Tim Kasher - Adult Film

I've probably written about this before, but here we go again: I once saw Tim Kasher play a set at Fest on Halloween and he was absolutely battered. He came on stage just after midnight wearing a wedding dress and make-up, and the set veered between train-wreck and brilliance in ways it's hard to describe. On one hand, you couldn't take your eyes off it in a he's-going-to-regret-this-in-the-morning way, but on the other, he played the songs perfectly and there were some that sounded truly amazing. I can't remember too well which Cursive songs he played (I wasn't entirely sober myself, but in a far better state than Tim), but I remember one from The Ugly Organ sounding absolutely wonderful.

That was 2013, and early in 2014 he released his new solo album, Adult Film. He toured the album in May and we went to see him in The Windmill, with Garrett Klahn from Texas is the Reason and a guy called Karl Larsson who is apparently from a Swedish band called Last Days of April supporting. It was a nice show - hearing some Texas is the Reason songs is always nice - but we knew it was unlikely to touch that Fest show; Tim didn't come onstage drunk in fancy dress, and it was much more about the songs than wondering if it was going to descend into a crime scene. After the show I bought the new album.

Between Cursive and The Good Life, it's hard to understand the distinction between the bands and a solo album. If you told me this was a Good Life album, I'd believe you - there's not much in common with Cursive, but this could sit quite happily in the Good Life back-catalogue - it's poppy in places (in a good way) but I guess relies a bit more on organs and synths to drive the songs. I'd be lying if I said that was my thing, but I can enjoy it for what it is.

The first half has three great songs (American Lit, Truly Freaking Out and The Willing Cuckold), one easily forgettable song (Where's Your Heart Lie) and the obligatory track I can't stand - I've definitely written about this before - how Tim Kasher-related album in the last 10 (15?) years seems to have one song that has a thoroughly annoying chorus that makes me want to skip it every time. Life and Limbo is that song here. Painfully annoying stuff. The second side has fewer high, but A Raincloud is a Raincloud is nice, as is the closer.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Gig
When: 03/05/14
Colour: Black
Etching: None
mp3s: Download code

Dave House - See That No One Else Escapes

See That No One Else Escapes was the first Dave House album I bought. Six months later I bought his debut solo album, Kingston's Current, on my first ever trip to Kingston. I'm still yet to pick up a copy of his third and final solo album, although I really should. I suspect I'll enjoy it.

I bought this album after seeing Dave support Lemuria in Bar Sigma in Swansea the summer before I left South Wales for London. The Arteries played too. I've got a feeling the poster for that show was great, and a few people I know had copies of it up on their walls. Possibly involving a swan? I enjoyed Dave's set and asked him which album I should pick up after the show. He suggested this one and sold it to me for £5, a bargain by any measure.

My first impression was that it was more mellow than I remember his set being, but I wonder if the songs took a more punk edge given the setting and the bands on the bill. All D's No Future is the first song on the album that has anything punk to it, but Trafalgar Square to Anywhere shows that his songs could be great without being heavy - the chorus there is perfect. For an Afternoon could easily fit on the first Frank Turner record (I remember Frank blocking my view for a lot of the time at the Dave House vs Dave Hause show in The Fighting Cocks in 2011; that guy is tall) and Old Girl Back made me think about The Klaxons for the first time in at least a decade.

Over the years, it's had far fewer plays than Kingston's Current, but that's mostly because I have mp3s of that album but not this one, and it has the title-track, which is a really incredible song that I still can't get enough of. I should give this one more time though. It's generally a bit softer, but the violins (which feature in a lot of the songs) really add to those songs, and actually some of the highlights of Kingston's Current are the softer songs too.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 11
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Gig, Swansea
When: 10/06/09
Colour: Grey marble swirl
Etching: none
mp3s: none

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

Goshen Electric Co - The Gray Tower / Ring the Bell

I play these two songs a lot, so much so that I paid to download the mp3s on Bandcamp to be able to listen to them even more. As an added bonus, the mp3s include and extended version of Ring the Bell, so there's even more loveliness to be had.

