Tour Tape

You know what. Sometimes, living in the UK is a real bust. Mainly when it comes to all things music related. A month or two back, there was a US tour consisting of: Modern Baseball / Tiny Moving Parts/ Sorority Noise/ The Hotelier. Tours like that just don't really happen over here. However, as sore as the subject is, I kind of got the next best thing to being there... 

The Hotelier/ Sorority Noise live split. This is a cassette tape, containing live audio from both bands, recorded at the Baltimore Metro Gallery. From what I understand it was the final night of the tour. The audio was also gathered from a recorder bring held up from in the crowd; that's it for audio equipment. No mastering, no nothing. Straight from recorder to cassette. 

There were 2 colour options available (black and white) but by the time I got wind of this, only black remained. Probably would have picked it anyway mind. I have a Sorority Noise cassette, also on black and your boy likes to colour co-ordinate where he can. All the sleeves were hand made, and the words/ pages are taken from Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham. I'm not sure if it holds any relevance, but it's nice to know. On another note, from what I've seen, all of the sleeves look different, making each one unique. 

Back of the case. I ended up with number 39/40. There were 25 of each colour made, but only 20 of each went on sale. The other 5 went to the band and I assume are not numbered. The black went to Sorority Noise, the white to The Hotelier. This was released through Nine Lives Music & Art, and has long sold out. 

This is the photograph that came with the package, and shows every band member (I guess) from all four bands on that tour. Looked like it was a great time. Also, Cam from Sorority Noise is wearing a Bring Me the Horizon shirt. Classic.

Another thing. The tape is held inside this weird plastic case, which proves awkward when trying to get the tape out. It also makes it a little more difficult to store, but I can't throw it away.

Speaking of stuff I can't throw away, these are the extra knick-knacks that came with my order. I'm not entirely sure what Garbage Pail Kids are, or what this Barney Gumble thing is (kind of looks like a Pog). But I think it's great that stuff like this comes in orders, and The Simpsons is brilliant, so this will go in my box of patches/ stickers etc. that have come with orders but won't fit in the packaging. 

The audio is a little rough around the edges on this one, as you can expect for how it was recorded. But the songs are great, and with every ounce of feedback and background noise, you feel a little like you were there. It's a pretty great listen. 

Home, Like Noplace is There

This is an album that I've been wanting to write about for a little while, but there have been a couple of road blocks. For one, I didn't get this album the second it came out, and by the time I did, everyone and his dog had an opinion on the musical content of the record. This is not a bad thing, as it's a fantastic record and i'm glad that it's getting the attention it warrants; it just means I had nothing to say that hadn't already been said. Fresh into it's third pressing and I feel like I can sit down and offer a bit of an insight here. At least as far as the product itself is concerned: 

This particular variant is from the 1st press, I think it was /250, effectively the most common or 'distro' colour of the 1st press. I picked it up from Different Kitchen along with a bunch of other great stuff i'll get on to talking about hopefully. I remember when the first whispers of this started floating round on the internet, and the album art was popping up here and there, the cover really stuck out. It seems to fit the musical content of the LP, and translates way better for being a 12''. Even the colourway is cool; I went through a phase where it seemed every LP I was getting was either on clear blue or clear orange, and I got really jaded on these colours, but I'm into here. But Tiny Engines (who put this out) normally kill it with their variants, some great starburst effect stuff, and even their flat variant always look really crisp. 

Just a quick picture of the back of the sleeve. Really simple, no tracklisting, no bar-code, not much. Just the Tiny Engines logo in the bottom right. 

One of the first things I noticed when picking this up was the sticker on the poly sleeve, indicating the band's name (as it doesn't appear on the cover/ back cover) and also the name change, having previously being called The Hotel Year. They released an album under this name, titled 'It Never Goes Out'. There was some rumour of the LP being released through a label (possibly Mightier Than Sword Records?) but as far as I can tell this never happened for one reason or another. I like this small, possibly insignificant detail. I think all albums should come in poly sleeves. I hate having to buy them, and I hate when I run out and have to decide what album gets de-sleeved to protect a new purchase. But with cool little things like this, it makes good use of all the free space with on the poly sleeve. This album art definitely makes more of an impact for not having the band name splattered about somewhere. 

The last thing i'll write about here is the neat little booklet that comes with the record. It's annoying when an album comes with no printed inner sleeve/ insert or whatever. But having a booklet is way cooler than either of the previous options. I get that it's more of a hassle, but it's worth it. I'm a fan of sitting down and really having a good read through with these. 

Here's another couple of photos just to show what is going on in here. Part lyrics, part artwork and some other neat little elements that really make it worth investing in the physical product. 

From a music perspective, you've heard it all before. This album is great. Many people consider it album of the year type stuff. Whilst i'm never sure on that kind of thing 'til a few weeks into the following year, I will say that I've been listening to this album more and more with the passing weeks in owning it. At first it didn't hit quite right, but now it's really working for me. Also, it came out on Tiny Engines, and this year they've been hitting it right with just about every release. If you haven't yet, invade their Bandcamp and check out that Somos LP.