Brazilia

Brazilia were a band from Chapel Hill, NC, formed in 1999 and active until 2003. They were a Kinsella-influenced screamo band, incorporating some elements from that style of midwest emo and indie rock as well as post-hardcore and math rock. They were a very diverse band and an equally energetic one, mashing up multiple styles and ripping through songs with that Cap'n Jazz kind of abandon. The early years of the band were as chaotic as their music, featuring lineup changes and members missing for various reasons. By 2001, things seem to have solidified enough for Brazilia to release their only full-length album on Braeburn Records, home to emo luminaries Pictures Can Tell. The band would call it quits in 2003, its members headed in different life directions.

Brazilia's first release was 2000's rspd 7", which features a less emo sound than the subsequent album, at times sounding kind of like a mashup of hardcore and The White Stripes. I know it looks like the cover image is really low-quality, but it's actually a high-resolution scan of the badly compressed image they used. It was followed in 2001 by the album Pants Tight: Arms Crossed. In 2002 they released a split 7" with The Weapon (this appears to be The Weapon's only release; they were kind of an instrumental post-hardcore jam band, judging by their two tracks), and then put out their last recording, the Phlogiston EP, in 2003. I've also included an unreleased track the band put up on their website, which was recorded during the 7" sessions.

Brazilia Discography

While They Slept

 While They Slept belonged to the rare subgenre of 'screamo with strings,' along with such luminaries as Pansori, vowel, and I Would Set Myself On Fire For You. They were from Minneapolis and active in the early 2000s, with their last release being in 2002. They were too short-lived to release a full album, and their discography is commensurately small.

Combining screamo with the instrumental aspects of emo, While They Slept don't use hardcore vocals exclusively, making them even more of a hybrid band. They also have a fair amount of piano in there as well. The ratio of the genres they mix changes between their releases, and on their final EP they almost sound like a hardcore version of something like Utah! or Pompeii. 

They band had three releases in total: A split with Tora! Tora! Torrance! at an unknown date, the Where? There Is No Life There EP in 2001, and their final EP, Parade the Circus Around the Silhouette in 2002. For download I have the final EP, though I only have the booklet and the CD, so it's missing the back tray artwork.

parade the circus around the silhouette

While They Slept at This Endless Breath

once.lost.pictures

Now here's something rather unique: once.lost.pictures were a two-person acoustic band from Iowa, active in the early 2000s; the vocalist was also in Dispensing of False Halos. once.lost.pictures are similar in most ways to other acoustic emo bands—they sound quite close to Full Surrender—but the drum machine, keyboards, and sampling set them apart. At times their sound is eerily prescient of the current emo trap movement, despite being released well over a decade before that music came to prominence. In that particular combination of sounds, these guys were way ahead of their time.

Their only release appears to be the forever.always LP, put out in 2002.

forever.always

Dreams Forever Drowning

Dreams Forever Drowning were a band from New York, active from 2001 to 2004. Their sound is an eclectic mash up of early 2000s emo pop and influences from screamo and hardcore. The songs can turn on a dime, going from pretty standard emo pop to straight up hardcore within seconds, often changing multiple times within the same song. A review at the time said it was an interesting combination but one that didn't necessarily gel all that well, and I tend to agree. The styles don't always blend and some of the songs feel like multiple songs awkwardly crammed together instead of proper hybrids. That being said, it's still an interesting album and if the band had kept putting out music I think they may have smoothed things out, as evidenced by an unreleased EP from 2004 which is a little more cohesive.

The band supposedly did three releases: a demo, the Entire Parts Never To Be Left Incomplete EP in 2002, and the 2004 unreleased four-track EP. I have the 2002 EP and the 2004 EP on offer, but as of yet haven't found the demo.

entire parts never to be left incomplete + unreleased EP

another sevenfold

Another Sevenfold were a screamo band from North Carolina, active from the late 90s to around the turn of the millennium. Their sound combines the aggression of screamo with some of the elements of emo and emocore. They easily could have been around in the early 90s, they have that kind of first wave feel.

The band's website is somehow still active and reveals a discography that is mostly missing from Discogs and elsewhere. Through 1996 and 1997 they released four cassettes that can't be found anywhere. In 1997 they recorded the self-titled album, but all sources I can find say it wasn't released until 2000 on Motherbox. The record itself has no dating, which doesn't help. Later in 1997 they put out the Thousand Star Serissa 7", and that seems to be it.

I have a link for the album below, but if you'd like to get everything in one place then head over to do you feel at home?

another sevenfold…

Lorna Slavin

And now for something completely different. A few years back, I ordered a vinyl copy of Inside the Whale's superlative album Manifest, and the band member threw in a copy of Lorna Slavin's only release as a bonus. I expected something along the same lines, and that is not what I got. At least, not all the time.

To call this release eclectic would be an understatement. I threw pretty much every genre tag I could think of at this thing and, honestly, I could probably toss in a few more. Lorna Slavin often sound like a completely different band from song to song—sometimes they sound like a completely different band within the same song. This band was clearly a short-lived project, and maybe that's the way it had to be, because it feels like every band member brought in their influences and inclinations from previous bands and when it came time to decide what kind of band they were going to be, the answer was, 'all of them.' It's difficult to imagine a follow up album that wouldn't veer in one direction or the other. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like this kind of balancing act would be difficult to replicate.

The 2007 EP Call Them And They Will Rise is Lorna Slavin's only release, featuring six diverse songs.

Call Them And They Will Rise

Rats Into Robots

Roaring out of Columbus, Ohio, Rats Into Robots were a screamo band active in the early 2000s. Their sound is a calamitous blast of screamo\hardcore buffered by long passages of eerie ambience. They're too melodic to be emoviolence, but they sure come close sometimes. This is aggressive, atonal screamo that's an assault on the senses, and I mean that in the best way. The album art does a great job of capturing the album's mood. Also, judging by the album title and at least one of the songs, someone in the band is a big fan of Dune.

The band doesn't have much of a discography. Their first release was a split with Textbook Traitors in 2003, followed by the 2004 album A Column of Smoke By Day, a Pillar of Fire By Night. That same year the band also contributed a track to the The Microwave Says To The Pacemaker compilation, which is a great bit of collected screamo.

Rats Into Robots Discography