ONSIND - Dissatisfactions

This record was one of the musical highlights of 2011 for me. I hadn't heard ONSIND until a few days before K-Fest that year, and had barely even heard of them before that. I was mostly going because Above Them were playing, but also because there were some other decent bands on the bill and it looked like a good little weekender (although I only went on the Saturday). Anyway, a few days beforehand I decided it would be a good idea to actually listen to some of the new names and somehow the first band I picked was ONSIND. I found their bandcamp page, pressed play on their latest album Dissatisfactions and was instantly hooked.

The ten songs I heard were unbelievably catchy and I couldn't get enough of them. And on top of all this great acoustic punk-rock was some of the most thought-provoking lyrics I've heard in ages. Heterosexuality is a Construct is a scathing but upbeat attack on homophobia and You Should Probably Keep it All In is a song I'm sure almost everyone can relate to. I'd not long broken up with my ex-girlfriend when I heard Dissatisfactions and the line "You said you never wanted me to change, and to my detriment I'm still the fucking same" on Old Hazel Eyes is Back caught my ears every time. On top of all that, there are choruses that other bands can only dream of writing, like on Heterosexuality..., "Either He's Dead or My Watch Has Stopped", and "I Could Carve a Better Man Out of a Banana". I played the album a couple of times over that day and listened to everything else I could find. I was pleased that the first K-Fest band I did any research on turned out so well.

I arrived later at the Fighting Cocks on the Saturday than I'd planned, but perfectly in time to see ONSIND. They set up their two mic stands in the middle of the floor, the crowd gathered around them and they opened up with this album's closer "I Could Carve a Better Man Out of a Banana". The first time I heard that song I was fully drawn into the story that it tells and quite amazed. The rendition that afternoon in the Cocks then made it incredible with everyone in the room joining in singing the chorus at the top of their lungs. It was the highlight of the day and kept me smiling for ages (I was very pleased that I'd heard the album so I could join in). The sing-a-longs didn't stop there and the rest of the set was great. Afterwards my friend Sarah and I both bought copies of the cd and I eventually picked up a copy on vinyl in All Ages in Camden (although strangely there is a gap in the middle of Old Hazel Eyes is Back which I assume is some sort of pressing error that made its way past the test press).

I've had some bad luck seeing ONSIND since then - they've played London a few times but I've been away for all but one of them (most annoying was a house show just a short walk from my old flat in Surbiton which clashed with my grandad's 80th). I can forgive them because it's a long way from Durham, but I do hope they play again soon.


Format: 12", a4 insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £10 new
Bought: All Ages, Camden
When: 17/10/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: download card

Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness

I often write on here about records that hugely significant to me, but arguably none more-so than this 7" by the Manic Street Preachers (although it'd be wrong to not acknowledge the importance of Bitter Sweet Symphony and California Burritos at this point too). In fact, I honestly feel that this record played such a huge part in making me who I am now, I'm not sure where to start. With that mind, I'll start at the beginning.

I was 14 when the Manics released If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next and shortly afterwards for my 15th birthday my parents bought me a copy of their new album This is My Truth Tell Me Yours. I was just getting into proper music and so I lapped the album up (it was the second album I owned myself, having saved up to buy Urban Hymns a year before). I knew nothing about the band at that point, but wanted to them to be my new favourite band and set about finding out as much as I could; I bought the other four albums they'd released and read books about them. They had everything you could want from a band when you're a teenager - a story of four friends starting a band, an image, a punk attitude and a very dramatic past. I loved all five albums and spent hours discussing the merits of each.

By the turn of the millennium, I'd listened to their albums countless times and needed to hear more of their songs. My goal was to pick up a copy of Suicide is Painless, probably because it was a single I hadn't heard yet but wasn't likely to be as expensive as Motown Junk. Somehow I ended up going to a record fair in Southampton Guildhall one Saturday morning (I think my friend's dad used to go and so we went with him, maybe). Whilst my search for Suicide is Painless wasn't successful (and wouldn't be for a few years), I did stumble across a slightly beaten copy of Motorcycle Emptiness for £3, which I bought along with a copy of Superunknown by Soundgarden on cd. I got home and immediately put the record my parents' turntable.

