Discover The Music Scene

Searching for something new to listen to? I recommend Valise!

I first discovered this band when I was on the hunt to find anything and everything that reminded me of Copeland while they were broken up. While they are by no means a Copeland-copycat, you might hear the similarity. Having just released their debut, Young Bloomer, this year, Valise is just at the beginning of their career, but they are off to an amazing start. I also love their Dreamcatcher EP, which they seemed to have removed from the web for whatever reason. Anything this band has put out is definitely worth the listen.

Sound Cloud | Website | Youtube | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Rdio | Spotify

RIYL: Copeland, Death Cab for Cutie, chill indie rock

Currently many music lovers are debating: Which streaming service is superior? 

It seems like Apple Music, Rdio, and Spotify each have their own pros and cons. While Spotify has been my personal favorite for a while, it wasn’t until the creation of this new feature that they separated themselves from the rest.

Discover Weekly is a personalized playlist of recommended music that updates every Monday. Meaning every Monday you’ll wake to a brand new playlist of 30 customized songs in place of your previous playlist. Yes, Spotify already gives you recommendations on their ‘Discover page’, has a ‘Related Artists’ tab for almost all their artists, and has a personalized radio for both artists and playlists-- all of which are great features for music discovery. But ‘Discover Weekly’ was a completely necessary addition for Spotify.

From taking a look at my own personalized playlist, I see little overlap of artists on my Discover page. There’s only about two or three artists found on the Discover page that are also in my playlist. So this leads me to thinking: would I have listened to some of these artists if it weren’t for this feature?

My playlist included artists I had never heard of. And for someone who is always discovering new bands (Spotify and Rdio being my main way of doing so these days), that was shocking. There were also songs I had completely forgotten about, but used to love. I have no idea how Spotify knew that “Reaction” by Ace Enders and a Million Different People was my jam in high school, and that I haven’t played it since then, but they did. A good portion of my recommended songs were from bands that I had completely forgot about them. There were also songs from side projects of artists that I didn’t know exists. I honestly had no idea Tilian Pearson had a solo project called Tilian. I never listened to He Is Legend. Admittedly, I assumed they were a metal band based on the name. Yikes... Also, thank you Spotify for actually getting me to listen to Superheaven because I had sleeping on them for far too long. 

I enjoyed all 30 songs on the playlist, and really liked them a lot. Good work Spotify! I listen to music on multiple platforms; I don’t listen to even a fraction of everything I like on Spotify. But somehow, they still got it right. None of these are songs that I’ve listened to often, if ever. (Does this mean they have the power to see what I listen to on my ipod??? Or are they just that good?)

I already can’t wait for next week. In the meantime, I’ll give playing the radio for this playlist a go and see what else they recommend. In short, if you don’t have Spotify, get it just for this feature, if nothing else.

Well, once again this blog is going to be completely revamped. So long Alternate Punk Etc.!

My new vision is for this to be a collaborative project between myself, and also any of my followers who would like to contribute. I am also interested in teaming up with another person to run this in general.

My goal for Discover the Music Scene is to have a place where anyone can promote their favorite bands. Whether its an old favorite, a band you found online, or your hometown heroes, or your own band (you have to be good though) I’d like you to share it. I also want this to be a place where someone can go to ask if the want to find something specific.

Of course this blog is now under construction, due to the fact that it’ll get me a while to get started. But shoot me a message if you’d like to take part in this, and by that I mean submitting an artist, or seeking to become part of the team. I’m trying to stick to it this time.

I hope to make a lot of changes and really make this thing that I started back in 2010 something that people want. Feel free to message me about anything!

And thanks for sticking with me guys,

-Alexa

/ 

In the light of my last post, there is a change.org petition trying to get the attention of Four Year Strong, Transit, and A Loss For Words. We want to convince these bands to let go of their current manager, JJR, due to the threats he made in order to ultimately silence a victim of assault. There’s no place for people this toxic and disgusting in music. It is so important that our scene becomes safer for women, and for everyone.

The Wonder Years have already let him go. His other bands need to do the same!

