Rose Kemp - Unholy Majesty [Aurora Borealis]

This record is a real beauty, check out what Uncle Nate said about it on his blog, I can't say anything about it that hasn't been said already, all I can say is you need this in your life.  The CD version is on One Little Indian Records, this LP was licenced To Aurora Borealis Records and what a package this is.  First off the artwork is super clean and literally pops off the cover, it's done by Glynn Scrawled who you might recognise from doing bits and bobs for that band Rot In Hell.  The layout really takes advantage of the extra space the gatefold format allows, two images on the inside with limited credits and a final fourth image on the back.  Job done.  The insert is the record bag too and that's just black text on white giving you the wonderful lyrics and somewhat jovial thanks list.  I'm pretty siked that I managed to get this on red, there was 1000 pressed with 300 on red and the rest on black, I ordered it from some online store here in the UK and by chance I got this colour, result!

Inside artwork:

Back:

Biter End - Guilty As Charged [Deathwish Inc]

Picked this up last night, all dayer in CT, bunch of good bands, bit of an unplanned break in the middle, Trial cover and hangouts.  Good shit.  I'd heard these guys before the show but hadn't paid a lot of attention to them, maybe they'd been on in the van or someone put them on during Monday night hangouts.  Live they have plenty of energy and the crowd were losing their shit.

The LP cover is reverse printed, I've got a few of these now and if my band ever gets something pressed on 12" then I'm going to make sure we get this.  Basically the shiny side which is normally on the outside is on the inside giving the outside a matt effect, it's the little details that make a record.

The vinyl colour (maroon) is out of 1000, the total first press was 2000 with the other half split 300/700, kinda cool I got to buy a Deathwish record direct from the band, most of the time it comes via my awful mailman.

Insert is thick card stock too, basically the kind of quality you expect from this label, no expense spared.  I've been spinning this all morning, recommended.

Limited covers

Quick one, as I mentioned in my post about Cold Snap's new record, I missed out on the limited cover they had available on their jaunt with The Hard Way due to me going to see the smug comedian Stewart Lee.  In an act of kindness I was able to acquire a copy from The Dave Mayes yesterday and I am very grateful.  The quality of the cover is actually a lot better than most limited covers, normally bands just chuck a photocopied piece of paper over the regular record (which I love by the way, that's not me being an opinionated fuck) but these guys have gone the extra mile and gotten them printed up on nice thick card stock.  Good work.

I got this number:

At the same show there was a Breaking Point/Wiretap cover available with artwork by Big Tom, I knew I'd be after one of these and Saker was kind enough to let me take one of the covers to go over one of the copies I already had.

I like it when special covers have the date of the show on it, even better when I'm actually at the show in question.  Notice the HMP, good touch if you're clued up.  Any Americans who read this will probably think us Brits are retarded and there's no 13th month, they're the days, it goes small, medium, large.  Take back the calendar, we invented the calendar.

I also managed to snag a release cover from the show in Newport the night before, always welcome.

Rot In Hell - Sins Of Malice [Hemlock 13]

It's becoming increasingly obvious that there was a period of a couple of years where I didn't buy any music on vinyl due to a deadbeat job, my music collection consisted of mp3's and CD's burnt from mates.  Not ideal but needs must when the ends don't meet.  Nowadays I'm in a shit hot IT job with a disposable income that I could only have dreamed of at 18 years of age.  Handsome and rich, well, one of those anyway.  One record I didn't get round to ordering was the Rot In Hell demo 7", I copied it off an old friend to have the songs sure, I kick myself for not snapping up a copy of the vinyl when Nate got round to pressing it on wax.  Other records I missed out on shall be posted on here when I get round to picking them up at prices up to 5 times the band originally sold them for.  Sickening isn't it.

Musically it's Rot In Hell at they're infancy (yeah, I know it's the demo) and I think they work best as a
stripped down clevo worship band, they haven't lost this edge in their more recent material (no pun intended), which is why the current genereation of bands on both sides of the Atlantic look up to and admire their music.  The Meanstreak cover is top notch, it's not often I know the cover but this one was bang on target, I was fortunate enough to get given a copy of the Only The Strong 7" from my girlfriend as I was just getting into hardcore.  The Clevo side has been good to me ever since, best comp ever?  It's definitely up there.




Packaging wise this is superb, hand stamped and numbered disco bag (25/219), spray stencilled b-side and disco bag and screen printed cover which folds like you would fold up a box when you move house.  Lots of work went into this, which is why it is worthy of the price tag it's been accruing recently on ebay.  On the subject of spraying records, this reminds me of a comical day back in 2003, twas the day Terror played in Canterbury, the first time they played in the UK, Lowest Of The Low had just been pressed on vinyl from Reflections and they hadn't put out any generic samey records with uninspired riffs and boring lyrics.  But I digress, The Break In demo had just come back from Ben Phillips on a master disc the night before and we had to get these demos made up ready for the show that evening.  So all five of us were tasked with either burning CD's on Anton's lame ass CD drive, spraying the on body art, cutting up the brown paper or spraying the covers.  #29 was a 3 story townhouse we all used to live/hang out at, for one day only it was a finely tuned demo making facility, the only problem being that as we were spraying in rooms on the first and second floors there wasn't enough ventilation which made the day a little more fun than usual.  All of a sudden Anton and Burrows' impressions of Beyonce and general fucking about were that little bit funnier, turns out we were pretty high on the fumes.  Involuntary edge break?  Or a bunch of 20 year olds not paying attention to the safety instructions on the car undercoat spray paint bottles?  4 out of 5 members would go with the former, I say it was an accident.  SxFxEx

Note to any bands out there today, this is how you put together a decent record, put some fucking effort into it or fuck off.