Goshen Electric Co is the name that the regular members of Magnolia Electric Co (who weren't Jason Molina) and Timothy Showalter (from Strand of Oaks) decided to record under. When this came out, they'd played a few shows together in the US as Memorial Electric Co or Songs: Molina, depending on how you choose to interpret the name the shows were billed as. This record came out around the same time that they took that show on tour throughout Europe. The shows, and the 7", were an opportunity for these people to keep playing Jason Molina's songs together and I was incredibly pleased that they did. I consider myself very fortunate that I got to see Magnolia Electric Co once (and very nearly didn't - I only got offered a ticket that morning because someone had a spare) but didn't know any songs at the time. I knew nearly every word when the tour came through Bush Hall in London in 2018.

Ahead of the shows they put out a video for The Gray Tower and I watched it a bunch of times. I wasn't familiar with Strand of Oaks at the time, but was very pleased with how Timothy took on the vocals. By the nature of both bands, they play it much more like a Magnolia Electric Co song than a Songs: Ohia song and it works amazingly; I love both versions - Jennie Benford's vocal round out the sparse original version so the two sound and feel very different. Ring the Bell from Didn't it Rain is a much less niche choice (The Gray Tower is only on a 7" and the Journey On boxset or as a demo called The Gray Tour on the Didn't it Rain reissue) and also becomes a much bigger sounding song (even more so on the nine-minute extended version). The extended one takes a lot of inspiration from the original, which itself is over six minutes in length.

As a result of this record, I started listening to Strand of Oaks and really got into them. I started off with their fitting tribute to Jason Molina, JM, and spiralled from there (JM even got an airing at the Songs: Molina show). Turns out I'd seen them at Primavera in 2015 on the recommendation of one of Matt's friends. I enjoyed them, but saw another nine bands that day and they got forgotten in the blur of great music. I'm now a huge fan.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Gig, London
When: 27/09/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none

KEN Mode - Venerable

The story of how I first heard of KEN Mode might be the most unusual "how I got into a band" stories yet. Back when I lived in Cardiff we had a friend called Roscoe, who was an interesting character. "Character" is an appropriate word, because I was never sure we were really seeing the actual Roscoe. One thing he got really into was making fake Facebook accounts of different people and having them interact with each other, albeit in quite tangental ways. There was a retired Swiss tennis pro who I think was having an affair with the girlfriend of another character. It was all very complex. I was never sure he actually had a job because the various Facebook profiles looked like they took up a lot of his day.

One night in Le Pub he introduced us to a game he called "Fish Band Names", where you had to replace some part of a band's name with a fish ("And You Will Know Us By the Whale of Dead", for example). This kept a handful of us entertained for most of the night. I think there was a hardcore show on, but we spent most of the night downstairs thinking of Fish Band Names. Over the following week more of these got sent around by text message, and the game eventually became Bread Band Names (which wasn't easy).

A few years later I saw some people playing Star Wars Band Names on Twitter and sent some highlights to Hugh, who'd also been there that night in Le Pub. He replied with a couple of good additions, including "Obi-Wan KEN-Mode-y" which became the first time I'd ever heard of the band KEN Mode. Of course, a shorter version of that story is "Hugh mentioned them to me", but where's the fun in that?

A year or so later, KEN Mode were touring and playing The Black Heart in London, a venue I always really enjoy visiting - I like metal bars and they tick all the boxes of being a metal bar well - solid metal on the jukebox, good beers, great band posters on the wall and genuinely interesting gigs upstairs. I'd moved to Oxford by that point, but made the journey back to London for the show.

I'd listened to some KEN Mode in the time between Hugh's Star Wars pun and then, but not properly got into the band. Five years later, I still wouldn't say I'm properly into the band, but that's because it's hard to break your way into their particular style of noise. I like what I've heard a lot - their 2018 album made it into my top-ten albums of the year - but I just never see their records around. I can understand why though, not many shops I often visit sell a lot of metal, and less so noisy, niche Canadian noise-metal. I'd definitely buy more of their albums if it was easier.

At the end of the show, feeling thoroughly pummelled and beaten by the music, I decided to buy an LP. They had released five albums at this point, and had at least four of them on the merch table. I did what I often do in these scenarios and just picked one at random (but asked for it with the confidence of someone who definitely knew they wanted that exact album). The one I picked happened to be this copy of Venerable (which I now know is the 2012 French reissue with different artwork, which looks great).

