Fall Town - After The Crash (2021)

 

GENRE : alternative punk, power pop, alternative rock, dream pop, shoegaze, post-punk

RECORD LABEL : Dead Forest Records

Fall Town are a band you've almost definitely never heard of. They're an alternative punk band from Scotland, and this is their phenomenal (yet sinfully ignored) debut album, 'After The Crash'. It's a dark, powerful, introspective journey. One of these albums that's all over before you know it, and you're left wanting more...

Fall Town's sound is a unique amalgamation of dark post-punk, power pop, alt-rock and shoegaze. A perfect soundtrack to driving down dark highways, or running away from home. There's a real sadness to this album, yet at the same time it's fun and energetic, and catchy as hell. This band needs a lot more love than they're getting. You should give this one a blast. 

Here's the album blurb taken from their Bandcamp page, which totally nails it...

Fall Town comes roaring from bare, rocky, isolated islands to unleash a debut album overflowing with passion, rage, sweetness and melancholy. Huge riffs collide with soaring melodies like storm-raised waves battering cliffs in a push and pull that mirrors the anger, joy and loss of the human condition.

Somehow Fall Town has managed to create a debut that sounds as fresh as these energies did when they were first unleashed somewhere in the history of rock music. 'After The Crash' is a must-listen for lovers of meaningful music that evokes profound emotions. It also kicks ass.

Stream/Download the album here :

https://falltown.bandcamp.com/album/after-the-crash

Sandpit - On Second Thought (1994-1998)

 

GENRE : alternative punk, slowcore, alternative rock, shoegaze, Australia

RECORD LABEL : Fellaheen Records

Sandpit are a band that you've probably never heard of. They're an Australian alternative rock trio that were mainly active between 1994-1998. This is the only album of theirs I've listened to, and it's really damn good. They instantly brought to mind bands like Sonic Youth, Codeine, Dinosaur Jr and Red House Painters. They have that unmistakable 90's shoegaze thing to them too. 

Sandpit play slow, raw, broody alt-punk with weird-ass guitar chords in weird-ass tunings, which gets shockingly loud and heavy at times. If (like me) you're into that kind of thing, you should definitely check them out.

Stream/Download the album here...

https://sandpit.bandcamp.com/album/on-second-thought

Further Seems Forever - The Moon Is Down (2001)

GENRE : emo, post-hardcore, alternative rock, alternative punk

RECORD LABEL : Tooth & Nail Records

A few summers ago a had a massive doomed crush on someone I barely knew. My chest was all knots and my stomach was butterflies. I was physically and mentally sick, unable to focus or think about anyone else, or anything else. I was in between jobs and spent most of that summer doing nothing but riding my bike around my local area, listening to sad music and staring off into space, living in my own head, feeling like this one person alone held the key to my heart. I had been lonely for so long, and I had built this person up in my head (without really knowing them at all) to such a ridiculous degree that it was inevitably going to end in big fat disappointment, which it certainly did...

Anyway, one of the albums that was in heavy rotation during that sad lonely summer was 'The Moon Is Down' by emo/post-hardcore/alt-punk band Further Seems Forever. It is their debut album and some die hard fans claim that it's their best work. To be honest, I don't really know where I stand on that whole thing personally. I'm a fan of all four of their studio albums. I'd say that 'Hide Nothing' is probably my least favourite, but I still like it. The other three albums I love equally, and refuse to choose a favourite. All I know is that 'The Moon Is Down' is a great starting point, and their album that I have the most emotional attachment to. FSF fans also like to get into heated debates over which of their 3 singers were the best - Chris Carraba, Jason Gleason or Jon Bunch.  It's such a subjective thing, I refuse to even get into that.

Anyway, returning to my little emo story - one day I was cycling along some quiet little street, listening to 'The Moon Is Down' (specifically track 4 - Monachetti), this person I'd been dreaming about all summer drove past me, smiling and waving! My legs turned to jelly and I fell off my bike, into a ditch. After a few minutes I was able to get up and cycle home, smiling like a clown. Heart thumping uncontrollably. It was a sweet moment in an otherwise miserable summer.

I won't go into the specifics about what happened from there, and how this person eventually revealed themselves be a disgusting snake, but I will say that this album helped me get through a really tough period in my life, and I will always love FSF for that. 

Anyway, listen to this album. You can stream/download/buy all of their music on all the usual digital music platforms - Spotify, iTunes, etc... and rumour has it they're working on new material! I don't know if that's true. I really hope it is.