Take Courage - Black Is The Colour, None Is The Number

Another one from some local lads, no abbreviations attached to this lot but worth your time regardless.  This tape is super limited to 20 copies, I picked one up at a show last week but the band still have them available, maybe the fact that it is recordings from a lineup that is only 50% of the one they are right now, maybe it's because people don't know enough about them?  Either way this should have sold out in a day.  Recorded earlier this year, this was apparantly meant to be released on 7" bu the band wanted to record new songs with the new lineup so gave this recording the limited release on tape and put the tracks up for free download on mediafire (which you should get now).  Musically I'd say they're somewhere between This Is Hell and Raise The White Flag, fast and heavy yet pissed off and punk as fuck.  They really impressed me at Hevy fest this past weekend, I definitely see a band with a new lease of life, the next 7" should be killer.

The tape itself is classic Fist In The Air, (I say classic because the SK CD's were sprayed in  metric fuck tonne of different colours) it's sprayed with black and copper paint and resembles a plasterers radio if he was also a grafitti artist.  No lyrics or anything, you've just got a front cover and a list of the songs, job done.  Go order a copy from FITA Records.

Withdrawal / Mellowharsher - Split [Eradicate]

Got a few cassettes through the post/at shows these past few weeks so I'm going to post about them, I've noticed a lot more bands put out tapes and they're definitely more collectable than CD's.  This one is a split between Withdrawal (Canada) and Mellowharsher (California).  The bands couldn't be more apart musically, Withdrawal are fast, metallic and brutal holy terror stuff and Mellowharsher is pretty much indie shoegaze stuff.  It's a strange mix but one that is welcomed, I knew what Withdrawal were like after hearing their 7" and pretty much got this on the strength of those guys, the Mellowharsher side is real good, something I can imagine replacing bands like Bossk in my library now they're gone.

The tape itself I think is sprayed green, looks like the actual cassette was unscrewed and one half was painted which is a nice touch, the same with the back part of the case.  It's on Eradicate Records, never heard of them and can't find anything on trusty google about the label, seems they put out 2 records before this one.  Don't know how many were made, I'm sure as always, someone will fill me in.  According to the insert Withdrawal are doing a split with Rot In Hell, looks like my Withdrawal and Rot In Hell collection is about to get a little bigger.  One of the tracks they put on this tape is from the forthcoming split, nice teaser.

Edit, I like how the color scheme of this tape goes wll with the colour scheme of my blog, I'm in a hippy kinda mood today it would seem.

I'm Staying, I'm Finishing My Coffee

This one is not records, but my other passion, The Big Lebowski.  If you haven't seen it, you can pick it up on DVD for £3 these days, you could do worse than buying yourself a copy and watching it every week.  My girlfriend gave me this little package this morning, purely because I am an awesome boyfriend, I think it should have been a birthday present, she gets a little overexcited about trivial dates on the calendar.  So the box has everything a Lebowski fan could need:

• Coffee mug with Walter and The Dude on it.
• A 'Little Lebowki Urban Achievers' certificate, this is getting framed today.
• A 'Dude Abides' fridge magnet
• A mini book full of quotes, none of which I didn't know, obviously.
• 'The Dude' bowling patch
• A severed toe (with nail polish)
• Finally, a rug mousemat to really tie the room together.

I'm off to make me a cup of coffee, watch the movie and tell that Donnie to shut the fuck up.

Yours,

xJeffrey Lebowskix

The Movielife - This Time Next Year [Revelation]

It's a Sunday, I'm up early and the record player is on!  I'm in the mood for some earlys 00's style pop punk today, with this being in my top 5 pop punk/summer records I couldn't resist the 'Life.  I picked this piece up at Beachfest in Westgate in 2001. I think I spent way too much on vinyl that day, it was the Ignition distro's fault, I took £100 because I knew there was a shit tonne of bands I liked so logic would suggest the merch on offer would be plentiful, turns out I literally spunked the whole lot on vinyl, the only CD being the Thirty Seconds Until Armageddon demo.  That day marked the last time I ever saw Anthem Of The Century and it was my favourite xCanaan set (Gehenna MAde FLesh played in it's entirety plus Last Breath by Hatebreed, crushing).

