SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS

Daniel was in San Diego recently and picked up a cassette by a band called Scud Mountain Boys, for some reason. Anyway, turns out they're great. Joe Pernice, later of the Pernice Brothers, was in this band, which may or may not be of interest to you. Daniel and I have been fucking huge on Pygmy Lush for a while, and I covered Red House Painters in an earlier post so this is a welcome precursor to that: a little more country, a little less folk, and just as depressed, which is awesome. I uploaded two full-lengths, Dance the Night Away and Pine Box, and they're both excellent. I find that Pine Box is of slightly higher quality, but they share a sound and are entirely worth having.

buy them both!
download Dance the Night Away
download Pine Box

STABYOUINTHEHEADANDEATYOURFACEOFF

Herbs Get Wet

This release is the longer and better of the two. I think they released this after they got back together, and the production and songwriting are generally better than on Killin Toys. The drummer definitely took the snare off, so it kind of reminds me of St. Anger- era Metallica, except good and not "thrash metal" or whatever you want to call that one. Ehh whatever, it's good, get it if you want it.

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Killin Toys

ALMOST AS GOOD.

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Oh right, background: xStabYouInTheHeadAndEatYourFaceOffx is a hardcore band from Connecticut. They kind of remind me of Dangers and that school of hardcore, only with some Boston HC influence. They do the guitar-drums-vocals thing, and their guitar work is pretty impressive considering. I like this band.

MOUTHBREATHER- THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE; PITCHFORK- EUCALYPTUS + SATURN OUTHOUSE; BONGRIPPER- HATE ASHBURY

Mouthbreather- Thank You For Your Patience

Wow, Owls! was, for a moment, one of the best bands out there. I bought their split with The Set-Up around the time that came out, and both sides ruled. I think The Set-Up broke up first, but fortunately, when Wow, Owls! broke up, members of the two bands decided to join forces and form Mouthbreather, which sounds like a logical progression for both bands. I dig it, and so should you.

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Pitchfork- Eucalyptus + Saturn Outhouse

This release compiles the album and EP released by Pitchfork, the first band featuring John Reis and Rick Froberg, who would go on to form the incredible Drive Like Jehu (covered earlier). Reis would also form Rocket from the Crypt, who I don't really like, and then Reis and Froberg would get back together to form Hot Snakes, who I love. Anyway, this sounds like a more melodic, less technical version of Jehu. Froberg's vocals aren't quite as rough, and only Reis played guitar here, so there's none of the awesome interplay that made Jehu stand out so much, but there are some real winners here.

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Bongripper- Hate Ashbury

Something about this album leads me to believe that these guys like weed. Maybe it's just me, though.

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RED HOUSE PAINTERS- DOWN COLORFUL HILL; PYGMYLUSH- LIVE CD-R; WITCH HUNT- BLOOD RED STATES

Red House Painters- Down Colorful Hill

I'm a big fan of depressing music, and Mark Kozelek may be the most talented of the bunch that write these things (and I am not overlooking Elliott Smith). This is not the best thing Kozelek's ever put out; that honor goes to either Rollercoaster or Songs for a Blue Guitar. Sun Kil Moon, his current band, has also released some stuff that rivals this. Still, there are some real winners here, including the awesome "Lord Kill the Pain" and the title track. First RHP album I heard was Rollercoaster, and I think that one's easier to get into right away, but this is really good stuff.

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Pygmy Lush- Live CD-R

I don't know how these dudes want me to write their name. Pygmy Lush? Pygmylush? Pg.99 had the same problem. No matter. Five or six guys (who happen to make up the best band in existence right now) going into a studio and laying down some quiet jams, including the then-unreleased "Proud King of the Doomed." Everything here could pass for a Pygmylush studio album, but the real treats are two covers: first, a "cover" of Pg.99's "Lonesome Waltz of Leonard Cohen" which totally rules, then an even better cover of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" which totally sounds like a Pygmylush song. Any collection without Pygmylush is incomplete.

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Witch Hunt- Blood Red States

Witch Hunt play serious punk rock and you should know 'em if you haven't heard them already. Not a whole lot else to say, except that the artwork rules hard.

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LE PRÉ OÙ JE SUIS MORT- S/T; THE HOLY MOUNTAIN- BLOODSTAINS ACROSS YOUR FACE IN DECLINE; BONUS BABY

Le Pre Ou Je Suis Mort- S/T

You know, I really like this. This is impressive, technical, ambitious, emotional, and well-written. Every part fits pretty well pretty much everywhere, and most of the time everything is transcendent. It isn't a perfect album, but this is a new band showing more talent at this early stage than many perfectly acceptable bands ever did. The music itself is expansive, post-rock-influenced screamo sung in French. They sometimes have spoken-word parts that aren't the greatest, but what makes up for that and REALLY fucking impresses me is how they can do the whole post-rock/screamo thing without totally ripping off City of Caterpillar or Envy, though I do hear some serious Amanda Woodward here. (Makes sense.) I am really looking forward to hearing the next thing these dudes do or, even better, seeing them if they ever come to the States.

