Dina

Dina were a band from Liverpool, active from the late 90s to what appears to be 2004, though their timeline is somewhat vague. Over the course of their career, their sound gradually shifted from midwest emo-adjacent emo pop to punk, though they never completely lost their emo leanings. Although they remained an emo band to a variable extent over the length of their existence, they were mostly associated with the UK punk scene of the time, at one point touring with Leatherface.

Their first release (that I have, that is; see below) was Grampus Eight Versus Dina, a split EP with another Liverpool band in 1999. Collective Zine described the production as "pretty rough," which is putting it mildly. I think my copy has been done no favors by CDr rot as well. 2001 saw two releases, and while I believe that the 7" split with The Atlantic Monthly was released first, I can't say that with complete confidence. It features the song 'Sea Murmur,' the lyrics of which provided the name for the band's first full-length; it's Dina's most midwest emo song, and unsurprisingly my favorite track from them. It also appeared on the Erdata Ishee compilation.

The second 2001 release was Electricity Gave Me A Heart Murmur, the first LP and the one most appreciated by the emo community. It's a blend of midwest emo, emo pop, and indie rock, with clear influences from the UK punk scene. It's a pretty laid back album and usually, though not purely, focused on mood rather than energy, which wouldn't be that notable if it weren't for their second album. In 2002 the band contributed an acoustic track to the Postcards From The Heartland compilation, and then 2003 saw their last release, their second full-length Work the Switch. Moving away from the sound of the first album, it's heavier, faster, and fits more neatly within the scene of their contemporaries. Think Hooton Three Car, Blocko, or Servo, and you're in the right ballpark.

My collection is sadly incomplete, and all attempts to contact former bandmembers have thus far failed (I can't even find a picture of them that isn't in the album art). Multiple releases remain unrecovered. There was a CDr called The Owl which had six songs, five of which made their way to Work The Switch, but that leaves one unaccounted for. There was also what appears to be an EP, Lenny the Lion MC, which featured "4 songs off our first demo," implying that there were more than four songs on that demo, and that demo might only be the first of an unknown number. The three songs from the split with Grampus Eight are also from that demo, so which tracks (if any) overlap and which are missing is anyone's guess.

Most confusing of all, there is a release listed as CANT SAY SPLIT 7". The song which the band supposedly contributed to this split is "??????????????" It is unclear if the split was called Can't Say or if it was a split with a band of that name, but it was to be released by Wallride Records. That label is based in Maryland, so it's possible this was planned as a split between Dina and Can't Say from Baltimore. Whatever the case, I don't think it ever came to be.

Partial Discography

The Minor Fall

 The Minor Fall were a band from Leeds, active from 2004 to 2007. There are no working archives of their website, but fortunately their bio is preserved on the Leeds Music Scene website:

The Minor Fall formed in June of 2004 after many drinks with friends and lingering maudlin conversations about how great everything was in 1999. All four members of the band had been plying their trade in various other bands for a while, namely D-rail, And None of Them Knew They Were Robots, Laura Audio and Send More Paramedics, and the germ of an idea was born that the boys in the band wanted to do something more melodic, more influenced by the likes of Minus the Bear, Get Up Kids, Saves the Day and classic Deep Elm/Jade Tree, whilst singer Jenn wanted to try her hand at doing lead vocals for a change.

I've said before that it feels like I mention The Get Up Kids every other post, but their first two albums really were just that influential on the emo scene. The Minor Fall take more from Four Minute Mile than Something To Write Home About, leaning into the midwest emo influences just as that first album did. They also bring quite a bit of post-hardcore to the table as well, with some well-placed riffs and the occasional burst of hardcore vocals.

The band's first release was a demo in 2004, which is fortunately preserved on Soundcloud. In 2005 they followed it up with their only album release, which is self-titled. There is a compilation track called "Ivory Sirens" which is attributed to them, but I tracked down a copy (big thanks to RASSO for providing the compilation) and it appears to be from a different band entirely, which was coincidentally active at the same time in the UK. Either that or they briefly tried a different vocalist and a total change in sound, which seems unlikely.