This turned out to be a great choice, because the single most memorable song that night was one called Never Was; by chance I'd picked the album with that song on it and I was very pleased when I played it the next day to discover that fact. There are other great songs on there - Book of Muscle and The Irate Jumbuck in particular - but Never Was is a step above. Over the course of 8 minutes they verge on doom metal with a slow repeating riff that Shellac would be proud of and whispered verses leading you into a false sense of security before the crushing chorus of "No God / Never was". In that chorus it's hard to believe that all that noise is the work of just three people.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 10
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Gig, London
When: 14/10/14
Colour: Red
Etching: none
mp3s: None

Final Fantasy - Spectrum, 14th Century

On August 2nd 2009 I saw Owen Pallett for the first time, or Final Fantasy, as he was known back then (the flyer for the show has been inside this sleeve since that day). I've been to a lot of gigs in my time, but that one was particularly memorable for a number of reasons - his set was incredible; I'd never seen one man get so much out of one instrument; the venue was lovely; the applause was so great that he agreed to play a few more songs in car park after the show finished - I've never known so many people be so silent so that everyone could hear his unplugged violin and voice.

At the end of the show (and before the after-show) I bought this 10" record from the merch table. They also had the Plays to Please 10" which I've still not heard. I can't remember why I picked this one, but I did based on no information. I guess I liked the cover. Anyway, it's a nice EP. It's loosely related to his 2010 album Heartland and musically I'd say they're quite similar too. Most notably, neither have as many stand-out moments as the albums around them - around this time he seemed to be writing very nice but ultimately very similar songs; the closer The Ballad of No Face is the only one that really stays with you after the record is over. It's a nice EP though.

Format: 10", booklet
Tracks: 5
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Gig, Cardiff
When: 02/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

La Pince - La Simple

I mentioned La Pince last summer when I wrote about a record by Casse Brique, a band who I think are related to them - I was given the Casse Brique record when I bought this one at a La Pince show with Silent Front in London, so I assume so. I've probably listened to the Casse Brique record more, but I'd be lying if I said either were in heavy rotation. Neither are easy listening, although La Pince are the harder on the ear.

The music is quite angular and jagged punk rock. The singer maybe has most in common with Jello Biafra in singing style; that is to say, I'm not a big fan. Live they worked much better - I remember him contorting around on the floor and being hugely energetic. That style rarely translates well to record. As far as music like this goes, it's not a bad record, but nor is it one that does much for me. The 13 songs are all quite similar - discordant, heavy on bass and slightly unintelligible vocals - so I couldn't call out any highlights.

I enjoyed the show a lot that night and I'm glad I got the record, even if I don't listen to it much. They were a good match with Silent Front, although a leaning a little closer to punk than metal, so probably a reasonable recommendation if that's your thing.

Format: 12", insert, cd
Tracks: 13
Cost: £7.20 new
Bought: Gig
When: 06/10/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: cd

Casse Brique - Rebelote Contre Coinche

I know nearly nothing about this band, possibly even nothing at all. I think they share some members (all members? Or maybe none?) with a band called La Pince, who I also know very little about*. They're (both) Belgian (I think), and La Pince were playing with Silent Front in Urban Bar in London in 2012. We went along partly because Sarah is a huge fan of Silent Front (and I quite like them too) and partly because it's often fun to see foreign bands that you don't get many chances to see.

I listened to a few La Pince songs before going and enjoyed them. Their set was great and their singer was a very enthusiastic frontman, which made for a fun live show. I decided to buy their album, La Simple, and whichever band member was running the merch stall kindly gave me this copy of the Casse Brique album. Sarah also bought the La Pince album, but got given a free cd rather than an LP. I felt pretty smug that I'd got a free LP.

* Thinking about it, I wonder if I always just assumed they shared some member because I was given the record for free. For all I know it could just be on their record label and excess stock they wanted rid of. The La Pince record doesn't list the band members' names anywhere, so I can't check. I'm sure the internet would tell me, but I'm clearly too lazy to do that research. Apathy, eh.

