Hiatus, "Brain"

This weekend, Vintage Vinyl is having a buy 2, get 1 free sale on our $3.99 used compact discs.

To celebrate, we'll be skimming the bins and posting about some of the gems to be found.

Up now is Brain by the crusty punks Hiatus.

On Anarcho-Punk, Crusty Beckham said:

Here you have Hiatus' last two recordings on one cd, namely "The Brain" from 1996 and "El Sueño" from 1995. Hiatus was one of the very best European bands of the 90's as far as good and powerful crust punk is concerned. They started out in the late 80's as a Doom/Sore Throat/Discard band but had the great taste to add some Antisect influence in the mix. To be honest, Hiatus didn't put out a bad or even an average record.

The first 8 songs of the cd are from the last 10" and they may surprise some with their melodic, almost emocore undertones in the guitar and the drumming (you can hear that Unhinged wasn't too far away by then) while keeping a distinctive crust backbone. The remaining songs are all from the 2nd Lp and here we are in traditional Hiatus territory: fast, potent, catchy crustcore, the way the genre was meant to be played. The vocals are awesome and the drum is just pummelling its way through crusty greatness. Lyrically, Hiatus really wrote their best lyrics on these last two records. Gone are the dischargey haikus and instead you have political songs from a personal point of view, and by this I mean from actual experiences, from the guts, they are stories one can easily relate to.

Golden Bloom, "Fan the Flames"

This weekend, Vintage Vinyl is having a buy 2, get 1 free sale on our $3.99 used compact discs.

To celebrate, we'll be skimming the bins and posting about some of the gems to be found.

It's time to shine the spotlight on Golden Bloom's 2009 release Fan the Flames.

On *blogcritics, Jen Johans writes:

These days it’s become far too easy for musicians to simply cite their influences since inevitably audiophiles and critics can uncover those just by listening to their work.

However, when musician Shawn Fogel, who plays every single instrument in his August 18 release under the band name Golden Bloom, was asked to offer an explanation and influence-laced play-by-play of his effort Fan the Flames, The Smiths and The Beatles received only the tiniest of shout-outs. No, instead of just dubbing a guitar hook Wilco inspired the way that nearly every critic has described Fan the Flames as sounding like that band during their Summerteeth era, Fogel’s artistic muses will definitely surprise.

Drawing upon inspiration discovered in everything from books such as Confessions of an Economic Hitman and The Perks of Being a Wallflower and DVDs including Network, and The Atomic Café, Fogel seems to absorb culture and politics like a sponge.

Figurines, "Skeleton"

This weekend, Vintage Vinyl is having a buy 2, get 1 free sale on our $3.99 used compact discs.

To celebrate, we'll be skimming the bins and posting about some of the gems to be found.

From 2006, here's Figurine's Skeleton:

Simon Jones wrote, reviewing Skeleton's UK release, on the Progressive-Sounds blog:

File this raw, honest and infectious album next to the debut efforts from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and former touring mates Cold War Kids and Tapes ´N Tapes. Despite the difference in geography, this Danish four-piece operate in the same musical landscape. Listen carefully and you´ll also hear shades of Modest Mouse, Violent Femmes, Pavement and The Strokes jostling beneath Christian´s Neil Young-minus-the-ennui vocals. The common strand between them all is great songcraft and raw energy -- Figurines have both in spades.

The nucleus of Figurines –- Claus Salling Johansen (guitars), Christian Hjelm(vocals) and former member Andreas Toft (bass) - grew up together in northern Denmark. Like so many small-town bands, they began making music because there was simply nothing else to do. Before long, they hit on a winning sound and released a debut EP in 2001.

Ex Reverie, "Door Into Summer"

This weekend, Vintage Vinyl is having a buy 2, get 1 free sale on our $3.99 used compact discs.

To celebrate, we'll be skimming the bins and posting about some of the gems to be found.

Here we have Ex Reverie's 2008's Door Into Summer.

Prefix Mag's Eli Halpern said:

Ex Reverie is an exciting band to listen to. The Door into Summer is the kind of album that makes you impatient for the next one. Chadwick works in a timeless vocabulary of sounds and syllables, a language that welcomes the modern world into the bosom of nature. In this way it is a generous and boundless music for all its darkness. Ex Reverie's debut would be an apt manifesto of Language of Stone's sonic sensibilities as well as its distinctly tribal relation to the ethics and economics of music-making in the new millennium.

