Burning Love - Demo 7 inch on Gold.

Another quickie tonight. I'm still feeling pretty average, so I'll get back into story mode real soon.



I've been a Colofan for some time now, and when I heard that he had a new band that he was signing for, I got uber stoked. As with all Colohan bands, I was thinking maybe he was going to get into the same shit he was doing with Cursed.

Now I wasn't completely wrong, but I wasn't right either.

Some of the Burning Love stuff reminds me of Cursed, but the vocals are not as heavy and have a rockier vibe, as does the music.



This is the Demo, which was available for free download just after it was recorded, but it was also pressed as a tape, in 2 different pressings. I missed out on both of those, and then Thirty Days of Night records released it as a 7 inch for the Burning Love Euro Tour.



That was a fucking debarcle for me. I ordered 2 lots of the pre order package (All 3 colours) and only 1 turned up, I emailed the dude about it and he said he sent the second lot. They never came. Then I ordered a bunch of them (along with other records they had released) for my distro, and they didn't turn up either. I also ordered the Integrity split Book/7 Inch from the label, I wonder if I'll get that one?

I digress.

Gordon over at Deranged Records released this on 4 colours with 4 covers, and I have all 4 sitting in my box of 7 inches.

But this is my favourite of the 4. Traditional Gold vinyl with a yellow cover.

A good little demo 7 inch. Hit up Deranged and pick this up. Ot if you want a copy on Black, Red or Gold, drop me a line, I have 1 of each at $13 ppd.

Extortion - Terminal Cancer EP

A quick one today.



I finally have this back in my grubby little mitts.

I like a lot of things about this release. First up, it's Extortion. You really can't go wrong there.



The artwork is great. Rohan does some awesome stuff, but I often find the best work is stuff he does for his own band. The art on this is simple, straight up but still pretty brutal.



The label that pressed this is one that I have loved for fucking years and years. Shortfuse has done so many good releases.

And finally, the recording was done on a Yamaha MT3X 4 track. It sounds rough as fuck (and as the insert says "RAW AS PISS"), but for this band, it really fucking works.



Picked this up from a mate on eBay for $6 plus $2 postage. Really can't complain. It's the first pressing too, with the proper enclosed cover, not the wrap around one with the red backing.

This one will get a bit of airtime with me.

Nirvana - Hormoaning EP

Another one to tick off my top ten wants list.

And before anyone pipes up, I know it's a bootleg, but I don't have the US$600+ to buy an OG copy lying around.



I have no idea on numbers on this one, and given that it is a bootleg, you can be pretty certain that the official numbers don't exist anywhere. To be honest, I really don't give a fuck. I am siked to have this record in my collection for me to play, enjoy and not worry about some fucker dropping a needle on it too hard, or walking away with it.

This EP holds a rich history for me, and when it hit my PO Box this morning and I opened the Mailer (I didn't know it was actually this record) there was a huge rush of nostalgia. Not because I ever owned this on LP, or on CD for that matter, but because of where I was when I first heard the song D7.



I was walking to work (it would have been maybe 95 or 96) and I worked in a milk bar (local store for those US/Euro people reading) where I stacked the fridges and cleaned up after the days trade. I was allowed to listen to my walkman, and I loved to do so which cutting up/crushing boxes and cardboard, and putting new drinks and shit in the fridge. I was mates with the owners eldest son, and he was a HUGE Nirvana fan, and he made me a mixed tape of random Nirvana Rarities he had gotten from another mate of his (we traded tapes of shit we taped off the radio, got from kids at school etc...).

I had heard a lot of the stuff on the tape from live shows and bootlegged tapes from the market, but when D7 came on my walkman, I was mesmerised. I had heard most of the Hormoaning EP from Incesticide but I had not heard this song.

I was about to walking into the front door of the shop, and I just stopped dead. I sat down on the metal benches outside and listened to the song from start to finish. Then I rewound it and listened to it again while I walked into work. I reckon I listened to it at least 5 more times during that shift. It was rare to hear such good quality songs that you hadn't heard from Nirvana before.

