(Don't Forget To) breathe

First off Happy Thanksgiving! to those of you that live in the United Snakes. This compilation is one that I enjoy thoroughly. It is composed of music that i like from a time in my life that i did not know so much about music. It was a time when i was still learning all the realms of genres and what makes up these genre's sounds. This post is also in response to some talk that i have had with some people about today's state of music. Yes, that statement was vague, and yes, i feel that you should dive into some of these bands that are on this comp. to find out their true roots as well as the definitions of the music that they make. One could say that i am a snob, and that i take the fun out of music but that is not true, i love music and this is my way of keeping it straight in my own head. Do your research! Don't hate something that you don't understand, research and support your claims and support your local scene!
Most of these bands are second generation emotive bands, also on this comp. you will find a harder side to the genre. Check it out...

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Warship

I mean look at the cover art!!! I wrote this post a while ago and i am just getting around to posting it so here it goes..ohh and look at the cover art! i mean, i'm just saying...

Once The Draft had come out with their album In a Million Pieces, I remember reading an interview with Jason Black stating that there was going to be to be three types of critics of their new band. He stated the first was going to be the people who enjoyed his earlier claim to fame band Hot Water Music (he was in the Unitas as well) but did not like the direction that the former members of HWM had gone with The Draft. The second group of critics would be later followers of HWM that liked The Draft but still held them up to the same standard that HWM set. But, the third and the one that he wanted most was the critics that had not really heard of HWM and they discovered The Draft not through its ties with HWM.
If I understand his thoughts right then he wanted to be given a clean slate and his new band to be looked at as something different than the their old band. He wanted The Draft to be viewed with out the HWM blinders on. I feel that Warship is the same.
I have read several reviews of this album that still have the From Autumn to Ashes lens on. Now, granted some of them have come from Itunes and who knows what type of non-knowledgeable-non-good-music lover is going to write about their favorite band that decided to stop playing, and your still wanting to hear those same three chords that where worn out when they first started using them to write their radio chart hit songs. The sad thing is I have read some reviews from magazines that have done the same thing. I mean I understand that their readers don’t get music at all. But, you would hope at least the people who write the articles have some knowledge of what good music is. Ok, so on with my slant of the review. This article gave the cd 4 out of 5 stars so I thought that maybe I should check it out. Some of the reviews have said that Warship is a doom/sludge album. They have compared it to Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality (That’s a good start for an album to be called doom). So with all the convincing of the review that this album is doom it really had better be. I have yet to hear it so I am writing this cold.
I am pretty sure that no one will read this far down so I will get to the good stuff now that I have bored out all the leechers and now I am talking to the ones that really care about music and the things that make music happen. So, congratulations! for making it this far…here it goes.
I feel that Warship should not be compared to FATA, that is a separated entity altogether. They should be viewed as a different band altogether, and my reasoning for this is that they are another band. So stop with all the comparisons between the two bands and also the comparisons of Marks other project Biology (bet you didn’t know I do my homework too!) Suck it up! FATA is dead and move on with your life! And stop thinking that Emo is goth. When did those two genres become a synonym for each other?

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Lucero

This post is a follow up of the previous one. It will be short. Lucero is good! Ben Nichols is great!, check him out on the Revival tour. Support his solo career, buy his records. Go see him/them. Enjoy!
This is Lucero's That much further west and Tennessee albums.

