Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Love Like... Electrocution

information:
Love Like… Electrocution was an incredibly influential emoviolence band from Adelaide, Australia. They existed, roughly, from 2002 to 2006. 

Members Garth, Dave, Brett, Tom, Rowan and Timmy practiced for a week before their first show and somehow managed to go through through four guitars, a microphone and a light fitting. They had another gig a few weeks later, then decided to record their first EP, "She Was Red Hot". 

They traveled to Melbourne for a weekend in early August 2002, returned and played around Adelaide for a few months before Tom (vocals) decided to leave the band and concentrate on his other band, St Alban's Kids, situated in Melbourne.

The release of their second record was in late May 2003 which collected five new tracks and the "She Was Red Hot" EP. The EP had sold out and was in demand so they decided to re-release it with new tracks as a full length.

Following significant lineup changes and local favor, they toured extensively throughout Australia with the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Bronx and Death From Above, and released a split EP with This Night Creeps to coincide with their New Zealand tour, before finally disbanding towards the end of 2005.

Something about this band just really does stand head and shoulders above nearly all others, hence why they are still (kind've) spoken about to this very day. A true cornerstone of the Australian emo lineage.

live footage:
1. N/A

discography:


title: Love Like... Electrocution - She Was Red Hot
release date: 2002
format: CD

tracklist:
1. With Horses In Her Eyes, She Spat Like A Wildcat
2. Hunger Like Numb Toes On An Oslo Sidewalk
3. Das Plague (French For Germans)
4. This Charade Has Lasted Well Past The Curtains Fall
5. The Tropics Of Cancer, Capricorn And A Smashed Face
6. The Graduate Walks With A Distant Gait

>>> ... Download ... <<<



title: Love Like... Electrocution - S/T
release date: 2002
format: CD & 12"

tracklist:
1. We Only Fuck To Black Sabbath Vol. 4.
2. Tips For Avoiding The Clap. 1. I Wouldn't Piss On A Scorpion If It Was On Fire.
3. Das Plague (French For Germans).
4. With Horses In Her Eyes, She Spat Like A Wildcat.
5. The Truth Of The Matter Is I Am Satan And On The Guitars We Have The Devils. This Is Devil Music.
6. Hunger Like Numb Toes On An Oslo Sidewalk.
7. The Tropics Of Cancer, Capricorn And A Smashed Face.
8. I May Have Cried A River For Him But He's No Depardieu.
9. This Charade Has Lasted Well Past The Curtains Fall.
10. We've Built Our Tombs And Now We're Sleeping In Them.
11. The Graduate Walks With A Distant Gait.

>>> ... Download ... <<<



title: Love Like... Electrocution / This Night Creeps - Split
release date: 2004
format: CDr

tracklist:
1. Love Always, Your Dearest Klaus Kinski
2. Drowning, In A Sea Of Pressed Shirts And Conscientious Suntans

>>> ... Download ... <<<



title: Love Like... Electrocution - Demo
release date: 2004
format: MP3

tracklist:
1. Love Always, Your Dearest Klaus Kinski
2. We've Built Our Tombs, Now We're Sleeping In Them
3. Upon Recovering, From My Last Bout Of Governmentality
4. In Bed For Months With Sat. Night Fever
5. Domicile Conjugal (Up And Down, In And Out)
6. Drowning, In A Sea Of Pressed Shirts & Conscientious Suntans

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources:

Bare Arms

information:
Bare Arms were a four-piece femme-fronted screamo band from the inner west of Sydney, Australia. They formed in mid-2008. One of the only quotes I could find online reads... 

"They were two boys and two girls. They were a band and acted as such."

They released one self-titled 5 track EP and appeared half a decade later on four way split compilation. May they rest in peace...

UPDATE 16/07/2024:

Bare Arms' first demo has been found! Thank you endlessly to Cam and the 'punk is dead and you're next' archive for your contribution.

live footage:
1. N/A

discography:


title: Bare Arms - First Demo
release date: 2009
format: CDr

tracklist:
1. First Song
2. Fast Song
3. The Rains
4. Wasting
5. Doom Song

>>> ... Download ... <<<


title: Bare Arms - S/T
release date: 2009
format: Mini CDr

tracklist:
1. The Refrain
2. In the End, We're all Dead
3. In Space and Time
4. Permanent Traumatic Stress Disorder
5. South Coast Line

>>> ... Download ... <<<



title: 97-Shiki / Bare Arms / Inquiry Last Scenery / Milvains - Four Way Split
release date: 2014
format: CD

tracklist:
1. Omar Comin'!
2. In The Words Of Kerry King
3. #06
4. Berlin

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources:

St. Alban's Kids

information:
St. Alban's Kids was a politically charged hardcore punk band from Adelaide, South Australia. They played a brand of chaotic punk that was quite unlike the majority of other outfits occupying that same niche. 