Fast forward a couple years and Cameron (the aforementioned eldest son) actually got hold of a copy of the Hormoaning CD. I had gotten to a point where I was moving on to much heavier music (Punk, Metal, Hardcore, etc) so I wasn't so overly stoked any more.

But here I am, and totally in love with this EP all over again.

So, it shows all the usual signs of the bootlegs: The shower head is missing from the top right of the frame, the taps aren't underneath the banner on the bottom right, etc.



The vinyl is a sick Maroon/Red that is slightly transparent. The cover is in awesome condition and I could not be happier (Well, maybe if I had an OG copy, but that might happen one day...).

Norma Jean - Redeemer Test Pressing.

A bit of a weird one today...

I was lurking away on eBay, as I do, and I saw this pic disc test pressing with a really low start price.



Now, I was dubious on this one, but this is my fav Norma Jean record, sonic I could snag it for a good price, it'd tide me over until I could get my shit together and buy the box set again.

When I toured with NJ the first time they came to Australia, I was super bummed that none of their records were reased on Vinyl, so when the box set came out, I was so stoked and pre ordered it straight off the bat, but I thought the inner sleeves were thin and flimsy, and the pressing of Redeemer on Pic Disc really bummed me out, because while it looks fancy, the bottom end of this record is really lost on a Pic Disc. Hopefully one day it'll see a repress on 180 gram Black, because this record is fucking heavy! I kinda doubt it though.

Back to the story...

I was sat around with my homeboy Shane, listening to some records on a Saturday night, and this one was about to end and I was only at the first bid. So I chucked $20 Australian on it thinking I wasn't gonna get it that cheap.



Low and behold, $16 + $10 postage, a 2 week wait and this little fucker hit my PO Box.

As I said, I was dubious on the test pressness of this record, as normally a pic disc test pressing will be all white. So I chucked up a question about it on the Vinyl Collective message board, and a message from Virgil (the guy who put the box set out) confirms that it is indeed a test press of the Norma Jean - Redeemer Picture Disc.



Virgil did mention that it was super weird that the dude seperated these from the rest of the box set, but like I said, this is my favourite NJ record, so a happy little record sitting on the shelves in my study. Not as cool as my Darkest Hour - Undoing Ruin LP Test Press, but a sick record nonetheless.

Narrows / Heiress - Split 7 inch

A quick one for tonight.



I've been super busy with work and band stuff, and working on some releases, but I always use that excuse.



Here is a split 7 inch, put out by the lovely folk at Deathwishinc. I was really siked to hear the new Narrows stuff after the Deathwish sampler came out, and one of these songs are on it.



I gotta say, I reckon that this is their heaviest stuff, and I am super pumped on the first song, Recurring. The riff at the end is soooooo fucking good.

Jun Jun, Jun jun jun, Jun jun jun...



The Heiress stuff is good too. Reminds me a lot of Narrows, and to more of an extent, Botch. This split gets better with each spin for me.

The art is sick, the coloured vinyl I got is sick, and the Heiress sides label is awesomely sick! Seriously, can't really whinge about this one.



This is a short post, because it doesn't have the usual story that goes with a lot of the record I own.

But tomorrows will. And my wife is buying me a camera for blogging.

She's a fucking good sort.

Refused - Songs to fan the flames of discontent

I tell ya, dropping the needle on this bad boy made me fe fucking Alive. I have always love this record, and when I sold off everything, this was one of the last pieces to go. (and as soon as this was over I put on the everlasting EP and then The Shape of Punk to come. It was awesome!)



It's kinda funny, everyone raves so hard about The Shape of Punk to come (which is a piece of pure genius, please don't think for a second that I don't think so), but for a hard core record, this is where my money lays.



I put this on last night and as soon as Rather Be Dead started, I had to stop myself from chucking a study mosh. So fucking simple yet so fucking awesome!

