Bits from the Bay

I'm sitting about and bored so I'm gonna post this little lot of stuff I scored from eBay last week. I got them all from the same guy and the prices were correct so I scooped 8 things from him. Now some of these I already had but in different versions, some I didn't, non of it's new, quite the opposite, but it might be of interest still.

Champion - Count Our Numbers - standard stuff but It's a great record and I didn't have it on black.

Next Up 3 Ten Yard Fight 7"s - Demo 1995 which I've never owned before, Hardcore Pride on Black and The Only Way on dark red.

Hard Stance - Face Reality, which of course features a Pre-Inside Out Zack De La Rocha on Guitar.

Right Brigade - S/T on Pink Vinyl.

Standard Issue - As We Grow on white.

Throwdown - Drive Me Dead.

Iron Monkey

I had no idea this had been released on vinyl until I saw it posted up on the ever brilliant Couch Slouch blog.

As soon as I set eyes on it I raced over to Earache Records hoping to score one of the other less limited colour pressings as I assumed this version would have all gone. Did I overestimate how many people would be trying to get their grubby mitts on this? Is it because of the lack of hype for the release? I dunno but I saw straight away that they had the 'Shrimp Pink' limited to 100 pressing still for sale....score!

It's initially an odd choice of colour but I guess baring in mind Iron Monkey have a song called Shrimp Fist and that the same colour is used on the cover maybe not. I assume that's what Earache have tried to do here, match the colour pressings to the album cover. Stale Piss (yellow) 200, Iron (grey) 300 and Black.

I'd not listened to this for a few years actually and I'd almost forgot how evil Johnny's vocals were and how totally unique the band sounded especially back in the late 90's. It even prompted a confused 'what IS this?' from my wife, which I always view as a bonus. They sound great here though, for what I think is the albums first outing on vinyl, and do a great job of transporting me back in time to when I first heard this in 97 or 98. Isn't it great when music can do that? There's a bonus track too as I don't believe Cornucopia was on the original release.
I'm not always a huge fan of this type of thing (with exceptions) but Iron Monkey always seemed to do the doom/sludge thing with a swagger and sense of humour/tongue in cheek that you couldn't help but get involved in.

All label  proceeds go to the UK National Kidney Federation too which is a nice touch. Earache still have the other two colour variations left but the 'shrimp' has now gone it seems.

Dead Swans Split

This Is the new Dead Swans release on Thirty Days Of Night Records (a label i'm always a little biased towards as they are based in Leeds where I'm originally from). I like Dead Swans I've been a fan since they first surfaced and I think they are one of the UK's premier bands. This is two solid tracks of what you've probably come to expect from them, its fast, rowdy, metallic hardcore in the same style that they've cemented on albums 'Sleepwalker's and 'Anxiety and Everything Else', both of which are cracking.

On the flip side Architects the band this 7" is shared with don't really do it for me. I'd heard them before and I actually thought my opinion was about to change with the opening to their first track, but by the time the clean singing came in at the end of the song, my view hadn't changed. They're an alright band, it's just not my kind of thing at all.

This is the clear with red splatter version limited to 200. TDON like Reaper and other labels, have if memory serves made Black vinyl the rarest version on the last few releases I've got from them. Who started this trend? 100 Black and another 200 on white with purple splatter.

Off!

I'm so far behind with blogging stuff because my laptops been screwed it isn't even funny. But i'm back on it now baby.
I'm so behind though that Marcus beat me to this OFF! release a short while ago, and the fact that he has the super sweet white version seems to make this post a little redundant,'cos you know I'm jealous haha. But hey let's get it out of the way anyhow.
I've been on a more punk rock diet recently, I guess thats just the mood I'm in.

Great LP this, 16 fuzzy, dirty songs in about as many minutes that just makes you go 'YESSS!!' and that white version will find it's way to me at some point i'm sure...I got nothing but time.

The River Card

Stoke-On-Trents The River Card are a great band. I was in a band that played with them in 2010 I think it was, it was a pretty hefty bill and on that day they were the band that stuck out to me.

