Sunday the 24th: Glassjaw - New White Extremity

     How in the fuck did I miss this one? We might not have any details about a new Glassjaw record yet, but apparently back at the start of December we got a rough cut of one of its new tracks. Squee!!

    "New White Extremity" sounds like... well, it sounds like Glassjaw. Driving, abrasive, energetic, groovy -- a melding of an eclectic collection of influences and sounds that is at once reminiscent of the band's older work and a bit of something new. It's not Worship and Tribute 2.0, but then is that actually what anybody would have wanted? I'll reserve final judgment for when (or if...) I hear the rest of this record, but for the time being I'd say "New White Extremity" is a good start on ending the Glassjaw drought.

United Nations - United Nations vs. United Nations

     You might be in need of something snappy after last night's post-rock meanderings, so tonight I bring you an incendiary couple of minutes of modern hardcore/aggro post-punk from supergroup United Nations.

     With a founding roster than includes members of Thursday, Glassjaw, and Converge, United Nations is a supergroup in the truest sense of the word, and a mysterious one at that. The permanent membership of the band remains largely unconfirmed and speculative, other than Thursday vocalist Geoff Rickly, giving it the feel of a collective where art is more important than artists.

     The band's sophomore LP The Next Four Years comes out in the next couple of weeks, so you should probably get ready by listening to the first song to be released, "United Nations vs. United Nations", and hear a band that has most definitely picked up the torch first lit by Refused.

Album of the Week: Glassjaw - Worship and Tribute

     We're going back a bit for this week's album, to the sophomore effort more than a decade ago of one of post-hardcore's most under-appreciated bands. Regular readers will surely be familiar with my love for this record, but now you're all going to get the opportunity to find out why.

     Worship and Tribute came out in 2002, but to me it still feels fresh and immediate. Glassjaw's mixture of hardcore, funk, electronic-sounding instrumentation, and even some energetic international flavours yields a combination that's tremendously well balanced. Heavy and aggression underlie jagged dissonance as well as polished melody, and all of it is tied together with Daryl Palumbo's distinctive vocal acrobatics.

     Unfortunately for all of us Glassjaw fans, the band is about as productive as Tool is, meaning that Glassjaw hasn't released an LP since Worship and Tribute and doesn't look like they'll be doing so any time soon. A few scattered tracks and an EP have trickled out, but it's been a case of too few and too far between to fill the huge shoes of Worship and Tribute, a true classic of the genre. Get acquainted this week if you're not already.

Album of the Week: letlive - The Blackest Beautiful

     Well folks, it's another Monday, and time for another tired Garfield cliche. But your Monday doesn't have to suck. It could be awesome. Of what arcane devilry do I speak, you ask? Why, it's time for another Loud Noise Album of the Week (patent pending)!

     This week I implore you to check out The Blackest Beautiful, the most recent effort from Los Angeles post-hardcore band letlive. I know, I know, you regular readers are whinging at your monitors about how I've featured them several times before as the Song of the Day, and compared them to Glassjaw, and otherwise fawned over them.

     This album, however, works so well as a complete whole for me that I'm just going to pretend I don't hear you negative Nellies. Besides, these guys have awesome energy and are one of the best examples I can come up with of the idea that heavier music can still be catchy as hell. I recently picked up a copy of the band's 2010 sophomore disc Fake History, and while that record is proof positive that letlive didn't just get lucky with the calibre of material they produced for follow-up The Blackest Beautiful -- they've been crafting good shit for a while now -- I've chosen to recommend the newer album this week because it just has the feel of a band that's comfortable and confident in its skin and its sound. Give The Blackest Beautiful a couple of listens this week and I bet you'll dig it.

Glassjaw - Ape Dos Mil

     Even though there's still plenty of snow on the ground here, it is nevertheless almost spring, which means the summer tour and festival season is right around the corner. This year's Heavy MTL festival in Montreal, however, has a line-up that doesn't do a whole lot for me, especially considering I'd have to go to Montreal to see it (Heavy TO is, alas, little more than a memory).

