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

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

Silverchair - Frogstomp

The first three Silverchair albums are all excellent and it's pretty pleasing to finally have the first, Frogstomp, on vinyl. I've been listening to this album for more than half of my life, which isn't something I can say about very many albums yet; I was 14/15 when I first started properly getting into music so now that I'm approaching 30 it is something that's starting to be true for increasingly many records. It's a curious thing to dwell on, but it's strange thinking about all those younger versions of me sat there listening to Frogstomp.

Of course, it's also worth mentioning that Silverchair themselves were only 14/15 when they wrote this record (no post about Silverchair is complete unless the young age they started out is mentioned!). It's a well-known fact that they grew out of this album much faster than I did, so much so that the one time I saw them they didn't play a single song from Frogstomp. A friend who went to the second night of four London shows said they played Israel's Son, which made me pretty gutted I'd gone the night before. I didn't expect to hear many Frogstomp songs (it was a Neon Ballroom/Diorama-heavy set) but Israel's Son was all I was really after. It's an odd song, in the fact that there's not another Silverchair song that feels very much like it. They certainly didn't write any others that sounded quite so angry or urgent. In fact, Frogstomp sometimes feels like a single with 10 b-sides (maybe it's the way that the tracklisting shows Israel's Son in a slightly larger font - something that I always found strange).

Don't get me wrong though, there are some great songs on the rest of the album and, depending on the day, I might even say better songs, but Israel's Son was always the lead, the single, the song you put on mixtapes to show people quite how cool Silverchair were. Shade is an absolutely incredible song (and the one that I sometimes consider better) but I don't think I ever put it on a mixtape. Tomorrow, Madman and Leave Me Out were always highlights too.

This copy is from the second pressing (/1000) of the recent Shop Radio Cast reissue, which I picked up at their stall at Fest last year. They've done a pretty nice job on the whole thing, the etching on side D being a particularly lovely touch. The original vinyl copy (which I remember seeing a few times on eBay back in the day, but was out-priced even then) squeezed all the songs onto one disc, but they've made it a double here. As on the original vinyl, Blind has been included between Shade and Leave Me Out. Many years ago I bought the best-of compilation in order to hear Blind and the vocal-version of Madman (which wasn't as good) so I was already quite familiar with the song. My only complaint comes with regards to that song - listening to the LP you can tell that Blind has come from a different source and was mastered differently; it just doesn't sound right. The volume and the production drops, especially on the heavier parts. The compilation version sounds fine, but I can see how it might be tough to get it to match the sound of the rest of the album. I'd love to hear the original vinyl to see how it sounds there.

Otherwise, SRC have done an excellent job on the reissue. This copy is slightly different to most in that one of the centre labels has the wrong colour frog on it (apparently - I'm colour-blind so it's quite hard to tell what's the same colour and what isn't sometimes). Side C has the green frog that appeared on the centre-labels of the first press. This misprint version cost me $2 more than a regular version, which is basically the same (I'm pretty bad at treating US currency like Monopoly money). $2 at Fest is a can of PBR (minus the tip) so spending that on a slightly different version of an LP sounded fine to me. Whatsmore, it worked out to be £17, which is still about £5 cheaper than most LP's are over here these days anyway. It was the most expensive record I bought on that whole trip, but it was definitely worth it.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £17 new
Bought: Fest Registration, Tampa
When: 29/10/13
Colour: Transparent orange
Etching: Picture of a frog on side D
mp3s: no

Restorations - LP2

It's a very rare thing for a band to be so amazing live and on record when the two experiences are quite so different. I've mentioned before how brilliant Restorations are live and how their first LP captures a different side of them. The same thing can be said for LP2, but I think I love this record almost as much as I love seeing Restorations play. In fact, I'm such a fan that it even topped my end-of-year list last year (in a close fight with TWIABP and RVIVR). The first listen was enjoyable, but it really came into its own over the next few listens. To list the highlights would basically involve listing all of the songs, so much so that on their recent tour I didn't find myself hoping that they'd play any songs in particular; I was happy with any combination of them.

Which brings me round nicely to how incredible they are live. I've now seen them four times - Fest 2011 (when I first heard them and went home with a new favourite band), twice at Fest 2013 and most recently in The Fighting Cocks in Kingston a few weeks ago. Despite it being a fairly regular occurrence, I always forget just how incredible they are to watch (which given that I always remember them blowing me away should say something). I swear live everything is played to its extremes - the drums are battered, guitars thrashed and vocals screamed. The choruses to Let's Blow Up the Sun and Civil Inattention are excellent on vinyl as it is, I can't even think of words to describe how it was in the Cocks the other week. I've played this record a lot since October and had no idea I could enjoy those songs so much more - in my head there are now two versions of Civil Inattention - one where the the lines "I am no longer scared / I am terrified all of the time" are sung, and another where they're screamed frantically.

