The Draft - The Fest 12 Edition

 

I don't have mp3s of these songs, so they've had a fraction of the number of plays as The Draft's excellent, only album has had. Devil in the Shade is worth digging the 7"s out for alone, and Hard to Be Around It is pretty strong too. I really should play this much more often.

I wasn't aware of what this record was when I bought it - I'd been buying the "Fest Edition" version of any records I was into that weekend and they're all pretty cool. At the end of the weekend I found this in Arrow's Aim, the No Idea record shop in Gainesville and added it to the stack of records I was buying (before we jumped in the car, realised we mis-calculated our timings a bit and had to drive very fast back to Tampa to catch our flight home). I'd seen The Draft for the first (and only) time at Pre-Fest a few days earlier, but not seen the record there. If they'd played the main event too they must have clashed with someone else, otherwise I'd have watched them again.

The strangest thing about this record is that it's a double-7" version of a triple 7" they'd released for a separate tour (which Discogs refers to as "Tour Edition"). That record comprises all three 7"s they released in 2007, the year after In a Million Pieces came out, but this one is only two of those records; I've not heard the other two songs. I should probably check them out one day.

Format: Double 7", Fest edition

Tracks: 4
Cost: £7 new
Bought: Arrow's Aim, Gainesville
When: 04/11/13
Colour: Purple
Etching: Side A: "Mini soccer? Are you kidding me?" Side B: "I like grown up JB even better" Side C: "Draft beer, not me" Side D: "Draft is a fine cleaning product"
mp3s: no

Run, Forever - A Few Good Things

 

For a short while, Run, Forever felt like a really important band. Then they just sort of vanished. It happens a lot I guess, and there's probably not always a dramatic end; a lot of bands just fizzle out. I assume that's what happened here, but I have no idea really. 

Between 2011 and 2015 I bought a bunch of their records. Not quite everything they put out, but most. I even bought all four colours of their second album Settling, although I think that was more because the option was presented to me by the record label than a real desire to actually go deep on collecting them. Even the bands I love the most I don't go down to colour-variant-level of collecting. Those for records are something of an anomaly in my collection with their identical spines all next to each other, but a nice reminder of that brief period when Run, Forever seemed like a really important band.

This 7" came out between their first and second albums. I've not played either in a while now, but this feels like a good mixture of the two, possibly more in common with the first, but I'm only saying that because two of the songs here are huge, and in my memory the first album had more stand-out songs like that. Those two songs are the first on each side - Letters and Get Better. The former probably ranks among their best songs, and both are earnest, eager punk-rock songs, full of energy and hard-hitting. Growing Pains is a nice reflective closer, which is a perfectly normal sort of song to write, but an unusual one to put on an EP when you have fewer songs to play with. Fall Hard is a nice acoustic song, but feels unfinished.

I bought this 7" when I saw them play at Fest in 2013, although I don't particularly remember the set - I couldn't tell you which venue it was in, unlike the first time I saw them at Fest 2011, which is firmly etched into my mind. It was the fifth day of the festival and they were the ninth band I saw that day, sandwiched between 1994! (who I do remember seeing) and Restorations (who I think I remember seeing, like 80% sure which venue they were in). I had the other albums they were selling, but picked up this and a t-shirt. Two years later they released another album and then sort of disappeared. More on that when I get round to writing about the final, self-titled LP.

Format: 7", folded sleeve, insert

Tracks: 4

Cost: £3.15 new

Bought: Fest

When: 02/11/13

Colour: Purple

Etching: Side A: "Better step aside home school, there's a new sheriff in town! Side B: "They’re break dance fighting!"
mp3s: download

Various Artists - Fat Music for Fest People

Fat Wreck Chords compilation cds were a stable of my youth, although I never owned any myself. A bunch of my friends had a few, shared them around and that was how we got into most of the punk bands we knew. Years later I got a copy of Short Music For Short People on vinyl, mostly because the idea of it still amused me and squeezing 101 songs onto one 12" record was equally ridiculous. That compilation was the only one I remember borrowing from a friend when we were at school, but it was my first taster of a lot of bands who would go on to mean a lot to us.

Fast-forward 12-or-so years and I went to Fest for the first time. Fat Wreck Chords had a 10" in countless different colours for sale made for the festival, called Fat Music For Fest People. After picking up our wristbands, Sarah and I both bought a copy from the stall in the registration flea market. In all honestly, I'm not really sure why. I suppose at the start of the weekend, $10 for a record seemed like a bargain, but almost without exception every single album I bought that weekend cost $10. I guess I also wanted to buy it mark my first Fest, wondering if it might become a regular purchase at future Fests; I went once again, but didn't even look to see if there was another issue.

