The Post Office Gals x 2

Soundtrack to the Movie You Never Want To See
Esbeohdes
The Post Office Gals' Myspace

A haiku about The Post Office Gals:
Crazy grindcore band
With a female synth player
They're from New Jersey

Grindcore + Weird Noises = Awesome!
Think The Locust or An Albatross.

Three from Rancid

Rancid's first record ever from 1992.
Like their first full length, one of the most noticeable things about this album is that there's no second guitar/vocalist (aka Lars, who didn't join the band til mid '93).
Five songs.
Eleven minutes.
Holds up better than their last two albums combined.


Rancid's first recording as a four piece with Lars.
Interesting Trivia:
Before Lars became an official member, Rancid tried out several other people for the position of second guitar/vocalist.
One of these people was Billie Joe Armstrong, who decided to stick with Green Day rather than join Rancid full time.
While part of Rancid, he helped write Radio, and receives a credit for it in the album's liner notes.


The Hooligans EP. Aside from "Hooligans," the album has an alternate version of "Cash, Culture, and Violence" and a song called "Things To Come." Much like Life Won't Wait, this album is very heavily ska influenced, and fairly traditional ska at that, so expect horn sections and upstrokes aplenty.

AFI / Swingin' Utters - Bombing the Bay

AFI in 1995:



AFI today:





Okay, all meanness aside, here's another split.



AFI (from back when they were a hardcore punk band) covers Dag Nasty's "Values Here," while Swingin' Utters give us "Annual Pimple," a song that resurfaced thirteen years later on their b-sides album.

Slayer and TSOL - Abolish Government [Split 7"]

Ever wondered what it would sound like if Slayer covered TSOL?
Probably not, but here's this album anyway.
On one side you have Slayer covering Abolish Government and Superficial Love, while the other side has the original versions, performed by TSOL, plus one new TSOL song.

Kill Your Idols / Modern Life Is War - Live from WLUW Split

Here's another split 7", this time from two amazing hardcore bands, both of whom are now (unfortunately) defunct.
Check it out.

NOFX - 7" of the Month Club

I've been reading a lot about the whole "Fat Mike mindfucks his audience at SXSW" thing, so in honor of that, here's the whole NOFX 7" of the month club collection.



And here's a link on the SXSW incident, just in case you were wondering.

Dillinger Four / Pinhead Gunpowder Split 7"

This is one of my favorite split albums, and posting it feels right after having put up that Cleveland Bound Death Sentence album earlier today.
CBDS's two most well known members (Paddy and Cometbus) are once again both present on this 7", albeit this time they're in different bands. Also like CBDS, Pinhead Gunpowder could maybe be considered a "supergroup", seeing as how it's Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day singing and Cometbus on drums.

First post!

Here's three very different things to get the blog started. Hopefully I'll be putting some more stuff up later tonight.

Coalesce - Last Call for the Living 10"
For those who doesn't know Coalesce, they're considered by many to be one of the three bands (along with Converge and Botch) that revolutionized hardcore back in the 90's. Utilizing lyrics that were dark, introspective, and pessimistic, and a sound that morphed hardcore into a twitchy, chaotic, nerve-wrecking beast, they stood out amongst the scene at the time, and would influence many of the math and metalcore bands that were to come.

This album is a rare 10" that was only available at their "last show" in 2000. If you haven't heard Coalesce before, go pick up their new album, OX. It's just as good as their old stuff and a bit more accessible to newcomers. If you're an old fan though, this is for you. It contains early demo tapes and unreleased material from early on their career.

The demo tapes are rough, with Sean Ingram using a whole different singing voice, melodic/jammy elements, and occasional female vocals. The second half contains alternate takes of Simulcast and Harvest of Maturity, as well as a song called On Their Behalf.


Cleveland Bound Death Sentence - Gateway Handshake EP 7"
Cleveland Bound Death Sentence is Paddy from Dillinger Four, Aaron Cometbus (of Cometbus, Crimpshrine and Pinhead Gunpowder fame), plus Spitball and Emily. They play somewhat rough, uncompromised pop-punk, similar to bands like Dillinger Four (duh), Crimpshrine (double duh), Off With Their Heads, and Toys That Kill. I don't know why this album was so hard to find, but eventually I tracked down some MP3's on an all-russian punk message board. Thank you google translator.

Mountain Man - Demo '09
Mountain Man are, without a doubt, my new favorite band. This is their demo, which has four amazing tracks clocking in at just under five minutes. Members have played in Verse, Last Lights, and I Rise, so that should give you some idea of what they sound like. Imagine all the things you love about hardcore condensed into pure awesome and pouring out your speakers - That's this album. Download, listen, and then go buy their new 10".