“Three Chord Valentine” opens the EP, and if you only listened to the first verse, you may mistake them for the most troubled emo band you’ve ever heard. The lyrics get more mentally stable as the song goes on, however, and the chord progression makes for a catchy rock track. It’s the cleanest mix on the EP, too; all the tracks afterwards suffer from that limited-studio-time sound.

“Por Vida” is one of the two tracks that can be considered early versions of the song, as they were recorded again for later albums. The track is less impressive overall in comparison to the first one, but it may be the favorite track of screamo fans as far as this EP goes.

Another track that was recorded again on a later release, “All Cried Out” has riffs that sound similar to “Three Chord Valentine”. It suffers from an almost annoying introduction that consists of only vocals and only a bit of guitar. Luckily, the rest of the song loses the vocal tone and gains instrument layers.

“The White Nightmare” is an unusual track for the band because none of their albums have a fully acoustic track, or even a song that comes close to how this one sounds. The song seems to only have three layers: main vocals, acoustic guitar, and backing/alternate vocals. On top of that, the guitar playing is rather unique. I doubt I’ll ever find anything that sounds like that with the interesting lyrics to go with it.

The problem with Vendetta Red is that their material can be pretty hard to find. Odds are you won’t hear any of these songs unless you ask the right person. Part of the reason why this is the case is that they broke up in 2006, but three of the original members went on to form Sirens Sister, so if you like the music and want to see them live, not all hope is lost… If you can make it to the Seattle area.

When you look at the first song, “Zombies Ate My Neighbors“, before you listen to it, you’d probably think “That’s just one of those dumb song titles that have nothing to do with the song.” and consider giving the record back to the chump that gave it to you. On the contrary, the lyrics in the song are actually about a zombie attack, and they somehow manage to not be too corny. The chorus is quite catchy and there’s a slight story to it.

“Velcro” starts off with about five seconds of studio banter that the band thought would be great to hear every time you listen to it. This song is a lot less impressive than the opening track, but it’s the only other song with a really catchy chorus. The lyrical content of this song makes it hard to connect to unless you’re around the age of 16 and regularly listen to this sort of music. It’s not strictly dedicated to that, but it would really help to fit into that category if you want to fully enjoy the song.

The next song is the softest on the EP. “Melody of You” is one of the better semi-acoustic tunes from this genre, and fits well on this point of the EP. There’s and interesting use of stringed instruments, including a somewhat jazzy stand-up bass. Despite being the slowest song in the set, it also ended up being the shortest.

If all of these songs had the lyrics removed, “September Skyline” probably would have sounded the best. The lyrics and vocals aren’t bad, but they distract from the guitar and drum playing. The ending of this song seems too abrupt to be an and to any set of songs, but they only had four songs to work with, and the order was great as is. The drum playing stood out quite a bit for this band. Not like, say, that of Alex Van Halen, but none of the songs had simple beats that tend plague this genre and a lot of modern rock in general.

The Red Sparowes have the first and last track on this compilation. They have longer song titles than Fall Out Boy, but at least they’re not corny. “Alone And Unaware, The Landscape Was Transformed In Front of Our Eyes” and “Buildings Began To Stretch Wide Across the Sky, and the Air Filled With a Reddish Glow” were both live tracks, but you could hardly tell because they were mixed without an audience track (and since they have no vocalist, they didn’t have a microphone to capture even the slightest bit of audience sound). They are the most progressive songs from the set, and offer the listener quite the musical journey.

The second and third songs were by Battle of Mice, a female fronted alternative, progressive, heavy rock band. The songs “Sleep & Dream” and “The Lamb & The Labrador” are both studio tracks, but are listed as edits; probably shorter versions of the tracks found on the album. Both songs feature some unusual dark lyrics, vocals, and interesting drum patterns. There is a nice variety of guitar tones that really round off the songs well, and could not be pulled off by many bands.

Made Out Of Babies has the same lead singer as Battle of Mice, but there were some considerable differences. “Proud To Drown” and “Gunt” still have the flavor of Julie Christmas’s unique vocal styles, but the band uses less guitar effects. There are occasional backing vocals and a little more distortion on the guitars than Battle of Mice.

It was a good set of songs overall. At times it would get droning, but due to the lack of repetition in the songs, you wouldn’t hear the same dull part in the song again. It reminded me of The Mars Volta at times, but these bands have surely made musical innovations of their own. Triad offers a collection of dark progressive rock samples that doesn’t confront you to too many bands at once and could introduce someone to the sub-genre without overwhelming them.

The Midway State, like many bands before them, released an EP with a sampling of what to expect from their upcoming album. Met A Man On Top Of The Hill is their first official studio produced release, offering that glimpse into their music. There are four songs on the EP, and the title track would be the only song on that EP to not be released later on their 2008 album Holes. The song “A Million Fireflies” would undergo a title change when released on the album.

The songs on both the EP and the album are a refreshing new take on popular piano rock. The lyrics from the EP’s four songs are emotional, and each song has a different theme. While their peer bands are singing songs about how their relationship ended, The Midway State tackles the less approached route: Nathan Ferraro, the band’s lead vocalist and piano player, sings about being with someone at their potential death bed, or chancing upon someone that just happens to know how to help him, or the character he represents in the song. The vocals are not what you’d typically get from a rock band, but they compliment the sound and lyrical content quite well.

They have done quite well with their lyrical content, but Met A Man On Top Of The Hill‘s tracks have exceptional instrumental sections with varying emphasis on certain instruments, depending on the feel of the given song. The variety of playing styles the band used is sure to keep you listening for a long time, and it prevents the EP from being something that you’ll delete from your computer in a month.

Although most of the Met A Man On Top Of The Hill EP ended up on Holes, the song set works well as a whole, and the title track isn’t like anything that ended up on Holes. Definitely something that both fans of pop and indie label music could appreciate.