The Bitter Life Typecast

Any emo collector knows that the decade between 2000 and 2010 is the dead zone. Emo's second wave sputtered out at the end of the 90s but left plenty of tide pools behind, bands that kept the sound alive, if somewhat changed. The problem lies in finding these bands, many of whom seem to have disappeared forever. Yes, it's easy enough to access the works of the third wave emo bands that brushed the mainstream—no one is having any difficulty finding Hot Rod Circuit's Sorry About Tomorrow. But the truth is that even most third wave emo bands have sunk without a trace into that decade between the scene of the 90s and the emo revival. The 90s scene has been preserved by vinyl enthusiasts and the revival was brought to life by Bandcamp and other streaming\download platforms—the dead decade is lost to Myspace and Soundclick and MP3.com and CD Baby. No vinyl, no full album downloads, and a handful of CDs gathering dust who knows where. Recovering music from the dead zone is less like collecting music and more like archaeology.

Therefore, we are exceptionally fortunate when one of these lost bands dusts off its oeuvre and puts it up on Bandcamp. The Bitter Life Typecast were from San Diego, active between 2001 and 2007. Their sound is an incredible balance between 90s emo and early 2000s post-rock. They aren't the only band to combine the two: their contemporaries The Alexander and the bicycle project both pursued this sound, and it lives on in bands like Shapes In The Water (arguably, Explosions In The Sky put out an emo album with The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place). It's just an amazing sound, through and through, and The Bitter Life Typecast were amazing at it.

Their first album, 2002's the bitter life typecast, has a much rougher sound than their subsequent releases, especially vocally. The discordant side of midwest emo really shines through here, tempered though it is by the post-rock. 2003 saw the release of an EP and a split with Elementary Thought Process. In 2005, the band released their opus Happy Endings For Lowlives. The band recorded another album prior to breaking up in 2007, and it remained unreleased until some beautiful soul made it available, along with most of the band's music, on Bandcamp. Strange Party is a great album, and I once said that I thought it might actually be stronger than the second release. I'm not sure I still believe that—Happy Endings For Lowlives is just too good—but it's still a fantastic listen.

So why the blog post, if the band's music is on Bandcamp? Well, the Bandcamp discography omits the first album completely. Even more puzzling, the version of Happy Endings For Lowlives available there is missing the second track, "hang the blessed dj." I don't know why, but the alternate cover art on the page makes me wonder if whoever uploaded the music had an advance copy or was working with incomplete files. Whatever the case, I've made both albums available for download in FLAC format. Everything else is on Bandcamp.

the bitter life typecast + Happy Endings For Lowlives

The Bitter Life Typecast on Bandcamp

Nymb

Nymb were a band out of Chicago, a city well known these days for its seemingly endless contributions to the emo revival scene. But that scene is founded on Chicago's deep roots in 90s emo, and I'm not just talking about the Kinsellas—plenty of emo bands had little to do with their noodly, math rock-inspired sound. Nymb were a part of the other midwest tradition, delivering late-period second wave emo in the vein of Sterling Silver, Rainer Maria, Pictures Can Tell, and other bands that hewed to the midwest sounds of the mid-90s. Unlike a lot of the later second wave bands that veered ever closer to indie rock, Nymb retained many of midwest emo's rougher edges in their music. Don't let the release date of their sole LP fool you; this is genuine midwest emo of the kind that could have easily been released five years earlier.

Nymb kicked off with the Novembre EP in 1998, following it up with an EP and 7" in 1999. The band called it quits just before releasing their only full length, 2001's So This Is How It Is. However, they also posthumously released two more EPs, Nothing New and The Breathing Out Vapors Single, in the same year. They were fairly prolific, considering the brevity of the band's existence, and they weren't around long enough to experience any major changes to their sound, so it's all one great package of that real midwest emo.

Nymb Discography

Running Scared

Running Scared were a band from Bradford, PA, formed in 2001. They were only active for what looks like a couple years, self-releasing their sole EP in 2003. It was available on Interpunk, which looks like the only exposure the band ever got. Their sound is rough, the sound of a new band figuring things out. It leans more towards 90s pop punk than emo pop, though there's plenty of both in their makeup. The last song on the album and its namesake, "Falling Short of Summer," reveals the influence of midwest emo. I would have been interested to see what direction the band might have headed after this. I feel like they could have evolved in either the direction of midwest emo or early 2000s emo pop.

falling short of summer

Apple of Discord

Apple of Discord were a band from Clementon, New Jersey. Most emo bands from the early to mid-2000s played emo pop with an emphasis on the pop punk, but some carried on with the midwest emo sound and took it even further in the direction of indie rock, towards which it was already inclined; bands like Fly, Mordecai, Serene, and Angels in the Architecture. Apple of Discord were one of that crowd. In some ways, their sound really reminds me of bands from the Japanese emo scene that so heavily incorporate the sounds of emo into indie rock. That's not unique to the Japan scene, of course, and Apple of Discord were on Engineer Records, along with bands like #1 Defender, The Moirai, and Her Only Presence, so they were in like-minded company.

Previously, I had posted that the band's discography was mostly missing from reliable sources and I had assembled three out of four known releases, with a comp track still out in the wild. After contacting the band's former vocalist, I have a physical copy of the first album and a digital copy of the first EP, so a huge thank you to James (check out his current project here). I also learned that the comp track is misattributed, which means I now can make the band's full discography available. I've also included a short-lived side project called Kontrabidas that was comprised of ex-Apple of Discord members.

Apple of Discord Discography

Kontrabidas