Rise Against - The Unravelling

There was only a fairly short period of time when I considered myself a Rise Against fan - it started with seeing them in 2003 and ended sometime between 2005 and 2006. They had two albums out when I saw them in 2003, and those are the only two albums I have. The third they released in 2004 and I remember not being at all impressed by the song I heard from it. I couldn't tell you much about it, but I remember thinking they weren't a band for me anymore; I was at university and getting into American indie-rock bands like Hum and Modest Mouse (shortly afterwards I'd hear Broken Social Scene and the Canadian indie-rock phase would begin). I remember it sounding too polished, and I wasn't into that. I saw Rise Against again in 2006 and 2011 (at Leeds and Reading festivals, respectively). They were still a fun band, but I don't remember feeling bad that I'd given up on them. They've now released countless albums and my brother has most of them. Maybe I should give them a listen one day.

All that aside, I still have a lot of time for their debut, The Unravelling, as well as the second album, Revolutions Per Minute. Alive & Well is a huge opener and they keep the momentum going across all 16 songs (in true-punk style, they barely give you a moment to take a breath between songs). Six Ways 'til Sunday and One Thousand Good Intentions are particular highlights, as well as The Remains of Summer Memories which treads the line between metal-breakdown and Fat-Wreck-style punk seamlessly. The title-track is probably the slowest moment and painfully emo, but in a thoroughly enjoyable way. Everchanging was always a favourite too with the slowdown in the middle crying out for a sing-a-long. Following it up with the two shortest and most traditional-hardcore songs on the album was a good move.

When I was introduced to the band at college, my friend Steve loaned me his copy of this album and I recorded it onto a minidisc (that I still have somewhere). At the start of the second year of university I decided to blow a bunch of my student loan on a big order from Interpunk, a website I'd been stalking for a while realising I could fill some gaps in my The Paper Chase collection much more easily than I could by just relying on UK shops and eBay. I got a lot of great stuff, including End Transmission and an excellent Glassjaw t-shirt. I also took advantage of the ridiculous exchange rate and picked up this copy of The Unravelling to go along with my copy of Revolutions Per Minute. They'd released that third album by then, so I knew they were never going to be part of a bigger collection, but I wanted a copy nonetheless. Neither album gets a great deal of play these days, but they represent a certain period of time nicely. It's still a fun listen.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 16
Cost: £7.50 new
Bought: Interpunk
When: 06/11/04
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none

The Paper Chase + Will Johnson - Split

This is a record I picked up about a year after I first heard The Paper Chase (a story you can read all about here). I was putting in a large order with Interpunk (the more you buy, the cheaper the postage!) and saw this one on there. "Punk" wouldn't be the first genre I'd put either artist into, but it's a flexible term, not to mention I think Interpunk works a bit like an uber-distro. Anyway, I was keen to hear more by The Paper Chase, so added it to the basket.

A split in what I consider to be the classic sense, both cover a song by the other. I'd never heard of Will Johnson at the time, nor heard The Riot Jack, but enjoyed it anyway. It was certainly less dark than what I'd come to expect from John Congleton and co, and more sparse, relying mostly on a drum beat, strings and John's strained vocals. A good listen, and not just collection-fodder.

On the b-side however, was a song I knew - I Did a Terrible Thing - the opener to The Paper Chase's second album Hide the Kitchen Knives. Will's take on this is to make it into a lovely, lengthy, almost country song. With a harmonica taking over from the strings on the album version, you hardly even notice the rather twisted theme of the lyrics. This turned out to be the highlight of the record for me. After hearing it, I did some research, picked up a couple of Centro-Matic's albums, and became a fan. In November I finally get to see him live, which I'm looking forward to greatly (in The Union Chapel, no less - one of my favourite venues). Some time ago, he was due to play with Jason Molina in my teenage-haunt The Railway, but the show got cancelled and Jason Molina sadly disappeared into rehab for a few years.

Anyway, it just dawned on me that after all these years, I've still not heard the original of The Riot Jack. I tried to find it at the time, but the internet was a very different place in 2004. However, modern technology prevails and in another tab I have open Centro-Matic's soundcloud page with Will's 2002 original. It's almost strange hearing it after so many years of only knowing The Paper Chase's version. Listening to it now, it's similarly sparse, but haunting and sweet, and completely different to The Paper Chase's take on it.

So, all in all, a great record both musically, and for where it led me.


Format: 7",
Tracks: 2
Cost: £5.56 new
Bought: Interpunk
When: 06/11/04
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Snapcase - End Transmission

About two thirds of my vinyl is currently stored at my parents house, which is a far from ideal situation, but until I find somewhere I want to live for more than 6 months, it's easier to keep it there. Everytime I go back I flick through the records and look at ones I'd forgotten I had. I was popping by yesterday and decided to bring a handful of record back with me, mostly ones that had been neglected. I also picked up this one, an album I have on cd and is definitely not neglected. (For the record, its actually kinda nice to have some LPs there - its like record shopping through albums you know you'll like and they're free!)

So yes, I love End Transmission. I think it's an incredible record. When I was at college Hugh bought it on cd and I borrowed it and enjoyed it. A few months later I picked up a second hand copy of Lookinglasself on cd but didn't get round to any further Snapcase-back-catalogue shopping for a while. I'd heard of Interpunk and was also really getting into The Paper Chase a year or so later. Interpunk was stocking some cool Paper Chase records and I'd just got my student loan, so I did a huge shop on there (I always get carried away when the postage goes down the more things you buy) and bought a copy of End Transmission. Luckily, my memories of how good it was hadn't lied to me and I still think its great now.

I'm a sucker for a concept album, and I like the theme here. I was particularly amused by the fact the songs weren't in the order the story suggested on the insert and that there were songs not on the album. I later bought Bright Flashes on cd which nearly fills in all the gaps. I've never sat down and played the songs in story-order. One day I will, probably. The singer's voice is incredible, and on songs like First Word he just keeps going when most people would be out of breath. New Kata is an incredible song too, but there's not a bad song on there. Musically its perfect too - the drum intro on First Word always puts a smile on my face. Other highlights include The Beat, and the last two songs.

It's also a nice example of a lovely package overall. Deadformat reckons that they only pressed 300 copies of this colour (a colour that a friend once described as "condom-coloured") and I pretty much never manage to find the rarest print runs. I've looked for a bunch of my records on there and I nearly always have the most common pressing (worth noting that that website was the main inspiration behind this blog, that and the new John Peel archive and a few other websites of people doing similar things). It also comes with the last two songs on a bonus 7", a lovely way to include the songs that wouldn't fit (also, they're both incredible so it would be a crime to leave them off). I like the Victory records that have the folded sleeve like this (I have a couple of others). From looking at pictures on Deadformat, it seems all of the inserts have the limited edition number crossed out, although they also reckon there were 3006 pressed.

In a fantastic bit of eBaying I picked up the first four Snapcase albums on cd for a tenner from some guy in America (I gave my second copy of Lookinglasself to Hugh). I also eventually got Bright Flashes second hand in Melbourne. This album is undoubtedly my favourite of the lot. It's quite a different sound to the other albums, less harsh but still as ballsy. Writing this made we check their Wikipedia page and it turns out they've reformed and are playing some shows. I hope so much they come to the UK, I never saw them and would love to have the chance. I bet they're incredible to watch.

Format: 12", 7", a4 insert
Tracks: 13
Cost: £7.92 new
Bought: Interpunk.com
When: 06/11/04
Colour: Clear pink, black
Etching: none
mp3s: no