Tomahawk - Eponymous to Anonymous

I've been listening to bands that Mike Patton has been in for years - like most I started with some Faith No More and Mr Bungle, eventually adding some Lovage and Peeping Tom into the mix, as well as with his excellent album with John Kaada; at Roskilde Festival one year I saw him play in four different bands over the weekend; I even made it about half way through one of his solo albums (which is quite something, I can tell you). He's released a lot of music over the years and I doubt there's anyone out there who can enjoy all of it (possibly even including Mike himself). Personally, I've found his metal bands to be less rewarding - I saw Fantomas (at Roskilde) and quite enjoyed it, but I've never been able to get into their albums; similarly, I have a very hit-and-miss relationship with the Mr Bungle albums. Throughout all of this, Tomahawk remained the one band I never actually listened to.

That changed on Record Store Day in 2012. I'd seen that there was a boxset of Tomahawk's first three albums and thought it could be a good chance to finally get into them. As I stood in the queue that day, chatting to the guy behind me about what records we were hoping to get he pretty much convinced me that I'd enjoy Tomahawk and it'd be a great purchase. The key consideration was the price - RSD records tend to be obscenely expensive, but the Tomahawk boxset was a US release meaning that it stood a good chance of being reasonably priced (a very backwards system indeed. It was the same logic that meant I got the first three Piebald albums for £26). We also agreed that if there was only one copy left, he could have it. Luckily, there were still quite a few when we got into the shop and, even better, it was under £30 (even less with the Banquet vouchers I'd been saving from my loyalty cards).

It's a pretty nice package, but suffers from my usual RSD complaint - yes, it's nice to have these albums on vinyl and the box is a good addition, but otherwise it's a fairly basic reissue; no coloured vinyl, download codes, inserts, etc. None of these are vital, but they are nice and I always feel they go a long way.

Of the three albums, Mit Gas is my favourite. It feels like it works best as an album and has some genuinely catchy songs (Desatsre Natural is my favourite of the lot my a long way). In comparison, the other two albums have their faults along with their better moments. The first "eponymous" LP lacks those moments that make it stand out (whereas Mit Gas has plenty). Laredo is a pretty good song, but I usually find that the rest of the album has passed me by and that one catches my ears at the end. Anonymous on the other hand mostly suffers from its concept - traditional Native American songs fleshed out into rock songs. Despite that, Ghost Dance and Omaha Dance are highlights.

There are moments throughout the boxset that are really great, but it doesn't get as much play as I thought it would and, when I do think to play it, I generally find myself listening to Mit Gas. I enjoy it, but it's not my favourite Patton-related band by a long shot.

Format: Triple 12", boxset
Tracks: 38
Cost: £18.24 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 21/04/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

Before April 2007 I'd never heard of El-P. I was in Cardiff visiting a friend and we spent the Saturday morning visiting the record shops in town. In Fopp he picked up a copy of El-P's new-at-the-time album I'll Sleep When You're Dead which got him into a conversation with the fairly attractive woman at the till. As first impressions of musicians go, "El-P makes woman impressed by your music taste" is a pretty good one. She was noticeably underwhelmed by my choices, which really reinforced that idea in my mind.

Anyway, later in the day we got back to my friends house and he played me a couple of songs from the album whilst he cooked and I thought it was great. He started with The Overly Dramatic Truth and Flyentology, knowing that the Glassjaw and Nine Inch Nails cameos would appeal to me. It certainly worked and a few months later I stumbled across this vinyl copy in the HMV in Basingstoke (which shouldn't be ignored as something that happens easily - I'd rarely even seen the cd about, let alone the LP. That HMV didn't have a particularly great selection of vinyl but did have this. I've never seen the vinyl in a shop since. Sadly I was served by a dude who barely even looked at what I was buying). As if finding this album on vinyl (for a mere £11.50) wasn't enough, when I got home I discovered it also contained a bonus red 7" with alternate mixes of Smithereens and The Overly Dramatic Truth on; a very pleasant surprise indeed.

In the seven years since I bought this album, it's been consistently on very regular rotation. The beats are brilliantly dark in places and compliment the rapping perfectly. Most of the songs subtlety build up, gradually adding instruments and beats, until there's so much going on it's hard to concentrate on anything else (the drums-and-vocals-only mix of The Overly Dramatic Truth on the 7" is perfect example - the drums start off quite peacefully but but end up riotous before dropping away completely just leaving El's rap). There are highlights throughout the album, but Tasmanian Pain Coaster, Up All Night, Poisenville Kids No Wins and the entirety of side C are all worth calling out.

