La Dispute - Tiny Dots

It's strange to start writing about a band by talking about their most recent release, especially when I've been listening to their other albums for quite a while now, but this album captures the moment the band went from being a band I thought were OK to a band I thought were incredible, and that's a good place to start.

On the morning of the 24th of May, 2014 I woke up late at my wife's parent's house. She was on a course that day and I didn't really know what I was going to with the day at all. I figured at very least I'd pop down the road to Banquet Records and buy some music. After a shower I had a browse of Twitter and saw that someone had a spare ticket for the show La Dispute were doing that afternoon in the All Saint's Church in Kingston. I knew they were playing a show there but also knew that, like the other shows they'd done that week in London, it was crazy-sold-out.

A lot of people had seen them that week and were raving endlessly about them. I'd seen the band twice before and kinda enjoyed them, but never to the extent that I checked out any of their records (I had a song on a Top Shelf Records sampler, but that was it). The first time had been with Touche Amore in the Fighting Cocks (I hadn't planned to go but, again, found a spare near the time - for some reason the house-lights were on during Touche which really ruined the show for me) and the second time in the Garage with Make Do and Mend and Title Fight (because Sarah bought tickets and I figured it'd be fun). I had a feeling there was more to this band than I had become aware of, but before that Saturday in May I hadn't seen what it was.

I sat on the bed for a few minutes and decided to tweet back at this guy to see if the ticket was still available, which it was. I had some lunch and headed over for the early afternoon, acoustic, church show. By a fairly strange turn of events, I never actually met the guy who had the spare ticket. He was running late but I explained the situation to Max at the door and he let me in (it's useful knowing people). The show was for charity and the guy just wanted the buyer to put some money in the charity pot, so I put in a tenner.

The show was incredible. It probably says a lot about me that it takes a post-hardcore band playing acoustic in a church for me to finally get them, but it really worked. I know now that a lot of the songs on their most recent album, Rooms of the House, lend themselves to being acoustic more than others and those make up the bulk recorded here. They played for a good while longer than the six songs recorded here and had a couple of Q&A sessions between songs (the first one got off to a painful start, but it got better once everyone got used to the idea). It was certainly a very special show and I'm beyond glad I saw it - without that spare afternoon/tweet/spare ticket/show I might never had quite cracked the surface of a band that I've since got a great deal out of.

I was very glad to see that these songs got released eventually. I knew the show was being recorded and was looking forward to hearing it again - there aren't many shows that I've been to that ended up on vinyl, so it's nice to have; it certainly brings back memories each time I hear it. The first side consists of a few mostly instrumental songs that feature on the soundtrack to their dvd, Tiny Dots. I've not seen the dvd yet, but I'd like to at some point. They're interesting songs, but side two is the real gem here.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £19 new
Bought: Truck Store
When: 16/04/16
Colour: Clear with blue splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Nirvana - Bleach

I've been writing this blog for years and this is the first Nirvana record I've written about. It's funny given that Nirvana were one of the first bands everyone got into or heard about - it seemed that every band at my school would cover Smells Like Teen Spirit.

My introduction to Bleach happened back when I was at school. A guy I kinda knew gave a copy of Bleach to a friend and I was instantly intrigued - I had no idea who this band were but assumed they were a new, cool band - this was at least a year before I'd start to get into music properly so I really had no clue. When I found out that Bleach came out in 1989 my world was suddenly opened up to a world of music that was neither current nor of my parent's era (kids with older siblings probably never had this experience).

A little while later I was at the local library with my parents and found a copy of Bleach in amongst the cds you could borrow. It was £1 to borrow a cd and this was before I had a job so I had to spend my very limited pocket-money to hear Nirvana; I decided it was worth the money. When I got home and played the cd I was not remotely prepared for what hit me. Bleach, to my young and uneducated ears, was a wall of noise, fuzz and guitars. I had never heard anything like it.

This isn't some fairy-tale of instantly being converted into a grunge fan though. I recorded the album onto cassette, listened to it a few times before misplacing it somewhere. I wouldn't hear Bleach again until I bought this copy aged 18 - in the intervening years I'd had the typical exposure to Nevermind and In Utero and the cult of Nirvana and a wealth of other music. It was strange going back to Bleach after so much had happened.

Listening to Bleach now, and back at 18, I can't help but think of 13-year-old me sat by my parent's hifi being blasted with punk-rock for the first time. This album is so deeply linked to that early memory it's hard to think of anything else.

