Piebald - If It Weren't For Venetian Blinds, It'd Be Curtains For Us All

This is one of those bands whose name I had heard from a friend once, and that was it. It was definitely recommended to me, but I was never told what kind of music it was, and had no idea what to expect. I found this album at a book exchange for $2.00 so I said, "Why not?" and bought it, only to find out that it'd become one of my favorite albums. This band is just fun, and I love that about them. The first thing you hear is "Grace Kelly With Wings" and it's absolutely amazing. Caught me off guard and couldn't stop listening to it until I sort of overplayed it. Then I went ahead and gave the rest of the album a closer listen and found out that the rest is great, too! Hopefully you'll listen to it too, and like it, after this equally-to-mine vague recommendation.

"That's more than a dress. It's a Grace Kelly movie."

I actually watched every movie Grace Kelly starred in because of that song, to find out what a Grace Kelly movie is, and I still don't really know, haha. Those movies are good, by the way.



1. Grace Kelly With Wings
2. We Believe In Karma
3. Mess With The Bulls
4. Dirty Harry And The Thunderbolts
5. You Won't Be Seeing Me Again
6. Rules For Mules
7. Giddy Like A Schoolgirl
8. All You Need Is Drums To Start A Dance Party
9. If Marcus Garvey Dies, Then Marcus Garvey Lives
10. Still We Let It Choke Us
11. Mount Pleasant
12. Location Is Everything
13. Fat And Skinny Asses

Andrew Jackson Jihad / Partners In 818

I'm gonna start trying to be a bit more brief with my posts, because no one wants to or will read that shit. This is Andrew Jackson Jihad's sort of side project under the same name, aka The Electric Jihad (I think, haha) and it's soooo good. Every time I listen to this record it makes me want to see them play an electric set, though it's sort of a rare occasion. Partners In 818 are one of those bands that just thoroughly impressed me from the first time I saw them, and I actually ended up getting this record the first time I saw them, because I wanted something of their's and this is all they had, which is fine because I love it, and you will too.

"I hated everybody around me. I even hated myself, which I still do on my bad days."



Andrew Jackson Jihad:
1. Deep Dark Basement
2. Hate & Kill
3. S.O.S.* (Off With Their Heads)**
Parnters In 818:
4. Dogless, Not Topless
5. Roop + Charlie
6. Red Shark V.S. Levinia

*Song recorded without permission from Off With Their Heads.
**Fuck those guys.

Young Lions - Demography

The second show I ever went to was a grindcore house show with Apathetic Ronald McDonald, Mutilated Pig Guts, Snaggletooth, and then one band that felt out of place, called Young Lions. They pretty much played rock, and I remember hating it at the time, but my friend loved it and bought their "Demography." The next day we were listening to it, and I slowly started to realize how awesome they are over the next few weeks or months or whatever it was. This band was based out of Reno, NV by three kids who love Nirvana (ref: American Love) and who ran Spacement Records (ref: Operation Spacement). At one point the "Demography" my friend bought was lost, and we could no long listen to Young Lions, so I did some serious digging to try to find out how to get into contact with these guys, which was made hard by the fact that they're no long a band, and Spacement is defunct, but eventually I got in contact with Ty, and he was nice enough to send me three copies of the Young Lions "Demography" and a few copies of his new band, My Flag Is On Fire's demo. So I gave two of those to my friends who had liked Young Lions, too. Then we listened to it all the time... And there was much rejoicing.

I really love this band, but I'll admit that not every song on the collection is all that great. My favorites on the album are Stitch The Fabric, a softer song, and The First Day Of Summer Time, which I love listening to at the beginning of a road trip, haha... In my opinion, this album's full of gems, but maybe it's just me because it has some past with me. I say give it a shot!



1. Again & Again
2. American Love
3. Hideout
4. The Loneliest Night In The History Of Time
5. Broken Halos
6. Young Mothers
7. Die With Jacque Cousteau
8. New Gold
9. Swim Like Rats
10. Operation Spacement
11. Stitch The Fabric
12. The First Day Of Summer Time
13. Mellow Loud
14. Little Fists
15. Basement Lungs
16. Future Now

Crushed On You - Demo 2009

Awesome band I came across at an Unbroken reunion show. Picked up their demo and ended up seeing them another time, and they were great. Haven't heard much from them recently. Probably inactive. Members of Unbroken, Kill Holiday, Julia, Cold War, and Throwdown playing pop punk that gives me a Social Distortion or maybe even Bouncing Souls vibe. I've never listened to Kill Holiday but hear it's along the lines of where they left off, but poppier. This is a really impressive demo and I hope they end up doing more stuff later on.

The track names might be wrong. Check into that... haha.