Subsequently, they seemed to have been a major influence on later Australian acts like My Disco and Love Like… Electrocution among them. There seems to be very little information still out there about the band and their brief run.

This is also one of the only examples of a band on this archive actually existing on Spotify... who would've thought... I have also managed to stumble upon their entire, un-edited manifesto in pure text form, once again, from the deepest corners of the internet. Please enjoy...

St. Alban's Kids was Lachlan Vercoe, Nicholas Burchett, Sean Bailey and Thomas McFarlane.

----------------

communique #1

Although eschewing any ‘essence’ in content, method or theory, st alban’s kids can be seen to be arranged around three basic ideas. First, there is a politics to all knowledge. Second, there are contested knowledges to all political practice. Third, the first two ideas can only be uncovered by challenging the taken for granted.

communique #2

St Alban’s Kids is situated outside the banal existence of playing for the sake of being heard or making noise for the sake of some synthetic dreams of stardom which are surely now way past their inevitable use-by date…

we exist because to not exist is to sit still and let someone else make the sounds, to sit still and let someone else  do the talking for us…

we exist because – in the same way that writing on toilet walls is  direct democracy – making this noise and screaming these words are living (as opposed to the inevitable process of simply being alive).

Taking our lives and our situation into our own hands we scream aloud in joint hymns of joy and pain, sadness and elation.

 Songs in the key of a residual frustration.

So we scream, because to not to would be to accept defeat in the face an all too defeated populace, and we scream because we need to. We need to… to get past this coma of stasis which has washed over us - delivering existential boredom relieved only within the shackles of a late capitalist directed repertoire of organised experience – screaming in the face of adversity, and using punk rock as the route away from passivity, the last screaming stage coach out of the alienation of living in ghost towns.

And within a context that soon turns summer’s kids into winter’s adults, we wrestle with the writhing corpse of an outdated model of youth enragement, corrupted beyond the point of recognition by the man trying to ride the kids to the top (like trying to ride a mule to victory in the Melbourne Cup if you asked us, but on we go).

St Alban’s Kids kills the man – squishes the scorpion - and in the process spits in his poisoned face with the full fury of contempt he so deserves. For the kids by the kids, because anything less would simply be to play into the hands of an enemy all too ready to sing us to sleep with the deadening repetitive mantra of a thousand hearts broken, a thousand backs stabbed, and a thousand lives gone by the wayside.

But this is not to a failure to recognise the role played by these audio opiates. Because we acknowledge that these make up our wall, and we’re leaning against it with all earnest. Without them where would we be. There were no Christians without the pagans, no good without evil, no Debord without the emptiness, no St Alban’s Kids without the disappointment of a thousand nights of meaningless music… thus in a similar fashion there is no us without them.

Syntax error embraced.

And so we thank them, because without them our platform would not be in place and the stage would not be set for the journey of St Alban’s Kids to begin … they have helped us define our true selves. We wholeheartedly call forth a rejection of the spectacle by stepping forth and creating our own experience –  transcending the rotting corpse –  another small movement towards supersession. Another small movement away from false representations. 

Stepping out of the boundaries of what we see before our eyes we move, and with that we have a movement. A movement which - far from being simple dialogue to set out yet more plans for further consumption – is based solely around the awkwardly revealing nakedness of primal experience….

And so St Alban’s Kids exists within the aesthetic of moving – no we’re not stuck with our feet concreted to the fucking ground  – this is the mapping out of our own experiential geography as we go…crying with regret for all the past mistakes and suffering, yet simultaneously laughing with raptures of joy as we create our own situation, worthy of all of the pain and desire; via the sounds that we make; via the avenue of punk rock, bypassing at all costs the highways of mediocrity.

Bridging the gap, presented by the dichotomy of a life spent twisting and turning in agony at the recognition of an existence filled with eternally unanswered questions (ambiguous multiplicity) and the sheer passion and excitement of the miracle of life as we know it, this is St Alban’s Kids. Two-stepping to the sounds of the inevitable conflict between the raw experience of a reconstructed supersession and the sedated warmth of the spectacle we embark upon a passage of punk rock mayhem.

