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