Prawn - 'False Institutions' (2009)

Prawn - 'False Institutions' (2009)

*free here*

1) Nightmares

2) Thousand Grains of Sand

3) Courage Kills Men

4) Arctic Foxes

5) Family Tree

There are quite a few bands that are blurring the line between vocal post-rock and emo music. The first one that comes to mind is Moving Mountains for me, but it could be The Appleseed Cast, Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate), or a number of other bands for you. Forgive me if I make too many comparisons, but it's hard not to do that here for me.

Prawn is one of those emo/post-rock bands, and they're from New Jersey. They released this for free on their Bandcamp, and have since put up another free demo and a full-length. But what makes Prawn different to me is that they don't take a minute or two to build up to anything. Their momentum stays strong for even a whole song. Instead of slow portions of soft singing and clean guitar, they insert interludes of distorted guitar or drums. Essentially, this band captures you from the start and keeps your attention without letting you take a break with a soft section.

But I have to forewarn you: if strong lyrics are what you're looking for, Prawn may not be for you. However, while the lyrics may not be a strength of the band, the vocals are. That should be apparent by the end of the first track, "Nightmare". After a guitar progression that was surprisingly fantastic to me when I first heard it, the vocals come in and fill the sound with a mixture of more raw emo music and more refined and coordinate post-rock.

The thing about Prawn is that they aren't very intricate, but they certainly do an exceptional job with seemingly basic elements. The album is free, and definitely worth a listen.

Sleep Patterns - 'Parmi Les Rois' (2008)

Sleep Patterns - 'Parmi Les Rois' (2008)

*free here*

1) Colonies

2) Feeny

3) Christopher Talkin'

4) Sweat Fortress

5) The Useful Sound

6) Tell That Joke You Know

7) Revolutions

Sleep Patterns was a real screamo/post-hardcore band from Northwest Indiana/Southwest Michigan, the area where Merchant Ships and Midwest Pen Pals were formed and played. In fact, I found out about this band because Merchant Ships has a song called "Sleep Patterns", which includes a story that apparently was written by one of the members of the band Sleep Patterns. As it turned out, the band is ridiculously refreshing in a sea of emo/screamo revival bands.

The album opens with a clean guitar riff that is chilling to the bone. The guitar tone makes it very atmospheric, it's quite hard to describe, so you can listen for yourself! But this band was ultra-legitimate. You can hear in the singer's voice that he means everything he says very passionately. The vocals on this album are what really separate this from other bands like it. There are some controlled voice cracks along the way that make it more dynamic.

The album is 25 minutes long; it's only an EP and as far as I can tell it's their only release. To make the album even more legitimate, the band broke up due to their lead singer/bassist having nervous breakdowns. As much as that's a bummer, it makes the album even more emotionally dynamic to me. Oh, and did I mention that the album is free? All the more reason for you to give a listen to this amazing EP.

RIYL: Pianos Become the Teeth, My Heart to Joy, (old) mewithoutYou

Betterment - 'Defined' (2010)

Betterment - 'Defined' (2010)

*free here*

1) Energy

2) Brotel Rwanda

3) Ded

4) Defined

Betterment is a cool emo/hardcore band from Florida (USA) that has this free EP out and are working on new material as well, to be recorded in April 2011. [As a side note, the new stuff is most like "Ded" on this album]. They have both clean guitars playing chords and distorted guitars putting the hardcore sound in.

They've also got some great vocals, I like them. They're harsh but you can understand a lot of it and hear the emotion in it. The band is tight, they all blend together well and get a great sound. The energy in the music is great - I'm sure they'd be awesome live.

They're showing that it takes a lot more than for some influential bands to break up to take down this genre. And the recording quality is not bad at all and the EP is less than 12 minutes. I actually made a list of my top 80 favorite emo/screamo songs and "Brotel Rwanda" was at 28, just above Cap'n Jazz's "Ooh Do I Love You". I hope that's a testament to just how awesome this band is. They're a fresh listen, and free at that, so definitely worth a listen!

RIYL: Sinaloa, mewithoutYou, Hightide Hotel