Hot Water Music - Finding The Rhythms

Y'see, like an unhealthy amount of emo-oriented stuff I write about, this album was a recommendation straight from Andy Radin's fourfa.com page. I realize how limited that makes my scope of the "genre" seem, but to rebut any potential criticism (or snarkiness), I've spent well over a year slogging through a literal fuckton of emo bands NOT mentioned on his site - everywhere from Turnip, Sweater Weather, Closure, Fingerprint, Agna Moraine's Autobiography, and Owltian Mia to a zillion others - and trust me, the stuff he points out is indeed the cream of the crop. There's definitely a mass of bands that I'd rate just as highly that he doesn't touch upon, but really, you couldn't get a much better introduction than Radin's site.
Speaking of sentences conveying information, there's pretty much no way you're unfamiliar with Hot Water Music if you're reading this blog right now. Hell, even if you've never heard a single HWM song, you've still undoubtedly encountered a band or six who draw heavily upon their sound. If I had to make a list of the most influential post-hardcore units of all time (ie the groups that spawned the most imitators), these guys would sit comfortably amongst groups like the most revered of the SST Records stall, Fugazi, Naked Raygun, Quicksand, Sunny Day Real Estate, and the band with most belated explosion of mimics, Cap'n Jazz. Look up the hilarious new term, "twinkle daddies" for elaboration on that last one, by the way.
For all the uninitiated:
Hot Water Music are a four piece from Gainesville, FL who formed in '93, broke up in '96, reformed the next year, persisted 'til '06, broke up again, and came back again in '08. I think it's safe to say that when they finally break up for good, the impact might take a few years to finally hit us. The band's sound consists of dual gruff vocalists weaving in an out of each others' shouted declarations with juxtaposing tones (even lyrics, occasionally) against a backdrop of busy percussion, really warm and pretty basslines, and crunchy, melodic, and sometimes dissonant guitar interplay. They're probably most revered for their presence amongst the early 90's emocore bands, but have influenced tons and tons of pop-punk and post-hardcore bands, too.
Also, they've been officially knighted by the punknews crew.

Finding The Rhythms is the first LP length release by the band, and is a mash-up of their Eating The Filler 7", the split with Swivel Stick, a few compilation songs, and what I believe were 6 newly recorded tracks (tracks 1,2,4,5,6,7). I could be wrong about some of that, but whatever. Oh, and for clarity, it's the 12 track CD version I'm talking about, not the 10 track original LP version. It's also the first "album" by the band that I checked out, and for the most part, still contains my favorite songs they ever wrote. Just listen to tracks like "The Passing", the amazing "Counting Numbers" and "Practice In Blue", the more traditional pop-punkiness of "Floor", and the anthemic power of the 6+ minutes "Eating The Filler". As testament to how consistently great of a compilation this is, it actually seems more relevant to point out the few flaws it has than try to pick highlights. For example, while "Incisions" is a really great song, it's unfortunately vocally led by bassist Jason Black. While Black is probably the single band member who completely sells their sound for me with his incredible basslines, his singing voice is pretty goddamn bad. I know it's funny to criticize someone in this band's singing voice when both leads are almost totally incoherent, but his clean, whiny warble really doesn't do it for me. "Present" is the only song on here that could've been completely cut, since when it's not meandering, it sounds way too "tuff" and boring, especially in the wake of "Recliner". Other than that, I've always felt "Arms Can't Stretch" was a little too long for how few parts it contains, but it's by no means a bad song.
Check out this awesome clip of "Floor" from '95:

Way too many people bypass this collection for their later, more revered work, but if you're a fan of this band, or even just curious about all the hype, you absolutely need this. It's not perfect, but the best songs on here more than make up for any flaws. If you're a newcomer, follow this up with Fuel For The Hate Game and No Division, which are both equally great full lengths.

Jawbreaker - Unfun

If I was someone else, I'd comment on how integrated I am with this album, and as such, a purely objective review might be difficult to accomplish. Unfortunately, my reviews are intelligible at best, so let's not pretend my relation to this album will make this post any worse. I know I've mentioned it before, but mid-high school, I transitioned out of a 2-year strong, pure grind/death/crust/powerviolence "phase" using early emo as my aeroplane. Man I hate that song. "Music Is My Aeroplane", I mean. Was that the Red Hot Chili Peppers? Bleeeeaaahhhh. But yeah, somehow I stumbled upon emo as a non-putrid cultural force and became completely enamored with it. Being a soggy sack of angst at the time, the emotional chord changes, introspective lyrical matter, and raw vocals were just the outlet I was looking for, and shortly thereafter, I found Andy Radin's "fourfa" website.
As such:

"Jawbreaker - Unfun and Bivouac LP/CDs. Beautiful, angsty pop-punk with a huge minor-key edge, deep, incisive lyrics that cut right to your soul, and a keen sense of when to relax, when to build up, and when to just blast it out at full power and scream."

