Back(track) To The Future

As we come to the end of 2013 one of the records I'm most looking forward to in 2014 is Backtracks Lost In Life. I posted up the taster 7" Can't Escape a few days ago and it's a promising sign for the LP that's to come. Anyway, on posting that up I realised that there was still one Backtrack release I didn't own.

Backtrack - Deal With The Devil b/w The '08 Demo

In 2010 The Limit Records (Dutch label I think) released Backtracks previous two 7" releases The '08 Demo and Deal With The Devil on a single 12". I'd looked at this a couple of times previously but as I already owned multiple copies of the aforementioned original releases I always found something else to spend my money on. It was finally time for completest sake to add this to the collection though.

As you can see the artwork is completely in keeping with artwork Backtrack are becoming well known for with their releases and at the time this continued the black and white theme of the first 7" releases. Obviously with the new LP sharing this style of art as did Darker Half this cover makes even more sense.

The pressing info for this release was 100 on White vinyl (pre-order edition), 100 on Silver vinyl (tour edition) and 300 on Black vinyl like the one pictured above. It goes without saying that the coloured versions were long gone by the time I finally pounced on this. It's good to have all the songs together in one place like this though, means I don't have to crack the 7"s out to listen to them.

Five In A Dive

As is tradition, the day after boxing day we ventured to this second hand record store I've spoken about previously that's in the middle of nowhere that always has a massive sale on that falls on this day. Usually I've been able to pick up some classic punk and metal records for next to nothing, but the place is going a bit down hill and despite promises to restock ('the thousands of records I've got in storage') the owner seems to be taking his sweet time about it. The LP hunt was a total bust so in desperation I headed over to the 7"s in the hope of finding anything just to make the trip slightly worthwhile. In the end I picked up these five original punk rock classics for around £1 a piece. Nothing rare or unusual here but good stuff I figured I'd throw up here before I put them away for ever.

Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia

This caught my eye simply because I hadn't seen this cover before. Usually I see the aeroplane cover - this one is much better.

Dead Kennedys - Kill The Poor

This comes with limited edition Biro on the front.

Sham 69 - If The Kids Are United

 

Classic! I like that cover too with the Punks, Skins etc crossed out

 

Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect Device

Who doesn't love the Stiff Little Fingers? This is their debut release

The Clash - London Calling

Rude Threat

A month or so ago I was making an order of I dunno five records lets say from a distro and once I'd ordered I got an email back saying one of the records was out of stock and did I want them to reimburse the price of that record or did I want to pick another? Shit, you know how it is, I'd ordered five records so you know I had my heart set on receiving five. So I told them to throw this in too.

Death Threat / Rude Awakening Split

Not long after suggesting the distro threw this in I remembered that Mario had written about this record and been disappointed with it, because of this I wasn't expecting a lot from the record and I didn't even listen to it for a while. Reading Mario's post again he's spot on with what he said. The Rude Awakening side of the record is really good, in fact it's over all too soon and it left me wanting more once the side had finished. Flipping over to the Death Threat offerings though it's a much different story. Musically Death Threat sound pretty good but the vocals leave a lot to be desired. Mario described the singer as sounding 'bored', to me it sounds like the vocals were recorded completely separately to the music as if the singer wasn't listening to the same thing. The vocals are just completely devoid of life, energy and aggression. A shame as I enjoyed the Lost At Sea 7".

I got the Red pressing of the record out of 700. It's the most common pressing but as the out of 500 pressing is Black I'm alright with that. There's also 300 on a nice looking Red and Black Swirl.

This record was worth getting for the Rude Awakening tracks so not a complete bust. Both bands have a nice spread on the inlay to the record too which makes up for the pretty dull ass cover.

Bad Habits

2013 has been one hell of a year for Speedowax Records and I'm running out of hyperbole to praise their releases. They've just been quietly going about their business putting out quality release after quality release. Some of the bands they've put out over the year like Kickturn, The Catharsis, Wrong Idea, Cross Me, Flex, Step Aside etc will take the Pepsi challenge with bands put out by your Bridge Nines and Reapers of the world any day. This latest release is no exception:

Bad Habits - Parting Words

 

Fans of Backtrack and Expire will lap this band Bad Habits up, they play a similar brand of that fast aggressive modern hardcore that the two aforementioned hammer out. This 7" is a proper rager with enough groove to get your head banging and finger pointing.

The record was released on black vinyl only I believe and is hand numbered out of 93 as part of Speedowax's 16th Birthday press. I have number 47. This is one of the best covers I've seen on a Speedowax record too, it's really vibrant and stands out a lot with good artwork too.