As it turned out, I think I prefer this LP to the La Pince one, although neither set my world on fire. Casse Brique are a two-piece who play perfectly enjoyable awkward instrumental math rock. I have a few albums of broadly similar music, and there's not a great amount that sets these guys apart from, say, Sleeping People. But does there need to be? - on the rare occasion I want disjointed math rock, then this ticks all the boxes. I say "rare" because as much as I enjoy it, I find a lot of this type of math rock to be too jarring to listen to that much.

The album might be two EPs put together (again, I'm sure some digging on the internet would tell me) because one side is labelled "Rebelote" and the other "Coinche". The second side has a bit more going for it - Slip Mahiounaise has some very interesting things happening and Frontal Foot verges on being a punk song - but the last song on side A, Ghandiloquant, is very good too. The artwork on the back of the sleeve is strangely horrific but it comes with a cd of the songs, so that's a plus.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 8
Cost: £0 new
Bought: Gig, London
When: 06/10/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: cd included

The Smith Street Band - Don't Fuck With Our Dreams

The first time I saw The Smith Street Band was at Fest 12. I'd been introduced to them by the song Young Drunk on their second album, and listened to the first two albums a lot at my desk before seeing them that autumn in Gainesville. They'd just released this 10" EP, but I hadn't listened to it before the show. They were playing the huge Florida Theatre on the Sunday night and the place was busy; people were very excited about seeing them and I was about to find out why. They played brilliantly and the crowd loved them; like a few sets I've seen at Fest, it's almost ruined the band for me as their live shows in other places haven't been quite as well-received, which is almost a shame - I wish everybody at other shows would go as mad as they did that night.

That night, they played the title-track from this EP, Don't Fuck With Our Dreams. They introduced it with a story about how a friend used the phrase after being mindlessly beaten up - it was a strange but brilliant response to such a situation, and I liked that before the song even started. That single song represented a change in their song-writing to me. From the first listen, and on record, it is at least ten times more epic than anything they'd released beforehand. The song was longer, had more parts to it and did so much with its time. It starts off sounding a bit like another punk song about touring (and writing songs about touring - meta) but then builds into something huge. I have a lot of time for that song. The highs are huge and the build-up in-between is brilliantly fast-paced and frantic.

I then had high hopes for their third album, Throw Me in the River, but found few moments that even stood close to Don't Fuck With Our Dreams. Their most-recent album, More Scared of You Than You Are of Me was such a great listen because they found whatever it was that made Don't Fuck With Our Dreams so incredible and took that to even higher levels throughout the album. I'll write about in due course, but the first song on this EP was the clue that they had incredible, next-level song-writing in them and I'm so, so pleased for them that they made a record that reflected it.

Anyway, I didn't buy this EP that night because I wanted to get a copy of Sunshine and Technology and was running out of cash. Luckily, the following the spring they were touring the UK so I had a chance to see them again (and, even luckier, they were playing with Restorations, a band I'd fallen in love with at Fest and was very excited to see again). I saw that tour in the Fighting Cocks in Kingston - I'd just moved to Oxford but happily travelled back to London to see it. I bought the first Smith Street album that night, along with this copy of the EP, featuring the screen-printed, tour version of the cover. I think that was also the night I lost my wallet on the bus home.

The other four songs are strong too - any of them would have fit perfectly on either of the two albums that proceeded the EP. The transition into Ducks Fly Together is seamless and Bigger Than Us has a hint of epic about it. Overall it's a good EP, but Don't Fuck With Our Dreams is what makes it memorable and an essential addition.

Format: 10", screen-printed sleeve
Tracks: 5
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Gig
When: 22/04/14
Colour: Purple
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Rise Against - Revolutions Per Minute

In 2003 I was at college and introduced to Rise Against by my friend Steve. He'd got into them via some other bands from that scene and lent me their first album, The Unravelling. I enjoyed it, so was pleased to see they were touring with The Mad Caddies as part of the Fat Wreck Tour. A lot of my friends were into ska punk back then, and a few were into more regular punk, with a healthy overlap between the two - that meant that the Fat Wreck Tour was big news. I'd been to a ska punk gig on the first day of college (Save Ferris, as my friend Thom had a spare ticket and I had nothing better to do) and had a great time. I've never had much time for ska on record at any point in my life, but that night introduced me to the fun you can have seeing it live. I learnt to move my legs when I dance that night, something which has caused much embarrassment to many people around me for many years since.