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The Revival Tour

My friends i have not written in here for a while and i do apologize. I will try to make up for that with some good music that i have been enjoying for a while now. As you may know i am a big fan of Hot Water Music and anything that any member of HWM is affiliated with, well since their hiatus they, the members, have come out with some extraordinary music. One would think that with the split they would not be as good with their separate engagements, but i feel that the exact oposite has happened. It started with the Draft and then just blew up from there. Var from No Idea records decided to release Chuck's first 7 inches, through an exclusive pressing club, and from there we have had wonderful music from the whole gang. Chuck has been busy with his music and this is just one installment of it. I feel that you should check out anything that he has out but i particularly like this album with Austin Lucas and his other band mates. The song Hold My Bed on this album was demoed on Chuck's 7-inches, and i personally like that version better. It is recorded at the dive bar in the bathroom on i'm guessing a four track recorder. It was a rough forcast for where Chuck Ragan was going and i personally enjoy the direction that Chuck has gone with his music. He has the same passion that has driven him throughout the years. He is a humble man as well. He may not know but he talked to me before the Revival Tour show and he offered to shake my hand and he carried on a conversation with me. Of course like a fool i was on the wrong side of the building to go into the show. (and i realized this later, only because the line was wrapped around on the otherside of the venue, to be honest i had not been to that particular venue in a good two or three years and the last time i was there the entrance was on the side i was waiting at, alright back to the post).
As for The Revival Tour i highly recommend you going to see it. Hands down it is one of the best shows i have seen in a good couple of years. I think i like the format of the show the most. At most shows you have the opening band first and then the subsiding bands following. That was not the case here. First everyone that was going to preform that night was up there and they played a couple of songs all together. Then they separated and Austin played some songs alone while calling the help of different players throughout his set. Richmond's own Tim Barry played next and did the same, then Ben from Lucero, and then Chuck. Chuck actually played some old songs from his Rumbleseat days. It was good to see him play Rye Wiskey. Alright well i have rambled on enough about this so i will get to the link. Please buy this album and support good artist.

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PoHM

True friends are hard to come by in my life. I just don't need the casual relationships that most people have with others. I have them but i consider myself to be independent and as such i have a very small amount of close friends. I have no problems with this whatsoever. In fact, i rather like that. I am a quality not quantity type of person. This next band is made up of one of these close people that i consider to be in my small group of true friends. Now we may not always keep in contact with each other but we have a mutual respect for each other and the decisions that each of us have made. This person is Brian Thibodeau. He is a creative genius! If you want to see what i mean then take a look at his artwork that can be spotted all over Richmond. Also check out his blog that has his works and his thoughts on the things he feels are important to him in this messed up world. Brian has always inspired me to live my heart and never to follow. He is a self made man. He will see what he wants and he will work at it until he can obtain that. And that is a rare trait that i feel a lot of people lack.

I have chosen to post his music for my next posting because i feel that, just as with, all the other bands on my blog that he is not represented enough on the web.

PoHM stands for Prisoner of Her Majesty. This music is just one of his many creative outlets. I truly love the music for what it is. I have had these songs for many years and i still listen to them and fall in love with them each time i listen to them. I love them for their rawness and their look into the mind of this man. He has told me to say that PoHM is an ongoing project and that more music is on it's way. I have included the cover for his Debut album called Century of War. The album i have is the Disengaged EP. The track listing is as follows.

Disengaged EP
1. Choices that Show
2. Suburbanites
3. Sunday Drive
4. I want to be your painter/ a lullaby
5. Creepy Crawly
6. Get a new Car
7. Curses
8. Time Comes to Depart
I have also included a two song preview of Century of War.
So check it out and let me know what you think.

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Back to Donut

This is everything a compilation should be. I remember when i got this comp. it was the day after Halloween, and i traveled up to d.c. to see Sick of it all, A.F.I., Hot Water Music, and Indecision. That was a tremendously good show. It was at a club called Nations and when i left there was a rave going on the other side of the building. You should have seen the clashing of sub-cultures when the show was over.

This compilation was one of the leading albums that shaped my musical taste from that day forward. I have come to own most of the artist works on this album. The majority of the album's artist are on no idea records and if no idea was not their primary label no idea at least produced some of the artist's albums. So yeah check this out it is well worth your time.

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The Weakerthans

Today, we are going to go on a journey up to our friends in the north, Canada. Here is a group that i feel is not represented enough out there on the web. The band is The Weakerthans. For many years i thought that they where me and my friends little secret until i saw some girl who i knew did not really know anything about underground music wearing their t-shirt. I then found out that the Weakerthans had actually had some pretty good success.

