Re-Discovered Vol. 2: Dead by Sunday - Fall asleep to Regret

 

One of the most frustrating (at least for nerds like me with a tendency to maniacally haunt everything down) yet most breathtaking things about the history of music is, that it's a never ending story. It doesn't matter how much time you'll invest to find hidden records that are worth it, you won't have a chance of total completion. Sometimes there will be a band that got lost in the shuffle. A band that "nobody" spoke about back in the day. A band that couldn't break out of their small scene. A band just like DEAD BY SUNDAY. They don't even have an entry at Discogs or RYM. Something that will change in the near future, cause Count your Lucky Stars will release their Discography titled "Fall asleep to Regret" on the 2nd of December...

My feelings about this record are pretty similar to the record (by Loftus) from the first part of "Re-Discovered", even a bit stronger. I'm in awe that this band didn't get discovered when they were still active. The labels massively slept on them! I'm not saying this, cause I was (and still am) way into this kind of HC/Punk when I was in my teens... I'm also saying this from a pure economic point of view. Cause DEAD BY SUNDAY would've made a record label some bucks.

Before we dive back into that era, let's talk about their sound. Just like CYLS wrote in their press text, this certain kind of style was mostly tagged Hardcore/Punk/Emo back in the late 90s and early 2000s. Also "Post-Hardcore", for sure. CYLS name HOT WATER MUSIC, JIMMY EAT WORLD and NO KNIFE as comparable bands. And that's more than valid. You easily could call them the bastard son of of JIMMY EAT WORLD (I'm thinking "Static Prevails") and HOT WATER MUSIC. HWM immediately came to my mind when I first heard them, and for sure the always similar SMALL BROWN BIKE. Yet, this also has something from the Post-Hardcore-stuff of the 2000s that was cracking up the mainstream-border. I'm also hearing early THURSDAY, GRADE, BOYSETSFIRE, RECOVER or even TAKING BACK SUNDAY somewhere in there. While a band like HWM mostly was about the safely structured, rocking tracks (at least in the 2000s), DEAD BY SUNDAY wrote their songs more loose. There's a great variety there, in pace, in heaviness, in accessibility. A look at the track lengths alone speaks for itself, as the 15 tracks are clocking in between two and nearly nine minutes of playtime. Besides all the awesome stuff that is happening in this nearly 70 minutes, the songwriting really is the star here. It baffles me how tight these guys wrote their songs and how worthwile this (basically) way too long record is from start to finish. 

The production (though it was remixed/remastered by Marc Hudson) of these songs is a beautiful product of its time, finding the sweet middle spot between clean and harsh. It makes me nostalgic and wishful for new records to sound like this. Receiving this discography from CYLS, I was surprised by all the crunchy guitars and all the screams, cause normally you get the more softer site of Emo from the Latinens. The way the screams are used is pure gold. It's quite rare and unpredictable and therefor really means something. In that regard I only can think of AT THE DRIVE-IN, early BOYSETSFIRE or early THURSDAY doing it in a similar, effective way. 

Now that I've hyped this excellent piece of music enough, let's get to the stuff that generally is at the beginning of a write-up: DEAD BY SUNDAY was a four-piece hailing from Flint, Michigan and was active from 1999 to 2002. CYLS' Keith Latinen became a fan when he was going to shows at his favourite, local venue, the "Flint Local 432". Later he was in bands with Chris, one of DEAD BY SUNDAY's singers/guitarists.

The timing with their music was MORE than right. Various, similar bands were breaking through at the time and I could easily see them suceeding in the same manner, with a signing from a bigger HC/Punk-label, e.g. Victory, Vagrant, or even No Idea. With a bit of a cleaner attempt at their sound, and some pressure by a big major label, who forces them to sweeten up their sound, they even had the potential to chart like a ton of less talented bands did. 

You may didn't get the chance of discovering DEAD BY SUNDAY back in the day (I'm not talking to you, Flint, Michigan-native!!), but now, here's your chance. And that... that is the satisfying thing about the history of music.

Stream @ Count your Lucky Stars
Dead by Sunday @ Facebook