Steven Shoelace is an artist from Portland, Oregon, active beginning in 2021 and releasing new material as of this post. His music sits at an intersection between bedroom pop, lofi indie rock, emo pop, and midwest screamo. This is a simplification and perhaps even an oversimplification because his attachment to genre is far from slavish and can shift pretty dramatically between releases. In output, he is as I described, but in ethos he is experimental.
Classifying his discography is a bit difficult because he hasn't stated in his releases what is considered an EP or an album, so I'm going by track number. There are a number tracks and compilations dating back to 2021 on Soundcloud, including an album, uneven shoelace. However, it looks like his first official release is the "i need you" single in 2022, with two other releases following that same year: the cat medallion EP and a second EP, SCARY! His first full-length, IN HELL, dropped 2023; his most current release came in 2024, Garden Snakes. I also have a release called Scary Cat (or Scaredy Cat on the CD label) which appears to be the first two EPs combined.
Big thanks to Steven for sending the physical releases over. I don't believe I have ever scanned a note included by an artist, but this one was so quintessentially emo in form and content that I knew I had to.
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.
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.
Olympic Year were a band from San Jose, active in the early 2000s, possibly from 2001, when their website came online, to 2005, which is the last year it was updated. I don't have much more information than that, their name makes them difficult to search and their website archives are incomplete. Their sound was a combination of indie rock and emo pop, sometimes leaning more towards one than the other, depending on the song. I think they sometimes sound like a more indie rock-focused version of Filmmaker.
Between their formation and 2003 the band had a single or demo called Binary with two songs on it, one of which was rerecorded for the LP. In 2003 they released their first album, Smile. That rerecorded track, "Turn Around," is the best song on the album, so they made the right call in carrying it forward (I'm calling it rerecorded, but that's an assumption—it could be the original version from Binary). In 2004 the band put out an EP, What Makes A Home, and called it quits sometime in the following year.