Of course I knew the a-side very well having heard it on their sprawling debut Generation Terrorists, and I knew it was a huge single. I'd probably also seen the video at that point. Already it felt pretty nice to have this little slice of history in my hands, a copy of one of their best songs on a 7" record that someone else had bought eight whole years beforehand. Already I felt like my £3 was spent well, but the few minutes of music on the b-side were to be the thing that really changed my life.

On the flip-side was Bored Out of My Mind, this beautiful acoustic song that sounded nothing like the other early songs. It was undeniably the Manics, but hidden away was a side of them I was entirely unaware of and it felt like a secret between the band and the people who'd bought the single (the subtitle of the b-sides album always struck me as very appropriate). And on top of that, it was a song I hadn't heard. After listening to their albums over and over again, it was incredible to hear a song that was new, or at least new to me. That was really the life-changing part - there were more songs by this band I adored and they were out there for me to hear if I wanted to find them, kept away in second hand record stores.

From that day I set about finding as many new Manics songs as I could, buying 7"s and 12"s and cds with all the money I could scramble together. There was definitely a point in time when I had every song on at least one format (except UK Channel Boredom - I'm very excited for the Generation Terrorist 20th anniversary boxset), although my Manics collection has grown some holes in recent years. I'm certain that hearing Bored Out of My Mind made me the record collector I am today. Maybe, if the song hadn't been quite so brilliant, or if it'd just been a live recording or a remix, I wouldn't have been so moved by it and I'd just be a guy in his twenties with a handful of cds and an unorganised iTunes full of downloaded music. Instead, I've spent more hours looking through boxes of records in shops around the world than I care to imagine, and I love it. It's a huge part of who I am, and this blog exists solely because of it, not to mention the friendships formed and places visited from a love of vinyl.

I know it might be a bit much to put all that significance into one twenty-year-old, 3-minute song, but I do and it makes me love the song even more.


Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3 second hand
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton Guildhall
When: 24/06/00
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Hundred Reasons - How Soon is Now?

Given my feelings towards the original versions of both of these songs, it's a wonder I bought this record at all. I'd heard the How Soon is Now? compilation album and quite enjoyed it - it was a collection of bands of a certain style covering Smiths songs, and had some surprisingly good takes. I say surprising, because I fucking hate The Smiths. There's a Marmite-ness to The Smiths, and I'm fully on the hate-side. The songs themselves weren't all bad, and some of the lyrics are alright if you can get past Morrissey, but they were just so wet. Really unexciting 80's floppy indie-pop. Some people like that, and that's fine, but it's not for me. But the album worked well; the songs finally had some balls to them, and it was good (and not all Smiths covers work. I swear half the bands I have music by have tried a Smiths cover, and most of them are garbage. I think they have a very different reputation here in the UK than they do abroad).

Anyway, I never got round to buying the album, but did find this cheaply on eBay one day and picked it up. Nice blue vinyl and they all came signed by the band (well, three of the band. Whilst I can't read the signatures, two of them are the same as the ones in my EP Two sleeve). How Soon is Now? is a fairly good cover, as Smiths covers go, but wasn't one of my favourites on the album (it's been so long now that I can't even remember which ones I did like).

The b-side is Eternal Flame by The Bangles, a song which haunted my childhood. My friend when I was very young absolutely adored that song and I really feel like I had my fair share of hearing it (along with my friend singing along) between the ages 4 and 10. To have a copy in my record collection now just seems a bit cruel. Still, I bought the record knowing it was on the b-side, so I guess I hoped I would get past it. Sadly I can't, and I just picture my pudgy childhood friend singing it, rather than Colin.

