Monster Surf

Some people really like purely instrumental music, I've always found these types to be beardy musos with a lack of experience with the opposite sex. Me, I like my music to have some vocals on top.

Monster Surf - Night Birds

So, I guess to get it out of their system before their Fat Wreck Debut full length Night Birds have released this instrumental record Monster Surf. If it wasn't for having all their other stuff I might not have bothered.

Don't get me wrong, the musics fine and is very Night Birds but without Brian Gorsegner's vocals there's just nothing to pull me in and make this interesting. That's just me though, fans of the bands surf element will still lap this up as it's been really brought to the front of the bands sound here.

This was released by Wallride Records and I'm sure I read previously that it's a one time pressing out of 700. I don't know if all copies were on black or not but I presume they were.

I really like the little Wallride Records Dracula!!!

Time To Ignite

A few weeks ago I finally made it back to Ignite Records in Birmingham only just short of a year since my last visit there. I was in the second city for some new Nike Air Max mainly but there was no way I wasn't going to be paying Rich a visit.

It was just the right time too, as Rich had literally just got some new stock in and I wanted a few of the records that were yet to go from box to shelf.

Night Birds - Born To Die In Suburbia

Obviously the reason I'd not yet ordered this online was to give myself the opportunity to buy this record in person from a shop, I just didn't know it yet. I was stoked Rich had just gotten this in stock and quickly made it the first record on my pile. As the Maimed For The Masses taster release suggested this is more of the same from the Night Birds and that's just fine by me, I really like this band and the continuation of their sound makes for another good record.

 

Magic Circle - Magic Circle

Walking into the shop I knew there was another record that I had been after but hadn't got round to ordering yet but I couldn't for the life of me have told you what it was at that time. Luckily a mental list isn't needed in Ignite, Rich rooting through the new stock boxes held up the Magic Circle record and said 'have you heard this?' - ah! That was the other record.
This release is brilliant, I had a feeling it was going to be good from what I had read but this record really knocked my socks off! It's hard to believe actually that this is the same vocalist from Rival Mob on this Sabbath-esque doom record but he sounds awesome here. As Mark Sandwell said, this is better than a lot of the stuff put out by Southern Lord and Rise Above. Definitely my most played record over the last few weeks. Limited to 1000

 

Downpresser - Don't Need A Reason

 

I don't think Downpresser had put anything out since the Age Of Ignorance 7" a few years ago which I liked so when I saw they'd just released a new LP on 6131 I figured I'd check it out. Luckily this isn't at all bad. I wouldn't have minded scoring a colour vinyl version but this is the black vinyl version of 600. The packaging of this is really good on a side note, thick gate fold sleeve much like the Southern Lord releases.

 

 

Along with these 3 new releases I was also able to pick up 3 older releases that I'd been meaning to get for a while but hadn't been in the right place at the right time to actually purchase.

 

All Pigs Must Die - All Pigs Must Die

 

A friend of mine first told me to check this record out about 2 years ago and I've heard a few things from All Pigs Must Die since then but just haven't got round to actually buying anything. In fact they have a couple of more records out since this one but being anal about these things I of course couldn't even think about buying those before securing the bands first release. Being that it features Ben from Converge it's probably not hard to imagine what's going on here, great, fast, heavy stuff in the vein of bands like Nails. There were 850 black vinyl copies in the second and third press, I'm not sure which this is. Great album art.

 

 

Jesuit - Discography

 

Speaking of Converge related bands and great album art I was also finally able to pick up a copy of the Jesuit discography too. Despite hearing all this stuff before I'd never actually physically owned any Jesuit releases so this is a good way to get everything together in one place. As mentioned the cover of this thing is just insane. The record also comes with a CD inlay style book about the history of the band which is interesting too.

 

Chosen Ones - They Called Your Number

 

I was also able to pick up a missing Reaper Records release too. I remember being curious about what this record sounded like for quite a while when Mario blogged about it and confirmed to me that it was different from most Reaper releases. Mario did however describe it as assessable punk rock in the style of Harrington Saints and the Sydney Ducks though which is right up my street in punk rock terms so I made a note to pick it up if it was ever in front of me. Blue vinyl version of 724 copies.

 

 

Not a bad days work on the LP front and I also picked up a few 7" records from Rich's Speedowax label too.

Kickturn - The Untruth EP

This features members of Losin' It I believe. Pretty good stuff. I think Rich said this was some sort of pre-release copy but I forget now.

Machinist - Blacklist

 

 

This is the 16th Birthday Speedowax press

 

Kato - Buried With The Rain

I like this 7". Isis, Integrity, Full Of Hell style stuff. Nice!!

That completes the Ignite Records haul! Great stock at a great shop run by a really good dude. I'm gonna try and not leave it a year before my next visit this time.

