Tough Luck story for a great label

My man Mario over at Across Your Face has written a couple of great pieces recently entitled 'How to run your label', where he's focused on record labels he feels have gone the extra mile for what ever reason. Well I'm gonna ride his coat tails a little here and do the same, coincidently around a release that I read about on his blog.
The release in question is this - Tough Luck - Fifth Column on Last Anthem Records. After reading about it on Across Your Face and the comparisons made to Backtrack I didn't hesitate to cruise straight over to the Last Anthem site and snap one up. Glad I did.

Just to be different to Mario who had the Gold version of the release I ordered the red and white split version. A little later Phil from Last Anthem mailed me to say they didn't have that version left but he would send another version and chuck in a freebie to sweeten the deal. Before I had chance to reply though he mailed again saying to ignore him as he had now found what I presume was the last copy of the red and white split. Of course I replied saying thanks but was jokingly unhappy with his tease of a freebie, he told me not to worry and he'd still hook me up. Boy did he..as you can see he sent me the red/white AND gold versions of the record.

And it really is a cracking record, the Backtrack similarity's are definitely there for all to hear, but as I'm a huge fan of that band I'm more than okay with that. Tough Luck have enough about them to stand on their own two feet with seven blisteringly good tracks here. I challenge anyone reading this to listen to the end riff of 'Fixes Of Hurt' MP3 here and not wanna start moshing hard. This is definitely gonna get some spins on my turntable. And this will be a band I'll be following from now on. No idea of pressing numbers but at a guess I'd say red and white is the rarest???

The reason I'm wanting to give Last Anthem a special mention though as if that wasn't enough, is that Phil's 'freebie' didn't stop there, no, there were FOUR more records in the package that arrived (in a week from the states I hasten to add).

Crooked Ways - Crimes Of Passion on Blue Marble

Crooked Ways - How To Break Hearts on Black Marble

Crooked Ways play some pretty decent melodic hardcore

Pushing On - S/T on Maroon vinyl

Good stuff from Pushing On. Kinda snotty youth-crew with a Minor Threat/very early Beastie Boys vibe. I like it.

Punchout VS Vengeance - Split on Green (this might be the thickest 7" I've ever seen)

Both bands are similar and at the heavier end of the spectrum, Vengeance in particular impressed me as they are a little more straight up than Punchout who are more of a Metal-core style band from what's on display here. Good stuff though.

So there ya go. When you buy as many records as I and certainly my fellow bloggers do, I always think those labels that impress for what ever reason deserve a special mention, and certainly Phil went beyond the call of duty here. Ironically after I'd made my initial purchase I spotted another record I fancied checking out but thought I'd better wait before ordering it, to see what Last Anthems service was like. I'm gonna head over now and make that order.

If you want to check out Tough Luck head over to the store, theres still copies available http://lastanthemrecords.storenvy.com/

Out Crowd

I pre-ordered this new release from Reaper months ago (i think) and then forgot all about it, so I was surprised when a package from them came through the letter box. Truth be told I'd ordered it on the strength of Reapers roster, I'd never heard the band before.

This is Out Crowd and their new 7" release Just Us. It's pretty good stuff actually, fast snotty old school hardcore, which is a bit of a change from some or Reapers recent releases. Not that's a bad thing at all.
Looks like i pre-ordered the more limited version on red which is of 400, Theres a green version of 1600 too. I don't know why I didn't order both actually. I'm thinking this was a late night half asleep purchase.

What does that centre hands drawing remind me of? Insted - Bonds of Friendship maybe?

Bridge Nine lot

I'd been meaning to pick up this record for ages. I'd had it on my iTunes for quite some time and like it a lot but for some reason I just kept stalling on pulling the trigger. No idea why, I've spent money, more money even on stuff I like less, just something about the price I kept seeing it for. Anyway when I saw that Bridge Nine had it on their web store for $5 I knew my patience had paid off.

Mother Of Mercys - Symptoms Of Existence LP. This is the Black/Gray/Blue Swirl Vinyl limited to 700. There is also a Black and White swirl version (1000) but I think the pressing plant messed up as the two colours are so similar Bridge Nine had to put a blue Mother of Mercy stamp on the record inner sleeve to differentiate between the two. Good record anyway and at that price it's a STEAL!

Whilst buying this I also noticed Bridge Nine had a special '4 for $20' deal on that weekend. 4 LP's sadly of their choice for $20. Well that sounds like a deal to me and I needed to make the postage worthwhile so I added the deal to my cart eager to see what would show up.

First record I pulled out was this. Death Before Dishonors - Better Ways To Die. Again this was an LP I had on my iTunes and liked but didn't have on Vinyl so I was pretty pleased with it. This is the 2nd press on red limited to 500.

Next. Bridge Nines Summer Compilation from 2009. Meh! The record looks nice and there is some good bands on it but it's a compilation at the end of the day.

DYS - More Than Fashion: Live From the Gallery East Reunion. It's DYS it's limited to 300. I didn't previously have it. Decent Result.

And finally. Polar Bear Club - The Redder, The Better. Bit cheeky this one as it's not an LP it's an EP, it only has 5 songs. Nice glossed and embossed cover though. I haven't listened to it yet and can't remember if I like Polar Bear Club or not.

So yeah not bad for $20. A lot of the better stuff on Bridge Nine I already have as I'm fans of the bands in question and the worst case scenario was that they sent me 4 records I already had. \luckily they didn't. As usual Bridge Nine threw in stickers and a free CD too so they get my thumbs up regardless.

Double Fire & Ice

The debut LP from Fire & Ice that dropped earlier this year is a bit of a stomper and I reckon it is definitely gonna end up on more than a few 2012 'best of's'.

With that in mind, I've scored some nice stuff recently from a forum I occasionally post on that has a buy/sell/trade section. Dudes have been getting rid of some real gems. This week I looked at a guys list and these two 7"s jumped out straight away as I didn't have them. I emailed the guy and he said someone had offered £9 for the two but if I give him £10 they were mine. Well, this was cheaper than I'd have offered and I'm a fair guy so I suggested £12 (inc postage) to make it worth his while. DEAL..SCORE!

2009's Gods & Devils on Blue vinyl (400). That title track is a JAM!

Also on BBB 2010's follow up Grim on Clear Orange vinyl (200)

Backtracks Back

For various reasons like being sick as a dog, I haven't been updating this as regularly as I should have been. I've had a more than steady stream of records coming through though and god knows how I'm gonna catch up with myself, ah well, I'll work it out..anyway....this is pretty cool.

Backtrack as I've said before are my favourite of the newer era of bands that have come through in the last few years like Trapped Under Ice, Cold World, Expire, Take Offense..etc..etc. So when this popped up on the Bay a week or so ago I knew I had to make it mine.

It's the Deal With The Devil 7" with limited 2010 United Blood cover on blue vinyl.

Limited to 75 (quite alot) this is number 42. I don't know if these were all on blue but I'm pleased this one is as it looks good with my standard white and red versions.

i'm super stoked to have this.

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.