Unleash the Fury Mitch

Another post to add some weight to the claim that I've been on a real US hardcore kick lately. This time we head right back to the original way of doing things, the good old fashioned demo cassette. This one has a seriously DIY feel to it too, and I'm a complete sucker for it. 

Fury - Demo Cassette - Moshers Delight - 1st Press - White Shell /? 

The breakdown of this one is always going to be a little weird to track down. I know that there were copies with grey shells too. Some of the grey shells came with green paper covers too. No numbers have been released though, so it's anyone's guess at this point? 

Fury handwritten on the A-Side, and a small '30' on top of the shell put there by the manufacturer at a guess? I'm assume it's a c30 cassette and that it has nothing to do with being numbered like some people suggest. I could be wrong though! 

Also, completely unrelated, but how lit is that Danzig shirt? 

Spine View 

Plain B-Side, both on the shell and the cassette itself seems to be blank this side too. Don't quote me on it as such, as I only listened for a few minutes at the beginning and at the end (Moshers Delight stick interviews on their live series' cassettes and I thought something may be on there as opposed to just blank reel). Small Fury logo on the spine. 

Insert 

Black ink on white paper A4 insert, folded in all kinds of crazy ways to fit in as a J-Card. You can see all the folds in it so I shouldn't have to explain this too much. Bottom left is the only panel you see when it's all folded, with a track-listing and MD logo on the back panel. The bottom right panel has recording and mastering credits, along with a few thanks (weird side note, this was mastered by Brian McTernan who recorded Juturna which was my previous post. Cool right?). The rest is all lyrics, live photos and weird doodles. I can imagine kids grabbing copies of this in a decade or two, getting real meticulous about how intact this insert is. I can tell you now that mine feels like it's got about 5 unfoldings left ha! 

This band have a new-ish 7'' out through Triple B, and I should probably go and pick that up. 

Cheers!

Swirly Survive

A couple weeks ago I did a post on a great Circa Survive record called 'On Letting Go'; and today I am going to talk about another one. I got this one from the same seller, at the same (incredibly reasonable) price. 

Circa Survive - Juturna - Equal Vision Records - 2nd Press - Green W/White Swirl /1000

This was definitely the gem of the pair for me, as more often that not I pin this one as my favourite Circa record. It's so strange to think this record has been around for a decade. Well, not this copy as the original press was a picture disc split released through Equal Vision and Religion Records. The art was different on that copy, with the above art used as the picture disc. This copy was pressed around 2010 if memory serves. All things told though, I prefer this version. This is the first of Esao Andrews' art I remember seeing, and this variant is stunning. 

Back Cover // B-Side

Although the art is a little sparse this side, the B-Side of the LP more than makes up for it. With a few swirl variants, it ends up looking more like a two colour mix, but here you definitely get that swirl effect. It just kind of makes hunting down the right variant so much sweeter when it turns out this nice. It's nice to finally have a copy of this on vinyl and re-live some of these amazing tracks. Act Appalled is so damn good. 

Production / Mastering / Art credits up the top. Some more art from Andrews' in the middle; and the bottom is where things get a little weird. This is the 'Circa Survive Is...' list including Esao Andrew's, Brian Mcternan and Cats. This band have always striked me as a little on the strange side of life, and I kind of like things that way. 

And finally we move on to the insert, and this side contains all the lyrics. A nice cut and dry way to end this little ramble. Yes, this post has been about how cool this variant is and how much I love the cover art. There is no funky packaging to get enthusiastic about, but this was a great record to add to my collection and so I wanted to share that. 

True Young Gods

Lately I seem to be on a bit of a kick for US hardcore. Some stuff coming out over the last year or so has really got me enthusiastic for this genre again. I was with Alan at Different Kitchen a few days ago, chatting about not wanting to be a dinosaur who reminisces about how good punk was. Basically, I don't want to be Keith Morris, the UK Subs or a sad bastard that says the last good record came out in '77 or something. So call this what you will, at least I'm still keeping the faith. 

True Love - New Young Gods - React! Records - 1st Press - Black /400 

Another case of me jumping on a band a little late. Not only did I miss out on the Floral Note 7'' these dudes put out through Mayfly, but I also missed out on the Mint Green and Pink colourways that were up for grabs. Both worked really well with the art, but in this case classic black will more than do. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

Despite being pressed to 12'', this clocks in at under 15 minutes, so a 10'' would've done the trick. The art and layout works great here though, and I love seeing that huge amount of deadwax in the A-Side. 

Matching centre labels are a pretty cool thing too, only the tracks change on the sides and the A/B side marker. 