The Minor Fall

Otherwise

Otherwise originally formed in Rutland, UK, relocating to London following their first album and were active from May of 1999 to June of 2003. The band's musical output can be neatly divided into pre- and post-millennial styles. In 1999, Otherwise offered pop punk with skate punk leanings. In 2001 with the release of the September's Gone EP, they became an emo pop band. A compilation track from 2000 hints at this forthcoming change, sitting neatly in that musical divide. After that, though, the band embraced emo until they called it quits. Combining emo pop with strong influences from midwest emo, they sound quite a bit like their tourmates in Brandtson, or contemporaries Park.

The band's website makes mention of demos prior to the first album, at least some of which were put on compilations, but I expect there is missing material from the start of the band's life. In 1999 they released a split 7" with Travis Cut and their first album, First In Third. There were some compilation releases around this time as well that I haven't been able to find, and while most of the songs appear on later releases, I suspect they may be demo versions. In 2000 the band would put out a unique track on The Sound of Them's Good! compilation, which I have included. As mentioned, it splits the difference between the band's changing sound. In 2001 the band would switch genres with September's Gone, cementing the change a year later with dark adapted eye, their second and last album.

Otherwise

The Next Autumn Soundtrack

 

Sometimes when I make a post on a band, it's not because I've successfully collected whatever amount of music from them I was after, but rather because I've exhausted every avenue of research. At a certain point, I've sent the unanswered emails, scoured the incomplete archives, and examined every lead I could find. Such is the case with this next band.

The Next Autumn Soundtrack were from Grimsby, UK, active for a couple years in the early 2000s; they were formed in February of 2002 and called it quits by 2004. Musically, they were a post-rock\midwest emo hybrid similar to The Bitter Life Typecast, The Cotton Weary, and especially their UK fellows Slingshot Around The Moon (Caesura deserves an honorable mention, though TNAS were not as influenced by post-punk. They also share a lot of DNA with little-known German band Kiss And Kill). Their best work comes from their one official release, and finds them working in a similar vein to Mare Vitalis and Low Level Owl-era The Appleseed Cast. I've always loved this offshoot of midwest emo and the first track from the split, "Nightnightbyebye," is a personal favorite.

They were not prolific, and pieces of their discography remain missing in defiance of my best efforts. Their only album release is a 2003 split with Swedish post-rockers Jeniferever on Big Scary Monsters. The only other release that could be considered official is their contribution to BSM's 50 Not Out compilation, which was posthumous, released in 2008. Prior to the split, there was a two-song demo in the same year. The band also put out a few demo tracks on their own site, which appear to have been from a self-titled five-track EP that was initially slated for its own release, but was instead used for the split, three of its tracks being rerecorded and another track eventually being repurposed for the compilation.

What this boils down to is I'm missing at least two of their songs, demo versions of tracks from the split. Even worse, two of the demo tracks I have are incomplete, cutting off before the song ends ("I said anything goes. Everything went." from the two-song demo and "splinters/GLASS/dust." from the unreleased S/T EP).

Partial Discography

Avast!

 I can't prove that Avast! were a major influence on Crash of Rhinos. I have no evidence that anyone from the latter band knew the former existed. But listening to Avast!'s one and only album, it certainly seems possible, if not downright likely.

Avast! were from Dundee, Scotland. Half of its members were also in Stapleton, making it something of a side project. Avast! was formed in the mid-aughts and active for an unknown amount of time. They released their only album on their own label in 2006, and I haven't found evidence they put out anything else, though there are some unreleased live tracks on Youtube. There's also another recording from 2014, after the band reunited following a three year hiatus, presumably calling it quits for good sometime after that. I would put them in the same category as a band like Up Up Down Down; not so much musically (though there is some commonality there) but as a likeminded forerunner of the emo revival, ahead of their time by a few years.

