WEAKERTHANS- LEFT & LEAVING

It's been too long! I make no promises about posting more but hey, I'm like a streaky hitter. I'm .224 for my career but I've been known to go on 15-game stretches of .376

This is a good post to come back with though! For those who don't know, The Weakerthans are the product of John K. Samson. Samson got his "start" (quotations since I doubt he was planning to stick around or was musically fulfilled) in the 90's band Propaghandi as their bassist. After leaving that band he started focusing on his own material and formed the Weakerthans. The rest is Can-rock history.

Musically, this is hyper-literate, soft-spoken pop-punk with a lot of mellow songs and all-around fantastic songwriting. If you like Jawbreaker but wish they sounded more like Yo-La Tengo then this is the ticket!

HERE

CRYSTAL SWELLS- HARSH SIDE/SLUDGE FREAKS 7"

This is the perfect acid-fried, garage-pop, speed-trip for your summer! Four jams in seven minutes, oodles of reverb on the vocals, drums that sound like Chuck Biscuits backing Dick Dale and some truly killer guitar playing! This band has been at it for a few years and they always rule! You can download the individual tracks on the bandcamp... ohh, just got to track three and it's a fucking anthem! this band is too good!

HERE

SIGHTLINES- SUMMER EP

Sightlines are a local pop-punk band featuring the songs of Eric Axen (also of Hermetic and formerly of Painted Youth, who have both been featured on the blog before!) and this is their first EP! It smokes. Not "smokes" in the "riffage" or metallic sense of the verb but more in the sense that this is 100% efficient and catchy pop-punk that wastes no time fucking around, unless that fucking around constitutes fun. Also this is not the cheesy, leather-jacket-ramones-shirt-pink-converse kind of pop-punk but more like Eric's Trip trying incredibly hard to sound like Jawbreaker. Anyway, the songs rule and will be stuck in your head just like a new crush.

GET IT NOW!!!

TITLE FIGHT- SHED

This is what it is. Emo-ey pop-punk with awesome guitar playing and super hoarse vocals that manage to sound more sincere than your standard 'I'm-trying-to-compensate-for-the-melody-by-singing-like-I'm-in-a-crust-band' performance that is so common with pop-punks who try to hide from the fact that the genre has more in common with "shitty" music than music that is undeniably punk. This band is really popular so I'm sure this'll get taken down but enjoy it while it lasts. The song "27" is especially perfect.

HERE

OLD POSTS

I've been lazy and since I don't upload any of these albums myself, most of them seem to have been taken down from mediafire. I was just going to discreetly re-up all of them... but the number kept getting bigger and I don't want to sit at my computer all day. So I'm just going to leave this here and let people comment if they want something re-upped that has been taken down.

p.s. google it first! someone else probably uploaded it!

THE MUSIC OF KATIE CRUTCHFIELD

About two years ago I discovered a band called PS Eliot. It was lo-fi pop-punk with some great melodies but it had that indescribable WOW! factor that you're always secretly hoping for when first hearing a band's music. Over the next few months I found out that the source of these songs was a one-woman pop-genius named Katie Crutchfield. In addition to the demo, EP and two LP's by PS Eliot, who recently disbanded, were an album by The Ackleys, a demo LP by Bad Banana, And a split cassette/LP by her current solo project Waxahatchee. It's all great. Her sense of melody for vocals and guitar, and how those two can feed off of each other is astounding. Not to mention the number of songs!!!

If you like anything from Guided by Voices to The Promise Ring to Jawbreaker then this is probably something you'll dig!

BAD BANANA

PS ELIOT 


WAXAHATCHEE

SUPERCHUNK- S/T

Well, this is the chunk's debut album. It's all of the things debut albums normally are in comparison to later works: looser, a bit more punk, raw recording but the genesis of why Superchunk are so awesome is all here. Some killer songs that have been lost in the sands of time (aka ones they don't play live!) This is basically pop-punk filtered through late 80's indie, if you haven't heard this band yet. 

HERE

FOR SCIENCE- TOMORROW'S JUST ANOTHER DAY

This is some nice, cleanly-recorded and produced pop-punk that never gets too polished to be annoying or risking the songs losing their sense of urgency and sincerity. The band is not well known to me but according to wikipedia they shared members with The Ergs and it definitely sounds like it. Short-ish songs, lots of lead-melodies and repetitive rhythms. I dunno... If you like pop-punk then you'll dig it but if not, this probably isn't the record to change your mind.

HERE

TEENAGE COOL KIDS- QUEER SALUTATIONS

Poppy, catchy, raw, clever, bittersweet... just a few adjectives to describe this record. This band is hard to classify exactly because they combine a lot of influences that aren't incredibly distinct from one another when combined in the way this band is capable of. Superchunk, Guided by Voices, late 70's power-pop... Those are what I hear anyway... maybe some garage rock too but I hate that shit so I pretend it's not there. The whole thing easily sounds like it could have come out of North Carolina in 1994 but instead it's Denton, Texas in 2007. Oh and obviously it has cool guitar parts. Why else would I listen to it?

HERE

CHIXDIGGIT!- S/T

This cover says everything there is to be said about this record. Carefree pop-punk with no bells or whistles. Simple songs, repetitive use of melodies, the occasional solo of no more than 10 seconds and an all around good time. If you remember when it was cool to have dyed hair, sport a huge wallet chain and the Blue Jays were the best baseball team in the world then this is the shit.

