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.
"Hang The Blessed DJ" was possibly omitted on Bandcamp due to the lyrical content. I imagine one or more members deemed it somewhat insipid, seeing as that page is official, though, maybe they just forgot to add it, I'm not entirely sure. Speaking of, I always found it strange that they didn't use the original cover art from the Oneohfive CD release, and find it equally as strange that they didn't make their S/T available either, since that was put out on Outreach Records, and that label was run by Chris Dwyer back in the day (Which would make their debut self-released, I believe, and all the TBLT material on Outreach for that matter. Anyway, to my knowledge, the last thing that label put out was either Elementary Thought Process' "Everyone's Anyone", which is definitely one of the records of all time (that band was always weird.), or Elora Danon's full-length (post-The William Tell Routine.). My assumption is that maybe they aren't particularly proud of the S/T record? The bizarre electronics on it might be one of the reasons, but I find them charming, a-la Christie Front Drive. The most likely reason though is probably the somewhat hilarious sample from "Full Metal Jacket", so there's a chance it could be copyright related. Again, not sure, but I think it's a wonderful disc. Also, the tracklist for "A Greater Love Is Still Unknown" is (going off of just the titles) out of order on their Bandcamp, as on the CD release, "Something Like An Interlude Two" is listed as the second track, when in reality its the third track. Guess they must've messed up when the CD was initially released!
ReplyDeleteHad always been meaning to post this comment, as I figured you'd be interested, but forgot to for a good while.
My assumption with Happy Endings on the Bandcamp was that they didn't have a physical CD on hand, hence the missing track and the band picture used as art. Or, perhaps you're right and it was, for whatever reason, intentional. The omission of the first album is probably on purpose—I like it a lot, but it does sound like a demo compared to the later stuff.
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