Tvitching Tongves

So the new Twitching Tongue's 7" went up for preorder a few weeks ago.  Beforehand the band was making all these cryptic twitter posts about it, tryna be all sneaky. It was funny but everyone knew what was going on.

This band is pretty fucking awesome. They sound a lot like Life of Agony and that's something that hardcore is really missing right now.  This color is out of 100 and already sold out. But the coolest thing about it is that its a gatefold 7" sleeve. I mean seriously, how often do labels do that. Never! Clearly a lot of work went into the packaging for this record and it is appreciated.

Only bad this is that Closed Casket uses All In merch to sell their stuff. Which is the stupidest thing they could possibly do.  All in rips you off on shipping like its their fucking job. I absolutely hate purchasing from them.

Groundwork

So on another one of my morning ebay searches i found this 7" from Groundwork. I won it for maybe 4 bucks and I was stoked because A) more 90s hardcore, B) cheap. I paid quickly and then I waited. The seller didnt send it for a while and then finally emailed me saying he mailed it. 2 weeks after i got that email i received the record, with a mailing date of 3 days before. It took over a month to get this record.  While thats not that long compared to past experiences, it is when you have a seller who said he shipped it two weeks ago. Anyway, I was happy to receive it.  But as it being my first time hearing groundwork I was disappointed. I wasnt realy into the music. Oh well, another record to file away, maybe I'll revisit it in a few years.

Motherfuck the way it looks like rain

So recently I was searching the B9 board selling forum, looking for what else but records. Anyway I found a guy selling a bunch of records I wanted. His prices were high so we negotiated down on some of them but he really wasnt willing to be reasonable.  I ended up only wanting a few Instilled records from him. But he was still over-valuing these records. At the same time I was talking to Dave from State of Mind records on b9. I forget what the conversation started out on but i mentioned that the guy was overcharging me on Instilled records. He then informed me 2 of the colors(red and green) i was buying from the guy were still available on the State of Mind Webstore. So I put in an order for two of them and then Dave offered to sell me the blue and yellow copies of the 7"... and a test press! He gave me a price, which was insanely reasonable and i instantly sent the rest of the money to him, and let the other guy know i got the records from the label for reasonable pricing.
A week later, everything arrived:

The test press is pretty standard, no numbering or anything. However i love the spraypainting on the cover to differentiate it.

Here's all the records i got: TEST PRESS out of 10-sih, Blue un-numbered out of 100, Yellow out of 100, Red out of 250 and Green out of 300.  Dave said only some of the blue were numbered and were supposed to be numbered through 100, but the guy who was doing the label with him at the time got lazy and stopped numbering them. It is unknown how many are actually numbered on blue. I previously had this record on clear, and now it seems all I need to have a complete collection is blue numbered. Guess I fell into an Instilled collection. I love it.

Dave also included a bunch of bonuses with the records! A ton of State of Mind stickers,  a Krakdown sticker, a download for the Anchor Singles Collected LP,  the Blood Red ep cd that came with the the 7's and the vinyl decal from the Blood Red 7"!!! How cool is that! Such an awesome little piece of LIHC right there! Damn I'd love to get a Blood Red Test press.

Every Word Handwritten

So I got into the Gaslight Anthem right when Sink or Swim came out.  I thought it was a great album.  The 2 albums after that I didnt really pay attention to, I bought the 59 sound and didnt even realize American Slang came out.  When I saw that their new record, Handwritten, was up for preorder I felt it was time to catch up.  I put in an order about a week before they were to begin shipping.

This is a fucking great album, hands down.  Its different from Sink or Swim and you can really hear how the band has matured since that record.  It might even be one of the best albums of the year in my opinion, yea its that good.

The physical album itself is super high quality. The vinyl is crystal clear blue and very heavy, feeling great in hand. The sleeve is a heavy duty gatefold with lyrics on the inside. That big paragraph to the left in the off white color.....a short little essay about how great the Gaslight Anthem is written by Nick Hornby! Yea the guy who wrote High Fidelity! How cool is that!

The dust sleeve is unlike any other dust sleeve I've ever gotten with a record. It's heavy cardboard to the point where it is higher quality than some record sleeves! I love the contrast of the tan color w/ the blue/black colorway of the rest of the record.  But my favorite thing about the sleeve is the little quote on the right side "...every word handwritten".  Its a really nice touch.

Finally, the coolest thing about the record and something I almost missed and I'm sure others did miss.. Inside the sleeve where the record goes is printed black with a white picture of someone. I cant tell who it is, but when would you ever expect there to be something printed inside the sleeve!!! So fucking awesome. Anyway, Mercury did an excellent job with this record. It's great to see that a major label actually put effort and money into a record instead of just pressing something cookie cutter just to make a quick buck.  This record is well worth the almost 30 bucks it cost.

