Trans-feminist hardcore band Girls Living Outside Society's Shit (GLOSS or G.L.O.S.S.) weren't around for very long, recording only a demo and one 7", but they burned bright as anything in the time they were active. In a scene full of mostly white males espousing their place as outcasts, it was a breath of fresh of fresh air to hear from people truly outside of "normal" society.
The demo is fucking magic. Ripping, stomping hardcore.
Stephen Brodsky is singer/guitarist for Cave In. This is one of many side projects made during the Cave In hiatus. Psychedelic pop rock mixed with a little Syd Barrett worship, as Mr. Brodsky has been known to do. Here's a couple favorites to preview it, but if you like Cave In, get this. If you hate Cave In,check this out, cuz it's nothing like Cave In.
Neko Case plays amazing alt-country solo and with a band called the New Pornographers. If you've never listened to Neko Case, fix them shits and jam this EP. It's 6 covers (including a Hank Williams and a Neil Young) and one original. These songs are beautifully written and beautifully sung. Get down on it.
Anticon mainstays Themselves consists of Doseone and Jel. Dose does the dope fast raps, Jel does all the beats live on MPC and bass synths (incredible. watch this to see what I mean!). Below you'll find the group's second release from 2002 titled The No Music. The only way to describe it is wildly unique, avant garde hip hop. This record also has appearances from Why?, Alias, and even John from Tortoise. This record has most of my favorite Themselves jams. I'll include a few examples below.
BONUS: I'm also throwing in the free mixtape they released called theFREEhoudini, featuring tons of great rappers. Released in 2009 (7 years since their last release) as a teaser for their 3rd record and a throwback to oldschool mixtapes, it features Aesop Rock, Busdriver, Buck 65, and Slug, as well as fellow Anticon artists Serengeti, Alias, Pedestrian, Sole, and even a song from the defunct cLOUDDEAD, resurrected only for this release. Here's the links and some samples. Dig in!
Call me lazy, but I'm not gonna write a bunch about this, but please just download it! Dan Reeder makes folksy, bluesy, and often humorous songs, played on homemade instruments (including his guitars), and chocked full of self-harmonized vocals. If you think you know what I'm describing, you're wrong. There is something intangibly unique about Dan Reeder. He has some serious character, only augmented further by his witty sense of humor, beautiful arrangements, and homemade instruments. Below is links to his three albums, and a few of my favorites to show you what it's all about (you can also listen to more at his bandcamp page):
This fella posted on the blog comments while I was away, and I checked him out. Pretty rad, unique stuff. Experimental hip-hop from Connecticut, akin to early cLOUDDEAD. very ambient and strange, but very impressive. Bandcamp says he is only 17, and made this a year or so ago. This cat's on the right track, and I hope to hear some more from him. Jargun, if you stop back by, drop a line and keep us updated!
Jargun is the ambitious debut by the (now) 17 year old musician and self-producer of the same name.
After painstaking development for 5 straight months, Jargun is an
ambivalent, bi-polar, questioning result of plain wonder. It's a
collage: schizophrenic, doubtful, and resisting to explain itself. It's
an anxious, regretful mess of half-confident ideas and leftover mantras
finally being able to breath; An extremely lo-fi, bedroom agenda tasked
with nothing else but to become self-evident and to leave a footprint
for an unknown audience.
It's hesitant and self-conscious, and unable to see itself for what the
future may consist of. Presented here is nothing concrete or total of
what visions Jargun is trying to conspire; they're merely suggestions.
It is only a sample laid by distress, uncertainty, and desperation.
So, while I was hiding under a rock somewhere, apparently some shit had went down. Anticon released this 4 song EP from S/S/S, a 'supergroup' comprised of songwriter Sufjan Stevens, and Anticon's Seregeti and Son Lux. The result is outer space. Serengeti's clever wordplay and sweet rhymes, Sufjan's sweet croon and harmonies, and Son Lux with the ambient pads and head-noddic beats... and there may or may not be some autotune. Appearances by Doseone and My Brightest Diamond. I don't even need to write much more about this. If you like Anticon, you'll like this. If you have heard of any of these 3 dudes before, check this out. Here's the link and a sample:
This rifftagious gem and the following blurb brought to by my good buddy The Wong.
