Final Pictures From The Hotel Apocalypse

I must admit, I kinda bought this one on a whim. I like Since By Man but I'd never heard this their final record before. I don't know why actually, I used to have 'We Sing The Body Electric' and 'A Love Hate Relationship' on CD and liked both, I guess I just missed this when it was released and being that the band had split it didn't occur to me to ever listen to it.

Since By Man - Pictures From The Hotel Apocalypse

    

The reason this caught my eye is because it's the final show version of the record limited to 135 copies and pressed on 140 gram black vinyl. It was going for such a cheap price I figured I'd show it some love and the record would look as good in my collection as anyone else's. The final show press is explained as this - hand-assembled and numbered covers. Half of these were pressing overages, the other half were vinyl from first pressing copies which had their gatefold covers damaged during shipping.

 

 

The CD version of this record was released by Revelation Records but I guess in 2005 Rev weren't pressing much on vinyl? as the vinyl release was handled by Init Records. I've got number 75.

 

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No Pocky For Kitty

I picked up this Superchunk record on eBay a few weeks ago whilst in the middle of a 90's nostalgia kick.

Superchunk - No Pocky For Kitty

This is an original 1991 German press of the record on City Slang. I hadn't heard this record for years before purchasing it, in fact I hadn't really heard anything from Superchunk or really thought about them for that matter since the Learned To Surf 7" they released a few years ago. I had a real desire to hear this 90's classic again though and it doesn't disappoint.

I was talking to my friend Matt-Dawg about Superchunk a few days after giving this a spin and a quick Google search turned up the fact that they are playing a couple of shows in the UK in December with Girls Against Boys. Girls Against Boys just so happen to be Matt-Dawg's favourite band ever, so tickets we're quickly booked and we're gonna go catch the Leeds show! It's at a small venue so should be cool. I'll be interested to see if anyone else cares about Superchunk in 2013.

Abra Kadavar

Long flowing shiny locks, perfectly sculptured beards that ZZ Top would be envious of, it must another 70's inspired rock/doom record.

Kadavar - Abra Kadavar

I heard this band a while ago and thought they were great, so as soon as Mike posted up his copy a few months ago I knew I should grab a copy myself. Obviously, I subsequently, as is often the case, listened to another band and forgot about Kadavar until I saw the record in my local record store a few weeks back.

Typically the one problem I fall foul to with buying from record stores is being at the mercy of whatever vinyl colour they have in stock as opposed to having a choice. It probably goes without saying that whilst there are loads of colour versions of this record across it's five pressings I of course have a black version. Ah well, gives me something to hunt down I guess.

Gatefold sleeve that includes a big poster.

Is it just me or does the Kadavar member with the more restrained facial hair look like a dead ringer for Bill Bailey?

Covers Not Comin Correct

There's music fans and then there's those of us that take our shit a little more serious. I've always been a massive music geek and I've always collected music in some form or other and generally spent way too much time thinking about aspects of it that most average music fans don't. I've spent many a bored bus/train ride, meeting, sleepless night, compiling top ten lists of all sorts of shit - ten best 80's hardcore records, ten best metal guitar riffs, ten favourite albums of all time, ten favourite non hardcore albums of all time, ten favourite non rock albums of all time, ten favourite.....well you get the idea. I've even put together the odd super group in my head, yeah I've got too much time on my hands.

Recently, on the heels of a post I did about my favourite album cover I was thinking about some of the worst album covers out there. There's some absolute horrors believe me, which lead me to thinking of the worst record cover on a record I own. I reckon it's this one...

Comin Correct - One Scene Unity

1998's One Scene Unity from Rick Ta Lifes side project Comin Correct. Look at it, you can see what they are going for, the fist of justice, a main stay in hardcore imagery for sure. The blood beneath showing the remnants of ones enemies. But really, look at it!!! It looks like a marigold rubber glove cleaning up ketchup. I mean it doesn't even look like a real hand, it looks like a prosthetic limb although I'm assured it is real by this on the Goodlife website (a label I really love) ' This is MY fist, I had to put it on the scanner for about 20 minutes straight, fuck my hand hurt !!!'