Pairing that descriptor from the "emocore" page with my friend Tess' name-drops of the band, I figured tracking down Jawbreaker's discography was in my best interests. Oddly enough, I found a copy of Unfun just a week after in the used bin at ye olde corporate music megastore, "and the rest is history". I don't know why, but that cliche has always annoyed me. The "history" includes me listening to the album in question constantly for several months on the bus, at work, during lunch, and whenever else. While the music here is definitely indebted to the emocore sound from DC hardcore's wake, it's real significance for me lies in making pop-punk finally seem like an appealing concept. Unfun is simultaneously the most gruff and the most bouncy thing in the band's catalog, and sounds sorta like the template for every non-folk punk band you hear labeled as "orgcore" nowadays. If you're partial to that gritty, soulful, melodic punk style and don't have this, make it a priority to procure a reissue while you can. Remember a few years ago when Hot Topic was going to be the sole purveyors of this album's reissue? It's hard to believe, but that was actually on the table for a while. Oof.

Unfun is an incredible batch of songs, though; every track is fantastic, with the opener ("Want") being the first love song I ever really related to. Songs about heartbreak or infatuation are one thing, but a song about shyness and a desperate need to articulate your feelings about someone really hit me hard at the time. I feel like I should also mention that Jawbreaker has a knack for throwing in long, built-up, instrumental endings to some of their songs ("Fine Day" and my favorite, "Busy", for example) that really enhance the songs more than closing with a chorus ever could. Also, Samiam totally burgled that concept from this album. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't steal the songwriting capabilities with it. AW SHIT. IN THE RAW. But its all really accessible up until the B-side opens with the darker "Softcore" and "Driven", but they grow on you with a few listens.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zyzy5cdy00w

I'm not sure if I'd call this my favorite Jawbreaker album (it's admittedly difficult to decide considering Bivouac and 24 Hour Revenge Therapy exist), but it's definitely up there, with or without the buckets of nostalgia I hung off it. I don't know why exactly, but this always felt like the band at their most honest and straight-forward. I can't exactly supply examples to support this claim, as it's sort of a vibe, but maybe you'll notice it too if you're familiar with the rest of their albums. Plus, whenever I've talked about how much I like this album, people tend to use the word "underrated" to describe it. If you're desperately seeking indie cred because only superficial bullshit can validate you, this is your Jawbreaker of choice. Or the Busy EP, I guess. ONLY the Busy EP.

Oh. Did I mention the lyrics? They're good. Read 'em I guess.

Reach Out - s/t 1994

Back in my mid teens, I found myself in my first and last incarnation as a musical purist. From the second half of 8th grade all the way through to the Winter of 10th, the BPMs had to exceed a jillion, the vocals needed to sound excreted, and distortion on the guitars had to be reminiscent of that deafening crunch you that rattles your eardrums whenever you begin chewing a mouthful of corn flakes. It wasn't until I was halfway through my 17th year that I finally began to break from the strict agenda of crust-powerviolence-grind and explore "emo" and its subsets. For whatever reason, I was fascinated by the fact that this recently popularized term was not birthed through ex-mall goths and scenesters, but by the limited creativity punks elicited in dubbing genres over 2 decades ago.
I guess it was probably because I had been feeding the directionless anger of my youthful soul while utterly emaciating my angst, but I took to this stuff with obsessive vigor, and hoarded everything I could find from the first, second, and third waves of the genre. Reach Out's s/t EP was one of the first pieces I picked up, and still one of my absolute favorites.
As Andy Radin put it, these guys play "hardcore emo", which is basically hardcore punk filtered through second wave emo with a lot of pained shrieking, chaos, and melody. It might be easier to hop over to fourfa.com though if you're looking for a more in-depth explanation.
Anyway, Reach Out were a Californian 5-piece that existed between 92' and 93' who ended their career on an incredibly high note with this self-titled posthumous EP. Unlike other bands in the gene pool like Heroin, Coleman, Three Studies For A Crucifixion, and Angel Hair, the discordant, chaotic, essences of the genre (as well the hardcore song structures) were more like mere aspects of Reach Out's style rather than the foundation. There's enough sensory overload here to keep you happy (especially in the vocal department), but disarmament never seems to be the intent of the songs. If anything, the four tracks on here, regardless of length, sound epic and grandiose without ever getting too cheesy and overstated. The vocals are primarily delivered in a desperate rasp, and are accompanied by those super-high pitch squeals (think Venus And Bacchus-era Saetia) we all love, and some clean narrative stuff just to saturate the EPIC aspects.
It's occurring to me now that I definitely don't possess the literary prowess to claim these guys as a hardcore band, then refute the sovereignty of the term to describe these guys properly. Also, that last sentence sounded really pretentious for some reason. Perhaps because it was. Or maybe it just didn't make much sense. Here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?6r46nh4thoqz7c2

This is the rip from the emoisdead mediafire page, but I split up the songs into their intended 4 tracks instead of two. It's definitely the best sounding version I've found, with most of the others completely nullifying the squeaky vocals and burying the narrative portions.

EDIT: Uploaded at last.