Bastian

Do You Feel At Home? #01

Bastian

   To kick things off, here's Bastian. 90's Bastian.

  
    Despite how seldomly discussed this band is, (if at all) the members are quite recognizable. If we go off of whats simply listed on the Discogs page, we got: Ben Koller, later of Converge fame. Evan Plante, and Pat Masterson, who was the drummer on Daughters self titled 2002 EP. All of these guys later on we're- at one point or another, in the band Forcefedglass. So from what I gather, this was a side-project/previous band. The other two members I haven't mentioned yet are Nate Moore, and Jeff Lavallee. Jeff would later go on to Junction 18, and Nate, well I'm not sure.

    Taking their name from "The NeverEnding Story", they only released one 7" under the name Bastian. (As well as a compilation song) The 7" in question is "Sitting Still Screaming Our Fears". A quite unheard one from the looks of it, seeing as it's not very easy to find, anywhere. It was put out on a label called "Heart In Hand Productions", which also put out a self titled 7" for the band All Chrome with another label "All About Records". (As well as a CD for the band Lynchpin titled "Happiness Ends Where Happiness Begins". I couldn't find much info about this tiny label besides that, though.) The 7" was recorded at the Godcity Recording Studio in Salem, Massachusetts, (Which is run by none other than Kurt Ballou) then mastered at Frankford/Wayne Mastering Labs up in New York.

    This is an amazing little gem of late 90's hardcore. It's a part of these guys' musical journey, and I'm glad it wasn't lost to some dusty plastic crate somewhere. The connections to Converge make sense, and like I said earlier, Forcefedglass would come after this. It would take the violence of Bastian and amplify it, turning it into, as John Chaos Alexander puts it, "Converge on crack". Not sure how that's physically possible, but either way, not a bad description, John.

Bastian - Sitting Still Screaming Our Fears

A1. Sitting Still
B1. Conduit
B2. Rain On My Parade

Thank you to Kirby and Sabeth for providing rips of this record.

Update: It's now available on streaming and Bandcamp, I think? Though I'm not sure if it's official.

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The other Bastian.

    This Bastian came around a little after the turn of the century. A band from Shelbyville, Illinois, they were a pop-punk band, with elements of emo sprinkled in. They aren't the most documented band out there, (despite the fact they had a nearly decade long run as a band) with not that much information floating around. However, they did have some info on their CDs. They were around from 2001-2002 to somewhere around 2007-2008 from what I've gathered. I'm not too sure. Members include: Aaron & Brad Eversole, Jeremy West, Lawrence Camfield, and Kylie Daniel.

    Now, though I'm not big on this kind of stuff, it's by no means bad. I don't really think a band like this fits on a blog like this, but I did wanna do a section on them. That's because when I was looking into the Bastian from the 90's, I had also come across these guys. Saw they had the same name, and figured killing two birds with one stone wouldn't be a bad idea.

    Their first two releases aren't too shabby. They're definitely more pop-punk than emo, and they're certainly a band you'd hear on the radio, a local one at least.

    Their debut self titled EP is a decent first release. It has a pop-punk + emo sound that's easy to get into, with some nice vocal harmonies thrown about. It was self released by the band in 2002, (in fact, all of their stuff was self released) and is one of two EPs they put out. While being their first release, it's pretty good at hitting what it aims for. I'd say check it out if you're curious.

Bastian EP

1. Peppermint Skylights
2. October's Gone
3. Where The Suns Set

    "Fingerprints" is the second EP they put out, and also their second release. It still carries over that pop-punk + emo sound, but now much more pop-punkier. (If you couldn't tell by the cover art) The sound from the previous EP is still present, but now they have bigger production and just bigger everything. While it's not really my thing, fans of pop-punk from the aughts will probably get a kick out of it.

Fingerprints EP

  1. Coming Home
2. Barely Scraping By
3. My Rushmore
4. Nothing On Your Own
5. Without Me
6. Chico, CA

(Available on streaming.)

    That's about where this post really ends, but they do have a third release that I'll mention for posterity. "Stay Quiet", their only full length. and it doesn't really fit on this blog, but if you're curious it is also available on streaming.