Get off that skateboard and get off the fucking train

Left: Fast Point 'Skateboards and Powerchords' green /200
Right: Fast Point 'Skateboards and Powerchords' black /300


First 7" post. Started off with a banger if I do say so myself. This is by far one of the most fun 7"s I own and definitely one of my favourites. I haven't seen this band play since December 08 and I missed out on seeing them last month (or maybe earlier this month, can't remember). Proper gutted about it, but with any luck they'll actually get round to doing something this year.

Good times have been had to this band. Me and Archie put on our first ever show and these dudes played, and we had a blast. It was in a community centre in Canterbury and was one of the first CT shows for quite some time I believe. The place was basically a fucking stadium, which is partly my fault because I never went to check it out and when I called and asked how big it was they said about 300 people standing. Obviously we weren't expecting 300 at all, but this place was seriously double that. Echoed like a motherfucker too. Neighbours kept complaining about the noise and people drinking outside and stuff but nothing really happened until the end when it got shut down by the janitor bloke.

I think we had about 100 people show up (which was the best turnout for any of our shows, they seemed to steadily decline from that point on) and people sort of broke into this kind of big cupboard full of spacehoppers and tricycles an shit haha, and during Pay No Respect (this was before they played Kent every week haha) people were moshing with them. Fucking funny, there was a video of it I saw once on facebook but no idea at all who filmed it.

The Fast Point dudes were awesome, pretty sure they were bored as fuck the entire time until they played, but their bassist was so fucking drunk and really friendly. And their merch dude/ friend Fanny was hilarious. We went to see them the next day at the Underworld in London for the last Honour Among Thieves show and it was so awkward, definitely needed to be drunk again.

Here's a video from the show. I thought it was so cool (and still do) that everyone kept singing along to the last song even though the power was cut out. Fuck that place anyway, screwed me out of a lot of money.

Oh also there's a hilarious picture of Fisher from Basement at this show, gona post that too.

Missing items

I was going to do a post right now but the camera I use is not where it's meant to be. It is meant to be in like one of three places and it's not, I don't know what to do. It's so aggravating, I've been through where it should be about 3 times over now but nothing. I hate losing things, or people moving them to where they shouldn't be.

I can't wait to post my Touché Amoré collection. It's coming along really well, I have about 3 TA records in the post coming from overseas so when they're here I'll crack on. Demo 7"s first, I imagine the last one of them will arrive this week. I'm a semi-serious collector; not too bothered about test pressings as they're usually way over what I can afford. I mainly go for the record colour variations, limited cover editions are cool but definitely go for record colour first.

The first band I collected was AFI, and I still have some awesome rare promo CDs. Only have a few pieces of vinyl as I sold a few off last year. Touché Amoré are definitely the most collected band however, I own more of their records than any other. Costs a lot, but I enjoy it.

Here is a song by Life Long Tragedy. Great band, Runaways is a fantastic record.

What good are dreams if they come true?

Dangers 'Messy, Isn't It?', red /860


Another post about Dangers. 6 posts in and already some repetition, terrible start. This band fucking rules though so never mind.

One of the main things I love about this record over their previous full length 'Anger' is the presentation. I love the photographs used for the dust sleeve, just really cool images of a nice, quaint, little suburban house. They give a completely different feel to the actual content of the record; pessimistic lyrics, a fairly negative title and some very aggressive hardcore punk.

The fold out art sleeve is also fantastic. You can't really tell from the pictures, but it is fucking huge. I think it's like 36 inches long and 24 inches wide, making and already pretting eye catching image even more striking. Also the lyrics scrawled on the back are awesome that size (note the CD that comes with it, thought that was a very nice touch).

The record itself is a very awesome shade of red, it's like a very slightly darkened cherry red.

Once again, I completely adore the lyrics to this. Al Brown is a godamn lyrical genius, so honest and introverted, so negative. The opening track 'Stay At Home Mom' sets the tone of the record, with the first line very bluntly being 'Why didn't you kill yourself today?'. There is also a track that features a poem by a writer called Richard Brautigan, who I am not familiar with, but it's a pretty sweet audio poem that has a bunch of other records of people giving it their own rendition layered over the top of it.

