Monday, April 20, 2015

Boys life

Today is that "4/20" day. its the day all pot heads that are posers or newbs gather and smoke because they are told to do so and these dumbasses follow what they are told. But other than that I am pretty much sober (Plus I ran out of my own weed last night) I didn't even think today would be 420. Never thought of the day, never cared. But today I'd like to present the next crank! releases from the band Boys life. This was another band that was local next to Vitreous humor in the mid 90's. Boys life is also in the early Crank! roster. I believe within the first 5-6 Crank! releases. I discovered this band same time I discovered Chune, Kolya and Empire state games, one of the first songs I heard and quickly got into was "Golf Hill Drive" while many people love Boys life's second length entitled "Departures and landfalls" I prefer the self-titled leading to the most classic of emo/math rock/post hardcore (Drive Like Jehu-Esque just more emoish) in the mid 90's. Boys life also put out a amazing split 10" with Caulfields band Christie Front Drive, let me tell you that both sides are pretty darn good. Boys life has also put out a early 2 song 7" that had early versions of the self titled, if you look at my Vitreous Humor post you can see they both did a split. Another Caulfield band "Giants Chair" (Similar to Boys life) put out a split together as well. Boys life later formed to The Farewell Bend but that didn't last very long. In fact it was much of a shorter lived band than Boys life. They only released a 7", a split 7" and one length. Posting Boys life here was expected and mandatory especially if you love the Crank! label stuff. I first ran into the CD with the hopes of only owning the CD until I ran into the 12" (Limited to 500) which I felt I needed to get but I also ran into the split 10" and since I am collecting my favorite Crank! releases I thought it be best to just get it.

Self-titled
CD Format

12" Format

Boys Life/Christie Front Drive Split 10"

Friday, April 10, 2015

Kolya 12"

Caulfield records was a indie label from the late 80's I think but mostly known for Christie front drive's compilation self titled cd and the stuff it had on Giants Chair. They also released 2 Mineral 7"s, they had other amazing bands like Luck of Aleia, Eric the red, M.I.J, Traluma, Broken hearts are blue, Ethel Meserve and of course my favorite Caulfield release Kolya's self titled 12"/CD. Kolya's signature sound from the 2 7"s didn't completely vanished. It still stayed but also figured a way to introduce songs that are a little sing alongs and less focused on narrative vocals, it doesn't completely a bad thing because this is the only full length from Kolya. The first songs I ever heard from this album were "Robots dream in black and white" which is an amazing opening on the album and the third track to the LP called "Resuscitation" which flows more on Ka's previous sound with more narrative, same thing can be said on the song Robots. These songs might have been played after a few months on the release of Kolya's The story becomes the vehicle's 7" since recording began in December 2000 while the 7" was recorded in January 2000 (About 11 months later) its been rumored that nothing else was brought up after the release of this LP. It is still a hard 12" to get since it isn't sold in most places and wherever it is sold I see the price as high as 150 usd dollars. I recently saw that a seller on amazon was selling the cd for 6 bucks still shrinked wrapped and what not so I quickly bought the CD. I'd like to share and rip this one out for you guys. Who knows what direction the band might have been if they were still together, maybe it would've sound exactly like The Union Ares. Unfortunately Caulfield records ended sometime in 2003 2 years after the release of Kolya's self titled.



Kolya

The Ivy Crown "Right side of the bed/Opaque" 7"

I'm pretty much fried today and I thought it be nice to share another record I have. This band is pretty underrated for a band that semi sounds like Braid in a way. Pretty much like Midvale this band left a 7" and a EP CD, they existed from 1998 until somewhere in late 1999 or early 2000. I haven't heard much of the CD yet except for like 3 songs but Right side of the bed is one hell of a catchy one of theirs. The CD might have been a posthumous release but I am not so sure although I wouldn't be so surprised. I like the sleeve of this 7", not many bands do those type of sleeves these days. Since there isn't a video on the 7" you must take a leap of faith to download the 7" and hear it yourself and honestly it's 2 free songs off an oop 7" this is a win/win. I really wished this band was mentioned more often by the 90's emo kids or emo kids in general.



Right side of the bed/Opaque 7"