A quick note on the back cover photos. I thought the X varsity jacket would be the coolest thing here, but that Moz shirt probably wins it for me. New Young God indeed. 

Insert

Lyrics and band photo, pretty much all you need here. Super clean layout, and all the colour filters to keep you happy. 

Dedicated to all the kids who faded away. Goodbye!

Straight Edge attitude at it's best, and you can't avoid those huge X's in black marker. 

The text is largely thank you's, mastering/ recording/ artwork credits. For me, what isn't written here is what's most important. I was too young to discover bands like American Nightmare and Carry On first time round; but I imagine what I felt the first time I heard Non Places is a pretty close representation. I could moan about how American Nightmare were the last great hardcore band; I could just listen to The Sun Isn't Getting Any Brighter and ignore anything past it. But I won't; and if I ever do just end my miserable existence. 

Stay Posi dudes!

Nonstop Spinning

If feeling is what they want // Then feeling is what they'll get! 

This record probably needs no introduction, as I assume that anyone who hasn't heard that phrase is currently living under some kind of rock where band hype escapes them. 

Turnstile - Nonstop Feeling - Reaper Records - 1st Press - Splatter /700 

By the time I had got round to picking this up; most places had completely sold out of the 1st press and were awaiting stock for the 2nd press. However, I managed to pick up this variant from a massive label with a greatly under-appreciated distro section. Weirdly enough, they had no stock of the Green /1000 from the first press either. Chewing through 2500 copies of this so quickly is a big step up for hardcore. Saying that, this isn't a typical hardcore band. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

What most draws me to the physical release of this record isn't the variant itself, more so the artwork that surrounds it. It's got such a cool 90's vibe to it that reminds me of early Red Hot Chili Peppers records way more than it does your typical release from say, Rev Records or something? Black and White photography against a brilliantly colourful background. This came out on Reaper Records, and it kind of fits with the label whilst really not fitting with it at all. That seems a pretty apt way to describe this band anyway. 

Insert

All colour booklet style insert. It'll be easier to go through it page by page really, as opposed to photographing half and then chatting about the stuff I didn't photograph. 

In part it looks deliberate, in part it looks like a typical cut and paste zine. It works along with the cover art really well which is always a bonus. Up close the orange pattern across the whole page can throw your eyes after a while. Lastly, the doodles are great. The Totem Pole on the left hand page was used on a t-shirt that Reaper had up in their store. 

I like how this band go against every typical convention for your average hardcore band (well, the Judge and TUI shirts maybe don't so much?). The dude in the middle is wearing an Inmates Tour t-shirt. For those that don't know, Metallica/ Limp Bizkit/ Deftones and Linkin Park were on that bill. 

More lyrics, more doodles, more live shots. A few cool bands are listed in the thanks section. Remember back in the day when you used to read through a band's thank you's to find out about labels and bands you hadn't heard of before. It doesn't happen too often these days, but I'm still trying nonetheless. 

Credits 

There are credits for 'Sunboy' (among artwork, photography and guest appearances). I'm assuming that's the little logo in the bottom right of the front sleeve. Brian Mcternan recorded this at Salad Days studio. Sometimes, I get so wrapped up in the Circa Survive/ B&C aspect of Mcternan's recording, I almost forget that he bashes out incredible sounding records for all genres. And although this is definitely a hardcore LP, it hangs with a bunch of genres; with people throwing in RHCP/RATM comparisons from all kinds of dark corners of the internet. 

To summarise, this record is fluent and impressive both in style and in sound. It kind of shouldn't work at all, but comes together really well all at the same time. There's some debate over whether this is a 2014 or 2015 release. I definitely didn't see vinyl copies kicking round 'til the latter, so that's what I'm sticking with. Don't be surprised if this makes my (and a bunch of others') AOTY lists. Lots of very deserved hype, and it's still getting heavy rotation from me.

Intangible and Smiling

The Warm Thoughts full collection continues. As it stands, I am one (readily available - but balls to US shipping) variant away from a full collection. Well, there is also the question of test presses; but a little bit more on that later right? 

Warm Thoughts - Intangible - Asian Man Records - 1sr Press - Random Mix /500 

From what I've seen, most of these ended up some kind of take on a grey mix? There's definitely a few flecks of red and blue in this copy and that's cool by me. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

With this record, there is no insert so everything here is about all you have. The B-Side is a Yo La Tengo cover. Elliot Babin has been raving on about these for a while, and they're a great band. This cover is one of a few performed under the Dad Punchers / Warm Thoughts moniker(s - anyone heard the 'Do You Wanna Dance?' cover?). From a design perspective, these oversized A and B labels look super cool against the fairly sparse background. Looking at the cover, it looks like it was taken from a van window too. This song sounds like it was written on tour, so it all kind of fits in. 

