Samuel 7"

This seven inch is the second of the three records from Pennsylvania's Samuel, who in 1995 relocated south to the Washington D.C. area. The band was comprised of former members of Manhandle, Junction and Wind Of Change. They played energetic, pretty straight forward rocking jams and were fronted by Vanessa Downing, who also sang in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania's pride and joy Junction. Junction featured Gregg Foreman, before he started the pretty well known Delta 72, as well as Jay Demko, who has played in tons of bands over the years, including Morgantown, West Virginia's Lincoln (who probably need zero introduction to most readers of this blog). Eric Astor, who ran the notable Art Monk Construction label, was Samuel's drummer.

I've always felt that Samuel (as well as Junction) was a criminally underrated band from the earlier half of the 1990's. If their records were never released by one of the members of the band, I could easily see them getting picked up by someone like Doghouse or Initial. Downing's lyrics were of the introspective variety, and could stand strongly on their own as pieces of prose. Samuel's work was always recorded by their friend Fred Weaver, who currently runs Apocalypse the Apocalypse in rural central Pennsylvania, not too far from State College.

This record still frequents my turntable, and it will probably continue to do so until I cease breathing. It was recorded in Fred Weaver's attic in May of 1995, and was a split release from Ohio's City of Romance and A.M.C. Good shit.

Tracklist:
1) Empty And Then Some
2) Our Baby Outlaw

- no one recognizes a stranger -

The Exploder 7"

Sometime in 1999, my buddy Sean and I were digging through records at Doylestown, Pennsylvania's fantastic Siren Records when he stumbled upon this Richmond bands LP, "This Sound Stars Right Now". He took a chance and bought it (probably because it was on white vinyl and came out on Baltimore's excellent Reptilian Records) and when we listened to it at our cute friend "Grody Jodi"s apartment (Sean's eye candy at the time), we were absolutely floored. The Exploder are probably the best emo band you aren't listening to. Equal parts chaotic, spastic and catchy hardcore punk that was just heavy enough and, perhaps most notably, was energetic as fuck.

The 7" presented here is their earliest output and, most likely, is way better than anything the last three bands you were in ever did. Recorded in March of 1997 and released by Virginia indie Jackpot Records, it serves as a great introduction to what the band would eventually accomplish less than a year later. After this ep and before the aforementioned full length, The Exploder did a split 12" with North Carolina's Griver, who similarly delivered up some seriously good late 90s emo/hardcore. This, of course, was a period of time before the words "emo" and "screamo" were associated with shitty corporate mall metal, dudes with pink hair who also wore eyeliner, and other things that had absolutely nothing in common with the true spirit of do-it-yourself emotional hardcore punk, man.

Unfortunately, the last two releases by The Exploder were nowhere near as good as their first four phenomenal records. It was like the dudes in the band stopped taking their adderall and started listening to Mineral (who ruled) or The Promise Ring (who didn't). The abrasive edge just wasn't there anymore; instead it was replaced with a heaping helping of melody and not-very-goodiness that just didn't hit me in the face anymore. These final  records included a six song ep titled "West End Kids Crusade" from 2000, and a split 7" with Cross My Heart from late 2000 or early 2001. Dim Mak Records, which used to be operated by the well known DJ Steve Aoki, put out the WEKC record, in case that would matter to you.

Wrapping this post up, it would be wise of you to seek out everything by this band if you listen to Frodus, Four Hundred Years, Midiron Blast Shaft or even pre-Victory Records era Grade. You can start with this seven inch and thank me later. Big ups to Jaybie for making sure this record wound up in my hands many moons ago.

-good intentions-

Tracklist:
1) Escrow
2) Burnt Black
3) Greek Lightning