Unblind Eyesight

Montreal, Canada band coming before popular modern day band The Discord of a Forgotten Sketch. Based. On some show dates that I can find, they seem to be active around 2003, not sure for how long. As for sound it's that over the top screamy melodic hardcore sound that was really popular at this time. Check it out if you like that type of thing. Much thanks to certain slsk user for providing this and some other stuff to me. Based on last.fm listens, I'm not sure if these tracks are that easily found...

Demo

The Greatest Pinball On Earth!

From Last.fm:

The Greatest Pinball On Earth is a band consisiting of Robert/Julio/Phil and Cody. Phil and Cody are very similiar for an unknown reason. The band tends to play a emotionally fueled mix of modern skramz and post rock. They tune too much live. Apart from the tuning they are very enjoyable live. Robert is very supreme at guitar. As is Phil. Julio plays drums and gives out the smiles. They are all ready to have girlfrenz so ladies can say what's up at shows with little to no hesitation.

From East Orlando FL, and active around 2007 I think. It's super shrieky style stuff, with maybe like a hint of math twinkle and even postrock influence. It's actually fairly decent. I'm not sure if they've released more than this one demo, can't seem to find any mention of anything else out there. Worth listen I'd say.

Demo 2007

But A Statue

I can't find much on this. Here's some bio I took from their archived website:

Since September 2000 that we're working hard, heart and soul for this band, but lately, I've asked myself if the meaning of our name has stood the same…well I think not, 'cause this monument we once tought so solid started to lose pieces in March 2001, Danny, our guitar player decided to leave the band and the region…Six months have passed without any activity, it has been long, but we've finally filled the the band with a new guitar player(Guillaume) to restart up everything, he was real good and it seemed like he was devoted, but unfortunately it wasn't case…our first and last show with him by our side was the Mullet Fest II, our first show since the first edition. Actualy, it took nine months before we played a show since Dan has gone away. Right now I realise how much it is difficult to have security and balance in a band. A statue reflects a part of history, in some ways, in our case, it's simply ours. If we continue today and that we've been able to do it months ago, I think that it's because we are solid at the bottom of all of this "monument" and that we are believing in this project and that there also people out there asking us to continue and that give us to strength and will to do it, if it wouldn't have been of you guys out there I sincerely think that we would've broken up last year. We are still working on finding a new guitar player, for now life goes on and keep up the support you guys are all offering to the QCHC scene it means a lot to all of us(speaking in every bands name). I hope we'll be back as soon as possible. We are…but a statue.

This one is pretty obscure. They're from Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada and active 2000-2002. As for sound, it's fairly screamy melodic hardcore sounding stuff. Kind of rough on the recordings, check it if you're curious.

in memoriam (2000-2002) (contains the below, just better recordings)

Demo Tape

The Giraffe Years EP

The Killing Bottle

Info taken from this soundcloud post

The Killing Bottle was a Post Hardcore band from Minneapolis MN circa 2000-2003. Heavily influenced by the underground alternative bands at the time such as At The Drive In, Refused, Milemarker, Cursive, and Drive Like Jehu, the quartet had an immediate impact if all but too brief in Minneapolis, releasing only one full length album before dissolving probably over some chick or some crap. The members later split to form such other MN acts as Vampire Hands and Torch The Spires.

The Killing Bottle definitely seem to fit on that line between post-hardcore and emo. They kind of progressed from straight post-hardcore in their demo, to a more emo sound in their full length. I actually recommend you skip the demo, and just go to Speak in Primaries. It has some over the top post-hardcore moments, but overall it's pretty solid. Definitely recommend a listen.

This is one of the few posts on this blog that was ripped by me. I wasn't able to find speak in primaries anywhere on slsk/web. I managed to track the actual CD down, so hopefully you download + listen to it. The last download link is just the demo songs + live tracks - all taken from the soundcloud linked above.