Grail Status?

So here it is. This is something that I think many would consider a holy grail of LIHC collecting, and its not even a record, its a cassette! The Silent Majority demotape from 1994! I'm not sure if they have any other demo's besides this, but for the time being, im goin on the assumption that this is the music that started it all(unless nick corrects me). That completely changed long island music.

I still cant believe i now own this. I never ever thought i would own it. I had to drop a pretty penny on ebay, but at the time I figured since I had never seen it I could not miss out on it. It's got the songs Bind, One Stop, Knew Song and Expectations on it. Tommy's voice sounds so young on it.

Look at that, back when Lindenhurst still had the 516 area code, before the 631 began. This thing is so fucking cool to own. The tape looks like they really put some money into it instead of just dubbing it themselves too. So awesome!

Cinemetropolis

So I've been into the Blue Scholars for about a year now.  My friend Keith turned me onto them and described them to me as "smart hip hop". Dead on. Blue Scholars are 2 guys from Seattle, and this is their 3rd lp. 

I didnt know what to expect when I checked them out. I'm not too big into hiphop save for the classics (Nas, Tribe, BIG, Gangstarr) so I normally cant tell what the difference in hip hop is from one artist to another. The second I started listening to this record I knew it was something special.  I had never heard anything like it. The mc has amazing flow, the beats are great and they dont talk about stupid shit like bitches and money. None of that here, their lyrics focus on being educated, struggles of people in low income areas, police injustices, and of course having fun.  I actually learned things from listening to this record.

Come last November Keith and I saw them play the Bowery ballroom and it was fucking fantastic. They have such great energy on stage and they get everyone in the room into it. They played for about 2 hours(til 1 am, i was exhausted) and pretty much did the whole lp plus some early stuff. When I realized Cinemetropolis had come out on LP I had already missed out.  They had started a kickstarter to fund the project, everyone who donated had gotten an lp and that seemed like the only way to get one.  And by the time I started listening to them the project was over, the lp was pressed and already gone.

About 3 months ago I was checking their webstore and saw that the LP was back up for purchase. I was super excited about it, til i saw it was $30. Im used to paying hardcore prices for records straight from the band, and even though it is a double lp, the price still detered me.  That only lasted about 2 months as I finally broke down in mid July and bought the damn thing. Clearly it was totally worth it.

I dont know if this is a second press or leftovers from the first press, but it is definitely self released as i cannot find a record label name or logo anywhere on the packaging. The packacking itself is top notch, heavy cardstock was used which makes it feel great.  Its a gatefold double lp and the vinyl itself feels like its close to being 180gram, but im not sure about that. The dust sleeves are also heavy cardstock and double as inserts, i love it when bands do this. Anyway I am seriously stoked about this record, both the physical copy and the music itself. I hope they play NYC again soon, otherwise I'm going to have to fly to Seattle to see them as I cant wait that much longer

Academy 7/28: pt 2.

So here's part 2 of my recent trip to academy. Just 2 lps but pretty solid purchases in my opinion. First up is AFI"s "Black Sails in the Sunset".  I grew up listening to AFI and I still like them today. Not so much the new weird shit they do, but black sails is a fucking classic and an amazing record.

One thing I almost always do is look at the insert of any record I get.  It really gives me a feel for where the band was at that time and also gives me new bands to check out.  When I read the thank you's on black sails i never expected to see what i saw. 

YEP, AFI thanked the almighty Indecision in their thank you's, and right after they thanked Kill Your Idols! I dont know why this was so unexpected to me, I guess i felt like Indecision would never be on AFI's radar, but fuck this is awesome. Oh yea see that SOIA thank you too, awesome.

Secondly, i got another AFI lp, "The Art of Drowning". Yep once again i found both of these records in the same row! I cant tell you how many times I played this album when I got the CD in 10th grade. I remember walking around the halls shutting everyone around me out completely immersing myself in this album.  It got me through a lot in highschool and I'll always love this record.

So thats it for the academy records trip.  I've also decided I'm going to start collecting Sinking Ships records, so if anyone has any they want to let go of, comment!

Academy 7/28: pt. 1

Since I seem to go to Academy Records in Brooklyn a lot, I guess I'll be dating the titles from now on.  Last Saturday I worked about 7 hours before heading into Brooklyn with Joe. We initially went just to walk around, but of course if I'm in Brooklyn I'm going to be going to Academy. For whatever reason I really didnt expect to find anything. Some girls where hogging the newly received LPs so I checked out the newly received 7"s first.

