School Jerks - Nothing Else 7"

Speaking of School Jerks, they just released their Control 7" in April which totally rules, as does pretty much everything about this band. However, I'm going to post their first 7", the three-and-a-half-minute wonder, Nothing Else on here, because it is the closest to my heart. School Jerks were the first Toronto hardcore band I ever heard, and I distinctly remember listening to "Passed Out" for the first time at the ripe age of sixteen and thinking that School Jerks must be the drunkest band I had ever heard in my life. Luckily, I wasn't too far from the truth. School Jerks are a shitshow on stage. Their frontman, Luke is the Darby Crash of Toronto. The band's stage presence has this incredible contrast between the band's cool and incredibly tight sets and Luke's chaotic antics. Beyond that, Luke's lyrics are incredible as well. Although none of the pressings of this record have the lyrics, the guys from School Jerks told me that a lyric sheet will be printed featuring the lyrics to all of their songs soon. The songs off Nothing Else are short, simple, and snotty as fuck. The chorus of the title track ends with "I'm on my last legs, damned if I don't, wake up beaten, bruised". I think that sums up the band more so than any shit I could write here. Go see this band live, buy all their records, and beat yourself up in your room listening to all of them.

Download.

Terminal State - Your Rules 12"

When it came to 80's throwback hardcore, Toronto was quick to export. I think that Terminal State's Your Rules 12" stands as the pinnacle of nostalgic Toronto hardcore bands. I don't this this record gets half of the credit it deserves, which is a damn shame. Everything about this record from the front cover (a classic black and white shot of the suburbs), to the artwork on the insert (two fold-out chairs facing a television in an empty white room), to the catchy riffage screams early 80's California. The record's lyricism is even better. With songs like "Fuck You Sid", reminiscent of the Teen Idles' "Fleeting Fury" and lines like "I don't care what you say or what you think of me, I don't care about your rules or your society", it's difficult to believe that this record was not made in 1981, let alone that it was made in 2005. As for the songs themselves, they are short enough to keep you interested (longest song is a minute and fifteen seconds), and as previously mentioned, super catchy. I know this gets thrown around a lot, but these riffs genuinely sound like refined pre-Damaged era Black Flag. Great stuff. Half of this band now plays in my favorite current TOHC band, School Jerks.

Download.

Youth Of Today - Break Down The Walls + Can't Close My Eyes

Speaking of Ray Cappo and posi punk, Youth Of Today are working their way up as one of my favorite hardcore bands. A lot of people seem to have some negative sentiments concerning YOT, mainly crediting them for "bro-core" and all of the macho bullshit that New York hardcore turned into in the 1990s. However, this is a completely unfair assessment of the band, and fails to recognize how rad YOT really were. Before I begin writing about Youth Of Today, I think I should make it understood that I really have no interest in bro hardcore and very little interest in youth crew. I am not straight edge and for the better part of my life, have eaten meat and thought of myself as a quite negative person. Regardless of these factors, Youth Of Today has always stood out to me as a exceptional example of what a good hardcore punk band should sound like.

Until recently, Break Down The Walls was my favorite Youth Of Today record. With its insane riffage, abundance on classic slammers, Ray Cappo's utterly ridiculous vocals, and glossy production, this record is classic bedroom mosh material. However, after I heard the rawer versions of some of the YOT classics like "Positive Outlook" and "Take A Stand" off Can't Close My Eyes, I began to reconsider. Other crucial tracks off Can't Close My Eyes include "Expectations" and "We Just Might", which I believe has one of the most moshtastic breakdowns I've ever heard. Although, I hate it when this band is labelled "jockcore", it also makes terrific workout music. Nothing beats finishing a 5k run up a hill and listening to Ray Cappo (who is now a yoga instructor) hollering about his positive outlook on life. Seriously though, listen to both records, and whatever you do, don't dismiss this shit.

Break Down The Walls.

Can't Close My Eyes.

Lemuria - The First Collection

Well it's summertime again. One of the things I love about summer is that it gives me an excuse to waste away listening to sappy music and dreaming, if little else. Lemuria's The First Collection provides an excellent year-round soundtrack to dreamers, poets, space cadets, and other varieties of hopeless romantics, but I myself find it best fitted for summer. In addition, I'm beginning to wonder if there's anything that Lemuria's frontwoman, Sheena Ozzella can't do. The First Collection is practically driven by Sheena's incredibly catchy and offbeat guitar riffs. Even more impressive in my opinion, are the vocals, which are sung so honestly and so forwardly that it is impossible to believe that anything less than one hundred percent of the band's energy goes into their songs. This impression is even stronger in their live performance, which I would easily say is amongst the best I've ever seen. Onstage, Sheena creates a unity and sense of positivity that Ian MacKaye or Ray Cappo could only dream about. Everybody in the audience, be they edge or non-edge, crusties, geeks, hardcore kids, and others, is absolutely euthoric, smiling, singing along, and dancing around. Do yourself and see Lemuria live if you haven't already. And check out this record too. It's great.

Download.

Millenial Reign - Bones Dust Nothing 7"

Speaking of Fucked Up side projects, Damian Abraham's Millenial Reign is easily amongst my favorites. I really didn't know too much about this band until I found a copy of this 7" at Generation Records in New York. Being the obsessive TOHC collector that I am, I immediately picked up the 7" and brought it back with me to Hogtown for further inspection. Millenial Reign is the ultimate short-lived side project of Damian Abraham (Fucked Up, Pink Eye), along with Jordan Posner and Jesse Labovitz (ex-No Warning) making Clevo-style, Integrity-worship hardcore. Chris Colohan (Burning Love, Cursed, Mature Situations, The Swarm, Ruination, Fucked Up, Career Suicide) and George Pettit (Alexisonfire) also join in on the party for a bit. Aside from being an over the top SOHC name drop, this record really rules. I don't know anything about Clevo hardcore but Millenial Reign has a very melodic heavy hardcore sound. This comes off best in the first song, "I Start Fires With My Mind", whose beautiful lyrics describe the spirituality present in the evolutionary process of humans, bridging the gap between Creationists and Evolutionists in a song that sounds something close to the end of the world.

Download.

Young Governor - English Tim + Virginia Creeper 7"s

It seems impossible to talk about Young Governor, or Ben Cook in general without mentioning how many noteworthy bands and side projects (No Warning, Violent Minds, Fucked Up, The Bitters, Marvelous Darlings, Young Governor, etc.) this man has been in over the past few years. I recall one of my earliest concert experiences as seeing No Warning open for Sum 41 in 2005 and absolutely hating it. That being said, I'd like to believe that I've refined my musical taste a little bit in the last six years, and considering Young Gov isn't playing nu-metal songs, Ben Cook has obviously done the same. Young Governor is Ben Cook's garagey punk solo project and is responsible for several catchy and collectable singles such as these. Cool.

No Guv,

No Luv.

Night Birds - Killer Waves 7"

Night Birds are an insanely catchy surf punk band from Brooklyn/Jersey Shore with an ex-member of the Ergs! This single is easily my favorite of their releases. The A-side, "Killer Waves" is a ditty about how rising tides from global warming will kill off the non-surfer populations of the world and will ensure the Night Birds' surfvival (see what I did there?) The B-side is a neat surf instrumental titled "Squad Car" and sounds like it should be on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. Night Birds also put on an excellent live set. They recently played the 73 Cecil St. Garage with Direct Approach, Total Trash, and the Naughty Girls and tore it up before the squad cars could arrive. My friend Daniel Vella took show great shots of the band in action and I'll post a link for that too.

Download.

Pictures.