Honorly Mentions

As I begin to make my year-end lists (a favorite pass-time of mine), I always end up finding a lot of cool stuff that I either forgot about throughout the year or just completely missed my chance to post them. So, instead of just forgetting about them again, I call them honorly mentions (a play on yearly and honorable I guess) and share 'em like this:

Pink Richard - Volume 1 (2014)

Pink Richard is the side project of Jesse Gertz of the Portland electronic (now three-piece) band, Leveret. It's not too much of a stray away from the indie pop gems on Infinity released in 2012, but these stripped down acoustic visions are definitely a separate entity. A little folky, a little poppy, a little singer songwriter-y - a little Pink Richard.

There's a neat drum solo somewhere in there, too:



P.S. If you buy this (very snazzy looking) tape you get 7 separate mp3's rather than the streamable one track deal above.

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Rosetta - Flies to Flame (2014)

After hearing Rosetta's 2013 release, The Anaesthete, I thought we would be getting a lot more hardcore and even less atmosphere on their next effort. Then Rosetta released Flies to Flame  last month and my predictions were all off. No, they didn't go full post rock or anything, but they brought back the atmospheric undertones that was the hooked that fished me in several years ago. Plus, this release still has the intensity that The Anaesthete was bursting at the seams with, but it's spread out again and takes its time getting there. It's vintage Rosetta.

 I'm not saying I didn't like The Anaesthete, it was one of my top albums of last year for sure, but it's almost non-canon Rosetta once you start to listen to this EP.





It's all apples and oranges in the end, and it's all good.

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Bearmace - Aim Low (2014)

Bearmace are a noisy almost violent punk rock band from Montreal. The lo-fi recordings of Aim Low, released at the very beginning of 2014, really echoes the recordings of early hardcore and powerviolence. Don't let Bearmace's retro approach fool you though, this is apparently meant to be played on vinyl.






Maybe I'm just out of touch, but this sure sounds like something I would find on cassette in my friend's cooler-older-brother's room when I was 13. Too bad that scenario never existed...

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Thou - Heathen (2014)

Thou play thick doomed-out metal that demands attention. Heathen is no different. Not only is this 10 track banger a major pain on my neck, it also demands me to sit down and listen to it over and over again or else I have not listened correctly. With that being said, I think Thou's Heathen has incredible listening mileage and will be an album I try to listen to a lot in 2015. It's certainly not a one listen and it's in the bag kind of album, especially not with an incredibly brutal 14 minute opener begging to be familiarized. This kicks my ass the more and more I listen to it.

  \m/ A punch in the face never felt so good \m/

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Monday XXXI

Happy Emancipation Day, Washington, D.C.

How about some music..

Two Knights - Quilt Chamberlain (2011)

Two Knights are a twinkly math rock two piecer from Texas. Along with their super addictive tapping and fun for everyone drumming, the singer/guitarist has some splendid singing chops that I personally think are begging to be heard. You might disagree, I don't know. Whatever, it's what makes them stand out amongst the rest of the emo/twinkle toes playing around these days.

The members of Two Knights are also in a screamo band with a member of Innards. They are called Father Figure and are pretty swell as well.

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Crywank - Narcissist On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown (2012)

James Clayton himself tipped me off to his new album the other day and I couldn't have been more interested in hearing it (and more from him all together), especially since his last album was called, 'James Is Going To Die Soon'. Narcissist On The Verge OF A Nervous Breakdown is the name of the new release by James's moniker, Crywank and is very much a vehicle of coping with his sadness, hence the name - a play on the words of the expression 'tearjerker'. I'm not sure if I could ever say this release tops his last but that may in part be due to the number of short songs it holds. I have no problem with simple little songs, I just wish I could hear more out of them.

Soon after learning about Narcissist On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, I found out about a little gem that James and his friend(s) recorded that not only features some early takes of tracks on Narcissist like "Thomas Saunders Lloyd Webber" and "Little Creepy" but also some silly covers and a goofy rendition of "Welcome To Castle Irwell" which is probably my favorite song by 'wank. The recordings I'm talking about are called, 'I Daren't Call This Stoner' and the genre of music is called "Gettin' blazed in Ric's Room". I can't say I condone such actions here but the results are pretty entertaining. It'll probably make its way on to NFT's Got You Covered some day. If I ever get my act together and stop forgetting to put up those posts.

Anyways, if you liked what you heard from Crywank last time I posted his work or even a little interested in this depressed singer-songwriter: download this one and give it a listen. It won't hurt and that's all he really wants anyways.

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Isaïah - Ils Consomment, tuent et prient, mais ne pensent pas (2009)

A couple weeks back I posted about a band called Terraformer who where from Belgium, played math rock instrumental music and featured members from the screamo band, Isaïah. Well, this is Isaïah. They rock hard and are pretty brutal. They're also pretty epic. There's some epic bits here and there on this release that lead to spoken word. Presumably french spoken word. It's pretty, well... pretty. Fucking intense pretty.

Though Isaïah is from Belgium, they do speak French (or at least write their stuff with French) and therefore I would still consider them 'French screamo'.  I guess you could still call it Belgian screamo but who are we kidding... call it what it is: heavy-ass emotionally violent music!

From Belgium.

In French.

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Rosetta - The Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift (2007)

I stumbled across this EP today while looking for things to post and remembered that I had forgotten about it. I forgot to remember that this was Rosetta's four track ambient noise piece that was released around the time of Wake/Lift. According to Wikipedia it is not meant to be synced up with its companion album despite what I have heard in the past. Either way though, Cleansing Undertones is still a really interesting listen and not just good for putting on right before bed to help you fall asleep. No, it actually has enough substance in it that you can actually sit down for a listen and it'll tell a story. What that story is... is up to you the listener.

Twelve minutes in we hear a male voice that comes in and out of the static that dares you to keep listening. Soon you start to wonder what will happen and where the music will take you. You try to hold on to the sound or that voice but it eventually dies out and all you are left with is a feeling of contentment and pressure. Once all noise has dissipated, the pressure is lifted. You are free.

You can also listen to The Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift in its interiority here on the youtubes.

I'm glad I remembered this one finally.

Enjoy.

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