Tears Run Rings

Band with a terrible name that you were hesitant to listen to because of their terrible name, then realized that a name is just a name and even good bands have really bad names sometimes:

Modest Mouse

Your musical frame of reference stretches about as wide as a popsicle stick. Your favorite post-hardcore band is Title Fight. Your favorite shoegaze band is Title Fight. Your favorite punk band is Title Fight. Your favorite hardcore band is Turnstile, but Title Fight is a close second. As much as you tried to fight it, you love the vibey tracks on Hyperview, so you want to hear a band that sounds like that:

Hyperview-era Title Fight

Band you should rip off if you want instant credibility, or be discovered by this shitty blog:

Slowdive 

Band you should listen to: Tears Run Rings

I’m an expert on terrible band names. So I know better than to dismiss a band just because their name is god awful.

Most times, I’m wrong. But, every now and again, I’m reminded that it’s a good rule to live by.

When I heard Mind the Wires from Tears Run Rings, my first thought was “holy Slowdive,” which is always an awesome reaction to have when hearing a band for the first time. I will never get tired of hearing a band that sounds like Slowdive, or Chapterhouse, or Kitchens of Distinction, or (insert late 80’s/early 90’s era shoegaze band). My second thought was “What the fuck does that name mean? I hope it’s some literary reference I’m not smart enough to understand.”

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a sucker for good sounding recordings, especially recordings that really capture a band’s sound. Too often, bands that are going for the vibey, ethereal sound go to record with their friend that only records hardcore bands. The result is usually a recording that sounds like a shitty hardcore band that went to guitar center before the gig and bought a used Holy Grail without realizing how to use it.

That’s not the case with Tears Run Rings.

Music, to me, is at its most effective when it’s transformative. A good record is supposed to take you somewhere, and Always, Sometimes, Seldom, Never, the debut record from this band from 2008, does that to me. It’s a stereotypically dreary late Autumn day in New York, and I couldn’t be more content to have this record on in the backdrop.

It appears as though the band is still active and is actually going to release a new album this week.

El Obo

El Obo is the solo project of Colour Revolt frontman Jesse Coppenbarger. Not an unknown band by any means, but certainly underappreciated.

If you have the Colour Revolt EP, then you get it. Countless other bands have tried and failed to replicate their sound and aesthetic. How they never received the success that, say, Manchester Orchestra did, is befuddling to me.

I saw Colour Revolt in Sayreville, New Jersey opening up for Brand New in the Spring of '06, and the warmest reception they got was from the drunk dude behind me yelling to hear Seventy Times Seven.

Their debut EP changed the way I approached playing guitar and singing. If there was one singer/songwriter that I could morph myself into, it would be Jesse Coppenbarger, or Elliott Smith, or a lot of other musicians but Coppenbarger is on the list.

El Obo is sort of a fully flushed-out version of Colour Revolt's quieter side, but with groovier overtones.

Obliterations

You slept on this last night

These are your nice shoes.

You were in the mood for fancy drinks last night so you treated yourself to this.

Band you should listen to: Obliterations

Equal parts Motorhead, Bleach-era Nirvana, and Black Breath, Obliterations is the band you always joke about starting, but ultimately realize you don't have the wontons to actually do it.

This shit is insane. It's so hard to capture pure filth on recording and have it sound good. Just because you're punk as fuck, doesn't mean you have to sound bad.

This is what you listen to when you remember how shitty this planet is and all you want to do is absorb everything, digest it, and piss it away in public.

I wouldn't want to see this band in any other venue besides someone's crappy living room or a sweaty basement. 

The Daysleepers

Band that you wish you were old enough to see live when they were in their heyday, but probably wouldn’t have seen them anyway because you’d think they were weird back then:

Slowdive

Band that disappoints you because the only thing you knew about them before listening to them was that the lead singer is Bruce Dickinson’s cousin, so you totally expected them to sound like Iron Maiden but they totally don’t:

Catherine Wheel

Hardcore band that traded in pop-punk beats for reverb pedals, started writing songs about anxiety medication, turned off the distortion, and are way better for it:

Turnover

Band you should listen to: The Daysleepers



When I decided I was going to start this blog, I knew this would be one of the first bands I would write about. Shout out to Nicole Pagnotta for being one step ahead of me and letting me know they have other records as well.

If you throw on Drowned in a Sea of Sound, you’ll immediately think of a rainy day in Manchester, England in the 80’s, or goth-ing out in Dublin in the early 90’s. The last thing you’d think to yourself, probably, is “Man, this sounds like a mid-2000’s band from upstate New York.”

But, take a wild guess where they’re from.

I guess Buffalo has a certain gloom to it that makes producing brooding music like this a bit easier, because this is a band that actually captures that sound we’ve come to know and love as shoegaze-meets-brit-pop. It’s a sound that is incredibly hard to replicate because all of the core elements are stronger indicators of really bad bands rather than really good ones; obnoxiously loud instruments, subdued vocals that are indistinct, layers upon layers of effects pedals, harsh bass, and dynamic and fluid drumming.

And yet, it's hard to match a band that puts all of these components together seamlessly and well.

This band is now defunct. I think I speak for many of us when we say we wish they were funct.

This is a band you need to listen to right now.

Lemko Hall

Band you play up like they're your favorite band, but, in reality, you only listen to them on rare occasions because their records are really deep and aurally exhausting:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Band you list as an influence despite having no overlapping sonic characteristics, but you looked up "post-rock" on Wikipedia and saw that they're listed as pioneers of the genre:

Slint

Perfect example of a band that's characterized as "post-rock" only because there's barely any vocals, otherwise, they're straight up instrumental indie rock:

The Album Leaf

Band you should listen to: Lemko Hall

Lemko Hall is a band that nobody listens to and is better than almost any post-rock band I've ever heard. They're biggest claim to fame is a split they put out with Tristeza. It's amazing to me that such a relatively obscure band from Malmö, Sweden manages to outperform 99 percent of the genre with only a baker's dozen worth of tracks and no online presence, save for a bandcamp page and a few YouTube videos.


Very few bass riffs can be characterized as a "bass lick" and this track opens with one of them. This is supreme bass lick territory. The track evolves into something you'd hear on Spiderland, though not quite as dissonant.

The second half of this track rivals anything you'd hear on early Mogwai records, which speaks volumes. It's music that just turns your brain off so you can get lost in what you're hearing.

This is a band that should be one of the cornerstone bands of the genre. Instead, they're a reclusive Scandinavian band that may or may not be active and had no interest in promotion or press. So, maybe they actually are a cornerstone post-rock band, after all.

Man is Not a Bird

Band you like that you always say “I want to hear more bands like that”

Nothing

Band you like that has some songs you think are cool, some songs that are weird, but you want to hear more bands that sound like the cool songs this band does:

The Cranberries

You can’t name a band that’s come out since the 90’s, and the only time you go to shows is if one of those bands does a 20-year reunion and puts out an album that’s kind of cool but not as good as their earlier material:

Swervedriver

Band you should check out

Man is Not a Bird

Upon first listen, the Nothing comparisons were pretty apparent. It came as no surprise to find out that they just finished a string of shows in their home country of France supporting Nothing.

Their recently released EP Life & Levity rips really hard. They actually know how to throw distortion on a bass without making it sound like 8 speakers simultaneously farting. The guitars sound lush when they're supposed to, heavy as fuck when they're supposed to, and the leads wail in just the right way.

Their sound is incredibly hard to pull off, but when it's done right, it's easy to see why people love bands that sound like this.