Inso Grey - Demo (1996)

    Inso Grey was a hardcore band from Kalazmazoo, Michigan. Purveyors of fine Michigan wierd-core; Inso Grey made some seriously impassioned songs. With lyrics that came straight from high school journal pages, vocalist Marisa Cooke projected them into their sound with the utmost emotion and intensity. 

    You could compare them sonically to Michigan contemporaries Constantine Sankathi, Mainspring and Current but the vocals really remind me of The Lazarus Plot, or the more recent band Journal. All in all they put out a solid seven song demo, with two of those songs going on to grace the Anima Food Not Bombs compilation 12". There is not a lot of material to listen to but its a worthwhile listen nonetheless!

Bandcamp

Demo 1996

Lyburnum - Demo (1995)

    Lyburnum was a hardcore band from Scottsdale, Arizona. Active only for a couple years in the mid 90s, the band released a demo tape and featured on two prominent hardcore compilations. Lyburnum played with a number of influential bands like; Groundwork, Antioch Arrow, Angel Hair, Evergreen, Julia, Unwound, Portraits of Past, Clikitat Ikatowi, Still Life, Policy of 3, Floodgate and Current. 

    Despite taking their name from Moss Icons titular 1993 LP, Lyburnum did not share the same introspective and artful sound as Moss Icon. Rather having a chaotic, shredding, twisted and heavy sound comparable to the likes of Three Studies For A Crucifixion. If you have any leads on the 2 missing tracks from the demo (Librarian and Closure) please let us know. Any other information or ephemera on the band (pictures, posters etc) would be greatly appreciated as well.

Demo (missing 2 tracks)

Amnesia Compilation

Demo Tape 1995

Amnesia Compilation 1995 (Ebullition)

Back From The Dead Motherfucker Compilation 1994 (Wooden Blue)

Harmony Set - Demo (2001)

     Harmony Set was a short lived screamo band from Boston, Massachusetts. In their brief time together, the band played one show, released 17 demo tapes and a few CDrs with bonus tracks. After a long search I managed to track down a full rip of the 4 song CDr that sounds much better than the bitcrushed mp3s that were floating around before. These 4 songs were recorded with Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios. Only 17 of these tapes where made for their one and only show at the "fuck fest" in New Bedford, my copy is #14! Harmony Set fit right in on the cusp of the burgeoning 00s "screamo" scene, with long drawn out build ups and explosive and emotional breakdowns. They certainly carved out their own unique niche despite only having 3 or 4 songs, all of which are worth checking out.

Heres a funny little excerpt I found on another blog post about Harmony Set:

    "They made their dramatic entrance to the community center around 6pm approximately, minutes before their scheduled time-slot. A few of them were wearing fur coats, everyone had on some degree of mascara, eye shadow, lipstick. The kids were a little taken back. No one really knew what to expect at the time. People knew the face and the sleeves and the backstory, but the last thing they heard, musically, was thoroughly streetpunk. The default opening of extended feedback was noteworthy because during this intro the members of the band kissed each other on the lips before launching into their first song. If memory serves me correct (and I can't say this with 100% certainty after nearly 12 years) that first song was "Porcelain." Hear attached. One thing I remember vividly, was the overall "WTF" look on the faces of the kids in the crowd at the time. Besides the 10 or so devotees in the very front, the audience was genuinely perplexed. "The kids like us will be alooooonnneee foreverrrr (together)" in Edgar Allen Poe vocals, turned off more than a couple hardcore for hardcore's sake heads instantly. During the frantic 4th-generation Antioch Arrow derivative riffage that followed that emotional breakdown, Gibby hoisted the mic-stand up in the air and through the ceiling of our community's only all-ages venue. As if things couldn't get any more controversial. The song finished as it rained down debris of chalky particle board. This lovely girl, Katie, who was working the door and doing most of the leg-work to keep the show organized and running smoothly was driven to tears for the 2nd time in as many days. There was a brief pause in the proceedings as the owners of the place were made abreast of the development and for a moment we were certain the show was over "foreverrrrrr!" Of course, the space was packed to capacity like it had never been before in the 3 year history of having shows there. And since money talks, the show went on." 

