Oy, it's been far too long, real life gets in the way again.  Here's two quick hits to tide us over until I can get a couple fuller posts out.  Seeing as there's snow falling out my window, it looks like we'll get a last chance at some winter music before the temperatures rise. Onto the two for today:

Daytrader- Silver Graves

Hard to dig up too much information on this band, though it appears they are broken up now.  This full-length came out in 2012 on Rise Records, and from what I can tell nothing followed it.  It's a fantastic emo-tinged rock record though, and deserved a chance at a follow-up.  But I guess there's a pretty good history of one off emo classics (seriously, go listen to Texas is the Reason if you haven't).  There isn't much that stands out as particularly noteworthy or unusual on the album, but its a sharply written and consistent album that finds its way onto repeat more times than you'd expect.

Pinegrove- Cardinal

I'm pretty far removed from the Twitter/blog hypemachine, so I can't always tell how much buzz current bands have. This is a 2016 release, and though I don't really keep up much with new stuff anymore, I'm glad I tracked this one down.  You'd be forgiven if you said "Hey, I've had enough of these nasally emo singers going on about life as a pointless 20something over standard emo-math rock." I get it, there's a number of them these days and I can't even make it all the way through a Modern Baseball album.  Pinegrove feature a particularly compelling singer, even if I'm not sold on him actually having a good voice.  I also appreciate the variety of tempos employed by the band, and not just in the obligatory single acoustic track sense.  The faint tinge of heartland folk give it a warm, comfortable feeling that makes it sound familiar on the first listen.