Warm Thoughts - Intangible - Asian Man Records - Test Press - Black - 1/10 

Asian Man is ran by Mike Park; one of the nicest guys in music. I heard wind of this coming up for sale, I emailed Mike Park about it. He asked me to email a few weeks later as he was away on tour; and sure as his word I emailed a few weeks later, we worked out a price and that was that. 

B-Side 

As this came in a dust cover and poly sleeve, there is not an awful lot to say. Getting number 1/10 is pretty cool though right? Rainbo also did the Mar Vista test which I managed to get a copy of which you can read about here: http://23rotations.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/sea-view.html

Certificate of Authenticity 

All Asian Man test presses come with this. It's a pretty neat little extra and shows that all of these tests pass through Mike Park's hands before reaching you. The numbering also matches up, which is sweet! 

And finally, here's a group shot, though it is more than likely that I will end up with another copy of this before too long... 

Just as a parting note, this record has a really cool matrix etching. Something along the lines of Warm Thoughts being better than Dad Punchers and Dad Punchers not being better than Warm Thoughts. 

One of my favourite bands doing it right all over again. 

Cheers!

Elektrischer Blumen Zirkus

Let's quickly clarify something here. I have a bit of a late pass on this band; not because I didn't hear of them until recently, but more due to just not being that in to them until recently. Well, that is not strictly true, as I was into it in a way. I really dug the artwork throughout the releases; I liked the way that they fired out a bunch of 7''s on various labels. I really like that despite being affiliated with loads of cool labels, they decided to self release their debut full length (well, that's pretty much the story). I just couldn't get into their music until recently. I knew it was going to happen, and now it has so I'm probably going to be playing catch up a little bit this year. 

Give - Electric Flower Circus - Adagio830 - 1st Press - Black /400 

In truth, I wanted a US press of this way more, as I thought the art was a little cooler and the whole 'self released' copy appealed to me as opposed to the Euro release. However, this looks pretty great in person. As an added upside, the vibrant colours against the flat black background kind of makes for a pretty clear photograph so we can see a little more of what is going on here. 

There was also a green variant /100, but it's a pretty murky colour and although I'm a sucker for a limited colour way, black won it for me this time around (also meaning I could grab it from distro for cheap!). 

Back Cover // B-Side

From a design perspective, this is pretty neat. The centre label matches the colours of the back cover (and insert) titles. Nothing too fancy really, just a nice touch.

All the small print is stuff like band personnel, guest musicians, recording/ mastering/ artwork/ photography credits. There's also a mailing address to write to the band too. It kind of reminds me of early Alkaline Trio releases, I'm sure they left their mailing address on the back of the first few records too. The photography is great on this record too, more on that in a second though. 

Insert 

Angela Owens handled the photography throughout this LP. Funnily enough, she also did the photo shoot for the US Press of this record too. I mean, both records look very different from one another and it's just cool to see a few common themes running though. 

Insert 

As all of the info is on the back sleeve of the record; this side of the insert is used solely for lyrics and a few more live photographs of the band. As far as I can see, there are no thanks on this LP. It's all good though. It's a little different for what I've been getting into lately, and Give certainly stand on their own as far as their sonic output is concerned. However, I'm falling for this band pretty hard. I'm glad I didn't try forcing it on myself too early, just letting it catch on naturally. I wonder what other great bands my younger ears had dismissed... 

Getting Letting

It still surprises me how much certain records sell for on Discogs or eBay, and so I get very enthusiastic when I manage to snag a cool and kind of rare record at a good price. I have bought a lot of cool stuff recently, and this is definitely a great place to start. The packaging itself isn't much to look at; but with a record this great it doesn't matter all that much. 

Circa Survive - On Letting Go - Equal Vision Records - 1st Press - Picture Disc /1000 

As you kind of come to expect from a picture disc, it is housed in a thick poly-sleeve to show off the artwork. This album art (along with most, if not all Circa stuff) is the work of Esao Andrews. The only downside of the art being focused in on this side is that you don't get an image of the full album art. This is definitely cool though! 

B-Side 

At first, I thought this was a 'work in progress' shot of the finished album art; but it seems that the body is hanging at a completely different angle to the final art. I do like the way that this side is left incomplete too, with the balloon left to fill with colour. 

At a first glance, it seems that the corners on the sleeve are bent; but it turns out the sleeve has these strange intentional folds in the cover. I'm not sure if this is to help with safe storage or to properly align the record in the sleeve? Either way, it's something a little different I guess? 

