Only took us like 7 years, but we’re finally coming back to Texas. Plane tickets purchased for SXSW shows. We’re playing March 17th & 18th with our amigos in Sleep Bellum Sonno. We’ll be there the 19th as well and want to play as much as possible so if anyone reading is putting on side shows, hit us up. Hope to see some of you there!
The Magnetic Fields are undoubtedly an acquired taste and a polarizing one at that- most people either love em or hate em. I fall under the love category, and think that Stephin Merritt is a genius. Super weird and quirky, yeah, but an insanely talented dude nonetheless. 69 Love Songs is a three-volume concept album made up of - you guessed it- 69 love songs. Merge Records put out a limited box set of the collection last year, remastered for vinyl on six 10”s w/ a 20+ paged book. You can still pick it up here. Here’s hoping they release “I” on wax this year finally.
-Aaron
Lucked out & found this one for $5 in perfect condition on one of our recent weekend tours - (yes, we probably spend half of our time traveling either looking for record stores or wasting money in them). Backstabbers was a pretty active band in the early 2000’s. These days I’m not quite sure what they’re up to but I’m pretty positive a few of the guys from the Kamikaze Missions era are in Trap Them. The drummer on this album also went on to play drums in the Fused in Revolving Doors era Red Chord and then Unearth. Dude is such a beast. But I digress- I love this album. Grindy, brutal hardcore with some of the angriest lyrics ever. Really sweet guys, though. Andy and I’s other band HBOG played a bunch of shows with them in the UK a few years ago before they became inactive. Rad dudes and really rad band. This is the Euro pressing of the album, which as far as I can tell, is available via Trash Art Records.
RIYL: American Nightmare, Nails, Trap Them, Trash Talk, Tragedy.
pretty broke right now so don’t think we’ll be making more for a bit. Panic records has medium TSL shirts though: http://www.panicrecords.net
sorry man, ebay or message boards prolly the best bet.
2 super under-appreciated instrumental post rock records that in my opinion are among the best in the genre:
LITE is an instrumental rock band from Japan that has been around for a bit but never received much attention in the states until Mike Watt became a fan and brought them out on his US tour 2 years ago. I get why they caught the attention of a legend because this album is stellar from front to back. Mathy and heavy some times, epic at others, they’re kind of like the middle ground between The Fucking Champs and Explosions. “Post Rock” in recent years has kind of taken a turn towards the redundant and uninspired, but this one is a gem that never got the attention it deserved within fans of the genre. Check it! You can buy it right HERE from Transduction Records. It’s a bit pricey due to the fact that it’s shipping from Ireland, but definitely worth it nonetheless.
RIYL: Russian Circles, Explosions in the Sky, Cancer Conspiracy, The Fucking Champs
This has been out for many years, but it saw a proper release on vinyl about 2 years back from the excellent Gilead Media Records. I found out about it many years ago when a friend and I took a road trip to Florida and stopped to see Between the Buried and Me play in a church along the way. Hopesfall played the show as well and I bought the demo cdr of this on a whim from their table - their bassist at the time wrote and re-recorded all of it himself but never really did much beyond that demo. Shame because it’s just so damn good. Really chill, beautiful instrumental rock that has aged perfectly with time. Probably been 7 years since I first heard it and I still love it just as much now every time I throw it on. You can get a copy from Gilead right HERE.
RIYL: Pinback, Explosions in the Sky
ha thanks man. we haven’t been in way too long and would love to make it back. Might not be soon but it will happen
That’s Laura Stevenson. She rules. Lyrically and musically, we thought the song called for it.
so im doing todays post a little different, you all know aaron right? good dude, chances are if you talked to one of us online its most likely him, fuck this page was set up by him, anyway its his birthday today so besides the shout outs you should give him, i figured i would help you all solve the problem of “what can we get him for the big day” question.
well here it is.
american nightmare “background music” LP, any press im sure will do, as long as it was pre the name change, (im told the gutg version just isn’t the same, but what do i know i am the one who likes cold cave).
i figure if each of you throws in a couple $$ you could snag it off the electronic bay, sounds like a plan right?
here is one more photo of (mostly) acceptable options for inspiration:
happy birthday aaron!
andy
ps. fun fact, aaron and american nightmare have the same initials so don’t get him one of those hoodies, my boy would feel like a tool wearing his own initials like some LLBean embroidered back pack.
I imagine most of you are already familiar with Vitriol Records and their roster. They put out records from bands that rip and the level of creativity and effort they put into their vinyl packaging is just top notch. We recently traded for a few LP’s from Dangers, Graf Orlock and the Comadre/Glasses split 7”, and I wanted to take a minute to highlight all of these releases on the blog. Everything you see below is up in our merch store, and you can also grab these directly from Vitriol right here.
I’m admittedly not a big 7” guy, but the packaging on this split is incredible. Easily one of- if not the best- packaging on a 7” I’ve seen. Pretty sure it’s a co-release between Comadre’s own label and Vitriol. Kudos to all involved- great split and a fantastic looking record. I wasn’t familiar with Glasses prior to this split, but they rip as well. No bullshit female fronted hardcore. Really good stuff.
Again, great record. Stellar packaging job. This one’s been out for a bit so you’ve probably seen it, but the cover has a translucent rifle scope. Depending on which panel you fold out on the insert poster, you can set a different historical political or musical figure within your scope sights on the cover. Really? Yep. Fucking awesome.
