hundred hands / pop unknown

so, a couple of weeks ago i looked in my email, and the only new message i had was one from deep elm records apparently telling me that they were selling 30 cds for $40. "what?", i said to to my quietly surprised self, "this must me a typo". but when clicking on the message to read THIS IS NOT A MISPRINT!! i could not help but think that i was wrong. the only catch seemed to be that i wasn't allowed to choose any cds, but i was up for a gamble so thought hells, why not.

pause, fast-forward, play- we're at the future and i'm opening up my package, which is full of flatpacked cds that have had the jewel cases ripped out (this kind of annoyed me, but whatever, i'll buy some to replace them). after a brief flick through i was more than impressed actually, some high key releases (but sadly more than one double as the settlefish album and imbroco ep prove).

so notice that for the next while, i'll be plodding my way through these cds, highlighting any amazingly excellent ones. i hope you're paying attention.

#9 - hundred hands - s/t EP

the first one i picked out of the list kind of erked me a little bit. i recognised the name of the band from somewhere, but i couldn't for the life of me remember where it was. after some brief scurrying about and a sharp reminder from a friend of mine, turns out it's the guitarist from the appleseed cast's side projecty thing. with the appcast boys being one of my favourite ensembles that actually still exist, this was exciting news!

only six tracks, but distincly through these, it sounds as though i'm listening to some serious low level owl / two conversations era appleseed cast, but with a slightly simpler sound. it has the same distinct guitar sounds, but they're played in what can only be described as a more accessable way. plus there's helluva vocals sung by guitarist aaron pillar, who has a slightly deeper voice than our usual friend christopher. it's a nice change to be honest, and it's one of these things that sounds as though it really grows.

the thing that kind of caught me off guard was the last track, "sunday", which starts off with two really short lines on different guitars interweaving, sounding very post-rock indeed!! and there's this funny bass drum that sounds electronic, and all of this keeps repeating all the way through. of course a piano dances about for a little while, but i must have been three minutes through the track when i thought, "what's going on here."

and then it ended.


#15 - pop unknown - summer season kills EP

of course if you liked mineral at any point at all, and are anywhere near worth your salt, you'll know all the side projects that these guys dashed off into. of course big chris simpson dived off into the gloria record, and later on into his solo project zookeeper. then gabe and scott mccarver did a bit of fun in imbroco for one short ep then disappeared off of the earth, and then gabe started performing with pop unknown, bringing all the most poppy aspects of the style mineral had crafted out and adding in some really broad, understandable vocals for a change.

yeah, sure i'd been aquaintanced with the band's album "if algebra fails, try arsenic", but i never really looked into their discography too much. and in my mind the band had always been another imbroco, releasing one record and then disappearing. i feel shocked and almost embarrassed that there's actually this ep and another album still floating about that i haven't touched.

anyways, enough about my forgetfulness

like i said, if you can picture all of the twinkly bits in mineral, and the throbbing, trademark octave chords of good old mid 90s emo, you've got pop unknown right there. except one hell of a lot cheesier. and to be honest, that's what sets them apart from their past; where mineral was really serious, really beautiful and really serene at places (especially on endserenading), pop unknown blasts that all out of the way and isn't afraid to be adolescent and cheesy. the lyrics themselves show this sort of thing, straight out of a notebook (that embarrassingly could have been mine) from maths class. lots of "me", lots of "you", lots of what we are, what we were and what we could have been. what we did, what we've done, and what i will do. lots of compliments, lots of what you remind me of. and it's this pop side of the 90s emo movement that really spins my discs.

i might even venture to say that this ep is better than their full length, "if algebra fails, try arsenic", but i'd really have to sit down for hours to decide. unforunately though, since this is just an ep, it consists of five songs coming up to just about half an hour. which, when all is said and done, is a pretty meaty amount of music.



and i think that'll do for today. thanks, deep elm, for giving me at least two decent releases. now all i do is find another two, and basically i'll have broken even with costs, eh? hah.


links

pop unknown
hundred hands
deep elm records homepage