1. This Is Where The Party Starts
2. Thank God I'm From California
3. When Panic Attacks
4. Made And Waiting
5. Kissing Is An Artform

Post Marked Stamps compilation

This is an amazing compilation put out by Tree Records who originally did it as a series of 7" singles, with two bands, one song each, on each record. They later released the entire compilation with all 18 bands on one CD. The CD doesn't follow the release of the records chronologically. Post Marked Stamps has some amazing (and some not-so-amazing (see: Tim Kinsella's Promise Ring cover)) songs on it! It features my favorite Braid song, which was exclusive to PMS. It's got the original version of The Get Kids' "I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel" and lots of great songs from less-heard-of bands like Ethel Meserve, Aspera Ad Astra, and Compound Red.

One of the guys in The Hal Al Shedad posted this compilation with some cool back stories about it on his blog: http://beyondfailure.blogspot.com/2008/05/tree-records-post-marked-stamps-singles.html

NOTE: The Rainer Maria song might show up as "Black In The Eye." It's actually titled "Pincushion." Black In The Eye is the Aspera Ad Astra song. Also, a lot of the songs titles are only half-right. The correct titles are on that blog I linked.



1. Aspera Ad Astra - Black In The Eye
2. Cerberus Shoal - A Lighthouse In Athens Part 1
3. Braid - Forever Got Shorter
4. Ethel Meserve - Belated Blues
5. The Get Up Kids - I'm A Loner Dottie, A Rebel
6. Compound Red - Building
7. Rainer Maria - Pincushion
8. Jen Wood - Sheltering Arms (For The Birds That Are Unborn)
9. Still Life - Looks Like Tomorrow
10. The Deadwood Divine - And Where Did I Leave Off
11. Giant's Chair - Lost Dauphin
12. A Minor Forest - Inter Continental Stalker (And So Does The Wolf Whistle)
13. The Hal Al Shedad - Solitaire
14. Sweep The Leg Johnny - Walking Home On The Emergency Bed
15. Haelah - Fallen Away
16. Very Secretary - Nagarkot
17. Ida - Post Prom Disorder
18. Tim Kinsella - A Picture Postcard

Yaphet Kotto

Okay, so the other day I found out that Commodity Fetish Records and Vitriol Records are putting out a "Rare Collections" LP for Yaphet Kotto, compiling their rare, split, and unreleased tracks, due for release in late 2010 or early 2011. In recognition of this, I'm posting some music from Yaphet Kotto, who just so happen to be my favorite band of all time. Bar none.

I couldn't choose between their first full-length, "The Killer Was In The Government Blankets," and the second one, "Syncopated Synthetic Laments For Love," so I'm putting up both! The Killers was the first album of their's I listened to, so it has a dear place in my heart. It was actually the first hardcore/emo/screamo album I listened to, and the song, "Are You Still Working At That Café?" is the first song of that genre I heard, and I was hooked. To this day, that song is still one of my favorites. I chose to also include Syncopated because it's just an amazing album. And that's what these two are: albums. Through and through. Quite possibly better than The Killers but I'd say it's more like they're neck and neck. The title track from Syncopated is seriously flawless in my eyes. I could talk forever about Yaphet Kotto, but I know if I keep going, you won't wanna read it, so I'll cut myself off. Politically charged hardcore with contrasting vocals, dynamic song structures, compelling lyrics... just perfect.



1. First Meetings Agreement
2. Torn Pictures
3. Reserved For Speaker
4. Driving Through Natchez
5. Are You Still Working At That Café?
6. B And C
7. A Symbol
8. The Killers
9. Suffocate



1. Circumstantial Evidence
2. Status Symbol
3. Inquire Within
4. The Weight Of Remorse
5. Fact Nor Fiction
6. Syncopated Synthetic Laments For Love
7. Highly Enlightened
8. Blind Leading The Blind
9. Of Epic Proportions
10. Instrumental

The Reactions - Love You EP

In response to the last post's mention of a second Florida band, I decided to post the EP with the song that Screaming Sneakers covered for their EP. In similar fashion, The Reactions had very few songs written (two seven-inches and a couple live recordings), but where they lack in quantity they make up for in quality. This is a great four-song EP. I think you could call it powerpop. I don't know... I'm bad with genres. It's good.



1. Nights On End
2. Marianne
3. I Can't Help It
4. Rebel Rousers

Screaming Sneakers - Marching Orders EP

I can manage to be short-winded with this entry, because there isn't much to know about this band. They were a female-fronted punk with some poppy overtones from Florida. They were around in the early 80's and the Marching Orders EP (1982) is their only release. It features four songs, one of which is a cover of another Florida pop punk band that was around in the early 80's as well.



1. Violent Days
2. Grin And Bare
3. Reflections
4. Can't Help It (The Reactions)

Finest Dearest - Finest Dearest

EDIT: Link to download wasn't working right. Should be fixed now.

