Pacer - No. 1

Pacer released two very good albums, this EP and a split with Iron Chic, all of which I have in my collection. Between 2011 and 2013 I saw them six times and then they sort of disappeared as their regular lives took over - recently they've played a couple of shows and I hope to catch them again soon. I picked this up when I saw them supporting The Bouncing Souls (on the second of the two nights I saw them play together).

I think one of the reasons I liked Pacer so much is that they didn't sound like a lot of the other bands in the UK punk scene at the time - OK Pilot and The Shitty Limits were the only other bands from around then that had the same frantic energy and heaviness. I guess, most crucially, they weren't trying to sound like Hot Water Music (which is neither a criticism of HWM or the many, many bands we used to see who were trying to sound like HWM - I enjoy both).

Anyway, No. 1 is their debut EP and comes and goes in 16-minutes and seven songs. Everything's Fine and The Long Drop are the highlights, possibly because they have enough time to do some different things (much like on Flutters, my favourite song of theirs by a good distance which is also one of their longer songs despite still not quite hitting the 3-minute mark). It's a solid EP and every bit as essential as their albums for me.

Format: 10", insert
Tracks: 7
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Gig
When: 03/08/11
Colour: Grey with black splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Pacer - Making Plans

I thought I'd written about Pacer's first EP #1 on here, but I guess I haven't yet. I'll come back to that record another day, because I want to write about Making Plans today. Pacer are another band that I got into simply by seeing them play countless times in Kingston and London. I'd seen Dave House play his solo stuff back when I lived in Cardiff, but I'm not sure I even made the connection the first time I saw Pacer.

Anyway, Making Plans had a very non-standard release but has eventually ended up on vinyl. It first came out last year as a download and 8"x8" book featuring lyrics and artwork. There was also a pay-what-you-like on the band's bandcamp. I picked up a copy of the book+download code in Banquet that summer, but naturally forgot to download the album for a few weeks. Sometime later they announced that they were going to release the album on vinyl too, with space in the sleeve for the book to live, so I ordered that from Banquet and, fittingly, forgot to pick it up for a while after it arrived in-store.

I'm all for band's experimenting with how they release albums, but I must admit that the download didn't really work for me. Back when I had an office and a desk and desktop computer I found myself listening to mp3s loads, and had this album come out a year earlier, it would have got pretty heavy play I'm sure. As it was, it came out when I was doing most of my work in a library with either books or an internet-less laptop. On top of that, I find it hard to work while listening to music through headphones (unless it's instrumental, usually), so finding time to download an album and time to play it wasn't very easy, hence the weeks it took me to download it. (It's also worth mentioning that I'm pretty useless at redeeming my download cards and updating my mp3 player at the best of times.) So I was glad they pressed the album on vinyl too; I say that not because of any audio-snobbery, but I'm just not anywhere near as likely to find the mp3s on my laptop, plug in the cable that links to the hi-fi and play them that way, as I am to put the needle on the record. A testament to this is that I've listened to Making Plans far more times in the two months I've had the vinyl than in the nearly-year I've had the mp3s. Also, the blue and white splatter looks great.

So, that rant aside, what about the music? It's great. It's a nice step up from the EP and there are some brilliant songs (Little Avalons, Ice Eater and the excellently-named Explainer? I Hardly Know Her). My favourite song however is definitely Flutter, which ends with Dave and Mike "Woah-oh-oh"-ing while Mark sings without appearing to take a breath. I didn't notice the first few times, but the lyrics in the outro are the same as those at the start, and it's interesting how different they sound when sung differently and to a different beat. I like it a lot. The last time I saw Pacer was in The Black Heart and the lead vocals in the outro of Flutter were pretty much drowned out by the "woah-oh-oh"s, but it was great to see Mark singing along even though we couldn't hear him. It was quite a strange sight, but it worked.


Format: 12", 8"x8" book
Tracks: 12
Cost: £9 new (plus £6 for the book+download)
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 18/03/13
Colour: Blue with white splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: Download

Iron Chic + Pacer - Split

This is from the second series of All in Vinyl splits and again by two bands who I really like. I got into Iron Chic when Banquet put them on in The Peel. Luckily I bought the record in advance because that was a show where you want to be singing along to every word. I'll rave about that more when I come to write about the LP, but I will say this: their show at Fest was possibly the highlight of the weekend - I swear the entire room went crazy for the whole set. It was insane in the best possible way. These two songs are both good, but neither have the huge sing-a-long moments that appear at every turn on the LP.

Pacer are also very good and have just announced the release of their debut album, which should be excellent, especially if the 10" they put out last year is anything to go by. Throwback is a particularly good tune. I bought this after they played El Paso the other week with The Arteries, but I'd been meaning to pick it up since it came out.


Format: 7", insert
Tracks: 4
Cost: £3 new
Bought: Gig
When: 15/05/12
Colour: Yellow
Etching: no
mp3s: download