I know I don’t really post on this blog anymore, but there’s an issue that really needs the attention of the scene, and I’m going to use whatever platform I have to bring awareness to it.

I usually ask my followers to support artists-- that was the goal of creating this blog. However, in this case it’s important to consider what it means to support the band No Good News or their label Pure Noise Records.

For those of you who are currently unaware, Harry Corrigan, of No Good News/ formerly of Bellwether, sexually assaulted a 17-year old girl a few years back (read about it here). To make matters worse, he shows a clear lack of sincerity or honest remorse.

Pure Noise Records signed No Good News after concerns about Harry being a sexual predator became public. Not only was this clearly not seen as a reason not to sign the band, but Pure Noise has been working to stop fans from publicly speaking out against Harry. In one instance, according to AbsolutePunk, “the label have already told one fan to never buy another record from the label for calling attention to this”.

Pure Noise is not the only one enabling Harry’s grotesque behavior. John James “JJR” Ryan, who was formerly the tour manager of The Wonder Years, and is currently the tour manager of Four Year Strong, Transit and A Loss For Words, has also helped cover up the incident. Christian Holden of The Hotlier, is friends with the victim and has defended her. JJR has attempted to stop him from doing so and further uses her anonymity as a way to easily spread lies about her. He claims "she already reached out months ago, apologized, and took her things off the internet”, when sources who know her (i.e. Christian Holden and her friend who was original poster of her accusation) say otherwise.

Please do not support Pure Noise Records as a company. By all means, continue to support the bands on the label. It is possible to support a band but NOT the label. These days, most bands on indie labels sustain themselves almost exclusively from tours and merch sales, where their label doesn’t get a cut. All the more reason to attend more shows!

You should also unfollow Pure Noise Records on social media, and like/ follow the bands instead.

Take note of the artists below and their relationship to the situation and/ or Pure Noise. This list was borrowed from an AbsolutePunk thread:

Associate Pure Noise Acts include: Brigades Counterparts Elder Brother Forever Came Calling Four Year Strong Gates Gnarwolves Handguns Heart to Heart Hit the Lights Jule Vera Landscapes Like Pacific My Iron Lung No Bragging Rights Reggie and the Full Effect Rotting Out Seaway Senses Fail Sights and Sounds Speak Low if You Speak Love State Champs The Story So Far To The Wind Vanna Bands that Showed Support for Harry/Made Jokes Knuckle Puck (“Bullshit”) State Champs (“Tumblr Justice, baby”) The Story So Far Fireworks Handguns Seaway Second to Last I Call Fives A Loss For Words Four Year Strong Transit Turnover Bands Associated with JJR Four Year Strong (Current) Transit (Current) A Loss for Words (Breaking Up) The Wonder Years (They gave him the boot due to his support for Harry) East Coast Collective played a part in supporting Harry. JJR works for/ is closely associated with ECC. Mixtapefest is being sponsored by ECC. Please reach out to any bands on the lineup and make sure they are informed about the connection between ECC and the Harry/Pure Noise situation. 

I am deeply disappointed in the above artists (i.e. the middle category) for defending their friend rather than questioning if he is really as a good of a guy as he says. Many men in the industry, particularly musicians, have a poor track record of using their power to take advantage of women. This has been happening for years, and I think it’s time we turn our backs on those who abuse their power.  Boycotting those who defend assailants, like Pure Noise, helps ensure that situations like this do not happen to more young women.

My heart goes out to the victim. While she remains anonymous, we need to believe her and defend her. Her value as a human being should be seen as more important than the success of her abuser.

Again, it’s important to spread this information as far as we can: talk about this with people you know, tweet about it, post about it, or share mine. I will continue to update this post, if necessary.

These bands aren’t the most unknown in my collection, and a lot of them already have a following, but nevertheless, I believe all 15 of these artists deserve to be heard by more ears.

