The Loved Ones - Keep Your Heart

There was a lot of buzz around The Loved Ones when they came to play Newport, probably because of the Paint It Black connection (something that was lost on me until recently). I hadn't heard of them before that point, but everyone was going and I figured I'd enjoy the show. I had fun, enough to make me buy the LP (the fact it was only a fiver helped). It's a nice enough punk record, but nothing particularly makes me want to play it all that often. There are a few highlights - Suture Self, Breathe In and Living Will (Get You Dead). 

I figured the band were on to big things, but they kinda just faded away after their second album as the singer, Dave Hause, put more effort into his solo career. I've never really enjoyed his solo stuff, despite having seen him a few times (the Dave House vs Dave Hause show in Kingston was pretty awesome, but mostly for the non-Hause moments). I think the theme here tends to be that there's nothing about his music that especially stands out from other music of a similar style. Or maybe I'm just not paying enough attention.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 13
Cost: £5 new
Bought: gig
When: 09/11/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - Gold Country

Another day, another Chuck Ragan record. However, I shouldn't complain - there's a reason I keep buying them and that's because I do love his music. Gold Country is his second solo record which I bought after nearly two years of excessively playing Feast or Famine. I picked this up when I saw Chuck play live for the second time, which was in TJ's in Newport and on the last day of my job. I'd been working in Cardiff for nearly two years and I'd first seen Chuck shortly after I arrived in the city, just before I started said job. It felt like an excellent way to book-end my time there, especially given how much I'd listened to his music in between.

I think the album had been out a short while before the show, but I knew it would just be easier to buy it at the gig. They also had the Live in Zurich LP (on a lovely white and blue splatter vinyl) there that night and I bought both for £16. I'd heard Glory before on the split 7" he released with Brian Fallon and it remains to be one of my favourite songs on the record. Others have grown on me over time, but that is still the highlight for me.

I wasn't as instantly into Gold Country as I had been with Feast or Famine. The years have treated it well though and now there are loads of songs I think are great. For Goodness Sake is a great opener, The Trench and Let it Rain are great too. There are also some lovely slower moments too, like Don't Say a Word, Ole Diesel and Get 'Em All Home. All in all, a pretty excellent album.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8 new
Bought: gig
When: 26/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "Mind the forked tongue" Side B: "Or wake up missing one"
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - Live at Hafenkneipe Zurich

Live in Zurich was the second Chuck Ragan live album I bought and remains to be one of the nicest coloured records I own. It sometimes seems wrong to rave so much about the packaging, but they've done a really nice job on this one; the colours used in the sleeve and on the vinyl match brilliantly and the splatter looks great. Discogs tells me there are 500 like this and a further 1000 on two other colours/patterns.

Anyway, I bought this record the night of the second time I saw Chuck Ragan. He was playing TJ's in Newport and it was my last day of work in my old job. I went with my then-colleague Aled and it seemed like a nice way to end my last day in that job (as it happens the first time I saw him was nearly two years earlier, shortly before starting that job). The gig was great and at the end I bought this live album along with his newest album at the time, Gold Country. I still remember opening the records when I got home and being amazed by the colour of the vinyl of this one.

Musically, it comes across a more sombre set than on Los Feliz, but that was the feeling I got about Gold Country in general, so they seem like a good pairing (the exception on Gold Country being Glory, a fantastic and uplifting song). The set-list still has some favourites on (Between the Lines and a cover of Hot Water Music's Old Rules). Chuck is accompanied by his now-regular collaborators Jon Gaunt and Digger Barnes and they fill out songs like Geraldine and Rotterdam brilliantly. There's also a nice version of Revival Road, the song that came to the theme-song of the Revival Tour.

Two points of little significance: the photos inside show the crowd at this particular show, and it looks like it would have been a great show to be at. I've seen Chuck play huge venues like Shepherds Bush Empire and The Roundhouse but also tiny bars and record shops and they've all been excellent, but the small shows always seem more special; his music is suited to places where you can buy a drink and be just a few meters from the front of the stage at the same time. Secondly, the "thank you's" on the insert finish with the words "pura vida" which, after a recent holiday, I only describe as the Costa Rican for "cheers" (it literally translates to "pure life", but they use it in a similar way to the way we use "cheers"). All the other times I've looked at that insert those meant nothing to me, but now they do.

