Catching Up on School Jerks

At this stage in the blogging game, it gets hard to keep up with what I have and haven't already posted. For example on my last Night Birds post, as I was writing it I searched for my post that I thought I did on "Other Side of Darkness" so I could put a link to it, and to my surprise it was all a dream. I had taken the pictures, and it was backlogged with hundreds of other records.

As I was getting ready to post the other new Grave Mistake release by School Jerks, again I went to post a link to some previous School Jerks records that I thought I had posted that were all imaginary. Ok, well I'll get to Other Side of Darkness some other time, but for now all also include the other School Jerks 7"s!

Here is Toronto's School Jerks' latest release on a gorgeous sea green marble vinyl, or as GM coined it "Green Slime". Great release of raw, fast, snotty old school punk rock. I feel like I'm drinking a 40 and hanging out a Shady Acres when I put this one on (my SJ folks know what I mean). Fantastic artwork on this, in a way it almost reminds me of the old Age of Quarrel demo cover with all the twisted shit going on. I love how the vinyl perfectly matches the ink color on the poster. The green vinyl is out of /200 and still available from Grave Mistake, so don't get caught slipping. 

Here is the School Jerks' "PPDSCEMFOBBT" 7 inch on Cowabunga. What the hell that title means? Good question. More interesting art work. This is a 3rd press on gold vinyl. Cowabunga's "Discography" page states this is out of /107, yet the Cowabunga store states its out of /100. 

And their "Control" 7" on black vinyl out of /900, also on Cowabunga. This release had /100 on clear, which would be nice to eventually track down. I am really digging all this School Jerks art work. What makes this release interesting is apparently the red "School Jerks" logo is hand stamped on all 1000 sleeves, so basically every sleeve looks different. Man, that must have taken forever. 

What really irks me about this post is the fact that I have their "Nothing Else" EP and I never took pictures of it, but I am far too lazy to go dig it up and take pictures of it so you'll just have to take my word for it. 

You can't win them all.

Record collecting isn't always peaches and cream. Sometimes you are going to get records that you anticipated liking or looked forward to, and once you put it on your turntable you realize that it's really just not working out. Not every post I put on this blog is going to be how this or that record is the best record ever to get put on wax, sometimes I just have to keep it real. I was really looking forwards to this Hounds of Hate demo. Everything seems to fall in line with something that I would like. I heard it was kind of Oi(ish) inspired 80's style hardcore, check. On a great record label (Katorga Works), check. Excellent artwork and layout all around, check. Approval on several other bloggers pages that I respect, check. Unfortunately once I heard it I was just not having it. It just seems like the band doesn't have passion on the recordings and the songs aren't put together very well. The singers voice isn't that bad either and the band has alot of potential, but it seems this band needs to really find their identity and what they're good at. For example on the song "The Evil That Men Do", it starts out with a slow brooding sounding Oi! style intro, but then suddenly it speeds up into a more 80's style sounding hardcore and all of a sudden it sounds sloppy and out of place, but then when it slows down again it suddenly sounds good again. The theme I've noticed on this is slow parts = sounds really good, fast parts = sounds not so good. My favorite song on this is by far "Born Alone" and its probably because it's mostly slow and displays the bands strengths. If hope Hounds of Hate finds their niche and improves for their next release. 

Here are two that I heard high praises about, High Life's "Self Abuse" and "Drink Yourself to Freedom" 7"s. I love some good drunk furious hardcore. This one seemed like all the stars were aligning for a nice piece of vinyl... I like the band name, the art work, it had good reviews and Cowabunga usually releases decent stuff. Unfortunately I just couldn't get into these at all. It is without a doubt fast and furious, but the vocals are really obnoxious and the songs are just a bit too sloppy for my taste. This would be more fun watching them play while being drunk at a house party, but I'll pass for listening to them on my record player.

It's a Dark, Vicious Lie

I only have a few minutes to write this before work so I'll keep this short and sweet. Here is Kansas City's own Dark Ages - "Vicious Lie" EP on Cowabunga Records. I have been hearing alot about this band lately and decided to check them out. Many bloggers had this on their Top 10 of 2011 list, and let me tell you it doesn't disappoint. It is very different from what I usually listen to and it is definitely dark and depressing hardcore, but man it is sweet and it is original. I was excited when I visited Cowabunga and found that they had a limited "raspberry" pressing out of /40 (even though I think it's more of a salmon pink). They're still available so scoop one! I recently ordered their 12" from Sorry State and I can't wait for it to come in, this EP has left me wanting more. Check out this cooky video of "What do you believe?" off the EP. I'm just guessing someone made this and it's not an official band video, but you never know.