Thanks for everything, I decided a video was more personal.

As I’ve talked about on this site before, the “power-violence” hardcore scene in Rock Hill, SC is no joke right now. I’m not sure what this power-violence has to do with the spazz-core of the early [...]]]>

As I’ve talked about on this site before, the “power-violence” hardcore scene in Rock Hill, SC is no joke right now. I’m not sure what this power-violence has to do with the spazz-core of the early 90s that relied on mathy, almost jazz influenced burst of grindcore but I guess I’m the wrong person to ask about all that. What I do know is that many hardcore and metal musicians around this area began attending the Converge/Cursed/Disfear school of blackened hardcore and began expanding into more crusty, desolate sounds from there. I personally think its kind of cool to still be able to imagine a heavy music “scene” in the day and age where everything is available to everyone everywhere in the world through the internet, so its interesting to me that a certain style of music seems to be flourishing in one area in particular. Rock Hill’s Narratives aren’t as new to this as some of these bands are though, they formed in 2008 with a more Coalesce-influenced approach that they stripped down into a more extreme punk attack. They’ve had plenty of time to grow and promote themselves and have recently been touring the east coast, their first release on a label “Hell is Here” just might be their introduction to the rest of the world.

Brevity has always been a big thing with these bands and “Hell is Here” is certainly no exception (this release is a whopping 8 minutes and 29 seconds). If you’re familiar with this style of hardcore then you already know that this music’s selling point has never been the amount of content that you per release, but Narratives also don’t waste any time getting their point across.

Most bands in this genre come right out of the gate and pummel you with speed from the very beginning, but Narratives takes the more dramatic downtempo approach in opener “Bearing”. The bleak opening chords sound like they were scraped out of the bottom of a gutter and the track does a nice job of building an uneasy tension. This is of course before the full on barrage of “Birth” comes in, a song featuring a steady pounding neanderthal riff played over changing blast beats and Dustin Dickerson’s raspy and familiar sounding screams. The song then transfers into a more traditional “D-beat” punk feel, which carries over into the next track “Grief”. “Grief” is steady but features some pretty mean riffing while the low end grinds and churns beneath, and the vocals sound venemous and pissed off like they should. The next track “Death” features more dissonant, blackened hardcore riffing over artillery round drums, before the track slows down into an almost doom classic Converge style ending. The final track “Hell” offers more of the same but gives a good picture of the band’s full range and what they are capable of. It ended up being my personal favorite because of the uneasy chord changes in the final riff. At 2:28 its the longest track on the EP, and honestly I could have taken more of it.

There are certainly strong moments that shine through here and there and show that Narratives know how to throw down in the modern power-violence game, but I can’t help but think that with alot of these bands that offering more per song would leave more staying power and a bigger impression. Yes I understand the whole point here is that its punk and it isn’t supposed to overstay its welcome, but I’d like to hear more of what these guys could do if they expanded their songwriting from the short bursts of violence that these less than 3 minutes tracks give. If you’re a fan of aforementioned bands like Converge, Disfear, Cursed, or Trap Them you absolutely shouldn’t miss this one.

You can stream Hell is Here here:

http://toxicbreedsfunhouse.blogspot.com/2012/05/stream-narratives-hell-is-here.html

You can order the 7′ vinyl from Frequency Deleted Records:

http://www.frequencydeletedrecords.bigcartel.com/

Eleventyseven has been rocking around the Upstate since 2002 with their usual, fun brand of power pop, but with their latest EP, Attack of The Mountain Medley, they implement a folk and [...]]]>

Eleventyseven has been rocking around the Upstate since 2002 with their usual, fun brand of power pop, but with their latest EP, Attack of The Mountain Medley, they implement a folk and bluegrass feel to it. Now, power pop is in no way my usual style but Elevenseven’s new style on this album really caught my attention. I would have no problem listening to them while driving around the mountains on a Sunday afternoon.

The second song on Attack of The Mountain Medley, “All The Doubt In Town,” is a sweet little love song with a heavy bluegrass influences from the guitar solo to the fast paced drums. It is pretty obvious to see through this song that these boys grew up as southern gentlemen. It’s the typical boy meets girl story but this boy is different, the protagonist will do anything and everything for his lady.

Track four, “I’m A Mormon,” takes a whole different spin going from sweet to humorous. They reference Transformers, Battle Galactica, Star Wars, and even Will Smith. Like the rest of the EP, this song follows the same folk-bluegrass-rock sound. This song is a silly and fun song about being a Mormon in a very strange world. You’ll just have to listen yourself and find out what I mean.

The last song on the album is titled “Appalachian Wine.” I’m going to go ahead and tell you, this one was my favorite. It starts out with soft piano and strong violin. This is a song you were meant to clap to. It’s a sweet story about Mother Earth and Father Time falling in love. There are so many cool metaphors to the elements while also personifying them as the children in the song. Over all this song has a lovely story with great harmonizing vocals and a prominent folk sound.

