Infro

For those who don't like to read: Infro may have perfected what post-hardcore should be.

Fuck, I really don't know what to write in this ultra boring first paragraph I always include for some reason. But man today is probably the most boring of all boring days. CS:GO is shaping up to be a fun time though, CS dominated my fucking teenage years like no other.

Onwards to Infro, and this is what I know about them: they play music. Yea, I'm too fucking lazy to research this shit. Well, I tried emailing them to ask them what they're up to, but none of them speak English and I know nothing in Japanese so that's a pretty shitty time (I start learning Japanese next week though!).

What can be said about Infro though, is that they're fucking music, and more so their full length, Melody, rip shit (that was a lot of commas). I'm going to go ahead and say this now: Melody is the prototypical post-hardcore album. Sure, they have their influences, but Melody itself is probably the best post-hardcore album to be put out in the past long fucking while. It has just about everything you'd look for, that perfect mix of singing and yelling, killer bass tone, and the fucking riffs man.

Infro - "屍にヒキガネ" live

I'm going to stop myself early though, because I felt a tangent coming along full force. It does remain though that Melody is currently one of my favorite albums, and will probably stick to being one of my favorites for as long as I remain. The rest of Infro's output is pretty awesome as well, but nothing they've done currently touches the shit kicking force of Melody (I does have a couple good songs though).

1st demo

Here Comes the Bottom Line 1

Infro & 4hou8pou split

Melody

I 

P.S. - That Here Comes the Bottom line link is the entire compilation. It rips shit though, and is definitely recommended.

alt of the society

For those who don't like to read: Emo/Hardcore band from Tokyo. They rip shit pretty hard.

alt of the society is:

■guitar AKIRA
■vo/bass toshiki
■drums kouta

Facebook Page

You know that feeling that you'll be ultra productive in something, but instead of getting shit done you just constantly think about doing it and how good it'll make you feel? Yea, that's how I've been here, I think that's called procrastination (with a side of the feel goods), but it's nothing out of the norm for me, as The Summer in Which I Hoped I Would Be Doing Stuff But Instead Have Sat on My Ass More Than Ever 2k12 rolls on. Guess that makes me one lazy motherfucker (I'm not denying it).

 I first heard alt of the society when Ryan at The Absent Trail blog sent me these files as "something I had to listen to." These songs are in fact, something you have to listen to. alt of the society's sound is pretty hard for me to pin down, they do the whole emo/hardcore thing (I feel like with a touch of Sora's focus on melodies in the softer parts). Trying to accurately describe this band is sort of making my head hurt a lot; they're different and they're good at playing different, ok?

Either way, I highly recommend that you download this and listen to it, it is one of the better demo/ep's that I've heard in the last while.

Here are some live videos to satiate your stupid thirst.

呼び掛ける声が消えて行く

Low-Pass - Trimurti

For those who don't like to read: Holy tits this is fighting for album of the year.

website

Low-Pass is:

takayuki.kanazawa
yasunobu.ono
hiroe.sannomiya

 So, Low-Pass. I'm having trouble thinking of a way to start this post off, so I'm just going to jump right into it:

HOLY FUCKING SHIT TRIMURTI IS REALLY FUCKING GOOD GUYS. Low-Pass play good ol' math-rock styled music. And now (and forever) when I think of math-rock, these guys will be the first band to come to mind. When I first tried getting into math-rock, I was seriously disappointed with what I was hearing (I ain't talkin about 90s indie/math-rock here). There just wasn't a lot of great song writing, and was a lot more "HEY GUYS, LOOK AT ME HIT MY INSTRUMENT WITH THESE COOL PEDALS MY MOM BOUGHT ME." Besides the Tera Melos/By the End of Tonight Split, most math-rock I heard just really sucks; learn to write an actual song.

And with that, Low-Pass basically shits on every band with incredible musicianship and awesome song writing ability.

I wish I could put it into words easily how great this band is, but every single member deserves a shout out for what they do. I don't really play guitar or drums at all, so even though I know that the two people who play them are without a doubt some incredible musicians, but I feel the need to comment on the bass player. Holy shit, this dude makes me feel worthless as a bass player. I guess I now have a life goal to learn this entire album on bass, although I'll probably never be that good because holy shit these dudes know how to fucking play.

