The Postal Service - Give Up

This is an example of a really great package; Sub Pop have outdone themselves. The album itself is incredible (more on that later) and I would have bought it had it been just the ten songs, but they've really gone to town here. Most notably there is a second vinyl containing the b-sides to Such Great Heights and The District Sleeps Alone, the first two singles, which is pretty lovely. Usually bonus tracks are tacked on because there's some dead space, but here they pressed a whole second record. On top of that you get a gatefold sleeve, a 9" 16 page booklet (like you'd get with a cd, I often feeling I'm missing out on these by buying the record), a 12"x24" two-sided poster of the artwork from the first two singles and both records are coloured vinyl (mine are transparent red, but a friend has white. No idea about print runs). This is the sort of care you expect from a tenth anniversary reissue, not the original pressing. And for a tenner! Needless to say I was excited when I saw this.

All that excitement aside, the album is truly awesome, but I knew that before I bought it. My friend Vicky had come back from America with a Postal Service song on a sampler cd and she played it to death in her car before eventually buying the album (I forget which song it was). Give Up became a big hit amongst me and my friends and I think it's safe to say we all have a copy somewhere. I'm not very knowledgeable on indie/electronica but these songs all seem to be fantastic examples of that genre. The three singles are all instant classics, but I've always been a big fan of the dark This Place is a Prison and Natural Anthem too. The highlight of the second record in undoubtedly the Iron & Wine cover of Such Great Heights, a song he really makes his own. The Shins' cover is pretty nice too. The two new songs are nice, but you can see why they didn't quite make the cut for the album. Both feel as if they were a little work short of being great; they had potential but were neglected perhaps (but what do I know? I've never written a song). Remixes rarely do much for me, but these two work well enough.

I bought this when visiting some friends in Brighton in Rounder Records. I recently learnt that Rounder is closing down which is very sad, it's never nice when a record shop closes down but especially when it's one you liked. I didn't get to visit it as often as I like, mostly because I don't often get to visit Brighton anymore, but also because when I was there I could never find it - the South Lanes are a maze and this was before the days of Google maps on your phone. Brighton is a very musical town and is (was) spoilt for record stores. Unfortunately it does seem that even the most musical of towns can't support too many independents anymore. I feel a pang of guilt every time I see that a record shop is closing that maybe I didn't do enough to help - not buying enough there, eBaying cheap cds, using play.com - but I suppose this is just the way things are going. I buy as much of my music as I can from Banquet these days. If they closed my life would change dramatically; they wouldn't be putting on great shows in Kingston and putting out great records on their own label. Also, I have no idea where else stocks the records I buy from them. And sadly, on a PhD salary I can't afford to share my financial love around all the great record stores about. It seems selfish at times, but I can't do much more.

Got a bit off-topic there! Anyway, Give Up is a great album and I fully recommend the double vinyl for many reasons. Buy it from an independent record shop and make me feel less guilty.


Format: double 12", gatefold, 9" booklet, 12"x24" double sided poster
Tracks: 16
Cost: £10
Bought: Rounder Records, Brighton
When: 24/01/05
Colour: Transparent red
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Thursday - Full Collapse

I spent a while earlier trying to remember how I first came to hear Thursday, but couldn't quite place it. I ignored that and wrote most of what's below, but just as I was finishing this post it all came back to me, so here's that story: I'd been to Southampton one Saturday afternoon and bumped into a friend from college who was with a friend of hers handing out gig flyers. One of the flyers was for The Movielife, Thursday and some other band in The Joiners. I think I'd bought White Pony by Deftones on a lovely double vinyl that day and my friend's friend compared Thursday to Deftones, and a couple of other bands. I don't entirely agree with the comparison now, but took the flyer and ended up going to the show and had a great time. The Joiners is about the size of my bedroom and was packed and sweaty that night. Both Thursday and The Movielife were excellent and the crowd lapped it up. The first band may have been ok or not, or maybe I just arrived late; I have no memory of them whatsoever (I just had a quick Google, but to no luck).