In reality, I rarely listen to Nirvana. I fully appreciate the status and importance of the band and I think they were very good, however I don't go back to their albums very often at all. Grunge for me was Soundgarden and Mudhoney. I like Bleach for its raw, dark sound. The comparisons to Melvins are much clearer on this album than anything else Nirvana did and I like that. School, Love Buzz and Negative Creep are by far the highlights for me. They certainly didn't catch my ear so well when I was 13, which is a shame - the wails of "No recess" on School should have been the thing I needed to cut through the wall of noise I perceived. I really should listen to Bleach more often.

I picked up this copy at a record fair in 2003 for a slightly pricey £15 - it is the 2002 reissue, which explains how it is in such mint condition (although I did end up accidentally knifing the bottom edge of the picture sleeve by dropping the record into it on carpet not long after I got it - an important lesson learnt there). I read somewhere that early copies had the "Kurdt" spelling but I guess they decided to crack that out again for the reissue.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 11
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton
When: 23/01/03
Colour: White
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Matt Skiba + Kevin Seconds - Split

I had high hopes for this record that were quickly dashed. I'd been listening to Chuck Ragan's solo music for about 2 years when I bought this and it seemed like all the punk singers were starting out on solo careers. I figured a split between the singers from Alkaline Trio and 7 Seconds had potential so chanced £13 on it. It didn't work out the way I'd hoped.

I suppose, in hindsight, that it was my own fault. The key difference between the hugely enjoyable experience of Chuck's solo music and the music here is that I was a big fan of Hot Water Music, but I've never spent much time listening to either Alkaline Trio or 7 Seconds; I knew I liked Chuck's voice, I didn't really know what to expect from these two. The results are much higher pitched and whinny than I'd usually go for; the song-writing is sub-par at best.

Matt's side starts well with a well-strummed acoustic guitar, but then a full band quickly kicks in. I need to remember that just because someone is recording under their own name doesn't actually mean "solo" as much as I almost always want it to. His songs here aren't bad - imagine a mix between Alkaline Trio and slower-Blink 182 (appropriately given he now plays with them) but with an acoustic guitar rather than electric. There are some nice hooks and ideas, but no songs that grabbed me and made me think I was listening to anything particularly special. Next to You is the best of the bunch I think.

Kevin starts out his side with an annoying basic-punk song about a girl called Tracy (and relies far to heavily on her name) and then plays some songs that sound like a shitty Olivia Tremor Control (Ugly Mouth, Yesteryear), a stuck record (1981) and a bored teenager (Motherfuckers). It really doesn't do anything for me at all.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 10
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 22/06/10
Colour: White
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band - Bubblegum

I meant to write about this record months ago when I wrote about it's sibling, Bulldozer. Somehow I forgot to get around to it.

Like Bulldozer, Bubblegum was a grower for me. I was expecting to enjoy Bulldozer more of the two (the idea of a solo record appealed to me over the full-band one) but Bubblegum made progress quicker. That was no doubt helped by two songs in particular - Private First Class and Bubblegum. The former in particular really grabbed me when I saw Kevin play it live in the Lexington in London a short while after the albums came out. I'd heard the song but definitely not heard it - the meaning had been lost but hit me with full force on that night. The sentiment is excellent and it's one of his best songs of recent years. The title track stands out for it's nice and memorable chorus.

There are other strong songs on the album too - Nobel Prize is a great opener, and Fiscal Cliff and I Can't Believe You are brilliant too. Redbird builds to a fairly dark and heavy outro - it's no Brother's Blood in that respect, but it's a great song. There's something Nirvana-y to it as well. Like Bulldozer, this is on purple glitter vinyl, which looks better than it sounds.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £13.50 new
Bought: Big Scary Monsters website
When: 23/10/13
Colour: Purple glitter
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo

This record was the second LP I bought in the Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year. I'd browsed through most of what they had and found this one for a strangely cheap £7. When I took it to the counter there was even surprise from the staff that it was so cheap. This was back in 2008 so there was no chance that it was supposed to be £17. I was pleased with my bargain purchase.

I'd been a fan of At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta for a long time so figured it'd be worth giving Omar's solo career a go. I was aware that he'd made a couple of solo albums (but had no idea quite how many he'd go on to make). A friend of mine had tried one before but wasn't a fan - his words of warning were that he'd heard that Cedric was the one keeping Omar in check: the reason that The Mars Volta was listenable (and very enjoyable) was down to Cedric forcing Omar to make the music more accessible. Not sure how much truth there is in that, but between this and the other Omar solo album I have (on cd, very cheaply from a second-hand store) I can see it.

Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo isn't always an easy listen, but it isn't bad either (ignoring a few annoying moments like at the end of Lurking Around...). Three of the songs - Rapid Fire Tollbooth (preceded by two very short intro songs), the title track and closer La Tirania... - have Cedric on vocals, which adds something very enjoyable; they're almost Mars Volta songs in a lot of ways. The downside to having a few traditional "songs" on the album is that the guitar noodling and noise that Omar is aiming for often feels like filler; Thermometer Drinking..., sandwiched between two vocal-songs suffers the worst. However, when Omar really gets going, like on Please Heat This Eventually, (most of) Lurking About... and Boiling Death..., there are some really great moments.

Please Heat This Eventually is spread across both sides of the record, which is always a strange choice - I can only guess that Omar was more keen on maintaining the running order of the songs than he was worried about splitting the albums centrepiece and finest moment in half. The cut happens whilst the song is on a roll and the album suffers for it.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £7 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 15/01/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Sainte Catherines - Dancing for Decadence

I can't fully remember how I came to know about The Sainte Catherines. Given the timing I suspect I was introduced to them, at least by name, by my housemate Nicky (and given that Tom Gabel provides guest vocals here, I'd say that's a certainty). Other factors involved in buying this album were that I was in Damaged Records (so felt I ought to buy something) and that it was only £7.50. I've got a vague feeling that I'd heard at least one song before buying it, so I knew roughly what sort of punk to expect. I think I knew enough about them to know that I'd probably enjoy the album; it was on Fat Wreck Chords, which usually narrows down the sound a little.

Dancing for Decadence is basically a perfectly enjoyable gruff-punk record. It's a bit more Fat Wreck gruff-punk than No Idea gruff-punk (splitting very fine hairs here), but that's OK. I really like the singer's voice and they have some good songs; in fact, side B is where they really shine in my opinion - The Shape of Drunks to Come, I'd Rather Be Part of the Dying Bungee Scene and If There's Black Smoke Over A Bridge, It's Over are all great songs. The latter in particular has the best chorus on the album. The songs are mostly about politics, drinking and being in a band, which is fine by me. I don't have mp3s of the album (it was 2009 and download codes weren't commonplace) so I've not listened to this album a great deal over the years. I've also not kept up with the band at all.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £7.50 new
Bought: Damaged Records
When: 22/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Sleep - Volume 1

This purchase was a funny one. My old boss at work had strong aspirations to be a hipster and had bought a record player. He'd also discovered that the offices we had in London at the time were within a short walk of Rough Trade West. He was a fan of having regular 1-2-1's whilst walking around Oxford or getting a coffee so I jokingly suggested that we had a 1-2-1 whilst record shopping one day. The next time I was visiting the London office we decided to actually do it and walked off to Rough Trade. He found a few second hand albums downstairs that he bought, but I was struggling to find anything I was really after (except for a copy of Gold Against the Soul on vinyl, which I'd never seen in real life before. However, it was £50 and in average condition so I decided against it. I might regret that decision one day). Anyway, in a panic I found this copy of Sleep's first album in the metal section and bought that, despite it being £20. I didn't want to leave empty-handed and I was amazed that there wasn't more that I wanted or couldn't find easily in Truck.

Being a terrible person, I'd never actually been to either Rough Trades at that point. People always complained that they were over-priced (true) and they were always in bits of London that I rarely was (also true). I've since visited Rough Trade East and it's a much better shop (although still pricey). It certainly explained the shops status better than the west one did.

I remember the 1-2-1 being one of the more annoying ones I had with my boss - one where he'd criticise without much by the way of advice. Between that and paying £20 for an album I wasn't particularly after I always have negative thoughts about this record that are probably a little unfair. It's not Sleep's fault that LP prices are ridiculous these days, or that my boss was feeling critical (or that they didn't have copies of Holy Mountain or Dopesmoker in stock).

My history with Sleep has been one of low-level interest and shocking apathy. I first heard of them because they were playing ATP and, around the same time, I discovered that my housemate had a copy of Holy Mountain on vinyl. I never actually listened to it, which was a mistake. A while later I ended up seeing them at ATP's I'll Be Your Mirror festival and enjoyed them. I like a good bit of doom/stoner metal, although it's worth noting that on Volume 1 the vocals tend to be a bit heavier than I usually go for.

I feel like I've never fully got into Volume 1 - I certainly couldn't name my favourite songs from it. Maybe it's not the sort of album that has stand-out songs. There's a cool one one side B that sounds a bit more hardcore-punk influenced, but the rest is just solid sludge (in a good way). Sadly, my shocking apathy for Sleep has continued since buying this album, because I've still not got their other albums. I really should; the accolades are huge so I really should know their other material better than I do. All in good time I suppose.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 9
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Rough Trade West
When: 21/01/15
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code