Greenlight the Bombers

From the streets of SF comes this powerhouse of a rock outfit. Tighter than a squadron of B-52s in formation, Greenlight the Bombers deliver five tracks of seamless post-hardcore with angular guitar lines, loud-to-quiet dynamics and sinister basslines in the classic vein of bands like Drive Like Jehu, Quicksand, Fugazi and Shellac. Title track "American Executive" is a stand-out with a wickedly haunting vocal chant over menacing bass and drums that kicks into a solid heavy churn before dissipating into some sparse June of 44 type spaciness and then coming back with the rock in the end. Definitely one of the better new upcoming bands in this city, and do these guys have the coolest band name or what?" - #16 on Elliot's top twenty releases of 2004, Aquarius Records


American Executive EP (2004)
The Almighty Bird Brain EP (2002)
Pocket Champion (1999)

Bird Of Ill Omen


BOIO was one of Florida's original masters of the hardcore/metal genre. Thick guitars, throaty vocals, and chaotic drumming sum up this much-missed FL staple. Lyrics deal with subjects ranging from everyday events to the burning desire to self-destruct. BOIO released 2 CD's with Eulogy. "Self, Dare You Still Breath" introduced the world to BOIO's twisted outlook. "When Love Would've Shown an Interest in Us Both" was the band's farewell to the world. Ex-members can been seen in As Friends Rust.

Self, Dare You Still Breathe? (1997)
When Love Would've Shown Interest in Us Both (1999)

Elliott


The birth of Elliott was in the fall of '95 when guitarist Jay Palumbo left the band Empathy, moved to Louisville, and joined up with Chris Higdon (vox/ guitar) and Jonathan Mobley (bass). Higdon and Mobley had recently ended an accomplished run with the highly acclaimed band Falling Forward and been jamming with one another on an off since childhood. With the intention of sounding unlike a continuation of any of their previous hardcore bands, the threesome began writing and, with the temporary fill in drummer, soon recorded a 7" for Initial Records. The band's sound was developing into one that was quite their own: an extremely textured combination of melodic hardcore, rock, and emo that hits you smack in the face one minute and sways you into a daydream the next. In the fall of '96 they enlisted drummer Kevin Ratterman and the true focus of Elliott began.


Bluetip



Swiz was one of the most popular bands in the younger DC hardcore scene of the late 80s. Their singer, Shawn Brown, had been the original Dag Nasty vocalist, and they were on the Sammich Records label, which was distributed by Dischord Records. In 1995, several years after Swiz broke up, former members Jason Farrell and Dave Stern reunited to form Bluetip, with bassist Jake Kump and drummer Zac Eller (Worlds Collide). Bluetip had a serious work-ethic, they released 3 albums on Dischord Records, as well as several singles and split releases on various labels, and toured relentlessly, making many trips through the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Inner-band turmoil resulted in a number of line-up changes. Zac left shortly after the release of their first album, "Dischord No. 101", and was eventually replaced by Dave Bryson. Dave Stern left after the release of "Join Us" and was replaced by Brian Clancy, leaving Jason and Jake as the only original members. In 2001, when Jason moved to New York, the band eventually folded. However, Jason quickly resurfaced and has continued playing under the name Retisonic.


Dischord No. 101
Hot Fast Union
Join Us
Polymer


Scout



"Car Vs. Driver played with Scout more than any other band during its existence, probably because our bass player was the older brother of their drummer. They were a band that definitely needed repeat listenings and shows to fully appreciate, as their music and presentation were so dense and layered it would be difficult for the casual observer to comprehend. One thing that was nice about their recordings is that they would always provide explanations for each of their songs, which cut through a lot of the abstractness and ambiguity and gave the songs a clear, deeper meaning. So few bands actually do this, so it is nice when a band lays it out like this, and this is a band that definitely benefited from this approach. Their songs had many noisy parts where the lyrics were spoken and buried in the sound, their song titles were cryptic, their drummer did most of the singing, and their songs were usually these huge orchestrated opuses that could sometimes sound like 5 or 6 songs put together. It was an overwhelming experience to see them play, but when we would tour with them, I would get into a groove and really start getting into their music. "