Maimed For The Masses

As an unashamed old school wrestling fan (can't stomach anything after about 2003) when I heard Night Birds were releasing a new 7" on Fat Wreck with the title Maimed For The Masses I knew exactly what it was about and the cover art only went further to confirm my suspicions. Shit, Night Birds one of my favourite bands of 2012 releasing a record/song about one of my favourite ever wrestlers, Mick Foley? You know I wanted a piece of that action.

To the untrained eye a cover written in blood surrounded by thumb tacks and barbed wire might seem a bit over the top but when you know the subject matter and that these things are synonymous with Mick Foley and 'hardcore' wrestling (the man literally had his ear ripped off in a match in Germany) it makes perfect sense. I really like the Night Birds bat logo on the inlay too.

The back of the record sleeve and inlay are more traditionally Night Birds I think. The record it's self comes on two different versions, this standard black version and a limited to 70 gram vinyl version also on black. The sticker on the front differentiates the two records with the 70 gram version having a blue and yellow sticker. In fact the sticker is the only part of the sleeve that mentions the band name, I wonder if this was an after thought.

 

Mick Foley is also an author, so just for shits I took a photo of the record with the books I have by him.

 

 

 

 

                                     

Fresh Kills

I toyed with not buying this release because I'd already heard or had the tracks on it, and i'd already spent a fair amount on records that week. Then I remembered that this band rule so I slapped my self around the face and quickly headed over to Grave Mistake to order it.

This is Night Birds - Fresh Kills Vol.1 a collection of tracks from the bands 7" and Demo releases. All of this pressing is on black vinyl so I presume to add a limited addition/collectors version of the record Grave Mistake pressed 200 with this obi strip. I think by the time I came to order this, granted I think still on the first day, there were only a handful left.

 

The obi adds a little something I guess and looks decent against the black and white cover.

 

 

I really dig this band and could listen to this collection of songs as much as the awesome The Other Side Of Darkness LP they put out last year. They just don't really have a bad song.

 

 

 When I blogged about the TOSOD LP I mentioned that the centre label for some reason looked really good. Same can be said again here, the simple silver and black looks really good with the black vinyl (unlike my hand, I have a real problem taking pics of black vinyl).

I could do with adding the Killer Waves 7" to the collection but I haven't seen it anywhere for sale.

 



Night Birds

My laptops power supply has been on the blink, which means I've not been able to post anything up for a few days. Out of desperate hope I just tried it and through a combination of gentle precision movements, curse words that would make a sailor blush and sellotape I've got the thing working. Honestly, it was like a scene out of a mid 90's action film (think Lethal Weapon or Die Hard) where a dirty and bleeding but ruggedly handsome (me) cop is trying to defuse a bomb - beads of sweat and all.

I might be on borrowed time so lets get cracking. Night Birds - now I'd heard the name and wanted to check them out but I don't think it was until I read Mike over at The One Thing That Still Holds True write about them earlier this year that I finally did. I subsequently picked up the Night Birds 7" and the Midnight Movies 7". Instantly I thought they were great, almost as instantly I kinda forgot about them, I don't know why, I think I just bought a load of records around that time and they got pushed to the back. A few weeks ago though I listened to those 7"s again and thought 'I really must track down the LP', and wouldn't you know it as if by magic the very next day it appeared on the Vrevolution web store, and then said 'sold out' once I'd bought it so they either only got one in or it flew off the shelves.

The LP The Other Side Of Darkness is an extension of the earlier stuff and it hasn't been off my turntable this week. A super cool, B-movie, surf, rockabilly, punk, lo-fi mash up is the best way I can describe them (which is a shit way to describe them), Night Birds are a band who are oddly depressing, I guess in a similar way to the Dead Kennedys although the Kennedys comparison is a bit lazy I think, they've probably got as much in common with bands like The Meteors.

I don't really have any idea of pressing details or numbers for the LP, but I think I have the 2nd pressing as other versions I've seen have white centre labels as opposed to red. That might be shame actually as, although I can't really do it justice that red on black really pops from the black of the vinyl.

Maybe because it's late I can't seem to find the Midnight Movies 7" but here's the self titled one I spoke about earlier.

This like the LP is from Grave Mistake Records but again I've got no idea of pressing details or if other colours etc were available.

That simple cover and logo really suit the band though. In fact I think that Night Birds logo should have been used on the back cover of the LP in the top left corner, it would have looked bad ass.

So yeah that's Night Birds, great band just doing their own thing, check 'em out if you haven't already.

'The other side of darkness - The one you truly fear

There's no one watching over all of us down here

The other side of darkness- The one you can't face

It's the colour of cold and endless space

The other side of darkness'