Dad Punchers- S/T

This is our first post in a year, but I needed to share this record with people.

Dad Punchers is the solo project of Touche Amore/DNF drummer Elliot Babin. He originally wrote and recorded 3 songs in his bedroom in-between TA tours, playing all the instruments himself. He then recorded a self titled full length, with the bassist of Joyce Manor helping out. He sometimes plays shows in California with a drummer and bassist.

This record is incredible. It's happy and sad and nostalgic and fun, all at once. It's one of the few records I can listen to when I want to have fun, and when I wanna be sad. It's awesome, indie-ish punk. Plus, Elliot sings like Kermit the frog (not so much anymore, but on the demo...).

buy it here

download here

State Lines - Hoffman Manor (2011)

1. Driver

2. Getaway

3. You Were a Hurricane

4. Cancer

5. Garvey

6. Cheers, Belmonte

7. Probably in a Notebook

8. My Friends

9. House

10. Hoffman Manor

State Lines are a pretty rad young band out of Long Island, NY, who play music that sorta reminds me of Tigers Jaw, The Story So Far and Into It. Over It.. Hoffman Manor is their debut release. Considering their age (judging from a couple live videos and photos, a couple of the members can't be older than 16-17, maybe 18), this album is totally exciting: I like it more than the most recent albums by the three bands I mentioned earlier.

You should be pretty hooked in by the first track, "Driver," and you'll definitely hear the TJ comparison. The vocal harmonies on this record aren't exactly sophisticated, but they're fantastic nonetheless. Same goes for the lyrics, since they can be pretty teen-cheesy at times. I'm not really digging the meta line in "My Friends" ("And we might die trying to cross state lines/ but we'll never regret it") which is a shame, 'cuz the melody is ballin'. "Cancer," my personal favorite track, has some pretty heavy and intense lyrics that are equally promising. Vocalist Jonathan Dimitri has the youthfulness of Title Fight but other than that it's pretty run-of-the-mill Midwest-y emo singing (not a bad thing at all). Manor is pretty consistent for the most part, only slowing down -- in my opinion, anyway -- during the (aforementioned) eighth track, "My Friends."

Like I said, they're all pretty young so their best musical days are ahead of them. Get stoked.

Recommended tracks: "Driver," "Cancer"

For fans of: Tigers Jaw, Get Up Kids, Saves the Day, Joyce Manor

Facebook

Bandcamp

Mediafire

Acres.- Silos

1. I've Met My Maker

2. Shoulda, Wudda, Cudda

3. Fortune Tellers

4. Your House Song

emo/screamo band from my not-so-lovely state of New Jersey. This band was pre-Guidelines with most of the same members. It sounds like Midwest emo mixed with Guidelines' first album. Very good. Everything these dudes do is killer. And they have, like, 5 bands altogether.

http://www.mediafire.com/?n2vyy3mnkd2

Joyce Manor - Self Titled (2011)

1. Orange Julius
2. Call Out (Laundry)
3. Beach Community
4. Derailed
5. Famous Friend
6. Leather Jacket
7. 21st Dead Rats
8. Constant Nothing
9. Ashtray Petting Zoo
10. Constant Headache

Joyce Manor is a cool band from Torrance, CA that plays emo-imbued punk, Jawbreaker-style. Their self-titled, released earlier this year, is a formidably great album -- the songs are catchy, the arrangements are beguiling, and the lyrics are exceptional. For me, they were love-at-first-listen. I'm led to believe that anyone with a passing interest in emo or punk will find something to like here. The songs are short and to-the-point, so boredom isn't an option.

Recommended Track: Famous Friend

For Fans Of: Big Kids, Jawbreaker, Iron Chic

Bandcamp

Mediafre

Love Lost But Not Forgotten - Upon the Right, I Saw a New Misery (2002)

1. Intro
2. Typical Fashion
3. Headless, Sleeping Soundly
4. Calm And Secure
5. It Never Happened
6. Perfectly Fucked
7. What's Left Of "Shitlife"
8. Happy To Be Alive
9. Nobody's Watching Department 23
   
   Note*: The person who titled the tracks on the songs in the link miss titled most of them. Above is the correct order the song names should be in.
   
   Passionate is a word commonly used to describe screamo (Especially since Doc 8 caught on with alot of people). For the most part this is true. But few bands can manage being passionate without sacrificing what some people call "Not sounding like shit". Love Lost But Not Forgotten are one of the few.
   
   "...was a screamo/emo violence group formed in 1997 in suburban St. Peters, Missouri composed of ex-members of Bend Over End, and The Paxidils. Known for their violence onstage and unique vocals provided by a lineup that sometimes included two main vocalists (Prater and Schmidt both being solo vocals for the band at one time through the bands career.) and a trio of guitarists (Fogelbach and Emerick also surviving the lifetime of the band,)." <Wikipedia
   
   I'm just gonna flat out say it. This is probably one of the greatest screamo albums. Every track is interesting and well-played. The vocals are a top-notch level of 'Grating-As-Fuck'. The guitarists pull off octave chord spam with maximum efficiency and have quiet sections that set the caustic, paranoid, terrifying, and sometimes hopeful mood of the whole album. The drums and bass are no slacks either though. The drums are not only well-played, they are fantastically placed and paced. The bass sections are just plain cool and fairly original (when not backing the guitars). But I think the best part of the album are the lyrics. They are usually melancholic but are also simplistic, unpretentious and sometimes even darkly humorous.
   
