Usurp Synapse

Usurp was born in Lafayette, IN. Through numerous line-ups they continued to push the envelope of the then-bugeoning "screamo" sub-sub-genre of punk rock. Their music was available on several compilations and 7" records, including a split release withJeromes Dream, with whom they toured the United States on Clean Plate Records. All their releases have been compiled and released on a discography CD, Disinformation Fix, on Alone Records. Antonio Leiriao moved from New York to Indiana to sing for the band in 1999.

The band utilized unconventional marketing methods, such as a die-cut album cover folded into the shape of a penis entering a vagina, and the inclusion of a razor with a record that promoted suicide on Electric Human Project.

Former members played in Fax Arcana, who have since disbanded.

They reformed as a 4-piece in the year 2004, recorded a full length album, then unfortunately had to cancel a uk tour in 2005 which was supposed to be with phoenix bodies. They have been inactive since.

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Myspace

Emotion + Harcore = Bliss

Uk New Wave? SURE!

"Founded from the remnants of The Outsiders, the original lineup of The Sound consisted of Adrian Borland (vocals, guitar), Graham Bailey (bass), Mike Dudley (drums) and Benita "Bi" Marshall (keyboards, saxophone, clarinet). In 1979, the band signed a contract with Korova Records, a small label under Warner Brothers, to produce three albums. They debuted with Jeopardy, which received favorable reviews

The second album, From the Lion's Mouth, saw the replacement of keyboard player Marshall with Colvin "Max" Mayers, and more accolades from the critics, but neither record caused the band to break beyond a cult status. Korova pressured Borland and his mates to come up with a more commercially successful third album. In an act of rebellion, the band responded with All Fall Down, an album that took them even further away from that direction. Drummer Dudley told it this way: "We thought [the label wasn't] giving us the support that we were due and that if they really wanted a commercial album, they had got to put plenty of money behind it, which with both Jeopardy and From the Lion’s Mouththey hadn’t really done....So when they turned around and said 'The solution is for you to write more commercial songs,' we thought, 'F--- you,' and went ahead and produced All Fall Down."

During the early 1980s, The Sound toured throughout Europe, covering the UK and much of the continent. Like their contemporaries, the Comsat Angels (whom they toured with in 1981), they enjoyed perhaps their greatest success in the Netherlands, developing a substantial following there. The Sound recorded several Peel sessions and performed the single "Sense Of Purpose" on the TV show Old Grey Whistle Test (circa 1981)And in 1983 and 1984, they made two short tours of the US."

For fans of late 70/early 80s new wave, sound alot like joy division, and it was one of their contemporaries. This is great for the winter, mellow and catchy.

Download

Myspace

Renascent (label)

I Haven't Had A Date In 4 Years Goldie Hawn...

The Kidcrash is a band from Olympia, Washington that formed in 2000. In terms of contemporary screamo, this band is set apart from the rest, this EP displays that. This being one of the earlier releases of this band, it is a very raw, emotional and melodic album that doesn't let up from, not one time. Download this you'll love it.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Myspace

Foreign Label selling Kidcrash 

Life Tyrant

"Formed in 2005. Metallic HC out of the Inland Empire. Current and ex-members of Restrained, Bobby Conundrum, Drop It!, Xibalba, Every Man For Himself.

For fans of: Ringworm, Slayer, Sepultura, Discharge, etc. New songs soon.""

On a personal note, ive seen this band a handfull of times, and everytime its great. This recording relfects the diversity of this band. THey are on again/off again in activity, but as of late it seems as though they are going to start playing shows soon. So i for one am happy about that

DOWNLOAD HERE

Myspace

I Have Dreams

I apologize for not updating more, but school and work are kind of taking a toll on my life, so here's a new update. This is I have Dreams. Download it, screamo/hardcore. Amazing.

