Stay Inside

Stay Inside are a four-piece post-hardcore band from Brooklyn, New York that began in 2016. After a few releases, they dropped their debut full-length earlier this year via No Sleep Records. Viewing is a heavy record, in terms of potent emotional weight. It's a record that exudes catharsis, with a natural and genuine delivery. Sonically, they can be loosely compared to bands such as Balance and Composure, Have Mercy, and Daisyhead. It keeps its sound fresh and varied, from the mewithoutYou-influenced opener "Revisionist" to the sombre exit music of "Leave". In between is a slew of dynamic shifts, from quiet arpeggios to screamo-ridden peaks (with "Veil" being a notable highlight). Outside of their LP, they've also released two fantastic splits with other great bands, Dad Thighs and Good Looking Friends, so be sure to check those out as well. Enjoy.

The Sea Engulfs Us And The Light Goes Out (2018)

1. Advice From A Caterpillar

2. Reconstruction

3. (fishtank)

4. Fever and Jealousy

5. Your Guardsmen Swarm Like Locusts

6. We Look On In Echoes

Balancing Acts (2018)

1. Good Looking Friends - The Rope

2. Good Looking Friends - Bodega Cat

3. Stay Inside - FOIA

4. Stay Inside/Good Looking Friends - Testimonial

5. Stay Inside - The Fall

Offseason (2019)

1. Offseason

The Final Girl (2019)

1. Dad Thighs - iwrotehaikusabouttheladsinyouryearbook

2. Great Weights - 490

3. Stay Inside - Puritans

Viewing (2020)

1. Revisionist

2. Void

3. Ivy

4. Monuments

5. Silt

6. Divide

7. Wake

8. Veil

9. Verdict

10. Leave

Blight (2022)

1. Eraser

2. Hollow

3. Fracture

4. Spore

5. Dissolve

Ferried Away (2024)

1. Bon Zs

2. Learn To Float

3. A Backyard

4. An Invitation

5. A Town To Give Up In

6. My Fault

7. When's The Last Time?

8. Sweet Stripe!

9. Steeplechase

Lunger (2025)

1. Counting Electric Sheep

2. Wish It Away

3. Super Sonic

4. Oh, Longshoreman

5. Monsieur Hawkweed

6. Old Faithful

7. Ain't That A Daisy

8. Morning Breath

9. See You Next Time, Wild Hogs

10. (spaghetti night)

11. Runnin'

12. My Dream Of Doing Nothing

13. Look! A Smoke Signal

14. A Road Is A Red River

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Hot Mulligan

Hot Mulligan are a five-piece pop punk/emo band from Lansing, Michigan that have been around since 2014. They are currently signed to No Sleep Records. Their latest album, Pilot, has been gaining a lot of traction, thus I've been getting a ton of requests to post these guys. If you dig bands like The Wonder Years or Taking Back Sunday, this is definitely recommended. Enjoy.

Fenton (2015)

1. 11 Second Blurp

2. Buy A Fire Extinguisher Before You Need A Fire Extinguisher

3. Visited Salmon, I Mean Transit Balcony

4. Buy A Fire Extinguisher Before You Need A Fire Extinguisher (Acoustic)

Honest & Cunning (2015)

1. I Played Tony Hawk's Ride Once, And It Sucked

2. M.O.M.

3. Jimmy Neutron Had A Dog, So Why Can't I Have A Friend?

4. I'm Tuning To O-Positive

Everyone Leaves/Hot Mulligan (2016)

1. Everyone Leaves - Tired Life 

2. Everyone Leaves - Little One

3. Hot Mulligan - Shaylee, Shanel

4. Hot Mulligan - Legen

Opportunities (2017)

1. If You Had Spun Out In Your Oldsmobile, This Probably Wouldn't Have Happened

2. The Hammer Guy Is At It Again

3. Wait For It

4. Dary

5. Something About A Bunch of Dead Dogs

6. I Replied To Tyler With Three Blue Cars

7. Deluxe Capacitor (Acoustic)

Pilot (2018)

1. Deluxe Capacitor

2. All You Wanted By Michelle Branch

3. I Hate the Gooey Disk

4. The Soundtrack To Missing a Slam Dunk

5. Pluto Was Never Really a Planet Either Even

6. Wes Dault Can’t Find the Madison Falcon

7. *whispers* Thank You

8. Good Ol’ Mr. Rags

9. Scream Mountain

10. How Do You Know It’s Not Armadillo Shells?

11. There Was a Semi Fight On I-69

you'll be fine (2020)

