Webstore

New webstore has been launched. COMMERCE!!!!! CHINA!@!!!##@#$@ LINK ON YR RIGHT

Hot Vidz

It's hard to find videos of us playing on the nets. I have been compiling footage for a while. Here's a video of us playing in Peru:

I made a channel on youtube that has clips we found over the years. Check it out here. There's footage from the States, Europe, and South America. If you know of anymore clips on youtube or anywhere else please get in touch with us at toweringsound@gmail.com.

75:24

A little late with the info on this one. The 75:24 compilation cassette is now available from Ticklebutt and Soft City. Features a ton of bands that are either from Philadelphia, near by, or friends. Good stuff. Algernon Cadwallader is on this and people love them. Also features choice cuts from 1994, Bandname, Cassilis, countless others, and an unreleased song from us.

Available from the labels. Edition of 500 and word is that this thing is almost gone...

NOW SOLD OUT FROM THE LABELS. AVAILABLE FROM US AT SHOWS.

Mike Sajak

This is all the Mike Sajak stuff I have. 3 of them are calls made to the Best Show on WFMU. I don't know where the paperboy call is from.

If you have more please get in touch with me here.

Download.

The Same Flyer Inverted

Click to enlarge.

Pronunciation

Upcoming Live Events

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A Cat Video

Professor Cantaloupe - Space Snacks

CDR Release. This guy was the drummer of Gasp.

Here.

Kurt Vile - Live on WKDU

This is Kurt Vile and The Violators set live on WKDU from earlier this year. They played on the Communist Daycare program which is done by a guy named Duck. This might be some of the tightest KV stuff. This is about to be all over the blogsphere so remember you got it from the Towering Sound blog first.

Slowly turning into a music blog.

Link.

Heavy Winged - We Grow

Still, not a music blog...Some stuff is worth sharing. Maybe I will continue to post music in the future, who knows. This is some heavy stuff. Rules. Check it nice.

The New Flesh - split w/ Puke Attack

While this is definitely not a music blog, I figured I might as well share certain treasures. This band is fucking underrated. I did not include the Puke Attack side. Just download this here.

HOME

We have been home from South America for almost three weeks maybe? Updating a blog was never my knack. I will not go into lots of details either except that this tour was exceptionally difficult and lots of bad things happened. It was also amazing. I am working on transcribing all of my notes, writings, and journal entries from the trip. Hopefully, we are going to collectively publish something featuring writing from all those involved. Here's a lot of pictures.

First and Only Day Off

Greeting from an internet cafe in Montevideo, Uruguay. This is our only day off while we tour South America. Touring South America has to be the most intense and hectic venture we have ever taken on. Last night was the first night we slept in something that was not a moving vehicle. It´s been play a show, get in a van, play a show, get in a bus, play a show, get in a bus.

All is well though. The shows are awesome and the kids are friendly and energetic. Last night here in Uruguay was the best show yet. Tomorrow morning finds all 13 of us on a boat to Argentina where we have three shows in Buenos Aires. Pictures and all that crap to follow when we get home. It´s just too nuts right now. Two countries down, three left. Rest of the tour dates on our myspace page.

What we are about to endure...

This is a twelve hour bus ride. Apparently the shows start around midnight so we won't have wake up terribly early.

Videos of Gasp

Random Youtube crawling with results...

Tony Victory's Phone Number

(312) 666-8661 ext. 113

Please listen to this.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good

Heavy music in general is notorious for it's redundancy. Philadelphia's Towers somehow has figured out a way to imbue the genre of metalcore with a new take. Their latest release 'Full Circle' has established the band as both an inventive and interesting force. Previous releases were far more clear in their influence, but Towers has layered their approach with a variety of techniques (i.e. ring modulators) and somehow managed to make the most complete musical statement of the year. 'Full Circle' is aggressive, melodic, technical, and brash. The record as a whole seems to have been designed with the vinyl format in mind as the first half of it favors a far more progressively hard sound while the ending of the album embraces a much more melodic and accessible approach.

'Let Them Eat Cake' starts off 'Full Circle' with a slur of guitar effects and an almost subdued sound. This clearly changes one minute into the track when the band transitions into a heavy section that could be described with numerous post-suffix references. To be blatant when Towers enters the heavy portions of this album they definitely sound like they came out of the 1990s. Bands just aren't playing such atonal, heavy music. '235 Ways To Suck Seed' shows how the band also is able to incorporate their effect based sound as a transition into the heavier portions of their music. The tones found on this album are surprisingly refreshing and in my mind I have never heard a band in the realm of aggressive music use sonic texture in such a unique way. Groups like Isis may spring to mind but Towers isn't necessarily playing slow, extended pieces. The entirety of this album is twenty four minutes and the amount of ground covered in that time is very impressive. Tracks like 'Beta' and 'Hope' show that Towers is willing to step out into the more melodic realms of "hardcore" and that really strengthens the finale of 'Full Circle'. Steve Roche's intimate production also really adds to Towers overall sound on this record giving it a raw yet layered sound.

2009 has already established itself as a year where the most interesting records have been those that embrace a variety of sounds. If anything the closing of this decade has helped fully verbalize some of the more childish and earlier attempts at fusing heavy music with a supposed sophistication. 'Jane Doe' still holds the crown of the most accomplished "heavy" record of the decade, but Towers has clearly made themselves an original yet easily listenable piece of work with 'Full Circle'. Perhaps it's lack of traditional dynamics doesn't allow for it to be heralded as the perfection that is 'Jane Doe', but 'Full Circle' should be reconigized for how easily it tosses through such aggressive sounding music without come off as passe. It is a record that helps expand the vocabulary of aggressive music and for someone to do that in 2009 is in itself an impressive task. The fact that 'Full Circle' also is such a listenable document is what clearly puts it ahead of anything released in '09 so far and most likely what will give it the title of record of the year.

