Suggestions: Justin Lloyd

This weeks suggestions come from musician/artist Justin Lloyd.

Justin has been involved with a wide range of musical projects including Sawhorse (post-rock), Age Sixteen (screamo), The Human Excuse (acoustic), Surf Nazis on Ecstacy (power violence), A Perfect Kiss (Indie), BatComputer/Compresser (shoegaze), and finally Liulu Dallas (grind).  He’s currently involved in 5 bands that are active!  How does he find time to sleep?

When he isn’t making music, Justin runs his own merch/design company - Black Sea Design.

He recently started a new company called Vox Humana that creates social/economic/political slogans encouraging a positive outlook on life and emploring you to look around and ask yourself “how can I help to make the world I inhabit a better place to live?”

He also has his own blog that you should visit HERE.

If anyone out there wants to stalk Justin Lloyd I’ve just done all of the detective work for you.

LOMA PRIETA – LAST CITY

To this day, after listening to this album almost more than any other album I own within the past year, I am still completely blown away by everything this band does.

They fit perfectly into the “screamo” genre, yet they are extremely modern in their sound. A lot of bands who borrow heavily from the modern 90′s emo sound may leave you saying to yourself “I can’t tell whether this band is from 1995 or 2005.” However, this release by Loma Prieta sounds as modern as it can without being “new skool” at all.

Any first-time listener will be pleasantly jerked back and forth by their complex rhythms and off-beat starts and stops. They jump around from super quiet and clean to ear-piercing feedback and sludge several times within any given ten-second period. Bands of this genre are generally good at orchestrating their dynamics, but this band takes the cake. Absolutely the most dynamic screamo band in existence. The songwriting on this album is flooring. I’ve been playing music for 23 out of the 24 years I’ve been alive, and I can’t understand how these hairy Oakland, CA dudes could possibly construct songs this good. Every single guitar riff, transition, tempo change, dynamic shift, etc. is absolutely perfect and will leave you saying outloud “Oh my GOD that is SO FUCKING GOOD.” However, their humanity shows through on this recording quite a bit because they are not the tightest band in the world. You can hear a slight sloppiness in their most frantic outbursts. All the more reason to adore this band, in my opinion. Their imperfections separate them from the mainstream bullshit because this music is real and from the heart. No gimmicks, no fine-tuning. The vocalists have interesting screams. Fairly high-pitched, just like I like them. At times, they can get fairly low and sort of Coalesce-ish. This may sound cheesy, but it fits perfectly when it occurs. I picture their throats ripping in half most of the time they were tracking the vocals, anyway. The last track will startle you with their first verse of sung vocals in Loma Prieta history. Again, it may sound cheesy, but that is the last thing it is. It’s utterly perfect and they couldn’t have done it any differently than they did. This band angry, dark, heavy, depressing, and they never let go. Unlike a lot of screamo bands around today, this band has never written one section of any one song with a hopeful or lighthearted tone. Even their drawn out clean parts keep you on the edge of your seat fearing the inevitable decay of mankind.

I haven’t been listening to this band long enough to consider them a huge staple in my emotional existence. This band has more so just impressed me and moved me more than most bands I hear and I know I will feel that way for the rest of my life. Maybe in a few years, I will hold this band in a “favorite band of all time” regard. But for now, they continue to be one of the most impressive, emotional, moving bands I have ever heard.

Download the album HERE.

SUIS LA LUNE – QUIET, PULL THE STRINGS!

It was really hard for me to pick between this album and their latest EP called “Heir.” Both releases accurately portray the most beautiful, well-crafted, emotional screamo ever created. Although their favorite song by them is on their EP, I chose this album because it is the first thing I heard by them. It astonished me and certainly did make my life what it was when I first started listening to them. The album is so nostalgic to me. It reminds me heavily of older post-emo indie rock bands like Mineral and similar bands with dual-guitar, twinkly parts that make you think of spring and summer. That style was brought back by this band while fusing it with the classic screamo sound and punk attitude.