There's not a great deal of hip-hop in my record collection, but the albums I do have generally have some relation to El-P. Not only is I'll Sleep When You're Dead a great record, it introduced me to a wealth of other great music too. What more can you ask for?

Format: Double 12", 7", insert
Tracks: 15
Cost: £11.50 new
Bought: HMV, Basingstoke
When: 01/07/07
Colour: Black, Red 7"
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Run Forever - Settling

Run Forever blew me away with their first album. I played The Devil, and Death and Me pretty much on repeat for ages and I had an excellent time watching them at Fest that year. It was a perfect band-crush. To a certain extent, I played that album too much, which meant I was pretty excited when they announced their second album was coming out; I was definitely in need of some new Run Forever music.

On first listen, I enjoyed the record, but it didn't knock me off my feet like the debut did. I was a bit disappointed but knew I'd probably built the excitement up in my mind to a point where it was never going to live up to expectations. Where Settling and The Devil... differ is that Settling is a grower. In the year-and-a-half that I've had this album it's gone from being this enjoyable punk-rock record to being a great album I want to go back to over and over again. At some point the albums shifted and Settling became the Run Forever album I'd go to first.

The highlights for me appear at either end of the album - Good Enough and Forget are both incredible songs. The former sets the scene for the album reflecting on past times but the latter looks forward optimistically. I like that a lot - Settling isn't just ten songs, but a journey of dealing with the past and moving on. There are great songs in the middle as well - Basement, Postcards and Drop Out are all brilliant too.

I'm not great at ordering records from the states - the exchange rate is usually pretty good but the postage soon adds up and every now and again Customs decide they want a slice of the pie too. When I do order from abroad, I tend to stock up (there'll be a bunch more posts on here about that particular shopping spree). I knew I'd have to order this record to get a copy - it certainly wasn't going to appear in any UK shops any time soon and I hadn't planned to go back to Fest at that point.

There were four colour options on the Tiny Engines website and I was a bit torn about what to do - the smoke-white vinyl sounded the nicest, but part of me wanted the least numerous press (the green in the picture). They also had the option to order all four colours. Normally I wouldn't go for this, but I'd been reading some blogs of some guys who obsessively hunted down every colour of records for certain bands and a part of me really liked that. Combined with my indecision about the colour, I decided to order all four. They've since released some other pressings (including one only available on a US tour), so my dream of owning every variant of their records was shot down pretty soon (although it's probably for the best - I know that a better use of my money is to spend it getting into other bands). Still, the four colours I do own look very lovely when all lined up.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £9.30 (each) new
Bought: Tiny Engines webstore
When: 10/01/13
Colour: Green (/100), pink (/125), blue (/125), smoke-white (/150)
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Rival Schools - United By Fate

I was 17 when United By Fate came out. I became aware of it through a free magazine from my local cd shop that happened to come through my door one day. They described Rivals Schools as "post-hardcore", a term I hadn't come across before but liked the sound of. Based on that intrigue alone, I bought the cd and I became a huge fan. I certainly would have discovered Rival Schools at a number of later points had I not read that magazine that day - they became a huge name amongst my friends (and I even became friends with some guy at college because I recognised the cd in his Walkman), not to mention when the video for Used For Glue started to appear all over MTV. However, something has always pleased me about the slightly coincidental way I came to hear about them. I like it when that sort of thing brings you such excellent music.

Twelve and a half years after I bought that cd, I still love United By Fate. Pretty much everything Walter Schriefels touches turns to gold, but Rival Schools - particularly United By Fate - is especially brilliant. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what makes this album so incredible, but possibly the usual combination of excellent songs and time-and-a-place had something to do with it. If you drew a Venn diagram of Quicksand, Walking Concert and something entirely different, you'd get Rival Schools in the middle (I'm struggling to think what the third circle would be, but I'm glad it's there).

In those 12 and a half years, I saw the original release of United By Fate on vinyl twice. I can't remember where the first one was, but the second was in a record store in Canada in 2009. Both were new copies but both were in terrible conditions and so both times I decided not to buy it. I have no idea how they both got so battered but I knew it'd always bug me. Ironically, now it bugs me that I didn't buy either! The original vinyl had a green cover which looked odd given how familiar I was with seeing that classic logo in blue.

