Texas is The Reason/The Promise Ring split

Texas is The Reason myspace
Texas is The Reason website














The Promise Ring page on Jade Tree

Texas is The Reason (taken from a line of the Misfits song "Bullet") and The Promise Ring, both hailing from the states did a split in 1996, with each band supplying one song. The split, in my opinion contains some of the best materials both bands have written. When I first listened to the record, i noticed that TITR and The Promise Ring songs shared a lot similar qualities, sonically and musically which is funny since if it wasn't for the split i wouldn't have made any sort of connection between them.

Texas is The Reason were founded by the guitarist of a hardcore band, Shelter and drummer of another hardcore band from the mid 90's, 108. They existed from 1994 to 1997. The Promise Ring started off as a side project of guitarist/vocalist of Cap'n'Jazz in 1995 before turning into a serious band. They ended the band in 2002. Both bands did a few reunion shows in 00's ever since without any intention of reforming.

Texas is The Reason plays a brand of really catchy, personal mid-tempo punk rock and at the time it was fairly something new and fresh especially coming from a band on a hardcore label, Revelation. They got slapped with the tag "emo" and "post-hardcore" a lot (also goes for The Promise Ring and most of indie bands from the mid-west at the time) which i find to be about as useful and informative as twitter. I don't consider those mid-west bands as "emo" anyway. When i think of emo in the 90's, i think of Ebullition, Gravity and later, Level-Plane. It just makes more sense since emo is essentially hardcore punk and a lot of midwest bands seemed to embrace a more poppier, radio-friendly side of punk (this is not a bad thing, i assure you).

I personally find all Texas is The Reason materials to be gold, not that they have a huge discography to go through or anything. They released a 7" ep, a full-length and a few splits. As for The Promise Ring, well i haven't listened to them as much but from what i've heard it's okay. They're just a bit too poppy/upbeat for my taste and the vocals get a bit too much for me (same problem i have with Mineral). Their song on the split with Texas is The Reason "E. Texas Avenue" is a bit different than most of their stuff. It's hard-hitting and not as poppy which i like.


















Texas is The Reason/The Promise Ring split

Here's another treat :

Texas is The Reason live at Coney Island High (NYC) - 03/24/96

Converge post #2

Converge myspace

Okay, so it's obvious that i'm rather fond of this band. I always think of Converge as one of the more relevant hardcore bands out there. I mean there are a lot of other hardcore acts out there, but how many would you say have their own sound? How many of them can make you go "hmmm what bands could i compare them to? i'm not sure". Don't get me wrong, i'm all for bands paying tribute to old bands that have paved the way, but wouldn't you rather have a band that took influences from those bands to create something new, something original, exciting, unpredictable and relevant? Hell, most bands who cited Black Flag or Bad Brains as their influence don't sound remotely like them anyway.

Converge has been actively involved with the scene from the early 90's and hasn't slowed down since. Chucking out a handful of full-lengths and splits, they continued to reinvent themselves in terms of musical direction while still having a recognizable, distinctive sound. Their early albums such as Petitioning... and When Forever...display a lot of thrashy, chungky riffs while Jane Doe and You Fail Me has more of a "mathy", chaotic sound and atmospheric production, thanks to Kurt Ballou's Godcity Studio.

Axe To Fall, their new album is due to drop on October 20, 2009. So far, 2 new songs has been released. The first song is called "Dark Horse" and it honestly has left me feeling indifferent. The main riffs sounded like something Mastodon would've written and that to me, is not a good thing. Obviously its just one song and the rest of the album might not sound like that. Converge are currently touring across the states with Mastodon and Dethklok and i'm not sure what to make of it. I'm just not a big fan of those bands i suppose.

The second song, "Axe To Fall" however kicks so much ass that i felt like someone just ripped my soul out upon first time listening to it. The drumming is the highlight with it's d-beat influence driving the song at breakneck speed. Ballou's twiddly hammered-on riffs also really makes up the song, giving it a really chaotic crazy foot-stomping feel. So far, one good song and one okay song. I can't wait to hear the rest of the album.

You can listen to "Dark Horse" on their myspace. You can download the track "Axe To Fall" HERE.

Black Flag

I'm sure most of you know who Black Flag is. But for the purpose of being informative, here's a little background of the band. Black Flag was formed in 1976 in California. They were considered to be one of the first hardcore punk bands ever (yeah yeah The Middle Class was formed in 1976 as well, save the argument for next time). Greg Ginn, the founder, main song-writer and the guitarist of Black Flag set up his own independent label, SST Records in 1978 in purpose of releasing Black Flag's material. Since then SST has also released albums by other bands such as Husker Du, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, etc. Black Flag was one of the first punk bands who tour throughout the states and basically play anywhere they can. A lot of other bands later follow their path and play places that Black Flag had been to.

Black Flag to me, until this day remains as one of the best punk/hardcore bands ever. I've discovered a lot of great bands in recent years (Die Kreuzen, Articles Of Faith, Siege, Zero Boys, Rorschach are among my favorites).But the fact is Black Flag did it first and better. The thing that boggles my mind is how the band went through so many member changes and yet kept producing quality materials. I can safely say that i actually enjoy all Black Flag releases (yes, even Family Man, Loose nut and The Process of Weeding Out).

This post is about Black Flag bootlegged LP 1982 demos and more. This demo features a short-lived lineup of Rollins, Ginn, Dukowski, Dez Cadena on second guitar and Chuck Biscuits of D.O.A fame. It was recorded secretly back when Black Flag was having a legal dispute with MCA /Unicorn and wasn't allowed to release any record with their name on it. The band released a compilation record Everything Went Black shortly after, crediting the individual musicians and thus not having the words Black Flag anywhere on it. Unicorn found out and take Black Flag to the court resulting in Ginn and Dukowski as co-owners of SST spending five days in jail.

The first 10 tracks are songs that would end up on My War, Slip It In and Loose Nut except for "What Can You Believe" and "Yes, I Know" which did not appear in any official Black Flag releases until this day. The last 4 tracks are live songs taped at Radio Tokyo studio in Los Angeles. One of the tracks is a 8-minutes interview from the same session with the band whom at the time were Ginn, Rollins, Kira and Bill. Let me just say that regardless whether you're a fan of the band or not, this is the best Black Flag recording out there. The band is at it's prime here with Rollins really intense vocals performance and Ginn riffs destroying everything sonically (listen to the intro to "My War" on this, crazy shit).

Ps. Kira was/is gorgeous.

Black Flag 1982 Demos and more