Current/Chino Horde - split

Artist: Current/Chino Horde
Title: split
Release: 1994
Label: Council Records/File 13 Records

Track List:
1. Current - Monument
2. Chino Horde - What You Can't Get Now, I'll Give You Later (Prelude)
3. Chino Horde - Silo

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I like Chino Horde more than Current.

Download: Current/Chino Horde - split (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Four Hundred Years - Transmit Failure (reissue)

Artist: Four Hundred Years
Title: Transmit Failure (reissue)
Release: 2004 (originally 1998)
Label: Lovitt Records

Track List:
1. Power of Speech
2. Penny for Your Thoughts
3. Radio Silence
4. Transmit Failure
5. An Hour too Late
6. Motion Sickness
7. Throw Spark
8. Sequence
9. Give Us This Day
10. Line Breaker
11. Untitled

Since I had somehow never even heard of this band until two days ago I'm just going to be quoting their bio from amazon.com...

Four Hundred Years were not merely a band, but a phenomenon. A force of emo/hardcore intensity that began in Tucson, Arizona, following the end of Groundwork, they eventually migrated to Richmond, Virginia. Four Hundred Years amassed a large, frenzied, and rabid audience. Intelligent and intricate with a perfect blend of melody and dissonance in all the right places, Four Hundred Years had unparalleled abilities to captivate their listeners and turn them loose on an unsuspecting music world. Alternative Press noted, "Combined with the weight of their political views, the tension of Four Hundred Years' music is simultaneously a catharsis and a call to arms."

Four Hundred Years toured Europe, Japan, and America numerous times and played with such notables as Fugazi, Frodus, Sleepytime Trio, and many more. Upon the completion of recording The New Imperialism, their third full-length, they played four final shows on the east coast and disbanded.

This reminds me of a ton of other awesome early emo bands so if you like that kind of stuff and like me haven't heard of this band before you'll love this. "An Hour too Late" is pretty much the definition of goosebump inducing emotional release.

As usual, if you like it consider buying it.

Download: Four Hundred Years - Transmit Failure (reissue) (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Four Hundred Years - Transmit Failure (reissue) (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Hoover - Hoover

Artist: Hoover
Title: Hoover
Release: 1997
Label: Slowdime Records

Track List:
1. TNT
2. New Five Drive
3. Breather Resist
4. Weeds
5. Relectrolux / Electrodub

Here's the rest of Hoover's recorded output.

Download: Hoover - Hoover (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Hoover - Hoover (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Hoover - The Lurid Traversal of Route 7

Artist: Hoover
Title: The Lurid Traversal of Route 7
Release: 1994
Label: New Renaissance Records

Track List:
1. Distant
2. Pretender
3. Electrolux
4. Shut
5. Route 7
6. Regulator Watts
7. Father
8. Cable
9. Letter
10. Cuts Like Drugs
11. Return
12. Private
13. Dries

What little I know about Hoover comes from Discord website so I might as well just copy and paste it since I have very little to add.

By the early 1990s, DC had become well-known in the underground music scene and had become a destination for people looking for a place to land after leaving their hometowns. Because many of the people moving into town were musicians, a number of new bands featuring these transplants began to spring up and, probably owing to their unique perspective on what was happening here, they brought with them new interpretations of the music. One of these bands was Hoover. Ian MacKaye had met most of the members in their respective towns over the years while on tour with his band, Fugazi, and rolled in the same circles when they moved to DC. Their early shows convinced him to go into Inner Ear with them to record their first single, which was released as a Dischord/Hoover Limited half-label. Later they would record an album for Dischord with Geoff Turner at WGNS studios, but, in keeping with the DC tradition, in 1994 after two short years the band broke up.

This is really good stuff. From a time that now seems long ago and nearly forgotten except by a few who choose to hang on. When "emo" was just a superfluous word for emotional hardcore. I'll spare you the rant about how bastardized the word has become. If you're a fan of the "D.C. Sound" you probably already know about this album.

This is the 2005 reissue with additional tracks. I encoded this from a perfect FLAC rip I downloaded.

Like everything from Dischord (to my knowledge anyways) this has never gone out of print and can still be purchased. As usual if you like it you should at least consider purchasing it since it's still available.

Download: Hoover - The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Hoover - The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Rainer Maria - Hell and High Water

Artist: Rainer Maria
Title: Hell and High Water
Release: 2000
Label: Polyvinyl Record Company

Track List:
1. Hell and High Water
2. Paper Sack

If you've heard of Rainer Maria I bet you haven't thought of them in a few years. If you've never heard of Rainer Maria, they were an emo band from Wisconsin featuring male and female vocals. Pretty good, but nothing exceptional.

This is still for sale over at Polyvinyl. As usual if you like it you should buy it since it's still in stock.

The second track was recorded live so that probably accounts for the slightly inferior sound quality.

Download: Rainer Maria - Hell and High Water (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Rainer Maria - Hell and High Water (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Ursa Minor - Smoke

Artist: Ursa Minor
Title: Smoke
Release: 1997
Label: Abraham Records

Track List:
1. Smoke
2. When Ships Set Sail
3. Goodnight

I picked this record out of a bargain bin based solely on the cover. It screamed mid 90's emo at me. And guess what, it sounds exactly like Mineral, The Gloria Record, and Knapsack. I love that about emo bands from that time. You can tell exactly what the music is gonna sound like based on the cover. Obviously to an extent that's true with a lot of bands. But with 90's emo it just seems more so for some reason.

That being said, if you've listened to the more popular examples of the genre then you probably know exactly what to expect. Quietly sung vocals, mildly dissonant but not unpleasantly so guitars, and a subtle hint of a keyboard buried somewhere in the mix that occasionally stands out loudly. All played at a speeds shifting between drudgingly slow to just a pace above mid-tempo.

I could not find a damn thing about Ursa Minor on the internet. My guess is that they probably only did this record and maybe one or two others. They probably didn't tour much or at all. And they probably never tried to make a name for themselves. If I had to guess, they were probably just college friends who played for a few years then went their separate ways after graduation. Nowadays with the ubiquitousness of the internet bands like that tend to leave a bit more of a record behind. But even in the 90's it's entirely possible that not a single word about Ursa Minor ever made it to the internet. Being the nerd that I am, to me there's something sad about that.

The 7" came with a small insert with the track listing. It says the record was recorded at Wintersound by Bob Gurske in the fall of 1997. I looked him up. It appears he's retired from recording now. Wintersound is in Gloucester Point, Virginia. The address for the record label says Charleston, South Carolina. So my guess is that they're either from Virginia, South Carolina, or somewhere nearby.

Download: Ursa Minor - Smoke (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Ursa Minor - Smoke (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire