond Virgina for some Action Patrol. Emocore more than just emo I would say, makes me think of Shotmaker and Ache Hour Credo. Good stuff. Also, they were complete goofs.

Things get screamy for a song with the awesomely named Yossarian Is Drowning. They were from Britain and played emo violence with a twinkly touch. Think maybe Monument with moments of Loma Prieta if that makes any sense.

We head back to Germany for a pair of tracks from Akephal who play a sludgy thick hardcore with an emo edge to them.

Things get arty for a little with San Diego's  Clikatat Ikatowi. This stuff is a little weird. There is screamo, post hardcore and art punk all fighting tooth and nail for supremacy over the rest of the band. Always interesting and usually pretty good.

Things get much less experimental with Arson Our Savior. They play metalcore which at times is reaching for a more melodic place than you would expect. If you didn't know these kids where 18 and this was their debutep you would be forgiven for not caring. I hope they can progress enough as artists to fulfill the potential I'm hearing here.

Things get a tad more musically interesting if not audible with Son Skull. Time for some more lo fi hardcore punk, this time from Olympia Washington and fronted by a lady. Sweet stuff that is a tad noisy for me. I like thick heavy hardcore not frantic, feedback filled screaching hardcore. Still good though.

Things get even more experimental with Altered States. These two untitled songs are almost ambient but they build and change too much to be that. Experimental post rock something or other. Not sure what to call it but these are the best songs on their EP.

And then we're back to hardcore with Walls from Portland/Seattle. Yup. Hardcore. Fun times.

Pentimento on the other hand do seem to be having fun. You kinda have to be if you're playing pop punk. Doesn't work if you're all angry and pouty. So if your down from this hardcore this should help.

Then from Toronto we have more noisy hardcore from Urban Blight. Maybe you can hare bands like  Agnostic Front, Negative Approach, Straight Ahead but I just hear misanthropic hate commit

And we finish with another track of heavy, evil hardcore from Selfless. Dark and evil. nuff said.

Man that was more taxing than I had initially thought. I'm going back to bed. Hopefully when I wake up mediafire won't be such a dick and let me upload my file

Arch Enemy -Khaos Legions

Arch Enemy are a melodic death metal band formed in Sweden in 1996. In 200 they replaced original singer Johan Liiva with Angela Gossow. This year they released their first album of all new, original material in 3 years called Khaos Legions. And it's quite good.

There are more overt references to Anarchy than I can remember which is kinda cool. There are more instrumental, acoustic breaks than I would like but it is what it is. There are a couple of really great, anthemic metal songs that kick ass the way Arch Enemy usually does. It's a thoroughly solid album.

I do have one minor complaint that it kind of seems like Arch Enemy is treading water. While these are solid songs and the music is well played and as always sounds awesome but there's nothing particularly new or innovative. The songs are good but they do feel a little bit like any of the other songs Arch Enemy's written  in the past years. Solid metal with nothing fundamentally wrong but a tad underwhelming for the first new material in 3 years.

(there was a download link here but the dmca got to me. You'll have to find your own source. Maybe buy it?)

Best Friends! In Dudero

Much thanks to Andrew who besides from screaming and playing guitar in Lizards Have Personalities runs this awesome blog http://andhowmanywishesuntilthestarsfall.blogspot.com/ Sometimes our tastes don't match up as well as I'd like but he posts a lot of awesome music. I must thank him for turning me onto the awesomeness that is Best Friends!

They are a two piece punk band from Philadelphia and they play a really cool positive version of emo punk, accent on the punk. One dude drums, the other dude shouts/screams and plays guitar.

The album that really got my interest this morning is an almost all Nirvana cover album they did in  2008 called In Dudero. It's pretty awesome. The run through 7 Nirvana songs that I recognize and one that I don't.

It is interesting to hear these grungy rock songs put through a frantic filter by an energetic two pair of punks. They bring their positive energy and good time summoning punk rock to the powerful and emotional songs that Kurt wrote some twenty years ago.

I thought I had something more to say but apparently I don't. Enjoy the punk.

Xerxes EP`s

There is an interesting new trend in hardcore that seems to be bubbling up. It's a move to slightly tempter the sheer aggression of hardcore with the emotionality and dynamic change of screamo.
 