Anyway, a short while later Full Collapse came out and a short while after that I got a copy on cd. I guess I knew it was a classic from the off, because only a few months later I bought the vinyl on eBay for £18, which was even more money back then. It was from this seller on eBay who had all these great records by very exciting bands that we were just getting into, and I remember buying a lot from his store. Dead Format reckons it's the third pressing and, as is often the case, the most numerous run (/1050). Banquet recently got it back in stock, and I felt quite smug that I had it from the start (nearly).

Like I said, the album is a classic. Almost all my favourite Thursday songs are here. Nicely sandwiched between two instrumental book-ends, you get ten unfaltering, aggressive post-hardcore/screamo songs, each one as good as the two either side of it. Understanding in a Car Crash, Cross Out the Eyes and Paris in Flames are all highlights.

What made me love this album even more was seeing Thursday again last April. I'd seen them a few times between then and that first time with The Movielife, but my gig-buddy Sarah hadn't seen them at all and was very excited. However, two songs into the show I became the one who was very excited as Geoff announced it had been 10 years since Full Collapse came out and that they were going to play the album in full that night (actually, at first I felt really old, then very excited). Understanding broke and I spent the 40 or so minutes that followed jumping around like I was 16 rather than 26. I hadn't had that much fun at a gig in ages; it's no longer usual to come home drenched in sweat and covered in bruises, but that night it was. I remember using the intro to Autobiography of a Nation to catch my breath before going back to screaming all the words. It was an awesome night. I'm a sucker for these "playing albums in full" shows and to see one of your favourite albums as a complete surprise was incredible.

Some time later last year Thursday announced they were going their separate ways and, whilst I was sad, I was so pleased I'd seen them play Full Collapse, an album I've loved for more years than I care to think about. Here are some stats (from some lists I made over the years) in case you needed convincing further about how much I adore this album: Top 50 Albums of the 2000's - #15; Top 10 Gigs of 2011 - #4.

Format: 12", a4 insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £18
Bought: eBay
When: 16/12/03
Colour: Transparent orange
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Jesu - Lifeline

This is a nice record. It was the third purchase in the Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year and I didn't really know a lot about Jesu at the time. I think I knew Justin Broadrick had been in Godflesh but Jesu's sound was more along the lines of heavy-ambient-showgaze, which sounded very appealing. As ever, the sticker on the front telling me about the colour vinyl enticed me further (the packaging here is lovely and the last photo shows what a great colour the record is).

Lifeline is definitely an EP rather than an album, but that does seem to be the format Justin works best with. I've since bought a couple of Jesu full-length albums and, whilst they have their moments, they're generally just too long and I get a little lost. Here though, the nice subtle parts don't disappear in a 70-minute sprawl and you're left with four great songs. Side A comprises the very slow title track and the comparatively heavier You Wear Their Masks. Jarboe's vocals on Storm Coming On are perfect (a song that sounds like it's actually going to make it storm) and allows the riff that starts End of the Road to bring you back to life. I can't think of another riff so slow yet so triumphant at the same time. End of the Road really closes the record brilliantly.

Jesu have a fairly lengthy back-catalogue and I probably spent too long seeking out their albums when the EPs seem to be where it's at (an opinion I've seen echoed across the internet). His records aren't the easiest to stumble across in record stores in the UK, and generally aren't cheap, but if the other EPs are as good as this they'll be worth it.


Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 4
Cost: £10.50
Bought: Spillers
When: 22/01/08
Colour: Gold with black splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Paper Chase - God Bless Your Black Heart

This is the first record by The Paper Chase I've written about on here, so it seems like an appropriate time to rant and rave about how much I fucking love The Paper Chase. It's a tale of finding one of your favourite bands of all time by complete accident.

I can't remember the day of the week right now, but it was the day Hugh and I were finally going to see Glassjaw. It was the summer between college and university and I'd gone into town during the day to check out the sale MVC had on. They had loads of cds for £3 or £4, but mostly of stock they couldn't sell rather than the brought-in stock HMV has in theirs. Having spent many hours in the years before this staring at cds I couldn't afford in that shop, it was great to be able to buy them for so cheap. Whilst flicking through I saw two cds that I'd never seen on the shelves before (I suspect someone may have ordered them in but never bought them). They were the first two albums by The Paper Chase. The first, Young Bodies..., had a label explaining a little about the band, which was particularly helpful given that I'd never heard of them before. It made them sound very exciting and compared them to The Birthday Party and Les Savy Fav. I knew a song by The Birthday Party but had never heard of Les Savy Fav (The Paper Chase's influence over my musical knowledge had already begun it seems). I bought Young Bodies along with a small stack of other cds and headed home. (As I was leaving the shop Hugh phoned to say that Glassjaw was cancelled once again - a common theme at the time - but our friend Steve was having a party that night, so it wasn't a complete loss.)