First record i found was Scapegrace's "the ones who fell off the face of the earth". I love the cover art of this record, it just screams 90's to me.

The insert on this one is awesome, very detailed and it folds out to 3 pages long.

Second record I found was a Warped Weeble Wobbles 7". Both of these were in the same box! Shit i felt I was sure to find more Long Island band records..but i didnt.

This one also had an insert that folded out to three pages long. I only took a shot of 2 pages of it so the crowd shot could be better seen.

Last 7" I found was Soulefire's "Refuse to Fall".  I had never even heard of this band but the second i saw the name I new it had to be some kind of 90's hardcore. When i further inspected it I found confirmation of my suspicions in that it was Equal Visions Records #2! When i peeled off the price tag, once i got home, which was over the circle logo, i found some very hare krisha looking symbols. Yep so 90's its not even funny.

And look at that, the third record I got also had a insert that folded out to three pages! All of these were found in the same box, which is pretty awesome. Unfortunately I havent even had time to listen to these records yet.  Today was my 12th day working in a row, I'm surprised I've even had the energy to write any posts this week. I have 2 more LP's i got from this trip. But im going to split them into a Part 2 entry.

All About Friends...FOREVER

So I know I recently said that the Great Reversals 7" layout was the coolest of all time. But I think this 7" might beat that one out. This is the All About Friends Volume 2 Compilation, featuring Indecision, Harvest, When Tigers Fight and Between Earth and Sky(doing a Strain cover!). I almost didnt buy it because I generally don't buy comps, but I felt that since it included Indecision, it was a must buy.

The first thing I noticed with this record was that the record wouldnt slip out like a normal record did, and that it felt way thicker than normal. I had no idea what the fuck was going on. Then i realized it had pages in it and so I tried to flip it open but couldnt. Then i realize it was actually held closed together by a plastic strap, almost like a book! How fucking cool is that!. When I finally got it open i saw it was pretty much like a mini-zine compliation. With a essay from the person who put it out and 2 pages dedicated to each band where most put lyrics but Indecision being Indecision wrote a short essay! To be honest, I havent really looked at the other pages yet but I will.

Then I finally flipped to the back of the contraption and found the record itself. Absolutely the coolest way to have the record included to make it almost literally a part of the packaging. A thick clear dust sleeve attached to the back page of the book! So awesome!

And then the record itself is great. Its not a flimsy piece of vinyl, you would think that someone would go all out on the packaging and then use a shitty plant to save costs overall. But not at all in this case, the vinyl is thick and heavy for a 7" and the orange keeps it consistent with the colorways of the packaging.

I'm so stoked on this release that I'm going to link you to where you can pick this up, direct from AAFF's Big cartel, its only $8 and well worth the money.  They have volume 1 up for sale also which features Threadbare and C.R... I still need to get that and will once i record from the stupid amount of money I paid for a certain LI band's demo cassette (to be featured in an upcoming entry!).

Primitive Weapons and Warped

So two saturdays ago I volunteered at the Bridge 9 Records booth Warped Tour at the LI date.  I haven't been to warped in years but i figured it might be fun and maybe i'd see some bands i like amongst the absolute crap that riddles warped tours lineup nowadays.  Volunteering was overall an alright experience.  A friend from Tenessee (Garrett) was there and we chilled for most of the day.  A lot of random people were at Warped that I did not expect to see there.   Including Nick! But it was great seeing everyone and getting the pre blog post info on Nicks box from Pavlos.  After warped myself and Garrett hit up a pizza joint and then went to Amityville for the Capital / Sheer Terror gig. When I got there I had completely forgotten Primitive Weapons were playing, I didnt realize this til we got to the merch tables.  I had first been given their 7' by none other than Arthur Shepard himself, when Mind Over Matter had played w/ Glassjaw at the Best Buy Theater the year before and I convinced him playing LI fest was a good idea.  I liked that record so i picked this one up too.

This is their first LP called "The Shadow Gallery", limited to 150 on grey marble.  Its a pretty good record, heavy and chaotic at times. Ive spun it quite a bit since i purchased it. I like how they put PW002 on the top left of the cover, i guess its going to be a running count of how many releases they put out. 

Its clear the label put a lot of work into this lp, the vinyl is heavy and feels good in the hand and the friggin insert folds out and looks great.

Fun fact about the show, I ended up completely missing Primitive Weapons. It went like this: Watched provider, hung out outside and forgot PW was playing, came back inside mid 1776 set to see somone immediately cartwheeling, watched Capital, got tired and left before Sheer Terror.  Yea i know.