Demo CDr

Demo Tape/CDr 2001

.the.stars.wept. - ST CDr (2002)

    .the.stars.wept. was an emo/melodic metalcore band from Edmonton, Alberta. The band served as a side project for members of the Edmonton metalcore group Compromise, which also included musicians from 7 Angels 7 Plagues and Misery Signals. Tragically, while the band was touring in Georgia, a drunk-driving accident claimed the lives of two members in 2002 (R.I.P. Jordan Wodehouse and Daniel Langlois). .the.stars.wept. is a must-listen for fans of the aforementioned bands and is a shining example of the early 2000s melodic metalcore sound. 

ST CDr

ST CDr (2002)

The Alex P. Keatons - Demo (1998)

    The Alex P. Keatons was a hardcore/punk band from Calgary, Alberta who released one tape in 1998. Unfortunately little is known about this band, but they ripped. You can hear their vast potential on their one and only release; which is full of fast-paced, upbeat rhythms with shrieked vocals that border on screamo. The Alex P. Keatons took obvious influence from regional anarcho-punk bands like Propaghandi and Submission Hold, while still maintaining the "emotional" sound that was popular in Calgary at the time.

    Their sole release shows a diverse range of genres meshed into something that really works to create an unforgettable sound. For lack of a better description, their music sounds like 80s hardcore meets 90s hardcore and somehow they join to make something great. Always blows my mind to discover great bands like them from my own city. I feel so lucky a lot of this music has been preserved by amazing resources like the Calgary Cassette Preservation Society and CJSW radio station. Without their efforts, a lot of this music would be lost to time and someone like me would never be able to find it. 

    Along with Joule and The Corta Vita, The Alex P. Keatons is one of the bands that really got me into Calgary's history with punk music. Being from the city, I never really expected to discover an "emocore" DIY scene within my own home. Albeit long gone now, a lot has changed within the local scene (some for the best some for the worst), but it was very enlightening to discover my own city had something to offer back in the day. 

    If anyone has any more info about The Alex P. Keatons, don't hesitate to send a message to us! We would be very interested to hear anything and everything about them as well as add it to the blog post!

Turmoil Cassette

Turmoil Cassette 1998 (Mr. T Records)

Ten Boy Summer - Biography (1993-1994)

When people talk about emo music it's bands like this that they should be bringing up.  Screaming and crying.  Lots of screaming, but not without giving space to melodic and slower sections.  Ten Boy Summer formed in the spring of 1993 from the ashes of Leaving.  Lonewolf, the singer of Leaving, left the band and was replaced by Shimme who's band Business As Usual had recently come to an end.

The band name came from a book that Davey found at a second-hand store he worked at with Shimme.  Coincidentally the shop was owned by a certain Mrs. Garfield who would sometimes tell the boys about her grandson Henry who "also played music".  What music was that?  Oh, just Black Flag.  That's right - Shimme and Davey worked for Henry Rollins' grandmother...

The original book

The bassist, Anthony, moved to Minnesota not long afterwards and was replaced by Pete from Buried.  Pete also played bass, and he had a van, so that worked out pretty nicely.  The band lived together at the famous Milwaukee punk house at 2143 South Mound Street.  The band would rehearse and record on a 4-track Tascam portastudio that Pete rented in the basement of the Mound House along with contemporaries such as 309 Chorus/or was it Animal Farm?.  TBS would play a small tour and number of shows in the midwest before going further west in the winter of 1993-'94.  The band would play their final show in January of 1994 in Chicago, IL.  One memorable show, recalled by Pete, was in someone's living room:

Pete: the guy who lived in the house had a pet ferret, and at one point it somehow ran up Shimme's pant(sic) leg, like on the inside!  I think he had to pull his pants down to get it out.

During the band's short, but loud existence they recorded a handful of songs in that basement which they would send out to book shows and shared between friends of the band.  Only one song would ever see wax; released posthumously on Gregg Bateman's Food Not Bombs benefit compilation alongside the likes of Current, Franklin, Indian Summer, and other good company.  The band's page in the booklet reads more like an epitaph:

ten boy summer is upset with the seasonal transitions and vulgar bends in our spines.

Shimme went on a road trip after their final show in Chicago and when he came back the moment had passed.  Ten Boy Summer was over.  Davey went on to join Cap'n Jazz and eventually, after Ceilishine ended, he formed a new band you might have heard of with Scott and Dan along with Jason from Noneleftstanding.  The rest is history.

 

Listen to the band's 4-track demo here.

There were more rehearsal recordings made, and other songs written.  Those tapes may or may not be digitized in the future.

The official, unofficial demo release.

(one of Greg Inchworm's mixtapes)