Anyway, intrigue lead me to play The Paper Chase first when I got home and I loved it. It was dark and awkward and noisy and discordant; all things I had no idea I enjoyed so much. It was also beautiful at the same time. The rhythm section and the piano with a sparsely used guitar on top made for some incredible songs. And John Congleton's vocals fitted perfectly, as did the twisted lyrics he sang about. I was a fan from the offset. I bought all their albums (almost literally, with the exception of a few records of albums I only have on cd, I have it all) and saw them as many times as possible during their existence (a brilliant experience indeed).

But this is about God Bless Your Black Heart, which I'm often tempted to say if my favourite album (although there's not a bad one in the bunch). Said the Spider to the Fly is perfect as a song and as an opener to the album. It's my go-to Paper Chase song when I put them on a mixtape and a great example of their music. I can't quite find the way to describe why I think that song is so great, but feel free to listen for yourselves and see. There are too many other great songs (with long titles) to list the other classics, but Let's Be Bad Henry and Dying With Decent Music both deserve a special mention. Like all but the last album, there are practically no gaps between the songs and a few filler bits between the songs, but when played as a whole album they hold it together brilliantly. I never considered their records to be "concept albums" as such, but they all have themes and I enjoy the regular appearance of the words "Come to me" here. As a bonus to the vinyl version, we get a stripped-back, acoustic rendition of Said the Spider added to the end.

As mentioned earlier, this band got me into so many others. I'd never heard of Les Savy Fav and became a fan of them. I saw The Paper Chase were touring with Explosions in the Sky and became a fan of them too. Even more significantly, when I saw The Paper Chase were playing Explosions in the Sky's All Tomorrow's Parties festival I went and became a fan of all things ATP. Now, anyone who knows the incredible festivals and gigs ATP put on will know that this lead me to unknown quantities of incredible music.

Sure, I may have heard of these bands and events at some later date and there were certainly other factors at play, but in my mind, if I hadn't found that Paper Chase cd in my local (chain) record shop that summer's day I may never have discovered The Paper Chase nor all this fantastic music I listen to now. I always liked the bit in Garden State when Natalie Portman gives Scrubs-guy the headphones, says "this song will change your life" and plays him The Shins. Finding a cd in a record shop is far less Hollywood, but as far as I'm concerned, getting into this band was life-changing for me.


Format: Double 12", gatefold
Tracks: 15
Cost: Gift
Bought: Gift
When: 25/12/05
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Fu Manchu - Back to Earth 91-93

I recently re-discovered Fu Manchu after noticing that they've announced a tour in September. What seems like a very long time ago, I bought this record and a couple of other albums of theirs and enjoyed them. I think I knew their name from reviews in Kerrang! and I was aware of their connections to other stoner bands like Nebula. I suspect I may have even had a song on a sampler cd that came with Kerrang! but to confirm that would take more research than I was planning on doing for this post.

Anyway, when I started university (the first time) I made a particular effort to visit other towns and cities near-by to see what record shops they had to offer (although as more and more of my money was going towards alcohol, this didn't last very long). Very early on I caught the train to Preston with the hope of finding some good ones. Unfortunately, if there had been any decent shops, they'd closed down by then and I was left with an HMV and a couple of cheap cd places. However, the HMV did have a surprisingly good selection of vinyl and I picked up this one, despite not knowing much about the band (other than some positive reviews and a possible song somewhere). I have a vague memory of there being a sticker on the sleeve telling that the vinyl was coloured, which may help me in knowing what colour it actually is - my colour-blindness is hindering me here, but I'm going for either green or orange. I suspect the colour vinyl, relative cheapness and lack of other record shops all played a part in this purchase. I hadn't taken my record player with me the first term, so had to wait until I went home at Christmas to play my purchases.