If you’re a fan of hardcore, you’re doing your self a disservice by not listening to Dangers. Anger is great, and I firmly stand by the fact that Messy Isn’t It is one of the best hardcore albums of the past 5 years. Instant classic in my book. Pissed, witty, creative, catchy- everything I want in a hardcore band and then some.
Messy, Isn’t It?:
Anger:
-Aaron
Our newest album is still up for free download right here: http://thesaddestlandscape.bandcamp.com/
Have you downloaded it yet? It’ll only be up for a few more days.
Panic Records press of YWNS comes out this week! To celebrate and thank everyone for their support this year, here’s a FREE DOWNLOAD of the whole album. It’ll be up all week. If you’re a fan of it, please respost, reblog, pass the link around. Thanks!
Been looking for this one for a lonnggg time now. Like most of the records I’m seeking out these days, I had numerous opportunities on tour back in the day to snag them for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, I didn’t care about vinyl back then and am paying for it now (quite literally- records ain’t cheap!) Gotta thank our bassist Mike Van B for selling this to me. I harassed him for a better part of a year for it, and finally, he got sick of me bugging him and needed some money so he was kind enough to give it to me for a fair price. Thanks Michael.
Anyways, on to the album. Love it so much. We were fortunate enough to play with them in Texas on the first saddest landscape US tour we ever did, and, looking back, it was probably one of the only fond memories of that trip (getting arrested by some back woods red neck cops in South Carolina kind of put a damper on the rest of that tour). Anyways, the band blew me away. They also blew off a ton of fireworks inside the venue, but that’s neither here nor there.
No one quite sounded like them back then, and this record has definitely stood the test of time for me personally. Also, it’s probably worth nothing that this post is actually pretty timely seeing as I read that the band is back at work on their long-delayed follow up as of a few days ago. Can’t wait, I’m sure the new one will not disappoint. Pics below.
i fucking love hair metal, and i mean that with no trace of irony. i never stopped. no matter how many incredible diy emo shows i went to i still went to the arenas and saw the spectacle of the rock show. i even kept going in the lean years when the bands would have to play community colleges and that sketchy bar down by the shore you would never think about going to unless you liked meth. so in that spirit here are a few of my favorites. and no i don’t like trixter or saigon kick you d-bag.
up first, bon jovi - slippery when wet. this record has the hits, living on a prayer and wanted dead or alive, i defy even the most jaded scenester to not sing along, so good there was a point i listened to this daily. aaron is no doubt cringing at this as he tells me being from new jersey he is required to hate this.
cinderella - night songs. quick story, once when i didn’t fail too many classes in grade school i was given tickets to see this band, i thought it was good incentive at the time, somebody save me still holds up, and i remember the video fondly.
motley crue - shout at the devil. the crue, have you read the dirt? you should, that may be the only book i remember aaron reading on tour, pure debauchery how are they still standing? anyway the packaging on here is perfect, it has one of those tip finish jackets where if you tilt it into the light you can see a “hidden” pentagram. which if it was put out on southern lord you all would be drooling over it. and lets just say the crue know how to rock a gatefold, peep this:
even tippler is checking it out.
faster pussycat - s/t, now while maybe not a classic still damn good, anyone remember when the singer was on parker lewis can’t lose? of course not i seem to be the only one who cares about such things, or when one of the guitarists got busted for having his girlfriend mail him a teddy bear full of heroin via fed ex, and when arrested they asked him what he learned and his reply was something like “i should have used ups they don’t x-ray their packages”, classy.
guns n roses - appetite for destruction. simply classic, front to back flawless, which is near impossible with hair metal, but i think this one does it, this is the original cover, the cross cover is still cool, but there is something about the dark banned one. i am amped just thinking about this one, i still remember how to play most of this record. oh and yes i am one of the 3 people that actually liked chinese democracy.
poison - open up and say ahhhh. every rose has its thorn is the perfect power ballad, essentially 2 chords and the lyrics got bill and ted into heaven. here it is also with its original cover, this cover was banned for being too demonic or something, i guess it would scare middle america, people are silly.
ok so how much credibility did i just lose?
-andy
Really great EP that I’ve been listening to a lot this past week. Reminds me of a more “mathy” Further Seems Forever with some Piebald mixed in. I liked it from the get go but definitely gets stronger with each spin- the more I listen, the more I find another cool part that I didn’t fully pick up on the last time around.
Usually I’m not a huge fan of 7”s (the typical 1 song on each side and having to get up and walk across the room to flip it part pushes my laziness buttons), but for a 5 song, 15 minute EP, I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth. You can stream the whole thing below, and if you like it, you can buy it from No Sleep Records here. Pics below (sorry for the fuziness, was trying to prevent my fat cat from stepping on the record while I was taking them). Bluriness ensued.
-Aaron
Pygmy Lush’s sophomore effort Mount Hope is quickly becoming one of my favorite records. Anyone who lives in the north east will tell you that life gets kind of hectic sometimes and you just need to slow down and mellow out.
As much as I like all the spazzy, grindy chaos coupled with the acoustic folk from Bitter River and the more recent split with Turboslut (not to mention Chris Taylor sounding like he’s in Pg.99 again). This record has so many hooks and spacey sounds it’s hard not to like it.
You can pick it up at the Lovitt Record’s store here: http://www.lovitt.com
Eric
every once in awhile we will still update about our own releases, this time around we finally just got in the second press (or panic press as we affectionately call it) of you will not survive, the white is limited to 300 copies, black = 200, and clear = 500. you can order any/all of them from our store , or direct from panic. the music is the same as the first press, though it was pressed from new lacquers and they no longer have the gatefold cover, but the printed inner sleeves are a nice touch.
-andy