Dolour, "New Old Friends"

This weekend, Vintage Vinyl is having a buy 2, get 1 free sale on our $3.99 used compact discs.

To celebrate, we'll be skimming the bins and posting about some of the gems to be found.

Up now is Dolour's 2004 release New Old Friends.

JT, writing for Doginasweater's Music Reviews said:

Shane Tutmarc is the man behind Dolour, and what a man he is – writing an album that is so instantly likeable that you want to start listening to it again the second it finishes playing. This is pop music exactly the way I like it - full of hooks and reminiscent of Teenage Fanclub and Sloan and Big Star and the dB’s and…whoever else comes to mind when you think of the great Beach Boys and Zombies followers. I’ve listened to some of the older Dolour stuff, and while good, none of it sounds nearly as complete and fleshed out as the music contained in “New Old Friends”. Highly recommended for pop lovers.

Candy Bars, "On Cutting Tigers In Half And Understanding Narravation"

This weekend, Vintage Vinyl is having a buy 2, get 1 free sale on our $3.99 used compact discs.

To celebrate, we'll be skimming the bins and posting about some of the gems to be found.

We have here Candy Bars' On Cutting Tigers In Half And Understanding Narravation released in 2006.

On Coke Machine Glow, Amir Nezar said:

Candy Bars are genuinely gripping, deserving of the double honor of both analytical critical praise and sheer visceral fandom. The group wields indelible technical and emotional power with restraint and wisdom, melding concise pop sensibilities with deft instrumentation, developing personal ghosts and haunted pasts into surreal musical swoons.

A great deal of the group's mesmerizing atmosphere has to do with Daniel Martinez's vocals and lyrics. His heavily-treated voice -- often multitracked -- bleeds into the mix with spectral presence, offsetting the clear delicacy of keys, shuffling drums, cello, and guitars (electric and acoustic) with a tattered beauty and darkly metaphorical lyrical shades. His delivery, over a majestic electric guitar chorus in "Violets," is spine-shaking as he rasps, "I woke up screaming / Pajamas wet with ex-girlfriend / Forced to flee from the chill which she lives in." Frequently, his abstract musings metamorphose into pure poetry; in the gorgeous, muted stomp of "The Flood in your Old Town," he sings with distanced longing, "But the ants will ride / On fallen leaves / like boats / through city streets / and passengers will turn their backs / when you say 'I love you.'" After his melody takes a dour turn, he wryly concludes, "But holding on / to someone's arm / is going to be / the fall of the / twenty-first century / because you are all liars."

Busy Signals, S/T

This weekend, Vintage Vinyl is having a buy 2, get 1 free sale on our $3.99 used compact discs.

To celebrate, we'll be skimming the bins and posting about some of the gems to be found.

Here's the 2007 self-titled release from the Busy Signals.

A review by Jen Cray in Ink 19 says:

Chicago's The Busy Signals torpedo the boundaries of modern music, and bring it all back down to its basics. Their self-titled Dirtnap Records release is 12 songs of fun, catchy, singable words and danceable music. It's got modern shades of punk rock and glam with hints of early R.E.M. mixed in, but in its soul is the powerest of pop.

Frontwoman Ana McGorty leads her boys with the ease of Debbie Harry (complete with the romance with a band member -- she and bassist Jeremy Thompson are dating/have dated), and it's her sexy, darker Belinda Carlisle voice that will be the first element of this band to grab you. Once hooked, "So Pointless," "Got It All Wrong" and "Look the Other Way" are sure to sink you.

Abandoned Pools, "Humanistic"

Vintage Vinyl is currently having a buy 2, get 1 free sale on our $3.99 used compact discs.

To celebrate, we'll be skimming the bins and posting about some of the gems to be found.

Here's Abandoned Pools' Humanistic, released in 2001.

John Murphy writes on the Music OHM blog:

Abandoned Pools is the brainchild of one Tommy Walter, who previously played bass in Eels. They were very much the pet project of Mark 'E' Everett however, and a band as bleak and intense as The Eels could be meant that Walters was soon on the lookout for a solo project. Abandoned Pools is that very solo project, and first impressions are that he could easily follow the success of his former cohorts.

It's easy to see why Walter may have felt frustrated in The Eels. As well as writing, singing and playing the vast majority of the instruments here, he also shares a co-producing credit. He also possesses a keen ear for a melody - this album has more hooks than your average fisherman's basket. The record swings from generic metal through Prince-like funk to midpaced ballads, yet never feels disjointed.