Close Up 

Track-listing, label and recording credits. Aside from the lettering around the outer circumference of the A-Side, this is about the only real lettering on show. This is fine by me though. I don't like the idea of the record being used as an insert! 

Finally 

The stickering on the sleeve is pretty nice. It kind of tells you what you need to know and not much else. The pattern behind the lettering is quite neat also. All in all a great record at an unbeatable price. I feel very lucky to own this LP, and as far as my little Circa haul went, the best is definitely yet to come. 

This variant once sold at $300. Madness. 

High On A Crime

Okay, back to a No Idea post or two. The more time that goes by, I delve further and further into the NI back catalogue, discovering gems I had once either shrugged off or accidentally passed by. This band came to my attention after grabbing their split with Orchid. Whilst Orchid will always have pride of place for that era or screamo, this band are also pretty undeniable. 

Combat Wounded Veteran - I Know A Girl Who Develops Crime Scene Photos - No Idea Records - 7th Press - Neon Green /207 

I guess I slacked off on buying this for so long as I associate No Idea with the gruff end of punk or pop punk, and this was kind of a weird fit. Then when you step back and realise bands like CWV, Ampere and Assholeparade all shared a place in the No Idea roster; it's a little clearer to see that this label knew what was up outside of their ordinary scope.  

Back Cover // B-Side

Two of the major selling points for this LP were the Neon Green variant (which doesn't come across too great in these photos, but it's super impressive!) and the screened centre label. Both of these quirky little additions make this record that little bit more appealing. They did a similar thing with 'This Is Not An Erect, All Red Neon Body' that makes me really eager to grab that on my next trek up to Different Kitchen Records. 

I like the minimal back cover art, with the Stress Face and NI address being the only lettering on show. 

Booklet 

Due to the long track-listing and expansive lyrics, a single sheet insert wouldn't have done the trick at a guess, which is a bonus as we get treated to a black and white illustrated booklet instead. 

Here's a quick look at page 16. It's a cool addition to an already great looking record. 

Call it emo/screamo/screamoviolence/spazzcore or whatever you want; this band are pretty great at it. 

Cheers!

Life is Swell

Taking a little break from the No Idea thing I've got going (and trust me, it's a super little break) to talk about a cool release from a cool band on a pretty cool label. 

Drug Church - Swell - No Sleep Records - First Press - Clear W/ Green Haze /550 

This has seen an initial press of 1000 across three variants including the No Sleep Sub Colour, and the pressing info breaks this one down as the most common variant. 

Before we get into colour talks, I want to have a quick talk about the cover photography, handled by Mitchell Wojcik. The art is a little distorted but I believe it's a person walking by a car. The photograph is tied to the reputation of the photographer though, and Wojcik has captured some of the best moments in punk and hardcore. Maybe you've seen the before and after photos of Pat Flynn from the final Have Heart show? That's the importance of this cover art, don't let the fancy screened B-Side and high grade dust cover make you lose sight of what's really going on here. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

Fairly minimal on the design front here, just the things that need to be seen. The dust covers are the same that No Sleep have been using for a quick minute. No Sleep logo on the A-Side and 'Death to False Music' on the back. 

A quick close up of the B-Side. This was drawn up by Cory Galusha and was used as a shirt design that you can still grab from No Sleep. It kind of carries on the creepy, slightly off centre and weird art that has ran through all of the Drug Church releases. Galusha also plays guitar in the band, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's been handling the art from day one. 

Maybe the black variant of this would've allowed a clearer image on the B-Side; but the way the colours bleed in and out of the design are kind of fitting too I guess. Also, this variant goes with the art really well. 

Insert. 

Single sided, single sheet deal. Lyrics, personnel, recording/mixing/mastering/art credits and thanks. The only thing to note is that this was recorded by J. Robbins, and sounds so good. As far as the music is concerned, it feels like the sound is really focused and hits the way that best compliments the structure of the songs. It's strange to say, but you know how Please Remain Calm by Hostage Calm had these weird moments that seemed a little removed from how they really should've been? Maybe a drum sound wasn't quite thick enough, or a vocal harmony fell a little weird? This has none of that. 

Finally 

Stickered shrinkwrap. This is pretty neat I guess, especially for shop buyers who want a rough idea of what you're getting. This is a great example, looking at a sealed copy of this in a shop, you know what colour you're getting if you're in to variants and know ahead of time that it's either black or an online sub colour exclusive up for grabs on this record? You know what you're getting before you really get it. Me personally, shop buying kinds of adds a little surprise to things, so this could bug me a little at times. I'm sure the infrequency of it makes life bearable though... 

Cheers!