Last Days of August

There was no question of what type of music to expect with Last Days of August.  In the late 90's, their name was so imbued with emo-ness that to expect anything else would have been false advertising.  There was a website around that time which had a random emo band name generator, and there were definitely a few names that would pop up that would probably cut a bit to close in similarity to Last Days.  Regardless of that, if you liked emo - and by that I mean stuff like Mineral, Sunny Day Real Estate, Boy's Life, early Jimmy Eat World kind of stuff - then really Last Days of August was probably the band from LI that did that style most proudly.

Last Days was formed in 1997 by Josh Chaplinsky (formerly of Irony of Lightfoot) on guitar and Phil Capone on guitar after they met at Nassau Community College.  They recruited Corey Martin who played drums in Irony of Lightfoot, Mario Leston on bass and Sal Montemaggiore from Small Screen View (SSV) on vocals. They quickly started playing shows (I think that their first one may have been in July of 1997 where an old band of mine, Six of One, literally broke apart during the show). They recorded a 4 song demo the following spring.

I have to say I really liked the demo, and I remember the guys headlining a show in place of Glassjaw in March of 1998 at the Wantagh VFW  that Inside, Error Type:11, Movielife and Watership Down also played.  It was a really cool vibe with all of these melodic bands coming up.  I remember Last Days sounding excellent at that show.


Despite the fact that Last Days eschewed heavier "breakdown" type of parts and as mentioned above their music did have more of the midwestern-emo leanings, they were put in the long island emo-core pile along with Inside, Silent Majority and Movielife.  It wasn't a bad place to be, but it often got them mislabeled.   I would be remiss in not mentioning some of the flack the guys took for their unflinching dedication for sounding... well, like an emo-band.  They had pink band shirts made that said "Bowling for the Pink Team" on them in what may have been one of the better flip-offs to scenesters.  Their sound did continue to grow, and after appearing on the "Blood Sweat and Tears" comp, they began putting out music on the Fadeaway Records label in part ran by Josh's former bandmater Neil Rubenstein.  They did a split 7" with a band called The Remington, appeared on Fadeaway's "Best Comp in the World" and released a full length in 1999.  They replaced Corey Martin around this point with Joe Corbo and did a 22 date tour across the US.


They wound up breaking up in 2000.  There was some disagreement on the direction of the band and what level of success that were looking to achieve.  Sal went on to form RC Driver with Corey.  Josh would join December Grey and later SpeedSpeedSpeed.  Joe Corbo would join ThisYears Model, The Krylls and later go on to SpeedSpeedSpeed as well.  Phil Capone would move to LA and join a band called Lamour, which definitely is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Last Days of August.  I'm not sure what happened to Mario Leston.

The download is for everything that the band did, at least as far as I know.  There may have been a track recorded for a 6 band Motherbox Split that was to inlcude Last Days, The Cotton Weary, Silent Majority, Inside, Movielife and Glassjaw which never materialized, but otherwise this is everything.  This includes the first demo, the split with The Remington, the full length and " Dead Boys Club" from the "Best Comp in the World and "Words I Wish Were Mine" from the "Blood Sweat and Tears" comp.


LAST DAYS OF AUGUST
Discography - http://www.mediafire.com/?fqgk1gq9tomov18

Other Links for Last Days of August:
The Band's myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/lastdaysofaugust
The original website: http://www.angelfire.com/ny2/lastdays/
Long Island Music Scene Wiki Page: http://longislandmusicscene.wikia.com/wiki/Last_Days_of_August
Villiage Voice Article: http://www.villagevoice.com/1999-09-07/long-island-voice/don-t-hate-me-cause-i-m-emo/