"I Have Dreams was a screamo/emo band born from the ashes of a band called New Ethic, when their guitar player Daniel died in a car accident. New Ethic played their last show in August, 1998 with Daniel’s best friend Mike Hanson in his place, and it was about a month or two later that I Have Dreams started playing. The band consisted of Allen Compton and Mike Peters on vocals, Mike Hanson on guitar, Ben Seals on bass and Clayton Rychlick on drums. I Have Dreams were more than a band - in the words of Mike Peters: “It was an attempt to cope with the pain everyone was feeling after Daniel’s death.” 

I Have Dreams were together for roughly six months, and they broke up in the Spring (around April/May) of 1999. "

DOWNLOAD HERE 

Myspace

Glad To Be back =]

These Are Are The Rains You've Heard About...

With members of such great bands (Swing Kids, Holy Molar, Give Up The Ghost, American Nightmare, Over My Dead Body, The Crimson Curse,Unbroken, The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower and The Locust.) One cant imagine what a band with said members would sound like. And Some Girls Definitely delivers. With this obscure and very harsh 7", Some Girls play some very technical and abstract style of hardcore, with the fury of the old time hardcore styling. This 7" was the some girls first real record release (before the "all my friends are going deaf" release which composed 2 7"s and demo tracks) by the band. After releasing a full length LP entitled "Heavens Pregnant Teens", Some Girls in 2007 decided to hang up the towel. Leaving behind 1 Demo, 2 7"s (a comp of 7"s on LP) and the HPT Lp. Quite a impressive record for such a ground breaking band in the hardcore community. Below you will find links to the bands myspace, Places to buy releases and the download link.

Some Girls - Website
Some Girls - Myspace
Deathwish - Did Early Releases for Some Girls
Epitaph - Released Heaven Pregnant Teens LP/CD

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Self Worth

Better Than A Thousand a straight edge hardcore band, from the 90s featured members of Youth Of Today, Battery, Damnation A.D., Shelter and Worlds Collide. Brought a straight forward style of hardcore punk with a slight melodic edge. Self Worth features 5 songs, this is the debuet EP from this band. Ray Cappo, who also sang in bands like Youth Of Today and Shelter, lays down vocal duties for this EP. Like his bands before, Ray sings about Straight edge and issues dealing with friends and the old times in NY.This 7" is very out of print, and now considered rare. BT1K relesaed 2 more full lengths before calling it quits, they also toured Europe and Southern America while gaining a strong fan base. Below you will find a link to their myspace as well as a download link.

BT1K - Myspace

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Drown In My Puke

Fast, Angry, Smart and SOBER. XfilesX hails from New Bedford Mass. With the fury of the old time hardcore bands and the thrash elements from XfilesX contemporaries like Tear It Up. XfilesX played straight edge trash core, with a bit of a comical edge (see songs like "the thing about edge breakers is..). Files played for a number of years releasing a few Eps and splits with a Full length LP. Bands that these members moved onto were The Lovely Lads, Mind Eraser, Soul Swallower, Breathing Fire, and Sex Positions. This being an early Ep the band really shined through with the relentless blast beats and harsh vocals. Below you will find the bands myspace as well as Trash Arts website, as well as the download link.

XfilesX - Myspace
Trash Art - Trash Art (has the bands Discography as well as some shirts.)

