Black Breath - Heavy Breathing

I've just had a wonderful dinner with the wife, (I took her out for a nice meal because she's helped my with my job applications over the last couple of days, and I'd be lost without her) and I thought I'd post about the other record I got from Southern Lord.



I have always like a couple of the Southern Lord bands, but their crossover into some more hardcore related releases has definately sparked my interested a little more.



In a move that is a little bit weird for me (I have been referred to as rainman in the past), I know very little about this band, except that I really really want a copy of their EP and that the front cover of that EP is a syphilis advert from the 50's (or maybe earlier).



Other than that I have really let the music do the talking for this band, and if this record is any indication of the future of Black Breath, then I am stoked as fuck.

Heavy and fast Motorhead worship, with a definate black metal vibe too. Especially in some of the riffing. Add all that with Kurt Ballou production, and I'm fucking sold!



Again, Southern Lord has pressed a nice heavy record. This one is transparent blue 180 gram vinyl, and it sounds as heavy as it feels.

The covers are again that lovely thick cardboard, nicely printed and housing double sided printed innersleeves.

These ones are a bit sturdier than the Trap Them ones as they are a glossy stock, although they are a tight fit as the records are thicker too.



The back photo is a fucking pisser too!

Another stellar release from the dark folks at Southern Lord. When you go to buy the Trap Them record, drop this little fucker in your basket too!

Trap Them - Filth Rations 12" EP.

Most of my posts cover the packaging of a release, the actual vinyl, the music, or what the particular record means to me (a story), but this one is a fucking inspiration.

I like Trap Them. I liked them a lot until this arrived in the mail. Now I fucking love them.

This release has also pointed out how much effort Southern Lord put into their releases.

The music itself is crushing. Fast or slow, it;s just crushingly heavy. I am banging my head as I try to type this up. It's angry, seething and just plain fucking awesome. This should be enough to make everyone want to buy this slab of wax, But...





The packaging on this thing is A+. Heavy vinyl is the first thing I want to point out. This thing sounds fucking good. It's been cut well (at 33 1/3rpm), pressed well and handled with love and care. I couldn't stop shaking my head at how happy I was with just the Vinyl on it's own.



1 Sided 12" with laser etching on the B side. This is done really well. It captures the vibe of the artwork, and ties in really well.



The artwork is awesome. Again, ties in with the vibe of the record, and it is on nice thick Cardboard stock. Not just a heavy paper stock, or thing card, but thick fucking cardboard. Granted it still came damaged on the corner, like most of the records that pass through the US and Australian postal services. I won't bitch and moan too much, I promise.



I guess the only thing that bums me out a little is the printed inner sleeves.

While they look sick and add to the professionalism of the release, like all printed inner sleeves, they have split already (when opened, not even because they have been taken in and out of the sleeves). But shit, I can't have everything can I?



Seriously, this is the kind of records I hope to be releasing eventually. I just need to press records that have gigh enough numbers to warrant spending all that extra cash on.



For now, I'll keep trying my best to do what I do and then go from there...

So go to Southern Lord and buy this record.

NOW!

Ride the Propane...

The PO Box drought continues, so I will post again from my meager collection. As I mentioned Botch in my last post, I thought I would bust out my Anthology of Dead Ends 10 inch on black.



Not the rarest of records, but I really slept on this when it first came out, so it did take a little while to actually find it's way to me.



Like all the Hydrahead releases, this is done so fucking well. It was pressed on a whole bunch of colours, in varying quantities, and again, like all Hydrahead releases it was anlimited pressing. This made it pretty difficult to get my hands on for a time, because every one that hit eBay went for a ridiculous price. But I kept at it, and a couple years later this one ended up costing me close to $50 all paid up, and I was happy with that.



I see it pop up every now and again, and I get tempted to bid, but I am happy with this on black.



This record takes up where We Are the Romans left off, but changes it up a bit too. I'll go out there and say that this is my favourite Botch stuff. It is as heavy as fuck, it is varied and just so full of awesome ideas. It would be pretty safe to sylay though that this EP and We Are The Romans spawned a whole new generation of copy cat bands, one of the more obvious notables being Norma Jeans change in style after Josh Scogin left the fold (You could also "blame" Matt Bayles for that though).



The transition between Afghamistam and Micaragua still fucking blows my mind. I do miss Botch and I am super bummed that I will never get to see them play, but hopefully Narrows might make it over this was one day...?

Yeah right.

Narrows - New Distances

Not many records hit my Mailbox or front door this week, so I thought I would post this one as I am here on a Saturday lunch time listening to it, and it is a fucking great record.



