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