The truth is that I just don't like the bands on Fat Wreck Chords that much, and far too many of them sound identical. I'm now on the fifth song, and if you'd told me that all five of the songs so far had been from the same band I would have believed you. I'd seen Dead to Me and Teenage Bottlerocket that spring supporting The Descendants (at the famously bad Shepherd's Bush show where Milo lost his voice) and been thoroughly bored by them both. Hugh tweeted something along the lines of "if a bomb went off in Shepherd's Bush right now, all of the UK punk scene would be wiped out. But at least Dead to Me would stop playing", which I remember finding amusing.

The second side has a bit more to it - None More Black have a gruff edge and the background "Whoa-ohs" in this song were always going to be a hit for me. Paint it Black bring a bit of hardcore, which is nice. A lot of people I know love that band, but I've never really got into them. I'm sure I'd enjoy them live. I'd seen The Flatliners a few months earlier in Kingston and been underwhelmed by them then. Apparently I saw Old Man Markley and Dillinger Four at Fest that year, but I think both were because I was already in the venue they were playing and wanted to stay there for the band afterwards (Dikembe and Lemuria, respectively). I certainly don't remember much about either.

As samplers go, this hasn't done a great job of making me want to go see the Fat Wreck bands playing Fest that year, but I didn't have a record player with me, so there was no scenario where I'd actually hear this record before the bands played anyway. I don't feel like I missed out on anything, that's for sure.

Format: 10"
Tracks: 10
Cost: £6.20 new
Bought: Fest
When: 28/10/11
Colour: Pink
Etching: none
mp3s: none

Fucked Up - Couple Tracks

There are a lot of songs on here.

2011 was the year David Comes to Life came out and I couldn't get enough of it. I'd got The Chemistry of Common Life a few years before and enjoyed it, but David Comes to Life blew me away so much more than I was expecting. From that point onwards I was a big fan of Fucked Up and decided to up my game and get some more of their records. I picked up Couple Tracks a few months later in 2011 and, on the surface, it seemed like an ideal purchase - compiling songs from their huge back-catalogue of releases, most of which I'd almost certainly never hear otherwise.

That said, after the continuity and grandeur of David Comes to Life, perhaps 25 disparate hardcore songs wasn't what I needed. I certainly remember thinking that at the time. It's a good compilation and has some great songs, but I remember finishing it and thinking I just wanted to listen to David Comes to Life again. I still get that feeling a bit. For obvious reasons, it doesn't flow like their albums do, and does drag a bit in places. Like I said, there are a lot of songs.

The highlight has to be I Hate Summer; I enjoyed that one from the first play, and like how often they seem to play it live. The opener, No Pasaran, sounds like it could be a Black Flag cover, Toronto FC has a lot in common with the later Fucked Up songs that I was more into and I Don't wanna Be Friends With You is just a great, simple hardcore song. I knew the Daytrotter songs from hearing the sessions a few years beforehand, so knew they were messed up (and not necessarily in a good way - I vaguely remember seeing a video of the show they played in a bathroom in Vienna that they mentioned somewhere too - it was on a website where they'd get bands to play in strange places around Austria). The insert has some comments from the band about each song - No Violins has a particularly funny story about Owen Pallett, who would go on to play violins on a bunch of Fucked Up albums.

I bought this record at the No Idea yard sale at Fest. The person cashing up for me had to look up the price for this one and warned me that it was a bit expensive because it was a distro record rather than one of their own - I can't remember the exchange rate at the time, but it worked out at less than £10, which was crazy cheap for a double LP. It's hard to explain to someone that everything seemed cheap because of the exchange rate without sounding like a twat, so I didn't; of course I wouldn't be laughing now. The records say "non-breakable" on them, which is a promise I'm not willing to test.

Format: Double 12", insert
Tracks: 26
Cost: £9.92 new
Bought: Fest
When: 30/10/11
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Small Brown Bike - The River Bed

Through no fault of its own, The River Bed is the Small Brown Bike record I listen to the least. The main reason for that is that it didn't come with a download code; it misses out on all those times when I'm out and about and have a craving for SBB and has meant that I've found myself listening to the other records much more.