Eleventyseven made a smooth transition from power pop to folk rock with this EP and I really look forward to hearing more of this style from them. Check out the previously mentioned “And I’m A Morman” below!

It was the summer before my senior year of high school, and Blink 182 had just broken into the mainstream. For some reason they were playing with Silverchair, but opening the bill was Fenix TX [...]]]>

It was the summer before my senior year of high school, and Blink 182 had just broken into the mainstream. For some reason they were playing with Silverchair, but opening the bill was Fenix TX who were a younger band on up-and-coming label called Drive Thru Records. As luck would have it Drive Thru was there handing out their newest compilation CD, and the first band on there was a band from Florida called “A New Found Glory”, (does anyone else remember when they had an “A” in front of their name?) who took me by complete surprise. A New Found Glory was one of those bands that just hit the nail on the head for me at the time, and I remember hearing the early version of “Hit Or Miss”, and wondering why a band this accomplished wasn’t more widely recognized (maybe I was ahead of the curve for once haha). The reason I bring this up is because listening to the new The Hope Effect EP, I have the same feeling, just 13 years later.

While there is nothing on the EP that we haven’t seen before, for such a young band it’s amazing how together they sound. The first thing that comes to mind is pop-punk pin-ups Fall Out Boy, but even Fall Out Boy took an album to become the band that would go on to sell millions and trillions of records worldwide. Mix that with a dash of Hello Goodbye’s electro-pop, and you have a sugary recipe sure to whip the kids into a frenzy.

One of the amateur mistakes many young band make is trying to cram too many words into a chorus, thereby making it super hard to sing along with. But on opening track “Sara B“, every time the band launches into a “you-oh-oh” you can’t help but want to sing along and dance. The band does itself a favor and keeps the electronics low in the mix to keep from detracting from the song and the hooks.

The next song, “Forget About You” is fairly paint-by-the numbers, save for it’s hard-core breakdown about midway through (think Fall Out Boy’s Saturday but milder). While it’s a good song in it’s own right, it has the bad fortune to be stuck right between two much more immediately catchy tunes.

And speaking of immediately catchy, the final track “Move” comes out with the hook swinging! As far as pop-punk song structure goes, this one has it down to a “T”. Catchy guitar-octave leads? Check! 2nd verse led by the bass? Check! I’m not sure why there is a instrumental break at about 2 minutes in, but by this point I’m not really even caring, as they’ve already converted me.

You can get a copy of the new EP this Friday at The Channel where they play with Fera, A Brighter Life and All Hands. The show is $5 and starts at 7:30pm.

Today’s featured video comes from Greenville proto-punks, Now In 3D when they played with Coma Cinema, Those Lavendar Whales and Sun Sweet Sun at The Radio Room last month. In addition to releasing [...]]]>

Today’s featured video comes from Greenville proto-punks, Now In 3D when they played with Coma Cinema, Those Lavendar Whales and Sun Sweet Sun at The Radio Room last month. In addition to releasing a new song un-mastered track from their last 7″ online, the band has also recently added a 4th member on keys. Check it out!

The great musician adage of the last century is probably the Walt Disney quote (or P.T. Barnum depending on who you ask) “always leave them wanting more”, and with 3 songs in only [...]]]>

The great musician adage of the last century is probably the Walt Disney quote (or P.T. Barnum depending on who you ask) “always leave them wanting more”, and with 3 songs in only 8 minutes, Greenville’s Archer Vs Gunman deliver on the proverb with spades. Everything you initially liked about Archer Vs Gunman is still there: the concise pop structure, frontman Shaun Williams gruff yet gentle vocal delivery, and bouncy bass all on top of drummer Andrew Parker’s powerful yet concise hits. But this with this tried and true formula we find the addition of lead guitar and keys, which serve to further flesh out the song arrangements.

It’s funny how you can never REALLY tell what a listening audience will latch onto (Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” was originally a b-side.) When running into Shaun Williams last week he mentioned that the EP was more or less just an outlet for them to record the first track “Lighter Thief”. But while “Lighter Thief” wastes no time grabbing the listeners attention with it’s powerful chorus and keys, the EP’s standout is the next song, “Heart Of The City”. Combining the breeziness of The Cure’s “Close To Me” with Lucero’s slow-building 1372 Overton Park album-stealer “Smoke”. The songs contemplative lyrics over a bittersweet refrain, definitely tugs at the heartstrings. Closing track “Sally” is prob the closest we’ll get to the older AVG material, but that’s never a bad thing.

While some of the guitar arrangements can sound a bit overcrowded (verses of Lighter Thief), my only real complaint is it seems AVG are trying to leave the party while it’s still going. Why are you trying to leave so soon? We’re still here!

The band will be playing the release show at The Handlebar in Greenville this Saturday with opening act Our Western Sky. Admission is Free.