that's punk

October is still going, and so is that’s punk. so here is another The Pine post. unfortunately this post marks the end of The Pine month. but what a way to go out! the recordings on this album date as far back as 1999 – one tiny year after their inception. it contains five songs that would eventually be remixed/remastered for the self titled LP, and three completely unreleased songs. three completely amazing songs that makes this just as much a “must have” as the rest of their discography, in my opinion. I’ve done fifty CD-Rs with a special white surface in hand-folded origami covers – that come with four different design colours – that are printed in a modern printing office onto high quality 120g paper, that I give away for £4 for new ears to get a chance to witness this magnificent album. your eyes should be pleased as well, because it’s fairly nice packaging. so get that if you are into it. if not, you should still definitely download this. and if you can’t afford to spend £4 on the nice packaging, the download link includes the cover art so you can print and fold it yourself.

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click here to download it

if you thought we were done with The Pine… you were wrong! [pause to make a sigh of relief now] there’s thankfully more. this is an acoustic set released on a CD-R in 2005. they play songs from their first 7″, their first 12″, Homeless Life and Lead Blocks for Feet, as well as a Three Shades of Dirty cover. ten songs in total. it’s well over forty minutes long, and lets us experience The Pine in a completely different setting than we are used to. they essentially prove that their music would probably work in any setting ever (paging The String Quartet?). the intimacy suits the songs great. even clap-alongs work! so enjoy this curiosity.

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Don’t Need Regret is The Pine’s last album, and I don’t think you should expect to see any more. it continues the jangly and noisy Dinosaur Jr.-esque sound of Days Slipping By. on their most noisy and feedback-heavy they even sort of sound like Build Nest, Sleep, which is always a great thing. while the Dinosaur Jr. comparison is done the most justice on the heavy hitting “No You”. the songs are extremely tight, and Don’t Need Regret as an album works extremely well. one feels that the songs are in the perfect order, and that The Pine have carefully chosen when to pick up the pace, when to break it down… it feels like every bit of feedback, every hit on the snare… it feels like absolutely each and every little detail is carefully planned out and perfectly executed. this is probably The Pine at their very best, to be completely honest. their last album in many ways sound like what they have been working towards all their career. this is just one of those albums that are perfect in every way. “Dead Boat” has got to be the most perfect way to go out as well, with all its longing, desperation and sadness it’s the epitome of depression; the very idea of depression manifested in a song. the whole album is utterly emotionally devastating. the album has a wholeness – a sense of being complete, incomparable to any other album I have ever heard. “Dead Boat” ends exactly like the first track “Don’t Need Regret” begins, ensuring that not only does the album come off as incredible consistent – you can actually put this on repeat indefinitely and it will always feel consistent. the album never ends. the feeling never ends. this album is perfect.

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I’m assuming you’ve listened so much to Days Slipping By that you know it by heart by now. so I will grace you with the next The Pine download. this is a collection of all their tracks from splits and compilations. it starts out with their contribution to Wayfarers All, and follows with the two songs from their split with The Saddest Landscape. those three tracks are from 2004. then there is their song from the This Is Your Life compilation, and then finally their track from their split with La Quiete. those are from 2005. so that’s five songs in just over fifteen minutes, collecting all of their splits and compilation tracks. we’re back to the treble-heavy sound, with recording quality that is pretty equal on all tracks, though perhaps slightly lower on the last track. the sound levels were all over the place, so I’ve edited the files a little bit. “Desperate and Lonely” is a little louder (it’s also the track in the highest bitrate) than the rest, and there are some minor differences. but believe me, it’s a lot more pleasant to listen to now than before I made the changes. between “Desperate and Lonely” and tracks from the split with The Saddest Landscape, it would drop like seven dB. so enjoy this collection! it’s five classic The Pine tracks. by letting the guitars really ring out, they form a wall of sound that tucks in the jangly drums and the ever-present bass. and it’s simply brilliant. in the middle of everything is of course the absolutely perfect vocals. and when you’re listening to the 5:20 long piece of perfection that is the last track, it’s obvious that if the world were falling apart, The Pine would be playing in the background. get this

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let’s move on to Days Slipping By and 2004 (note: sometime in 2003, they had a change of drummer). it’s more of the distorted open chords, battering drums, light bass and wavering vocals we all know and love. it’s still The Pine. so this means a unique emo sound, that’s unconventionally dark and sad for being this melodic and upbeat. this is also their most diverse album thus far, I’d argue. a more experimental and curious side of the band is presented. and they’ve managed to succeed in developing the sound without neither ruining it, nor stagnating. from the very first track, “No Tomorrow”, this album is a demonstration of power by The Pine. they have developed their sound to be more broad and diverse. it’s as driving and compelling to listen to, but they experiment far more with different noises, and I think I’m not completely off if I say that I think the tempo is a bit lower. but either way, Days Slipping By absolutely fucking destroys. emotive hardcore done so incredibly right. put it on repeat until I put up the next album.

