I got in 100 today so that I can give copies to Portugal the Man when they play Denver, tomorrow night. They are going to be stoked. I am truly blown away by how fucking awesome these colors turned out. To take a better look, click the below link. We won’t be getting our copies until Tuesday and although I will be in Chicago hanging out with the Justins of Underground Communique and Forge Again, Steph and our newest employee, Andy Thomas, will be packing orders like mad. Some will go out on Tuesday, but some might not go out until Wednesday. If you haven’t ordered your copies, do so now! Wow!
Damn, that vinyl is pretty. I just got them in today and unfortunately, they won’t be going out until tomorrow. Sorry friends, but we are super slammed today. If you have not ordered your blue copy, do so immediately. I am down to only 10, and talked to our distro and they are already out of this pressing. Insane! Good work Mr Kennerty!
Got in the Black Cross “Severence Pays” vinyl in yesterday and sent them all out this morning. They turned out super sweet.
We will announce the test pressing winner next week when we receive it from Underground Communique. You can still enter to win one by purchasing a copy.
Ever since hearing about this release on our message board, I have been bugging Joe of Heavens to allow us to buy some copies for Vinyl Collective. Joe was kind enough to respond, but he was apprehensive about having us carry copies. I waited. Then I saw the thread pop up again in our message board and wrote Joe again. As luck would have it, I caught him at the perfect time. He had just received copies of the record and the pressing plant had pressed a little more than the thousand he had ordered. He asked if I would be into taking 100 copies that would be specifically hand-numbered for Vinyl Collective and to that, I said, “Doe a Bear Shit in the Woods?” I am stoked to be able to offer this release and know that this will be a highly coveted record as I imagine it will soon be out of print.
I expect to receive copies sometime next week and hope to have a photo up on the site soon (as the art on the vinyl is supposedly different than the cd art).
Each song on this release swells and grows and builds enough tension to support a bridge. It is melodious and metallic, haunting and crushing, and most of all captivating. Boasting comparisons to bands like Isis or Red Sparrowes, Battlefields prefers to soothe their listeners before a sonic caucophony that results with nothing less than crushing guitars, pounding drums and throat shredding vocals. Meet the new face of doom metal. These LPs are on colored vinyl, hand-numbered, and are going fast!
I am excited to be offering you the Init Records’ vinyl catalog. Every week, I am reminded exactly how small this world really is. You see, I met Steve, Init’s mastermind, back on a tour with the Fairlanes in 1999. If I remember correctly, Steve set up a show for us on that tour in the small town of Waseca, Minnesota. That show is very memorable to me because up until that point on tour, I had not received a single mosquito bite and that night, I was bit probably 100 times. The other memorable thing about the night was this really annoying kid who kept begging for free Merch. I got so fed up at one point, I found a broom from the club, slapped a Fairlanes’ sticker on it, and I told the kid that we weren’t planning on parting with the broom so early on this tour, but that we would be honored if he would take our highly coveted tour broom. He excitedly grabbed it and at the end of the night, he asked the entire band to sign the broom. I actually have a photo somewhere with the kid posing next to the broom. Good times. Oh and I must mention the after-show hang out session where this guy, Bill, downed a shitload of Everclear, and this girl was dared to lick a disgusting Toilet Seat. To make a long story short, I met Steve through this show, and at the time, he was running a small punk rock distro (back in the 90’s, people had distros and would set up at shows. It was a kind of an underground distribution network). We traded discs throughout the years and we kind of lost touch. Steve recently got in touch about having Vinyl Collective carry his records. In the years that I have not been in touch, Steve has amassed quite a catalog including wax for Since By Man, Tornavalanche, Hewhocorrupts, Ten Grand and most recently he put out the vinyl for Building Better Bombs, the punk rock alter ego of P.O.S. Speaking of BBB, here is a photo of the vinyl we just got in and below is a list of our available Init releases. Steve is one of the good guys and it is really cool to see people like Steve still involved with independent music.
Justin at Forge Again has been so kind as to donate a test pressing for the Balboa / Aussitot Mort and you can enter to win a copy by purchasing any Forged Again release (listed below). If you have already purchased any of the below titles, you are already entered, but the more you order, the better the likelihood of you winning the test pressing. Good luck.
Also note, that we have lt grey and dark grey Boys Night Out LPs. Choose wisely!
A little known fact, I used to work at Hopeless Records from 97 to 98. It was a great experience, but I just wasn’t the biggest fan of Los Angeles. It is amazing to see an independent label doing so well, but to me, it is all about the early years of this label. I first found out about Hopeless when they put out 88 Fingers Louie and later became big fans of the Nobodys, Funeral Oration, and Falling Sickness. When I worked for Hopeless, they were just starting to work with Dillinger Four and Mustard Plug. To me, it really doesn’t get much better than D4’s “Midwestern Songs” and when that album came out, it really set the bar for great punk rock. After I left, Hopeless signed great acts like the Weakerthans and Thrice who have gone off to do bigger and better things. And oh yeah, they signed that band Avenged Sevenfold who really are not my thing, but people seem to like them.
For many of these releases, i only got 1 or 2 so act quickly if you want to take a trip through time through Hopeless’ back catalog. This brings back some great memories.
When I went to CMJ recently, I had the great experience of meeting Ronen Kauffman, author of “New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goodbye…”. He invited me to do an interview for his podcast, Issue Oriented, which is one of the great podcasts centered around independent music. Ronen was so kind, he gave me a copy of his book which I read from cover to cover traveling back to Colorado from New York. Reading the book got me really excited and made me think that I should be carrying books on Vinyl Collective.
I loved the book and here is why. All of us have stories on how we found our connection with punk rock and as much as our stories are unique and define who we are, there are others who have had similar experiences. Ronen grew up in the New Jersey punk rock / hardcore scene and although there are plenty of differences, his story really reminded me of how punk rock really changed my life. It made me think of all of those early shows I attended which inspired me to get involved and start a fanzine. Ronen tells his story of how he got into punk and hardcore, how he started a fanzine, how he started playing in bands, and how these experiences helped him to become the person he is today.
I recommend everyone pick up this book not just because I loved the book, but because Ronen is one of the good guys and he deserves to sell a million books.
On my long list of things to do is to start adding more books to our store so stay tuned! We need something to do while we listen to records, right?