Avail

Avail is one of my all time favorite bands, hands down.

100 Times was their first release for Fat Wreck Chords. It featured one new song and a few new recordings of classic Avail fare.

Pinned Up is my highlight of this one!

Please record a new album soon, Avail.

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Avail @ Myspace

The Draft

The Draft is 3/4's of Hot Water Music.

This is a 4 song EP that they released in digital format.

Devil In The Shade is probably their best song to date.

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The Draft @ Myspace

Lonely Kings

Lonely Kings from California played the Lehigh Valley years ago and really impressed me. I think they played with Weston in a small room in the middle of nowhere and were fucking great.

These are the songs that were on a split release with a band called Divit. They pretty much rule.

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Lonely Kings @ Myspace

The Curse

The Curse was one of Philadelphia's most underrated bands ever. They played a great mix of hardcore and punk with raspy vocals that sounded a lot like Tim Armstrong of Rancid/Operation Ivy.

I'm glad that I got to see this band twice before they called it a day, they were a great live show. Dave Hause went onto be in Paint It Black and now The Loved Ones. Vocalist Ben Wolfgang went on to be in the very short lived Bookburner.

And now, here's their demo release.

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Chum

Chum were a band from West Virginia that played a really loud mix of harsh downtuned almost sludge, mixed with melodic vocals that made for a sound that was really unique.

They released their Century Media debut Dead to the World and there were talks of them going into the studio with a then unknown producer named Ross Robinson but they were plagued with line up problems and ultimately disbanded. They still do the occasional show, but those are few and far between.

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Chum @ Myspace

Handsome

Handsome was a hardcore "supergroup." Boasting ex-members of Helmet, Quicksand and Cro-Mags, they had all the makings to be something great, but they broke up before that could happen.

They left a few 7" records and a full length as their testament, but I'm not uploading any of those (unless someone really, really wants me to.)

This is a live set that Andrew at the almighty Aversionline blog uncovered and posted some time ago. Thanks, Andrew!

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Handsome @ Myspace

P.S. - The name of this blog comes from their track Swimming. Definitely an all time favorite song of mine.

Miltown

I apologize for the picture, but you try finding one on Google for a band that released one EP and disappeared. I dare you.

Anyway, Miltown was a project for vocal juggernaut Jonah Jenkins. It falls between his days in Only Living Witness and Milligram. It's powerful rock that is more laid back than OLW and less stoner vibe than Milligram. It's definitely the goods and there's even a cover of The Cure's "Jumping Someone Else's Train" on there for good measure.

It was released on Hydra Head and I'm pretty sure it's out of print.

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