If somehow, you listen to this album, and you aren't completely sold by the 2nd track, you probably just hate music as a whole.

Low-Pass - "Nitro" live

Trimurti

You can buy this for a lowly $4 from Keep It Together and Meatcube

Forget Me Not

For those who don't like to read: Oh god, Oh goddddddddd. So fucking good. No time to describe, just download.

Forget Me Not:

Ba/Vo: Masashi Ikeuchi

Gu/Vo: Tetsuya Matsumoto

Dr: Akinori Ikawa

So I haven't written anything in like two weeks. Weird feelings when you want to listen to music, but you feel your own sense of falling out within it. I mean, I'd put on a band, and be sort of into it, but I just wasn't feeling that same grab that I feel whenever I can truly just get into something. It's a weird and (for someone like me, who spends the majority of his lonely days listening to music) sort of eerie, discomforting feeling just not feeling that same emotional connection you always strive to achieve through the notes and noise.

Fortunately my shit got kicked right back in gear when I finally found (and received) my copy of the latest Forget Me Not CDep, "3つの終り." What a sonic force of getting fucked in the face this thing turned out to be. I mean, I've had the rest of everything Forget Me Not has put out, but this CDep, it is probably going to forever rank one of the greatest CDeps that my ears will ever hear. It's that crazy shit where a band, for 26 straight minutes, manages to play the most perfect music possible, all while doing experimenting in the process.

I mean, everything on this ep is on-fucking-point. From the tracks fading out, to fading back in, to the absolutely pinpoint precision of every time change, every shift in a song; Forget Me Not manages to nail every single on to fucking perfection. It's a rare quality to see such a unsettling ep (goosebumps feeling people) be released like this. I would call 3つの終り an experimental hardcore ep. Sure, it's not experimental in the sense of "Hey, look, we can make all these crazy keyboards with this cool Casio my parents bought me." and instead relies on 3 dudes sitting together and feeling music out with each other and playing what comes to heart most.

The chilling qualities come from how well this band gels together, these dudes have played together for a while (off the top of my head, 2007 was their first release, so probably before that), and these dudes know each other really well, it shows through the musical quality. The ebb and flow of every track is really, just shit, it's causing me to ramble. It's just straight up, some of the most quality, perfect music that I've heard in a long time.

Forget Me Not - "君の顔に映す" live

Now, this isn't to say that the rest of Forget Me Not's material can be ignored. It's just that 3つの終り is probably the most focused work they've put out to date. The rest of Forget Me Not's output revolves around the crazy experimental hardcore shit they do (I'd honestly say they have a 90s influence somewhere in their sound, but that's just me). And it's with all this shit, and especially 3つの終り, that allows me to crown Forget Me Not as one of my favorite bands. They're still around I believe, but I'm not sure if they're playing shows. I just hope they manage to release more music.

I'm pretty sure the rest of Forget Me Not's material is out of stock, but you can pick up 3つの終り from 1020distro. Just send Hideaki an email, he is a super, super, superrrrrrrrr nice dude. And order some other stuff from him as well, get a cheap demo, it'll probably kick ass!

Pictured: Forget Me Not "3つの終り" ridiculously awesome packaging. The CD is below the foldout poster. But no really, the case is way larger than a DVD case.

Side Note: Their drummer, Aki, runs Impulse Records. Impulse is seriously at the forefront of releasing the best stuff from Japan right now, so if you find any Impulse stuff in a distro, just go right ahead and order it. It'll most likely rip your face off.

3songsCDep

Doors (just FMN tracks)

Here Comes the Bottom Line (just FMN tracks)

3つの終り

The Because

For those who don't like to read: Newer Snuffy Smiles pop-punk band. So glorious, so good.

I haven't written much in the past two weeks. Instead I've been looking for a job, and I've found no success (Go America!). But this isn't my personal bitching station (or it probably is and you're all fooled into reading it hahaha sucks to be you guys), so uh, yea.

The Because are from Kyoto, Japan (or at least currently reside there). They're definitely in line soundwise with other bands apart of the Snuffy Smiles label (ya know, one of the best labels of all time). While The Because definitely do share musically with basically every band on their label, it still manages to be quite different. Where every other band is located squarely in the city of melodies and octaves, The Because focus a lot more on making jangly music (I think the "technical" term is hammer-ons and pull-offs, but I don't play guitar at all, bass, yada yada yada). Not only does it make The Because different from others, it also makes them fucking awesome because they do it so well.

