Sunday 5 January 2020

The Return Of Myspace Grind And Why It's A Good Thing!


The social media platform Myspace gave a lot of a people a lot of music. It allowed a metric ton of bands the chance to put their music online, before Facebook, Youtube and Bandcamp gained traction. I'm no expert on the platform but that's what I remember. As with music, styles come and go and for a  long time the style known as "Myspace Grind" or whatever else you wanna call it, seemed to have disappeared as well. In truth, it was probably still around but over the last couple of years it has swung back into people's consciousness and in 2019 in particular, grind and mathcore of the Myspace variety has gained a cult following again. This is my attempt at a write-up about it and the current bands/labels/places that are prominent, as well as some who're slightly below the radar.

I'll also take this opportunity to apologise for the slightly iffy quality of my own photos. I'm including some photos of some releases from my personal collection in this piece, as they're relevant to it.

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If you're new to this particular sub-genre then you'll likely know of a few bands that have been snapped up by labels like Prosthetic Records and Pure Noise Records. in 2019 meth. and .gif from god released full-length records via Prosthetic Records and Wristmeetrazor released a two singles digitally in October:-









Also in 2019, SeeYouSpaceCowboy released their first album on Pure Noise Records:-





(SeeYouSpaceCowboy - Fashion Statements Of The Socially Aware 7" 2017 Repress on Peach Marble Vinyl - Dog Knights Productions/Middle-Man Records/Zegema Beach Records/React With Protest/Contrition Recordings)

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It wasn't a band or a label that made me take notice though. It was Mathcore Index and their monthly Mathcast podcasts that sent me down this rabbit hole. Mathcore Index has been going since 2008 and since then they've shone a light on do many quality grindcore, mathcore and technical heavy bands. You can find out more and stream all of their monthly podcasts to date here - https://mathcoreindex.com

Next up is a label home to some of the band that Mathcore Index has been giving props to throughout their podcasts - Pattern Recognition Records. The label focuses on the newer-wave of grind/mathcore bands that have been springing up in recent years, some of which include:-


Tweak



Thecheeseburgerpicnic



and also Horse Torso



This list isn't exhaustive and if you want to hear more, go to PRR's bandcamp page here - https://music.patternrecognitionrecords.com.


(Thecheeseburgercicnic - Iodine 2018 Pink w/Black Splatter Single-Sided Cassette - Adorno Records)

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PRR has helped with the resurgence of some of the OG Myspace bands as well, by providing distribution for the first couple of album represses put together by Wax Vessel in 2019 and started with:-


Destroyer Destroyer




and The Heartland



This leads me nicely onto Wax Vessel itself. Wax Vessel was founded in early 2019 with the sole intention of re-releasing seminal albums from the heyday of Myspace. As well as the albums above, the label has pressed limited vinyl, with the help of new distribution partner Zegema Beach Records, for the following (and more not listed below):-


Robinson



The Sawtooth Grin




and more recently Tower Of Rome, Dance Club Massacre and Dr. Acula. 


(Destroyer Destroyer - The Dead Sleep Like Us For A Reason 2019 Single-Sided Repress on Ultra Clear w/Green And Brown "Dead In The Dirt" Splatter - Wax Vessel)


(The Heartland - The Stars Outnumber The Dead 2019 Reissue on Red Centerburst in Natural PVC w/Black "Dead Planet" Splatter - Wax Vessel)

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The US is sort of leading the way now, as it did with the sub-genre first sprung up; however, there are a few current bands that you should keep an eye from the UK:-


Pupil Slicer



Sharkteeth Grinder



Irk



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There you have it. There's plenty here to check out if you haven't already. I deliberately focused on the music as opposed to writing loads of words, but feel free to give me feedback on this feature, so I can make any future ones better. Cheers!

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