On top of that, I bought it in a flurry of SBB purchases that, in hindsight, I should have spread out better. In 2008 I got Dead Reckoning on cd and listened to it a lot. Three years later I bought their comeback album Fell & Found, which I got into pretty well. Then, just two months later I bought their debut, Our Own Wars and then another two months later this album and the Nail Yourself to the Ground EP at the same time. I got these two at Fest, two days after seeing them play an incredible set in the Florida Theatre (the very first set we saw at Fest); I was on a SBB high and wanted to complete my collection. The downside was that I also bought 14 other records in three days and couldn't play any of them until I got back to the UK. Between that and the lack of mp3s, it was a perfect storm of neglect.

It's a shame because The River Bed is an excellent album. It doesn't hit as hard as Dead Reckoning does (that's a very high standard to reach), but is a strong album. Deconstruct / Rebuild, Safe in Sound and A Declaration of Sorts all have huge choruses, which is unexpected after an album with no choruses at all - they make a great way to open the album. Sincerely Yours is another great song and The Outline of Your Hand Still Remains on My Hand is an unusually slow number that works surprisingly well. I feel that this album and the first have the most in common of all their albums (or maybe it's just that Dead Reckoning and Fell & Found are the only ones I got into well enough to truly tell apart).

This appears to be the black vinyl from the first pressing, but it seems unlikely that No Idea would still have copies of the original run eight years after it came out, so perhaps the Discogs listing has incorrect data. Either way, it's on black vinyl and pre-dates the 150g reissue in 2015. Also, they all list Tragically Ending as the first song on Side B, but here it closes Side A, so maybe it's all wrong on there. Doesn't really matter I suppose. No Idea used to keep a really detailed list of their pressing runs, but that appears to have fallen off the internet, which is a shame.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £4.96 new
Bought: Fest
When: 30/10/11
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "When in doubt, floss" Side B: "Quadruple the garlic"
mp3s: None

Hot Snakes - Suicide Invoice

There are a handful of records that I started writing about months or even years ago but I just can't find anything interesting to say about (although some might say that hasn't stopped me before). A lot of them are perfectly good records by really great bands that I get a lot of enjoyment from. I think everyone would agree that Hot Snakes are an incredible band who have released four almost equally brilliant albums (three when I started writing this). I've seen them a bunch of times now and always have an excellent time. They're also all in a load of other really good bands and collectively release consistently great music. I've already run out of positive adjectives.

So what else is there to say? If I had to pick a favourite Hot Snakes album I'd probably have to say Audit in Progress, but that's because it was the first one I bought and it had two years extra listening over this one. Also I've never had mp3s of this album, so haven't really been able to give it the time it deserves. That said, if you were to quiz me on which album any given Hot Snake song belonged to (bar a couple of big hitters) I'd really struggle - that's because they've released remarkably consistently good albums; their sound hasn't changed dramatically, and that's a good thing.

There are a few of the aforementioned "big hitters" here - I Hate the Kids, XOX, LAX and the title-track have always been memorable and fun live. I bought this record for a bargain $12 in Arrow's Aim Records in Florida; it still has the sticker on the sleeve. There's not even an interesting reason for keeping it there.

There you have it. This record is much more enjoyable than I can make it sound and I apologise for the bad job I've done convincing you so.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8.40 new
Bought: Arrow's Aim, Gainesville
When: 04/11/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely

Get Lonely was the first Mountain Goats record I heard. I've not been listening to the band for long and only have a few albums so far, but it's been very rewarding getting to know the band's work and I'm excited for the many, many albums I've not heard yet.

I'd never really heard much about the band until I met my friend Aled's friend, Criddle, who was a massive fan. We met at the Jeff Mangum-curated All Tomorrow's Parties festival; The Mountain Goats had been due to play but couldn't make the rescheduled dates so had to cancel. Criddle was pissed but still had a great time. A while later he posted a link to a song on Facebook and I listened to it and very much enjoyed it. Right now, I can't remember what the song was, but if I tried I could work it out from what I remember of the video. After that point I decided I should make an effort to get into the band.

The first opportunity I was presented with was in Arrow's Aim, a small record shop in Gainesville that predominantly sold the punk records the town was well-known for. I can't remember if they had any other Mountain Goats LPs, but I added Get Lonely to my stack of purchases and was very eager to hear it on my return to the UK. About a month later I found Transcendental Youth in Banquet (their most recent album at the time) and quickly expanded my collection.