Romance and mayhem. Can’t stop this train. 

live footage:

discography:


title: St. Alban's Kids - Demo
release date: 2001
format: CDr

tracklist:
1. Dialogue With A Consumer Product
2. Taking Pot-Shots At Dead Bodies
3. The Children Of Marx And Coca-Cola
4. Bridging Feldman And Foucalt
5. An Exercise In Self Affirmation
6. [Untitled]

>>>... Download ... <<<



title: St. Alban's Kids - Tales Of Late Night Excursions Into Urban Wastelands [A Political Economy Of Noise]
release date: 2002
format: Mini CDr

tracklist:
1. Dance On Road, Dance On Street, Dance On Face [An Introduction]
2. I Am Hiphop
3. Last Drinkers At The Modernist Hotel
4. The Children Of Marx And Coca-Cola
5. Barthes For Breakfast
6. And With That.... Summer's Kids Turned Into Winter's Adults
7. Seducing An Outdated Model Of Youth Enragement [Necrophilia! Necrophilia!]

>>> ... Download ... <<<



title: Off Minor / St Alban's Kids - Split
release date: 2004
format: 7"

tracklist:
1. Disthentic Penetration
2. When We Were Just Days Away From Illiteracy

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources:

Majorca

information:
Majorca was a screamo / almost emoviolence band from Melbourne, Australia. Incredibly little information about them seems to have stood the test of time. Furthermore, I can't seem to find any trace of their 2007 self-titled EP anywhere online. I will look harder one day...

Fortunately, there is a bizarre amount of live footage still available on YouTube - more so than any band I've covered so far. Their half of the split 10" with Eucalypt is sincerely worthwhile.

Majorca was James Clarke, Scarlet Viney, Tara Jayne and Zakky Pidd.

live footage:

discography:


title: Majorca - S/T [NOT YET FOUND]
release date: 2007
format: 7"

tracklist:
1. We Burn Our Words...
2. A Report:
3. Our Own Dead Ends
4. Better Left Blind
5. ...And Drown Our Passions



title: Eucalypt / Majorca - Split
release date: 2010
format: 10"

tracklist:
1. Fallen Structures
2. This Was Never Supposed To Be A Stepping Stone
3. Extinguish Our Voices
4. We're Losing More Than Just Time
5. New Tools For Old Escapes

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources:

Monday, April 29, 2024

James Dean

information:
James Dean were a four-piece post-punk/screamo band from Newcastle, Australia. The band was formerly known as The Let-Go!, albeit with a slightly altered line-up. 

They released a self-titled and self-produced CD-R, alongside a posthumous 7" on Hey Presto! Records. James Dean ceased to exist as of February 2008.

So far I can only find a single track from their 2007 self-titled, if anyone finds the rest please leave a comment!

live footage:
1. N/A

discography:


title: James Dean. - S/T
release date: 2007
format: CDr

tracklist:
1. In The Hospital
2. Turn This Iron Handle
3. With Our Head In Our Hands 
4. Shipwrecks
5. Ribbons 

>>> ... Download ... <<<



title: James Dean. - Across The Great Divide
release date: 2008
format: 7" + CDr

tracklist:
1. Across The Great Divide
2. Ulysses
3. In The Hospital
4. The Answers Are Buried In The Soil

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources:

Left Hand Cuts The Right

information:
Left Hand Cuts The Right were a three-piece post-hardcore band from Melbourne, Australia.

They played their 3 last shows at Click! Click!, The Arthouse and finally a Seaby house show in June of 2006. Footage has apparently been recorded from the last two shows, but has yet to be released.

Members went on to play in The Smith Street Band (bizarre). They only released two EPs, though I can't seem to locate track 2 on 'The Death Of Romance'. Regardless, please enjoy...

UPDATE 16/07/2024:

Left Hand Cuts The Right's demo EP has been found, alongside one other track of unknown origin. Thank you endlessly to Cam and the 'punk is dead and you're next' archive for your contribution.

live footage:
1. N/A

discography:


title: Left Hand Cuts The Right - Demo (+ Bonus Track)
release date: 200X
format: Unknown

tracklist:
1. Blue Eyes Black (Demo)
2. Second Song (Demo)
3. Fallen Autumn (Demo)
4. So This Is Goodbye

>>> ... Download ... <<<



title: Left Hand Cuts The Right - You Breathed Like Winter
release date: 2004
format: CD

tracklist:
1. Black Like Knives
2. Ambulance
3. Centrifuge Rationale
4. Fallen Autumn
5. Seconds Slept Like Hours