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we’re now in 2003, and The Pine travelled home after their tour and recorded ten songs for a new album which got put out some months post recording. that recording was called Lead Blocks for Feet and is now up for download here on that’s punk. this endeavour is a healthy mix between the styles of Homeless Life and the self-titled release. it has intertwined forceful guitars washing over clashing cymbals like the first two tracks on “Homeless Life”, but also that thick mix of the distorted electric guitars and the comfortable-sounding bass guitar racing the drums as if both parties’ life were at stake. and on top of all that are of course are the significantly unique vocals, almost crying every word out, whether it be miserable or beautifully optimistic. this album also holds the most stripped down The Pine track as of yet, with “Letters”. on the other end of the scale, Lead Blocks For Feet ends with The Pine at their perhaps rawest and most chaotic. furious and melodic, like Hüsker Dü. there is no contemplating this. you *need* to download this album.

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and so our story continues… in 2002, The Pine recorded the Homeless Life 7″, and put it out within a month after its recording session. it consists of four songs. some of which follow in more or less the same path of the 7″ and 12″, some of which are quite different. it’s only ten minutes long, but then again these near ten minutes are of the very highest quality, and will no doubt be stuck on repeat until the next post. it starts out with a comforting bass, and then it crashes into an emotional turmoil. all the distortion and feedback are only rivalled in intensity by the tragic lyrics, and their flawless delivery. “Homeless Life is a song about «when times are running low and all you can do is cry, but the tears don’t care and the words aren’t there». the next track follows the same idea with sparse but heavily charged lyrics, and crashing drums and noisy guitars, signalling the end of the world or something worse. track three is more reminiscent of the 7″/12″ tracks, but still has that really loud and powerful sound of the previous two, before ending on a softer note, quite reminiscent of The Man I Fell in Love With and Christie Front Drive. the fourth and last track is back to basics. upbeat and melodic head rush emo about a girl (or at least we all like to think it always is about the girl). the track is drastically different from the other three tracks, but isn’t out of place at all, and actually acts like a perfect complement and closer track. get this, and hold your breath, because there might be more.

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welcome to October 2010 here on that’s punk. October is a special month for me, and I think it might just be for you too. in 1998 the world graced us with The Pine, one of the most magnificent emo bands of all time. they are comparable to The Hated, Evergreen, Lumber, Tribute, Cerulean and Don Quichote – all of which are comparisons they live up to and then some. their easily recognisable sound consists of a murky mix of emotional and touching eerie greatness. it’s quick paced and highly melodic riffs that are dictated by upbeat and jangly drumming, and with a brilliant safety net in the evenly paced though gentle and soothing bass. it’s mostly upbeat and thrashing, but every now and then The Pine take it down. they have some beautiful downbeat tracks that stand out very easily on this album – and yet they still fit in. many bands fall in one of two traps when it comes to lengthy albums. either they make all songs too alike, or they make them so different that there is no clear direction on the album. The Pine manage to tread that difficult middle-ground, not being afraid of mixing it up, and not fucking up the mixing up. in the middle of all this musical godliness are the highly distinctive vocals. high-pitched and probably what most would call “whiny”. but the whiny vocals are in no way nagging or pompous. instead, they serve as a perfect fit to the emotive nature of the band’s music. The Pine initially surfaced as a three piece. their drummer was their vocalist at first, but he couldn’t really hear himself over the banging drums. so they added a fourth member – a drummer – and the drumming vocalist became a guitar playing vocalist. they recorded their first seven inch, changed their bassist, and recorded their first twelve inch. the label that was supposed to put out the LP never came through though. so what happened instead was a change of drummer, some new recordings, and a new LP tracklist. this label actually came through, so the 12″ was actually released, the band and the label splitting the expenses 50/50. this is their self titled CD from 2003, which collects their self-titled 7″ from 2000 and their self titled 12″ from 2001. confused? don’t be. just download it. this is The Pine month, baby. (this is all sold out stuff, so go to eBay and pray you might find something.)

click here to download