Cancelations And Expectations

I kind of knew the volcano ash from Iceland would stop Sunny and Saves The Day from coming over and this morning I woke up to confirmation of the fact. It's been rescheduled for May 31st but who knows if STD will be on the bill. Gives me time to save up for the double LP represses of Diary and LP2 then eh.

Live music wise the shows that I'm looking forward to over the next couple of months are pretty much limited to both May bank holidays. May 1st Santa Karla are playing Brussels with Oathbreaker, Daggers and Narrows. I'm beyond excited about this, three bands I'm digging more and more every day and it'll be the 4th time we've played with Oathbreaker, that band destroy it live.

The other show is technically two but they're on the same day, it's Dirty Money's final show at the Underworld in London with plenty of cool bands including Cold Snap and The Down & Outs, it's been way too long since I caught The Outs live. Add to that the fact that Rot In Hell and *&*^%!$£ are playing the Old Blue Last in Shoreditch at midnight and you've got one hell of a day. The Rot In Hell show is rumoured (and I mean rumoured) to be a release show, fingers crossed the RIH split 7" is available then, I've got the pre-order on lock down but a release show version would be a nice touch. One day of awesome hangouts with a whole bunch of people I haven't seen for bloody ages.

My band is in the process of sorting out a very nice little record too, people don; dig on us in a buzz kind of way but we do alright for a bunch of dudes careering into their 30's playing metal in a hardcore band. All I'll say is the word vinyl and split.

Tonight I will redefine everything and tomorrow I will start in on my better days

Saves The Day - Can't Slow Down [Equal Vision]

I could write out this albums lyrics from beginning to end without listening along to the songs, I know them that well. It's their best album by far, yeah it rips Lifetime off but if you're going to rip one band off in a melodic hardcore (yeah I didn't say pop punk) band then they're the band to steal from. I listened to this record way too much in the early 00's along with the second record and acoustic EP. I'm posting about this because this week I'm seeing them play with Sunny Day Real Estate in London, it'll be the fourth time I've seen them play (first for SDRE obviously) and the first time since 2003, shit has it been that long? Well, it might not even happen seeing as the ash from the shitty volcano in Iceland might stop both bands from getting to the UK on the plane so fingers crossed eh.

The record I've got is the press Equal Vision did when Vagrant snapped the band up in 2000, they repressed Through Being Cool and all the Converge records too as they'd just signed with Epitaph. The red LP is limited to 300 from what I can see, it's not an oiginal press but it's a pride and joy to listen to nonetheless.

The Promise

RINGWORM - The Promise [A389]

Deathwish reissued this 1993 classic on it's 10th anniversary with a whole bunch of demo ad live tracks, new artwork and a nice package it was too. No vinyl though. Step in A389 then, gatefold, original artwork and if you pre-ordered this beast you got the demo on 7" too. I didn't, but shipping from the states is always a stinger so I couldn't commit at the time. Wish I did though. There was also a limited edition that came with a zine, again I didn't spring for that sadly.

You can't deny the impact this album had on the whole hardcore scene, coupled with Earth Crisis and Integrity these guys helped to fashion the heavier side of hardcore in the 90's, also The Promise took their name from this record, obviously.

Just go order it from A389, or from a distro/record store, it is insanely good.

Against The Current

EARTH CRISIS - To The Death (Century Media)

Earth Crisis. Now there's a band. Like Integrity they have a solid back catalogue bar one or two records. They reformed a little while back now and this new record "To The Death" has been out for a while too. I did a cheeky download of it when it was released and never really gave it any attention. I blasted it in the van with the lads recently and it is a corker. Production wise (courtesy of Tue Madsen) it's very thick and overproduced, but this plays well to ExC's sound perfectly. You've got songs about the amount of casualties the drug dealers cause through gang shootings and the drugs they actually deal, songs about drunk drivers and vegan til death. Classic Crisis. Karl's vocals sound even better on this record, when I first heard them I thought he sounded like a barking dog, certainly one of the most recognisable voices in hardcore.

In related news, I hear the drummer from Fallout Boy is filling in on their current tour, fair play for still being vegain sXe mate.

Six Million Ways To Die But You Can't Choose One It Chooses You

COLD WORLD - Dedicated To Babies Who Came Feet First (Deathwish)

Last time I went to Belgium with the band we played Antwerp, yeah it was with xArmed For Battlex but that is inconsequential, because there was a sweet distro there where I spent over 60 euros on vinyl. I'll be putting those up if I ever catch up with the new shit I've been purchasing.

Anyway, we went to Belgium again this weekend and the second show was in Roselare (sp?) in the H8000 area. I walked into the venue, it was a matinee show with Worms Feed and Sundowning, and beside the stage was the ame distro from Antwerp. I instantly got both excited and scared, this is because I really wanted to pick up some new records, but I only have 50 euros that I swore was for emergencies like food etc as I've got enough records to listen to at home. Well as everyone knows, you can never have enough records and this is what I picked up.

I didn't get Cold World at first, back in 2003 I think it was, Sandwiches played the EP to me and I shrugged it off as rubbish. It didn't take long for me to realise I was totally wrong, they mis ?Hip Hop with Hardcore and are just spot on with their samples. Ice Grillz was a banger, it took a while for the follow up to come out on Deathwish and when it did I snapped the CD up in HMV, always meant to pick up the LP and sell on the CD version but never saw it on a distro and ordering direct from DW or even Reflections (works out dearer from the Netherlands, go figure) was expensive.

The artwork doesn't have all of the band on it like the CD, the pictures of them looking like a Gap ad, but I like the style of the art, just photos of random weird looking old men and kids, brilliant. Vinyl is solid white, always a good thing. Listened to this yesterday, forgot just how much I love it. Recommended.

Running out of space...

Yeah so I've actually run out of space in my two 7" boxes (shoe boxes)and i need to get either a third box or something entirely different to store them in. I'm going to start looking around but I also need something for my LP's, I'd rather have a cool box to flip through them rather than have them side on.

Hmm.