The Because - "Boxcar" live. originally by Jawbreaker (if for some reason you don't know this song)

I also think it's worth mentioning that they have a female bass player, and she is cute (kawaii!) as fuck. The Because toured the US in 2009 around when they released their full-length, Get Out Through the Back Door, but I didn't get to see them because I fucked up and didn't know them. Hopefully they do it again (I've heard rumors of Gleam Garden possibly doing a US tour though. Oh boy!)

Basically, download Get Out Through the Back Door. Incredible full-length.

The Because/The Dauntless Elite Split 7"

The Because/One Reason Split 7"

The Because/Blotto Split 7"

Get Out Through the Back Door

Kolya

For those who don't like to read: Kolya was one of a kind. Will probably forever remain one of a kind.

Back to the US for one post (maybe more, I don't plan any of this stuff). I've loved Kolya for years now, and it is all because of just how different they were (then and now). Kolya really just was a band that were themselves throughout, no effects, just their instruments and voices.

The great thing about Kolya is how jangly and 90s their sound was. The guitar never went into a twinkly mode, but they never really relied on chords to flesh out the sound of their music (the bass also sounds fantastic, but the guy plays a fucking Rickenbacker). I don't know who wrote the music for this band, but they obviously had a clear sound in mind that only they could've thought of, and they nailed it to a T. The guitar relies much more on wallowing around, following the emotional response of the vocals that are being sung. Also, yet again, the bass playing is fucking phenomenal.

Kolya - "The Story Becomes the Vehicle"

The second, and much more highly impressive quality, aspect of Kolya's music was the vocals. Simply put, no one did that way, no one still does it this way, and christ can a band start copying Kolya? Both vocalists do a great job (especially on the final track of the LP, Horizons), but it all really falls on the shoulders of the guitar player. I don't know what it is, but the guy has an amazing tonal quality to his voice. This, along with the straight poetry reading of their lyrics (that La Dispute tries and invariably fucks up, because they're awful) make for one crazy combination, considering their lyrics are fucking incredible (when I'm back home I'll do a scan of the LP insert). Their ability to just to basically talk through songs in a poetic way is the most special thing about this band, except for the track La Machine est Morte, the vocals are fucking irritating on that track.

Kolya ended up releasing a demo, 2 7"s, and an LP during their time around. Their LP is a crowning moment of 90s emo music as a whole, a true statement to the best music being made (their LP came out in 2001 though, but who gives a fuck? Certainly not me.)

Demo

Iditarod 7"

Self-Titled 7"

Self-Titled LP

Parkmates

For those who don't like to read: This is gonna be a short post anyway. Really great pop-punk.

I always like to have a little bit of info about a band before I post about them. For Parkmates, that is pretty much impossible. They have a myspace, but there is only one picture of a turtle on it. Geocities is down so I can't check that. Pretty much nothing. Are they still together? No fucking clue. Do they have anything else other than this? No fucking clue. The pictures on the cover of this cd are them in all dressed up uniforms (maybe military uniforms? No fucking clue.).

What I do know though, is that Parkmates play some fantastic pop-punk. They list their influences as Jawbreaker, Crimpshine, Dillinger Four and Descendants; these influences really shine throughout the music. Basically if I had to peg them to anything musically, it would Snuffy Smiles and bandwise, I Excuse. I ended up buying this cd on a total crap shoot. I was buying quite a large order from Go Forward Keep Record distro (these dudes rule and speak english. If you wanna make a distro order, this place is one of the places to go) and as usual, they were out of quite a few things I wanted. I ended up selecting this cd randomly because I saw there influences and thought "Hell, why not?" Ended up not being too bad of a move. If you're into Snuffy Smiles, or in general, really great fucking pop-punk, take a swing at this album; you'll probably end up liking it. Also, the keyboards on the 4th track are awesome as shit.

And they're unknown. IMPRESS YOUR INTERNET FRIENDS WITH THIS GEM.

From the Square Closet to Your Rack or One of Dumps

edit: Well, apparently you can go to their geocities page through the myspace link on their website. The last update by them shows that they played some shows in April, and are most likely kicking it around.