"Lemme tell ya, boys, this one's a doozy. Egypt's self-titled EP is one of the greatest amalgamation of sounds I've ever heard put to record. These boys here are coming outta them black hills of North Dakota, if you can believe that shit. Their origin leaves me wanting to imagine that the band is made of just Billy Jack, playing every single goddamn instrument at one time. The song "Dirty Witch" is totally the rockingest party jam recorded since Grand Funk Railroad split. Seriously, it has like, thirty "alright!"s peppered throughout. It's not missing anything, but if it were, it'd only be a couple of "A-give it to me, now"s. Every goddamn song on here is a gem, it's the aural equivalent of getting dome from a fat girl in the bathroom of the Mix Factory: dirty, sleazy, whoo, and sumbitchin buck-ass wild."
My buddy Ben listed a bunch of records he bought one day, and so I jocked his style and downloaded a bunch of them. This one punched me in the dick immediately. Originally from Columbia and now based somewhere north of Seattle, WA, Inquisition is a fresh take on raw black metal. The duo bring the ruckus with lots of blast-beats and crazy, shimmery melodic guitars, often dropping into slow and dark churn long enough to enthrall the listener, only to ambush you with another insane metal assault. Very unique band in a world of bands beating the old black metal formula to death. My only concern is as a two-piece, I highly doubt they pull off this awesomeness live, but I'd certainly love to see them and find out. My words here are not enough to convey why I dig this record so much, so listen to the jam below and you'll see what I'm talking about. Dig it, and get it.
Sianspheric are a lesser known Canadian shoegaze/space rock/dreampop band from the Sonic Unyon roster. These dudes cover quite a bit of musical ground; sleepy and sprawling to determined and energetic, and always with plenty of fuzz, delay, and reverb. ESSENTIAL for any fans of Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver... Great memories of DXM-land to these records, which means I urge you to get a little squirrely while your jammin' it. Here's the 3 full lengths. I recommend The Sound of the Colour of the Sun the most, but all three records are amazing.
Founded in 1991 by Disrupt's guitarist, Grief seem to be among the first to slow things to a snails pace and play loud, tune low, and play slow. This is their second full length release I believe, from 1994. Doom so heavy, you need a forklift to listen. BlackNoise and BastardSounds's description fits pretty well:
"This is good old fashioned sludge, its brutally slow, narcotic induced and heavy. This is the paranoia one feels after mass consumption of Marijuana, and the feeling one gets after years of drug use has isolate them from their friends, family, and all the people that once cared for them."
Australia's Fuck... I'm Dead, aside from having one of the greatest band names of all time, plays gnarly flesh-searing, face-raping, bone-shattering grind. I first heard this record when I used to go see shows at the Old Hickory Collective here in Jackson, TN. It was there that I cut my teeth on real music and what a true scene was about. So here is a bitchin record in honor of good times, and as a thank you to my buddy JD for making the OHC happen, and taking a select few of us young metal kids under his blackened wing.
Epic fucking doom from Massachusetts. Formed in 1996, put out this full length in 2001 on Southern Lord, then disbanded in 2005. Super sludgy doom with some hypnotic ambient parts. I did the shit out of it, and I know Jared and Ol' JD got some memories of this record. Chugga-lug and doom-uh-doom.
A true hardcore masterpiece from 1990. Featuring future members of the almighty MAN IS THE BASTARD and a member of INFEST, "Fighting Music" is the genesis of the power violence sound. Taking the groundwork laid by the aforementioned Infest, bands like Neanderthal, No Comment and Crossed Out carved out a sound never heard in extreme music that has been aped to death ever since.
