Getting Earache

There's no rhyme or reason to my record buying most of the time and I'm so far out of synch with the order I've bought stuff I might as well feature these records quickly even though I've bought loads of stuff I'm yet to write about here before these.

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Earache Records saying they'd found some records in their warehouse they didn't know they had and they were all out of print and records they wouldn't be pressing again. You can guess what happened next right? Yeah I've clicked over there and checked out the unearthed gems. By the time I got there the heavy hitting super rare finds had been snapped up but a couple of things did catch my eye.

This is Lawnmowers Deth's 1993 album Billy. You know Lawnmower Deth right? crazy comedy metal and thats the end of the story. Well no actually. In '93 they released this album and it's got more in common with Green Day and the other american punk making it's way over here in the early to mid 90's. I remmeber hearing the album back then and thinking it was a dramatic change for the band. If they are taking the piss out of the genre then they do a bloody good job of it 'cos frankly this is a really decent slab of pop-punk.

So whilst adding Billy to my cart I HAD to look for something else too and this equally cheap little number jumped out at me.

Blood From The Soul - To Spite The Gland That Breeds also from 1993. The blurb underneath said that this was an industrial-metal album with Shane Embury from Napalm Death playing all the instruments. So what right? Well quite, but what caught my eye was the guy doing vocals on this - Lou Koller of Sick Of It All. I'd never heard of this but for the price figured it was a punt, especially as it wasn't in print anymore.
It sounds of course exactly how you'd imagine early 90's industrial type stuff to sound, drawing comparison to other bands of that ilk I haven't listened to in years Prong, Ministry, Misery Loves Company etc. It's not bad actually and whilst not really to my tastes exactly it's a decent listen and interesting to hear Lou singing on this kinda stuff.

Birds Going Confetti

I like Give alot, but I don't listen to them as much as I'd like to as their stuff is spread over like 5 different 7" records. So when I saw them all put together in one handy place on Marcus' blog I knew I had to pick the record up.

 

This is entitled Singles Going Confetti and was released for the bands world tour by Assault Records.

Pretty cool to have all the songs on one slab of wax and it also includes a bonus track exclusive to this release.

It's pressed on a good looking yellow vinyl and is limited to 160 on this colour with another 260 on black.

A side note and kind of a stupid point but the record also came in a plastic sleeve that I'd love to get more of for the rest of my collection. Good size, good thickness and some how seems to make the record look really good inside it, wonder where I can get more of these from?

Second record I'll feature in this post was another whim buy.

Birds In Row and their new album You, Me, & The Violence on Deathwish Records. I heard one track on this LP, the track Pilori and thought it sounded pretty good. So when I saw this in a UK distro I picked it up almost without hesitation (need records must buy, need records must buy).

I should have learnt my lesson with that Former Thieves record I spoke about a few posts ago though, as one track does not a record make. Don't get me wrong once again this is alright stuff it just hasn't really grabbed me at all. When this band rage they are pretty interesting but theres also alot of slower arty introspective moments that just don't do it for me at all here. I really don't know how much I'll listen to this, or maybe it needs more listens? I dunno.

Decent gate fold packaging on white vinyl. I'm not sure how many the white vinyl press is limited to although I believe there are three different colour ways.

I quite like the big poster included. I just heard a track off the new Code Orange Kids record that Deathwish is releasing next and I like it, something tells me I should listen to more of it before snapping that one up too though right?

Sir Admiral Rotting

Two records that I picked up recently here that are nothing alike in musical style but they share a common bond in that I'd to varying degrees been after both for a while.

First up, Rotting Out and their debut LP Street Prowl

I'd been after this record for ages but it just seemed to keep eluding me, every time a distro got it in I'd think 'cool, I'll grab that in a couple of days' and by the time I came back to pick it up it had all sold out. Finally I was in the right time at the right place to pick this up from Go The Distance.

Why are all the dudes in the band sporting their own merch? Who are they Iron Maiden? haha
Anyway I dig this record alot. Great paced modern hardcore that whilst nothing especially new holds up well against the other current hardcore heavyweights out there. This band should be more well known than they are.

This is the second press of the album and comes with this insert of a decent sized poster backed with the lyrics.

It comes on this glorious red with black marbling vinyl, which really changes shade when held up to the light. Good looking vinyl.

Next -

 

The wacky named Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell - Don't Hear It...Fear It. Ever since I picked up the Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats LP on a whim a few months ago I've been on the look out for something similar as I really love that record. I saw this on a couple of blogs and also on the Rise Above Records website the same label that released the Uncle Acid LP so thought it might satisfy the dirty garage rock itch that I've developed, so I made a mental note to check this out.

 



I promptly forgot all about this record of course so when I saw it staring back at me in a record shop a few weeks ago I took a blind leap of faith and picked it up. Funny story here, after I picked this record up in the store about 10 seconds later a couple came in and it quickly became apparent from their not so hushed whispers that this was the record they had come in to buy, after frantically looking for a second copy and following me down the vinyl rack they left empty handed...score!

This record is of course beautifully packaged just like the Uncle Acid one, that Rise Above sure do a nice job with their presentation. Gate fold sleeve this time and on ace thick (I presume 180 gram) green vinyl. Not sure of pressing info but I would guess this is of 500. This is a good listen too, I've only had a few listens and whilst it's not as immediate as the Uncle Acid album and doesn't quite grab me in the same way, this is good stuff that is a slightly different beast. I think with more listens I'll find more in it as it's got that sort of layered spacey sound.

