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.