Like Cross Me that I wrote about a few posts ago I'll be keeping an eye out for future Bad Habits releases as this one is pretty impressive and if you aren't doing so already keep an eye on what Speedowax are doing in 2014.

Can't Escape The Dog Pound Nation

 

I love Backtrack and Bridge Nine have just released a nice little taster 7" of two tracks - one from from Backtracks new full length 'Lost In Life' and one track which I presume is exclusive to this release . They did this with Expire just before 'Pendulum Swings' dropped and personally i'm a fan of this strategy. More records from bands I like...Winner!

Backtrack - Can't Escape

This was released on two colours Translucent Blue out of 700 and Clear with Blood Red Splatter out of 300. I picked up a copy of both obviously. Interestingly the Blue version was and is pictured as a lot darker on the Bridge Nine site, mine though is really light blue and looks more like a slightly darker coke bottle clear type colour to the naked eye. Wonder if there's a couple of different versions of the blue or if they just came back lighter than expected?

Musically this is more of the same of what Backtrack have been doing really well over the last few years and with this and the up coming full length the juggernaut shows no sign of slowing down. Great stuff!

How To Clean Everything

Seeing as the last post was of a punk rock persuasion it only makes sense to post up another recent punk rock classic purchase.

Propagandhi - How To Clean Everything

I bought this when I picked up Botch We Are The Romans I think to use up all the money I had in my pocket and also because I'm incapable of ever just buying one record in a store.

Originally out in '93 this is the repress with bonus tracks from this year. Only on black vinyl though unfortunately as there were coloured versions. I haven't listened to Propagandhi since 2000's Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes so have no idea what they sound like these days. I can still hang with the first three records though.

Let's Go

Remember back in march when I wrote about Rancid's ...And Out Come The Wolves, I said I still needed to pick up a copy of Let's Go? No? Well I did..

Rancid - Let's Go

I'd been avoiding this record for a while, not because I don't like it, shit, I love it, it's my favourite Rancid record actually. No I was avoiding it because it's really only available on two formats, double picture disc and double 10" vinyl. Two formats as I mentioned a couple of posts ago I'm less than enamoured with. I'm sure I've seen this on normal black vinyl before but I could be wrong.

Anyway, I finally took the plunge when I stumbled into a random record store one afternoon with a bit of change in my pocket and this was literally the ONLY decent record they had. Hell it was cheap enough and in my hand, I had to finally buy it 10" or not.

It's a well put together package in fairness and the double white vinyl at least matches my copy of A.O.C.T.W. It's a gatefold sleeve too which looks pretty good. When I bought this recently it's the first time I'd listened to all 23 tracks back to back in years - still a fantastic punk record.

We Are The Romans

Back in the late 90's my musical taste took a massive detour into the mental and chaotic side of metal/hardcore. This record, along with Dillinger Escape Plans Calculating Infinity, Envys Angel's Curse Whispered In The Edge Of Despair, Drowningman's Busy Signal At The Suicide Hotline and Converges When Forever Come Crashing would usher in that style that I'd listen to through the early 2000's and would introduce the term Math-core to the masses.

Botch - We Are The Romans

This is the recent repress of the classic landmark record for the genre. I'd been meaning to grab one since it was announced but had got sidetracked, so I was pleased when I visited a record store that had it and I was able to pick a copy up.

Pressed on a heavyweight gatefold sleeve this is really well presented on double vinyl. The only downer is it's once again on Black rather than one of the colour variants. I always have mixed feelings on this as in an ideal world I'd have snagged one of the Blue or Clear or Blue and Clear splatter versions, but then again you can't beat the feeling of finding a record you want in a physical store and whilst I'm then at the mercy of whatever colour they have (usually the most common) I am at least shopping in an actual store and doing my small bit to keep such stores alive.

Superb record anyway and whilst eventually back in the day I got a little bored of this style of music this record like the others I mentioned earlier still more than holds strong today.

Converge / Hellchild

Converge/Hellchild - Deeper The Wound

When it comes to records there's really only two things I don't care for - Picture Discs and 10" records. Like most record collectors though this aversion to the two formats doesn't stop me picking up either when it suits me. So at some point soon I'll throw up a 10" I picked up recently but for now it's the above picture disc. My quest to build up my Converge collection meant I had to pick up this version of the bands 2001 split with Hellchild.

In fairness it's not a complete bust, the record looks pretty good and is interesting in that it is reverse grooved (plays from the inner of the record out). This is the U.S press of 1000 and was the first release that Deathwish put out.

