Snowing - Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit (Demo)

Snowing are a Pennsylvania-area band that play math-tinged emo in the vein of Cap'n Jazz, placing emphasis on smooth melodies and whirling, instrumental chaos, replete with light, winding guitar riffs and pained, throat-scraping vocals. Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit is a 5-song demo which was released by the band earlier this year, and although a demo, it has an orchestrated passion to it that far more experienced outfits would be hard-pressed to match. From the impassioned euphony of opener "Sam Rudich", to the fiercely energetic "Important Thngs (Specter Magic)", to math-influenced closer "Methuselah Rookie Card" , the group showcases an intriguing collusion of technicality, melody and emotion, a blend that is as much already realized as it is brimming with potential.


This is a must-listen for anyone who's a fan of Tim Kinsella, or even just 90's indie/emo in general.

Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit

Best of 2008: #13. Adebisi Shank - This is the Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank

Foreword: Due to the density of albums being presented over the upcoming weeks, I won't be posting links with them. If you want a link for any of the albums shown, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

(Note to self: insert clever quip relating to how Adebisi Shank refer to themselves in the third person in their album title. You find this original and highly entertaining, and wish greatly to exploit this original sentiment to keep you from having to think of an introduction that isn’t gently laid on a platter for you.)

I first found out about Adebisi Shank from an excellent mixtape posted down at Hardcore for Nerds, chronicling the strongest alternative acts in Ireland. The song “Horse”, off the band's debut EP This is the EP of a Band Called Adebisi Shank, was one of the most noticeable songs off the playlist, and I was instantly hooked. Their debut album was released a couple of months later, and while it only clocked in at a meagre twenty-four minutes (for a full-length anyway), making it only seven minutes longer than their first EP, it still managed to be one of the biggest surprises of the year.

Adebisi Shank is either a punk band playing with complex time signatures and a strong sense of technicality, or a math rock band with a vigorous punk flare, depending on how you look at it. But however you choose to look at it, what Adebisi Shank deliver here are eight songs of pure adrenaline rush. An overwhelming energy radiates from this album, with the band playing with such speed and prowess that you’d be hard-pressed not to enjoy it. The song-writing is just as consistent in this sense; there’s not a song in sight that you wouldn’t be commanded to tap your foot to, if not outright make you get out of your seat and dance along with. The band utilizes quick, darting guitar riffs, intertwined with equally complex bass lines, to weave a musical tapestry that is both memorable and captivating, a rare feat for a math rock band. This is all backed up by strong rhythmic drum work that grounds the guitars, allowing them to roam free without turning the final product into a barely coherent mess. All in all, this is one of the most excitingly fresh releases of 2008. Don’t let it pass you by.

this has been the capsulated review of a band called Adebisi Shank. hah… get it? ‘cause that’s a play on the album title… yeah.

Giraffes? Giraffes! - More Skin With Milk-Mouth

Giraffes? Giraffes! - More Skin With Milk-Mouth


Been in a math rock mood over the past few days, and from the bands I've listened to so far, this has been my favourite from the bunch. From their myspace page:

Ken and Joe grew up in Massachusetts.

Even though they had never met, they both enjoyed the same amusement park. They both liked a ride called the Rotor. You would stand inside the Rotor and it would spin and you would stick to the wall and the floor would drop.

Joe once saw someone puke on the Rotor and it stuck to their face until the ride slowed down. Other names for the Rotor are the Gravitron, the Twister, the Vortex, the Turkish Twist and the Starship 2000. Have you ever seen The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups)?

Ken has never seen anyone puke on the Rotor.

Joe and Ken first met while going to college in New Hampshire. Ken studied music, while Joe studied literature.

They drank coffee and talked about the theory that whales were once sea creatures and they evolved into wolf-like creatures that ran on land, but they didn’t like it so they evolved back into sea creatures and eventually became huge fucking whales.

They formed a band.

They can both play guitar and drums, but in Giraffes? Giraffes! Joe taps and plucks while Ken taps and hits.

Ken and Joe and their very nice and very attractive girlfriends moved to Santa Cruz, California. They like it there. It’s nice outside.

Giraffes? Giraffes! released their debut album “SUPERBASS!!!! (black death greatest hits vol. 1)” in December 2005.

They’ve played some fun shows with Hella, Erase Errata, Make Believe, The Advantage, Ecstatic Sunshine, Growing, Shoplifting and billions of other really great bands.

Loves in Heat records released the new Giraffes? Giraffes! album “More Skin With Milk-Mouth” on December 8th, 2007.

That explains their background better than I could, and in the process, introduces you to the insane, rambling style of which the band is accustomed too. And really, Giraffes? Giraffes! is a hard band to categorize, and math rock is a hard genre to adequately describe, so let’s cut this short. There’s incredible instrumental proficiency on display here, and a surprising amount of melody underlying the technical assault. The guitars function almost as keyboards at times, incredibly smooth in sound, utilizing a number of effects while refusing to waste a moment in between chord transitions. The drums are just as effective, providing a frantic disposition on which the melodic foundation of the guitar is laid.

And… huh.

With “More Skin With Milk-Mouth”, Giraffes? Giraffes! create a fun, explicitly technical album that reads like a string of musical non-sequiturs rather than anything willing to take itself seriously. It’s weird, exciting, and provides almost 30 minutes of quirky, frenzied math rock brilliance. To give it any more thought than that would almost be to do a disservice to the playful nature of the band and album in question.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!