My investment in this blog has varied so much over the 3 years of its existence. My last post before this was from 9 months ago, and the one before that a year-- yikes! This has been one of many periods where I have stopped blogging, but I've always ended up returning to tumblr. Recently I've talked about alternativepunketc. as a project I used to work on... with the intentions of silently abandoning the blog for good. But I don't think I want to do that! While I don't have much down time nowadays-- and also have many, many other priories-- music is still important to me. And I still want to be vocal about my musical discoveries so that I can share them with other people.

I will probably end up playing around on here more than anything-- posting anything I can (an album, a playlist) just so that something is happening here, and that I'm doing something to give artists exposure.

Band: The Offseason

RIYL: Allister and The Swellers

Song above: “Can't Sleep”

I will mention this band as many times as it takes before people notice them. These guys put out a fantastic EP just two weeks ago called Pastimes. And I have not seen it get the least bit of attention which is such a shame. If people knew this band I have no doubt that they would be talked about constantly. I can name few better bands in the scene. Honestly! So check out their new EP; there's no need to thank me.

Streams available from

Bandcamp

Purevolume

Spotify

Band: From Indian Lakes

Sound like: As Cities Burn, The Dear Hunter, Acceptance, Brand New

Song above: "Stay Outside"

I should have took a moment to post about this band a good while ago, but hey, better late than never I guess. Able Bodies, From Indian Lake's sophomore release was my absolute favorite album released last year. If you take a listen, I hope you'll see why. Their music is absolute gorgeous, and a little bit brilliant. But it's not that they are doing anything overly different from similar alternative bands from the 2000's; it's that they pull it off without coming off as some other band's copycat. Joey Vannuchi's vocals (which are sometimes delicately sweet and sometimes vigorously angry) is probably what makes this band so irresistible, but the lyrics and guitar work are equally charming. Okay, seriously, everything about this band is great though.

Streams available from:

Spotify

Bandcamp (< Free music)

Band: Clear For Take Off

Sounds like: Cartel, The Years Gone By

Song above: Voices (Letting Go)

These guys haven't been around overly long, but they are the aftermath of the band The Good Fight and Courting Amber. The duel vocals and the keys really make these guys something special. I just started listening to them, and I thought I'd share them here with you because I haven't been keeping up with this at all lately. Sometimes there's nothing better than cheerful catchy music.

Streams available from:

Some of my friends just started their own music blog right here on tumblr and even asked me to assist with it. Since it covers a lot of the same type of artists as my blog I thought some of you guys might be interested! So far the blog covers news, but they're hoping to include lots of band interviews in the future. Please check us out!

In the spirit the Christmas here's a really great Christmas song from The Active Set. And since it is the season of giving, buying this song will help benefit others in need! It's called "Making Out (Is The Best Part Of Christmas)".

"Buy the song and we will be donating some of the proceeds from sales of the song to Harmony Project, a charity that targets at-risk youth in underserved areas of Los Angeles, bringing quality music instruction and ensemble playing to children who otherwise would not have access to it, which is incredible. See what they do at www.harmony-project.org"

You can get the song from either bandcamp or itunes!

Band: The Moms

Sounds like: I Am The Avalanche, The Menzingers

Song above: "Bed Time" (Free download)

This New Jersey trio put out a really great EP back in June. If you like punk rock with lots of yelling, check it out!

Be sure to follow their tumblr too.

Streams available from

Bandcamp

Band: Scan the Sky

Sounds like: Park, The Wonder Years, The Dear Hunter

Song above: "Forget Sunset"

Scan the Sky put a bit of their own twist on pop-punk, mixing it with elements of anything from post-rock to post-hardcore to progressive rock to metal. This is the kind of sound I've been wanting a band to take on for a while, and Scan the Sky pulled it off brilliantly. Their debut record, Dear Hope, has the perfect balance of screams and piano ballads. If you like this sort of thing as much as I do, you'll be listening to it non-stop, I promise. Plus, it's up for free download!

Be sure to follow their tumblr too!

Streams available from

Band: Blind Of 69

Sounds like: pop-punk FFO Major League and Real Friends

Song above: "1022"

These guys are a great pop-punk band from Austria. The more I listen to them the harder it is to stop.

Grab all of the music the band has put out here!

Be sure to follow their tumblr.

Streams available from