I really like the first two weakerthan's cds. I like left and leaving more in the beginning then i got into fallow. check them out if you have not heard of them. John K. Samson's lyric's are amazing. Wikipedia says that, The band was formed in 1997 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by John K. Samson, after he left the punk band Propagandhi to start a publishing company. Samson joined forces with bassist John P. Sutton and drummer Jason Tait, and created The Weakerthans as a vehicle for a more melodic and introspective brand of songwriting than that of Propagandhi.

I have included the Propagandhi song that was also on Fallow. This will be with the Reconstruction site link. I did not have enough room to put it on the first two albums link. I also put in the Red Army Faction ep with hot water music, avail, and discount. check it out.


Left and leaving and Fallow minus anchorless

Reconstruction Site Red Army Faction

Indian Summer

This album is specifically up here because someone i know said that blogging was stupid and i told him that i could find any band i wanted to in a blog so this is it. He said i could not find an Indian Summer album. Well I did find it out there in blogland, but i thought that it was still misrepresented so i would feature it on my plot of land. So check it out. The band is Indian Summer and they are good. Support them they have gone on to form other bands and I think that they captured a time in music that should be researched more and that is definitely unappreciated. Live it up! Classic 1990's post-hardcore! Check'em out. I'm pretty sure that this album is their Science 1994 Discography.

Myspace

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In Circles

In a day when music is stagnate, as it is lifeless, it is hard to find replenishment from our fatigue of quality music. Well, my friend i have found the Fiji water supply that will keep this stream ever flowing. This supply comes in the vain of a band from the Richmond, Va music scene. They are hot and they will not stop until they have put out that fire that is inside. Check them out! This is their demo and it is worth mentioning that they are a forgotten breed of hardcore kids that still make quality music that is hard to find around these days. There sound as they describe it sounds like The Smiths/ Morrissey, The Blasters, Rites of Spring, Jawbreaker, Silent Majority, New Order, Embrace, Seaweed, Avail, Leadbelly, Brand New, Crime In Stereo, Joy Division, The Everly Brothers, Alcohol, Women, and Friendships gone bad. I feel it sounds like Hot Cross and Jawbreaker, with the drive of Modern life is War. But who am i to say. Thank you boys for putting something out that is worth listening to again.

Myspace

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Rumbleseat

I am furious! Maybe i am a music snob. But to be honest i think that i maybe have a special knack for remembering things when it comes to music. I remember when i was a kid i knew things that most people would not even know about music. I remember listening to the radio and telling myself that i want to know information like the dj on the radio did. This was the first time that i remember making a distinction from myself from other music listeners.
This is where music blogs and comments on music web sites come into play. I am sick and tired of reading through blogs and comments from ignorant people. If there is something that i hate it would dumb people. And i think that world it full of them. If you threw a rock i imagine you could kill a lot of them. While searching through the review of rumbleseat on Punknews.org. I have decided that i would address some of comments that where said.

1. (i want you to note that this is the very first comment on the list. it says Aren't these guys just a rip off of Hot Water Music? In order to be a rip off they would have to someone different than Hot Water Music. Plus if this person actually read the review they would see who they are in the beginning of the review. Chuck Ragan, Chris Wollard and Samantha Jones make up Rumbleseat. If you notice from looking at any other blog or website about hot water music that Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard play guitar and vocals for Hot water music. Thus this band must be a side project band for hot water music.

This picture is of some train trestles in Richmond, Va

Alright enough with my rant...So rumbleseat as the punknews site did say had to wait for their release for a couple of years. I have 3 of the 4, 7"s that they released. I get very nostalgic when i listen to them. I grew up and around richmond, va and i know that they, chris and chuck are good friends with tim barry from avail. I also know that tim rides the rails and that they talk about riding the rails. It reminds me of good times and sitting around a campfire. Alright well i will give you the tracks now. I have also included in this folder some of chuck ragan's stuff that he has recorded. He plays califonia burritos on a couple of his albums. I have seen him live 3 times and he has played other rumbleseat songs in his sets. I have a really crappy recording that i am not going to include in to the folder of restless. I would recommend his music for those that really like rumbleseat.



