The Busy World

 The Busy World were a midwest emo band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For their biography, I will let the band speak for themselves:

"The Busy World was a band formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 2004 and continued to play shows until 2009 when they recorded and released their highly unanticipated album–Large Bodies of Water–to a very busy public. Coming of age in a local scene anchored by hometown heroes like the Scaries and the Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers, the boys in the Busy World desperately wanted to sound like Mineral with Anathallo lyrics. They largely fell short of this not entirely unreachable goal.

Not sure quite what else to do, the Busy World took to practicing and playing shows. I mean, they played anywhere—student venues, libraries, lawns, library lawns, chapels, battles of the bands, wherever they could—sometimes even just across state lines—because there are no VFW Halls in North Carolina. And, of course, they were regulars at Chapel Hill’s tiniest venues—all the way up until their album’s release show, which doubled as their final/farewell show. Feeling fairly well-attended, that show might have suggested a musical precipice on which The Busy World could have potentially once stood.

It all started the first time Andrew and Mark played guitars together in the basement of a place they called the Overlook. It wasn’t quite the Clarity-era Jimmy Eat World meets Photo Album-era Death Cab for Cutie at a party at Something to Write Home About-era Get Up Kids’ parents’ house sound that Andrew had always wanted, but it was better than the Jesus Freak-era DC Talk sound Andrew had been making with the local church kids up until then.

It took Andy joining on bass, Paul on drums, and Dave on accordion to get TBW sounding better than their lowest hopes could have expected. In those days, man, did they practice. The same 10 songs once a week, first at the Overlook, then in a cluttered room above the garage at Paul’s parents’ house, and finally at JaMax in Hillsborough. Four years of that turned the Busy boys into a well-honed machine. 10 years, 10 songs. That was the formula they learned from I Hate Myself and they stuck to it.

The band broke up the day after their album release show, with members moving to different and distant parts of the world. They tried their dead-level best to show that mid-90s emo wasn't dead in Central North Carolina, but alas, it was."

I think the band are a bit hard on themselves in terms of realizing their ambitions. Their first and only album was released in 2009, right as the emo revival was kicking into gear with the first releases from Snowing, Algernon Cadwallader, and others. If The Busy World had been signed one of the labels associated with the revival, I think they'd be better known, especially since their take on the emo revival eschews the focus on the Kinsella sound typically associated with the movement in favor of Mineral, putting them in the rarer company of bands like Empire! Empire! and Joie De Vivre. In my opinion, you can never have too many bands trying to sound like Mineral, and what we do have is precious few. If The Busy World were out of step with the emo of their time, it's only because they were doing such a good job of replicating a different set of sounds from the 90s.

Besides their 2009 album, Large Bodies of Water, the band released a 2006 EP, The Secret In The Old Attic, which is mostly comprised of earlier versions of album tracks. There are also a variety of demos, two of which are unique from the album.

The Busy World Discography

Adara

 Adara were an emo pop band from Richmond, active beginning in 2001 (originally under the name Noisegate). They probably called it quits somewhere around 2004, as after that their website became defunct. Like many bands from that era, it's hard to know exactly what Adara released. They had a presence on MP3.com and Purevolume, so it's entirely possible and even probable they had non-album tracks that are long gone now. They had a demo called 'The Platinum Demo' from an unknown year and another, presumably self-titled demo in 2003; both are referenced on old MP3.com archives, but I've been unable to find either.

Adara's sound is largely comprised of the emo pop of the aughts, but they cross it with more 90s influence and indie rock than is typical, especially on the Caught Between the Stars and the City EP. Like a lot of similar bands at the time, they throw a little screamo in there too. Their final album continues to add in even more indie rock.

Sans the demos that can't be found, their discography is simple enough. Who Do You Talk To? in 2001, followed by Caught Between the Stars and the City in 2002. Before breaking up, they recorded the unreleased Everything We Are, which I'm guessing was in 2004 after the 2003 demo.

Who Do You Talk To? + Caught Between The Stars And The City + Everything We Are

The Gone Overseas

 When talking about emo pop bands on this blog I mention The Get Up Kids so often you'd think I was trying to summon Matt Pryor like Beetlejuice. It's really a testament to them and the legacy of Four Minute Mile and Something To Write Home About that every other emo pop band I write about is doing their best impression of one of those albums, and sometimes both at once. And that is precisely the groove that The Gone Overseas sought to inhabit, and they did it well.

The band was from Lugano, Switzerland. Apparently it's an Italian-speaking portion of the country, which I admit caused me some initial confusion. Prior to becoming The Gone Overseas, they were called Reference 21 from 1997 to 2002 and released two demos under that name, with an earlier third demo released as Il Colera. Some of those songs made it to compilations; I've included two that I found on Youtube, which seem to be tracks that were hosted on the Reference 21 website. As Reference 21, the band's sound was much more post-hardcore\alternative, and some of that made its way into their third incarnation as a noticeable influence.

In 2003, they would release their first and only full length, Where Do You Want To Go, My Heart? with their new name and new sound and then broke up in 2004.

where do you want to go, my heart? + Reference 21 Website MP3s

Staircase

Staircase were a band from Braunschweig, Germany, and are not to be confused with American screamo band Staircase. They formed in 2000 and I'm not sure when they called it quits; they added a band member in 2003, and were still updating their website until 2007, though there is one more update after that which makes it look like they may have been playing shows sporadically all the way to 2010. Whatever the case, they never released material after 2002.

Staircase's sound was a mix of alt rock and emo pop, at least on their first release, which was the sound of our blue thoughts EP in 2000. On their subsequent 2002 full length, an ironic view (full of cynical abstractions), the band embraced the emo pop half of their original sound and sprinkled in a little post-hardcore influence.

the sound of our blue thoughts + an ironic view (full of cynical abstractions)

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

The Episode

The Episode were a band from Richmond, VA, active sometime around the late 90s, early 2000s. There's precious little information on this band available, either in the liner notes or through the internet, a situation only made worse by their name. Whatever the exact dates, they don't appear to have been around very long. Their discography appears to consist entirely of one, self-titled album. The album was recorded and mixed in 1998, but Discogs claims it was released in 1999. 

The music on it is a slurry of emocore, post-hardcore, melodic hardcore, and a little screamo, with additional influences from pretty much every single other genre of emo one might care to name, leaning most towards midwest emo. The result is some of the most emo music I've ever heard, like a greatest hits compilation comprised of sounds instead of songs.

The Episode

Best of Winter

 

Best of Winter were a band from Quincy, Illinois, active from 2003 to 2005. They were an emo pop act, in the same vein as Saves The Day, Park, or The Get Up Kids, energetic, catchy, and yet somehow fundamentally morose in that 90s emo pop manner, where the bouncy quality of the music never quite papers over the pathos. The last time I was in Quincy, the streets were half-obliterated by snow and slush, everything frozen beneath an endless steel sky. I didn't know the band's only LP, Olalla, existed then, but if I had, it would have made a worthy companion for that cold, midwestern drive.

Besides the 2004 album, the band also released a six-song EP called Only In The Long Run in 2003, from which I've only been able to recover two tracks. In 2005, the band would break up and two of its members would go on to greater success in The Graduate.

Olalla + Only In The Long Run Tracks