Nation Of Bloggers

A record came this week that got me thinking about album covers. There's no doubt about it that album covers look at their most absolute glorious as a vinyl record cover. Tapes, Cd's and heaven forbid digital download covers just don't look anywhere near as nice. See this is my favourite album cover of all time, and if truth be told I'm not even entirely sure why!

Here it is. The Nation Of Ulysses and their 1992 album Plays Pretty For Baby. I've never owned this on record before, I bought it way back in the mid nineties on CD and have always thought it looked great as a record, I've just been waiting for the right copy and price to come along. It came along this week, super cheap and still sealed with another few records I bought off a guy.

So why that cover? Well, I've just always been drawn to it for some reason, it's something to do with those guys in their sharp as hell 2-tone suits, playing a sweaty raw punk show, there's just a real energy and class that jumps out at me. I absolutely love that cover, always have. It's not the greatest album in the world as much as I like it, Shit, it might not even be Nation Of Ulysses best album. But that cover is fantastic.

If you haven't heard Nation Of Ulysses before this album was released on Dischord and produced by Ian Mackaye and the band definitely have that DC sound but they also had other ideas that would be aped and copied years later by loads of bands, especially Refused, wanna know where most of the ideas on The Shape of Punk To Come came from? Right here! I mean N.O.U even have a track called The Shape Of Jazz To Come. The band also put themselves out there as what I can only imagine was a tongue in cheek far left political terrorist group, which I always thought was pretty cool and amusing.

The inner is pretty cool too, set out like those pages at the back of comics and what not when you were a kid and they advertised all the joke novelty items you could buy like X-Ray specs and Mr. Spock ears.

So anyway, it got me thinking and I'd love to know what other peoples favourite album covers are. Especially my fellow blog fiends. Let's see them guys. Do a post about your favourite album cover on your own blogs, that would be cool and interesting...to me at least.

MA Glory

Just a quick post before work because life is definitely getting in the way at the moment. I've got a few new things I'm itching to write about but just haven't had time, I'll get round to it though.

Anyway this is my copy of the Wolf Whistle release MA Glory. Which features members of Have Heart and Rival Mob. This is a pretty different beast to those bands though.

I like this, short sharp blasts of furious noisy hardcore. There's 11 songs on this 7" release which probably tells you just how short, but as a fan of Daughters and Curlupanddie etc I'm fine with that.

This thing has really decent packaging too and is on a good looking blue vinyl.

Red, White & Blue

You'd be forgiven for thinking you'd clicked on Mario's blog Across Your Face with this post, he's far more likely to post up some Oi style punk rock, but no it is indeed a bit of Oi I'm bringing you today.

This caught my eye whilst I was buying something else recently and the fact it features the Harrington Saints who I wrote about a while ago and Lars Frederiksens Old Firm Casuals sold it to me. It also helped that the packaging on this thing is pretty darn sweet.

So as you can probably guess from the cover this features two U.S bands the aforementioned Harrington Saints and Old Firm Casuals and also two bands from this side of the pond, Booze and Glory and Argy Bargy. Which One Are You?

The Harrington Saints track I'd heard from their album Pride and Tradition and it's a good fast and furious track. The Old Firm Casuals I'd been meaning to check out because I'm a fan of Lars' stuff but I hadn't got round to actually hearing them so this is my first exposure and I like their track on here, it was pretty much what I was expecting but Lars can do little wrong for me.

I have to say I prefer the two U.S bands on show here (damn!!) the two bands from the U.K provide a couple of fun tracks here with the Argy Bargy track starting slowly but finding it's feet with the 'there's no reason' chorus. The Booze and Glory track is annoyingly catchy too and they have some interesting elements in their sound actually, a little The Jam and even a little bit of a folk vibe. But i dunno i think my problem with UK Oi has always been it being very cockney, what can I say, I'm from the north of England!! HaHa

This is the second press of the release and this is supposed to be the 'Beer' colour out of 500. Strangest looking pint colour I've ever seen though.

Thieves Mourning

Couple of records quickly here. A few weeks ago I noticed that VRevolution had a SALE page appear on their website and on checking out what was there I noticed two records that I'd looked at in the past when buying from VR but never pulled the trigger on, but now they were sitting there at a very reasonable price I decided 'what the hell' and snapped them up. I guess the indecision and waiting paid off quite nicely here.

Firstly a band who's record I bought purely for one song. Former Thieves - The Language That We Speak.

 

I picked this up after hearing just the one track which I thought was pretty damn good. Trust Fund Kids is the track and it has a drop in it that goes into a riff that I challenge anyone to not start banging their head to. Seriously take a listen from 47 seconds in, you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, so this is on crystal clear vinyl limited to 500 copies.

Unfortunately, the rest of this album isn't quite as strong as that track for me. I mean there's nothing bad here, it's pretty decent screamy metal-core type stuff, but there's just a lot of other bands doing it better. But it will probably get some spins still now and again.

I included the picture below as it shows more clearly what colour the cover actually is. It looks really washed out in the photos above due to the lighting and the plastic still being on the record.

The second record I picked up is this. Day Of Mourning - Your Future's End on A389 Records.

Glorious album cover, that artwork absolutely pops and although it's hard to tell with my photography skills it is really vibrant colours.

I admit I know little about this band other than they were around few years ago in the late 90's and featured members of Pulling Teeth and Blue Monday. In fact they are very similar in sound to Pulling Teeth. Dwid from Integrity and Human Furnace from Ring Worm also feature on this LP.

Gate fold sleeve and some of the nicest looking vinyl of any release I have. Again, my photos are not really doing it justice but the record is beautiful. No idea of pressing numbers but this is the purple splatter first pressing.

It's actually pretty good stuff.