>>> ... Download ... <<<



title: Left Hand Cuts The Right - The Death Of Romance
release date: 2005
format: Mini CDr

tracklist:
1. You Break My Heart, I Break Into Song
2. Surrounded By The Living [NOT FOUND]
3. We Built Our Truths On Bricks And Repetition
4. The Scene That We Set
5. We Burn Today, We Burn Tonight, We Dream Romance

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources:

Orlacs Hände

information:
Orlacs Hände was a band from Brisbane, Australia who existed from 2006-2007. Their sole EP, a self-titled 6 track, laid dormant in near total obscurity for years, prior to 'tenzenmen' finally locating the master tracks for a CD reissue in 2011.

This is a really, really good EP. The instrumentation is lush, the songs are actually imaginative and the vocals are perfectly distant. This is a band I hope to see come back to life one day - I'm sure there are still people hanging around the Brisbane scene who could make it happen.

Also includes a the compilation track 'Hiding Hurts As Much' from the Emuzah Records: International Screamo Compilation - a deep, deep cut.

Please enjoy...

UPDATE 16/07/2024:

Orlacs Hände's demos have been found and compiled into a 17-track collection for your enjoyment! Thank you endlessly to Cam and the 'punk is dead and you're next' archive for your contribution.

live footage:

discography:


title: Orlacs Hände - Demo Collection
release date: 2007?
format: Unknown

tracklist:
1. EP track one
2. EP track two
3. EP track three
4. EP track four
5. EP track five
6. EP track six
7. 4.2.07 1
8. 4.2.07
9. Dale cooper
10. august
11. hiding hurts as much
12. kane's
13. maysong
14. new
15. prove you're alive
16. song one
17. why prolong the end

>>> ... Download ... <<<



title: Orlacs Hände - S/T
release date: May 1 2011
format: Cassette, CD

tracklist:
1. Life; A One Round Fight To The Death
2. Vincent
3. Endless Lies
4. Rice Cakes And Radiation
5. Dale Cooper
6. An Unspeakable Beauty Announced Itself

>>>... Download ... <<<

resources:

Eleventh He Reaches London

information:
Eleventh He Reaches London were a post-hardcore band from Perth, Australia. Based on their 15+ year long run (1999-2016) and the fact that they have a Wikipedia page - they were fairly big at some point in time.

In this run they released a handful of EPs and three studio albums. To be honest, the only record that I feel fits the vision / purpose of this blog is their very first, Diving For Treacher. It echoes Glassjaw (amongst many other things) and is perhaps the most intriguing point in their discography (in my opinion).

As such, it is here to enjoy... 'You Left Me At The Crossroads Like Val Kilmer In Willow' is a highlight.

live footage:

discography:


title: Eleventh He Reaches London - Diving For Treacher
release date: 2003
format: CD

tracklist:
1. We Were Never
2. The Impeccable Blackout Thief
3. Tactics Of Underwater Sea Battle
4. You Left Me At The Crossroads Like Val Kilmer In Willow (Bonus Track)

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources:

The Paddington Bear Affair

information:
The Paddington Bear Affair was an almost metalcore-y screamo band from Adelaide, Australia. They existed between 2003-2005, which time they appeared on some long lost compilations (to my knowledge at least), and released one demo and an EP.

Their self-titled EP is maybe the most Australian screamo sounding thing I have ever heard - there's just an air about it. I find it fascinating that so many of these bands came from Adelaide, especially considering how relatively unsung it is today.

Personally, I prefer the demo and that horrifyingly perfect lo-fi recording, especially 'A Universal Change of Tact: When Mice Attack'. 

live footage:
1. N/A

discography:


title: The Paddington Bear Affair - Demo
release date: October 15 2004
format: CDr

tracklist:
1. 'It Was Only An 'Opeless Fancy!' On Wanting to Sound Like Cave Drawings
2. When Birds Attack Skyscrapers [MISSING]
3. Gaols
4. A Universal Change of Tact: When Mice Attack
5. Coffins
6. There's an Audio Riot in Cell Block D.

>>>... Download ... <<<



title: The Paddington Bear Affair - S/T (+ Bonus Track)
release date: 2005
format: 7"

tracklist:
1. Enshrouded; An Excursion To Turin
2. Joan Rivers: My Darling, My Darling
3. 'It Was Only An 'opeless Fancy, (On Wanting To Sound Like Cavedrawings)
4. Coffins
5. Words Like A Descending Hatchet To The Emotional Haemophilliac [BONUS TRACK from Kool Skools Compilation]

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources:

Needletail

information:
Needletail was a twinkly garage band from Melbourne, Australia. They only existed from 2006-2007. 