 The Killing Bottle Demo

Speak In Primaries

Dear Honey Flower; Live and Lost

A Million Knives Lie In Wait

From Last.fm:

A hardcore band from Portland, Oregon. Summer 1998-Summer 1999.

They recorded demo with Jeremy Romagna (later of Type Foundry Studio) and self-released a CD/cassette they sold on their sole west coast tour.

They shared bills with:

Submission Hold, Reversal of Man, Bread and Circuits, Yaphet Kotto, combatwoundedveteran. Their last show was at the Living Room in Santa Barbara, CA.

Related bands: Pascal's Wager, JonnyX and the Groadies, Berzerk, Mur*der.

Really good 90's emo style stuff. I have here just the demo mentioned above, I've never seen the self released CD before, so no idea on that. Overall it's fairly high quality, but super short. Sometimes the vocals kind of remind me of Toru Okada, especially in the second song. Recommend a download for sure.

Edit: Thanks to below commenter for the following. It has all the songs.

Demo

Ghosts

This is the band that came right after An Embrace of Angels. I think it shares all or most of the members. They're listed as being from Owatonna, MN, and were active mid late 00's. They sound pretty similar to Embrace of Angels, just a little less over done and cringy. I think they're better for sure. What I have here is some early demo I think they released, then some EP found on their myspace.

Edit: Ghosts was Matt (bass) and John (vocals/keys) from an embrace of angels, with a different guitarist and drummer (Wyatt and Jonathan).

Untitled (Some early demo I think, it's incorrectly labeled. sorry about that)

The Eazy EP

Jaded / The Watercolour

Major props to this blog for the description:

The Watercolour were an emo/punk outfit from Indianapolis who played a few shows from 1993-1996. There were actually two periods of this group, the first was done under the name "Jaded", and the songs tended to be much angrier and rough. The later period, under "the Watercolour" softened in its approach substantially. Both incantations of the group were in the emo/hardcore genre and I think the listener can immediately hear the influences.

A 7" of 2 songs by Jaded was released by the now defunct Witching Hour Records/Diffusion Records around 1996/97. The Watercolour was featured on a 7" compilation which benefited Judy Barry (http://shallbejudged.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html) and that was released circa 1995. I hope to extract these vinyl releases and upload as mp3s at a later date. At the end of the band's short run, they went to Airborne Studios (in Zionsville of all places) to record. 8 songs were done at the session (in the wee hours of the morning to save money) 2 of which were the "jaded" 7" listed above, the other 6 were lost for about 10 years. I'm posting them here as mp3s for those who may have known the band or were familiar with that particular scene. I appreciate if anyone remembers them or any of this to correct my post.

The members of the band were:
Chris Saligoe - bass, he went on to form and continues to play bass in RACEBANNON
Austin Considine - guitar, now plays in NYC band RAZOR SHINES
Mike Anderson - guitar, formed and continues to be the vocalist in RACEBANNON & RAPIDER THAN HORSEPOWER
Rob Smith - drums, played drums for awhile in RAPIDER THAN HORSEPOWER, now guitar in RAZOR SHINES (NYC)
Ryan Schneider - vocals (Jaded + Watercolour), artist in NYC
Chris Mullin - vocals (Jaded) I think Chris resides in Bloomington, IN

I can't actually find any mp3's on that blog, or the one it links. So here's what I have. I'm missing the compilation song, but here's the rest. The Jaded 7" is really good.

Jaded 7"

watercolour - stories about old rich white people (unreleased LP)

American Tragedy... Benefit Compilation For Judi Bari's Case. 1996 Diffusion (Whole compilation. Worth it for the three studies song)

Rise of Marakara

I'm just going to copy some description I found on their archived website

In 2002, a band with no name and few songs, played merely for fun and for the love of the music. After losing a singer, and replacing him with Mark Clark on vocals/guitar in the spring of 2003, the band buckled down, and gave themselves a name both literally and figuratively. Their sound changed and improved to accommodate Mark’s vocals, which were a bit more screamy. They infused their original post-hardcore sound with patches of noise as well as flashy solos, and brought out the talent of all the members: Bridget King on drums, Pat Marchwiak on guitar, and Matt Zachar on bass. 

