Besides Asides

Craig Finn of the Hold Steady is one of the finest storytellers currently making music. Finn's tales are like any good story, you can't miss part of it and expect to grasp the full picture. So I've decided to compile all the band's loose ends into one mix. It contains all the b-side/bonus material from Almost Killed Me, Boys and Girls In America, Stay Positive and Heaven Is Whenever as well as covers, compilation tracks and unreleased songs. As a bonus I've also included several live songs that were never released commercially from the period between Stay Positive and Heaven Is Whenever possibly due to Franz leaving the band. Anyways, enjoy American Music:

Caustic Soda will probably go down as even less than a footnote in music history. The name will probably be familiar to some as a number of the band members went on to form the indie rock band Blueline Medic who were signed to Fueled By Ramen and released a number of records including a split with Ted Leo and The Pharmacists.

Chances are you've never heard of Charlie Brown Gets A Valentine, they were a pop punk band from Chicago that existed from 1997 to 2004. The closest musical comparison I could make to them is fellow Chicago natives The Lawrence Arms. Y'know, a three piece, with two vocalists obviously influenced by Jawbreaker. In the course of their existence they released two fantastic LPs, a slew of great singles and a split album. Sadly, the only thing that is available for purchase is their second LP, Dismissed. So here I am posting Commencement, their first full-length release. I highly suggest picking up Dismissed from Whoa Oh Records if you like this one. Enjoy:

To my knowledge there isn't a lot or any Lemuria live audio floating around out there, so this is a set that the band recorded live in studio for the Cloak & Dagger Radio Show on WHFR out of Dearborn, Michigan back in 2006. It is before their Get Better LP came out so the set is almost completely made up of 7" and compilation material that made up The First Collection in 2007. There is also the rare treat of "Hey, I'm Over Here" from the band's demo as well as an adorable acapella version of Destiny's Child's "Bootylicious". Each band member also does a quick radio drop for the show and and intro to the set. The sound quality is pretty darn good about a B+ and the band has a real nervous energy with Sheena either missing some of the lyrics or them dropping away from the mic. I hope you enjoy:

Download (password is on the side of blog under the "password" heading)

I recently made a few changes to older posts. I fixed the links to the Hüsker Dü collection, the second part to the Say Anything collection and the Cheap Girls acoustic album. I was going to fix the link to the Replacements downlaod but I decided instead of two massive two part collections with demos and b-sides/outtakes from both the Twin/Tone and Sire eras I will be making one new large two part mix with each part focusing on the b-sides/outtakes and unreleased material. It is still a lot.

Carbondale, Illinois' have been busy cranking out some of the darn catchiest pop punk in the Lookout! records vein for the past half decade. They have recorded quite a bit of music in that time so I thought I'd make it easier to find all their 7", split and compilation tracks by putting them in as the next installment in my b-side series. It is 18 fun songs about despair, that includes everything except their split with The Methadones since I consider it a major work. Enjoy Make Noise:

From 2004 to 2007 Toronto, Ontario's Bayonettes made some of the best punk rock/power pop (think the Avengers) of the 2000's for the Art of The Underground and Deranged labels. Fast-forward to 2010 and the band has finally released their long promised curtain call 7", Guilty Pleasure on Deranged Records. Sadly, that 7" is only their fouth release, and fifth if you include their demo. The Bayonettes never released a bad song but they only had a dozen or so of them. So I collected all of them here, along with a song they recorded live in studio for the Life During Wartime radio show on KBOO in Portland. Enjoy: