Warm Thoughts

So, Dad Punchers are changing their name to Warm Thoughts. I'm not sure whether this is good news or bad news. I don't mind the name Warm Thoughts at all, but I also dug the name Dad Punchers quite a lot and thought it was cool. But Elliot Babin (Dad Punchers/ Warm Thoughts songwriter/ main duder) changed the name and the dude writes great songs so I guess that's what it is all about. 

Here is the first release Elliot Babin put out under the moniker of Dad Punchers, and from about 10 seconds into track 1 (Tire Swing) I fell in love completely and utterly. My band cover that song. I learned to ride a bike to that song on repeat. I had no idea what to expect from a dude that spends his time as Touche Amore's rhythmic backbone, and it's certainly different if you haven't heard them yet. But, it's perfect in my opinion. From hearing this release on Bandcamp, I knew I had to grab a physical. Long story short, tapes were made for a show. Leftover tapes went up on Bigcartel. Bigcartel was not set to ship to the UK. I spent a day frantically contacting Elliot Babin via any available means and holding this tape in my cart, and refreshing every 15 minutes so it wouldn't sell. By the time I got a response, this was sold out, but thankfully Elliot said he had more tapes to sell. So a few days and a  Paypal payment later, I had a tape and shirt on the way. Super nice guy too, and really humbled by the fact that people seemed into the project in such an early stage. 

And then it arrived. The Bedroom Demos, probably my favourite demo of all time. Plain black shell, no A/B side markings. Pretty simple, very DIY and it's the perfect design and format for the tracks presented. 

The bandcamp download contains the first three tracks, and the final track was a cassette only bonus. All of these songs were recorded for the S/T LP that came out on Sea Legs, and i'll probably do a post on that at some point. 

I heard these tapes were /25, but this is numbered 1/31. Whether the internet was wrong or whether this was a second press is unknown to me. I would really like to know though, as I have what I consider to be a full Dad Punchers collection (minus tests) and if there are two variants of this kicking around I would really love to know/ buy one. Yup, numbers are important. Suck it. 

These songs are really what they say on the tin, demos recorded in a bedroom. They're a little rough around the edges, and the versions on the LP are probably a bit easier on the ears. But there is such a wonderful charm to these early recordings, and I am truly attached to how these versions sound. I'm pretty sure this is deleted from the Dad Punchers/ Warm Thoughts Bandcamp now too, and that's a shame. But I caught up with Elliot Babin for a quick minute after a Touche/ Dad Punchers show and he seemed a little dismissive over these recordings. I love them, but I guess there are newer representations of the songs out there now. I look forward to the changes that Warm Thoughts will bring, and will definitely do my best to remain up to speed on the whole variant collecting thing. I would love some tests from this band too. That S/T record is beautiful, i'll definitely be talking about that one.