However, late summer of 2003 saw the band paying a farewell show for Matt, who they were losing to college at MIT. The remaining members continue to play music on the foundation they’ve laid, mixing emo and hardcore in a genre that’s not fully formed, appreciated or represented in Chicago. The three piece describes themselves as chunks of Saetia, Fugazi, and City of Caterpillar injected into angular guitar noise with a post hardcore foundation, and have gotten comparisons to Wolves, At The Drive In, Sonic Youth and mewithoutyou. 

The band is making waves in all the right places for their talent, perseverance and unique sound. From opening for Level Plane Records band The Fiction, to recording their mp3’s in the production studio of WLUW, Chicago’s most popular independent community radio. They are always working on new material and will soon enter the studio and record a proper release ASAP. This summer may find them touring, and the spring will find them playing many more shows in the Chicago area with well-respected and very talented members of the hardcore and post-hardcore scene. 

This really bad review comes up for them when you search their name. It's kind of funny, don't know what you expect from bands like this though. They're all kind of cringey/bad in the same object of an era way.

I think this is their only official release. There might be a few more songs floating around, don't have those though.

EP

Belief in Promises

I don't have much for this other than they're from Aspen Hill, MD and active early/mid 2000's. Fairly generic metal influenced stuff. My searching on them seems to bring up some other really obscure bands that members of this band have been in. Not sure on what they've released, so here's some sort of collection.

Various

Bright Lights Always Turn Off

From Duluth, MN, active mid/late 2000's. It's definitely pretty mid 00's skram sounding. I do know that they are from the same place as Bear Garden, and they sound actually somewhat similar as well. No info other than that. I've been looking for more tracks by them, to no luck really. Here's just some that I ripped off their myspace.

Demo

 Update: heard from the vocalist and he answered some questions about the band

 

BLATO interview:

Does this "discography" on my blog have all that you've released?

No, unfortunately not. We wrote one song after the first two songs of the demo. I can’t remember the name of it but it had a heavier breakdown and was my favorite song we wrote but unfortunately never got recorded. Having an ” open chugged” (our guitarist Odin could probably explain it better) was a little different from how we thought about screamo in 2006. Being that we thought of breakdowns as being for hardcore and metalcore bands, not screamo (skramz started being used around 2007-8).

Did you, or any of the other band members play in any other bands after/before?

 I know Steve-o (this was peak Jackass days and Steve could actually skate really well) played in a short-lived hardcore band that was trying to do like a Terror-Hatebreed thing called All I Have.

I did vocals for a couple of different bands: an old school hardcore punk band (that was a drunken wreck) called Bad Cop Bad Cop. Tthen after moving to Minneapolis I briefly did vocals for the band Cowards, which featured members of Bear Garden and Corrosive Melody on guitar, bass, and drums.

I also did vocals for a brief project called Cannons (weirdly similar to Cowards name-wise but totally different groups of people). Which was members of Minneapolis tough-guy hardcore band Earn Your Stripes. We did like Converge-Cursed sounding kinda dark hardcore band.

As well as some guest vocals for Duluth metalcore band Count Backwards from Ten; I was more into traditional hardcore then, so I tried replicating the first vocalist of Comeback Kid style as well as the vocalist for the band first After the Burial’s first album

I don’t know if any of the guys are doing any active creative projects nowadays. I myself have some non-music things I’ve done, some writing I’ve had published in the magazine Apocalypse Confidential as well as some podcast appearances on Programmed to Chill I’ll include some links from my substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/trashe5e/p/apocalypse-confidential?r=j3388&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

https://open.substack.com/pub/trashe5e/p/podcast-appearances?r=j3388&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Do you have any thoughts or words on the scene that you were part of (where were you from)?

