This will be one of the more obscure posts you will come by, after Iwontstopwondering ended Nolan began a much rougher project which turned out to be XttadX. It is absolutely one of the most respected bands of my (Our time) sure I didn't grew up with Jeromes dream or Reversal of man like the older veterans of the genre but we sure ass hell got this one. The bands early material can be suggested to sound similar to Jeromes dream just with a little something else that is much different. It is hard to explain what the difference is but you just know. I might have been one of the first few who looked forward to this when it began. This project released a ton of stuff under the new name of Off cloud nine, a ridiculous amount of limited cassette presses were done for this and even throughout the entire labels catalog. Even though I may be a fanboy of the now dead OCN I didn't even get a chance to buy all the XttadX releases. I still have a quite few missing and it pisses me off that I missed out on some of these releases even when i was aware of them. Most notably the bands 2012 collection 10" lathe which was probably less than 8 copies of that one. I am pretty content to know that I tried to get everything off this little one man band. I was even psyched when Nolan was giving out the last releases he had on him which I paid for almost every single one of them before anyone else did. One of the releases that came with the bunch was the very rare "All hollows eve" cassette which only 10 were made. One thing I love about this tape is the outer sleeve that came with the tape which is just fucking gnarly ass hell. I did notice one of the songs is off the bands second length "The act of falling". As for the other 3 songs I don't think they were anywhere else or ever heard by anyone as well since it is not included in the 2012 collection. Noises from the basement covers most of the bands earlier work but with re-recorded versions of the bands first 2 demos along with a few other new ones and a cover song from In loving memory which I think he did the greatest fucking job. Not long ago I had a dream I was listening to all these tapes in some room and Nolan had oddly visited me and told me some other stuff which from there I can't remember the rest of the dream. The last releases from the band is one of the most influential pieces of work I have ever heard starting from the bands split with Short stories about their distance, the split 5" with Under a sky so blue, the bands 7" Capitalizing on your emotions, then To kill a heart EP and finally the most recent Two songs EP. Nolan did mention of doing a final release in which the hopes of it being a rather more lengthy one and I even hope he does a shirt for it as well. Even though I own 3 plus a XttadX hoodie zipper it isnt enough to express the love and interest for this amazing one. This is truly the gift of Papa Johns (God bless you) and the gift that Nolan has. It is a shame to see him walk away from this one but I am still happy to know I ran into this incredible label and band it is the heart to Off cloud nine. It is definitely one of my favorite labels in the past 3-4 years and even to this day its still one of the releases I always jump to every now and then. It really sucks that XttadX didn't get much attention considering it was the excellent sound anyone in the Real screamo/Emotive hardcore/"Skramz" "emo violence" fans. It is pure flawless on every song. We should still give XttadX credit for its ability of sounding super late 90's and doing everything as a one piece. The bandcamp is still available and no I won't give out exactly every release for free mainly the 2012 and 2013 collections (Which I think those are probably one of the best ones out of the whole discography) I will put out the ones I do have
Noises from the basement
3rd demo s/t
All hallows eve
The act of falling
Split cassette w/ Frames per second
Split cassette w/ Crocodile hiss
Split 7" w/ Anne hero
Swollen lungs compilation 7"
Split cassette w/ Waller
Split cassette w/ Zaraesihn
S/T Cassingle
Split 5" w/ Under a sky so blue
Split 7" w/ Short stories about their distance
Capitalizing on your emotions e.p. 7"
To kill a heart e.p.
Two songs e.p.
I too have been collecting XttadX material. Here's an image of my collection: https://www.instagram.com/p/BJEBghGAmpy/
ReplyDeleteIf you ever are willing to sell any of yours, please consider contacting me. I see some that I am missing here. I completely understand though if none are for sale. Great blog!