1. OG Bule Sky

2. *Equip Sunglasses*

3. Feal Like Crab

4. Green Squirrel In Pretty Bad Shape

5. Dirty Office Bongos

6. Analog Fade (New Bule Sky)

7. We're Gonna Make It To Kilby!

8. Digging In

9. SPS

10. BCKYRD

11. The Song Formerly Known As Intro

Why Would I Watch (2023)

1. Shouldn't Have A Leg Hole But I Do

2. It's A Family Movie She Hates Her Dad

3. And I Smoke

4. This Song Is Called It's Called What's It Called

5. No Shoes in the Coffee Shop (Or Socks)

6. Christ Alive My Toe Dammit Hurts

7. Betty

8. Cock Party 2 (Better Than the First)

9. Shhhh! Golf Is On

10. Gans Media Retro Games

11. Smahccked My Head Awf

12. John "The Rock" Cena, Can You Smell What the Undertaker

The Sound A Body Makes When It's Still (2025)

1. Moving To Bed Bug Island

2. And a Big Load

3. It Smells Like Fudge Axe in Here

4. Island in the Sun (feat. Cory Castro of Free Throw)

5. Bon Jonah

6. This Makes Me Yummy

7. Monica Lewinskibidi

8. Milam Minute

9. Cream of Wheat of Feet Naw Cream of (feat.)

10. Mix Master Wade on the Beat

11. Carbon Monoxide Hotel

12. This Makes Me Yucky

13. Let Me See Your Mounts

14. Monster Burger and a $5 Beer

15. Slumdog Scungillionaire

16. My Dad Told Me to Write a Nice One for Nana So This Is It

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Koji

Andrew Koji Shiraki (who just goes by Koji) is a singer-songwriter from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He got started upon signing to Run For Cover in 2010. With nothing but his own voice and acoustic guitar, he managed to write some incredibly catchy and compelling songs that caught the attention of anyone who heard them. His voice is fantastic, and there's this energy when he performs that overflowing with passion and sincerity, which is what makes his music so powerful. He's heavily involved in numerous organisations and charities, which just goes to show that his passions are so strong that they go outside of just music. His more recent material, and debut full-length (which is now two years old) incorporate more instrumentation, which just elevate his core songwriting to new levels.

Koji is one person I definitely encourage you to support, not only is his music amazing, but he just flat-out seems like a great guy. Most of his music is available through his music on a Name-Your-Price basis, which is commendable and deserving of anything that can be given. If that's not a possibility, enjoy it here. I should have done a post on him long ago, so here it is, very overdue (as so many posts are, haha). Enjoy.

Spring Song Vol. 1 (2010)

1. Eating Lemons

2. Monsters/Stay

3. Most Of Everything

4. Color Quiet Loud

5. Like We Do

6. To The Dogs

7. Little Bird

8. Minute 7

9. Wagon Wheel

10. Spring Song

Some Small Way (2010)

1. Eating Lemons

2. Waking Up

3. Stay

4. Windows (Live)

5. Color Quiet Loud

IIOI/KOJI (2010)

1. Into It. Over It. - Wicker Park

2. Into It. Over It. - Humboldt

3. Into It. Over It. - Ravenswood

4. Into It. Over It. - Pilsen

5. Into It. Over It. - Logan Square

6. Koji - Most Of Everything

7. Koji - All Below

8. Koji - Matches

9. Koji - Shift

10. Koji - Giants Sleeping

Never Come Undone (2011)

1. La Dispute - Sunday Morning, At A Funeral

2. Koji - Peacemaker

3. La Dispute - Last Blues

4. Koji - Biomusicology

Crooked In My Mind (2013)

1. Chasing A Ghost

2. Near And Far

3. Spinning Silent

4. Distance/Divide

5. Fragile Times

6. Creeping

7. In The Line

8. Pang And Flash

9. What You Leave Behind

Off The Board: A Studio 4 Family Compilation (2013)

8. Breaking And Broken

Note: Full comp here

Matters EP (2013)

1. Hemlock

2. Like We Do

3. Placeholders

4. Matters (Of The Heart And Mind)

Fury (2015)

1. Fury

2. Breaking And Broken

3. Everyday

4. Question

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Departures

Departures are a five-piece melodic hardcore band from Glasgow, Scotland that formed in 2007. They emerged branding a similar sound to other notable UK hardcore bands such as Dead Swans and More Than Life, tearing from the inside-out. Their first full-length, When Losing Everything Is Everything You Wanted came out in 2011, and gave them a solid foot in the door for what would come next. In 2012, they signed to No Sleep Records and released another album, Teenage Haze. The melodic hardcore base that Departures had established grew to incorporate very melodic guitars, that would often intermingle between cutting leads and distortion-laden backing chords. Sonically, they have more in common with emerging American post-hardcore bands such as Pianos Become The Teeth, Touché Amoré, and Balance And Composure. Perhaps one of the most notable things about this band is the vocals. Their singer shreds his voice to the point of being hoarse to get his point across, which makes the emotionally-charged and personal lyrics much more powerful.