One of the first words that come to mind about the music on this album is tasteful. And I mean that in it’s extreme, even amongst all the feedback, sludgy and dark guitar tone, half-screamed half-yelled vocals, etc. The music is sometimes speedy with blast-beats and fast strumming, but most of the time it is fairly mid-tempo. Many instrumental sections can be found in these songs because they don’t need constant vocals to deliver the message they are trying to portray. Something that really stands out on this album is the bass playing. It is not necessarily busy, but the root notes this bassist has written to carry the already meticulous guitar playing are so thoughtful and unique. He plays all the notes you wish you would have thought to play under the guitar riffs. This album reminds me of my own writing because their chords structure and arpeggiated picking styles hit so close to home as well as their extremely tasteful use of delay and reverb to provide that little bit of ambience. I adore their thick distortion tone and the extremely dry drums are so raw and in your face. Think of the melancholy of Mineral and old Sunny Day Real Estate, make it abrasive and in fairly short bursts, and prepare to get your heart melted into a puddle.

This album is definitely something that stands out in my life amongst all the thousands of albums I’ve owned or listened to. It heavily influences my own music writing and pushes me to go beyond my musical limits to think of more original melodies. Just when you think you’re trapped into a corner and can’t break out of the same chords and song structures, listen to this band and it will be proven that there is so much more to create and find. I’m not saying this band is entirely original, but they are definitely a sore thumb in the sea of melodic screamo.

Download the album HERE.

And because HEIR is equally as good, download that HERE.

MINERAL – ENDSERENADING

Mineral saved music for me, to put it plainly. I started running out of good music to listen to when I was in high school. Everything was turning into nu-metal at the time unless it was Red Hot Chili Peppers or something. Ever since I was very young, I was always attracted to music that stirred up emotion to me. It was rare that a band could do that, and the bands that did, I held in high regard. The old 90′s band Seed was a big one for me at the time. Amidst their conglomeration of grunge and wussy, sappy alternative rock, they still had melodies that pulled at my heart strings a little bit. That is why, when I discovered Mineral, my heart literally did back flips. Every single song on this album ripped my heart into shreds.

Even before discovering Mineral or even the whole emo community in general, I was always partial to the way two guitar players sounded when picking through arpeggiated, dissonant, melodic chords. My finding Mineral excited me greatly because they did just that. Constantly. Although the first time I heard them, it was their previous effort “The Power Of Failing,” their follow-up recording just reassured me that this was MY band. They spoke my language, they felt what I felt, they had the same vision I saw. There is nothing really abrasive about this album because it mainly consists of pretty down-tempo jams with lots and lots of clean guitar parts. That is why it is so good, though. It’s always on the verge of breaking up and spinning off into something heavier or noisier, but it never does. It leaves you on edge wanting more. It never resolves. It’s always flowing, driving, beautiful melodies that are extremely innovative and pretty complex. I love Christopher Simpson’s lyrics because he has such a broader spectrum of subjects than your average emo whiner. (And he does whine, let me tell you. Slightly off key, slightly annoyingly, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.) He sings a lot about childhood memories and family members as well as the normal failed romances and inner struggles.

There is so much more to be said about this album but I just cannot explain it. The way it makes me feel is unexplainable. I am just sitting here listening to it right now, trying to put into words what I am feeling. There are just no words. You’d have to hear it for yourself.

Download the album HERE.

OCEANSIZE – EVERYONE INTO POSITION

Once again, this was such a hard decision. This UK band has three full length (and I mean FULL length) albums and a bunch of singles and EPs. I picked the album that I heard first and that introduced me into the world of Oceansize.