As stated above, they sound a lot like a gentler Crash of Rhinos, landing somewhere on the softer side of Knots (the title track sounds uncannily like something off that album). However, this is not to say they don't have any edge at all, as that isn't true. While most of the album isn't very aggressive, it has its moments. I'm a huge fan of Crash of Rhinos, considering Knots to be a personal favorite. Needless to say, I think Avast!'s Faultlines is just fantastic. Give it a listen.

Edit 8/26/25: The band has released a pre-album EP on Bandcamp, so be sure to check that out as well. Apparently, they started out as a melodic screamo band, which I found pretty interesting.

Faultlines

Avast! on Bandcamp

Slingshot Around The Moon

Slingshot Around The Moon were a band from Kent, formed in 2001 and active until 2004. Their sound is really fantastic, a genuine bit of emo that combines midwest emo and emo pop with post-rock, the result being some truly great soundscapes and a sense of grandeur on their later recordings. It seems the band played their first gig at a Jimmy Eat World cover show, which makes a lot of sense if you listen to their first demo, Elixia. Their biography on Last.FM, which seems to have been posted by a band member, ends with a wish to record the last five songs they wrote. As it turns out, they did, and the result is the This Is Who We Were EP.

The Elixia demo was their first release in 2001. Recorded with a single microphone, the demo is a muddy attempt at a more emo pop-oriented sound than they would later pursue (none if its songs were rerecorded for subsequent releases, which is honestly a shame as there's at least two or three great songs on there). Following the five-track Elixia demo, the band put out a two-song demo, usually called Demo 2003, and then their best-known release, the Quod Sum Eris 7", which was originally titled What you remember more. The 7" marks the point in which the post-rock influences really begin to shine through. After that, the band recorded another two-song demo. Finally, in 2004, the band recorded This Is Who We Were, which was never released. It showcases a heavier, more energetic take on the band's sound.

While that list covers the band's 'official' releases, there is quite a bit more. I admit that 'official' in this case is a shaky definition, including anything that had a physical release as well as an EP that was intended to. Because various band members held on to behind the scenes material, I have a pretty comprehensive history of the band's unofficial recordings and demos, including a set from a 2001 house party and a collection of demo tracks spanning the life of the project. The Westgate Studio Live Demos even showcase the band rehearsing the same songs repeatedly. While I will leave some of this material out of the Youtube discography for the sake of brevity and repetition, they will still be included in the download, and I think they represent a great snapshot of Slingshot's creative process.

This artwork is made available courtesy of How Nothing Feels.

Slingshot Around The Moon Discography

And None Of Them Knew They Were Robots

 When writing the post on Day Of Less, I kept thinking they reminded me of another band. It wasn't until the run up to this post that I realized they reminded me of And None Of Them Knew They Were Robots. Hailing from Leeds, the Robots were part of the amazing emo scene the UK had at the time, featuring bands like Caesura and One Toy Soldier. Like Day Of Less, they mixed hardcore with midwest emo and emo pop, and also like Day Of Less they abandoned this sound after one album and went almost pure hardcore for the second.

The band's first release was in 2001, the self-titled album featured here. It's their only midwest emo-flavored release, mixing hardcore-style vocals with clean riffs; the much-mourned Castevet (later CSTVT) strike me as a spiritual successor in some ways. Their second album, Liebestod, came out in 2002 and kept only the hardcore aspects of the first. The band's final release was called Victory As A Drug, put out in 2003, and it features yet another sound shift. The band revisits the emo pop\hardcore paradigm, at times sounding like a harder-edged Braid. In 2016, the band released a vinyl-only discography which includes four unique tracks, though it omits the hidden track from Victory. These four tracks are mainly in the style of the first album.

Edit 8/26/25: The band has a Bandcamp now, where the demos from the vinyl compilation can be downloaded separately. Even better, the band has reformed and released a new album, Almanac, which is a departure from their earlier work (understandably so, given the decades-long gap) but is excellent regardless.

Self-Titled + Liebestod + Victory As A Drug

Vinyl Discography