Jeromes Dream / July - Split
1999 7" (Hit The Ground Running)
It's winter here in Buffalo. We've had flashes of spring weather in the past week or so, but it's stayed cold and dreary for months. This time always makes me feel pretty depressed, but more so this year, as this winter has been especially draining. I've been spending some time (whether I want to or not) thinking about how I got to where I am due to me being in the final stretch of high school; about my journey with music, and how I got to where I am.
When I was 15, my mom gave me a compilation CD called Nowcore: the Punk Rock Evolution. This is an absolutely fucking stacked compilation, and it completely changed the way that I thought about music. Before this, I largely listened to a lot of popular indie and (sigh) RYM-core music. Not that this was bad by any means, as I still have love for a lot of that music- but I now know that I was just waiting to find my niche. Just on this one compilation, some bands featured are The Promise Ring, Hum, Modest Mouse, Braid, At the Drive-In, Mineral, Burning Airlines, Unwound, The Dismemberment Plan, Drive Like Jehu, Texas is the Reason, and a few more. It's insane. Considering it worked for me, this is basically the perfect way to get someone in the world of emo/post-hardcore. From there, I inevitably found bands like Portraits of Past, Orchid, and Funeral Diner, which expanded my mind to the world of screamo. Most of what I listen to now is more in that realm, but I still have a special place in my heart for the more typical midwest/90s emo sound of many of the bands on this compilation and others.
This split between Jeromes Dream and July is a perfect summation of both my musical journey, record collecting, and the emo scene as a whole. As if you don't know who they are.. Jeromes Dream are an absurdly legendary emoviolence band who formed in 1997 in Connecticut. They put out a lot of releases during their original run, and a few since they returned in 2019. Their first album, Seeing Means More Than Safety, is basically the blueprint for emoviolence. Insane vocals, math-rock inspired riffs, short and dirty. It's perfect (and I'm sure I'll write about it soon). Between 1998 and 2000, they released splits with (in order): Amalgamation (Emperor-X was in this band), July, the Book of Dead Names, Orchid, Usurp Synapse, and the One AM Radio. The Orchid split is obviously iconic, as that skull has basically become the symbol for screamo as a whole in the last 10-15 years, and is amazing. However, the July split has become my favorite in recent times.
July was a band from Apex, NC. Its two members were named Gabe Johnson and Herb Harris. The song on this split is the only music they recorded that has ever surfaced online. They apparently have a demo tape, but neither of the guys in the band have a copy, so who knows if that'll ever come up. That's.. it. They were a random, one-off project between two musicians that only ended up on this split because they were friends with the person who ran Hit the Ground Running, the label it was released on. It's a very weird part of emo history, and definitely adds to the mystique of this split.
This entire release feels like a fever dream. Jeromes Dream's side tricks you into thinking it's going to follow their normal emoviolence formula, but it evolves from a short burst of chaos into a long, drawn-out instrumental that definitely shows their more experimental side. It's one of my favorite songs of theirs, and is a definitive point that shows where the band was going musically as they began to fizzle out. That leads us to the July side. This is the true highlight of the split. It's ethereal, mysterious, and gorgeous. At about 6 minutes long, July's sole and untitled song transports you to a different time. It feels like the nostalgic ideal of going to basement emo shows and experiencing all of these classic releases while they were coming out. It feels like going bowling with your friends at 4 in the morning. It feels like an early morning drive through empty country roads. It feels like your grandma's house. It feels like the sense of longing you get when watching videos of emo revival bands playing to crowds of less than 20 people. It feels like home.
This song has no percussion, or really anything else other than guitar and vocals. The vocals are delicate and beautiful, with lyrics about nature, the world, and a difficult relationship, just like all great emo. The song doesn't change much during the runtime- it hypnotizes you into a feeling of comfort. It's a fairly simple post-rock influenced tune that somehow finds a way to hit you right in your emotions. July are a great example of so many bands during this mid nineties to early two thousands period of emo: put out a few (or one) short release(s), play very few if any shows, and break up into obscurity. In current times with the internet playing the role it does in music discovery, many bands like this are beginning to get the respect they deserve, with both kids of my generation and people that were around back then digging up obscure bands and releases and bringing them to bigger audiences. Some bands that are part of this phenomenon that come to mind are Don Martin Three, Eldritch Anisette, Old Hearts Club, and Rockets and Bluelights (..whose song I named this blog after- please, PLEASE sell me their releases if you have them).
This leads me into my other point about this record: how it ties into emo collecting and archiving in the modern age. Right now, so many people are buying old emo records. It will inevitably die down as all trends do (and I have even seen prices coming down recently), but for now, old DIY emo releases are very expensive. Something that's been $20 for the past 10 years will get listed for $300, and someone will buy it, which immediately ruins the market. Now, this is a pretty selfish point to make, and I get that, but it's still a bit of a bummer. That being said, there are still a lot of nice people who will sell things on the basis of "punk pricing" as I like to call it. This split is and never has been easy to find. It hasn't necessarily always been expensive, but it has always been rare. Two colors exist: a green cover, which is more common, and a brown cover, which is much rarer and is what I have. I bought the Jeromes Dream discography CD, and the person who sold it to me asked if I was interested in some other Jeromes Dream stuff they had. This was in there, and I immediately jumped on it. They sold it to me for less than half of the Discogs going rate, and I am forever thankful for that, because I legitimately did not think I would ever find this record. If you're reading this, thank you.
If you're an emo fan, please listen to this split. I feel like it flies under the radar when it's being overshadowed by the monumental Orchid split (which is fair, I don't mean to sound like I'm talking down that absolute monster of a release). My copy of this split isn't in the best shape so I haven't bothered to digitize it, but I've included some high-resolution scans of my copy and a great-sounding rip I found. Enjoy.
1. Jeromes Dream - Thirty Dollar Bill
2. July - Untitled
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