Needless to say, I don't play this record all that often.


Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £2.50 second hand
Bought: eBay
When: 11/11/06
Colour: Light blue
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Hundred Reasons - What You Get

This single came out two weeks before Hundred Reason's second album, Shatterproof is Not a Challenge, and was far and away the biggest tune on there. I'd go so far as to say it's one of their best songs. The b-side What's Right is a strange one, to say the least. It jumps around all over the place, with Colin barking fairly incoherently. I wonder if I knew more about time-signatures I'd get more out of it. It's certainly worth a listen either way.


Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £1 new
Bought: HMV Lancaster
When: 16/02/04
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Hundred Reasons - The Great Test

This was the first single from Hundred Reasons's second album, and I picked it up in my local HMV along with a Far cd. I'd been at university a few months and had originally not taken any records or my record player with me (although I have no idea why). I began to miss it all immediately, and I bought a handful of records in the first term. My friend was supposed to bring the player when he came to visit but forgot, so I was vinyl-less until Christmas, meaning that this certainly didn't get played for about two months after I bought it. Nonetheless, I was excited that HR had a new album in the works.

The songs are plenty nice enough, but fall a bit short of the kick of those first singles. The Great Test was a bit of a grower, and I didn't realise how much I liked it until seeing them play it live. The third song, Change of Season, is pretty good too. The two sides play at different speeds, which is a minor inconvenience on this turntable and a huge chore on my dream record player, a Rega Planar 3 (I used to own one but had to sell it when I moved to Cardiff. I've been meaning to buy one ever since, but I keep blowing my money on records and holidays). Still, better to have three songs and change the speed than just two I suppose.


Format: 7", numbered (#2104)
Tracks: 3
Cost: £1.35 new
Bought: HMV Lancaster
When: 03/11/03
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Hundred Reasons - Falter

Falter was almost a ballad by Hundred Reasons' standards. I vaguely remember a video for it at the time, possibly consisting of footage of them playing at a festival. It's a great song, and I had a brilliant time singing along to it at Banquet's Big Day Out this summer. Safe Distance is a very different b-side. Until Colin starts singing you'd be tempted to believe they'd written a little post-rock number, and there's something of their earlier, much-heavier material about it. I like it, and it makes the £3 I spent on it worthwhile, given that I had the a-side on the album.


Format: 7", numbered (#399)
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3 new
Bought: Record fair, Southampton Guildhall
When: 25/01/03
Colour: Orange
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Hundred Reasons - If I Could

The first proper single, although the difference between a two-track 7" EP and a two track 7" single is a hard one to spot! If I Could is a great HR song, but what's really special about this record for me is the b-side. No. 5 sounds nothing like anything else the band have ever written (to my best knowledge) and I love it. There's something almost Deftones-like in both the muted vocals and the ability to write a song so different to their normal style and make it sound incredible. It's a fuzzy, brutal, basically-emo song and has none of the upbeat, bouncy guitars of the other songs they'd released. I saw them play it live once and I was ecstatic. It was in the Southampton Guildhall (a full year after I'd first bought a record of theirs in the same room) and the first song of the encore was just three of them on stage playing No. 5, possibly with Larry singing. It was really dark and atmospheric and I loved it, although I remember the rest of the crowd being a little bemused.

I didn't buy this single when it first came out (although I can't remember why), but Hugh had the cd. He desperately wanted to swap it for a Pitchshifter single I had, and eventually I relented. He wasn't fussed on the b-sides (there was another called One Moment) but I instantly thought No. 5 was great. About six months later I was at a record fair (again) and found this and Falter and bought them both. I had both of the songs on the cd-single, but wanted to have No. 5 on vinyl. Sat here playing the record nearly ten years later, I'm very glad I bought it.


Format: 7", numbered (#2850)
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3 new
Bought: Record fair, Southampton Guildhall
When: 25/01/03
Colour: Green
Etching: none
mp3s: no