I was a bit gutted to only catch Restorations once on their recent UK tour (especially having looked forward to it for so long). I moved to Oxford just before they came over which is making a lot of gigs a bit harder to get to. On top of that, I already had tickets to see The Ex on the night of their first London show. The final London show was free which removes that guarantee that you'll actually be able to get in, leaving just the Kingston show. Kingston is now a 5 to 6 hour round trip from Oxford, depending on how bad the trains are across London, but it was definitely worth it. I miss Kingston a lot, and Banquet have more than a small role in how my life has played out over the last five years so it was nice to go back and see a band I'd been so keen to see again play in a venue I know so well.

As for this copy of the LP, I picked it up after seeing the band at Pre-Fest in Tampa (very pleased that they were as awesome as they had been two years previously). The artwork on the inside of the gatefold and the colour of the vinyl (some sort of smoky-white? Possibly the green marble?) are both particularly lovely. I fully recommend checking out this record and catching Restorations live. Both are equally awesome but in different ways.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 9
Cost: £9.45 new
Bought: gig, Tampa
When: 29/10/13
Colour: Smoky-white/green marble?
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Far - Tin Cans With Strings to You

The ten-year anniversary of the first time I heard Far was few months ago; on the 3rd of November 2003 I bought a copy of Tin Cans With Strings to You on cd having pretty much no knowledge of the band at all. I'd been in Preston a few days beforehand to see if the record shops were any better than the ones in Lancaster and noticed a couple of albums by Far in the local HMV (it was also on that trip I got a Fu Manchu record and the best of Bad Brains). I'd heard the name and read about Water & Solutions in a Kerrang! magazine list but that was the extent of my knowledge. I went home and re-read the piece on them and figured I should give them a chance. The next time I went into HMV in Lancaster I saw the cds and decided to pick up Tin Cans. I don't know why I chose that album, but I've always found it to be my favourite of the two major-label Far albums, so I'm glad I did. The first time I saw Jonah I had him sign the booklet of Tin Cans since it was my favourite if his various band's releases at the time (Hugh was getting his copy of Thriller signed and I, unusually, felt like getting something signed too).

The Kerrang! article I mentioned was a list of the Top Ten Post-Hardcore/Emo Albums and had Water & Solutions at number 3. The description didn't really give me much warning that Far would be as heavy as they were (although Tin Cans is a much heavier album in my opinion, take the outro to In the Aisle, Yelling for example), but I was very happy with the music that came out of my speakers on that day ten and a bit years ago. It was 2003 and "emo" was already becoming a dirty word, but there was nothing about Far that made me think they were an emo band. I swear Job's Eyes was one of the darkest songs I'd heard in years and Love, American Style was huge too. A couple of years ago I saw Jonah play an acoustic version of Joining the Circus and it made me love that song even more - the vocals were even more haunting live. (Incidently, Far wasn't the first time I'd heard any of the bands Jonah had been involved with. About 18 months beforehand I'd bought the Rival Schools and Onelinedrawing split, but it would actually be a while after that I finally made the connection between the two bands.)

I heard that SRC was re-pressing Tin Cans and Water & Solutions and figured I pick up copies. I had hopes of finding them when I was in America for Fest, but to my luck (and my bank account's bad luck) SRC had a stall at registration for me to drawl over. The records weren't the cheapest I'd get that weekend, but they were all ones I really wanted in my collection and still cheaper than getting posted over, so I bought a bunch. I didn't buy Water & Solutions because it was still a few days until payday and I needed to save some money for food. I may live to regret that; as much as I've always loved Tin Cans more, Water & Solutions is still an excellent record and one I'd love to have in my collection. I had a nice chat with the guy from SRC running the stall about Hum and the fact that he was slowly re-issuing all my most prized possessions (see this, this, this and this) and came away with an armful of vinyl. The reissue is lovely - it sounds great and there's a great attention to detail, with the cd booklet pictures spread across an insert. The colour on the cover looks a little too dark to me, but I'm far from an expert when it comes to colour, so it's probably fine.

I was pretty excited when I heard that this record was being re-pressed and now I have it in my hands, I'm even more excited. There have been a few times when I've seen Jonah comment on the fact that "not many people knew about Far". I was always surprised by that statement, even more-so knowing how many other people were excited about this LP.

Format: double 12", gatefold sleeve, insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £15.75 new
Bought: Fest registration, Tampa
When: 29/10/13
Colour: Yellow
Etching: none
mp3s: no