Oceansize is a… I don’t even know what the hell kind of band they are. They are a rock band. Or maybe post-rock? I don’t know. Labels don’t matter, but you can usually classify a band to the best of your ability if you try. It is literally impossible with this band. Let me explain why. I will explain by telling you all of the bands that remind me of this band. Mr. Bungle, Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Tool, Incubus, This Will Destroy You, A Life Once Lost, Dredg, and so many more bands that I really feel like I should be thinking of but I can’t. They are one of the most original bands I’ve ever heard. They can do absolutely anything and there is absolutely no lack of authenticity.

I could spend time describing this album and what it sounds like, but I can’t. I know I had a hard time explaining how Mineral makes me feel, but I can’t describe how this band sounds let alone how they make me feel. All I can really say is that they are absolutely genius. I am completely convinced that every single member of this 3-guitar player band are musical prodigies. 100% rock, 100% progressive, 100% experimental, 100% passionate, 100% out of this world.

This band is far from the emo genre, yet the amount of emotion they manage to show in their music is unsuspectingly huge. My favorite 2 songs by them happen to be on this album and they are called “You Can’t Keep A Bad Man Down” and “Ornament/The Last Wrongs.” They work perfectly together as the last and second to last track on the album. The songs are a two-piece epic closure to this album that is packed full of every genre possible without ever being cheesy, over the top or anything less than spectaclular. Radio-rock fans and progressive music snobs alike will find enjoyment in this band. And you can’t listen to just one or two songs. You have to listen to the ENTIRE album and take it in. If you don’t, you’re not getting the full effect.

Download the album HERE.

I couldn’t just link one album. If you want to hear the spectrum that is Oceansize but more stretched out on both ends, check out their latest album FRAMES. It’s more beautiful and emotional on one end, and more confusing and weirder on the other end. They really took everything they’ve done before and magnified it tenfold. Download that one HERE.

And their first album, Effloresce HERE.

NORMA JEAN – BLESS THE MARTYR, KISS THE CHILD

Yes, I was a little metalcore scenester once. There is no denying that this is one of the best heavy music albums in the history of music. Norma Jean introduced me into a completely new era of metal. When I first heard this band, I had never heard anything so heavy before in my life. I was even listening to bands like Fear Factory and tons of death metal at the time. For some reason, this band seemed so heavy to me that I couldn’t put my finger on why. Their use of noisy, obscure chords, somewhat complicated rhythms, extremely distorted vocals mixed song structures and drum parts that I’d never hear in metal before confused the hell out of me at the same time it was impressing me.

One thing that really got me about this album is that about half of it is just plain structured noise. When they are not using power chords, they are creating the most ear-piercing sounds I had ever heard at the time (obviously, Daughters was not a band yet). Now every band and their mother is ripping off their style so it sounds like nothing new anymore. However, at the time, it was a break-through for heavy music. Not only was it a break-through of new ideas and a new approach to metal, but it was done well. With a few tamer rock parts, a 16 minute instrumental and an angsty passion fueling the entire album’s worth of music, this album paved the way for tons and tons of metalcore bands. Too bad most of them suck.

The lyrics are fairly cryptic and expressed by means of throat-annihilating screams. The drumming is ridiculously powerful and they were recorded wonderfully. There is a roominess to them. Not something you hear in most metal recordings. The guitars are crushing and ripping, overdriven to the max, all with that classic Marshall sound. I usually hate Marshall amps, but the tight low-end of these recordings and the perfect production allows me to make an exception. The bass is sludgy and dirty, obviously distorted. While most distorted bass tones lose definition and low end, in this production, it’s just as bassy as it is disgusting.

Listen to the track “I Used To Hate Cell Phones but Now I Hate Car Accidents.” The breakdown in that song is probably the heaviest part in my entire music collection. As overdone as breakdowns are in the boring metal genre, that part still gets me. And it gets me bad. I can still remember being young at a Norma Jean show absolutely flipping out. This album brings back memories of my youth group days, trying to convince our youth pastor that there was actually talent and structure in this album. “It all just sounds like noise to me.” Exactly.

Download the album HERE.