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.

Album of the Week: Death Before Disco - Barricades

     I've long extolled the virtues of now-defunct post-hardcore band Death Before Disco, so I figured it's high time I set you the task of getting familiar with this criminally underrated band. Little did I know what a challenging task I had conceived...

     I'd like to be able to say, "your album for this week is Barricades, Death Before Disco's 2006 album", and then give you a nice convenient Youtube link or something, but there isn't a playlist for this album, nor a single video version. The band doesn't have a Bandcamp or a Facebook page that I can find, so good luck finding anything that way.

     You basically have two options if you want to complete your homework assignment: you can go to Amazon or Ebay or somewhere and get yourself a copy (luckily Barricades is still relatively available; good luck finding much of the rest of their catalogue) or you can settle for hearing several tracks from the album, which I will link to below -- it's about half the album, so it could be worse. Whichever you choose, prepare to take in some energetic post-hardcore that still sounds fresh eight years on.

Barricades of Rumble (track 2, previous Song of the Day)
Jaguar (track 4)
Goodbye (track 5)
Kill the Dancer (track 8)
Modern Times (track 9)

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?

Eidola - Going Nowhere

     If I had to pick a genre umbrella under which to stick today's band (which I guess I don't, but I'm still going to see this intro through...) I'd go with post-hardcore. But don't let that vague, vanilla terminology dissuade you from discovering a pretty interesting listen in Eidola.

     Snappy energy, vocal harmonies and acrobatics,  a smidgen of atmospheric post-progaliciousness even -- Eidola's debut LP The Great Glass Elephant reminds me a little of Death Before Disco or even Dance Gavin Dance, if perhaps a tad less... emo than either.

     Have a listen to "Going Nowhere" from 2012's Glass Elephant and get into an Eidola mood, then come await the band's new album Degeneraterra with me, because this could be one very tasty sophomore record.

Exotic Animal Petting Zoo - Through the Thicket... Across Endless Mountains

    I won't force you to conjure up the same unfortunate mental picture of bands fucking and impregnating one another as I did a few days ago with my lineage of Son of Aurelius, but I want to play a similar game this evening. So this I'm going with a cooking analogy.

     Start with the melodic sensibilities and mild experimental streak of Death Before Disco as your base, then add a healthy dose of the angularity and spastic chaos of The Dillinger Escape Plan. Now to temper that Dillinger mathcore insanity, thin the mixture out with a dash of the slightly more straight ahead hardcore/post-hardcore of Every Time I Die, and voila! You've got a little something called Exotic Animal Petting Zoo.

     I've posted about these guys a couple of times before, but my opinion of them has risen since I picked up a copy of sophomore disc Tree of Tongues, so I figured it's time to give them the spotlight again. I can't quite pin down exactly why, but this band feels like a spiritual successor to At the Drive-In. Maybe the "recipe" above doesn't accurately convey this, but the combination of chops and manic energy possessed by Exotic Animal Petting Zoo just keep reminding me of the now-defunct ATDI.

     Any way you slice it, however, they're a band you should know about. Check out "Through the Thicket... Across Endless Mountains" from the aforementioned Tree of Tongues and start getting familiar with Exotic Animal Petting Zoo post haste.

Song of the Day: Death Before Disco - Barricades of Rumble

     Hey kids, another quick one today in which I'm letting my shuffle do the walking. Or talking. Or whatever. Anyways, we're dealing with another one of those defunct bands whose hypothetical 2013 record I'd love to hear.

Song of the Day: At the Drive-In - Arcarsenal

     Morning kids. I'm building on the last couple of day's songs today. Yesterday we had Death Before Disco because the day before I'd said Exotic Animal Petting Zoo reminded me of them. Well I also mentioned At the Drive-In, and even though I did remind you that At the Drive-In came up way back in the first Loud Noises post about The Mars Volta (meaning that if you wanted some ATDI, you should know where to look for a few recommendations from yours truly), I've decided to give them a day so that I can be sure you know what I'm talking about with this vibe I'm getting from these three bands.

Song of the Day: Death Before Disco - Modern Times

     Yesterday when I recommended Exotic Animal Petting Zoo's "Thorough. Modern." to you, I mentioned that EAPZ reminds me a little bit of Death Before Disco and At the Drive-In. Chances are you're familiar with ATDI (if for no other reason than I talked about them way back when I started this sucker), but it's also likely you don't know Death Before Disco, especially if you're a metalhead, as they're not the most metal band.  They've got their own heaviness, tinged with poppier, punkier flavours -- I hesitate to use the words "emo" and "screamo" for fear of sending you fleeing, but were I to use such words, I would mean them in the best possible way.