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The Holy Mountain- Bloodstains Across Your Face in Decline

Sounds like Combatwoundedveteran playing Tragedy-type stuff. Contents: some former members of Combatwoundedveteran playing Tragedy-type stuff. I like the vocals more than Tragedy's, so I'm really into this. This band may have broken up or something, I've checked around and it's really unclear. Seriously a shame if they did.

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BONUS
This has nothing to do with music, and may very well undermine the reputation for excellent recommendations, utmost seriousness, and contributions to music journalism that we here at Girth Crisis have acquired over the past few months. Well, fuck that. The contents are half of a phone conversation and a phone message left by a coke-addled girl apparently attending the school I go to. Starting at around 3:30, things get fun. Small download and seriously entertaining, though I don't know how funny it'll be if you don't know the full story. Please give it a listen.

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END OF A YEAR

So End of a Year is a band from Cohoes, NY, a suburb of Albany, which is also close to where I live. I saw this band a few times back in 2005, which I'd define as "early" EOAY, and they've since gone on to release records on Revelation and Deathwish. I haven't seen them since, but they've morphed into one of my favorite bands. Anyway, I found these two really early releases, so I thought I'd share them:

END OF A YEAR- WARM (DEMO)

Early demos are sort of a music form in themselves. They usually represent some dudes just learning how to play together, and they usually contain songs written before the band really knows how to write songs. This demo is much more straightforward than anything the band has done since, so the whole Revolution Summer influence everybody mentions with EOAY is really prominent here. Still, it contains a few really raw, sweet moments, most notably "Hey," a great song which was recorded for Disappear Here but honestly sounds better on here.

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END OF A YEAR- DISAPPEAR HERE

They rerecorded four or five of the best Warm jams for this and added about as many originals. The songwriting definitely had reached a more advanced stage, and the album as a whole has a little ambition to it. The recording is still raw as hell, which I really like, and it's debatable which is better, this or Sincerely, which is a compliment to either LP.

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Sincerely is available for purchase or download in an earlier post.

THE SAWTOOTH GRIN- CUDDLEMONSTER; MARA'AKATE- EP; MAJORITY RULE- 2000 DEMO

THE SAWTOOTH GRIN- CUDDLEMONSTER

I first heard the Sawtooth Grin, a band from my area, more or less, two or three years ago and thought they were the most ridiculous shit ever. Honestly, they're still the most ridiculous shit ever-- you can take that as a positive or a negative. These dudes played very fast, technical grind, and by "grind," I don't mean Slap-A-Ham-type shit, or even Destroyer Destroyer-type shit. The guitar is very clean, almost jazzy, throughout, the drumming is "bonkers," and the vocals come courtesy of the most talented, if grating, screaming dude I have ever heard. I'm not even sure how much I like this anymore, but it will definitely make you think.

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Out of print, to my knowledge.


MARA'AKATE- EP

If I were to really dumb down a comparison here, I'd say this sounds like Daughters' Hell Songs. It's similarly intense, has these very calculated and cool guitar parts, has a singer that does not straight-up scream, and still seems pretty chaotic. Throw that in with some more rocking and screamo-influenced parts and you pretty much have this EP. Sorry if I haven't really sold it, but I like this a lot more than I liked Hell Songs. Also, these files are very low-quality, so you may just have to buy this one! Hah!

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MAJORITY RULE- 2000 DEMO

Before I get on to describing the demo, lemme gush for a sec-- Majority Rule have had a huge impact on the way I listen to music. I try to be as diverse as possible in my listening habits, and these endeavors have really given hardcore a much less prominent place in my mind. In general I associate it with being sixteen and going to awful, awful shows and not really having great friends. Don't get me wrong, there's some fantastic hardcore out there, but nothing fast and heavy blows my fucking mind quite like Maj Rule's Interviews with David Frost. Emergency Numbers, the second full-length, also would get a 10/10 on anyone else's scale, and the split with pg.99 is in the running for my favorite releases ever, both sides. This band had fifteen or so songs that were flat-out perfect, which is more than 98% of bands across the board can say. Majority Rule absolutely ripped.

Okay, this demo contains four songs, three of which made it onto Interviews. The quality is pretty good for a demo, and though some parts are changed between this demo and the full-length, if you've heard Interviews, you've basically gotten the full experience. So why is this worth posting? 1.) You get to spend more hard drive space on Majority Rule, and 2.) You get to hear "No Breathe," which definitely could've matched up to the songs that made the cut. Here, I want you to have it.

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