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Art.Culutre.Work

Wolves was first conceived in early 2000 by Brad Wallace and Tim Glowik, who started playing guitar together after deciding they'd like to play in a band together again, after working together in the short lived Mars Colony. Wolves played it's first couple of shows in spring of 2001 as well as recording a demo, but it was a bit of a false start as the band had to spend some time regrouping and finding a new bass player shortly there after. In the Fall of
2001 the band really got going with the line up of Tim Glowik, Brad Wallace, Erik Hopp, and Andy Skelly. Wolves began playing shows regularly and recorded it's first record "Art.Culture.Work" for Coalition records. Coaltion put this record out around summer 2002 in time for Wolves first and only full U.S. tour.
Wolves spent all of June out on the road, and returned home to record two songs for a split 7" with friends and neighbors Ampere, for whom Andy also played drums. Wolves spent the next year playing local shows around New England and in the fall of 2002 recorded for the "Simulation.Transparency.Alienation" record on Coaltion Records. This recording demonstrated a band that had been playing together for awhile, and was more ambitious in concept and content. Wolves continued to write songs through out this period, desptite and increasingly difficult practice schedule to geographic hardship. In May of 2003 Wolves and Ampere teamed up to celebrate the release of their split 7" on Moganono records, by playing two shows as the "Amherst Punkestra" combining both bands into one larger band and playing both bands songs. Later that summer Wolves hit the road for a brief period with friends Donna and Carly. Shortly after this Coaltion released the "Simulation.Transparency.Alienation" record in early Fall of 2003. Wolves than began work on recording their final 5 songs, 4 of which would go to a split LP/CD with Transistor Transistor on Level-Plane records and one to a split 7" with Sinaloa to be released on Clean Plate records. The Transistor Transistor split came out in time for an early 2004 European tour in which Transistor Transitor and Wolves joined forces. Both bands had a great time together, and Wolves probably experienced some of it's finer moments in live performance on this tour. Prior to this tour Wolves had already decided to part ways upon return due to geographic hardship and members growing in different directions creatively. Acknowledging that the time spent together as a band had been good, but that it was time to move on, Wolves played two last shows on January 30Th, and 31st of 2004 in Amherst, and Boston, MA.

At their best Wolves was a band firmly rooted in emo hardcore of the early to mid nineties, but had ambition to make their influences uniquely their own.
Wolves was concerned with the big picture and felt that the content of every aspect of the band was equally important, from songwriting and structure, to album artwork, and lyrics. Wolves records were often to be taken as a visual representation as much as a musical representation and influences were drawn from Av ant-Gard art movements and 60's radicals as much as they were drawn from musical peers. Not afraid to challenge themselves and attempt to mix theory with practice, Wolves songs never repeated themselves and were decidedly unique whether in failure or success. Wolves records focused on letting individual pieces create a greater whole, thus putting greater expectation in involvement by the listening audience. Never satisfied in letting any one author's identity flourish Wolves music often took on a more decentralized approach and was never the labor of a single songwriter but more a collage of ideas coalesced by all four members playing together. In the end wolves leaves behind a body of work that showcases strengths and weaknesses, a sense of adventure, and an unwillingness to do anything but wear their influences on their sleeves while critiquing and deconstructing them at the same time.

For those interested in other projects Wolves members have been involved in, Andy played in the Last Forty Seconds, prior to Wovles, and currently plays in Ampere. Brad Played in Orchid prior to Wolves, has also played in Bucket Full of Teeth, and currently plays in Transistor Transistor.

This record is very thought provoking, And another great Level Plane Records Release. Below you will find links to their website/myspace as well as level planes website.

Wolves - Website
Wolves - Myspace
Level Plane Records - Label Wolves were on. Merch there.

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Swing Kids

After writing about the Disembodied Reunion, in my blog. I decided to give you guys more of a taste of bands that are reuniting. And here you go, This is the debut 7" From San Diego's own Swing Kids. This release blends elements of jazz into furious punk rock/hardcore with some touches of Emo in the mix. Members went on to such noteworthy bands as The Locust, The Crimson Curse, Spanakorzo, Bread and Circuits, Baader Brains, Holy Molar, Head Wound City, Sweep the Leg Johnny, and Some Girls. This record also has a great Warsaw (Joy division) cover. Swing Kids released a 7" and A full length, before moving on to said bands listed above. With the book "Burning fight" coming out on Revelation Records, A laundry list of great bands were asked to get back together, Swing Kids being one of them. So keep an eye out for the Fliers in Mid march or so. This is a great release, anyone who enjoys "art" hardcore will enjoy this.
Below you will find Label info and the bands myspace link.

