that's punk

this is that’s punk’s last card. it’s different versions of five songs. two from Valentine Kid’s Litter, two from Survived By and one from Please Excuse All the Blood. all of which are well worth listening to – so download this! unfortunately “this” concludes the Dahlia Seed marathon. but what a band! what tunes! download it all if you haven’t yet. so good.

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after the tour in autumn of 1996 Dahlia Seed split up. this the last record they ever put out. it didn’t come until 1999 though. so it’s a posthumous release with unreleased material. the release contains songs from throughout most of their career. from tracks from the ten inch which can be downloaded in its unmixed state here, to the last three recordings they did. and with some stuff in between. including a few live tracks. if you’ve downloaded the other releases, you already have some of this. but it’s well worth getting nonetheless. perhaps especially for their three last songs, which serves as extremely rude teasers, just pointing at you and laughing. “hey check it out we made these three amazing songs [well, actually, one of them is a Voivod cover] but we’re not a band any more so you won’t get any new albums, nyya-nyya-nyya-nyya-nyyaaaaaaa-nya.” how præposterous! get this. oh, and even this is Dahlia Seed’s last record, that’s punk still has one more card up its sleeve.

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having posted both albums, I’m nearing the end of the Dahlia Seed marathon. but there’s still some stuff left! among this stuff is this live record. this time we’re in 1996 on Dahlia Seed’s last tour. they exclusively play songs from Survived By, except for “Statement of Purpose”, which you should know from the CBGBs concert. that song was actually released on a split 7″ with another ’90s emo band named Garden Variety, and you can – SPOILER ALERT – look forward to seeing it on that’s punk, albeit on a different release. spoiler finished. so. this is a soundboard recording, and it sounds… good. good enough to warrant a listen at least. good enough to make me curse myself for not seeing this band live. so get this, and curse yourself. enjoy!

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in the summer of 1995, Dahlia Seed recorded their second album, which would be released in 1996. all of the band was living in NY – except for the vocalist, who were residing in WA. (take note that by the time Survived By was to be recorded, Dahlia Seed had a new guitarist, as one of them left the summer of ’94. take further note that by the time Saved By was released in spring of ’96, that guitarist had left (in the middle of a US/Canadian tour, consequently ruining said tour for the band) and been replaced by yet another one.) that’s a pretty long way apart. nonetheless, the album got written, albeit without the entire band being in the same room while it was done. and, luckily, they were also recorded that summer, in Philadelphia. this album is by many considered the quintessential Dahlia Seed album. I don’t know why this is more quintessential than Valentine Kid’s Letter, although I’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t consider the latter a “proper” album because it’s made up of a couple of spread out sessions… personally, I view them both equally “quintessential” in terms of Dahlia Seed records. this packs an equal amounts of punch, when compared to Valentine Kid’s Litter. this album is absolutely beautiful and give Valentine Kid’s Litter a run for its money. you have no choice – you have to download this. absolute classic, by all standards. from the beautiful opening track to the heart-breaking though just as beautiful closer – a fantastic album. oh, and by the way, this album has a re-recording of one of the tracks on the practice tape, “Archway Out”.

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in 1994 and early 1995, Dahlia Seed toured extensively. I’ll be documenting this as well here on that’s punk. the first concert I’m posting is around thirty-five minutes long. they play a few songs from Valentine Kid’s Litter, and a few songs that will be released in the future. and a few songs plus a few songs equal nine songs , which in turn equals a pretty good documentation of Dahlia Seed as a live band. as everyone knows, listening to a live recording isn’t half as good as actually being there. but hey it’s the recording or nothing. they won’t be performing live again any time soon, unfortunately. so this isn’t even the next-best thing. this is the best thing! which means you need to check it out. it’s a very powerful performance in rather nice recording quality.

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it’s 1994, and we’re fucking there. from the very first note we’re there and then some. Valentine Kid’s Litter packs a significantly larger punch than either of the previously posted recordings. over the course of 1993-1994, they recorded two-three demo tapes. when they presented them to Theologian Records, the label wanted to put it out as an album. and so they did. that was a smart move if ever I saw one. because quite frankly, this release is amazing. even if it is evident that it’s made up of different recordings with different quality, it’s just so packed with emotive and cathartic moments that I think no one cares. the vocals are pretty, then suddenly they’re shouting bloody murder. and the music follows in a highly organic matter. it’s like Fugazi. the lyrics are often in tact with the music, open and emotionally charged. the vocalist wrote most of them, and when looking back she described quite a few of them as silly or stupid. I guess that’s how you know you’ve written really good emo lyrics. when you can look back and have a hard time understanding what you were thinking. when you look back and say, wow, how I’ve grown since then. emo music at its best, in my humble opinion, is when it documents the now – that special place and time. anyway, you owe it to yourself to give this a listen. it’s just a really heavy ’90s rock album with twelve fucking great songs.

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it’s 1993 and Dahlia Seed have added a second guitarists, letting their vocalist focus more on vocalist duties. this is an unmixed version of their first proper record. and with that release, we’re getting extremely close to the beforehand mentioned “there”. where is there? the Dahlia Seed everyone knows and loves at their peak. the recording quality makes both the vocals intelligible and the music in general a bit more pleasant to listen to. you can really appreciate the musicianship some more, when you can actually tell what’s going on without anything being compromised by a poor recording quality. not that the previous posts have been *plagued* by awful recording quality… this just sounds nicer. two of the songs from the first demo are re-recorded for this, giving them a more justified recording quality. the melodic yet aggressive music is well cathartic. the vocals are dreamy but not distant. actually, they are ever-present. you’ll want to download this…

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with the second Dahlia Seed post, it’s still 1992. there’s a swap of bassists, and there’s a new addition to the band. and many would argue that it is this addition that will set the band apart from any other bands. to some extent this is true. their new vocalist would go on to become instrumental to this band’s success. but let’s pay tribute where it’s due; the whole band has changed up quite a bit. for better. and even though the recording quality hasn’t peaked yet, resulting in unintelligible vocals, the guitars are getting there and then some. the new vocalist also plays guitar on this recording, giving them a more melodic sound than on the demo. the dreamy guitars as well as vocals drastically alter the band’s sound, without actually changing it much at all. if you liked the demo, you will probably love this. if you weren’t feeling the demo, give this a go. it is much more representing of the legendary band Dahlia Seed would eventually become. while Dahlia Seed are not quite there just yet, this is a monumental step on the way.

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I suspect some – if not most of the trusty readers of that’s punk are familiar with Dahlia Seed. but I suspect that not that many are as familiar as I aim to make you with them! yes, that’s right. Dahlia Seed marathon! and the obvious place to start is with their very first demo. Dahlia Seed started the summer of 1992, in the northern New Jersey suburbs. although probably mostly known as a four-piece or a five-piece, they actually started out as a three-piece. and this is that three-piece’s 4-track demo. it’s rough in both recording and musical style. somewhat comparable to their contemporary Empty Set (which would later go on to be named Chewbacca Kaboom, and later still Sunny Day Real Estate). recording quality-wise, this sounds as good as a 4-track from the early ’90s can sound. musical quality-wise, this is really good, albeit not the quintessential Dahlia Seed recording by any means. if you have no idea what Dahlia Seed sounds like, they play a rather pretty style of emo that in addition is really aggressive and simply charged with emotion. this is a nice place to start with the band, if you can handle the sound quality, which as an emo fan… chances are you do. check this out!

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