Small Town Hero

Small Town Hero were a band from Connecticut, formed either in 1998 or sometime before that. Their website was first archived in 1999 but there is a video of them playing a show in 1998. By 2002 they had lost their lead singer and called it quits after that, though I can't say exactly when. Musically, they were a combination of pop punk, emocore, and melodic hardcore, with most of the emphasis being on the first two.

Their first official release was the and so it goes… EP in 1999, though considering their existence prior to that year it's possible there was a demo before the EP. The track listing on the artwork is comprised of four songs but there are actually six on the CD—I sourced the names for the last two songs by matching the lyrics from an archive of the band's 'songs' page. In 2000, the band released a split with A Voice of Reason on Triple Crown Records, Things to Do in Connecticut When You're Dead. This was their last release, but they did post two additional songs to their website that were intended to be on a forthcoming full LP release. Sadly, that album never came to be and the songs are not recoverable.

Small Town Hero

Beta Minus Mechanic

Beta Minus Mechanic were a band from Syracuse, NY, active from the mid to late 90s and possibly for a little bit after that, though it's unlikely they were together long past the turn of the millennium. Most of their work was released on Crisis Records, which was a strange subsidiary of the legendary Revelation Records. Crisis was—at least initially—focused on female-fronted bands, according to Discogs. Why Revelation couldn't just host these female-fronted bands is a mystery to me. One of the band members was in Earth Crisis, giving them a connection to the straight edge scene.

Musically, Beta Minus Mechanic were a 90s emo pop band with a great deal of influence from post-hardcore, alternative, and even a little bit of midwest emo; I've seen comparisons to Ashes and Copper, which I only partially agree with, as Beta Minus Mechanic was more pop-oriented and takes a great deal more from the alternative scene than either of those bands.

I believe the band's first release was the split 7" with likeminded band Holden, followed by the '69 Camaro EP in the same year. I don't have a precise date for either and it feels like the logical progression, but it's possible the EP came before the split. In 1997 the band put out their only LP, Disassembly Required. Three years later in 2000, the band had a very interesting contribution to the Syracuse Hardcore 98.99 compilation: two songs taken from the EP and the LP but rerecorded as spare, piano-and-vocals versions, a somewhat odd inclusion for what is purportedly a hardcore comp. Considering the gap between this compilation and the album, I don't know if the tracks were a posthumous contribution or if the band was still active up to that year.

Beta Minus Mechanic

Stimulis

 

 Sometimes I don't have much to say in one of these posts, though in this case it's not necessarily for lack of insight so much as the fact I just don't know much about this band. Stimulis existed between 2002 and 2005. Their Myspace page says they were from Charlotte, NC, but I think that isn't correct. Last.FM claims Lehigh Valley, PA, and is backed up by this article, so the stuff on Myspace could either not be from them at all, or some of it is and some of it isn't (when Myspace moved over to the modern version of the site, old pages were often combined). The EP I have was recorded in Delaware, though that isn't necessarily indicative of a geographical connection. They had a demo CD, and it's unclear if the No Such Thing As Perfect EP is that demo or a separate release. They may have had a self-titled release after the EP but, again, this could be a different band. Their website went offline sometime in the back half of 2004, while that article is from 2005, so it's hard to say exactly when the band ended.

The music is the emo pop typical of the time period, with the occasional stylistic flourish nodding towards midwest emo. 2004's No Such Thing As Perfect may be their only release, if it is the demo mentioned on their website, and if the tracks on Myspace are from a different band, and if they never recorded that post-EP demo the article mentions. Given those caveats, it's hard to claim this EP represents their discography.

No Such Thing As Perfect

The Ivory Coast

 The Ivory Coast were a band from Boston, active from 1998 to July of 2003. Like their fellow Bostonians in The Shyness Clinic and (originally) Jejune, they combined the sounds of indie rock with midwest emo and emo pop. Their early discography has a great deal of emo in its makeup, but The Ivory Coast were around just long enough to make the jump to a bigger label in Polyvinyl, and their style shifted in accordance, letting the indie rock mostly take things over.

In 1999 the band put out a demo or promo called Japanada. Last.FM claims the band's subsequent first album was finished in 1998 but not released until two years later, though that's the only source I have for that tidbit. However, considering all four songs on the Japanada demo/promo are the same versions found on the full album, perhaps that is indeed the case and they were shopping those particular tracks around in search of a label (Japanada was not listed on any version of their website I still have access to, indicating they did not consider it an official EP). That album, The Rush of Oncoming Traffic from 2000, is my personal favorite of the band's releases, what I consider to be a frequently overlooked indie emo gem (in another connection to Jejune, it was released on Big Wheel Recreation). That same year the band also released a 7" single, Lake Placid 1986, which hints at their forthcoming change in sound. Listening to the single, the differences from the album seem substantial enough that it would be odd for such a change to happen within so short a time, adding some credence to the idea that the album was recorded years earlier. One of the tracks for the single somehow found its way onto the great German compilation Achtung Autobahn. In 2001, the band would end their career with their second album, Clouds, as well as an appearance on the Polyvinyl compilation ReDirection.

The Ivory Coast Discography