Living War Room - The Living War Room CD

Living War Room was a hardcore band from the San Francisco Bay Area, active in the mid-to-late 1990's. They were formed in late 1996 and broke up in 1999, I think. What's so special about them is that they sound like no other band. Most 1990's hardcore bands sound 1990's and dated now. But LWR's music is beyond time. It's just that no other band has tried to play this special brand of doom/hardore/emo before or after LWR, I guess. The first time I listened to this album I thought it was horrible, but now I find it one of the best hardcore records ever... And I don't even have a copy. It was released through the band's own imprint, Spare Organ Records, whose only releases I'm aware of are this and the Self-Titled CD by Nexus Six, a band that featured future members of Living War Room. Speaking of member connections, LWR featured ex-members of Nexus Six, Ruins Of An Empire (does anyone have any music by this band?), Lost Ground, and several other bands, as well as at-the-time and future members of Prevail, Under A Dying Sun (Singer & second guitarist of LWR), Inventing Edward, New Rhythm Method, End On End & Bullets In (Excellent band).
So... How does this band sound like? Their music is pretty dark stuff, but without sounding metal or stoner... The vocals are quite understandable while still being quite aggressively screamed. I like the drumming. The production is quite muddy. A band that sounds remotely like LWR is Dead Man's Right Hand (From Ottawa, ex-Union Of Uranus singer). But this is way better, the whole album is excellent. 5 songs songs in 34 minutes.

Rob (The bass player) has setup a myspace here. Unfortunately it seems that he hasn't logged in since 2006. Download this.
Living War Room - The Living War Room CD (Spare Organ, 1998)

My Own Pine Box - Self-Titled CDr

My Own Pine Box was a short-lived band from Lansing, MI. They sound like a poppier and slightly more deranged Agna Moraine's Autobiography. If you like that jazzy and ugly hardcore sound, you'll definitely like this. If you don't, check it out anyway. They featured ex-members of Bev.Clone, Bombs Lullabye, Agna Moraine's Autobiography, and a couple of other bands I'm not aware of at the moment. I have been a big fan of all the aforementioned bands, and this band instantly attracted my attention as soon as I got to know they existed.

The remnants of My Own Pine Box morphed into I Won't Land, a band I have no info about. Karl (MOPB's drummer, who was kind enough to send me this album) also played in Swimming To Pinpoints. They released a CD on Iron Compass Records in 2004 entitled Concentric. Does anyone have it? Anyway, the My Own Pine Box album was probably recorded in 1999. The band was formed in 1998 and must have been broken up by 2000. I read on some random website that Ryan (who played bass and sang) re-released this on CDr in may 2001. And it had artwork and everything. Well, I'm not sure if that happened, but if it did, he has stated only 50 copies were going to be produced. The CDr I have has no artwork, just the song titles. Prior to that "release", the demo had remained unreleased.

If you have any questions, or just feel like telling Karl how great the bands he played in are, there's a My Own Pine Box myspace page. This is the first thing on this blog that was actually ripped by me.

My Own Pine Box - Self-Titled CDr (Self-Released, 1999)

Download .m4a files (lossless / approx. 800 kbps) / Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3
Download .mp3 files (160 kbps) / Here

Ottawa - Unreleased 12" CDr

ttawa was a short-lived hardcore band from Dearborn, MI. The songs on this album were originally released as a split 12" with Jihad (Another awesome hardcore band) in October 1994, which was repressed four times, yet i've seen people paying more than 45$ for it on ebay.

They didn't release much besides that split. Six songs (that also appear on the split) on three compilations on various labels from around the world and a live cassette entitled Live At Carn Dum. That tape is said to have been released in 1993, but I don't think that's possible. Elf Lord broke up in November and Ottawa practiced a handful of times in 1993. Who Cares anyway. Members of Ottawa have played in Current, .Nema, Gregor, Calvary, Technicolor, The Æther And The Ash, Dearborn S.S., etc. Most of these bands are definitely worth a listen, especially .Nema, which is crusty hardcore and Calvary, which is retro 80's emo/post-punk. So. What is this? In May 2000, Council Records (ran by Matt Weeks, a member of Ottawa) remastered the 13 songs from the split with Jihad to release them as a 12". Too bad Council Records ceased to function in January 2006. I guess this will never see the light of the day... And it's such a good album, all 13 songs are pretty much the definition of hardcore for me.

Ottawa - Unreleased 12" (Council Records, 2000)

Order 1968 - Il Giardino Delle Rune Cassette

rder 1968 was Claudio Dondo's first solo project after he left Wiegen Den Toten in 1987. You probably haven't heard of this, but in late 1992 the project changed its name to Runes Order. RO is pretty well-known, I think (Get his 1988-2022 CD if you're interested). Claudio also ran a cassette label called Hate Productions (Classic late-1980's label name). This cassette is Order 1968's last release, and by far the best. While his first release, The Snow (released in 1990 or 1991) was a bit boring at times and the synths were kind of annoying, this one is amazing. It's still synth-based, but it's way "darker" and scarier. Anyway, I don't think I can precisely put into words how this sounds like. If you like ambient, you're def. going to love this. M

Order 1968 - Il Giardino Delle Rune Cassette (1992, Hate Productions / HATE 04)

The next post will be Ottawa's Unreleased 12" (Originally released as a split with Jihad).