HERE

MALLRATS- OST

Ah Mallrats. An innocent 90's teen flick if there ever was one. The soundtrack fits the bill perfectly being almost entirely pop-punk and mopey indie. If you're into any of that then go for it. Also some dialogue for fans

Snoochie-Boochies! 

PARASITES- PUNCH LINES

Just waiting around for a special lady to take me to a museum. In the meantime, here's one of the best POP-punk albums I've ever heard. This band has hooks so big they will literally dig into you but what makes it so good is the constant speed, intensity and layer of distortion over top of everything. I haven't listened to this album more than a few times yet but definitely one of the best I've heard this year... yes I know it's from 94. I rarely enjoy music made by new bands, save for hardcore. sue me!

HERE

FASTBACKS- THE QUESTION IS NO

Chunky guitars. Catchy pop songs. Female vocal-harmonies... this is a goody

HERE

BLINK 182- CHESHIRE CAT

Pretentious fucks and ironic _____ers suck in equal measure. I may be both on some days but I still hold this band near and dear. It irks me to no end when either of the aforementioned types dismiss or 'love' this record and the band's early work. Go listen GISM or Girls you turds

HERE

HUSKER DU- WAREHOUSE: SONGS AND STORIES

This record is a bullshit detector of sorts. Ask a fan what the best Du albums are in order. If they immediately dismiss this and Candy Apple Grey as the weakest material and place Zen Arcade anywhere higher than EVERYTHING that came after it, they are not Husker Du fans, they are elitist hardcore nerds who only listen to Husker Du because history tells them to. Obviously Zen Arcade boasts some of the band's best songs. Too bad they are wedged among too many tracks of amphetamine-fueled (literally) hardcore that doesn't even read at the same level as Die Kreuzen, Negative Approach, Minor Threat... etc.

In my opinion, Husker Du are a pop band. They played hardcore because it was initially inspiring but these boys always flirted with melody and when they did, it yielded their most compelling results. Go figure that by the time of their 1985 one-two New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig (HERE) there were almost no remaining traces of hardcore. Why then does this band hold so much weight in the mythos of American Hardcore? Well, they were on SST, their brand of hardcore was thee fastest you could get for '81... and really, most of the hardcore acts they played alongside, who were largely responsible for championing the boys, were fans of all music, not just the hardcore exploding across the country. No one of any musical worth likely criticized the band for writing pop songs, probably because those songs were so fucking good. Besides, if you watch live footage from the mid 80's, Husker Du were clearly a force to be reckoned with even when playing a mid-tempo ballad like 'Dianne' or a straight pop tune like 'Terms of Psychic Warfare'

All that aside, this is their final album and it sounds it. The production sounds flat and unfinished, there are too many songs to warrant a double-LP and some of the performances leave something to be desired (Bob, where are the solos?) BUT like Zen Arcade this set has some amazing songs, with Bob's pop-mastery finally starting to take the shape it would in Sugar and his solo work. If you like pop and guitars then hey, this'll be a cool listen. If not, just keep telling yourself Landspeed Record is better than Damaged

HERE

LEMURIA- GET BETTER

So I'm sure by now you've noticed that I like pop punk and believe me, I am aware that the mere image of those two words together is enough to make some people shudder in disgust. To those people I say "fuck you" and something about not judging books by their covers or how not all music is supposed to be 'cool'...

Lemuria are pretty popular within pop punk but this definitely has a 90's indie lean to it. Great lyrics and great songwriting. I dunno. If you like later Superchunk then you'll like this, if not I have some thrash and noisy stuff right below this...

HERE

GOOD LUCK- INTO LAKE GRIFFY

Whew. Its been awhile. Back in school and loathing life once again, save for guitar, video games and playoff baseball. Anyhoo, I promise the posts will return to their former consistency! I just got lazy these last few months

To kick things off is Minneapolis' Good Luck. Two guys, a girl and a pop-punk record that isn't afraid to get a little dancey, a little noodley or really fucking cute. This is not any Dillinger Four, Gunmoll 'I-like-beer-and-bros-and-bitching-about-women-who-won't-put-out' pop-punk. This is pop-punk for lovers. Definitely has a persistent beat and some good rocking-out but the guitar is so damn melodic and almost clean that it steers away from some of the genre's macho tendencies. Staying true to their Minny roots, they do a cover of Prince's 'When You Were Mine' on their demo!

but this isn't the demo... This is a whole album of sugary, guitary, wimpy sap and I love it

HERE

RVIVR- S/T

RVIVR hail from Olympia (seriously, the best music scene going right now) and play a very fine-tuned brand of pop-punk. Lots of buildups and breakdowns, fantastic guitar interplay and great female-male vocal harmonies. Very 90's sounding yet this avoids the cheese of bands like NOFX or Screeching Weasel (don't get me wrong!) and goes more for the introspective sound of Jawbreaker or Foolish-era Superchunk. Definitely good for bringing you up when you're so far down in the dumps all you can see is a collection of empty slurpee cups and empty doritos bags... cough

HERE

JAWBREAKER- 24 HOUR REVENGE THERAPY

Hey, its my birthday. I'm posting this because I love it even though you've probably already heard it and also love it... or hate it. pop-punk, good lyrics, cool music...blah blah blah. I'm lame. I'm not punk and I'm telling everyone

HERE