Eye for an Eye


Eye for an Eye began in 1988 as Jason Grotrian and Ravi Dhar playing guitars, Adam Doneas on bass, Thos Niles on drums, and Lloyd Stanley singing. By mid '89 Adam was gone and Kevin Norton was in. Ravi left before the year was up and the line stabilized for the lion's share of the band. We did what we did to have some fun and because we didn't know what else to do. By the time it was over Dean Baltulonis had joined on 2nd guitar. Out last show was at the 8 Ball Skate Park Somewhere, MA in the spring of 1991, but the cops shut it down before we played.

Myspace

Omega Drone
100 Percent Unnatural

Eulcid


I think that the idea for Eulcid came about in 1996 when my friend Travis suggested that we play some music. My band splintered and his band piebald had been playing shows together here and there for several years at that point. It seemed like a good idea, but it took until the summer of 1997 to actually start to happen. We wrote the music to our first song on the evening before about 15 of our circle of friends were about to move to Boston from the Merrimack Valley. It was called "five months, ok" and would later appear on our demo. We were both excited to start, and the first week after the move to Boston began practicing with friend Kurt Ballou on drums.

Practices went regularly for the first month or so before scheduling problems began to take effect. Travis was in Piebald who were starting to really come into their own as an amazing band, and Kurt was finishing a class he needed to graduate as well as writing the final touches of his main band Converge's record "when forever comes crashing". Sometime around January Travis was replaced with former Kid Kilowatt drummer Matt Redmond, and Kurt moved to bass. This incarnation really only lasted two practices. I was nearly jumping out of my skin to get some songs out of my head and knowing Kurt would never be able to tour because of his other obligations former Splintered bass player Chris Raiche was recruited to fulfill the bass playing duties. Thus Eulcid really began in April of 1998.

The old line up left us with the shell of two songs and one complete one, but we wasted no time finishing these and adding two more to record our first demo with help from my roommate Steve Brodsky less than a month later on borrowed equipment. With four hundred copies of the demo pressed we played our first show back where it all started in the Merrimack Valley with Piebald. Every friend I could think of showed up to lend support. That summer four months after that we hit the road with the short lived and under appreciated "the never never" for ten shows and then six with the ire/cave in tour. It was amazing! The demos went fast and the shows were tremendous fun, I was broke from buying a van, but it was worth it. We all felt good to be in a band that was serious about creating music. A solo winter tour followed in December of 98 and "the crane ep" was released in March 99 on undecided records. Local shows, a jaunt to Canada with cave in, and more touring were to follow in the summer of 1999. This time the entire country rolled under the wheels of our van Mr. Bruno. With our roadie extraordinaire and professional napper Ryan Daniels (he slept through the entire state of Indiana) we played about 25 shows all around the U.S. Throughout this whole time though, one thought planted itself in my mind, that of our next record. When we returned home practicing became intense and sometimes shows were turned down in favor of practice time. Songs were being worked and reworked in my head, worked and reworked in practices, and then evaluated even more over and over again during my daily routine. Every factor was taken in to consideration that I could think of and every word labored over. Finally March 25th 2000 we began recording.

It seemed as though anything that could happen to make the process more difficult did. We had a terrible family emergency, the tape machine broke, I was sick, but all those months of preparation paid off, for the album was tracked and completed true to my vision of it! The Wind Blew All the Fires Out is something that was worked on for over a year, and consumed my life to a certain extent. But now when I sit here and think about all the work that went into it, the friendship the three of us have developed and the caring for our music it seems so easy. It seems easy to sit in a van for 15 hours, it seems easy to lose thousands of dollars, it seems easy to do twenty takes of a song in the studio until it is just right, and I guess most of all it seems easy to do it again. ( Mike Law. April, 2000)