So all in all, another nice live album from Chuck, but I'm saving my favourite for tomorrow...

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8 new
Bought: gig
When: 26/08/09
Colour: White with blue and black splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Tenement Kids - We've All Been Down

The Tenement Kids are from Holland and sound like Hot Water Music. They do it pretty well too - Quit Playing Them Strings is probably the best song HWM never wrote (the chorus is incredible), and Soul and Stampeding Cattle are huge tunes too.

The only reason I'd ever heard of the Tenement Kids before I saw them was because my friend Stubbs had a t-shirt of theirs. Shortly after they put this record out they toured and Stubbs put them on in Le Pub in Newport with Harbour and Blackbeard (Stubbs' band, which Hugh was briefly a member of) supporting. I couldn't remember who supported, but SWM reminded me. Anyway, it was a pretty fun night. There was a work "social" that night, so I had a couple of beers with them, got on a train to Newport and caught the show. All the bands were good and I picked up this LP and a t-shirt after the show (nice gatefold sleeve and coloured vinyl). We had a spare room at the time so the band ended up staying that night, an added bonus of which is that I got a lift home in the van. Anyway, on the way back to Cardiff I found out my work friends were still out in some shitty bar in town, but had latched onto a group of girls out for a hen weekend, so I got home, wiped off my gig-sweat, and headed out again. We all had a few more drinks until Jamie offended one of the girls and they all left. After that, we headed to chippy alley for some food and retied to our homes.

Most of that is totally off-topic, I know, but this album always reminds me of that night; a perfect mixture of punk-rock good times and good times drinking with my work buddies. Good times all round.


Format: 12", gatefold
Tracks: 11
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Gig
When: 22/05/09
Colour: Creamy/white
Etching: none
mp3s: download

Taint - All Bees to the Sea

Taint were possibly my favourite of the South-Wales bands we saw while I was living there. I think we ended up watching so many punk and hardcore bands it was so nice to see some balls-out, heavy riffs.

I remember the first time I saw them play the title track of this EP. They hadn't played for a short while and it was possibly a benefit gig. It was certainly upstairs in Clwb. First song of the set, Jimbob had a loop pedal at his feet and looked like he was really enjoying creating the intro. It was possibly the greatest build-up/start to a show I've ever seen; it went on for ages. Then the song just broke ("Skyward! All bees to the sea!") and stayed awesome for the best part of quarter of an hour. Despite the shorter intro, the version on this record is as pleasing.

They eventually put the EP out a while later and I got a copy when we saw them in TJ's in Newport. They were supporting Orange Goblin, who I remember being not as good as I hoped for. Probably because they had to follow Taint. I think half the crowd left with a copy of this under their arms. There was four of us on the train and we all had a copy at least.

It's a lovely little package (although given that it was £9 you feel you deserve it). Four massive songs, one so big it barely even fits on the record. Awesome artwork, lovely yellow vinyl. Amusingly, the first three songs are on "Side Bee" and the title track on "Side Sea". The label on the record then just has a bee on one side and the sea on the other. I like little touches like that. In theory, the record also contained a download card for the four songs and a live show from Roadburn in 2008. However, I drew a short straw and got one that mysteriously had no download inside. A friend later gave me the mp3s and they are pretty good. (At a gig recently I saw the guitarist of a band give out a download code from one of the LPs to someone and put the record back in the middle of the pile. I suspect that's what happened to me.)

Unfortunately for absolutely everyone, Taint decided to call it quits not long later. They played a final show in Swansea which, despite nearly dying trying to drive there in the snow, was incredible and an awesome send off. The first two times I saw them they had their two LPs for sale and I regret not buying them. The cds are fairly easy to come by, but I'm keeping an eye out for the vinyl. I've got lots of time for Taint.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 4
Cost: £9 new
Bought: gig
When: 17/10/09
Colour: yellow
Etching: none
mp3s: yes