Parades End - "Self-Titled" 7inch

Alright, time to bounce back. Been down and not posting for a few months. Moved into our first house and dealing with an infant who is rolling over and learning to crawl and stand almost simultaneously has proven to be the exciting challenged that it promised to be. But now that things have settled some and the office/record room has come together for the most part, lets get back to this.

Parades End were one of the first, if not the very first, band that I ever heard that you could remotely call Screamo (by 90's emo/punk standards). I had no idea of it when I heard them in the mid/late 90's. I was still very much a hardcore/punk kid who knew emo as it related to the DC/Dischord universe.

I was fortunate enough to catch Parades End on local 88.7 KSPC as they played a live 5-song set. I was doubly fortunate enough to be recording the radio that night. It wouldn't be until years later that a good friend would share with me the Assistant which then led to things like you&i, saetia, jeremin, neil perry, and on and on down that twisted genere muddled list of hardcore punk music. Unfortunately, it would still be more time after that before I was able to run down a copy of this 7inch. Clearly I did though, and even was able to get a copy of their split 7inch. Both 7inches and the live radio set were posted on the old What We Want Blog, though the rip here is just the 7inch, and is a newer rip done with the new laptop. It may only be marginally better, but its not quite as hot (loud) of a rip as the previous one, so it balances out a bit better on all playing platforms.

Enough mumbling... Parades End, as mentioned, certainly fell into the Emo/Punk/Screamo realm of music going on at the mid/end of the 90's. Spoken/Screamed vocals, driving guitars, drums that while not simplistic, didn't rely heavily on lots of toms and double bass, and enough emotion that you could see this four piece bouncing around the stage trading vocals between guitarists. Though, it isn't without mentioning that they did have at least one song on the Indecision Records comp Guilty By Association, which featured the band as a 5 piece with a singular singer. Not a bad track itself, but a fair bit different.

In the end, the band recorded this 4-song 7inch, 2 tracks on their split 7inch, the aforementioned comp track, the radio set, and a full length that was purported to have been recorded over with a lot of nonsense and noise since the band was splitting up. My understanding is that some of that became the track "the Book of Jae" which was on another comp. Members were in and have since been in quite a few bands, some you've even heard. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD: Parades End - 4 song 7inch