GonnaFlunkScience

Malon

Genre: Emo/Screamo

For Fans Of: I Hate Myself, French In Van, Merchant Ships, Old Gray

Matt kind of took the words right out of my mouth. The semester is almost done so that means we will get our grades back and see our science grades. Needless self promotion, I got a big boy internship pretty much doing the same thing I do here, except I can’t swear, as well as busy with school work so, yeah, excuses. I am actually at my internship right now. I’ve been wanting to throw these guys up here since I got their final full length, “Portraits of Dying”. 

I never listened to Malon before “Portraits”, but as soon as I started listening to it I couldn’t stop. The entire thing is fucking ridiculous. Stupid sad and emotional, littered with dope soundclips, like the last song with a clip from Little Miss Sunshine when Dwayne finds out (spoiler) he can’t go to flight school because he is color blind and blows a gasket. Or in “Shitty Art” with a That 70’s Show clip. Shit gets heavy. “Shitty Art” in particular is ruthlessly sad. Homeboys are just screaming their heads off at the end of the song, while I am huddled in two blankets shivering. 

They go back and forth between clean screamo, emo, heavy fucking screamo, and keep on cycling back and forth. So it’s a versatile release. The record is nine songs and will probably make you want to rip your own heart out and draw a picture, or convulse with how pretty it can be. Especially with their song “Pretty Art”. It’s instrumental, but the sound clip they use rips your emotions to shreds. Seriously. If you’re not shitting yourself with sad by the end of the song, maybe just don’t listen to the rest of the album. Except listen to the rest of the album. Because it’s so worth it. It sucks that this is their last release and then they are breaking up. I would have loved to see them play. I haven’t gotten a chance to listen to the rest of the stuff, but I am pretty confident it will be good. They have a new band according to their Facebook, Nayru, so check that out too. I am not sure if they have music up yet, so keep a look out. This final release is seriously awesome, so give it a listen. Maybe have tissues handy. Tight.

Download or Buy “Portraits of Dying”: http://malon.bandcamp.com/album/portraits-of-dying

Download or Buy “Reverie”: http://malon.bandcamp.com/album/reverie

Download or Buy Malon / Avari Split: http://malon.bandcamp.com/album/malon-avari-split

Youth Novel/Marseille

Genre: Emo/Screamo and Lo-Fi
For Fans Of: Tiny Moving Parts, Old Gray, Alex G, Julia Brown, IDK

In this post, i’m going to talk about two different musical projects made by the same people/person. Youth Novel and Marseille, which is a solo thing by John from Youth Novel. The reason i’m doing this is because Youth Novel only has two songs, and Marseille has a 4 song EP little guy, and i figured i might as well combine them so you can peep a bunch of good music at once. All of it is fantastic.

So Youth Novel is a rather young emo/screamo band from Michigan. Pretty sure all the dudes are still in their teenz. But the youth doesn’t translate into the music at all - the lyrics are very elaborate and well-written, as well as the simple but very effective song structures. The two dudes who sing/scream have great voices as well. And not to mention the really excellent A+ great job production quality on the two songs. I also really like the chords these guys use. Cool stuff.

Then there’s Marseille, the solo effort of John from Youth Novel. I just found this thing sometime this week and i’m super into it. I’m a huge sucker for lo-fi, and this is dripping in it. Soaked in nostalgia. He does the elliott smith panned vocals thing, and the harmonies, and the lo-fi casio key shit, and the circling guitar parts. It’s really great. The vocal melodies are so effing cute. The songs are mad short too, which is fine by me; most of the songs are really great “mood-setters” and I really appreciate that. I hope you all appreciate this music too. Great tunes coming from some young bucks who seem to have a promising musical future ahead of them.

Download Youth Novel: http://youthnovel.bandcamp.com/
Download Marseille: http://themarseille.bandcamp.com/

Father Figure

Genre: Screamo
For Fans Of: Innards, Marital Roles, Knowing We’ll Never Grow Up

Matt reviewed Father Figure’s first release a little bit ago, and a week or two ago they dropped a new 5 song EP that ripped my face off, so I decided to throw it up here. Father Figure is a screamo band from Texas for those who are unfamiliar. Everyone needs to get familiar.

I remember when I first bumped this in my living room with my roommate, the first song comes on, and the verse is just this groovy fucking bass part with just nasty, nasty vocals overtop. And we just waltzed. There was no other option. The chords used throughout this album are super weird and dissonant too. They are so tasty. Every musical facet of this thing is dope actually. The production quality of this record is cleaner than the first release, which had a harsh lo-fi sound to it, which wasn’t bad at all, but made it less listenable for some people I would imagine. This record, though still very visceral/chaotic/and harsh, incorporates a lot of really pretty musical interludes. To add to the “pretty” that I feel this album exudes, there are some (in two songs) vocal parts where singing is used, and quite beautifully I will say. It really adds that extra emotive umph that I think a lot of screamo benefits from. And speaking of a varying array of vocal parts, there are like two to three different screams on this album, all of which rule - they go from a mid-range throaty to an off-the-richter-scale banshee shriek that is more characteristic of their first release, which was super hectic and crazy for the most part.

In conclusion, I love this kind of screamo. Clean guits, pretty parts, a lil jazzy, a lil snazzy, and banshee shrieks. If you can get down with that, get down to this. Like, sad down.

Download or Buy “jumping off a building”: http://fatherfiguretx.bandcamp.com/album/jumping-off-a-building

French In Van

Genre: Screamo/Emo/Twink/Friendship

For Fans Of: Ape Up!, Make Me, Swedes, Merchant Ships

Matt is going to kill me for doing this post. French In Van, folks, is one third of GonnaFlunkScience’s (Matt’s) band. And fuck can they rip. Really well. I am talking those every time jams. Those jams that are pretty, and the jams that are hard. Seriously some awesome stuff. I don’t know how to do this post without showing the erection I have both for this band, and Matt himself, and just toot his horn to the extent that it’s concerning, so I am just going to go ahead and do that anyway.

The first time I saw these guys we were actually playing with them and it was their first show. And they blew everyone in the room away. They didn’t have music on bandcamp to listen to at the time, but by the end of the first song, everyone could tell this band was something special. When I heard the instrumentation I wasn’t expecting to hear the heavy and rough screaming. The guitar work they do is seriously some of the prettier rhythms and melodies I have heard in a long time. At times twinkly, and always driving. What I love about them is that, yeah, sure, they have twinkle elements to them, but the screaming and the overall skill of everyone in the band, as well as the composition of the songs, sets them apart, and they are a breath of fresh fucking air. They remind me of the screamo bands I listened to in high school. Bands like Swedes, Make Me, Raein, etc. These guys have the pretty screamo down, hard, and I can’t wait to listen to everything they come out with. They have a 3 song demo out called “two years” for free on bandcamp so snag that. Sorry Matt.

Download “two years”: http://frenchinvan.bandcamp.com/album/two-years

Suffix

Genre: Screamo

For Fans Of: Mahria, Age Sixteen, Lord Snow

I have been listening to this band a bunch. I am going to make this a slightly short post because I am having writer’s block, which does not bode well when you are already piss poor at describing bands. Suffix is super good. They have every harsh melody you are looking for in a screamo band, but also have melodic and pretty parts, all through distorted ass guitar tones. What is really noteworthy about this band is (I feel like I always say this. Oh, well) the vocalist. Her voice is penetrating. Visceral, clean, harsh and vulnerable all at the same time. It’s a treat listening to her versatile voice to the rough and clean melodies Suffix plays. Especially when the other dude screams over top of her. They sound like a more distorted Age Sixteen with a girl vocalist. Which should have all of you running for that download link immediately. I believe, but I am not sure, this band is now defunct, which sucks, but all their stuff is on their bandcamp for free which is nice. They had one full EP entitled “No Matter How Fast We Run”, a split with Beau Navire and two unreleased tracks that I just saw, also on their bandcamp, under the name “come at me bro” and they sound lo-fi and awesome. This is a solid band through and through. If you’re into any of the bands listed above, you will be into this band, really fucking hard. I can’t seem to stop playing and I hope you guys won’t either. Feast.

Download or Buy Suffix: http://suffixchicago.com/

Baron Noir

For Fans Of: Judoboy, Sed Non Satiata, Raein, La Quiete, Amanda Woodward, Ampere, L’antietam, etc.

Genre: Screamo

This is quick/dirty. Because Denmark. 

I guess for all you hyper-specifc (totally non-specific blog post) truists, this is like “real screamo” or whatever.  

Baron Noir was a french screamo band. Now defunct, they splittttuppp in January of 2007/played their last show in the February of that year. They were, however, pretty active for like 3 super explosive years, but it’s sort of a bummer when you look at how comparatively little they’d released. I wish there was more… 

They did a 6-song EP in 2006, l’époque exige de bons gestionnaires. Each song just totally charges its way through the album with this mind-blowing (actually mind-blowing, notajoke) amount of energy. It’s absolutely and completely everything you could probably ever want out of a screamo record.

Baron Noir exudes that same vibe you get from bands like Raein or La Quiete, so that’s pretty sick. It’s super high-energy, super melodic, way driving, incredible blending of everything. Plus, all of them are howling/yelling/”totally getting into it” in french… a nice time to practice your je ne sais blah. 

Plus, starting any release with a song named “plus chic que mon cadavre” is triple A+ in my book.

These six tracks deserve so much attention. This is everything I want in a screamo release. The end. 

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?a9bn4sj2q6jw14c

La Quiete

Genre: Screamo, Skramz

For Fans Of: Raein, Daïtro, Amanda Woodward, Dartz!