The latest band to grab my attention and refuse to let go is Xerxes. To date they have released two EP's, Homeward Carries No Direction and Twins, both released last year


















Generally speaking the instrumentation is typically hardcore. Lots of raging guitars and pounding drums. At least on Homeward the guitars have a more epic quality to them than usual. They rise and fall with more and different emotion than is typically garnered in a hardcore anthem.

The singer is decent though nothing spectacular. His is that gravelly, whiskey shout that's becoming more commonplace. Not gruff but there's more than a little gravel in his larynx.

The thing that keeps me replaying these 9 songs are standouts like US 60. The singer is shouting desperately and you can feel the demons on his heels so when the guitars don't really come in till about halfway but never explode in the expected climax it feels like there is something different going on.

The last two tracks from Twins are great example of the screamo influence. Over sludge like drums and just one screeching guitar tone the singer shouts "comes back to me" like a man possessed. That leads directly into Tuesday which has the most ferocious shouts on the album. The guitars build, alternating sludgy and chugging to build to...nothing. The middle of the track drops out to just bass. They take their time bringing everything back so when they do your head separates from your neck.

This is hardcore. And if you don't listen to screamo or don't like old school (...) 90's emo then you might not notice the subtelties and just gloss on by. That's fine. Lot of people don't see how Touché Amoré`s Marching To The Beat Of A Dead Horse has a major screamo influence on it. I`m not saying that Xerxes is on that level yet though they do draw from a well in the same general area.


If you like hardcore you should check this out. If you like screamo you should give this a listen but be a little wary. I`m looking forward to more material to see the path they choose.

Time For A Mix

Since last i posted on this blog I have finished another year of school and moved to a new house. My old laptop's screen is 80% dead and it's only a matter of time before it gets the Office Space treatment.

So here's another mix I made. It might seem a tad more eclectic than they usually are but that's just a figment of your imagination.

We start off with a pair of tracks from one of the few original OG gangsta rappers, Ice Cube. The songs  The Wrong Nigga To Fuck With and Vaseline put you in a very aggressive mood while still maintaining a lyrical dexterity many rappers would literally kill for.

Then we take a short detour into one of the strangest bands I have ever heard of. They're called Animals On Coke and their debut ep is called When Comedians Have Abortions It's Not That Funny . They play experimental power violence that is incredibly weird. It's not really my cup of tea but the song Diet Coke Head is particularly good.

Then we shift into some classic underground screamo. Ursa Theodorus existed as a band from 2008-2009. My favourite song of theirs is called Oceonographer

Now it's time for some nice melodic straight up ahead punk.  The New Enemy plays melodic punk with skate speed. And even better, they're Canadian. We have two songs here Tim Horton Hears A Who & Black & Blue (Collars). The singer has a great halting shout on the second song.

Bob Tilton where an English band from the 90s, when emo wasn't a bad thing. Here we have just one song from them, but trust me there's more to come and they're great.

From the 90's emo scene in Britain we fast forward to the modern underground punk scene in Philidelphia where Bubonic Bear make their sludgy, punky music. They are a punk based two piece that plays hardcore and sludge in equal measure while adding in awesome screams. I want to say that its power violence with sludge but I'm not sure if that's right at all. These four songs make up their Half Length released last year.

From a two piece playing sludgy punk we head back across the pond to check out Crash Of Rhinos. They play 90's emo with a more screamo sensibility and a small dosing of post rock to lengthen the songs. The songs are a little long for my liking but they are rewarding.

We head towards the experimental  side of things with a track from Heavy Heavy Low Low. They also play grindcore, adding a lot more hardcore and screamo than usual which means I am very much on board. Also, the song is called Meathole and that's kinda cool.

From experimental grindcore we head to some twinkly emo courtesy of Dads. Their new ep  Brush Your Teeth ;) is quite good if your into the whole Twinkle Daddie thing. Also, if you like emotional music this will be right up your alley.

The focus on emotions continue as we head back across to the ocean to England for  four more songs from Bob Tilton. Currently my favourite line of poetry ever is  from Butterfly "If I hold the needle steady, we can sew our eyes shut." The other songs are equally emotional and take you on a roller coaster through dynamic changes and awesome playing.

Hope you enjoy