the jim yoshii pile-up

so let me guess: you realy miss benton falls. no? well i do. and thankfully i have the perfect thing for me: the jim yoshii pile-up.

and luckilly, these jim yoshii guys really rocked the sad, delicate words just like our old friends from deep elm did. but with more of a flimsy indie-rock direction behind their music (along with a definate fear of being too loud), they end up being way more subdued, kind of like a whispery yawn of listlessness being blown into your ear. but watch out: get too complacent and those chords-that-shouldn't be chords will thrust you into crecendo-appreciation mode.

i'm concerning myself with homemade drugs, the second release from this bunch of delicious sounding miscreants. our main instrumental friend is a treble heavy telecaster twinkling away like nobody's business. occasionally we have a bassier second guitar lay down a mineral-esque opening riff or some lovely thrumming chromatic chords. throw in some occasional piano tinkering, some tickly, cymbal heavy drumming and a gentleman who can actually sing (disconcertingly well for a band like this) and you've got a deal.

and don't forget, our main man paul pens lyrics that have the despair of the most private journal but still manage to harness that helpless anger that only the worst breakups contain. as a result, i just want to pat this dude on the back, give him a hug and tell him everything's going to be okay.

so if you're into polished and textured sonic tearjerking, or midwest emo of any fascination you should check these guys out. [and just for the hell of it, since paul kind of has those scottish tinges to his voice, if you ever cream yourself over simon neil (from biffy clyro)'s voice, get into this shit now.]

"it's because i'm a petty guy who spends his time fabricating useless lies"
"the truth is somewhere in between hurting you and killing me"

file under: twinklecore
listen to: double negative, in focus, middle harbour road

the jim yoshii pile-up: homemade drugs

ethel meserve

today i'm going to tell you about one of my favourite bands. their name is ethel meserve and they're not terribly well known at all. and that's such a shame, because i think that they're one of the best things to have happened to emo since sunny day real estate.

the good thing is that at least some people during the nineties recognised this. a few musical spatterings on such wonderful collections of music as "the postmarked stamp" series and crank!'s fantastic "(don't forget to) breathe" compilation, ethel meserve always remained enigmatic with brash jangly guitars and composed shouting, almost daring the listener to find out more. and if you hadn't taken them up on it, well shame on you.

unfortunately i did it all the wrong way around. ethel's "the milton abandonment" had enjoyed heavy rotation in my cd player before i knew these comps existed. my story is very romantic. i fell in love, it's that simple. head over heels. and truth is, if you listen to the opening to "east coker", you'll know exactly what i'm talking about. the most polite cello you've ever heard humming the same pretty tune over and over again, gradually joined by well-meaning but dissonant guitar jangles. the beautiful thing about this that they seem to carve their own little corner of music that shouldn't make sense but does. getting into the swing of things, we become aquainted with the nice young man who sings to us. honestly and without trite we're introduced to how it feels to come back home and have nothing waiting for you except shadows. poetically shown how sad serious things can be.

and suitably, where these guys hit home resides in the second last track on the ep, ina. any afficendo of spokenwordcore (as i politely dub it) would agree, a disjointed riff, some bitter overdrive and this alienated but annoyed young man telling us about his deadbeat of an alcoholic father, lamenting in lost birthdays and ruined childhoods. as the story unfolds and the tragedy increases, so does the musical panic. special shout outs must go to the bassist and his tocsin; the bass guitar becomes a warning to us: this next crecendo is going to blow you away.

and of course since the milton abandonment seems to be over far too quickly, tree records recently did us the pleasure of releasing all those loose odds and ends (including those blissful two tracks on the abovementioned compilations) onto one handy cd called "spelling the names". although we have the same band here, this cd is ironically as disjointedly arranged as their music, never meshing as a cohesive whole as milton did. almost serving as a warm-up to their opus, yet eclipsing the best efforts of oh so many other bands.

bluntly, if you like mid nineties emo at all, you need these guys. you need find out what it is to fall in love with this beautiful, awkward waltz of a band.



"a town so small you can wave on every block someone knows your name"
mp3s of note: east coker, ina, west decatur
(as well as belated blues, onward foster and calba's last on spelling the names if you can)
ethel meserve - the milton abandonment

the kodan armada

hello internet it's been a while. i've had some remotivation which has resulted in me wanting to write some more. nice while it lasts i guess, so i'd better not waste any time!

in the brief period since we spoke last, i've decided to get a bit more in touch with some shouty hardcore. and who better to lead off the renaissance with the kodan armada, a group of nice young men from kentucky who like loud-soft dynamics and shouting so hard you know that they have tears in their eyes.

during their five year tenure running around playing shows all over the place, a mishmash of tracks that could best be described as their discography was released under the guise of "a collection of songs". and amazingly, it allows the listener to have a little shot of experiencing one of these shows in their very own bedroom, thanks to the little soundbites of honest banter that sandwich every couple of tracks.

i'm not exactly sure which member of the band is speaking during these, but he certainly loves making a statement. opening the album with "this song is about my dad raping my sister. that's a pretty messed up situation. doesn't mean we shouldn't have a party, have a good time."

and to be fair to him, it's only horrible things like that which could have possibly inspired such powerful songs. "no has never had three letters" starts off gently enough with a forewarning clean guitar but soon breaks down into an extremely haunting spoken word verse enveloped by a threatening crash cymbal. then, cue the distortion and cue the cathargy. the armada's two-way exchange of fragile screams introduce you to pure, unadulterated heartache.

that's not all. after laying down the foundations of their particularly hand-wringing blend of screamo, we're ushered into the almost disco-like beats of bullshit buffet, the layered cacophony of the technology condemning iwishididnthatemyselfdotcom (with quite possibly the catchiest yet shortest breakdown ever). and continuing the controversial nature of their material, cops throws out the worryingly curious lyric "it's not you i hate, it's your fucking race" (referring to the human race and police brutality). the album is tied up with the interesting butterfly effect which boasts a short cover version of prog-rock heroes kansas' "carry on my wayward son" after their original offering. really took me by surprise, i don't think i've ever heard a more unlikely mashup.

but all in all, a fantastic collection. and interestingly, lyrics to most songs seem to be written and sung communally, with each member writing down his thoughts about an issue and then shouting about it. i can't really think of a bad thing to say.

there's band news too though guys. in the style of the best emo bands, they've released this collection of fantastic, cathargic material and then gone and broken up. sigh.

but don't fret. instead, have a listen and let them kick your heart around a bit.

"i think that I've wasted most of my life waiting for it to start. please do not do this"
mps of note: bullshit buffet, iwishididnthatemyselfdotcom, cops
The Kodan Armada - A Collection Of Songs