- Jared W. Dillon, sputnikmusic.com

Jesus fucking christ. You know, I got home from a rainy day of riding around and delivering things I don't care about to people I don't care about, and I thought that - rain-soaked and salty - this would be a good time to listen to this record. Lighten the mood it did not - in all it's ambiance and beauty, this record really is an extremely pointed little pill to swallow. As in, it doesn't allow you to forget that it's there, working its way through you with a trail of blood behind it. In between the oppressive, downtuned frenzy, you're treated to instrumental parts that sit on the fence dividing unsettling & calming. Should I call this post-screamo? Should I call it literate mathmosh? Nah, I'll opt to call it neither, and compare them to no one. This is truly in a league of its own.

-Stephen Pierce, Give Me Back

Towers' first album was a lo-fi monsterpiece of cathartic, cleansing hardcore, affiliated to the screamo fraternity but employing much more of a driving punk spirit. They've scrubbed up a bit nicer for the follow-up, dropping some of the harshness and employing more in the way of dynamics, but don't mistake this for "maturing", because there's still plenty of weird, atonal riffs, submerged screams and slamming rhythms.

-Kunal Nandi, collective-zine.co.uk

The Bad

Do you have any idea how many artists have released an album titled Full Circle? Lord of the ring include Boyz II Men, Xzibit, Pennywise, Drowning Pool, Waylon Jennings, Randy Travis and Dan Fogelberg - and rumor has it that Creed's comeback album will make use of the name as well. There, take that bit of knowledge to your next cocktail party.
So what makes Towers worthy of such a well-worn and symbolic title? After recording enough singles and splits to weigh down a pack mule, the Philly noisecore band finally got around to releasing a second full-length. For what it's worth, the band must really not care about their lyrics - or not want you to care about them - because aside from being impossible to understand in song, they're impossible to read in the CD booklet, where they're typed in small orange letters on top of what looks like one of those magic eye paintings.
But after listening to Full Circle, words aren't necessary to get the gist of what's going on here. Towers are the kinds of dudes who wished Melt-Banana would play their prom. Combustible arrangements (or lack thereof) make use of heavy-duty pummeling, screams, shrieks and a few swaths of digital rave-farts. Though unremarkable, the music is laden with mental anguish and a raging boner for the apocalypse. This particular full circle is clearly being used for target practice.

-Jeanne Fury, Decibel Magazine

The Ugly

Poster for an upcomming tour.

Click to enlarge.

On Touring Brazil

Jah only knows how long ago, we decided we wanted to tour Europe. We sent an email to our friend Lars asking how to go about doing so. Not so long afterwards, Lars put out our record and booked us a European tour. Plane tickets were bought, high fives were had, partying ensued. Easy.

Last year, our friend Diego of the band Rogue State presented us with the idea of touring South America. Beers were cracked and high fives were had.

We soon learned the headache of traveling to Brazil. In order for an American to visit Brazil, he or she must obtain a travel visa in addition to their passport (America forces any non citizen to do the same). It's possible to send your passport away to some middle man and have this done for you but we said fuck it. We went for the old fashioned way.

The nearest Brazilian consulate to Philadelphia is in Manhattan. Sucks. Thursday found myself on a bus retardedly early to get our passports stamped...

They don't make this shit easy. Applications for tourist visas can only be placed between 10 AM and noon on weekdays. Bring your passport, one 2 inch by 2 inch photo, your dumb filled out visa application, a US postal money order for $130 (cash, checks, or credit would just be too easy), and your flight itinerary. They can be picked up the following day between 2:30 PM and 4:00 PM. No joke. Two bus rides to beat NYC.

Visas are had. High fives are in order. Towers, Rogue State, and Dogs of Ire on tour in South America from August 6th to the 22nd. Some info can be found at the linked myspaces. Exact venues, dates, and cities to follow shortly(?).

Actual Review

It's semi-official. After almost five years, Towers will probably receive its first print review. Sure, a few people have written a few things on the nets, but no one has ever taken the time to share their thoughts via paper. Motherfuckers. We are somwhat intrigued to see what professionals in the sphere that is music journalism have to say of the recorded mess (actual studio pictured above) that is "Full Circle". Said review should be in the forthcoming Decibel. More detail to follow, but probably not.

LIVE FRIDAY!

Towers is playing at the Model Home this Friday May 8, 2009. The Model Home is located at 1009 N. Marshall St. in beautiful Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Also playing: Jefferson Plane Crash (Richmond, VA their singer is one of the funniest people alive), The Enright House (New Zealand) and We Were Skeletons (Lancaster, PA).

Listenable Commercial Radio

Philadelphia radio was awesome for a bit. I miss Kidd Chris just as much as Harry Kalas. Well, maybe not, but still...

Stuffonmycat.com App for Towering Blog

For the first time since it's initial release, the stuffonmycat.com app has been made available for use other than the iPhone. Be the first to sample it here at the Towering Blog:

TRS-004 is the "Full Circle" LP by Towers. 500 Pressed. 100 on Orange. Split Release with Init Records. Try those fine folks out for mailorder.

2 Legit 2 Quit

I'm not the first to write on the matter (here, and here) but it looks like J.C. Romero's law suit is not worth the smallest bit of dog poo. I may have a bias but it seems to me that MLB is making an example of some trivial nonsense and saying fuck all to d-bags like A-Rod. How long ago did Alex take drugs? It's coo.

The Year of the Full Circle

This blog is back assholes. We got LPs. More info tomorrow maybe.