post hardcore

Record #460: Jawbox – For Your Own Special Sweetheart (1994)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

for your own special sweetheartIt was tough out here for a punk kid in the early 2000s looking for new music. Internet speeds to support streaming would take years to develop. We had Napster, but we it took hours to download a single song.

My go-to method was to read articles about bands I already liked and pay attention to their influences. And as I pored over articles, three names kept coming up: Sunny Day Real Estate, Fugazi, and Jawbox.

SDRE and Fugazi became instant obsessions. And when I started collecting more seriously, they were among the first discographies I looked for. But somehow, this is the first Jawbox album I’ve added to my collection (barring a CD copy of Novelty I bought on the cheap, and a CD of this album I found at Goodwill).

I can’t tell you why it took me so long to buy this record, but it doesn’t deserve it.

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Record #286: Coheed and Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
Record #286: Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003) In the beginning of the 21st century, I was in a post hardcore band with some high school friends. The three of us had some pretty different tastes–I had a strong bias...

 

In the beginning of the 21st century, I was in a post hardcore band with some high school friends. The three of us had some pretty different tastes–I had a strong bias toward melodic emo like Further Seems Forever and the Juliana Theory, Travis’ tastes were for almost purely punk bands like Flogging Molly and Against Me, and Seth had a soft spot for nu-metal a mile wide. But there was one album that none of us could get enough of: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 by Coheed and Cambria. This disc joined Thrice’s Artist in the Ambulance and Thursday’s War All the Time to form the triumvirate of albums we all played on repeat.

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Record #285: The Foxery – Unless (2014)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
Record #285: The Foxery - Unless (2014) About nine years ago, a Pedro the Lion fanatic named Calvin added me on MySpace because I looked a little like Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou (this is true). We became friends through many an AIM chat (nine...

 

About nine years ago, a Pedro the Lion fanatic named Calvin added me on MySpace because I looked a little like Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou (this is true). We became friends through many an AIM chat (nine years ago, remember?) where we discovered that we were both songwriters with a penchant for emo-tinged acoustic music. I was striking out on a solo project after the dissolution of my high school post-hardcore band, he had just started playing Bazan-esque tunes under the name The Foxery. Over time, the Foxery added members and influences until this year when they got signed to Spartan Records and released the emo record of the year, which is no small task in the year that brought the emo revival no one knew we needed.

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Record #260: Glassjaw – Worship and Tribute (2002)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I’m not sure if there has ever been a record quite like Worship and Tribute. People talk a lot about bands trafficking in loudness and softness, but nobody ever did it quite like Glassjaw did here.

And while their heavy tracks are among the best in the biz (see: the first three tracks, “Pink Roses,” “Radio Cambodia”), the ballads on this album are absolutely unforgettable. “Ape Dos Mil” and “Must’ve Run All Day” pack just as much of a punch at a fraction of the tempo.

And at the end of the day, I’m not sure which is more impressive: that Daryl Palumbo’s keeping up with the band’s fury, or the band matching his mania. But I do know (from singing along in the car as a teenager: this album was essentially my Advanced Vocal Techniques class) that Palumbo’s performance is one of the most physically demanding around.

Record #241: Further Seems Forever – How to Start a Fire (2003)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Hipster punk that I am, I have long been of the opinion that the first album is always best (Radiohead cured me of that). My view of Further Seems Forever back in my emo days was that Chris and FSF put together one perfect record, parted ways, and limped on without the other. And while it’s true that the first incarnation of the group was a wonderful, singular thing, it is far from the only worthwhile version. Further Seems Forever, mark II is a harsher beast, making its loudest statements during hard hitting rockers, like the title track opener, Against My Better Judgment, Pride War, etc.

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