I like Get Lonely, but I have no idea where it stands in the generally-accepted ordering of their albums (or even chronologically, either, for that matter). It didn't blow me away on the first few listens - the first highlights don't really appear until tracks three and four, Half Dead and the title-track. Moon Over Goldsboro, In Hidden Places, Woke Up New and If You See Light are really great too - it seems my favourites come in pairs. Woke Up New is definitely my highlight of the album - lyrically it's as sombre as the rest of the album, but musically it's almost the exact opposite.

However, what was instantly evident was that the songwriting was incredible and that even if I wasn't a fan of every song, it'd be worth getting further into the band for the ones I do like. So far it's been going very well and I imagine there'll be many more posts about The Mountain Goats over the coming years.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 12
Cost: £11.20 new
Bought: Arrow's Aim, Gainesville
When: 04/11/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

This Bike is a Pipe Bomb - Front Seat Solidarity

This Bike is a Pipe Bomb were on that long list of bands I'd heard of but never heard. At Fest a couple of years ago I found a handful of their albums second-hand in the No Idea record shop, Arrow's Aim. I figured for $8 is was worth a go.

I had no idea what to expect of the band when the needle first hit the record. I knew they were on No Idea, which narrows things down a bit. On the surface the music comes across as quite simple upbeat punk - they remind me a lot of The Underground Railroad to Candyland in that respect. However, the lyrics are quite full-on and dark in places; Body Count and Forgotten Not Gone are perfect examples of that contrast between the music and the lyrics. In that respect you could draw comparisons to RVIVR or Bridge and Tunnel.

As far as discoveries go, I enjoy TBIAPB but they're not my new favourite band. The style of music is fun but sometimes jarring not always what I want to be listening to. I think it might pre-date mp3 download codes, so not having the mp3s doesn't help how often it gets played.

Format: 12", a4 insert
Tracks: 14
Cost: £5.60 second-hand
Bought: Arrow's Aim Records, Gainesville
When: 04/11/13
Colour: Gray marble
Etching: Side A: "You look good" Side B: "Indeed"
mp3s: no

Obits - Bed & Bugs

I first heard of Obits about 20 minutes before I saw them. It was Pre-Fest 2013 and Sarah and I were trying to figure out who we should watch to fill the gap before Toys That Kill. In my memory, we were sat in The Bricks Bar, but that's also where we first realised we should watch United Nations the day before, so I might be getting my memories confused. Both times we immediately headed over to The Crow Bar to see the band. In the case of Obits, the guide mentioned that they featured members of Drive Like Jehu, so we knew it would be worthwhile watching.

The room wasn't packed out for Obits, I think they impressed everyone there. It was exactly what I wanted from them - surf-edged punk-rock, and full of energy. Having had no expectations meant I was all the more impressed, and very pleased that we'd come across them. Afterwards we both bought copies of their new album, Bed & Bugs at the merch stand. At $20, it was twice the price of most LPs that weekend, but more than worth it. I remember it being one of the records I was most excited about hearing when I got home.

Luckily, the record captures the live show brilliantly. It's one of those rare records that is really good but you could also play at a barbeque in the summer and people would probably be into it (how rare that section of the Venn diagram is depends on your friends). Highlights are Taste the Diff, This Must Be Done and Malpractice. Even the instrumental track in the middle, Besetchet, is great. The penultimate track, Machines, is very different to everything that came before it, but quite enjoyable still. This is the Sub Pop "Loser" edition (the only Loser edition record I have) and the colour looks lovely. The die-cut sleeve has just enough space around the label that a bit of the vinyl glows through and looks slightly golden in the right light (see the last picture), which really does make it feel like a great record to have in the collection.

Anyway, Obits were so good that first night in Tampa that we went to see them again the next night in Gainesville. I remember having a blast the second time too. Sadly they have now broken up, so I have to make do with my memories but luckily I have a record that takes me right back to that first time we saw them.

Format: 12", die-cut sleeve, picture sleeve
Tracks: 13
Cost: £12.60 new
Bought: gig
When: 30/10/13
Colour: Transparent orange
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Deer Leap & The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Are Here to Help You

After I saw TWIABP at Fest in 2013 I decided to buy all the records I could from their merch stand. I'd been amazed by their debut full-length, Whenever, If Ever, for months by that point and it was never going to be quite so easy (or so cheap) so stock up on their music. One of those records was this split with Deer Leap.