I got this copy on eBay, at around the $30 mark. I have seen it go for a lot more, but the description on this one made it sound pretty beat up. It was listed as having rind wear, which is does, and listed as having damage to one of the corners, which it does not. To be honest I just wanted a copy to listen to as it had been that long since I had it on LP that I didn't really care that much.

The covers are pretty flimsy anyway. Mid 90's Victory records, what do you expect really?



I always liked how simple the layout of this record was. The band photo on the back is classic. Dennis with blonde hair still trips me out, and then the silver shirt he wore in the Rather be Dead video. Mondo bizarro.



The only thing that is a bit weird about the format of the songs is that "it's not ok" is on one side and "Crusader of hopelessness" is on thestary of side b. I always thought one was an intro to the other. Having said that, it might have been in Victorys infinite wisdom that this occured...

All round, one of my fav records, back on my collection. This'll do until I find a better copy, or it gets a well deserved and long overdue re-issue. I'm sure there's money to be made...

Maybe.

Bodyjar - 17 Years

I've been slack the last couple of days, there's no excuse other than that really.

I was out with my homeboy Shane buying bread in the city (Yes, I put up with an hour + trip time to buy my bread at one bakery, but they make fucking kickass coffee too) and decided I'd pop into Missing Link and suss out what was going down.

I walked in, and I reckon it looks like they are on the verge of closing down. They must be changing up the format a little atleast, as they don't have any shirts in there anymore, and their CD selection looked to be a bit slimmer. This might have been down to the re-arranged layout, but it did really look emptier, and it really really bummed me the fuck out.

I have bought records from missing link for close to 12 years I reckon. I used to go into the store when it was on Flinders Lane, and cram into the tiny space that was the shop, get stared down by the staff there (I always felt uncomfortable about asking about anything in there, because it all seemed so imposing) and occasionally buy the odd piece of gold, either something they had had in for ages and no one had noticed or one of the amazing records from the second hand boxes (I really wish I had of bought that copy of Through Being Cool that sat in the second hand box for close to 3 fucking years!) . In the end I made friends with some of the staff, Pete, Corey, Kat and others, and I came to love the store like it was somewhere I felt like I fit in.

And even though a lot of the friendships have changed (or gone), I really hope they can keep it all above water and that people keep buying records from them as I still have 1 mate who works there now. I struggle to get in there as much as I should, and sometimes I know I can get records cheaper online, I still try to buy at least 1 thing everytime I go in.

This is one of those records.



Granted, it was only a $5 purchase (although once I play these In Name and Blood shows, I will have a couple extra pennies to spend, as my wife has allowed me to keep the cash to do with as I wish, and they have a couple Alkaline Trio LP's I need to get back into my collection, and they will be the same if I get them on eBay or though the store, so I'll get them to support my local record dealer),but it was a good little purchase at that.

So, I took the copy from the racks up, and Dan pulled a fresh copy for me, and I was pretty stoked that I didn't get the one that was all bent out of shape from handling and being passed over for fuck knows how long.

It wasn't until I got home that I realised that the copy I got was not on Red vinyl as the one I had seen in the racks (and I have said before I am a fucking sucker for Red vinyl), it was a marbled Purple.



Also, this one wasn't hand numbered like to the one in the racks either. It isn't all bad, as I'll probably head back into the Link and buy the Red numbered one, but I was still a little bummed, being the nerdholio that I am.



The last time I really enjoyed Bodyjar was when they put out No Touch Red. As far as I am concerned, the band ended there for me. And it only got worse. No Ben, then Ross bailed, and it became the Cam and Grant show. The rest of the dudes they got in could play, but the band slowed down so much compared to the earlier records, that it kinda lost it for me.

I think that this record is pretty close to the No Touch Red stuff, and I really dig the Single, 17 Years. The B side is OK. It doesn't really grab me like the Single, but it isn't bad either.

The artwork on the other hand is fucking KICK ASS! It's printed on lovely thick stock and it is assembled well.

All over a nice little trip down memory lane, and not a bad score for a fiver.