Here's the lyrics to 'Stay At Home Mom' to give an idea of the tone of this album:

Why didn’t you kill yourself today?
What cross, what coupon, what cathode ray
Put the joie de vivre in your diseased heart?
How Anne Hathaway,
How Peg Bundy
Thou art.
Hey Sugar:
Prove to me that the air you breathe
Wasn’t better served by the leaves of a tree.
You’re but a breeder,
Tax break receiver
With menopause sweats
A TV tray and a mosh pit son
Who wastes the marrow of his bones
Jumping into these drums.
Please tell him:
Don’t stand so (no)
Don’t stand so (close)
Don’t stand so close to me.
See, I know your children
Because I’ve been your children
And us children, hopeful children
Ain’t worth the stretch marks baby.
‘Cause we may sing these songs of protest,
Cast our ballots, too
Forgo meat and
Ride our bikes and
Get our band’s stupid tattoo
But it means nothing,
Nothing,
When we get eaten by the sun.
Que sera
Que sera
For, whatever there is will soon be all gone.
So what’s wrong
With a song
That asks wherefore and why have you lived this long?
A purpose?
You want a reason?
Stop believing.
Or stop needing the answers.
There are no answers
Except the sun, the sun, the sun.
While you sit on your couch
And wait up for your boy
We’re polluting his mind with this
(noise).

Well this is getting long, time to end. Fantastic band, hope they make it to the UK sometime.

www.wearedangers.com

We're youth eternal, nothing more to become

AFI/ Heckle split 7", black /700

AFI basically are the most important band of my entire life. From the age of 12-17 I was a complete AFI freak; constantly wearing their t-shirts, buying all their releases (sometimes on mutliple copies if there were special edition CDs), scribbling lyrics in my school work books and folders, I basically fell in love with this band more than anything or anyone. There was a fairly good AFI collecting scene around those years so getting hold of pressing info and things like that was pretty easy; seems to have died down lately though. Which means a lot of my rare shit has gone down in value, but I'm not likely to part with it anytime soon, or ever maybe.

I loved basically everything they released to death until fucking Decemberunderground came out and from that point on I was lost. It was heartbreaking, I was without a favourite band for the first time in years, and am still recoving from the shock that record brought. Luckily Crash Love was fucking good (albeit extrememly pop), so that did help the healing.

So this particular record is now 15 years old, which I believe makes it the oldest record I own. I was about 16 when I acquired it off some dude from Canada, I think it cost me $35 with shipping, at the time that was roughly £20 as the exchange rate fucking ruled then. I went to Florida for a couple of weeks after I paid for it so had a long wait til I was able to listen to it, but I remember the first thing I did was go find the post when I got home, and was so excited to see it there. Unfortunately I didn't have a record player at the time haha, so I got in touch with another AFI fan I knew (Hadley) who I was sure would appreciate it, and went round his after college and gave it a listen. It was awesome. AFI when they were a hardcore band, what's not to love?

So after 19 years, AFI have completely changed their sound, and half the members are different, but they're still one of the best East Bay hardcore bands, and now I guess are the best East Bay pop band ha (still down with the core though - Davey Havok covering Straight Edge Revenge with Ceremony anyone?).

This 7" was also pressed on white /300, and last time I checked sold for between $80-100. Would be sweet to own, but for that price I stick to good old black.


This video I think is from the record release show for this 7". I would have been 4 or 5 years old!

This marks the return of a threat we should have never taken back...

Left: Modern Life Is War 'Witness', clear w/ black splatter /250
Right: Modern Life Is War 'Midnight in Americia' grey /300


Easily one of my all time favourite bands, to me they are a perfect representation of hardcore. I'm not even really that sure what to write about them. They're just a fucking amazing band. Thank you to Lydia for these two records, made for an awesome birthday!

