Jazz Man's Needle was a hardcore/math rock band from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. They perfected the angular, moody and emotional style of hardcore that was popular in Pennsylvania at the time (I Am Heaven, Seraphim, Elements Of Need etc..). Jazz Man's Needle had a host of dark, spidery and explosive songs in their discography and they are one of my favourite hidden gems of the 90s D.I.Y hardcore scene. The songs "Sheep" (from the Mayfly Comp CD) and "Untitled" (from the BDS split) are regular mixtape go-to's for me. I really love the diversity of the bands on both of the CD comps they are featured on.
Information on this band is incredibly scarce and I rarely hear anyone mention them, which is a shame, I wish more people would give them the time of day. One of my earliest blind buys, when I first started collecting this stuff, turned out to be the excellent Big Daddy Shotgun / Jazz Man's Needle split; it was one of the first records that I digitally transferred and put up on youtube because I could not find the Jazz Man's Needle track anywhere online.
Anyways, if anyone knows more about this band, has live footage or has contact info for the members, let me know!
Sleeping Body was a hardcore band from Fort Worth, Texas.
Sleeping Body was probably the most underrated, yet influential band on Vermin Scum Records roster. As one of the early pioneers of the chaotic and dissonant genre that is now known as "screamo", they treaded new ground in the Hardcore scene and made some incredible and compelling music. They sound stylistically similar to Honeywell, with raspy screams and chaotic off-beat energy, while being a lot less influenced by noise. Every song they made is original and refreshing, this band is the real deal.
Sleeping Body is one of the bands that MMR would not review because they weren't "punk" enough, which I think is hilarious as they were obviously pushing the envelope at the time and perfecting the chaotic nature of hardcore to come. I really love the writing in the 7" and the ranting on the live tape, it doesn't get any more punk than that. There is rumoured to be a couple of unreleased songs from the 7" session, hopefully the members of the band will release those at some point, as I see they are on Instagram now.
Anomie was an emocore band from Orléans, France that was active throughout the 1990s, releasing a discography CD/tape in 2001. Their releases consist of a 12" split with Peace Of Mind, a self-titled 12", a split 7" with Peu Être, a limited edition self-titled cassette and conclusively, the discography CD/tape. Anomie started as Escape and ended as An-Atta. Members of Anomie also went on to form Cromwell O and Aside. When the band formed, their drummer was only 13 years old.
Anomie is without a doubt one of the coolest bands I have ever listened to. Their perfect concoction of hardcore, punk and emo influences work together flawlessly to create music that is almost addicting to listen to. Kathleen Simonneau's vocals are seething with rage and passion and for good reason too, Anomie's releases never skimped on important political info with feminist excerpts about the lack of diversity and acceptance of women in the hardcore scene. The issues raised in their inserts and booklets are ones I find to be sadly still very relevant and true today in the hardcore music scene.
Anomie is not one of those bands that you have to listen to a few times before you get into them, they are a band that instantly click if you're into hardcore music, so rhythmic, and powerful, not too polished but not too raw, and so filled with passion. In my opinion Anomie is one of the most truly punk bands I've ever come across.
Kathleen Simonneau of the band also started Ape Records, a label that released much of Anomie's work as well as lots of other great punk and hardcore such as Autonomia Indigena and Escape. If anyone has that Escape demo, let us know!