Anyway, the same friend had bought four tickets to see Mad Caddies and Rise Against down in Brighton, and had borrowed his parents' car to drive down there. However, my invitation was not entirely for the best reasons. Thom wanted Olly to come, but not Olly's girlfriend at the time so invited me instead to fill up the car and use the last ticket. I was aware of this, but wanted to see Rise Against, so wasn't too offended. We drove down early (listening to 2 Many DJs most of the way - an album I strongly associate with that road trip and one other down to Cornwall) and explored Brighton. Olly had to spend a lot of the day on the phone to his rather pissed off girlfriend - I have a grainy, 2003-quality picture of us hanging out on Brighton beach with Olly in the distance, on the phone. I remember it well.

The gig was in the Concorde 2, the only time I ever got to go to that venue. It was sweaty, packed and great fun. Flipsides and Lawrence Arms played first and second, Rise Against third and then The Mad Caddies. Rise Against had just released Revolutions Per Minute and I'd heard a few songs on Thom's minidisc player in the library. It was clearly a catchy record, and both the songs I knew from the first album and the new ones sounded great. Just after their set I saw Thom come back from the merch table with a copy of LP, so went over to grab a copy for myself. I regretted buying it early as it was a pain to keep hold of during the mayhem that ensued for The Mad Caddies, but it survived perfectly, and I was still able to enjoy the band. I've since learnt to keep my record buying to the end of the night, something blindingly obvious in hindsight.

Before I write about the music, the most notable thing about this record is that it has the smoothest edge of any record I've ever touched. I know that's a very strange thing to mention, but it's like butter. Some records, as you flip them over you feel like they're trying to carve away your fingerprints with their sharp edges; not here, the edge flows so neatly between your fingers I can never just turn it over once - going from side A to side B usually involves a few times back and forth just to make the most of it. I wish all records were on such round-edged vinyl. Like I said, a strange thing to care about, but if you felt it, you'd know.

Revolutions per Minute is a great record - fast, energetic and raw-enough vocals to make it sound way more edgy that it might do otherwise. In the years since then, I listened to a lot of other punk, and my time in Cardiff was particularly dominated by bands like Hot Water Music (and local bands who tried to sound like HWM), Small Brown Bike and other gruff-punk bands; it's a genre I have a lot of time for still. I've not listened to Rise Against much in the last 10 years, so it's funny playing it now having listened to so much other punk music. One thing is that it sounds like one of the guitars is missing pretty much all the time. I remember thinking Black Masks and Gosoline was a great song, and it's still incredibly catchy, but I can't help but think the whole thing needs another guitar. I'm not sure I've ever thought that about a song before, but here we are. Same is true of Blood-Red, White & Blue. At first I thought maybe I just had it on too quietly, but no matter how loud something sounds missing. They're perfectly good songs and enjoyable despite that. Voices Off Camera:, Torches and Last Chance Blueprint are great songs too - choruses that are instantly familiar. It would be a year before I'd see American Beauty and hear where the samples came from in the latter. Amber Changing closes the album-proper with a huge chorus before the band, inexplicably, go into a cover of Any Way You Want It by Journey, which is a very strange way to finish the album.

The fact that I've not really listened to Rise Against much in the last 10 years is worth dwelling on a bit. I only own their first two albums and have vague memories of hearing some singles from the third that were very clean, polished and just a bit annoying (or should that last word be "preachy"? If I'm being honest, that was what made them annoying). I know my brother remained a fan, so maybe I should borrow his copies and have a listen to the later stuff the band did. Anyway, between all that and going to university (in the first term I was introduced to Black Eyes and Hum), Rise Against didn't seem so interesting anymore. After that I had my ATP-years and gruff-punk-years (I've never exclusively listened to one genre, but I can sum up most of my life in broad waves of genre-focused discoveries) and whatever genre-years I'm in now (I think a gradual transition from post-rock into neo-classical/noise (all of which are neatly covered in one section in my local record store)).