Overall, their sophomore album is incredibly solid, and really holds up well over time. Despite their stylistic similarities to a lot of other bands, Departures manage to hold their own without ever sounding too derivative, which is a trap that a lot of bands in this genre have fallen into in the past few years. Unfortunately there's been a bit of a gap since their last release, which was a split with Moose Blood in 2013 (also recommended). Hopefully a new album is on the way, but until then, here's what they've done so far. Enjoy.

Demo (2007)

1. Left To Drown, But Smiling

2. Out Of Season

3. First Light

4. The Sign Off

5. The Dawn Chorus

Escaping (2010)

1. To Those Concerned

2. Weak Before Winter

3. Disappointment

4. The View From Below

When Losing Everything Is Everything You Wanted (2011)

1. Fear Of Falling

2. Swallowed Up

3. Sunday

4. Disappointment

5. A Life In Pieces

6. Remembrance

7. The View From Below

8. The Last Drive

9. Midnight Lights

10. Over The Edge 

Green Turns To Red, Then Turns To Gold (2012)

1. Those Miles Meant Everything

2. Fuck Living With Sadness

Teenage Haze (2012)

1. Drained Out

2. Making Maps

3. 21

4. The Home Stretch

5. Teenage Haze

6. Those Miles Meant Everything

7. Where The Time Will Go

8. Planting Weeds

9. Small Steps

Departures/Moose Blood (2013)

1. Departures - A Song For The Sunset

2. Departures - Closing Doors

3. Moose Blood - Stay Here

4. Moose Blood - Girl

Death Touches Us, From The Moment We Begin To Love (2016)

1. Sleepless

2. The Last Dance

3. In Colour

4. Waiting

5. Broken

6. Set Adrift

7. Death of Youth

8. Lost

9. 1994

10. Memorial

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Daisyhead

Daisyhead are a four-piece emo/alternative rock band from Nashville, Tennessee that began in 2012. They worked with Spartan Records up until releasing their debut LP this year, 2015, which is out on No Sleep Records. Their guitars are laden with reverb and distortion, with melodic vocals topping them off. Daisyhead have a lot in common with bands like Basement, since they create tons of catchy songs with some powerful instrumentals backing them. The Jimmy Eat World influence (who they actually cover) is also very evident. Daisyhead are equally heavy as they are melodic, and any fan of the 90's alt. rock resurgence going on with bands associated with Run For Cover, No Sleep, etc. should definitely keep an eye on them. Thanks to Jacob Shumaker for the help with this post. Enjoy.

I Couldn't Face You (2013)

1. Numbing Truth

2. Sun

3. I Couldn't Face You

4. What's Done Is Done

No Sleep till the Holidays 2 (2013)

2. O Holy Night

Can't Live In It (2014)

1. Can't Live In It

Daisyhead/Have Mercy (2014)

1. Daisyhead - Dishonest

2. Daisyhead - Wonder

3. Have Mercy - Pete Rose and Babe Ruth

4. Have Mercy - Pawn Takes Rook

A Comp For Mom (2014)

2. Work (originally by Jimmy Eat World)

Note: Support the comp here

No Sleep 'Till Christmas 6 (2014)

2. Silent Night

The Smallest Light (2015)

1. Defenselessness

2. Lacking Basis

3. Neck

4. Lead

5. The Halt

6. The Smallest Light

7. Lost Her

8. Take

9. East Bend

10. Inanity

11. I Didn't Deserve This

In Case You Missed It (2017)

1. Hold The Door

2. In Case You Missed It

3. Bodies

4. Ready For The World

5. Never Know

6. TV Song

7. Our Last Exchange

8. Common Ground

9. Don't Feel Bad

10. Dark Circus

11. Opryland Lights

I've Been Better (2018)

1. Cool Kids Table

2. Making Me Feel Safe

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