However, last year SRC announced they'd be re-releasing United By Fate on vinyl meaning I'd at least have a copy, even if it wasn't the original that I'd turned down twice. What was more exciting was that it was on some nicely coloured double-vinyl with five bonus tracks. Needless to say, I eagerly pre-ordered. The record turned up about a month after Fest, where I could have bought the same pressing for nearly £10 cheaper, but I wasn't to know that (the moral is to move to America, where records are cheap).

This re-release is thoroughly lovely - all the packaging is excellent and the bonus tracks are a pleasant inclusion (allowing extra justification for spending £26 on an album I already have on cd). The main album is split across three sides of vinyl, but was packed into two sides on the original. The thing that's hardest to get used to is Holding Sand not launching straight into the excitement of My Echo. Of the bonus tracks, I knew The Sweet from the Used For Glue 7" and On Vacations from the Used For Glue cd (although the other b-side, Bells, is curiously missing). The other three were new to me and the sort of songs that could've easily been album tracks.

Anyway, I love this album. If you've read this far, you probably know the album well too, but my favourites were always Undercovers On, Used For Glue and Hooligans For Life. After seeing Rival Schools the first time I went through a phase of putting Hooligans For Life as the first track on mixtapes because I thought I couldn't get over how uplifting it was; it made for a pretty awesome start to things as well as a pretty awesome end to things.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, 11"x11" insert
Tracks: 18
Cost: £26 new
Bought: Website
When: 23/11/13
Colour: Blue with white swirl
Etching: none
mp3s: no

mclusky - Do Dallas

It seems I'm in quite the minority here, but I'm not a huge fan of mclusky. I've tried but I just can't get on board with it. They have their moments and Do Dallas is by no means a bad record, I'm just not that into it. The problem lies in a few areas:

Musically, they seem to be straddling too many genres - if you drew a triangle with indie, punk and metal on each corner, mclusky would sit somewhere in the middle. Given the sort of music I like this should be perfect, but it comes off as a bit jarring (for some reason the singer's later band, Future of the Left, are adored by indie fans despite basically being a metal band). There are songs here that are catchy but for whatever reason just don't work because there'll be something else in there that I don't enjoy. Often that comes in the way of the vocals.

Vocally and lyrically there's an arrogance to mclusky that just feels undeserved and unnecessary. Punk music has always had it's derogatory snarl, but it often just makes bands sound like they're trying to be The Sex Pistols, which doesn't do much for me. I guess I don't enjoy listening to songs where it seems like the singer is looking down on me.

I hadn't heard of mclusky until I moved to Cardiff, but they'd long split up by then. People still talked about them fondly all the time and I saw Future of the Left a couple of times, who I enjoyed more live than on record. Perhaps mclusky were a "you had to be there" band. Either way, I wasn't and I'm not that fond of this record.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 14
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 21/04/12
Colour: Transparent orange
Etching: none
mp3s: no

United Nations - Never Mind the Bombings Here's Your Six Figures

On the first day of Pre-Fest last year, Sarah and I were sat in The Bricks Bar reading the schedule and trying to decide what we should go watch next. At first we were drawing blanks, but something about the name United Nations sounded familiar. I had the faintest memory of seeing Geoff Rickly from Thursday talking about them on Twitter and the more I thought about it, the more I vaguely remembered. Somehow members of Glassjaw were involved? This seemed possible, but at the same time like something I should have remembered more than just vaguely. The description of the band in the schedule was intentionally vague but we decided to chance it and so headed back over to Crow Bar at the other end of Ybor City.

My vague memories were right, but any preconceptions I had about the music were instantly blown miles away. The set was the most brutal and shocking hardcore I've seen in ages. The room wasn't full, but everyone who was there was throwing themselves around the pit. I've seen Pianos Become the Teeth and Thursday but I had no idea this combination of those guys could make such a noise. I certainly didn't think Geoff had it in him, but that short set renewed my faith in his music (he also played an acoustic solo set at the end of the night in place of Metz, which was a totally different but awesome experience). The set was one of the highlights of Fest and made it into my Top Ten Gigs of 2013.

I picked up this copy of Never Mind the Bombings after their set on the Saturday of actual-Fest (which was an even sweatier and moshier affair). At $10 it was double the going rate of most 7"s at Fest (and the usual price for an LP) but I didn't want to leave without a copy (this yellow vinyl is the most numerous colour from the first pressing). What I'd seen (twice) that week was so exciting that I had to have some of their music to take home with me. The record is as brutal as I'd come to expect, which is excellent. Twice in the four songs Geoff's bark almost resembles his singing voice from Thursday but that's it. It's not an easy listen, but I'd have been disappointed if it was.