The Earth Is Flat

Supertouch - The Earth Is Flat

Because of the delay in posting this one up Mike over at The One Thing That Still Holds True kinda took the words out of my mouth regarding my initial feelings on Supertouch way back in the day. Probably because of the time I first heard this record (mid 90's) and what I was into at the time I just didn't get into this record at all. In fact it's only been in the last couple of years that I've come to appreciate it at all as I feel my musical taste buds have changed and maybe even matured slightly. But since then I've been hoping for a repress of this sucker and it finally arrived.

It's ace looking too on Blue vinyl that compliments the cover really well and something about that centre label with the same colour blue also making this thing just look really great.

This repress is on a gatefold sleeve unlike the original too which also looks good and gives it a quality feel. 550 pressed on blue vinyl.

Into The Hellmouth

I'd been wanting a copy of Rise & Fall's debut LP for a while but I'd wanted to pick up a copy of the original press, for some reason I don't care for the cover on the version Deathwish put out a couple of years ago. It looks fine on screen but I've held it in my hands a couple of times and preferred to wait it out for an original copy. There's that record collector logic again.

Rise & Fall - Hellmouth

The black on black cover of this original press is far better. Unfortunately when it came through it has a fair bit of ring wear as you can see. What's wrong with people? Put your records in a plastic sleeve and stand the damn things up. Judging by the ring wear this has obviously been stacked with other things (probably not records) on top of it.

The covers quite hard to see in the first picture, this one gives a slightly better look at it. I picked this up on eBay really cheap so I'm not too fussed about the less than 100% perfect condition of the sleeve. The record it's self plays fine.

Rise & Fall are such a good band. I love all their records they are ridiculously consistent. I'm pleased to add this version to the collection. I believe this press of the record consisted of clear and black vinyl versions.

Blue Nothing

A little later than I would have liked to post this one up comes the second new full length release from Revelation Records of the year.

Down To Nothing - Life On The James

I like this new release from Down To Nothing a lot. Is it their best work? No. Is it a quality record non the less? You bet ya it is. It's infectious and I think musically shows a maturity we can afford Down To Nothing in 2013. This could be one of my summer go to records for a few years to come. Shame it's f'ing freezing outside!

As a Yorkshire man I'm on board with a track called 'Sheffield' too. This was pressed on Blue vinyl and Green vinyl. I landed the Blue version. I actually don't know which is most limited. The Blue vinyl with it's White marbling looks great though.

New Orleans Is The New Vietnam

Eyehategod - New Orleans Is The New Vietnam

Eyehategod are one of those bands that I like but I just don't listen to them very often at all, nor before recently did I actually own any records by them, my listening was limited to iTunes. So when perusing the 7" section in a local record store I couldn't help picking up this one song single when I came across it.

This is the limited edition purple vinyl version with an etched B-side

Bus Stop Madonnas

Bus Stop Madonnas - S/T

My wife being of a more punk rock persuasion than me recently recommended this Nottingham band to me with an excited 'check these out'. Two girls playing balls out (if you pardon the expression) short, snappy, lo-fi, fuzzy punk rock. It's good fun stuff and I really enjoyed listening to this despite originally not buying it for myself - I picked it up for the good lady in a Nottingham record store. I think this is self released but someone needs to release this bands next record for them!

250 pressed on this nice blue vinyl, this is number 21. The record also came with a badge/pin of the cover art. Always a winner in my book.

Check out this video of the band playing at Music Exchange in Nottingham here and you can listen to the whole record on the bands bandcamp here

Don't get the Wrong Idea but if you Cross Me you better Step Aside

Speedowax Records have been releasing some good shit recently and here's three awesome records from them.

Step Aside - Reaching Out

Every blogger and his dog has written about this cracking record from Step Aside and Speedowax pressed up some copies for the bands final show in October of this year. It's been remastered by Pirates Press too. I THINK this is one of the 25 pre-order versions of the record numbered 18/25 but I always find Speedowax pressing details slightly hard to follow (do you just make it up Rich? haha) Anyway great record and a great band.

Wrong Idea - What's Left Inside

Speedowax also recently put out this record by Wrong Idea who may or may not still be a band, I can't quite work it out (so many questions). They do feature two guys from Step Aside and play a similar style of stuff. This record is fantastic. 195 were pressed on this 'cloudy clear' vinyl.

Cross Me - S/T

Cross Me are a really good band and this 7" is absolutely killer. I'd never heard of the band before reading the Speedowax description but I was immediately intrigued as they were likened to Expire and Rotting Out. You can read the description and an interview here, pick up a copy whilst you are there as this band are definitely in the vein of the bands they've played/toured with such as the aforementioned and Take Offense. By rights they should be the next band to blow up like those guys. This record is that good, especially as I presume it's their debut. Check it out!!
88 of these pressed up with different coloured sleeves. Mines numbered 43.