Tales Of Never Letting Go

When I first got into hardcore and started going to shows in Boston, there was a band named Only Living Witness that would often be on the bill and I saw them a number of times in 1991 and 1992. I bought their Complex Man 7 inch at a show, and enjoyed it, but my taste was rapidly changing at the time and before too long OLW was "too metal" for me. I lost track of the band after that, and completely missed when they broke up and the singer, Jonah Jenkins, started up a new band with Miltown.

Miltown didn't even cross my radar until Marcus mentioned them to me in 2016. The band had released a 7 inch in 1996 and a split with Cast Iron Hike in 1997, and I there I was 20 years after their release hunting them down and obsessing over the new found discovery. Now almost ten years after I first heard those Miltown records, I guess there was more to discover.

Back at the end of 1997, Miltown went into the studio and recorded an album, but then shortly after that, they broke up. I guess they weren't interested enough at the time to get the songs released, so the tapes just sat on a shelf. Thankfully someone recently had the thought to finally release this to the public almost 30 years later. When Marcus sent me a message to let me know that preorders were up for the long lost Miltown album, I was excited to quickly get one into my cart and check out.

It's crazy that things like this can sit around for years just collecting dust. Tales Of Never Letting Go is so good that I can't believe that it took this long to get released. The perfect melodic post-hardcore groove that I can't get enough of from that mid to late 90's era.

297 pressed on glacier blue colored vinyl.

Shoot, Knife, Strangle, Beat and Crucify

A couple of months ago when I was losing my mind over Cast Iron Hike and Miltown, I was hot to pick up a copy of the split 7 inch that the two of them did together. The only trouble was that neither eBay or Discogs had one available. I threw it on my Discogs wantlist, and played the waiting game. One month later, when I got the notification that one was available, I didn't hesitate to pull the trigger.

I'd never heard of Miltown until this year, failing to have the band crack my radar for about 20 years. Now I'm making up for lost time, and listening to these songs like crazy. I'm not even a fan of The Cure, but Miltown's cover here is amazing.

Cast Iron Hike give us one song on their side...a GG Allin cover...and while I'm not a fan of GG, I do find that when other bands cover his stuff, for one reason or another, they are great. Plus given the results of the Presidential election here in the States, Shoot, Knife, Strangle, Beat and Crucify seems to fit my current mood.

Stuck in '96: Part 2 - Miltown

While talking about Cast Iron Hike with Marcus, he asked if I was familiar with a band called Miltown. At first I was confused, and I was mixing them up with some pop punk band called Midtown. I lost a little respect for the man for a second, but once we got the Mil's and the Mid's straightened out, we could get on track with a serious conversation.

Given my confusion over the two band names, and the fact that I've never cared very much for Hydra Head Records releases, it is no wonder Miltown never crossed my radar. With a '96 mindset, and a youtube link for the band's song No Matter handed to me, I decided to give them a shot.

From that first song, I was hooked. When I visit 1996 in my playlist, this is the exactly what I want to hear. I didn't know anything about Miltown, so I started digging around and taking it every piece of info that could find on the internet. I was reading interviews and watching live youtube videos. I couldn't get enough...and you mean to tell me that the band only released one 7 inch and a split with Cast Iron Hike? Damn. I want more.

It's funny. Here is a band that was playing in the Massachusetts scene, that I was a part of, and yet somehow I don't hear about them until 20 years later, from a dude in the UK.