If you are into modern "PV" bands like Mind Eraser (who take their name from this record!), Weekend Nachos or Iron Lung then do yourself a favor and snag this for a little history lesson on where the sound originated.
Some other great early bands to play this type of hardcore are the previously mentioned Infest, Crossed Out and No Comment as well as early Crom, early Capitalist Casualties, adn Despise You.
Give plays super powerful, melodic post-hardcore. Rites of Spring meets Swiz. I came across these dudes blog-walking one day and download the Boots of Faith 7" on a whim. Hardcore band with a daisy flower as their logo? I couldn't resist. And as I hoped, the daisy flower logo and the name Give are very telling elements to this bands sound. The tone and feel for most of there songs tends to be very positive and progressive, a unique quality in hardcore and post-hardcore. This band deserves some recognition, because they are doing something truly interesting and fresh with their sound. Highly recommended if you're into genre-blurring bands or melodic hardcore. The download below contains:
Boots of Faith 7"
Heaven is Waiting 7"
Self Titled LP
So this blog has been up for a year now. There have been a few gaps here and there, but regardless, I feel like I've laid some righteous jams on here, and that it's about time to recap and choose my top 10 favorites. If you aren't sure what you'd possibly want off the blog, or maybe you've missed out on some choice cuts, this will be an excellent place to pick up some slack. So here ya go:
Mitchell's top 10 posts you shouldn't miss (in no particular order, and most of these posts should have a youtube video to sample on their respective pages, so be sure to give 'em a listen):
Cave In - Psychedelic rockers who tread the line from heavy hardcore to Syd Barrett worship and everything in between. (Recommended download: Planets of Old EP and White Silence)
Glasses - Pretty unique and gnarly German d-beat punk band. For fans of Ghostlimb, Tragedy, From Ashes Rise, Kylesa)
(Recommended download: Glasses - The Ills of Life)
ASG - Little known band from Wilmington, North Carolina, who play a brand a stoner rock that beats the pants right off The Sword, leaving you wondering why no one has heard of these dudes. Heavy and catchy. Dig it
(Recommended download: ASG - Win Us Over)
Frumpy - Organ heavy, female fronted 70's prog rock from Germany. Another band that puts their contemporaries to shame, leaving me in awe that no one ever picked up on them
(Download: Frumpy - Frumpy 2)
Rwake - Sludgy, swampy, grimey dextromethorphan prog metal from Little Rock, AR. These dudes are incomparable and unmatched at the insanely creative form of metal they put forth. If you haven't heard 'em, you haven't heard heavy.
(Download: Rwake - Voice of Omens)
Earth - Starting out loud, fuzzy, and droney, Earth made a name for themselves in the realm of heavy music. Then after a short hiatus, they returned with a new outlook and an expansive sound, eschewing the one-note wall of fuzz for sprawling clean guitars and atmospheric percussion. Incredibly mind-expanding music.
(Recommended download: Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull)
My buddy Johnny wrote this for me, cuz I'm lazy. Here ya go:
"Listening to this band is like waking up in the hospital after being in a coma for more than 30 years. It is what is. That big "IT" meaning brutally honest DIY punk in its truest form. If you are old enough to remember the SST days then this is like a beer soaked wet dream. While it may be cliche' to use the word "REAL", there is no other word I can find to sum it up. Some may say "retro" or "Old School" but its just honest to goodness PUNK FUCKING ROCK. Led by Keith Morris, the founder of Circle Jerks, and Co-founder of Black Flag. His voice is instantly recognizable. I am curious as to how many of today's punk rock "icons" will be doing this at 55 years old with as much raw unhinged passion as Keith Morris. WRECK-AMMENDED for anyone who wants a REAL fix of 100% punk RAWWK"
OFF! - First Four EP's
Thanks Johnny, and hope to snag you as a recurring author on the blog soon!