But anyway, I'm very glad I bought it. Musically it was the stoner rock I had expected and enjoyed. The album is a collection of their early 7"s along with one new song (Simco, which has a monster riff). The songs are generally a bit heavier and more Kyuss-y than their later albums, but that is quite the positive. Don't Bother Knocking and Pick-Up Summer are both huge songs and the outro to Space Sucker makes you want to play side one all over again just so you can listen to it again.

I bought some other Fu Manchu records over the years, but somehow ended up not listening to them all that much. I remember my cd of In Search Of... getting a bit scratched on a road-trip in Australia shortly after I bought it (the perils of not taking cd-r's in a car), but I guess I was just getting my stoner fix from Kyuss. However, I have more time in my life for stoner-rock than just four albums. I've been spinning a lot of Fu Manchu over the last weeks and I've been appreciating them greatly. Maybe absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 9
Cost: £9 new
Bought: HMV Preston
When: 30/10/03
Colour: Orange?
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Jane's Addiction - Classic Girl

Jane's Addiction were one of those bands I got into when I first started listening to music. Their name and albums appeared in various lists in magazines and I'd seen the video for Jane Says on tv and thought it was great. I became a big fan and had a great time when they played Reading Festival in 2002 (only to be annoyed when they cancelled their Reading 2011 performance at the very last minute).

When I was looking at universities I always made sure I had some time to spare in the day to check out the local record shops. Lancaster was a long way from Winchester but I managed to find an hour at the end of the day to get into town and see what there was. I got off the bus by the market, strolled in and immediately stumbled across this stall with boxes of awesome records. I picked up a small handful of records, including this one, and solidified my decision that Lancaster would be my first choice of uni. Of course the market stall closed down just before I started university, but I still had a great time (possibly due to the extra cash I had from not blowing my loan on rare records).

Classic Girl is a great JA song, but the picture disc probably played a part in why I bought this that day. The cover of Ritual de lo Habitual is great and looks awesome on the record. Part of me thinks they should have adjusted where the center was slightly to have the hole in the record in a more comical place, but that's just me being juvenile. Never a band for b-sides, the two extra songs are live cuts from Ritual that appeared again in various places. The end of Ain't No Right features Perry's classic Birkenstock rant. For no reason other than Perry Farrell's dislike I've always been against Birkenstocks, even though I hear they're very comfortable.

Much like the Pumpkins picture disc from the other day, not a necessary record by a long shot, but a very nice one for the collection nonetheless.


Format: 12" picture disc, die cut sleeve
Tracks: 3
Cost: £6 second hand
Bought: Lancaster Market record stall
When: 19/02/03
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Shellac - 1000 Hurts

Here's another from the Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year. Whilst I'd heard of Shellac I'd never really listened to them. My work-mate Aled sang their praises and he knows good music so I trusted him and picked up 1000 Hurts one week (a few weeks later I picked up Big Black's Song About Fucking and a few weeks after that read the excellent Our Band Could Be Your Life. Kinda feels like these events should've happened in reverse).

I took it home that day not really knowing what to expect. The first song Prayer to God is the most accessible but also one of the most bitter, industrial sounding songs I've ever heard. I imagine this is where I got the (apparently wrong) idea that Steve Albini is a bit of a dick. (Thinking about it, the chapter on Big Black in Our Band... probably emphasised that. After seeing Shellac live I changed my mind.) Some of the other songs sound a bit more like jams than songs, but they work well for that. Squirrel Song, Ghosts and Song Against Itself are all brilliant too. I'd put good money on the lyrics of Canaveral being based on the same events as Prayer to God.

Anyway, as a record, it's a lovely package. Shellac were including cds in their LPs at no extra cost long before mp3 download cards were a thing, which I admire greatly. I love playing records, but also like to have the mp3s for on-the-go (and my USB turntable is a chore). The sleeve is a reproduction of an analogue tape box and comes with the sort of stickers you might put on such a tape (having never been in an analogue recording studio, I'm guessing. Certainly looks believable). Nice thick vinyl and a classic joke etched in the run-off groove too.