Swing Kids - Myspace
Three One G - Put out swing kids Discography

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Behind Trees

Sailboats, was a band from the Berkley California. In 2003 they recorded a 2-song demo and played several shows throughout California. Whats really sad about this band is that, when Touring in 2004, they got in a traffic accident. Where 2/3 Members tragically passed away. Hence leaving this AMAZING demo behind. The demo contains 2 tracks of beautiful, angry and fact screamo. Whats interesting is they did record a LP, but as far as it says on their myspace, it will never be released. Members went on to Loma Prieta (amazing screamo/emo violence band from Berkley) and Punch. Below are links to the bands myspace, and Discos Huhelga which carries Loma Prieta/Punch records. Don't sleep on this, these songs are flawless.

R.I.P

Sailboats - Myspace
Loma Prieta - Myspace (member of Sailboats)
Discos Huelga - (label who puts out Loma Prieta/Punch)

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God Save Us!

What cant be said about Disembodied? In the release "If only god knew the rest were dead". Disembodied brings the heaviest, harshest and most evilest songs you can imagine by any hardcore outfit now or 10 years ago (which is when this was recorded). With heavy metal undertones and hardcore over beats this release stands the test of time. All the while paving the way for the Nu-Metal sound. Disembodied was from Minneapolis MN, and claimed to be the heaviest band in hardcore, and clearly went way beyond that. After two releases on Ferret, a final full length on Edison Recordings and multiple US tours, Disembodied disbanded in the late 90's, later moving on to form Martyr AD. The time has come for such prominent hardcore bands from the 90s (including Swing kids, Undertow and the mighty UNBROKEN) to get back together, one last time (for promotion of "Burning fight" a book on 90's US Hardcore). In 2008 there will be a reunion show in Chicago with the mentioned bands above (although i don't believe Swing Kids are playing). It seems as though as the 90s are coming back. But give a listen for yourself, you will want to burn down every church and kill your parents after listening to this masterpiece. Below you will find links to Ferret Music and Disembodied's Myspace. As well as a download link.

Ferret Music - Ferret (where you can buy other Disembodied merch/music)
Disembodied - Myspace (info on the band/Releases/Reunion)

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Disgust For Mankind

Heavy, Dark, Ominous? You got it, here you have Oroku "Living through the end of time". This Full length feature album features every crust core tones, with melodic soft cello rhythms. This band (like many other great American crust/d-beat bands) is from the pacific north west.This band now defunct, were around for several years and tour many times. The band also put out one other 7" i believe. If you are looking for harsh guitar tones, with beautiful cello rythms, this album will make you cream your pants. Below are links to where you can buy the CD aswell as the bands myspace.

Inimical Records - Inimical Records (buy CD/merch here)
Oroku - Myspace

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Orchid/Jeromes Dream Split

This split features two screamo/emo violence champs. The mighty Orchid and the timeless Jeromes Dream. This split features 4 songs by each band. The original One sided skull shaped white vinyl 10, silk screened on the flip side. Music starts in the middle; JD tracks run to the outside, Orchid tracks to the inside of the record. Like, wow. The JD tracks are among the best they've recorded so far; manic complex screamo with some melodies; Orchid play their usual excellent Hardcore style; fast and complex but not as crazy as JD. Another timeless emo violence release.Emotional yes, fast yes, obscure yes. This record is amazing. Below are links to both the bands myspace's.

Orchid -Myspace
Jeromes Dream -Myspace

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You will never, never, never, never know me.

Das oath (formally known as The Oath) featured a member of the beloved thrash gods Charles Bronson as well as a member from the great Monster X. This installment of Das Oath, has more of a rock edge to it, while still maintaining the fast fury that early Das oath was known for. This record has many layers to it, with fast and edgy thrash beats come slow and ambient down tempo changes. This was the second to last release by this band. The band rumored to have broken up in Early 2008. Below you will find the download link, as well as links to Das oath merch and things they are involved with.

Youth Attack - Mark McCoys Label (singer)
Gloom Records - Nates Label (bassist)
Das Oath Myspace

Download here