Formed in 2006, BUILDINGS is a (insert label) three piece from Minneapolis. Their music is loud, aggressive, and dynamic. Melt Cry Sleep is the band’s 2nd full-length, and the follow up to 2008’s self-released Braille Animal (recently reissued on doubleplusgood). Engineer, Jacques Wait (Off With Their Heads, Motion City Soundtrack) has perfectly reined in the band’s furious energy, allowing the 10 tightly wound tracks on Melt Cry Sleep room to breathe in contrast to their raw & visceral live sets. In April 2012, bass player Sayer Payne left the band with Ryan Harding joining the fray.

Animal Lover have a sound that hits you in the forehead and gut simultaneously. Frontman Addison Shark's guitar explodes like a dirty bomb of feedback, and the pulverizing bass and drums of Evan Bullinger and Nate Fisher add to its shrapnel spray. This is noise rock powerful enough to leave a lasting physical impression -- albeit a confusing one for venues assembling punk nights. "It does get pretty tunnel vision as far as being genre-specific," Shark elaborates. "We'll wind up on a straight hardcore bill because that's kind of just what goes on in that particular scene."