I finally saw Shellac at the All Tomorrow's Parties 10 year anniversary weekend and they were incredible. Given how serious their songs (and personalities) come across, they looked like they were having a great time on stage. I see why they play almost every festival ATP organises. Their show was one of the highlights of the weekend (which was packed with awesome bands) and the deconstruction of the drum kit outro was particularly enjoyable (the exact opposite of The Melvins outro that weekend). I missed their New Year's day show a while back so I'm looking forward to their ATP this December.


Format: 12", box, picture sleeve, sticker
Tracks: 10
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 18/03/08
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "What's orange and looks good on hippies" Side B: "Fire"
mp3s: cd

Pitchshifter - www.pitchshifter.com

Pitchshifter were undoubtedly one of the most significant bands of my youth. When I was 15 a copy of Kerrang! magazine came out with a free cd stuck on the cover called "The Devil's Music, Vol. 1". My school was up the road from a newsagents and Hugh had bought a copy before school. We all spent the day reading his copy and each bought one ourselves on the way home. The cd was pretty incredible for our young ears (Google the tracklisting now, it's still impressive - Glassjaw, One Minute Silence, High on Fire). There were bands on there we knew, but mostly bands we'd never heard of, but either way I ended up getting into most of the bands on there. The first track was Everything's Fucked by Pitchshifter and it blew us all away. I still remember the next day walking up to school and my friend Paul raving about it. We got into the band in a big way and bought tickets for a warm-up show they were playing in The Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth ahead of a larger London show (possibly my third ever gig).

Over the years that followed I bought all their albums and saw them countless times. I once even travelled from Lancaster to Portsmouth to see them in the Pyramids just because we'd seen them play there on the same date two years and four years beforehand (but also because I didn't know anyone at university who wanted to go). They broke up and reformed more times than I can remember; I think we may have seen equal amounts of break-up shows, reformation shows and regular shows.

But through all of this, the dot com album (as we came to know it) was their peak, an incredible, classic album. It was almost always described as being ahead of it's time, which I guess it was. It was definitely a punk album in so many ways, but in a handful of important ways it was also a dance album. Nothing else we were listening to had the beats Pitchshifter had. But their background in industrial metal was also there, although dramatically less so on this album than any of the ones before. The combination of styles made the live shows fun to be at, and kept us coming back every time they played, and buying every album they put out. It would be easier to list the weak points than list the highlights on dot com, but even 14 years after it came out there aren't any of those; the tracklisting could practically read as a Best Of.

I found this LP on eBay in 2006. I've always preferred vinyl and my dream would be to have all my favourites on 12" rather than 5". With that in mind I bought it and I'm very glad to have it in my collection. There was an era when a lot of albums weren't released on vinyl and I'm glad this wasn't one of them.

I've always sat down and listened to the album whilst writing these posts (part of the reason I started this was to make sure I wasn't neglecting any of my records). I haven't listened to Pitchshifter in quite a while - there's a lot of music out there and only so much time. I kinda knew I'd still enjoy this one, but I've been sat here tapping away and reminiscing like crazy. When Please Sir came on I remembered jumping around in the pit to it at one of their break up shows; it was the last song they played and I knew I had to make the most of it. Between the ages of 15 and about 18 I couldn't get enough of bands like Pitchshifter and One Minute Silence and their incredible live shows are key factors in why I go to so many gigs now. I may have started listening to other things, but it's great that just playing this album can take me back to all that youthful excitement. I love that music can do that.


Format: 12"
Tracks: 13
Cost: £5.50 second hand
Bought: eBay
When: 03/08/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Texas is the Reason - Do You Know Who You Are?

A few years ago I read a review of the debut EP by a close friend's band. He was pretty excited that someone who wasn't a friend of the band had even listened to it, let alone given it a good review. The interesting part however was the list of bands in the "For fans of..." section. I think there were four bands listed, three of whom were all bands they were into so were to be expected. The fourth however was Texas is the Reason, a band neither of us, nor the rest of the band, had ever heard of. We found some songs on the internet and gave them a listen; the reviewer had a point, my friends band sounded very much like Texas is the Reason, albeit accidentally.

