Record #626: My Epic – Ultraviolet (2018)

After hearing My Epic’s name in the periphery of my awareness for years, the project that finally drew my attention was Ultraviolet, one half of a pair of EPs.

While their M.O. has always drawn heavily on experimentation, the Ultraviolet/Violence project finds them restricting themselves to specific elements of their palette.

Ultraviolet, the softer of the two, leans heavy into dream pop, electronica, and ambient post rock, without losing any of their edge.

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Record #622: The Appleseed Cast – The Fleeting Light of Impermanence (2019)

In 1998, the Appleseed Cast released The End of the Ring Wars. It was a shockingly mature work for a debut, offering a stunning mix of pop punk hooks, post rock compositions, and hardcore energy.

But it’s especially more impressive when you realize that they’ve done so with an unparalleled consistency. Across their catalog, there are no lulls, no dips, no records that their fanbase would rather just ignore. In fact, if you get five Appleseed Cast fans together and ask for their favorite record, you might get five different answers, each with respectable arguments for their choice.

I say all of this to drive home an important statement.

The Fleeting Light of Impermanence might be their best ever.

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Record #603: La Dispute – Panorama (2019)

For the longest time, I wrote La Dispute off as a mewithoutYou ripoff band. Who else was mixing hardcore poetry with spoken word (shouted word?) poetry?

It was only after hearing the subdued, almost jazzy “Woman (reading)” off of 2014’s Rooms of the House that I gave them any real attention at all.

And while that album had moments that lived in that same sparse space,  it spent most of its time in a passionate, throat-ripping hardcore. Panorama on the other hand, stretches their softer side into a full album—and I couldn’t be happier. Continue reading

Record #597: The Fire Theft – The Fire Theft (2003)

After emo godfathers Sunny Day Real Estate disbanded (again), three of the four original members started a new band called The Fire Theft.

They said often and loudly that they were a completely different project, inspired more by rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd than the punk bands that inspired SDRE.

But listening to the record, it’s pretty clear that the distinction is almost purely nominal—especially considering that this vinyl reissue uses the exact same typeface as Diary and The Rising Tide (and the same producer as Diary and LP2).

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Record #590: The Appleseed Cast – Peregrine (2006)

For as long as I’ve been familiar with the Appleseed Cast, I’ve never done a deep dive into their discography. Ten years passed between hearing them on Deep Elm’s Emo Is Awesome/Emo Is Evil compilation and purchasing Low Level OwlIt’s taken me six years to buy anything else in their catalogue.

And when it comes down to it, I basically purchased Peregrine at random while looking at the severe lack of Appleseed Cast in my collection and deciding I needed to do something about it.

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Record #589: American Football – American Football (2019)

Hindsight is a funny thing. In 1999, no one took American Football seriously—at times, it feels like that includes the band. The Urbana, IL locals played a spattering of local shows, but never left the Midwest. They never took the time to recruit a permanent bassist, functioning largely as a studio-only band during their original three-year run.

But in the twenty years that have passed since their eponymous full-length, they have become one of the most influential bands of the Midwest Emo sound, often lauded alongside groups like Jimmy Eat World, Mineral, and Sunny Day Real Estate. “Never Meant” is such a perfect encapsulation of the sound that it’s become a meme.

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