I feel pretty lucky that the right connections fired in my mind whilst we were sat there eating dinner because otherwise we might have easily missed United Nations. If Twitter has given me nothing else, it's given me United Nations and for that I'm thankful.

Format: 7", insert
Tracks: 4
Cost: £6.30 new
Bought: Fest, Gainesville
When: 02/11/13
Colour: Yellow
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Restorations - Of Trees / Frankford

After picking up our wristbands at Fest registration, we set about browsing through all the records on every stall in the room. As expected, the search turned out a large number of records from mostly American bands that we can't find so easily back home. We both spent a lot of money and left very happy.

As I was flicking through the massive amount of 7" records on one of the tables I spotted a very familiar-looking house on a record sleeve and picked it up. I only had LP1 at this point and was a few hours away from seeing Restorations for the second time ever, so I was hoping they'd be as good as they were in my memories. The guy running the stall noticed me looking at it and told me that they were nearly out of copies of this 7" so, realising probably my only chance to buy a copy, added it to the pile of other records I fancied.

On both songs there's a vibe of "early recordings", but both are great Restorations songs. The sound would get a little clearer and grander as they went along, but Of Trees and Frankford show great potential that would soon be realised. I play this record less often than the other two 7"s but I'm still very fond of the songs on it.


Format: 7", numbered (233/300)
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3.15 new
Bought: Fest Registration, Tampa
When: 29/10/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Restorations - New/Old

I bought this copy of New/Old when I saw Restorations on their UK tour earlier this year. It was the only record they had at the merch stand that I didn't already have, and I'd been so impressed I was more than happy to pay £5 to hear one new song.

New/Old is on LP2, but I'm happy to have any excuse to hear those songs whenever I can. 0.014MPH might be a joking reference to the speed of the song because it's certainly the slowest Restorations song I know of. Despite that, about two thirds of the way through a huge drum fill kicks in and the song steps up a gear. It's a great song - the gentle "woah-oh"s in the background are perfect - although I can see how it might not fit so well on either record.


Format: 7", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 2
Cost: £5 new
Bought: gig
When: 22/04/14
Colour: Forest green
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Restorations - A / B

I've spoken about my love for Restorations at length before, so I'll spare you the details this time around. A few months after Fest I saw a pre-order for the new Run, Forever album go up on the Tiny Engines website. I'd been playing their first LP excessively for months so I was keen to get the next one. Shipping from the US is what usually puts me off ordering from there so I decided to stock up on everything I fancied, including this Restorations 7" (on green vinyl from the first pressing, /125).

Of the three Restorations 7"s, A/B is my favourite. It's a rare treat to have a 7" of non-album songs were both are so great. A peaks with a huge outro and B is a much heavier, punkier song. That's that slowed-down aggression in both which makes them even more enjoyable live.

It's easy to forget about 7"s in a record collection and to favour LPs, but A/B is a record I always want to be playing.

Format: 7", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 2
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Tiny Engines webstore
When: 10/01/13
Colour: Green
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Cutman - Big Deal EP

As I mentioned in my post about Cutman's No Trick Pony 7", I'd been given the 7" of the Big Deal EP instead of No Trick Pony when I bought it. All Ages refunded me, but I did of course play the wrong 7" before taking it back. I was very keen to hear some more Cutman and there were two songs on vinyl in front of me, just they weren't the songs I was supposed to be hearing.

What I heard was excellent - both songs were brilliant. They sounded somehow more clean and punky than the LP, but still sounded exactly like what I'd come to love from Cutman. And huge; two monsters of songs. The Itch might be my favourite Cutman song (it's almost impossible not to slow-head-bang when the first chorus breaks) and Bulldozer Blues is probably in the top 5. If you want to get an idea of what Cutman sound like, this 7" would be an excellent place to start.

The problem I had was that I'd returned the record to All Ages only to discover that the Different Kitchen distro only had No Trick Pony available. I'd fallen in love with these two songs and I had nowhere I could find them in the UK. The worse thing about it was that I preferred Big Deal to No Trick Pony (although the latter is still very good). When we finally made it back to Fest in 2013, I was very excited to find a copy of the Big Deal EP at one of the stalls at registration (in fact we found two, so Sarah bought one as well). I was pretty pleased to finally have the 7" again and even more pleased to find that the songs were even better than I remembered.

Format: 7", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3.15 new
Bought: Pre-Fest registration, Tampa
When: 29/10/13
Colour: Marbled grey
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Cutman - No Trick Pony

The story of Cutman's No Trick Pony 7" is thoroughly entwined with the story of their Big Deal 7" for reasons that will become clear. Cutman were one of the bands we accidentally discovered at Fest and thought were awesome. Both Sarah and I both bought their album Universal Laws and thought it was excellent. Nearly a year later I stumbled across a copy of No Trick Pony in All Ages in London and was very excited to hear some more Cutman. I bought a bunch of records that day but Cutman was the one I was most looking forward to hearing when I got home.

However when I got home I was a bit confused because the record in the sleeve only had two songs on it, neither of which were supposed to be. It became clear that I had the 7" from the Big Deal EP and not No Trick Pony. I dropped All Ages an email saying that they'd given me the wrong 7", but they'd never had the Big Deal 7" in stock, so wherever the mistake happened, it happened before it arrived at All Ages. They kindly offered to refund me and pointed me towards the Different Kitchen distro as somewhere I might be able to get a copy with the right record inside.

A few weeks later I ordered a bunch of stuff from them (which wouldn't have happened if it weren't for that mishap, so silver linings). They had No Trick Pony (but not Big Deal) so I got one for myself and one for Sarah as it was her birthday soon afterwards. I picked up one of the first press on "grape" coloured vinyl (/125). They had some more limited runs of the second press for a pound or two more, so I got Sarah one on yellow vinyl (/27). I think the highlight might be the third song, the sludgy Tied to the Wheel but the whole 7" is great. I was after more Cutman songs and that was exactly what I got, which is a pretty awesome thing.

Format: 7", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 3
Cost: £3.10 new
Bought: Different Kitchen distro
When: 14/11/12
Colour: Grape
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Soulsavers - Sunrise

When I wrote about Soulsavers' third LP, Broken, I mentioned that this single was partly responsible for the high hopes I had for the album. The reason for that is that this 7" is a great record. Strangely, the a-side isn't actually on the album and features Bonnie 'Prince' Billy singing a Mark Lanegan song. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy has an incredible voice and Soulsavers' take on the music add so much. There's a muted trumpet or something throughout which sounds brilliantly pained. It works very well.

Appropriately then, the b-side is Soulsavers and Mark Lanegan covering a song by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (well, by Palace Brothers, one of Will Oldham's various monikers). Mark has an incredible voice too and makes this piano-led version even darker. All in all, this is a pretty nice example of what I want from a 7".

Format: 7", die-cut sleeve
Tracks: 2
Cost: £4 new
Bought: Spillers' Records, Cardiff
When: 08/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Peeping Tom - Mojo

I was pretty excited when the Peeping Tom album came out. Actually, that's an understatement; I was on a huge Mike Patton kick at the time having recently discovered the excellent Loveage album and was loving hearing his voice against something less abrasive than Fantomas. An article I read had a quote from Mike along the lines of "the Peeping Tom album is what I want songs on the radio to sound like" (it always amaused me that his dream radio station had him singing on every song). The list of collaborators was ridiculous - from Rahzel and Dan the Automator on this song, Massive Attack and, most strangely, Norah Jones (although her song is excellent).

Unsurprisingly for an album designed to play like a radio station, there are a lot of hits, but Mojo certainly works as the single. The b-side Preschool is good too, but would have been the weakest track on the album had it made the cut. Nice yellow vinyl. I remember the day I bought this record I ended up going straight to a party at my friend Guy's house. He had some turntables set up in his living room and we played the record a couple of times at the start. It went down well if I remember correctly. Good times.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3 new
Bought: HMV Winchester
When: 14/08/06
Colour: Transparent yellow
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Like most people, the first I heard of Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip was when Thou Shalt Always Kill was all over the radio. I remember it was around my last year of university and I quite enjoyed it. But more on that when I get round to writing about their debut album, Angles.

About half a year before that album came out they released this 7" of The Beat That My Heart Skipped, a song which would also find it's way onto the record. It caused less of a stir than the first single, but it was great to hear some more music and I enjoyed the song. As the song goes on Scroobius Pip's lyrics get increasing faster and more frantic until he ends up pretty much screaming the chorus. The remix on b-side does less for me - the music feels less natural and vocals are lower in the mix. Still a nice 7" and tided me over until the LP came out.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £2 new
Bought: HMV Cardiff
When: 22/10/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no