[Bandcamp] MOMA - MOMA [2009]

I found this months ago, and just now listening to it again. Maaaaaaaan, this is so good. It's like the best of instrumental rock with a very... metropolitan feel. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it reminds me of when I was a kid and we would go to the really hip part of town where there were old stone houses and lots of trees. The parks would have the coolest things to play on, like a dragon that was made out of little ceramic tile pieces. The music just makes it feel like everything is alright and it's a beautiful day outside (it's not).

This is a four track EP, and MOMA has had the foresight to let you buy it on bandcamp (it's only 3 bucks, you cheapskate). The song Lyrics really hits me, especially when the cello comes in. Each song is just really well put together and great fun to listen to.

The band seems to still be together and even has a live set on the bandcamp as well from last year. They've added another member to fill out their live sets. Most of the recordings have two guitar tracks, so I'm sure it helps them when they play out.

Seriously, get this now:

[Bandcamp] Midnight Parade - Various [2008-2011]

Midnight Parade has definitely been making the rounds. They've released stuff on Say Hello to Never Records, Further Platonix, even showing up on the Love the Fate compilation. So, they've definitely been busy and all, but I have none of these and had never heard them before. So, on top of my normal pleasure at finding a Japanese band with uploaded songs on bandcamp, I finally get to hear a band that has been on all those distro pages for so long.

The songs available on bandcamp are scattered, only one is off a release I could find available. Still, there's 3 studio tracks and 2 live tracks, and you can get a good sense of their sound. They have a bit of a Toe influence with the instrumentation, a little 3cm tour in some of the songs, and something else that I can't think of. Each song is plenty long and goes through lots of different moods before their epic endings. My favorite song of the three is 8cm先の憂鬱, which has a more aggressive tone than the others, and definitely reminds me of 3cm tour, or maybe Birth.

Check them out, and get their releases if you can. Now I have to add them to my list of stuff to buy in those intermittent orders to Japanese distros. Man, wouldn't it be great if there was a distro in the US that was trying to bring over Japanese stuff...

I have to say though, this video below, which was one made for the release of the unripe split, is so frickin' boring. These guys are just standing around, only playing their instruments. No emotion guys? Oh well, the music's good, so that's fine, I guess.

I'm not going to embed all these songs (they're all listed separately), so you can just visit the link below:

Midnight Parade - Various

1. 8cm先の憂鬱

2. Sign of Discommunication

3. Red Light Discor

4. 8cm先の憂鬱 [2011​.​10​.​01 LIVE]

5. Red Light Discor [2011​.​10​.​01 LIVE]