Recess Theory

 Recess Theory were a band from Florida, active for a couple years in the late 90s, with their first release coming in 1998 and their last in '99. They made it into the new millennium in a sense, changing their name to Legends of Rodeo and leaving the emo genre behind thereafter. I don't have much more information than that about them, as there are no working archives of their websites. Their sound was midwest emo combined with emo pop, similar to what Braid was doing at the same time, though I would say Recess Theory leaned heavier on the midwest emo side of things than Braid ever did, taking a lot from Mineral and at times, especially on their split release, reminding me of Sunday's Best.

Their first release was a split with Reflector in 1998. 1999 saw their only two other releases, a split CD with Further Seems Forever, from the 27th state, and their only album release, they would walk into the picture. I don't know if the band considered it an EP or a full LP and have seen conflicting information. There is also a compilation track, but while it has a slightly different title than its counterpart on the album, it's the same recording.

Recess Theory

January Star

January Star were a band from Ibbenbüren, active from the late 90s to the early aughts. While always dedicated to emo, they changed their sound slightly with each release, morphing between genres gradually. They began life as a melodic hardcore\pop punk act, their first, self-titled EP in 1997 being a rough-edged slice of pop punk. By 1998 they had transitioned to midwest emo, the Pneumatic 7" sounding a lot like a more midwest emo-focused Four Minute Mile-era Get Up Kids. Perhaps logically, their next progression took them in the direction of Jimmy Eat World's seminal Clarity. 2000's Home Without A Heart, the band's only full-length effort, takes most of its cues from Clarity, while retaining a lot of midwest emo influences from elsewhere. Their last release, the Some Brighter Days EP in 2001, swerves heavily into the emo pop side of their sound (if Home Without A Heart is their Clarity, then Some Brighter Days is their Bleed American).

By 2003 the band's website was taken over by another project, The Boys No Good, a hardcore band, and while it refers to January Star as still being active, it seems like there was no further activity on that side of things. At some point the site started to redirect to the website for the band Force of Change, so members were probably shared on that end too. Whatever the case, the website went offline in 2005 and I presume January Star ceased to be sometime between then and 2002.

January Star Discography

Otherwise

Otherwise originally formed in Rutland, UK, relocating to London following their first album and were active from May of 1999 to June of 2003. The band's musical output can be neatly divided into pre- and post-millennial styles. In 1999, Otherwise offered pop punk with skate punk leanings. In 2001 with the release of the September's Gone EP, they became an emo pop band. A compilation track from 2000 hints at this forthcoming change, sitting neatly in that musical divide. After that, though, the band embraced emo until they called it quits. Combining emo pop with strong influences from midwest emo, they sound quite a bit like their tourmates in Brandtson, or contemporaries Park.

The band's website makes mention of demos prior to the first album, at least some of which were put on compilations, but I expect there is missing material from the start of the band's life. In 1999 they released a split 7" with Travis Cut and their first album, First In Third. There were some compilation releases around this time as well that I haven't been able to find, and while most of the songs appear on later releases, I suspect they may be demo versions. In 2000 the band would put out a unique track on The Sound of Them's Good! compilation, which I have included. As mentioned, it splits the difference between the band's changing sound. In 2001 the band would switch genres with September's Gone, cementing the change a year later with dark adapted eye, their second and last album.

Otherwise

three summers gone

 Three Summers Gone were a band who formed in South Carolina but ended up being based in San Francisco. They came together after the breakup of a band called Blue In The Face, a project I can't find any additional information on. They were active from 1998 to at least 2001 and possibly some time after that, though 2001 saw their first and only album release. The band shared members with Box The Compass, Under A Dying Sun, and With Eyes Like Static.

Based on the opening notes of Three Summers Gone's sole album, 2001's Time Well Spent, you would reasonably expect a late-90s style fusion of pop punk and emo pop, but the song will quickly change to prove you wrong. All the bands that Three Summers Gone shared members with are some form of emocore\screamo, and that influence bleeds into their work in a substantial way. I actually think their sound is really interesting, a melding of emo pop, emocore, and screamo, ending up with something similar to melodic hardcore, what I guess I would call emocore-pop, if there is such a thing. Depending on the song, it's either rough, emocore-edged pop punk, or poppy emocore, the ratio always in swing.

Prior to the album, the band contributed two tracks to a compilation on their label, Substandard. If they ever released anything else, I can't currently find it. The album is available on streaming platforms, but the first song is corrupted.

compilation tracks + time well spent

Embrace Fire

 Embrace Fire were a band from the Netherlands, active from 2004 to what appears to be somewhere around 2008, though they may have kept playing live past that point; they released two compilation tracks that year, and their website went offline at the end of it. The band included members from Raise Kain and springrain. Musically, Embrace Fire had more in common with bands like Life at These Speeds or Your Halo Is A Radar than their previous work, combining angular emo\post-hardcore with post-punk. The band's own press release describes the result as a combination of "Bloc Party, Explosions In the Sky and At the Drive-In," and… that's actually a pretty accurate self-assessment, especially for a piece of promotional fluff, though it does downplay the emo influences in the music, which are strong.

The band's first release was an EP in 2006, We Lost Our Organ Player in a great earthquake. It was self-released on a CDr in a cardboard sleeve (the first copy I bought was corrupted, forcing me to source a second). Later that same year, the band released a digital single through a website called Thrown, Unthrown. Sadly, no archives remain. One of the two songs, the title track, was put on a compilation, but the other track remains lost. Besides that, there was one other song on a compilation, "The Soft House," which showcases the band heading in a very different direction from the EP, moving towards post-rock. I would have liked to hear what they would have done with that sound, but nothing came of it.

Best as I can determine, that means I'm only missing one song from Embrace Fire, but their discography is small enough that a single song still represents a significant chunk of it.

Embrace Fire