Their only releases were a split with the legendary Eucalypt and a self-titled EP which they recorded in a rehearsal room in Brunswick on the afternoon of Thursday, the 8th of February, 2007. 

Needletail was Dase Beard (guitar/vocals), Tom Majerczak (drums), Pete Sheperdson (guitar/vocals) & Lloyd Wilson (bass).

UPDATE (14/07/2024): 

In the hunt for some true, primary source information on Breeds... and Needletail, I decided to trawl the Discogs 'Members' section for a perhaps-viable Facebook messaging lead. I found Dase Beard and after two messages explaining my interest and rationale, they did something well and truly above and beyond unexpected - and sent me a several thousand word write-up about their experience in and around the Melbourne screamo scene in the 2000s.

I will let their manifesto speak for itself, though I absolutely implore you to read it and read it very thoroughly, time and time again.

It is available... !! > here < !!

live footage:
1. N/A

discography:


title: Eucalypt / Needletail - Split
release date: February 16 2007
format: CDr

tracklist:
1. Made Of Poison
2. If She Starts Going All "Oprah Winfrey" On Me, I'll Just Leave
3. Dance Tonight! Dance Dance Revolution Tomorrow!

>>> ... Download ... <<<



title: Needletail - S/T
release date: 2007
format: CDr

tracklist:
1. The Convenience, the Absolute Convenience
2. Where Once There Was a Yacht, Now There is Not
3. All Cats are Brown, as This Exception to the Rule Proves
4. Hey, Have You Heard of the Scene?
5. The Title of This Song Was Decided by an Internet Poll

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources:

Thursday, April 25, 2024

The Let-Go!


information:
The Let-Go! was a five-piece screamo/post-punk group from Newcastle, Australia. The band recorded their first EP in 2007 which was intended to be released as a 7" by Newcastle-based label, Shrieksounds. 

Shortly after recording concluded and before the EP, tentatively titled Cold War, could be mastered, the band's drummer left. Several members of The Let-Go! went on to form James Dean.

They released an earlier EP/demo titled 'Asthma' on cassette and CDr at some point in 2006, but this seems nearly impossible to track down in any form. If I ever stumble across it you'll know...

live footage:
1. N/A

discography:


title: The Let-Go! - Cold War
release date: Recorded in 2007, though never officially released.
format: M4A

tracklist:
1. Beirut
2. Untitled
3. We Are All Thieves
4. I Ain't No Soviet Serf
5. Cold War

>>>... Download ... <<<

resources:

My Sister The Cop

information:
My Sister The Cop was an incredibly short-lived punk band from Adelaide, Australia, active from around 2006 to 2007. Vocalist Brett Davis was also in the mythic Love Like... Electrocution

They leave behind only a single release - the six track EP 'Animal Traps', released in 2006. That and what is surely the greatest band promo photo of all time...

live footage:
1. N/A

discography:


title: My Sister The Cop – Animal Traps
release date: 2006
format: CD

tracklist:
1. Daggerzz Of Prey
2. Nightmares (The Four Horses Of The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse)
3. Every Bodies Pregnants
4. For
5. Sorry We're Not All Wolfs
6. Seagulls Goddamn!!

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources:

this city dynamite!!!

information:
this city dynamite!!! formed in Adelaide, Australia in 2004 from the ashes of the recently defunct Love Like... Electrocution and Eyes Like Black Stars. They played quite regular shows around Adelaide and recorded a single demo EP - recorded in the watershed Young Street Church.

They broke up as an effort to save the friendships that the band had seemingly jeopardised, though briefly reformed in late 2005 to record a 9 song album. This album remains "unnamed, un-mastered and unreleased on a disc somewhere in Adelaide."

Please forgive the bootleg-live-photo-replacing-cover-art, I couldn't for the life of me find an original artwork to work with.

this city dynamite!!! was BC (vocals), David Healey (guitar), Mark Draper (bass) and Garrett R. Cooper (drums, vocals).

live footage:
1. N/A

discography:


title: this city dynamite!!! - Demo
release date: May 2005
format: CD

tracklist:
1. here come the skeleton sisters
2. the witness screamed on the
3. buying books on anti capitalis
4. here come the skeleton sisters (bnus MySpace demo)

>>> ... Download ... <<<

resources: