the promise ring demo

ok, ok, you already have this from somewhere but it is so fucking good i am going to post it to. i wish i owned the actual tape. i bid a large amount of $ on ebay when i last saw it, but someone bid even more. crazy times.

anyways, this is 3 songs from whenever the promise ring started, from when they toured with snapcase (!). it opens with the otherwise unreleased jupiter, by far the most mid 90s emo song TPR ever recorded. it kicks in with some killer hardcore guitar and suddenly von bohlen is wailing over the top. it spirals around, like some kind of indian summer song but with singing instead of sobbing. utterly awesome. it's interesting that they got from cap'n jazz to this and then to the early promise ring material. the vocals totally fit with the stuff on 30 degrees everywhere, with vb wavering and out of tune, but the punishing guitars will come as a surprise to anyone who has never heard this. the bass is as stunning as anything you heard by this band, grooving the song along into it's more melodic final third. after that we have the super super super 12 sweaters red which is one of my favourite promise ring songs. you can find it also on the ground rule double comp on divot records, i am pretty certain it's a different version, the song on grd is a bit poppier and cuter (i haven't listened to it in ages), but listen to davey's broken vocals the opening guitars twinkle in ... "I CAN HEAR THE RADIO!" ... this song is so ridiculously good. the remake has better twinkles, but i think i prefer vb's drawl on this one and the twinkles are still to die for. half way through it explodes, vb gets over excited and tearful and the song energises. so good. we wind up with mineral point which you know already and it's pretty similar to the version as on horse latitudes, but not quite. pure early tpr, you can argue whether or not it has aged badly or not, but whilst many of tpr's peers made music that sounds immature these days, none of the stuff that this band recorded sounds remotely immature, which is an incredible testament to their song writing.

a brilliant artifact is here. davey, stop fucking around in maritime and write something with a bit of energy again please.

the watercolour

i knew i had a treat for you somewhere. the watercolour was this band that was pre-racebannon (!!). they had a song on a comp 7" that a few of you may know. it is gorgeous. this 6 track covers that song, and a few others. again, i have no track listing. i can't remember who burned this for me, or why they did it. i guess it was some guy from the band who appreciated that someone was still interested in his shitty indie rock band from the mid 90s. hopefully a few of you will be too after you check this out.

from the get go, you know what's going on here - the opening 100 seconds bounces through a catchy tune with raspy vocals and midwestmo riffs. an amalgamation of cap'n jazz and ordination of aaron, just like you were looking for. the second song is the one from the comp and the one that you will fall in love with. a flying poppy number that is pure promise ring / cap'n jazz / boys kissing boys. such a catchy effort with twinkles and pretty bits and everything. this is the midwestmo you're looking for (recommend for people who raise an eyebrow at algernon cadwallader) "ONE BY ONE YOU LET YOURSELVES DOWN!". this one seems to be a poorer quality recording than the other tracks. i have no idea why. anyway, the other songs don't quite live up to these, with an instrumental stuck in the middle that is easily skippable. track 4 is nice and twinkly but again instrumental, would love to have heard this one with vocals. fortunately they remember how to sing as song 5 comes bouncing back in the fashion you require. It gets a bit more mid 90s in the middle, more frenzied and OoA style before a rather fantastic drop out part, well judged and well played. i miss that kind of thing. eventually it stumbles back into earshot but never brings the vocals back sadly, crashing over the finish line in a crumpled heap around the 6 minute mark. things are brought to a satisfactory close with a poppy effort again, would have fit nicely on a split seven with a song off the promise ring demo (which i am gonna post next even though you already have it, i love that shit).

be emo here.

necktie party - demo

i pretty much stopped listening to screamy stuff these days but i am going to go through my collection of cds and upload some of the obscurer bits that i have lying around, maybe i'll still be into it, maybe not... anyway, here's the starter.

i was pretty sure that all necktie party had released was a split 7" with the plot to blow up the eiffel tower. i was wrong. i found this cdr in a box of random demos and things with card / fabric sleeves, a box i have lying around full of junk from the early 21st century that i haven't listened to in eons. i have no idea where this demo came from. i am pretty certain that the only reason i have this is because i was one of like 16 people who ever gave a shit about the band. any ways, this 10 song demo blazes past in 23 minutes and features some ace, chaotic wildness. in 2001, everyone was in a screamo band, but necktie party is not some generic orchid rip off. these guys definitely have the wild san diego thing going on, playing intense yet melodic hardcore. the vocals are screamed or desperate, with two guys going at it. things fly past in a whirl of thrashed guitars and there is barely enough time for them to roll around on the floor. i just spazzed the fuck out to track 6, that one will make you lose your shit for sure. i think the songs off the split seven are here, but this stuff sounds fresh to my ears so i guess i've forgotten which ones they are. i don't have a track listing.

like my original review says, elements of saetia, mohinder and republic of freedom fighters are all to be found in this. the whole thing would have made a shit hot 10" and i think people would still probably name drop this band if it had ever came out.

the demo was recorded by rumsey and trosper from unwound in december 2001. sweet.

grab this if you like it fast and sweaty. i think you will be seriously impressed.