Ever since I saw this band back in March '07, I was hooked! They make such a good impression and I'm happy I got to see them both times they came to Phoenix when they were still a band. Unfortunately they broke up in June. I went to their MySpace to check up on what's new with them, and noticed that their headline read "EXPIRATION DATE: 06/26/2010" and I was so bummed (this was like a week before said expiration date). I really wish I could've flown out to San Francisco to go see their last show, that's how much I like them. But alas, it wouldn't have been practical given money and scheduling constraints. I always recommend this band whenever possible, because they're just that good. Bay Area, female-fronted Indie Rock that's pulled off so well. Carly has a beautiful voice. Take a listen!

By the way, the packaging, both on the CD version and the 2x10" version (both of which, I own, haha) are flawless. It's a great record to own, so if you like the album, go buy it from Bloodtown Records!

They also just released their farewell album on iTunes only. It's like 8 songs I think, for $3.99 - also recommended. I'll shut up now.



1. Naming Ceremony
2. Night-Blooming Flowers
3. Your Hometown
4. Making A Sound 1
5. Making A Sound 2
6. Making A Sound 3
7. Fathers
8. Tunnel Vision
9. Serious
10. Pendulum
11. Marching Into Flames

Pianos Become The Teeth - Old Pride

I saw this band about five days ago and though I had already heard their music, I was so impressed with them. I think they display a lot of the same elements that made Funeral Diner such a great screamo band but they still sound significantly different from FD. Airy guitar backed by a heavier guitar, strong vocals that don't get old, and off-beat drumming. Not to mention I think they chose a great track ordering because the album flows really well. The opening track, "Filial," is amazing - it's like double rainbows all the way! I'm glad that there are still some bands around today that play top-of-the-line screamo because almost every one I listen to is a band come and gone.

On top of being really good when it comes to music, these guys are really nice people. If you like the album, I definitely urge you to go out and buy it if you can, and if they come through your town, don't hesitate and miss out because they're great live.



1. Filial
2. Quit Benefit
3. Sleepshaker
4. Prev
5. Pensive
6. Cripples Can't Shiver
7. Jess And Charlie
8. Young Fire

Jejune - R.I.P.

Jejune were an indie/rock-infused emo band from Boston (and later San Diego) who met going to the Berklee College Of Music. Their music tends to be on the soft side with equally soft male and female vocals, but they have their loud moments, too. Though less well-known, Jejune toured the states with bands like The Get Up Kids, Piebald, and Jimmy Eat World. This album is a collection of their singles, split tracks, and unreleased records, and it's definitely my favorite. I actually have their split 7" with Jimmy Eat World, and the two songs from that ("That's Why She Hates Me" and "Early Stars") are both better pieces of the album. I have to say though, that I hate the second song "The New State" and I promise this album gets better, haha... Just skip it if you need to. That's what I do. "The Highs And Lows" sounds like it could be a theme song to Gilmore Girls, but I love it anyways. All right, that's enough from me. Give Jejune your attention.



1. Record City After World
2. The New State
3. Lunatic
4. The Highs And Lows
5. 2000 Miles
6. Heart Of Desire
7. Early Stars
8. Morale Is Low
9. That's Why She Hates Me
10. Solar
11. Lowlife (Version Remix)
12. Grace (Wizard Glick Is Swimming)

Suis La Lune - Quiet, Pull The Strings!

This'll be my first post for my first music blog, and I chose to feature Suis La Lune for it because they're a great representation of Europe's screamo scene, one of my favorite styles around right now. This blog obviously won't be all screamo all the time, but there might be a bit because I'd like to share music that I think others haven't immersed themselves in much, and emo/screamo/emo-violence/skramz/whatever is kind of really my cup of tea. But you can still expect plenty of diversity.

Suis La Lune (I think that's "I Am The Moon" in French) are a Swedish screamo group that makes me wish this type of music were popular around my area. Well, it's not just them that make me wish that, but they make that dream seem even more desirable. They did a U.S. tour in March but they only toured the east coast. I was so bummed! The opening track of this album (after the nature-sounds intro), "Utter Silence Is Fragile" is amazing. I think it represents the band really well and just drives with so much passion. If you like what you hear, I suggest you listen to the songs on their MySpace profile. The playlist there includes all my favorite songs by them, and if you want more, I'd be happy to upload the rest and link you to it since I have their discography thus far.



1. Desperate Times
2. Utter Silence Is Fragile
3. This Heart Easily Tears
4. Eris Flies Tonight
5. Quiet, Pull The Strings!
6. Fingers.Voice.Heart.Shake.Shake.Shake.
7. The Light Matters Always Matters
8. Calls For Beautiful Acts
9. A Letter - A Void
10. My Mind Is A Birdcage