I'd never heard of Deer Leap at this point, and I imagine they're in a lot of people's record collections because of this record. They're an interesting sounding band; there's that floaty Explosions in the Sky-style post-rock sound to their guitars but with some low-fi emo vocals going on too. It works, but I can't say it's blown me away; a year and a half later and I've not checked out anything else by them.

The TWIABP side is pretty much exactly what I expected and excellent for it. I Will Be Okay. Everything is a perfect example of a great TWIABP song - sing-alongs, crazy song structures with drops that come out of nowhere, shouty vocals layered on singing and a strange midi-solo. In fact, all four songs are pretty strong TWIABP songs; on other records they have a tendency at times to meander through some awesome moments without ever really forming "songs" in the usual sense, but here they all work as individual tracks as well as a whole. The ending to Wait... What? finishes the record in a suitably unexpected but excellent way.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 8
Cost: £6.30 new
Bought: gig
When: 31/10/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Smith Street Band - Sunshine & Technology

Young Drunk was the first Smith Street Band song I heard, on one of the Fest 2013 mixtapes on Bandcamp. The mixtapes had steered me well when we went in 2011 so I was keen to discover some more bands for our next trip. Young Drunk was one of the biggest highlights that time around and I immediately went to their Bandcamp to listen to the rest of the album. The first time I heard Sunshine and Technology was sat at my desk in my very boring, very corporate office job. If ever there was a soundtrack to the exact opposite, this was it.

A good summary of Sunshine and Technology (and, in fact, all Smith Street Band albums) is that it's just good sunny day punk music; uplifting, upbeat and enjoyable. Some of the choruses are so huge it's almost impossible to not sing along (just have a listen to I Can't Feel My Face or Stay Young) and there's an incredible urgency to the vocals which I love. The final trio of Young Drunk, When I Said Us I Meant Them and Don't Mention the War make for one of the strongest album-closers I can think of right now.

I've got a lot of time for this band. I think some of what it comes down to is that they just absolutely nail the whole "being Australian and in your 20's" thing (which is understandable because they are). But because I spent some of my 20's living in Australia I feel a stronger connection to the music; even though that was long before these guys were releasing music, I can imagine being on three-hour drives between cities listening to this album. It's quite a strange feeling to retrospectively soundtrack my time there, but it works. It's hard not to have good memories of Australia (because it was always so sunny) but I've somehow wrapped those memories up with these songs and it's nice.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £6.30 new
Bought: Fest
When: 03/11/13
Colour: Grey marble
Etching: Side A: "The Smith Street Band loves to tour" Side B: "The Smith Street Band Loves Jeff Rosenstock"
mp3s: Download

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

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

The Murder City Devils - Empty Bottles Broken Hearts

The Murder City Devils are an excellent band. I swear no one quite does songs about rock n' roll, drinking and heartbreak as well and as genuinely as these guys do. Something about Spencer Moody's incredible vocals make you believe that they must live the lives that they sing about; he sounds like a trucker with an alcohol problem. And that fits the music perfectly too.

I first time I heard The Murder City Devils was nearly 12 years ago (it doesn't feel anywhere near as long) on a bargain £2.50, 17-track Sub Pop Records sampler. There were only a few tracks that really appealed to me at the time (New Slang by The Shins, Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks by The Rapture, although I wonder if there's anything I'd enjoy more now) but the highlight by far was the opening track from The Murder City Devils' last EP, That's What You Get. It was, and still is, an absolutely incredible song. A shockingly-long three years later I finally bought the Thelema EP, which more than lived up to my expectations.

A few months later I found a copy of Empty Bottles Broken Hearts on eBay (on cd) for £4.50 and couldn't get enough. I remember playing it in my university house and some friends thinking it was terrible, which is basically a sign of how excellent the band are - regular people just don't get it. It was an instant classic.

For fear of waffling too much (although I do that a lot and already have for three paragraphs here), I'll summarise: everything this band has done is brilliant. Their debut album is 20 minutes of punk-rock n' roll excellence, all their songs make me want to drink and their thanks list here reads "The Murder City Devils would like to thank rock n' roll". Pure genius. Thankfully, they've now reformed and I even pre-ordered their new album, which is something I pretty much never do - that's how much I love this band.

I sincerely hope they tour the UK sometime soon. I can't begin to imagine how excellent it will be.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £9.80 new
Bought: Hear Again Music, Gainesville
When: 04/11/13
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "The Murder City Devils are dead" Side B: "Long live the devils!"
mp3s: Download code