Thursday, January 30, 2014

Knife Fight 2002



As much as I despise the city of San Francisco and going there, they hands down always have the best used punk rock records. I found this sweet Knife Fight demo 7" for 25 cents at Thrillhouse. I remember I first heard Knife Fight around 2002 (probably when this came out) when my buddy Robby burned this for me on a cd. I have a few Knife Fight 7"s and I've always really liked them, but I don't know why I haven't posted more about them or tried to collect any more vinyl. Needless to say, this may be the best purchase I've ever made with a quarter. 


Hand stamped, #48/200. According to discogs; "Copies 1 through 50 are numbered out of 200 and have a slightly different layout, sold only by the band." How cool is that? Check out how long most the songs are (sub 45 seconds), fast and brutal. What ever happened to Knife Fight?

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Zero Progress




A few months back when I went to the One Voice Fest in Sacramento I was really impressed by a band called Zero Progress that I had never heard before. They stuck out to me as one of the best bands at the festival. They played an unrelenting style of old school hardcore punk rock that sounded like The Abused Loud and Clear EP, with a distinct Oakland California swagger.

Their singer was some really skinny dude wearing this huge metal chain around his neck with a really awesome (and obnoxious) custom Zero Progress logo on it, looking like something 50 Cent would wear. He also talked a bunch of shit to the crowd that they didn't seem to appreciate and made for a rather tense set, but it made me enjoy them even more. I love antagonistic singers. Anyways, this is really a shockingly great record and is well worth the free download from Toxic Breed's, you will not be disappointed. I got the copy on black, but apparently there was also a limited copy on clear that is long gone.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Welcome The Slaughter



Vinyl Conflict (which is apparently an off shoot of Grave Mistake Records - don't know the whole story on that though), has been on fire with some great releases. This 7" by Richmond, Virginia's Devil's Hand is so freaking good. This has got to be one of the best and most under rated releases of the year. This shit sounds reminds me of a mix of Motorhead and Judge.  No wimpy bullshit allowed on this record, strictly the hardest. The vocals are excellent on this and the music is unique and refreshing... I dig the little guitar solos. Does anyone know more about this band? Sadly, only three tracks but all of them are instant classics! Give them a listen here and then go buy it!

This is the limited green vinyl version which I think was out of /200.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

TELEMUNDO



Since Sean Price just released a new EP ("Land of the Crooks"), I figured I would put up one of my old Sean Price releases. Here is the infamous Telemundo single on black vinyl. Without a doubt a classic Sean Price track featuring Agallah. My favorite is the B-Side which is kind of a mystery. There is no name given to it and I can't seem to find anything about it on the internet. It's basically Sean P free styling over a couple main stream beats and absolutely ripping it. If anyone knows anything about the B-Side on this please leave a comment!


You just can't beat Sean P with the freestyle... "Sean P, call me Kimbo... On drugs paranoid 'Who's looking through my window?' My nerves bad, English class failure nigga my words bad!" He looks high as fuck on this one haha.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Cold Stare - The Circus


Recently Flatspot Records put up pre orders for a new Cold Stare release. Cold Stare is one of my favorite current bands, blending hard hitting brickwall Oi! with 80's hardcore similar to 86 Mentality and Slapshot. For me to get the limited blue color vinyl I believe I had to order the package with a t-shirt, which I hate and will never wear. This is an excellent release from Cold Stare, and what else would you expect from Chula Vista's Cold Stare? Unfortunately, this may be one of the lamest looking covers of the year. It's like they searched "the Circus" in google images and took the first one they saw.

On a side note, I was very hesitant to order this from Flatspot after my last year long battle with them to get a couple records. Luckily, this time they came through fast and without any issues. Maybe I can trust them again? I have been eyeing that Iron Mind LP for pre order.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Backtrack - Lost in Life Record Release


Last night I went out to Oakland for the "Lost in Life" Record Release party. Since I haven't posted anything in over a month and I'm officially a lame ass, I figured I would wait and post something cool. Last night Plead the Fifth, New Brigade, Take Offense and Twitching Tongues all played as well. Twitching Tongues is horrible... Take Offense was decent... New Brigade was awesome (I had never heard of them before, but they are the real deal), and Plead the Fifth was dope as fuck. Backtrack of course killed it and had the crowd going off the entire set. 



Now down to the record. I slept on the pre orders with Bridge 9 and didn't get any of the limited vinyl, and this is one of the copies on half blue and half white out of /700. It looks really awesome and is the same as their first press of "Darker Half" on half and half vinyl. The Spoiler cover art is incredible and sticks with the same theme from Darker Half. The back art is my favorite, as they sent one of the boys under a bridge or something to put up the track list on a wall. I had never seen this done that I can think of until earlier this year with Crosscheck.

So far, I can't stop listening to this record. "Darker Half" was, in my opinion, one of the best hardcore records of the last decade. This release may be even better than Darker Half, but it's hard to say after only a day of listening. There is no doubt about it that this is an incredible record, and may be the best record of 2014 by the time it's all said and done. The singer has gotten even better on this record and is more dynamic than Darker Half, and the band is tight and crisp and everything is hard as all hell. 



The record release version came with this cover, hand numbered out of 70. Seeing that the dates for the first two shows are crossed out, I am assuming they had /70 for all three shows (so /210 total?). That's purely speculation so I'm sure we'll find out in time what the real deal was with this. I scooped a couple copies, because one of these bad boys had Leeds, UK written all over it. My lazy ass even filmed the last song from the show and put it up on youtube, so check it out here!