Punknews website that i was referring to

http://www.punknews.org/review/4736


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I Hate Myself

With the term "emo" being thrown around so loosely these days, I am hesitate to describe this band as "emo". When I describe "emo" from this point on out in any form in any of the postings i am referring to this type of "emo." The definition of the word emo is a style of hardcore punk which describes several variations of music with common roots and associated fashion and stereotype. In the mid-1980s, the term emo described a sub genre of hardcore punk which originated in the Washington D.C. music scene. In later years, the term emocore, short for "emotional hardcore", was also used to describe the emotional performances of bands in the Washington D.C. scene and some of the offshoot regional scenes. (In more recent years, the term "emotive hardcore" entered the lexicon to describe the period.)
This is where I Hate Myself comes in. They are from Gainesville, Florida and their first release The four song 12" came out in 1997. Further releases contained song titles that were often very long by conventional standards, describing odd situations that vocalist Jim Marburger would elaborate on within the song's lyrics. This has added to the speculation that I Hate Myself were poking fun at emo/screamo bands' tendency to favor drawn-out and often nonsensical song titles that usually do not reflect any themes or lyrics within the song. Liner notes to albums were extremely minimal and sometimes filled with self-deprecation from the band. After a string of vinyl-only releases in the mid to late 1990s, the band split up. Soon afterwards the band finally agreed to their first CD release, a collection of their full length Ten Songs LP with one extra track, their contribution to a split 7" with Strikeforce Diablo.


I Hate Myself on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_hate_myself


Interesting link that I think you should read to understand some more about I Hate Myself's lyrics.

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=I%20hate%20myself


Download.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?pws9yiawg0k

The Music Of Earl Yevak

This is a live shot of Lavinia.

This is a flier for one of their shows.

Earl and I.
Earl Yevak.

I am best friends with this artist. His musical experience is remarkable. He has played with some of the most talented musicians I have come to know. And he has drive and devotion to music in general that would make one jealous. He has played in array of bands, but most notalbly he drummed for the band Gregor Samsa, and as on their website they self describe themselves as slow and sad. slow and happy. but never fast and anything. Their sound builds climatically and then hits with such pleasure.
After Gregor Samsa, Earl made music with many different musicians. He formed a band called Lavinia and played a few shows under that moniker. In 2007 Lavinia disbanded and Earl currently works on multiple solo projects such as White Hood which is music made up entirely of him singing, sometimes using overdubbed vocal tracks. He also appears on guest vocals for other musicians such as Jonathan Hicks and DJ Chris Winn.

I have compiled what I have of his . In this link I have Pre-lavinia demo tracks , Lavinia demo tracks , Lavinia Live tracks, 2 White Hood tracks, and some of the tracks with Jonathan Hicks. I hope you enjoy these as much as I have.

Earl's Webpage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Yevak

http://www.myspace.com/laviniasound

Jonathan Hicks

http://www.myspace.com/jonhicksmusic

Link for music.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ezt9zkzum0q

The Blacktop Cadence

This is The Blacktop Cadence. I feel that they deserve recognition for the wonderful music that they provided in the past. If you are a fan of Hot water music then you will love these songs. Please try and find the albums and support your local scene. There had been rumor that they were getting back together to write more songs but that is just that a rumor. This is all that this musicians have given the world thus far. To Jack Bailey, Heather Parker, George Rebelo, and Chris Wollard thank you for this great music.

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

Hot Water Music

Due to the lack of knowledge about certain bands on the internet I have decided to make my blog into a fountain of knowledge of bands that i feel do not have proper representation. The first is a personal favorite that i have loved for many years now. Hot Water Music. These are links to a podcast that i did about 2 years ago about them. I have 2 episodes that I dedicated to them. I did not finish the series with all their music. I feel that this will give you a good taste of what they sound like before they matured and changed their sound.


http://www.mediafire.com/?tuvnddv0aos

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