Also, cannot believe they played Canterbury. What I would give to go back in time and see that show.

www.myspace.com/modernlifeiswar

Older isn't always better, it just is in this case

Left: 'Under the Fog' signed, black /1000
Right: 'Under the Fog' test pressing 1/5

The King Blues. The godamn King Blues. What on earth happened to this band? Came out of nowhere with an amazing political acoustic/ ska/ reggae album, followed by a good-but-should-have-been-better follow up, and are now back with some terrible sub-par pop shit. Now I am all for progression with bands (let's be honest, 3 albums of 'Under the Fog' would have been boring), but after reading a statement by now ex-guitarist Fruitbag, sellout alarm bells are ringing everywhere (a statement which has now been removed from Punktastic, but Google is your friend).

Well, moving on. Throughout my teens I listened to a fair amount of ska punk and the related genres, and went to a bunch of shows with my good friend Archie. The King Blues were one of the highlights of those years and I hold 'Under the Fog' with great sentimental value. Managing to get hold of a test press was fucking unreal, and is probably still my most prized record. All I did was bug the record label owner and eventually he gave in haha, piece of piss. I spoke to Jamie Jazz quite a lot at the time too so I imagine he put in a good word also.

These records are the original version of 'Under the Fog', which I must admit is not as good as the rerelease on major label Island, but I stand by the OG version of the track 'Under the Fog' being better than the redone version 'We Ain't Never Done'.

Happy memories of this band, forever encapsulated in these records. God bless The King Blues.

Noisey

Loma Prieta 'Life/ Less' test pressing, 17/25


So Loma Prieta are a screamo/ scramz/ whatever band from California, comprised of current and ex members of Punch and I Wrote Haikkus About Cannibalism In Your Yearbook (both of which I HIGHLY recommend), and I managed to snag a test press of their new record after I saw a post from their facebook. I thought it was a pretty cool idea; they obviously didn't need 25 test presses so they were definitely made to sell, but it meant I got the record about 4-5 weeks before the proper pressing was out which was fantastic.

I haven't been listening to this band that long, I think I stumbled across them on LastFM and then my friend Jay recommended me them in the same sort of time frame so I gave them more notice. Jay generally has great music taste so I trust whatever he throws my way. Anyway, 'Last City' is the first full length by Loma Prieta and that's what I've got into the most. There's a couple of demos and split before this, but they far from outshine this quite frankly, stunning record. 'Dark Mountain' came out in 08 and I can't get into it so much, so I was a little hesitant about 'Life/ Less'.

How wrong was I! The record is immense, easily their most frantic/ noisey sound so far, fast as hell and a nice harsh recording quality. Being the record dork I am, I will have to get the normal pressing as well (also to stop me from constantly spinning the test and scratching it). Unfortunately, their Euro tour this summer is purely mainland Europe, so I don't get to see them which fucking blows, but with any luck they'll make it to these shores sometime.

www.myspace.com/lomaprieta

Anger ain't a mood, it's a godamn way of life

Dangers 'Anger' 2nd press, grey /100

Can't think of a name for this blog. Basically I'm just going to be posting some of my favourite records, plus new ones I get in the post I think are interesting.


The record I am posting now is one of my recent favourites. It's by a band called Dangers from California, memebers of Graf Orlock/ Ghostlimb and ex-members of The Mircle Mile. Lyrically, they're unlike most other bands I listen to. They're very introspective of the writer (vocalist Al Brown), negative, critical of everyone, and also, there's quite a few blunt mention of sex (promiscuity, abortion). This surprised me as it's something that either is written in metaphors by other bands or not at all (at least the other bands I listen to).

Anyway this band is fucking great, a bit hard to describe them; sorta like hardcore punk with a slight screamo edge. This is the repress of their first album 'Anger' that came out first in 2006. Pressed by Vitriol Records (run by Justin of Graf Orlock/ Dangers/ Ghostlimb). Be sure to check out their new full length 'Messy, Isn't It?'!

www.wearedangers.com
www.vitriolrecords.bigcartel.com