These Arms Are Snakes releasing rarities comp (splatter vinyl pre-order & new video)
Having played two reunion shows in Seattle last summer, These Arms Are Snakes are now putting out a rarities compilation, Duct Tape & Shivering Crows, on April 15 via Suicide Squeeze. It includes the songs from the band’s 2008 split with Russian Circles, their 2004 collaborative EP with Harkonen, their covers of “Heart Shaped Box” by Nirvana and “Energy Drink and the Long Walk Home” by Jay Reatard’s early band Lost Sounds, two B-sides, and the band’s first demo. We’ve got the album up for pre-order on translucent green with opaque pink splatter vinyl in our store. Here’s a mock-up of the variant:
Along with the announcement comes a new video for “Camera Shy” from the Russian Circles split. The video was directed by Bradley Hale and you can watch it below. Watch a full-set, multi-cam video of TAAS’ recent reunion show below too.
In related news, Botch reissues are on the way, via Sargent House. Meanwhile, you can pick up the Hydra Head pressing of their live album 061502 here.
Tracklist
1. Meet Your Mayor
2. Camera Shy
3. Trix
4. Energy Drink and the Long Walk Home (Lost Sounds cover)
5. Heart Shaped Box (Nirvana cover)
6. Washburn
7. Old Paradise
8. Payday Loans
9. Hook on This
10. Riding the Grape Dragon (Demo)
11. Run It Through the Dog (Demo)
12. Diggers of Ditches Everywhere (Demo)
13. The Blue Rose (Demo)
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15 Albums That Shaped Progressive Post-Hardcore in the 2000s
The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)
Coheed & Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003)
These Arms Are Snakes – Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home (2004)
The Sound of Animals Fighting – Tiger and the Duke (2005)
The Receiving End of Sirens – Between the Heart and the Synapse (2005)
Gospel – The Moon Is A Cold Dead World (2005)
The Number Twelve Looks Like You – Nuclear. Sad. Nuclear (2005)
The Fall of Troy – Doppelgänger (2005)
Protest The Hero – Kezia (2005)
Fear Before The March of Flames – The Always Open Mouth (2006)
Damiera – M(US)IC (2007)
Circa Survive – On Letting Go (2007)
Dance Gavin Dance – Dance Gavin Dance (2008)
2000s progressive post-hardcore was kind of the result of a bunch of different post-hardcore bands trying their hands at progressive rock all at once. A lot of these bands ended up collaborating and touring together, but it took a few years for this to seem like a coherent subgenre. When the next wave of progressive post-hardcore bands cropped up at the turn of the 2010s, they very much had a specific shared sound in mind. That sound got dubbed "swancore," and the person who coined it was Dance Gavin Dance guitarist (and Blue Swan Records founder) Will Swan. Dance Gavin Dance served as the direct bridge between the early 2000s bands and the 2010s bands (many of whom were signed to Blue Swan). They took the influence of a lot of the earlier bands on this list and they bottled it up and stirred it around until it sounded like an accessible blend of just about all of them. Their self-titled sophomore LP is their second album and first with clean vocalist Kurt Travis (who would go on to front A Lot Like Birds and also has a band with The Fall of Troy frontman Thomas Erak, among many other projects), following their 2007 debut with now-controversial vocalist Jonny Craig. Kurt's a real wailer who can sometimes sound like a cross between Anthony Green and Casey Crescenzo, and Will Swan's mind-melting riffage exists somewhere in the middle ground between The Fall of Troy and The Mars Volta. Sometimes prog bands get a little too polished, and DGD definitely flirt with the cleaner side of the genre, but they keep things gnarly thanks to screamer Jon Mess, who clearly learned his screaming chops from '90s screamo and splits vocal duties almost 50/50 with Kurt on this LP. (They also had some guest vocalists on this album, including none other than Deftones frontman Chino Moreno.) When this album first came out, it might've seemed like a product of its influences, but at this point, DGD have become a highly influential (and long-lasting and consistent) band themselves, and this decade-plus-old sophomore LP still holds up.
Exclusive, limited Dance Gavin Dance vinyl variants available in our shop.