The Hope And The Failure – The Lights Are On But This Dance Never Ends

Embrace by The Hope And The Failure

The Hope And The Failure is the name of a band that got split up because of deportation regulations. Which is the most fucked up reason for a band-breakup ever. Sonic Youth’s guitarist and vocalist get divorced and that even gets Belgian tv-broadcast on the news. Some poor sucker gets denied a simple formality by some white-collar fuckups and suddenly this band loses a key-member! Anyway, wether you’d call them defunct, on hiatus or in a temporary setback, The Hope And The Failure (myspace) is a Scandinavian band with a lot of post- rock and hardcore influences and intense female screamo vocals at the climax that built up from spoken word in the build-ups. The lyrics are on the verge of too dramatic, straight-forward and cheesy, but who can blame anyone who’s not a native english speaker yet has english lyrics.

HeWhoCorrupts – The Discographer

Master Of Profits by Hewhocorrupts

All praise sarcastic comic powerviolence, I think I’ve read about the term ‘jokesterviolence’ somewhere. Delivering relevant messages hinted in random, sarcastic and generally funny ways is Hewhocorrupts (myspace). This is the discography record they put out, which really shows how the band has developed. From more metallic grinding hardcore punk, probably early on, to the distinct screeching powerviolence style they have come to be known for. Note their cover of ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ and the songs from their record ‘master of profits’, an album in which every song was a referrence to a Metallica song, only with their signature capitalist/corporatist thematics. Which you can’t debate is a brilliant concept.

Momentum - Whetting Occam's Razor

 listen to Culture by Momentum

for argument's sake, I will not namedrop any of this band's members past musical projects. needless to say, it would be reason enough to take note. altough, unlike the discussions around this band favors, it wouldn't be 100% fair to deny this has influences from those respective bands' styles and genres. Momentum (facebook) plays dark hardcore punk with melodic powerchord-driven guitars and pumping, usually d-beat, drum patterns. the lyrics are fairly straight-forward but very creative and , together with spoken-word samples, they hover around "the ideals of Carl Sagan and other luminary thinkers, to forward atheism, animal rights and feminist politics". And one sample of the movie Home Alone, followed by the catchiest punk rock song played in their signature style. good fun.

Out Of The Box On Sunday XXVI

 listen to 'Poking Fun' by Flashlights

There is room for progress in Emo music... Flashlights (facebook) isn't easy to define, as they portray a curious combo of a specific style of indie music (not unlike Wavves or Best Coast) and a wide variety of the branches of emo music. the end product is always upbeat, 'pleasant' and sometimes wild music. genuinely both awesome and progressive feel good music to please enthusiasts of the midwest emotional punk as well as the dreamy hipster music!

Flashlights - "Choking!" from Stephen Marsh on Vimeo.