Midnight Souls - Colder [Reflections]

These guys are from Belgium and play the style of hardcore you'd hear from the early '00 bands on Bridge 9 and Indecision.  Think Modern Life Is War, Count Me Out and American Nightmare.  Reflections picked them up a few months back and this is their debut 7", I've seen them live a few times when my band played with them in Belgique and they've always impressed.  Artwork courtesy of Linas Garsys for that authentic early 00's feel and lyrically you'd be forgiven for thinking they were brought up in Boston.  They were meant to have copies on white/black split too but a minor plant fuck up meant it was just black or white, one less record for me to buy I say, no big deal.  I haven't seen anything from Garsys artwork wise for a good while, minus the Hatewaves 7" on A389 but that was a kind of Unknown Pleasures rip so it doesn't count.  The guy has still got it, oh, these guys got Alan Douches at West West Side to master the record, he did a lot of mastering for hardcore bands in the states, still does actually.  Good choice on that, gives it a more authentic sounds, plus the guy mastered xDisciplex, word.

I think the white is out of 150:

With the black out of 350.  I could be wrong, correct me in the comments if I confused this a little.

The cover image goes round to the back, would probably have been better if it was a folded card cover rather than a glued down cover but it still looks boss when you put them next to each other.

Seriously check this band out, they're tight.  www.myspace.com/midnightsoulsneversleep

What's Eating Gilbert - Thinking 'Bout Her [Epitaph]

Earlier this year Chad Gilbert tweeted that he was putting some songs from his little solo jaunt up on his new site (www.whatseatinggilbert.com) for free download.  This made me happy.  I've been a long time fan of New Found Glory and I can honestly say I took no enjoyment in listening to Shai Hulud after he left, the 3 or 4 dudes they had since him just didn't have the passion, for that reason, I was out.  When he said he was doing some solo stuff I was curious as to how it would sound, would it be acoustic singer/songwriter stuff or would it be like NFG offshoots that didn't make the records of the past?  The answer was somewhere in between, more along the lines of a semi-acoustic New Found Glory writing songs in the 50's.  He put 3 tracks up on the site, 2 of which are on this 7".  I can honestly say I had these on repeat on my ipod for weeks, they're so catchy.  A month or so back Chad announced that he was putting out a 7" which would have a track that wasn't made for download, I instantly ordered one of each colour.  The new track My Old Town is a little slower than the ragers already released which is a good contrast.

The gold is out of 300:

The red is out of 700:

Artwork is reminiscent of the movie That Thing you Do, directed by Tom Hanks (brilliant film).  Pure 50's right down to the record labels and the 360 stereo sound icons.  The songs have a whiff of the aforementioned Hanks movie and seeing as New Found Glory covered the title track from it on their From The Screen To Your Stereo EP back in '00 I felt it fitted with his vibe.  Good work.

There was a deal where you get a shirt too, seeing as the missus is a big fan of the music and the man himself I thought I'd get her one.  Good to see that cheeky smile once in a while.

Really looking forward to the next release, he's always updating his blog with more free songs which will more than likely be released on vinyl/CD in the future, you could do worse than listen to the stuff he puts out.