Sometime later I was in New York visiting a friend. My priorities are rarely straight when in exciting new foreign cities, so before seeing the Statue of Liberty or Central Park I went record shopping and ended up spending hours and a small fortune in Generation Records. I liked it so much I went back again two days later to buy some more records. On the first trip I either hadn't seen, or not remembered the significance of this record, but corrected that and bought it, along with a few other bits. And I'm very glad I did - it's a cracking album. Nine songs of lovely, genuine emo/post-hardcore (before those words came to mean what they mean now). The Drinking Song and Back and to the Left are highlights for me. The instrument title-track is pretty good too.

One of the problems with binge record-shopping is coming with so many records you don't know where to start and albums get neglected or under-appreciated. That happened a bit when I came back from New York (it was also Record Store Day when I was in Colorado on the same trip, so my pile of vinyl was a bit ridiculous - the exchange rate was particularly good). This record got caught up in my hectic return home and ended up being a bit of a slow-burner. That was four years ago now, and over that time the record has had time to shine, and I gradually came to see it for the awesome album it is. The band set up a Twitter account the other day and I'm very hopeful that a reunion will result in at least one UK show (Garrett was due to play some solo shows in April, but they got mysteriously pulled last minute). People are often a bit cynical of reunion shows, but if it means I get to see Texas is the Reason, I'm all for it.


Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 9
Cost: £5.42 new
Bought: Generation Records, New York
When: 13/04/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Smashing Pumpkins - Machina

The Smashing Pumpkins were one of those bands you always knew about, but never knew quite why. I definitely cannot tell you the first time I heard the name The Smashing Pumpkins, but I do remember the first time I heard them after I started really listening to music (my life can basically be partitioned into the pre- and post-Bittersweet Symphony eras, something I'll elaborate on another time. This story takes place in the latter). We had just got Sky tv for the first time and I was about to take my GCSE's (brilliant timing to suddenly go from 5 channels of distraction to 500+) and on one of the music channels I saw the incredible video for Tonight, Tonight and fell in love with this band. I became a big fan; my copy of Mellon Collie on triple vinyl is one of my most prized possessions and, as with many things, be written about sometime in the future.

Anyway, in 2002 my sister had just gone to university and phoned me from a record shop before popping back for the weekend. My birthday was coming up and there were a bunch of records she thought I'd like. I can't remember the other ones she thought I'd enjoy, but when she mentioned a picture disc of Machina I got very excited. It turns out to be a promo release (although the Smashing Pumpkins fan club disagrees) with a selection of 10 songs from the album, and not including the vinyl-only Speed Kills (the abbreviated track-listing can be seen in the last picture). The cover art is pretty lovely so looks great on the picture disc. On the other side there are tiny versions of the pictures in the cd booklet, and a few odd misspellings.

Machina was never my favourite Pumpkins album, but had a few tunes. The Everlasting Gaze was always a classic and I quite like Wound and The Crying Tree of Mercury, the last two here. The quality is obviously not great, as picture discs rarely are, and it crackles and pops more than most records (the very tight-fitting plastic sleeve it came in makes me think people have had their fingers all over the grooves trying to get it out). Still, a very nice one for the collection.


Format: 12" picture disc
Tracks: 10
Cost: Free, second hand
Bought: Gift
When: 20/10/02
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene

Earlier today I read Side One Track One's review of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, which got me thinking about mixtapes I've received, and songs on them that have got me into bands. With that in mind, here is the story of the first time I heard Broken Social Scene. (As a side note, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is possibly my all-time favourite album and I plan to write a very lengthy post about that when I find the time to gush appropriately).

When I was at university in Australia I met a girl who was into some very cool music (in fact, far cooler music than me; I was impressed by her Les Savy Fav t-shirt while she looked down on me for wearing a Thursday t-shirt). Shortly after I left the country she sent me a mixtape in the post of 15-or-so mostly indie songs by bands I'd either never heard of, or never heard. I like a bit of indie, but it doesn't always do it for me and there were only really two songs the particularly caught my ear. One was The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead by Final Fantasy and the other was the first song on there - Ibi Dreams of Pavement - A Better Day. It was a great opener to a mixtape and a great song.