   Recommended tracks: It Never Happened, Happy To Be Alive,  Nobody's Watching Department 23
   
   FFO: Good
   
   Even when I'm passionate it's unimpressive.
   
   -Dylanger

Chalk Talk - The Food Chain (2010)

1. Food Chain

2. Marco Polo

3. Laundry

4. Two Balls and a Paddle

Chalk Talk is a cool band for cool people. They play a sorta surfy blend of emo and sing songs about their balls hitting the toilet water. I've been waiting for new stuff ever since I first heard this band but for now there's this and like 4 other songs out there. Or something like that. Whatever.

-Mike D.

FFO: music, peanut butter / nutella

Bandcamp

Mediafire

Halfling - Demo (2011)

1. Professional Wrestling

2. Clanker's Cavern

3. Harmon

Once upon a time, I was wallowing away on Facebook and saw that Tigers Jaw posted an unidentified Mediafire link. Could it be? New Tigers Jaw? Ready to thank the gods, I downloaded the fuck out of that file. By the time I put it into my music library, I was more than disappointed. The songs were by some band called "Halfling."

One listen through the three song demo removed any and all disappointment. I really, really love this band. They play a very raw, '90s style emo (not twinkly, though) that's as rough as it is infectious. Unfortunately, Halfling has yet to leave much of an impression upon the rest of the internet; a Google search just returned with results about roleplaying J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. I've since found out that Halfling is young - like fifteen or sixteen young - and they hail from Scranton, PA. Makes sense, since Scranton is pumping out great bands at an even greater frequency than Danielle Steele writes mediocre romance novels.

Besides this demo, I found little about Halfling on the internet but a lacking Bandcamp page, an archaic Myspace, and a few live videos on Youtube (that are very good, by the way). I am certainly excited to hear what this band has to offer in the coming years. Get into it.

Recommended track: 'Clanker's Cavern'. That's right, they have a song named after motherfucking Banjo-Kazooie.

FFO: Tigers Jaw, Braid

Mediafire

Bandcamp

Zach.

Knapsack - Day Three of My New Life (1997)

Track Listing:

1) Thursday Side of the Street

2) Courage Was Confused

3) Decorate the Spine

4) Diamond Mine

5) Simple Favor

6) Boxing Gloves

7) Henry Hammer Harder

8) Perfect

9) Heart Carved Tree

10) Steeper Than We Thought

Simply put, this is my favorite emo band in the 90s...and one of my favorite bands of all time, period. This CD is flawless, in the sense that every song is great in some way. The vocals are coarse and melancholy, but the melodies are so well executed that it winds up sounding very unique and enjoyable. As a matter of fact, that might be the best part of the band - not necessarily the vocals, but rather the emotion and catharsis they create within their music, and the sheer originality they bring along with it.

If you want melodic emo that you can jam hard to (and if you're reading this blog, you do) you should listen to these guys. If you haven't already listened to them somehow, you need to listen to them already! Your ears will thank you on bended knee. Or your money back.

Knapsack - Day Three of My New Life

___Jed K

Strictly Business - Tape (2010)

1. You Can't Relive History

2. White Pointer in the Derwent

3. Got a Goldmine

4. High on Life

5. Chiches Saved My Life

6. A Tribute to Clay

7. DBCB

Strictly Business was a hardcore/emo band from Hobart, Australia. They wrote 7 songs, recorded 20 tapes, played a house show, gave the tapes to people that came along, and have done nothing since. With Amy from Thylacine on guitar and Dale from Social Death Squad singing, the tape is 7 songs of fast hardcore and screamo somewhere between Gorilla Biscuits and Conation. I couldn't make it to the show but my drummer picked up a tape and lent it to me to make a digital rip of it, and here it is.

Mediafire

- Simon M

Stalwart Sons - Burn Daylights Like Torches (2010)

1. In Dust

2. Let Me Run

3. Northern Lights

4. Book Of Hours

5. Daylights Like Torches

6. Canadian Railroad Epitaph

7. Flags & Bells

8. Frozen Ground

9. Wisdom Teeth

10. Fire Burning

Stalwart Sons is a band from Calgary, Alberta. They play a bizarre, jangly mix of emo and hardcore, with a whole lot of punk rock sensibility. In my opinion, they're one of the best bands in Canada at the moment. They bring together awkward, jangly chords, roving, melodic basslines, and Kevin Stebner's raspy vocals to create a sound that I personally think is quite different from any other bands around now.

Check them out on bandcamp, you can listen to all their music there, and download their splits for free, or pay for their LP. 

Bandcamp

- Geoff R. 

Old Gray - Demo (2011)

1. Wayward Kids

2. Vulcan Death Grip

3. Ryan Mitchell Made Me Do It

4. Headaches

"I've been bumping this on the regular since I got it a month or so back. Messy twinkly emo that doesn't blatantly rip off a Kinsella?! Say what?" - Mike D.
Bandcamp
Mediafire