 

And don't get me started on the 'blood' or the graffiti script on the hand (granted it's '98 so maybe the text can be excused). It's a horrific cover. What's even more shocking is that this is the European version released by Goodlife Recordings, the U.S version on Triple Crown swaps the black background for a kind of balsa wood affair and looks even worse.

 



My version saves it's self slightly by being on coloured vinyl. Listed as 'Crème' for some reason, this is on purple with some black smudges. Can anyone think of a record cover worse? Let me know

Modern Life has Buried Me

So record collector / record blogger logic here. You walk into a record shop with some cash in your pocket and don't find a huge amount you want, you still have to leave with a record right?? So if you have cash in your pocket, don't find a huge amount you want BUT also have a loyalty card for said shop that involves some discount, well that means you have to leave with two records right? Yep that's definitely the record collector maths. Knew you guys would be with me on this one.

That's how it was a few weeks ago when I picked up these two records. I'd really enjoyed the Between The Buried And Me debut I'd picked up a while ago so thought it only right I also add the follow up to the collection.

Between The Buried And Me - The Silent Circus

This record originally came out in 2003 but this is a 2011 repress of the album from Victory Records. On double LP this is I believe what the pressing info calls the 'Peach' colour variant. I dunno how apt that is though, looks more like 'gobstopper' to me.

I hadn't listened to this band for years till recently but I've definitely enjoyed these records with this second one being the better of the two. I've never heard anything past the next record Alaska but I might have a listen to some of the later stuff now.

The gatefold packaging looks nice. Victory have done a decent job of these reissues, which is good as I have another on the way from them I'm quite looking forward to.

Modern Life Is War - Fever Hunting

I honestly had no intention of buying this record. I liked Modern Life Is War's three albums first time round don't get me wrong, especially Witness, but it had been around 6 years since their last release and something just told me that this record would be terrible. I read a few reviews to the contrary of course but dismissed it still. Of course, that afternoon when it was in front of me I just thought "Fuck It" and picked it up regardless.

In actual fact Modern Life Is War haven't missed a beat in the years they've been away and the chants of 'Old Fears, New Frontiers' that bring this record crashing in set the tone for a good comeback record and a pretty natural follow up to Midnight In America.

The record it's self comes on this Olive green colour vinyl. It's not exactly limited though (that's what happens when you dismiss a record early) with 3500 copies on this colour. The record must have sold well though as Deathwish are now onto a second pressing.

The record also comes with a full size booklet with the lyrics to each song taking up a double page. Like it, more records should have these.

Terror Life & Death

Picked up another copy of this a couple of weeks ago.

Terror - Life and Death

 

I already had a copy of this 7" with the Zero Tolerance cover (another record I thought I'd written about on here but turns out I haven't) but I couldn't resist picking up a copy with the standard cover.

 



This is a second press copy of the record on blue and white mix vinyl, it's of 1460 copies so is far from rare but it's another record for the Terror and Reaper collection if nothing else.

Split Disorder

I like early Vision Of Disorder a lot. In fact I'm with the band up to and including the second full length 'Imprint'. There doesn't seem to be that much love for them these days which is a shame but I guess that's the product of some frayed label relationships and a seriously bogus shift in musical style in the early 2000's. I really wanted to love their record that came out last year but although it was a return some what to the 'V.O.D sound', I was just kinda nonplussed about it.
Regardless, over the last year or so I've been on the look out for a couple of their earlier 7" releases and I finally found this one on eBay for cheap (I just don't want to spend loads of money on bands like this that I don't listen to anymore).

Vision Of Disorder / Loyal To None - Split Atom

This is a 1994 split release with Loyal To None on Hearsay Records and features an earlier version of my favourite V.O.D song D.T.O (Drop The Oppressor). According to discogs 1000 were pressed on black and black alone.

The sleeve on this screams 90's. I seem to remember a time when most hardcore 7" records looked like this.