I've had more fun listening to this album than I thought I would (and more fun that all that criticism implies), so I'm looking forward to digging out The Unravelling for its blog post sometime in the future.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 13
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Gig
When: 23/04/03
Colour: black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Chillerton - Chillerton

Chillerton were one of the many bands that played a lot during the time I was living in Cardiff. I definitely saw them a number of times, but have few distinct memories of what they sounded like exactly. That's no slight on them - we saw a lot of hardcore/punk bands and they were one that I never spent the time to get into at the time; in hindsight, this was a mistake.

A few years later, they were playing the Deadpunk All-dayer in Bristol and lots of people were very excited about this. Their set was great and I struggled to remember why it was that I hadn't become a fan all those years beforehand; I probably had a bit of hardcore-fatigue around that time.

Since the band had long since broken up and were playing a one-off (I think) reunion show, they had this 7" and the cd version on their merch table for free - there was a box of each that had presumably been sat in someone's garage for years, neglected. Eager to give the record a good home, I picked up a copy (of each, not realising that the cd contained the same songs as it had different cover). The 7", as you can see, is a very nice clear with blue and red splatter.

I was pleasantly surprised when I played the records - the songs were catchy but still very heavy, and the mixture of male and female vocals on The Way She Types and Torque was refreshing (especially the way they were layered on the former). The whole EP is a bit rough around the edges, but I like it for that. I eventually bought the album, which made me further wish I'd spent more time getting into the band back in the day. Better late than never I suppose.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 5
Cost: £0 new
Bought: gig
When: 28/08/13
Colour: Clear with blue and red splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Into it. Over It - Proper

I'm not a very big of Into It. Over It (otherwise known as Evan Weiss) it turns out. I first became aware of Evan's music at Fest the first time I went - the name kept coming up and I knew he'd done a a split with Koji whose music I enjoyed very much late one night in the CMC. A short while later IIOI was playing in Kingston on what turned out to be a very varied line-up - PJ Bond (who we'd also seen that night in CMC), Great Cynics (who I seem to see all the time), IIOI and Broadway Calls. Banquet had a deal where you'd get the Broadway Calls EP they were releasing for £2 more than just buying the ticket for the gig, so I have a copy of that (which I'll get round to writing about eventually).

I enjoyed Evan's set that night - he is a great story teller and each song came with a lengthy and interesting story about it. In hindsight, I remember the stories much more than I do any of the songs, which now is a red flag. Of course, at the time, I couldn't benefit from that hindsight so decided to buy a record after the show. I asked him which he would recommend to a new-comer and he suggested Proper - his only "traditional" album at that time - and I bought it.

Something I find happens a lot is that singer-songwriters decide to record their solo songs with a full band. In the case of Keven Devine, it works quite well but I do often think I'd prefer to hear them solo (it's also worth mentioning that he has some incredible songs that would work however they were recorded). In the case of IIOI I can't say I feel the same; Evan's songs, when played with a full-band, just sound like somewhere between emo and pop-punk. I'm a moderate fan of emo, but it's not a genre I obsess over. Pop-punk does nothing for me. The charm of a lot of these songs when played on an acoustic guitar is lost on the record. I'm pretty sure I enjoyed a few of these songs live that night but I couldn't tell you which ones they were. Very little stands out for me on the album.

It's not a bad record - it's important to note that - it just doesn't do very much for me. As a result I don't listen to it very often at all. Listening to it now, it's perfectly ok, but I could find many other records I enjoy listening to much more.

For some reason, a few months later I bought another IIOI album - 52 Weeks on double-cd. There were many contributing factors in that purchase: I'm a sucker for a concept album (52 songs, each written and recorded weekly over the course of a year); I really wanted to believe that there might be IIOI recordings I enjoyed as much as that show in Kingston; and finally because I had a fully-stamped Banquet loyalty card so was feeling a bit adventurous. On a number of occasions since that first listen I've tried to make it through 52 Weeks again but I keep quitting at various points throughout the (long) album with varying degrees of hatred for the album. One saving grace of Proper is that it's at least a reasonable length.