Regarding Movielife, people tend to prefer the EP and LP that came out after this record, probably because by then they'd signed with Drive Thru and were a buzz band in all the music mags.  IT's a weird one, they put out a full length before this, it wasn't the best thing ever, the 7" and the split with ExNumberFive play like demos to the Rev record.  What I love most about TTNY (other than Jason Mazzolla from Count Me Out guesting on the third track on side B) is that each side has an opener and ender.  It's almost as if you could slap it on the deck  without looking at which side you put on and it sounds like the record is starting from the beginning.  Cave In's Jupiter record works like this with me too.

I don't know the pressing info on this, I got it just after I read a review for it in Fracture zine (remember that?), so it's first press, out of how many is beyond me.  Actually I remember there being a sticker on the plastic wrap saying something about a revelations colour club or some bullshit, I ripped it off in true noob style, so that is lost in a landfill somewhere.

Converge - On My Shield

I'm no Converge fan, it seems to me that most people who are into hardcore and metal right now regard this band as the best band in the world, I've tried to get into them countless times over the years but something about their music just doesn't sit right with me.  Last night they played the Underworld and I was lucky enough to get a cheeky guestlist for the show.  My band were playing down the road at the final UK Ruiner gig and I wanted to check out Rot In Hell more than any other band playing at either end of the street.  Fortunately enough I was able to check out the RIH set, jib over to the Purple Turtle, bust out our set (which was a banger by the way, new songs and setlist flow smooth as snake shit), then have enough time to hang around outside the Underworld waiting for Converge to strart.  Might I add that standing outside of shows is what I do best, the prime example of this was in '04, Mental played London at The Verge. That place is now a trendy wine bar, formerly home to an almost weekly hardcore alldayer on a sunday, anyways, I had made the trip up with no intention of paying in, I just chilled to the max outside, got some food and had than if I had actually watched the bands.  I saw Mental the day before in CT, that could have been the last Jube show, I'm not sure, but I know I saw at least some of their set, I can't confirm or deny if I spent most of that evening chilling out of The Break In van.

Back to Converge, I'm willing to give them another go, seeing as anything they put out on vinyl instantly becomes internet gold dust, I'm not about to purchase a $60 copy of one of their LP's only to not like it.  So I did the next best thing, bought a £5 7" with one track on it.  This thing is limited to 1000 copies for their Euro tour, only to be sold on the tour and I am informed that they strictly took 50 copies of the record into each gig so as to not sell out of them too early.  It's not the worst song I've heard, but I still don't get it, for me I prefer this kind of stuff when it's played by band like Botch or Cave In.  The B-side has this cool etching on it, which is weird as I receive my Integrity VVe Are The End 7" the morning I bought the Converge record.  So that's my first two laser etched 7"s both received on the same day, what are the chances of that happening eh?  I'm going to go on record as saying this is one of my favourite pieces of wax, on a purely visual level.  The way the etching shows through from the front makes it look really special and not in the kind of way where you had a special kid in year 3 of school who used to eat chalk.

The other cool thing is the label is actually part of the front cover as the front of the record cover has a circle cut out of it.  Converge: better looking records than they sound?  For me, yes.

Integrity - VVe Are The End [Magic Bullet]

I was waiting to get this for a little while now, by that I mean it has been about 3 weeks since I ordered it, which is nothing really.  This is the new 2 track 7" from Integrity (I say 2 track, it's more of a duo of songs melded to one, or one song with two names, take your pick), I don't know much about where the songs are from, I'm assuming they were recorded on or around the same time frame they recorded The Blackest Curse, or possibly after, I'm no expert.  I picked this up from the Holy Terror store after I got wind that there was going to be 30 copies of the pink vinyl going on there which are kept aside because the other 70 were being sold at the Integrity show in Anaheim on 7.17.  These are all individually numbered and have a wax seal, also Dwid signed the back of the cover.  It's one of those records that are just a 7x7" sheet of card, no fold or anything, artwork has pretty much everything you could expect from a pastiche Integ cover: process logo x about 50, Robert DeGrimston, Anton LaVey, a few Manson girls, Charlie Manson, the goat of Mendes, some arabic(?) text and a bunch of other symbols.  I fucking love it, I've been sitting here checking out all of the pictures in the background while spinning the record and had to play it twice before I'd studied the whole thing.  Did I mention it was super detailed?

The wax seal has Dwid's face drawing on it, the one from dwidhellion.com, I got #9.

The pink record has a few tiny specks of grey spotted around it, probably only 5 or 6, I'm guessing this is left overs on the plates from the run of 100 grey records that Magic Bullet were selling on pre-orders with a limited shirt.  I didn't order one, stupidly I opted out because they didn't have my size shirt left, what I should've done was order it anyway and flog off the shirt, silly me.

This is the icing on the cake right here though, the b-side is blank, both tracks fit on the a-side, so on the back there is the Integ skull laser etched instead.  I've seen b-sides have scratched designs, Hope Con's File .03 has the skull bomb scratched on it.  This is very clean and more like what the apple logo looks like on the back of an iPhone.

Yeah those are Jack Skellington coasters from the Disney store, what of it?