This is their new LP Momentum which is a pretty apt title as the band certainly seem to be gathering just that in both shows and sound. They've recently toured with Backtrack et al, although they still don't seem to be getting the press they deserve.

I really enjoyed their last 7" The Great Fall and this carries on nicely from there, adding a few more nuances and tweeks to the sound along the way,which is still stripped down balls out hardcore. I have the white with red splatter version limited to 100 but there's also a white version limited to 150. There's copies left of both at www.therivercard.bigcartel.com

Get involved.

Kiss It Goodbye

I was just about to post up something completely different, but whilst I was doing it there was a knock at the door. Door knock at 10am...must be the postman...and if the postman be a knocking it means my turntable will shortly be a rocking.

I've always been a fan of Kiss It Goodbye and especially this album She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not so I'm stoked to have it on vinyl after Revelation recently repressed it. I have the white version but It was also repressed on clear I believe. No idea of numbers. I can't wait to drop the needle on this sucker.

As part of the order I also picked up a 7" by reformed UKHC stalwarts Freebase. I don't think I've heard Freebase since about '98. I Saw them live a few times in the day and they were always ok so I added it to my basket just out of curiosity.

Terror - Shhhhhh!

So a few posts back I mentioned that when I bought the Expire 7" from Bridge Nine it was actually just to bump up an order on something else. This is what I had actually ordered, Terror - No Regrets, No Shame. The reason I didn't post about it though is that I wasn't sure what I had.

When I first opened this package the first thing that jumped out at me was a handwritten note from Bridge Nine saying 'More Rare Color shhhh'. And when I inspected the record it's self it certainly wasn't what I had ordered. I'd originally placed the order for the 'half orange, half gray' LP. This was definitely not gray, this sucker was most definitely clear or 'smoke' as the Bridge Nine discography now calls it.

See now they've added it I figure I can mention it, plus it helps that I actually know what it is. There's no numbers as of yet on any of the versions but this one doesn't appear to actually be for sale so I'm hoping it's reasonably rare.

It's a good looking record with some decent packaging and I'm really pleased and grateful Bridge Nine saw fit to hook me up with this version.

Give Error?

Just a quick one.

With my laptop once again playing up i'm having to post using my IPhone, as I was looking at the photos on the phone I saw a couple of pics of the Give Flowerhead 7" that i'd sent to Sean at Youngblood Records. I'd sent them as both sides of my version had the same label (Kiss The Flame) on each side. Sean was pretty interested in them as he wasn't aware of this mistake and said he hadn't seen any others like this. He even mailed me again a few days later to say he'd looked at the rest of the stock he had and hadn't any others like this either.

You can tell they are different sides as one has a little ink spot on it.

Any body else have this error?

Give me Therapy?

This weekend I stumbled across a second hand record shop in Yorkshires most easterly outpost, the city known as Hull. An unwelcoming grey landscape almost forgotten by the rest of civilised society. Anyway, I found this - Therapy's Troublegum album from '94.

Now it ain't hardcore or punk but god damn I loved this album back then, and it still gets as occasional play from me even now. So I was pretty pleased to find It on green vinyl.

That first song 'Knives' pulls me in every time. For me they went down hill at an alarming rate after this album, and never managed to repeat this wonderful blend of punk/metal/rock with pop sensibility.

New Age Strife

A while ago I was bemoaning Flatspot Records delivery speed. They had the audacity to take over a month to deliver me my lovely goods. Well New Age Records make Flatspot look like over night couriers. 6 Months it's taken for these two Strife records to get to me, I only bought them on a whim in the first place.

It's two copies of the My Fire Burns On 7" - The '77 Pink version limited to 77 copies and the Grey with Yellow version of which 350 were pressed.

I'm hoping as some way of a 'dude, sorry it took 6 months' they did throw in some stickers and these two 7"s.

Last Of The Believers, Paper Ships EP on what's actually a really nice thick clear grey.

Amendment Eighteen, This Years Enemy on grey. Which judging by the ring wear has been hanging around New Age Towers for quite some time.

I've never heard of either band, they might be awesome, I'm guessing they ain't.

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'