 

The inner sleeve seems to suggest that this is number 380/1000



And for old times sake:

The Unwavering Spirit Of Sound and Fury

When I started writing this blog last year, it was almost entirely down to wanting to do something creative now and again and enjoying on an almost daily basis, the already established record blogs I was reading. As a great aside to this I've been able to have conversations with some truly awesome people who either just read my blog or write blogs themselves. Some of the guys who are part of this little community are some of the most outstanding dudes I've ever met (or chatted to via email and the like as the case may be here). Chris over at Unwavering Spirit (check out his blog if you haven't already) is one such dude. He emailed me not long ago saying he had something he thought I'd like and could he have my address. I obliged and a short time later these landed on my doormat.

6131 Records Sound & Fury 2011 Covers Set

Man, who doesn't love mystery mail? Chris had sent me through the 6131 records set of five releases with a special 2011 Sound & Fury fest cover. He was quite right of course, I do like these especially as I had all but one of the records with the standard cover so it's always nice to get a more limited version of any record you already have. So first in the set is the Minority Unit Demo.

 



All the records are numbered out of 50 and all of these are numbered 24 so I'm presuming they were sold as a set rather than individually? Also in the set is:

Swamp Thing - Self Titled

FocusedxMinds - Stay Focused

Hardside - Crucified

Cornered - Fuck Off

A great little collection that I'm more than happy to have in my collection. So thanks again Chris for the unexpected hook up!!

I really need to start taking photos with a digital camera rather than my phone, my pictures of these lovely slabs of wax have been weak for far too long. Next post maybe....honest!

Demo Corner

I like Cornered a lot, I have a couple of the bands other 7" releases and I've always been impressed by what I've heard. What seems like forever ago now I picked up a copy of the bands Demo 2009 release on Crucial Attack.

Cornered - Demo 2009

The stuff on show here is also first grade and I was soon banging my head and pointing my finger in my living room whilst listening to this - some times I must look like a proper idiot haha.

I did have some trouble with the pressing info for this one though. I can find info on the black pre-order version and the standard orange pressing but not the standard black pressing. Any ideas?

Fuck!

United State Of Mind

I think like most people I was pretty eager for the arrival of the new Take Offense record. The band had I think, won most over with Under The Same Shadow the EP that was to be a taster for this release and it seemed they had really found a style/sound of their own. So I took the plunge and pre-ordered from the Reaper store despite this being quite costly these days.

Take Offense - United States Of Mind

 If truth be told that Take Offense sound has disappeared some what on this release, but then again there was a decent amount of time between the two records and I'm thinking there was a line up change in the mix too. This is a good offering from Take Offense but I do think it's side step rather than a leap forward for the band who seem to be exploring the metal-crossover aspect to their sound a lot deeper here. I've been that busy that this has only had a handful of spins though so that opinion could change massively.

 



This is the clear vinyl version of the record and also the rarest colour of the three pressings. Although I think the silver and green versions do look better. Surprisingly there are copies of this pressing left at the Reaper Records store and a lot of the other colours too. This also came with a nice big poster of the album artwork which is always nice, especially as the artwork on display here is pretty damn cool.

 

Obviously, ordering from the states meant I was gonna throw some other things in my basket too so I picked up another couple of Take Offense items.

 

Take Offense - Live At SoCal Slam

 

 

This is a pretty cool release from Reaper. I can get behind live releases like this when they are put together as well as this. More Please. 

 

 

This is the red vinyl version of the 7" which also comes on black vinyl. The pressing is of 500 in total but I'm not sure what the split between the red and black pressings is. 250 of each maybe? Once again great packaging on display here with a nice little booklet of Take Offense photos, tour flyers and the like.

 

 

Take Offense - Place Your Bet (flexi single)

 

 

So this I pretty much just added for the sake of it and also for the novelty of it being a flexi single. I'm guessing that was the thinking here from Reaper - novelty, as I have no idea why else you'd bother pressing this as a flexi single. 250 copies pressed.

 

This was a lot of Take Offense all at once from Reaper and I'm really wondering if the label was/is expecting them to really blow up huge with the release of USOM? Sadly, I'm not convinced that is going to happen.