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You know the stuff. The elders of the scene call it emo and get really pissed off when people think they're talking about Mineral. Gravity Records, Ebullition Records, Troubleman, San Diego, that scene. People who were inspired by Nation of Ulysses and seemed hellbent on freaking out the traditional hardcore crowd.

There are a lot of branches to this musical tree, and I have a lot of affection for it. As a scene kid in the late 90's I absolutely loved how it seemed the polar opposite of the macho stuff going on.

In retrospect I might conceptually dig Angel Hair and Swing Kids more than I actually enjoy listening to them. My most listened to band that you might associate with this world is actually Canadian: Shotmaker.



When you think of Star Trek haircuts, and high water pants, or paper bag seven inches what's your favorite?

My favorite was/is Antioch Arrow, before they took that odd goth turn.



Easily one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. It was like they were all having an epileptic seizure for 20 minutes, and then it was done. There’s no way they could’ve done it for more than 1/3 of an hour. It was a total monsoon storm of noise and flailing and sweating.

There was a great band from SD called Spanakorzo that were along the same lines, but with more of a Jesus Lizard bent.

Heroin, Young Ginns, Clikitat Ikatowi, John Henry West, Angel Hair….all good.

The Locust show in.. 99? was one of the best shows I've ever seen. I'm not even super into the music, but the entire room was a circle pit. You'd be near the stage for one song, then two songs later revolved to the back of the room, etc.

There were some trash bands in that scene though: Le Shok, (early) the Rapture, and yeah Swing Kids. Early At the Drive-In sorta latched onto that scene but got better when they moved on. I eventually heard and liked The VSS, it would've been more meaningful hearing/seeing them when they were active. I'd still say NC overall because there was nothing corporate about any of that music, WF for the coke that made its way in later on.

I saw this band in a record store that had space for about 30 people to pile in the room with the band. The drummer played crazy thick marching sticks and hit the drums like he wanted carpal tunnel before he turned 30. The busy part around 1:45 really got me excited and made this one a mix tape staple around Y2K.

losthighway wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 3:24 pm I saw this band in a record store that had space for about 30 people to pile in the room with the band.

That sounds like Double Entendre. That Locust show I saw there was only possible because he opened up the back room by then. That front room was kind of insane thinking about it now (maybe 3-400 square feet?), but I must've seen 30 bands play in it.

A little too chaotic for me, usually. I like Orchid - do they count? They were on Ebullition but not from San Diego. I took them to be a later iteration, part of a shift to a style somewhat more contained than Heroin, Angel Hair, and so on. Shotmaker sounds decent though. Drive Like Jehu are good too.

Dig those bands but there's any band/record that I would call "essential"... except Jehu.

Dave N. wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 2:32 pmClikitat Ikatowi

Good band! Reminds me of conversations I had about them with our dearly departed FM Bradley.

Pennington wrote:The Locust show in.. 99? was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Not too crazy about the yelling but I've been getting into Deaf Club.

I grew up in Denver and was just finishing up high school in the 1990s when I started going to see local bands at warehouse parties and places like the Lion's Lair, Mercury Cafe, etc. The local scene at the time was a bunch of half-assed bands made up of then past/present Waxtrax employees, portentious cowpunk bands, and the saccharine Elephant 6 collective (and I guess things like Baldo Rex up in Boulder). Angel Hair/The VSS starting up was an absolute breath of fresh air for me personally. But it didn't last long as they follwed in the path of Steel Pole Bathtub and high-tailed it out of Colorado for the golden coast. But they put on some great shows while the were around.

caga tio wrote: Wed Apr 12, 2023 10:52 am I grew up in Denver and was just finishing up high school in the 1990s when I started going to see local bands at warehouse parties and places like the Lion's Lair, Mercury Cafe, etc.

Oh nice! You might be a few years ahead of losthighway and I as I feel like I missed out on the 'influential' phase of Denver bands like Angel Hair and Christie Front Drive. But yeah, Denver otherwise always felt like it was years behind the coasts and people often wouldn't stick around (or at best they might show up for college, start cool bands, then eventually leave). And now it's considered a hip, desirable (and expensive!) place to live wtf.