     The 2014 edition of Rockfest in Montebello (also dans la Belle Province, for the uninitiated) looks considerably more interesting. Not only is the sheer number of bands I'd like to see higher (at least a half dozen as opposed to the three or so on the bill at Heavy MTL) but some of said bands are much more interesting choices than those at Heavy. Like Glassjaw. Seriously. Glassjaw!

     Who the fuck knows when we'll see a new Glassjaw LP, if ever, so for now we'll just have to jam some old stuff (namely the relatively chill "Ape Dos Mil" from 2002's classic Worship and Tribute) and content ourselves with the possibility of seeing the band tear it up at a sweet-looking summer festival. And hey look, Rockfest is right around my birthday. Now you know what to get me.

letlive. - The Priest and Used Cars

     I've written about letlive. before, but that was before I'd heard all of their latest album The Blackest Beautiful. Upon closer inspection I've decided that the catchy aggressive edge of "Banshee (Ghost Fame)" is not a one-off fluke. If you dig that sort of thing, The Blackest Beautiful has a bunch more where it came from.

     When "Banshee" was the song of the day, I believe my comparison was of letlive. to a bastard child of Refused and Glassjaw. While I stand by that simile, I would throw a bunch of other bands into the mix if I were trying to define letlive's sound. They're a post-hardcore band in the truest sense of the word, building on the hardcore genre in a myriad of ways.

      Case in point: today's song, "The Priest and Used Cars", which has a punky energy that brings to mind Protest the Hero and another helping of vocalist Jason Aalon Butler's virtuosity, which is often reminiscent of Claudio from Coheed and Cambria (if Claudio had a more frantic, manic energy). It's a tasty combination.

      But I could go on all night about who letlive. sounds like at one moment or the next. Why not listen to "The Priest and Used Cars" and see how awesome they are for yourself?

Song of the Day (Monday): Glassjaw - Mu Empire

     I know I've done it a time or two here in the Song of the Day section of Loud Noises, but I'm going to do it again today, because every once in a while I feel the urge to revisit the awesomeness of Glassjaw and lament the lack of a new record from them still.

Song of the Day: letlive. - Banshee (Ghost Fame)

     Kyle Bishop and I (among others) agree, you should all be checking out the first single from the upcoming The Blackest Beautiful by letlive.

Song of the Day: Thrice - All the World is Mad

     It's the weekend again, which means it's already been a whole Resurrection Week of songs from defunct bands. We'll do one more today, just to put a nice round cap on things, before getting back into the swing of more regular things tomorrow. As was the case with Glassjaw, today's band might not technically be completely dead yet, but they are on "indefinite hiatus", so if I can somehow get them back in the game then I'll have done my job.

Song of the Day: Glassjaw - Black Nurse

     Resurrection Week continues, and while today's band technically isn't dead yet, I'd say they're on life support and in need of resuscitation for sure. I believe my favourite past description of them was something along the lines of "the Guns and Roses of modern heavy music" since their next album has supposedly been in the works for years. Therefore, if my wee little blog could somehow "resurrect" Glassjaw this week, I'd be pleased as punch.

Song of the Day: Glassjaw - Radio Cambodia

     In the same way that yesterday's song came about because I felt that Opeth was underrepresented in theLoud Noises Song of the Day catalogue, today's song comes from another band you should know about if you don't already, and a band that's like the Guns and Roses of post-hardcore in the sense that their new album has been so long in coming that  one doubts it'll ever arrive. But in the meantime...

Song of the Day: Glassjaw - Tip Your Bartender

     Glassjaw is a bit like Guns and Roses. How, you ask? Well, it's been ten years since their last full length, the stupidly awesome Worship and Tribute, and we're all still waiting for the follow-up that has supposedly been in the works off and on for years. Of course the difference is that Glassjaw have at least put out a couple of EPs worth of new material in that time, if only in limited release. Hopefully my comparing them to Guns and Roses will somehow speed things along.