La Mi Vida Violenta "We Are Ghosts" cd (22 Over 7/ 2004) + bonus tracks

Up until a few minutes ago I was not aware that this awesome band released anything other than the cd which I am uploading you for now. So in addition to sharing their two song ep We Are Ghosts I shall also add two songs I found courtesy of the band's old website. La Mi Vida Violenta were a band from Massachusetts that became aware of when my band Yes Sensei and our comrades Empty Silos Echo War made a stop at the wonderful Pirate's Cove in Allentown, PA and happened to play a show with them. La Mi Vida Violenta were a great, fun and sonically diverse band that played grooving post punk  that can best be described as a cross between A Certain Ratio, The Pop Group, !!!, and Boces era Mercury Rev. There is also a clear influence of free jazz, fusion era Miles Davis, soul and early hip hop as well various Latin music. Honestly, this is a band I wish I would've known more of and seen again. And know confirming how little the band's output was I can also certainly wish that they there more releases. In addition to this cd We Are Ghosts they released a split ep with the band Sentai, and La Mi Vida Violenta contributed five tracks-one of which I have added here as a bonus. I also wish there was more to say in this post. Regardless, just download this as it is excellent.

La Mi Vida Violenta We Are Ghosts track listing:
1. Down Tiger
2. Mash Note

Bonus tracks:
1. Blanks
2. Oh Asbestos


Download Here

Bridge Made of Bats "Aplomb at The Temps of The Tomb" cd-r (Leedspoint Records/2005)

My first memory of Bridge Made of Bats comes sometime around winter 2003, my band Yes Sensei was on tour with Scent of Human History and as per the routine I collected all the fliers made for our shows because I am a nerdy archivist (which is a fancy way of saying junk collector. Or is hoarder the in term these days?) Anyhow on a stop at a house show in New Jersey one of the fliers had listings of other upcoming shows and one of the shows had a band named Bridge Made of Bats and instantly thought what a cool name for a band. Our drummer at the time said they played Philadelphia (where he attended school) often and were awesome. Later that year I had a long distance relationship going on with some girl in Philadelphia who was generally removed at that time from punk/hardcore and that sort of thing and discovered a love for country music. Anyhow, she asked me if I listened to Bridge Made of Bats and if I hadn't I should because I'd love them. Just who was this band? And why was everyone convinced I'd love them? I soon found out in the summer of 2004 when a fragmented version of Yes Sensei (we came home two weeks early from a tour sans our bass player) as Evan from Empty Silos Echo War bailed us out learning a few songs in a pinch when we headed to Philadelphia to play a show at The Fire with Bridge Made of Bats. Finally, I found out first hand why everyone was telling me I'd love this band. Their performance was just absolutely awe inspiring. The music was loose, noisy and very percussive. It sound like The Ex, Brainiac, DNA, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks, The Slits meets Fugazi's at their most experimental. It was just great. Like I said the music was very percussive not just in the sense that there were a lot of drums but even the noisy guitars had a percussive clang to it all. But definitely from the drumming stand point it was unlike anything I had seen in "the scene", as there was a influence on the drums that just didn't came from punk/indie rock or whatever.

Their full length cd-r Aplomb at the Temps of the Tomb captures absolutely everything I loved about that performance and more. It is music that you can just get lost in at times as each time I listen to it new sounds, rhythms or grooves stand out. There was a point where I was listening to this cd-r almost every day and it never bored me. In fact I probably got more into it the more I listened to it. It is music that certainly has the element of surprise which is something I truly yearn for in music but very seldom are my ears granted such a treat. At some point I tried to cajole the band into letting me release some of their music and even get them to Long Island for a show though nothing materialized. A split 7 inch with Yes Sensei was planned but that didn't happen either. Eventually the band just quietly folded. I recently was able to obtain unreleased demo material which is just as awesome. As long as I get the okay from the band I'd be happy to share those as well.

Bridge Made of Bats Aplomb at the Temps of the Tomb track listing
1. Suppose
2. Death Comes to Berlioz
3. Standing Outside a Cloven Head
4. Like a Train Running Him Through
5. Splitting Bones With a Note
6. Neither God
7. Nor Bach Could Strike

Download Here