We were a total anomaly, a product of the first generation to have access to highspeed internet. Being in Duluth, Minnesota (and the rest of the Iron Range as well as Grand Rapids, MN (where A Corrosive Melody were from)) we had no legacy of diy punk and hardcore. No real older scene bands to help induct us, like they have on either coast or even the bigger Midwest cities like Milwaukee and Chicago. The closest thing we had to counter-culture music was the slo-core band Low (who I loved as a teenager as well as now, but obviously weren’t playing hardcore).

Honestly I learned about diy, screamo, and hardcore through going online and getting dunked-on on messageboards, as well as the year or two older guys who played in Bear Garden. So, being a precocious kid whose parents had a rule that I always be reading a book outside of the book that my Catholic elementary school had me reading (which was like a stipulation of the curriculum), I got really into researching these scenes that made music I loved instantly.

The second I heard Circle Takes the Square’s album As the Roots Undo and Neil Perry’s Lineage Situation I was obsessed. I thought this was the most interesting and emotionally compelling music I had ever heard.

Did you play any shows with interesting/noteworthy bands?

BLATO only played two real shows: some random show in middle of nowhere N. Wisconsin with some As I Lay Dying-type bands and then Bear Garden’s 2006 ep release show at Rice Lake Town Hall (which is a legendary show for Duluth millennials in the know).

Bear Garden was the biggest band lol. We were a brief flicker of a band. Odin’s guitar playing was really phenomenal and he was the lynchpin: locking in with Steve and Garrett (our bassist) and really orchestrating the band.

Except for my vocal parts which he pretty much just left for me to figure out. For that, and to anyone trying to be a screamo or hardcore vocalist, it was all about locking in with Steve’s drumming. Granted I paid attention to what Odin was doing, as I’m a guitarist myself, but the most important part, in my eyes, is for the vocalist to follow the beat (being a big fan of rap helps).  

admittedly I overshot with the last song “I touched a shark” with the chant-gang vocal part, but also I was 16 and just really wanted to have a cool gang-vocal, chant part. I’d probably cut that these days (or spend more time getting the timing right).

Also, when were you active from, and where exactly?

Pretty much just the one year 2006. To be honest I had not the best childhood and dealt with a lot of legal problems during that time. I was put on probation shortly after we recorded the demo and spent a lot of time in juvenile treatment centers as a teenager. So it was hard to keep a band going when my parents didn’t support it and I had a probation officer breathing down my back.

I was really passionate about it but my parents didn’t really care or support me. They didn’t really like me lol.

Any final thoughts to put on the post for my blog?

 Just that this is crazy that people are into this and found it independent of any of us who were actually involved. I moved away from Duluth two years later in 2008; becoming a bike messenger in Minneapolis and then Chicago, becoming an upper-tier owner of Cut Cats Courier. I really didn’t fit in with the Minneapolis punk scene as I was a working class kid from “Up North”; I fit in much better with the messenger scene of people who were based more around work, seeing as I didn’t come from money and didn’t have a trustfund.

But I always wished I had the freetime and ability to start a hardore band, of whatever stripe. I love it all: Circle Takes the Square and Jeromes Dream on down to Hatebreed and Terror as well as Spazz and From Ashes Rise…all of it, hardcore fucking rules and it is my bread and butter.

And honestly it's a big part of why I’m still alive.

Welcome Home

From NJ, active late 2000's. This is the band that came after Remember Van Gogh. It's pretty decent maybe a bit on the post-hardcore side of things. Sounds quite similar to Remember Van Gogh; reminds me kind of Daniel Striped Tiger or something. I'm not entirely sure what all they've released, I think this is it though. I also don't think they have any connection to this other band called Welcome Home that is active right now.

