Lost Transmissions: 1995-1996

Dismiss’s Lost Transmissions: 1995–1996 is an archival collection that rescues 11 largely unheard demo recordings from the short-lived Peoria, Illinois band. Released in May 2026 by Snappy Little Numbers and Rad Girlfriend Records, it documents Dismiss after its two-song 7-inch and compilation appearances, but before the group broke up roughly a year later. The lineup—Gared O’Donnell, Matt Bellinger, Jamie Drier, and Mike Johnson—would soon form Planes Mistaken for Stars, so the album is both a lost standalone statement and a valuable early chapter in that later band’s history.

The music is raw, melodic, and hard-driving, occupying a meeting point between mid-1990s emo, post-hardcore, and punk. Songs such as “Forget,” “I Want My Letters Back,” “Remember,” “Bad Luck Papercuts,” “Trap,” “Stunt,” “Soft,” “Udi Ghetza,” “Persona,” “Common Boy,” and the brief “July 12” feature urgency and aggression, but their rough demo presentation leaves room for memorable guitar melodies and emotionally exposed vocals. Lost Transmissions: 1995–1996 is not a polished retrospective; its appeal is precisely its immediacy—the sense of a young band working out an intense, melodic language just before its members redirected that energy into Planes Mistaken for Stars.