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Masters of the Hemisphere | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | October 5, 1999 | |||
Recorded | 1999 | |||
Genre | Indie pop | |||
Label | Kindercore Records [1] | |||
Masters of the Hemisphere chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Masters of the Hemisphere is the first full album by the Athens, Georgia-based indie pop band of the same name. [3] [4] Though it lacks the elaborateness of their follow-up, the heavily concept-based I Am Not A Freemdoom , it still maintains the essential element of the band's indie pop songcraft, drawing comparisons to R.E.M., among others.
AllMusic wrote that "while superficially not all that different from many other Kindercore acts, Masters of the Hemisphere have songwriting smarts and instrumental and arranging chops that set them apart." [2]
The Japanese release of the album contained two bonus tracks - 'Going on a Freak to Iceland' (also known as 'Bat', which appears on the Going on a Trek to Iceland 7"), and 'My Crowd' (also known as 'My Cloud', which appears on the Seven Summers compilation).
Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music and culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the UK's own shoegaze music scene. The movement brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British popular cultural movement, Cool Britannia, which evoked the Swinging Sixties and the British guitar pop of that decade.
Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were David Baker (vocals), Jonathan Donahue, Sean Mackowiak, known as "Grasshopper", Dave Fridmann, Suzanne Thorpe (flute) and Jimy Chambers (drums).
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Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United States and United Kingdom in the 1970s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock or "guitar pop rock". In the 1980s, the use of the term "indie" started to shift from its reference to recording companies to describe the style of music produced on punk and post-punk labels. During the 1990s, grunge and punk revival bands in the US and Britpop bands in the UK broke into the mainstream, and the term "alternative" lost its original counter-cultural meaning. The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. By the end of the 1990s, indie rock developed several subgenres and related styles, including lo-fi, noise pop, emo, slowcore, post-rock, and math rock. In the 2000s, changes in the music industry and a growing importance of the internet enabled a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.
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The Western State Hurricanes was a short-lived Seattle-based indie rock band in the late 1990s. It is best known as a precursor to the more successful group The Long Winters—both bands were fronted by songwriter John Roderick, and many Western State Hurricanes songs were later revamped into Long Winters songs.
Masters of the Hemisphere are an American indie pop group, founded by Bren Mead and Sean Rawls. The two moved to Athens, Georgia, to attend college in 1996. There they met Ryan Lewis, co-founder of Kindercore Records, who played drums at the first Masters of the Hemisphere show. Jeff Griggs soon replaced Lewis. In 1997 Kindercore released their debut seven-inch ep, Going on a Trek to Iceland. The group then recorded their first full-length album, the eponymous Masters of the Hemisphere, which was released on Kindercore Records in 1998. The band soon expanded to a four-piece, adding multi-instrumentalist Adrian Finch. Several singles and compilation appearances followed, including a release on the Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records singles club, before the band released their second full length, the concept album I Am Not a Freemdoom, also on Kindercore. The record garnered mixed reviews, which in part was likely due to the album's rather complicated concept, regarding an island of reservoir-dwelling creatures being enslaved by an evil dog. The Permanent Stranger EP followed in 2002, on the dcBaltimore2012 label. The band split up after their next album, 2002's well received Protest a Dark Anniversary. A recording of their then-final show at Athens, Georgia's 40 Watt Club was later released as The Last Show Ever.
Plow United is an American punk rock formed in Wilmington, Delaware in 1992. They play fast punk rock with pop, thrashcore and hardcore influences. Their lyrics are sometimes labeled "emo" postfact. Band members are Brian McGee, Sean Rule (drums) and Joel Tannenbaum (bass).
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