These are the Top ten 7″ releases of the year.
1) Lemuria – Varoom Allure (Bridge Nine
)
2) State Lines – Self Titled (Tiny Engine
s)
3) Snowing – Pump Fake / Scherbatsky (Square Of Opposition)
4) Restorations – A/B (Tiny Engines)
5) Dowsing / Parker – Split (Count Your Lucky Stars)
This record is not exactly new. It was posted online for free near the end of last year, but the physical release did not even get the pre-orders going until February. Being released jointly by Count Your Lucky Stars and Square Of Opposition, this record is exactly what you would expect it to be. An absolutely solid release.
This is one of those bands that will always be name dropped in context of the who “emo revival” thing. A lot of comparisons can be made to bands like Grown Ups and Castevet (vocally and musically, respectively). As such, there seems to be influences coming from the Kinsella family bands. There are a lot of bands aping Cap’n Jazz, but Snowing also seem to take influence from the Joan Of Arc/Owls branch of that family tree as much as anything.
Musically, the band is taking a little bit from a bunch of different places. Expected of the genre, there are twinkly guitars. There are also more mathy, angular guitars. Ross Brazuk and Nate Dionne do a great job of not falling in the genre trappings. The production is a little murky to me, and as a result, the bass is sometimes hard to hear. This could be detrimental, but it fits this record fine. The vocals are hard to judge. Objectively, John Galm does not have a great voice. I can see that being a turn off to people who are not accustomed to the style. Looking at it under the greater umbrella of punk, they are great. I am stoked on how the whole package sounds, but I am not sure how this would fair outside of the scene.
Stand out songs of this record are “Why Am I Not Going Underwater,” “It’s Just A Party,” “KJ Jammin,” and “So I Shotgunned A Beer And Went Back To Bed.” All the songs maintain a level of honesty not found in a lot of things these days. Most songs, while a bit on the dark side, maintain a sense of levity. It is one of those records that can be depressing at times, but is not crushingly so.
Worth noting is this little slip of paper that came in the record sleeve. Rather than sit and retype the whole thing, here is a scan of it:
It is important that independent music works with independent companies. I am glad to see people care enough about it to actually mention it.
Overall, a great record. You can still download it for free, but I would suggest buying a physical copy if possible. Fans need to support independent music as much as we can.
Snowing (Official Site)
Free Download (CYLS Bandcamp)
Count Your Lucky Stars Records
Square Of Opposition Records
Music, like everything else, is cyclical. A genre will come out, get over saturated, bastardized, and generally turned into a joke. The real aspect of that scene will go underground, and the scene will thrive again. This happened with ska (rather, ska-punk). That scene blew the fuck up due to pop acts like No Doubt, Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, and the like. Due to the commercial expansion, and later collapse, lots of things of the scene were lost. Moon Ska Records closed it’s doors. Ska became a punchline. Music for band geeks to cover cheesy 80’s songs. It became a joke. However, with bands like Streetlight Manifesto, The Chinkees, The Slackers, and The Toasters (holy fuck, those dudes have been around forever), the scene managed to stay active. If not more underground.
The same is true for emo music. Like many people my age, I was first exposed to the genre via the early/mid 2000’s explosion of popularity. Shit, Jimmy Eat World managed to get a hit record. I was exposed through bands like The Get Up Kids, Thursday, Taking Back Sunday, and At The Drive-In. Those bands put out some great records. In some cases, I do not consider them “emo,” but they were certainly influenced by it.
Meanwhile, there was another big thing happening in the scene. It was the Drive-Thru Records era. That label was putting out record after record of radio ready “pop-punk” that was constantly getting classified as emo. Bands like New Found Glory, The Starting Line, The Movielife, and Something Corporate (ugh), were all getting tagged as being emo bands. Those bands were to emo what Reel Big Fish and Save Ferris were to ska. Ok for what they were, but totally muddying the scene. From the Drive-Thru bands, you had the further bastardization of what was emo. Most notably with bands like My Chemical Romance and Fallout Boy. The genre tag was getting applied to things that had nothing to do with the genre, and in some cases nothing to do with the greater punk scene in general.
Well, as is wont to happen, the scene became a joke. It became more of a term to describe bands catering to kids with shitty haircuts, a penchant for self-harm, and day-glo shirts. Bands like Braid, Mineral, I Hate Myself, Heroin, and the extended family of bands stemming from Cap’n Jazz fell by the wayside. Now it was shit like “I wish my grass was emo, so it would cut itself” or “how many emo kids does it take to change a light bulb? None, they would rather cry in the dark.” What the fuck happened?
Well, the real scene went underground. The mainstream thought it understood what emo was, while being totally unaware. Through labels like Count Your Lucky Stars Records, Square Of Opposition Records, and Tiny Engines Records, we are finally seeing good records coming out to wide release. There is a bunch of talk about there being a “Midwest emo revival.” I disagree with the phrase because, for some of us, the scene never died. There were always bands we could stand behind. But, of the newer crop, there is Snowing, Castevet (now CSTVT), Grown Ups, Perfect Future, and Football, Etc. They are plenty more, but those are my personal favourites.
It seems unlikely that the mainstream definition will ever change to being realistic of what the scene historically was (and currently is), but I do not think anyone expects it to. But, at least we can take back what is ours.
See also: Article @ Chicago’s Newcity Music:
The New Emo: It’s back, living underground and thriving in Chicago
*the picture for this entry is of CSTVT. I do not know the source, but I got it from the band page for them on Punknews.org. Sorry.
Well, it is the end of the year. This, of course, means it is time to pretend my opinions matter, and compile my best of list for 2010.
Obviously, this list is my favourite stuff of the year. You may disagree with it (I like that I am typing this warning when, honestly, no one actually reads this thing [save that one dude, maybe]). So, yeah.
On with the show, motherfuckers.
TOP 10 FULL LENGTHS (in no particular order):
1) RVIVR – “RVIVR”
2) Blunt Mechanic – “World Record”
3) Off With Their Heads – “In Desolation”
4) Snowing – “I Could Do Whatever I Wanted If I Wanted
5) Grown Ups – “More Songs”
6) Castevet – “The Echo & The Light
7) Best Coast – “Crazy For You”
8) Iron Chic – “Not Like This”
9) The Dum Dum Girls – ” I Will Be”
10) Alkaline Trio – “This Addiction”
TOP 7 INCHES AND EPS (in no particular order):
1) The Get Up Kids – “Simple Science”
2) The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – “Formlessness”
3) Lemuria – “Chautauqua County”
STUFF THAT WAS ALSO PRETTY AWESOME (but, not “top 10” awesome)
1) Candy Hearts – “Ripped Up Jeans & Silly Dreams”
2) The Gaslight Anthem – “American Slang”
3) Mi Ami – “Steal Your Face”
4) Shinobu – “Exhaustive, Exhaustive”
5) Grass Widow – “Past Time”
6) The Thermals – “Personal Life”
7) Japandroids – “No Singles”
8) Bars Of Gold – “Of Gold”
9) Sundowner – “We Chase The Waves”
10) MGMT – “Congratulations”
One record missing from all lists is “Ghosts On The Boardwalk” by The Bouncing Souls. The reason that it is not included is because, while it came out in January of 2010, it is just all the songs from their monthly 7″ series in 2009. As such, it was on my 2009 list as the series, and would be poor form to include it this year again. Though, yes, it is totally awesome.
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So, that is the list. More reviews coming this week, as we wrap up 2010.
Team Reasonable 