If 1991 was the year that punk broke, then 2009 is most certainly shaping up to be the year that punk-goes-prog. Led by bands like Mind Eraser, Iron Age and most notably, Fucked Up, the face of hardcore has been changing over the past few years, embracing a new ideology, one that favors lengthy interludes, actual singing, thematic songwriting and epic push-pull crescendos over moshy breakdowns and gruff shouting; call it the school of The Mars Volta, if you will. Baltimore’s Pulling Teeth clearly prescribe to this aesthetic, and their third album, Paranoid Delusions Paradise Illusions is a kaleidoscopic conceptual journey that takes their modern slant on the hardcore idiom and refracts it through a distinctly Floydian lens.
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The Singles Collection is contributor Jason Jackowiak’s weekly column focusing on rare and essential 7″ releases.

To quote the great Emerson, Lake & Palmer, “welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we’re so glad you can attend, come inside, come inside.” While we don’t have any prog-dinosaurs of ELP’s ilk this week, we do have a great mixed bag filled with punk, hardcore, indie rock and a twitchy, insistent brand of country-tinged pop. But generalities aren’t what y’all come here for, so, without further adieu, onto this weeks singles.
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