Now, I was always a big Botch fan (and I will post some Botch records at some stage I am sure, maybe even tomorrow...) and I didn't dislike Unbroken, so when I first heard that Dave Verellen was at the helm of this new band, I was fucking all over that shit!



The 7 inch came out and I was blown away. It felt that it had filled the void that Botch left (and that Norma Jean were unable to fill, and don't get me wrong, I love Norma Jean, but they ain't Botch) and my ears were happy again.



Then this came out, and at first I wasn't as stoked on it as I was the EP, but after a couple of listens, I think it is actually a better record. The vocals are really similar to the last 2 Botch records: distorted, doubled up with a slight delay on them to make them thick as molasses. Nice.

The artwork on this is fucking stellar! The concept is interesting, but the actual physical art is just beautiful. You can't see it so well in my Pics (iPhone pics at that), but it is a lovely silky stock with a spot varnish over the whole thing. I just love it, and I really hope to have the kind of dollars to put out something like this for a band in the future, as it is everything I love about LP artwork.



You can still get this record from Deathwish, and I suggest if you are a Botch or Unbroken fan, that you pick this up as well as the first 7 inch and then get onto the split that they have coming out soon too.

Word.

I'm counting on you...

Not too much to look at with this record, but fuck me I've been hanging for this to hit my door step.



Any one who knows me well knows how much I love Matt Skiba, and when he announced he was doing a side project called Heavens, I lost my shit. To hear that it was a more stripped back sound that the Alk3 stuff, mixed with some electro stuff, I was definitely interested to hear how it was going to turn out.



When I got the CD, it really reminded me of Joy Division, and to an extent, Placebo. I was into it. I kept my eye on the Epitaph site for an LP release, and one never showed, so I had no fucking that this LP even came out until it was loooong sold out and I saw one on eBay.

I can find nothing about the LP release anywhere really, and there is no info on the label, and as far as I can see, this is the only release that Number Nine Sounds released.

I managed to snag this on eBay for just over $20, probably what I would have paid for it at the time of the release, so I am super stoked on that.

There is no art for this record, only a Disco Sleeve with a sticker on the front, and numbered out of 1000.



To be honest, I really don't give a fuck. This record is now in my collection, and there I plan for it to stay!

It's sad that the band didn't get to do a second record, as I am sure it would have ruled. The Matt Skiba solo record has been put on the back burner, so who knows if that'll ever see the light of day. There is a Joy Division cover around somewhere, only available digitally and a 7 inch pic disc that Epitaph put out, that has the Patent Pending single and a remix, which is actually awesome.

Maybe I should man up and listen to some decent music instead...?

Nah, fuck that.

Burning Love - "Don't ever change" Single

While my lovely wife cooks me a lovely pasta dinner, thought I'd chuck up a quickie.



I've been sick in bed for the last few days, so there have been no posts, and I'm still not quite right now, but I went back to work so it can't be that bad...

So back to work meant back to my PO Box and my pre order for the Burning Love "don't ever change" single.



Being the Colofan that I am, I was fucking stoked to get this one (and to be honest I forgot about it until I opened the fucker) and when i opened the package, part of me wanted to head home and drop the needle on this one.

I really love the artwork on this, and remember when I read on Colohans blog that this was going to be the artwork. Really simple but still really different and clever.



The single is tops! A step up from the demo, and reminds me a bit of the rockier Cursed stuff. Vocals are nice and rough, but cleaner that a lot of Cursed stuff.



On the B side is a Nick Cave cover, which is pretty good. I will say the end of the track is fucking killer. Noisy and heavy.

All up, a great little single and I can't wait for their LP now.

Sick.

Fix me, Fix my heaaaaad!

Been sick in bed all day today, so I'm gonna drop an easy one today.



This arrived in my PO Box on Friday. Picked this up as part of a trade/sale with a mate. Stoked to have this back in my collection. When this first came out, I bought 3 copies and made myself over $150 on those 3. Yep, eBay helped me on this one. People in Europe didn't know it existed, so I chucked one up, got more than I paid for it, then second chance offered another for more than I paid for it, which meant I could put a bunch of cash (along with a bunch of other records I offloaded) towards the releasing the I Exist 7 inch.



Extortion records can be big business. Hahaha.

This one will be staying in my collection no though. My days of selling shit from my collection are over. It's all about building a testament to the music I love.

So, the Extortion side of this is short and fucking fast, with a Black Flag cover and some of Extortions best work.



The Jed Whitey side is fucking sick. Awesome rock n roll inspired punk rock. It really makes me wanna get some more shit of theirs.

A good little 7 inch.