The Promise Ring / Texas Is The Reason 7" (1996)

Originally recorded to accompany a U.S. tour in 1996, Milwaukee's The Promise Ring team up with the New York City-based Texas Is The Reason for a split 7" that still goes up for serious loot on internet auction sites everywhere despite the fact that it never went out of print and is available right here. Fairly outlandish, for sure, but we can understand why. The Promise Ring offer a slightly out-of-character track called "E. Texas Ave" that packs more punch than pop, while Texas Is The Reason contribute a mournful number called "Blue Boy" — the final track they recorded before breaking up, still exclusive to this EP only.

jadetree.com

The Promise Ring / Texas Is The Reason 7" (1996) 320kbps

The Promise Ring – Very Emergency (1999)

Unfortunately, you will never see the Promise Ring the way they were in the days of Thirty Degrees Everywhere, but you can at least appreciate the good parts of what they have become. Their emotionally tense and sentimental edge has pretty much entirely disappeared; everything is happy, bouncy, and catchy as hell, which isn't always a bad thing. This excessively poppy direction that the Promise Ring boys take throughout this entire record was heavily hinted at on their three-song EP Boys & Girls. Perhaps one of the more upsetting things about this album is that the lyrics have lost that classic Promise Ring feel — they actually make clear sense a lot of the time. At times, the music just gets so poppy that it is sickening, such as in the sappy "bop bop bop" background vocals on "Skips a Beat (Over You)," and the references to the band members' names in an otherwise fairly decent song "Things Just Getting Good." Although three-fourths of the album is pretty much bad pop songs, it somehow grows on you, as those Promise Ring kids have the uncanny ability to do.

allmusic.com

...After listening to "Very Emergency" you'll be destined to sing the songs all day long. This album is for anyone who is looking for an up-beat and well-worth buy. If you are a fan of Weezer, you will enjoy this band. So if you're looking for a great cd, be sure to keep Very Emergency in mind. It is definitely one of the best albums of 1999.

music-critic.com

The Promise Ring – Very Emergency (1999) 320kbps

password: thelastwordisrejoice

The Promise Ring ‎– The Horse Latitudes (1997)

Nestled between the emotionally terse 30 Degrees Everywhere and the pop explosion of Nothing Feels Good, this singles and unreleased songs compilation sees the Promise Ring in a number of different musical phases. The earliest material on the record, including "Watertown Plank" and the emo classic "A Picture Postcard," showcase the raw origins of the band and their early tendencies to couple meandering guitar notes with unbridled and distorted rock. "E. Texas Ave.," a fan favorite from the group's split 7" with Texas Is the Reason, is also a noteworthy inclusion, not to mention the toughest song the band has ever recorded. There are a few dawdling tracks on the record that don't do much of anything, but on the whole, this is a fine collection that clearly illustrates how this band came to reach their indie pop hitmaker status. There's a strong sense of melody that often surfaces from the tracks, and the closing horn bop of "I Never Trusted the Russians" is a clear indicator of where the band would take their sound in the period that followed this album.

A must for the group's fans, The Horse Latitudes is also a pretty good listen for anyone looking for solid emotional rock that is just as good at keeping quiet as it is at blasting out the speakers.

Peter J. D'Angeloallmusic.com

The Promise Ring ‎– The Horse Latitudes (1997) 320kbps

password: thelastwordisrejoice

The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good (1997)

The sophomore disc from these young ones finds the band moving further into the poppiness that they only hinted at on Thirty Degrees Everywhere. Some things remain the same — beautifully odd lyrics, extremely catchy and powerful music, and the overall feeling of sentimentality and imagination that the Promise Ring's music always seems to exude. With the momentum and energy of this band, we could see them heading for the indie-rock history books.

allmusic.com

Formed in Milwaukee, Wis. in 1995, the Promise Ring hails from a generation when bands could be labeled as emo despite sounding nothing alike. Nothing Feels Good is just as important a record as Diary, 24 Hour Revenge Therapy or Hello Bastards, even though those records have little in common. If anything TPR is stylistically more in keeping with '90s indie rock bands like Archers of Loaf, Superchunk and Sebadoh.

 Actually, the Promise Ring might be the perfect bridge between those two styles. '90s indie rock bands wrote really good, lo-fi rock songs that weren't actually about anything (Ever wonder why Archers of Loaf didn’t bother broadcasting their lyrics?). Emo bands, though, they mean everything. Chief lyricist Davey von Bohlen struck a balance between these two ideologies. While songs like "Perfect Line" and "Nothing Feels Good" certainly pack some emotional weight ("I don’t know God / I don’t know anyone / or if anything will be alright", for example), von Bohlen would never let direct storytelling get in the way of a good rhyme scheme. Of course, he can certainly let his imagery do the lifting for him too. Consider the lone line that guides "Red & Blue Jeans": "Nothing feels good like you in red and blue jeans and your white and night things." It can be read as sensual, longing, romantic, desperate; it can be all these things because of what it implies.

 One of the slights against emo is that it can be whiny. While von Bohlen’s voice isn’t always the prettiest in the bunch, the guy still knows how to write a hook. So for all the sadsackery associated with the genre, Nothing Feels Good is still valid as a party record. Go put on "Why Did We Ever Meet." The guitars are insistent. The bass bounces. The drums drive the song. And that chorus, man, is just explodes with jubilance. von Bohlen loves bouncing words off each other, but he still knows when to cut back and let "bop bop badada" and "doot doot doodoodoo" carry the song along. Plus there’s a guitar solo! This is what a perfect pop song should sound like. And this album has 10 more songs like that (For those keeping count, "How Nothing Feels" is just an interlude).

 Really, though, Nothing Feels Good is just the beginning. It's the crowd pleaser. Between the Promise Ring, Maritime and Vermont, von Bohlen has 10 records of indie/emo tunes ready to roll (In addition to various EPs 'n' splits. I tend to leave out von Bohlen's other band, Cap'n Jazz, because it doesn't have much of his songwriting voice in there. But the Jazz also rules, so go buy Analphabetapolothology). Nothing Feels Good is an incredible album, but there's more out there. Hurry up before the Promise Ring breaks up again.

punknews.org

The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good (1997) 320kbps

The Promise Ring - 30° Everywhere (1996)

These young Wisconsin boys certainly know how to write sharp, powerful, and beautiful songs.

30° Everywhere, the debut album from the Promise Ring, is still their best; it's basically straight-up pop/emo, very catchy, very intense, very powerful. Beautiful lyrics and melodies move from somber thoughts to moments that will make you smile in understanding. It's sort of like the soundtrack to a ride through your memories. Highly recommended.

allmusic.com

The Promise Ring - 30° Everywhere (1996) 320kbps

password: thelastwordisrejoice