For Those Who Know

I rarely expect to find such great finds through my e-mail, which is seemingly being drowned in spam from get rich quick schemes and/or poorly written stock scams. Either way, I never open my e-mail thinking that I am going to have anything other than what I have just mentioned. But thankfully yesterday I got something from a band called For Those Who Know who ended that streak for me, and big thanks to them for that. Anyway, it contained a nice little bio and a link to which I promptly checked out, under the assumption that I wasn’t going to get hammered with pop-ups telling me I had won a new iPod or something equally ridiculous. So yeah, it was a link to some very damn fine tunes that was met with a mighty warm welcome after just waking up.

For Those Who Know, who hails from Austin, Texas, play a nice mixture of post-punk and shoegaze that to me sounds like it could be one of the brighter spots in a growing crop of newer shoegaze acts. They showcase a good amount of influences ranging from acts like Jesus and Mary Chain to Explosions in the Sky, with plenty of reverb and songs that progressively grow louder until they burst at the seams with a wash of distortion. Driven along by a sort of marching drumbeat, the band definitely at times sounds brooding. The ethereal vocals from singer Steven Hablinski provide a nice balance and fit along just great with the bands louder and noisier elements.

For Those Who Know – Hello [MP3]
For Those Who Know – Grow Old Together [MP3]

The band released their debut self-titled EP through Christmas Mountains Records in late of ’05 and the group has been kind enough to put the whole thing up for download at their website and over at their MySpace. However, if you do like what you hear then you can purchase a higher quality version (aka: the real deal) over at Peek-A-Boo Records. The band is currently focusing on writing for a new album and is hitting up the Silverlake Lounge in LA on Aug. 10th playing with a couple other great bands The Fleeting Joys and The Meeting Places. So go check that out if you are in the area.