La Quiete started in 2000, in Italy. They play probably one of the prettiest and dead-on best types of screamo I know about. I don’t remember what my friend D said about them, but hopefully he likes them. I do know that they share(d) a drummer with Raein and one of the members was in a band called SCENA, but outside of that and the fact they’re beyond prolific, I don’t know enough to give like solid info.

But, since 2000, they’ve seriously done so much, like laundry list status. More splits and LPs than I have fingers. Including KC Milian, The Pine, Twist Orchestra, Louise Cyphere, seriously the list just keeps going.

If you haven’t heard them, don’t sleep on it. Like not at all. They play dead fast super melodic stuff. There’s driving buildups, dark twinkling stuff, aggressive squawking vocal. They switch between being sort of dark and subdued to loud and in-your-face. And I really don’t know how to much about them to really do much justice. 

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?27pz5cnbz26113b

Father Figure

Genre:  Screamy Scrappy Skramzy Screamo

For Fans Of :  Innards, мища, Matsuri, Two Knights, Via Fondo

Father Figure is a trio out of Denton TX with members from Innards and Two Knights. Tons of higher-pitched violent screaming vocal stuff. I think screeching’s the word. Not much to say. They have a 9 song/10 minute release. The title’s in Japanese but I think it translates to “Hand of Death” (死の手).

These dudes are pretty straightforward. I’m really into how tight of a sound they have, while still maintaining this relatively sloppy and noodly guitar sound. Also the gang vocals are killer. Also starting and ending the record with (what feels like) the same sample gives the whole album a pretty rad sense of closure. Every track packs a major boatload of punch. Heavy Cargo.

I bet D would be/probably already is into them. That guy’s like 16 miles ahead of every curve.

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?jcmlagoejqzocmw

Bandcamp: http://fatherfiguretx.bandcamp.com/

Todos Caerán

Genre: Skramz, Screamo

For Fans Of: Mahria/Funeral Diner/Daïtro/City of Caterpillar

As we all gorge ourselves on cookies and nog while simultaneously get force fed christmas jamz and deal with wacky family whatever, it’s good to remember that there’s still heavy melodic hardcore skramz. Real Good.

Todos Caeréan is an Alberta (Edmonton) based band that delivers some of the raddest most abrasive 90’s post hardcore/emo-inspired music. They really are “loud in loud parts and quiet in quiet parts”. So kudos for that. Their melodic parts feel like this dissections into minor chords. Thrashing vocals, driving beats, abrasive guitar work, melodic everything. Their ability to go from chaotic dissonance back into post-rock inspired melodic is impressive to say the least. It’s like these gradual buildups into screaming catharthis. So, if you ever had that thing for Indian Summer, City of Caterpillar, Daïtro, etc., Todos Caerán’s your chance to win it back.

Todos Caerán, aside from being really fucking good, are, I assume, pretty well-read. Their entire After Dark album, including the title track, took it’s name from a Haruki Murakami novel. They did the same William Gibson, Ursala Le Guin, and Neil Stephenson books. Aside from being pretty bold, it’s pretty sweet. I’m not sure but After Dark might start with someone reading from Murakami’s novel. 

This five piece has been playing since, 2006, hopefully with little intention of stopping for a while.  They’ve been involved in a boatload of splits, done euro-touring, have a lot for you to swim in. Definitely get into it. I started this past summer with their split with Mahria, and have since been in awe of the rest of their discography. Start with that, do whatever. It is all free on bandcamp, but you should use some of that christmas ca$h to buy their stuff. 

Don’t nog coma on this. Happy Holidays. Flunk Science

Bandcamp/Download: http://todoscaeran.bandcamp.com/

Tenants

Genre: Post-Hardcore/Metalcore

For Fans Of: State Faults, My Fictions, Maths

I have been listening to a whole bunch of hardcore, post-hardcore, screamo; pretty much anything that yells loudly in my face, I have been listening to it. I found these guys after perusing the bands which were tagged as “emo” on bandcamp and was pleased to have found them. Their screaming is fucking awesome, and the guitar works blends itself somewhere in the middle between post-hardcore with those heavily dissonant sounds and atmospheric parts, along with the big chord parts, but also goes over into these heavy, doom-y, metalcore sections that fuckin rule. Like at the end of the first song “Sunrise Over Dead Insects”, the song is entirely pretty, especially at the beginning, and then at the end it rips your rib cage open with a plunging guitar sound. It’s awesome. The metalcore aspects of the band are tasteful and not overused, rather utilized to give the band a great dynamic, as well as heaviness.

If you’re into bands like State Faults, where it can go from melodic, to straight up yell-y, to miserable, to downright dirty, Tenants should probably be something you download today/put on your holiday list. I’m listening to them as I write this post as I only listened to the first three songs of the five song EP (called Isolationism by the way) before going to write this post, and am only reaffirming myself how dope they are. The end of their EP with the song “Sundowning” is scream-y and bordering on gothic with the creepy screaming at the end. Definitely get into these guys. They scream a lot, and they’re heavy. Get into it.

Download or Buy “Isolationism”: http://tenantsri.bandcamp.com