maya shore - farewell to introductions

now, anyone reading this knows that no band ever managed to successfully sound like christie front drive. a few have tried. jimmy eat world stole a billion cfd riffs and turned it into the emo pop gem that is static prevails. emo diaries comps contain a few examples of some mis-steps. mostly if a band wanted to sound like cfd, they would have a really pretty, 2 minute long intro, and then suddenly stop, and play a rock song. it seems that no bands ever mastered turning that intro gently into something special. with maya shore i present to you the only band that i am aware of that successfully took the cfd template and made a really good record. i did hear a few good songs by a band called kilowatthours that were in the ballpark, but they had piano and the album as a whole veered off in other directions.

anyway, farewell to introductions is a lovely late night special of a record, maybe not something for 11.30am on a sunday, more so an october or novembers evening, it's dark, raining a bit, and probably chilly. this album will provide the warmth for you. now that the label 'twinkly' is applied to technical, mathy indie instead of bands with guitars that genuinely do twinkle like frost on a winter's morning, it may mislead you if i refer to this as such, but maya shore to me is the absolute definition of twinkly music. so much pretty guitar work on here, and the soft, not quite mumbled vocals glide over the top, you may not be totally aware of them as they hug the landscape so well. the gentleness of the music is also key here. maya shore is like sitting snugly on the sofa, the lights dimmed, next to someone special, intimate but not over the top, just next to each other.

as for the band, i know little. this came out in 2001 on music fellowship, i am pretty sure you can buy it and you should. one guy was in forty nine hudson who made a good album also. there is a 7" but i think the song is on this cd.

i hope you enjoy this as much as me. find it here.

treetops - twink-a-lee

ok, so this isn't that old or long forgotten but it is pretty obscure and you may have not been aware that this band existed. twink-a-lee was a band from Houston or thereabouts. they came along after die emperor, die! vanished, and they kicked out a sweet tape and this 6 song cdr. it is fittingly named as 'twink-a-lee', as it is all guitar twinkles and boys kissing boys, riffing off cap'n jazz and the promise ring before the world and his wife came along and had a go at it, mostly missing the point. treetops clearly got the point, this is full of ultra whiney vocals and gorgeous guitar spirals. the bass drives, the songs swirl, they wander out into a corn field in the middle of the summer and come to a sudden halt, before drifting lazily for a moment or two... then back it all comes again with a heady rush. if treetops were still around then 100 dorks on the internet would be having a massive cuddle over just how awesome this band was. i'd say this was the most midwestmo music that's been made since the rockets and bluelights 10".

anyway, i hope you enjoy these 6 songs and one day if i get my act together i will rip the tape or maybe someoene else already has, but i am not entirely certain that i know where my copy is. i have no idea what these kids are up to now, kirke was running a label that put this stuff out but i lost touch with him.

download the cd here.

the shivering - behind broken eyes

you are more than likely already familiar with the shivering, but you might not have had a chance to here their debut cd, 'behind broken eyes'. this 8 track cd was released on no! records in 2000, and was the formative sound of a band that would go on to further things. the music here is relentless, fast paced and a mix up of the rites of spring type emo and choppy pop punk not far removed from jawbreaker. it is a great clash of styles and it's probably about time another band did this. spencer's vocals are ragged and extremely hoarsely screamed, to the point that his vocals sometimes become distortion. brian gathy didn't yet play in the band at the point of this recording, and perhaps that was one of the reasons for the change in sound. these tracks didn't get on the semi-discography cd that alone later released either. i love the intensity on this record, especially in those vocals where spencer sounds utterly distraught for the most part. AND IF I FALL, WOULD YOU CATCH ME? emo as fuck.

i think this is a really good collection of songs, and it's a shame that more people who are into the band haven't had a chance to hear this as it is definitely worth your appreciation. check the album out here.

danny littleton

i am not going to write much about this, it sounds nothing like the hated, but you should check this out if you like littleton / ida...

http://www.mediafire.com/?y2dyn23mm3n

very, very nice. it's from 2002 and was originally released in japan by saidera records / last affair records. there is a second cd, but i think it was more ambient, i haven't ever got round to ripping it, so i guess i didn't like it as much. the final track 'down in the valley' is from 1988 and features both littleton bros. elizabeth mitchell is on 'just run'. enjoy.

stupid acting smart

i stole this demo tape of utterly obscure scottishmo from my long lost buddy, steven j carlin. he kept telling me how great this band was, and finally he played me the tape. he was right. so i took it. it was done with the express intent and purpose of making some f- ripz to release into the general population at large, which was sort of done, but probably still no-one is listening to this band so here i am, exposing them to 9 more people. i suppose i could post the tape back to him but he kept promising me he was going to visit norwich and i could give it to him in person. so i will continue to use this tape as a bargaining chip to try and get him down here...

anyway, i am not sure when this dates from, i seem to have written down 1994, but that seems unlikely, listening to it. the music is sweet indiemo that fits easily with bands such as ribbon fix, rainer maria, jejune, pohgoh and samuel, so i would suggest it is more likely to be 96 / 97. i believe they were pre-stapleton too, but that could also be a mistaken idea from a drunken evening at some gig in glasgow with the man carlin. the music is exceptionally accomplished for a demo of a band that probably played 4 gigs and split up without anyone giving a shit. stupid acting smart do the melancholy jangle on these 6 songs, trading male and female vocals as required. the music is gentle but persuasive, the tunes are good, and if you are as smitten by this kind of music as i am then you can't help but fall in love.

go listen and see what i mean. if you are the kind of dork who gets all excited about indiemo bands from 15 years ago that nobody cares about, then i think you'll be rather happy.