Overcast EP

In Constant Motion

Information taken directly from Last.FM:

In Constant Motion was a short lived post-hardcore band influenced by the likes of Saetia, Piebald, The State Secedes, Off Minor, Portrait, Orchid and the Record Label “Level Plane.” The EP was recorded in July of 2001 and self-released with hand-made artwork. A couple thousand copies were sold at shows, online and at local record shops before the band broke up. In Constant Motion was also on a compilation with the band Thrice called “We Will Answer Questions With Questions” and a short home-made music video was featured on several online underground music sites, which have since disappeared. After Phil, the drummer, left the band he was replaced by C.J. for a short period of time. Some new songs were written and some new ideas formed but they were never recorded. Drama within the band led to a quick split after things started to go down hill. Even with some record label interest and several high-profile shows booked, there was no saving the musical project.

Sounds definitely like a ton of other bands. I'm not entirely sure where they are from, maybe Vermont. There appears to be some unreleased stuff, but I think this it for actual real recordings. Check it out if you're curious.

In Constant Motion

Unreleased

Tamiroff

From Penfield NY. Active mid-late 2000's. I'm mainly posting them for their demo, which fits on this blog more than their later stuff. It's pretty noodly and jazzy before that was really a big thing. The later stuff is a bit more modern day twinkly stuff, I'll post it in case people want it. It's still pretty good, just less fitting for here. Members went on to form somewhat popular post hardcore band Polar Bear Club.

Demo

Bittersweet and Strange

Last Songs

Rise From Ruin

I'm just going to copy this summary written by one of the band members from this tumblr post.

“Rise From Ruin was a post-hardcore band from Knoxville, Tennessee. It was formed in the summer of 2000 by Joe Crociata, Joe Davenport, Matt Gregg, and Josh Holt. Under this lineup a split 7” with The Spirit of Versailles from Sioux Falls, South Dakota was recorded in October of 2000 and released in February of 2001 on the Hermitage, TN based label Chiaroscuro. Shortly afterwards the group disbanded. It was reformed again in 2002 by Joe Crociata, Joe Davenport, Matt Boehm, and Jordan Schettler. Under this lineup a demo CD and a split 7" with the German band Katyn was recorded. It was released in 2003 on the German label Crucifados Pelo Sistema. Shortly after the release of the second 7" the band played a final show with friends Examination of the… from Sioux Falls, SD in April of 2003.“

This same post had a discography link at some time, but it appears to be dead. The following is most of that discography, missing just a few songs. Hopefully that discography will turn up somewhere.

7 song demo

Split with The Spirit of Versailles

Split with Katyn

Other demo/live songs

The Dugat Project

Really awesome late 90's/early 00's band from Houston, Texas. Ex members of The Stalag Seventeen. Can't find too much info out there on them specifically. It's fairly good 90's emo style stuff, I definitely recommend a listen. Surprisingly high quality for how obscure it seems to be.

I'm not entirely sure the details on this demo below, if it is actually unreleased or not. It appears to be missing a song which is unfortunate. I do know that one of the songs is also on the "A Compilation of Heroes" compilation. Who knows if there is anything else.

Demo (unreleased)

The Guns of August

Members of Cedar of Lebanon, late 90's. I don't actually have any mp3's by these guys. I've had them on my soulseek wishlist for a while, and nothing has really come up. Making this post to see if anyone has anything by them + be ready for if I ever do find something by them. They sound very similar to Cedar of Lebanon, really good stuff.

------------------------

Edit, I did find some stuff by them. It's definitely a bit softer than Cedar of Lebanon. Kind of reminds me a little of On the Might of Princes at times. Check it out, it's pretty good.

The Guns of August - Various

Auletta

Zero info on this other than that they were from Windsor, CT and active early 00's. I think it's some long lost mp3.com band. This is just a random EP. Seems to have a large tech metal influence. Check it out if your curious.

ep

We Fly Our Kites At Night

From Arizona, and active mid 2000's. I'm not entirely sure who to relate them to. It's pretty melodic, but kind of heavy at other times. Just sounds like a lot of other bands, it's pretty decent though, especially the full length. I think this is all they've released.

Demo

Killing Ray Brauer

Tasharah

Long lost Thomas Schlatter (You and I, The Assistant) + Sean Andrews (A Days Refrain) band from... I'm not entirely sure, somewhere on the East Coast (New Jersey?). They released this single album in 2002, and broke up. It sounds fairly similar to The Assistant, This Ship Will Sink, In First Person. Pretty melodic though at times. If you like those bands check it out for sure.