So yeah, despite a few good attempts, the music of Evan Weiss is not for me.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £10 new
Bought: gig
When: 08/12/11
Colour: Grey
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Onelinedrawing - reVisitor

I've been a fan of Jonah Matranga for a long time. Like most, I started as a Far fan, was bowled over by New End Original and then started seeing him live on his frequent tours of the UK. He has written a huge number of truly incredible songs, and it's always such a great experience to see him play them live.

However, I've struggled with a lot of his solo albums - I eagerly bought copies of And, The Three Sketchys (1999-2005), a live album and the There's a Lot in Here cd/dvd from his online shop when I discovered it. The live songs are always incredible (the live album is from July 15th 2009 and I fully recommend checking it out if you can) and And has some good songs (Not About a Girl or a Place is a favourite) but I struggled with The Three Sketchys, which really slowed down my desire to dig out all of the solo/Onelinedrawing releases. I listened to the songs from The Volunteer on the dvd but few really made an impression (dvds perhaps aren't the best way to consume music - I can't have listened to those songs more than twice).

This album is then a bit of a strange one - here we have the album Visitor, originally released on Jade Tree in 2002 but rerecorded in 2012. I've not heard the original version of Visitor and I feel I really should at some point. Whilst I can't say much about how these songs compare to the originals, I can say that reVisitor is a pretty nice album. In an age where I don't get along too well with Jonah's recent outputs it's nice to hear some great songs played well. I knew a lot of these from concerts and live recordings - Bitte Ein Kuss, Smile, Yr Letter and Softbelly are all fan-favourites and ones I really look forward to hearing. These versions are very nice - simple and stripped back but very true to the Jonah I'm used to seeing. Yr Letter is particularly great and Softbelly is so reminiscent of the darker Far songs I love so much. There are also songs that I've never really heard but enjoyed here - Candle Song and Sixes. Perfect Pair and Why Are We Fighting have always landed on the pile of Jonah songs I don't care for much and that doesn't change here.

I picked up this picture disc one of the most recent times I saw Jonah, in the Windmill in Brixton for £7.50 (as well as his latest album, You and Me Are Two). I was excited to hear both, but knew I'd get more out of this one. It ticks a lot of my boxes for what I want from a Jonah album, so it's a winner in that respect.

Format: 12" picture disc
Tracks: 11
Cost: £7.50 new
Bought: gig
When: 23/07/14
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Tellison - The Wages of Fear

I've had quite inconsistent feelings about Tellison. I've seen them live four times now and I've really enjoy seeing them each time. After the second time (supporting Kevin Devine in the All Saint's Church in Kingston) I decided I should get one of their albums, and went for The Wages of Fear, which I think was the newest at the time. I remember feeling a little underwhelmed upon listening to it and it didn't get many plays at the time (hindered by my belief that it didn't come with mp3s - clearly my observation skills let me down because I failed to notice the sticker or download card until the other week).

A few weeks ago they played in Oxford with Muncie Girls; Oxford gets so few good shows you have to go to them all, so I popped along. In the run up to the show, I listened to the album a few more times and streamed their other ones. The show was great and I had their songs stuck in my head for days afterwards. Last Saturday they played the Deadpunk all-dayer in Bristol and I was really excited about seeing them. They are a great live band.

Despite quite liking the songs, and having seen them live enough times to remember how good they are there, I still struggle with the album. I think it's due to the way the band boarders on the indie side of indie-rock which causes issues for me - there's a poppy element to indie that has never sat well with me and that comes across as sometimes a little twee in these songs. I know they're punk-rock songs - I've heard them that way - but on the record they're just a bit flatter and less exciting. I get a similar feeling from Tellison as I do from Biffy Clyro, who are also much more exciting live but I don't often listen to on record. The songs here are undeniably catchy - I will have the choruses of Say Silence (Heaven & Earth), Horses and Letters From Pre-Med in my head for days. Get On and Freud Links the Teeth and the Heart are two more I love hearing live.

Having seen them twice recently, I feel I should make more of an effort to seek out their other albums.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8 new
Bought: gig
When: 05/08/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

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

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