That summer I went to Pukkelpop festival and saw BSS play on the Sunday evening. They were absolutely incredible to watch; sometimes up to 15 people on stage banging away at various instruments. The set-list was great too. Despite not knowing the songs at the time, I remember hearing Anthem For a Seventeen Year -Old Girl and It's All Gonna Break. I've seen them a number of times since and, with the exception of their set at the Explosions in the Sky ATP, the shows never quite lived up to my memories. (That year's Pukkelpop line-up remains one of the best festival bills I've ever seen - Radiohead, Massive Attack, Daft Punk, Beck, Cursive, Turbonegro, BSS,...)

Anyway, shortly after Pukkelpop I had a look for the self-titled album and found a new copy on eBay for a bargain price, expecially considering it's a double. The album itself spans three sides, with the fourth taken up by the Ep To Be You and Me. There are some great songs here, but given that there are 21 songs overall, there are a few that fall into the background and I forget about. The highlights are definitely Ibi Dreams of Pavement, Windsurfing Nation, Superconnected and It's All Gonna Break. Ibi should be the opener in my opinion - it worked well on the mixtape and would do a similarly good job here. I absolutely love it when the horns start playing on any of their songs.

It's a pretty lovely package too. Nice, thick vinyl, gatefold sleeve and picture inner sleeves. Written inside are notes on the songs including "Get Canning to title more songs" on Handjobs For the Holidays, and "Make sure ghosts doesn't sound like goats", a mistake that would've made It's All Gonna Break a very different song. The EP is alright, but given the strength of the outro of the album, I could live without. It's nice that it's there though.

Overall, a very good record by an awesome band who I might not have heard had it not been for that mixtape. I lost contact with the friend who sent me it a while back (honestly, who isn't on Facebook these days?). After seeing Final Fantasy I tried to email her to say thank you for putting his song on the cd, but I assume she no longer check her uni email. I realise the chances of her reading this are slim, but thank you Kate for playing me Broken Social Scene and Final Fantasy.


Format: double 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves
Tracks: 21
Cost: £8.53 new
Bought: eBay
When: 31/10/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Front Bottoms - The Front Bottoms

Banquet Records putting out The Front Bottoms' self-titled album has been one of my favourite things to happen this year. I heard The Beers on the Topshelf Records Sampler last year and thought it was fantastic. I streamed a handful more songs and looked to see where I could get the album from. At the time it was only out in America and would've cost a small fortune to get shipped over, so I forgot about it. (I often think I need to make a friend in the US to receive all my American orders and then bundle them up together and ship over. I've not made any progress on this thought though.) Luckily, a short while later Banquet announced they'd be putting it out and I immediately put my order in. I guess some songs had also caught the ear of JT et al, but they'd been much more proactive in getting the record over. Thanks guys.

Anyway, it's a cracking album. There's not a bad song on there and there are some massive stand-out tunes, like Maps, Rhode Island and The Beers. I can see why Banquet were so excited about it, because it seems to cross the musical styles they love so perfectly - accessible, upbeat indie tunes but with a solid dose of punk. It's not to everyone's taste of course, I played the album whilst in the car on holiday recently and the main complaint was the vocals (with particular comments about the chorus in The Beers), but my friends tend to be into very different music. (Personally I like the vocals - they were one of the things that pulled me in. But then again I also love Jeff Mangum and Billy Corgan's voices, so maybe I just like "quirky" vocals more than most.)

The record only arrived in the post the other day but the orders came with an instant digital download. I normally try to listen to the record before the mp3s, but my impatience got the better of me here and I've played those mp3s to death over the last few months. The other reason I listened to early was because the band were coming over for a short tour and I wanted to know the songs. They only played six or seven shows but they seemed like a different band by the end of the week. I saw them play (awesomely) in-store at Banquet and nervously to a small crowd at New Slang. By the time they made it to their last show in the Old Blue Last they blew everyone away. They were having a great time, and so were the crowd, singing back most of the lyrics.

It's too early in the year to think seriously about end-of-the-year lists, but that Old Blue Last show might make the top 10 gigs (although it will have to be a top 13 because the first four places are basically reserved for the four Jeff Mangum shows I saw in March). Despite it technically coming out last year, I think it's safe to say though that this album will make the top 10 records though.


Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £14.70 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 02/07/12
Colour: Blue
Etching: none
mp3s: download

The Mars Volta - Tremulant

Keeping with today's Hard Rock Calling theme, here is a record by the other band that I'm excited about seeing next Friday. The last few times I've seen The Mars Volta have all been amazing so I'm pretty sure they'll be good again. Their most recent album was very good, much better than the few that preceded it, and the first two are both incredible. This is their first EP, which I picked up in a very cool record shop in Melbourne that I can't quite remember the name of. It was a very cool shop though. I reckon I could find it again if I was in Melbourne, assuming it's still there. I would've spent a lot more money if I wasn't a student coming towards the end of term.

Cut That City starts off with an intro of quiet background noise, and then spends a minute scatting about before settling into a good song. Concertina is practically a single in comparison, which is saying a lot given their style and song-lengths. Eunuch Provocateur gives more of a glimpse of The Mars Volta to come - crazy, stretched out, technical songs. Short, but a good record.

The first time I saw The Mars Volta I didn't quite get them. It was at Reading Festival and their set only really consisted of two songs. I ended up buying their debut album at some point and loved it. I'm not sure why, given my live experience. I think people had just consistently raved about it. But it made me a fan of the band, and the second album added to that. Their LPs are always crazy-expensive, but this is a nice record to have. I also have a vinyl-only live album which is pretty lovely, I'll write about it sometime in the future.


Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 3
Cost: £6.88 new
Bought: Melbourne
When: 31/05/06
Colour: Marbled yellow
Etching: Side A:"Nursing a viper in Rome's bosom" Side B:"Relax bros. We're all badass actors here"
mp3s: no

Soundgarden - Screaming Life EP

Soundgarden's reunion has been a slow one. When they announced it on New Year's day a year and a half ago I was very excited. I'd long been a fan and figured I'd never get to see them (Chris Cornell playing a few Soundgarden songs during Audioslave's set at Roskilde didn't quite cut it). But nothing happened. For ages. Then they finally announced a UK show at Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park in July. I wanted to go, but somehow not quite £55-wanted-to-go. However, it looks like sales have been poor and they're now going for £20, so I bought some and have been mostly listening to Soundgarden since. A week and a half to go!

(I realise how it sounds - not wanting to pay £55 after claiming to be a "big fan", but there are many other factors to play: I'd like to see them in a smaller venue than Hyde Park, the rest of the line up looked a bit rubbish (except The Mars Volta), and £55 is a lot of money.)

Anyway, the Screaming Life EP is a classic bit of Soundgarden. Their first few releases always sound much less grunge to me than the later stuff, but it's all good really. The very first time I heard Soundgarden was a 30-second clip of Nothing to Say on Encarta when my parents bought our second-ever PC. Encarta was Wikipedia on a dvd before Wikipedia made it redundant, and the Grunge article told me about all these great bands and played me one of my favourite Soundgarden songs. Someone working for them must have been a fan of Nothing to Say for it to be chosen over all the other possibilities. Thank you Encarta employee, Pearl Jam or Nirvana may not have led me to such great music. Sometime later I remember Mary Ann Hobbs playing Black Hole Sun and I gradually bought all their albums.

I had Screaming Life/Fopp on cd but found this in Replay Records in Bristol, a shop I probably wouldn't be able to find again (I always get lost in Bristol) and have no idea if it still exists. I'm guessing it's a reissue since it was cheap, in mint condition, but most of all because it has "subpop.com" printed on the back, which I'm pretty sure didn't exist in 1987.

It really is a great EP. Hunted Down, Entering and Nothing to Say are some of my favourite Soundgarden songs, especially of the early era. Chris Cornell's voice has always been one of the best in rock music (his solo career has been embarrassing at times, but that Bond theme was pretty good). I'm also a fan cool live photos for album sleeves and this one has a good one back and front. All in all, a record I'm very pleased to have in my collection.


Format: 12"
Tracks: 6
Cost: £8 new
Bought: Replay Records, Bristol
When: 10/12/04
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no