Saturday the 9th: Circa Survive - Strange Terrain

     The date at the top? That's just so we all know how far back we're getting, and so that I'll have that constant, reminding kick in the ass to try and motivate me. Anyways: Saturday the 9th!

     I'm more of a fan of the proggier madness of vocalist Anthony Green's kinda-sorta-sideproject The Sound of Animals Fighting, but since I'm a sucker for singers who get anywhere near falsetto I dig everything Green does, including his main gig Circa Survive. For this super belated Saturday post, you're getting the opening track "Strange Terrain" from Circa Survive's 2010 record Blue Sky Noise. As with much of Circa's catalogue, the main draws here are the energy level and the catchy singability. The fact that there's more depth than just a rocking good time is icing on the cake. Check it out.

Tuesday: Hail the Sun - Mourning Sickness

     The entity that is Facebook (precursor to Skynet, of course) tells me that Hail the Sun are in the process of writing and demoing new material, which hopefully means that a new record is in the cards for 2016. In the meantime, remember how much I liked their 2014 LP Wake?

     Hint: it was one of my ten favourite albums of the year (go on, have a look if you don't believe me, I'll wait). So I'm pleased to hear that the latest demo sounds pretty tasty indeed. Rather than picking the new stuff apart too much before it's fully cooked, however, why don't we revisit Wake for one more look at why you should care about these guys in the first place.

     "Mourning Sickness" is textbook Hail the Sun, so to speak: high-energy, high-melody post-hardcore with a vocalist that sounds very reminiscent of Circa Survive (which isn't a bad thing!). The guys have apparently recently made the switch from Blue Swan Records to Equal Vision, so let's all hope they're in a hurry to get a new record out on their new label, OK?

Friday: Children of Nova -

     Your Friday post from last week comes from one of those bands that I've unfortunately discovered only after they've called it quits or, as in this case, gone on indefinite hiatus. With your help, maybe we can turn that situation around.

     OK, so my small readership probably has no ability to resurrect San Diego's Children of Nova, but let's pretend for a moment that we could get them to record a follow-up to their 2012 record Impossible Landscape. In such a hypothetical wonderland, we might end up with another high-energy slice of post-hardcore/post-rock reminiscent of Eidola or Circa Survive.

     In order to show you what we're all no longer getting any more of, I implore you to check out Impossible Landscape, starting with album-opener "Erratic". If, after jamming some Children of Nova, any of you decide to petition the band to get back together, let me know. I'll sign.

Circa Survive - Schema

     For your Album of the Week I pointed you in the direction of Death Before Disco, a band I've frequently referred to in the past when comparing other bands to them. Today, we've got a new track from another band I've as a point of comparison on occasion.

     Pennsylvania post-hardcore band Circa Survive have a new album, Descensus, coming out towards the end of November, and they recently released a video for the album's first single "Schema". It definitely sounds like classic Circa Survive (owing in no small part to Anthony Green's vocals) but it's also a little more aggressive sounding, a little rough and jagged around the edges.

     We'll see if the rest of Descensus turns out anything like this, but for the time being "Schema" sounds pretty promising.

Eidola - The Alchemist and The Architect

     By now you've hopefully had the chance to read a bit about Utah's Eidola. If you already knew about these guys, perhaps you learned something new from Andrew's answers to my interrogation. If you didn't know Eidola already, then perhaps you're ready for a more formal introduction. Either way, you know the drill when it comes to Twenty Questions, so here's your side order of Eidola-flavoured Song of the Day.

     There's a number of cool tracks I could feature from the band's The Great Glass Elephant (in addition to the song "Going Nowhere", which I wrote about back when I first discovered these guys, and which is an awesome song) but I think tonight I'm going to go with "The Alchemist and The Architect" as another good representation of what Eidola brings to the table.

     And what might that be? A high-energy, multi-vocal, multi-guitar mix of post-hardcore and rock, post or otherwise, that reminds me a little of Circa Survive or Death Before Disco, or even Closure in Moscow in their more restrained (read: less ridiculous) moments. If you're a fan of any of those bands, or if the aforementioned high-energy cocktail sounds tasty to you, why not check out "The Alchemist and The Architect" to get yourself a little more familiar with The Great Glass Elephant while you wait for Degeneraterra?

Album of the Week: The Sound of Animals Fighting - The Ocean and the Sun

     I've urged that you listen to this week's band before at least once, but they are most definitely a band that is best experienced in album-sized chunks. With that in mind, your homework for the week is to give a couple of hours to The Ocean and the Sun by The Sound of Animals Fighting.

     Genre-wise, this is a hard group to pin down, and not just because it's essentially an indie-rock/post-hardcore super-group with a rotating, "anonymous" membership. Spastic, melodic, at times a little weird post-hardcore with some electronic elements thrown in for spice -- a limiting description, but it at least scratches the surface of the off-kilter energy that's going on here.

     Judging by the band's Facebook, it seems that The Sound of Animals Fighting have been doing a little touring in the last six months or so, but other than that it seems the idea of new material might be in limbo for the time being. Everybody's got main projects in various stages of stuff (like Rx Bandits and Circa Survive, to name just two) so I can understand why another The Sound of Animals Fighting record might not be priority one. But if the awesomeness of The Ocean and the Sun is any indication, another Sound of Animals Fighting record could really be something special.

Hail the Sun - Human Target Practice

     Everybody should know by now that I dig Dance Gavin Dance, whose guitarist Will Swan runs a little record label called Blue Swan Records.

     What does this have to do with today's song, "Human Target Practice", from California post-hardcore band Hail the Sun? The band's forthcoming debut LP Wake is due to be released in September on Blue Swan, that's what! There's a bit of sonic similarity here too, if you ask me: Hail the Sun sounds a little like the energy and riffiness of Dance Gavin Dance fronted by the vocal range and style of, say, Anthony Green from Circa Survive and The Sound of Animals Fighting.

     Sound like a tasty combination? It is, at least for this bearded cat. I for one will most definitely be paying attention to this one when it drops.

Song of the Day: The Sound of Animals Fighting - The Ocean and The Sun

     It's Sunday (still, for a little bit at least) which means your song for today is going to be a little bit laid-back, a little less metal. Today's choice struck me as a bit of a no-brainer, given the whole "weekend-chill-vibe" thing, since I haven't even ever mentioned this band yet and they're definitely worth mentioning. The Sound of Animals Fighting was a super-group of sorts, counting members of Finch, Rx Bandits, Chiodos, and Circa Survive among its alumni, though the band has disbanded since the release of its third and final album in 2008. Still, the three album catalogue they produced is pretty interesting and definitely worth checking out.