Tasharah

xSethx

I have zero information on this, and there does not appear to be any information about it on the net. Only 6 listeners on last.fm, so nothing there as well. I believe it's some mid 2000's MP3.com band. It's pretty rough sounding, and super skramie... That's all I got.

2 Songs

Pretty Faces

From Massachusetts, active early-mid 2000's. It's a heavy sloppy hardcore influenced style, maybe similar to In First Person and stuff like that. According to their last.fm, what I have below should be all that they've released. Apparently there is an unfinished/unreleased LP, but I'm guessing that it isn't in circulation.

Pretty Faces (7inch songs + 2 others)

Split with Kodan Armada

Split with How to Beat a Dead Horse

Harrison Bergeron

Two bands with this name, this is the mid 2000's emo one from Bethlehem, PA, not the more recent one. They probably don't need much of an introduction, as they seem to be pretty popular, and members went on to be in some major bands  (Street Smart Cyclist, Storm the Bastille, Boy Problems). They're pretty good, and definitely were ahead on a sound that is super popular these days.

I actually only really heard these guy recently, and then a little while after realized I had some recordings by them that I had downloaded long ago and never listened to. The album "Dead Bergeron" is what is commonly passed around, but I've never seen this other album which is their split with Disconnect. It's basically just other recordings of songs on Dead Bergeron + one other song. I included Dead Bergeron as well for convenience. Check it out, super good stuff.

Split with Disconnect

Dead Bergeron

The Walls You've Built

From Houston Texas, and active 2003-2006. Ex-members of Burned out Bright, and sharing a member with Fire Team Charlie. They definitely play the heartfelt over the top screamy style stuff, similar to Burned out Bright and other Texas bands. It's pretty good for that style of music. Below is all that they have according to their last.fm + a demo that is not listed there.

Demo

Definition of a Friendship EP

Emo Apocalypse Comp Song

2 Unreleased Tracks

Abort Captain

Started out as a two piece from Raleigh, NC in 2004, ended up as a full band. Straight forward hardcore in the vein of JFFB, Neil Perry, ETC. Broke up in 2005.
two members now in Wolverines.

I just copied that from last.fm, has pretty much all that is known. What I have is just a random collection of songs that I suspect is incomplete. It includes a song from a split with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and two songs from a demo.

It's decent stuff. Bears some resemblance to Wolverines, but less jangly and more generic emo sounding. Check it out, and if anyone has more tracks, please comment below or something.

Various

Update: Found these two songs

Two Songs

Sakita Sarra

From Hillsborough, NJ, active mid 2000's. I remember they used to get compared to CTTS back in the day, and in truth some songs of their's sound very similar. It's kind of that whole metal influenced epic sound type of stuff. It's pretty well done though, worth a listen.

This is some sort of "discography" that I got off soulseek. I think it's just a compilation of songs that are floating around on the internet, and not all they produced. I remember their website having more releases/songs on it, which I have never seen anywhere on the net. As per usual, who really knows about that stuff.

Discography

One more song

My Life with the Spaniard

Active early-mid 2000's, and from Spokane WA. It's definitely on the post-hardcore side of things. High pitched vocals, quite melodic, kind of catchy. Pretty good stuff actually, both releases after the demo are decent.

Demo 2003

ST

Eahs

The Conqueror Worm

I think there is multiple bands with this name/similar name. These guys are from Flint, Michigan and were active 2002-2005. Decent metal influenced stuff. Female vocals, kind of reminds me a little bit The Assistant at times and CTTS at others. Overall quite well produced on some albums. There might be/probably is more out there, but here's what I was able to track down. Check it out.

Fascination Bleeds Me Alive

Split with Lingua Franca

Split with The Sea, The Sea & Two Stars Burning Sun

Split with Driving the Stake