Rotting Out - The Wrong Way

Here is Rotting Out's latest release "The Wrong Way". I knew the hype would be pretty big around it considering Rotting Out has officially blown the fuck up, and with good reason. I got on there about a half hour after the pre orders went up since I was busy at work, and the most limited version of gray/black out of /100 was out. I ended up getting the white/black copy pictured above out of /400. Pretty bummed, I was hoping to get something a little more limited. The light blue/green copy of /1000 sounds like it may be the coolest press out of all of them, and I'm considering getting a copy.

As for the record itself, it is really outstanding. I actually prefer it over "Street Prowl". I feel like Rotting Out really found themselves on this release and honed their style to perfection. They knocked it out of the park in other words. You already know this is going to be on a whole bunch of top 10 lists for the year.

The record came with one sheet with a band pic and lyrics on the back. Not quite the packaging treatment that Street Prowl got, but that's okay. If you haven't picked a copy of this up yet then quit messing around and get on it.

Rotting Out 2nd Press

So when I heard that 6131 would be repressing Street Prowl I was all over it. The first press sold out pretty fast, and I only managed to get a red copy and black copy with printed labels. I've seen the clear copy of the first press go for over $60 on ebay, so I may have to wait a few years before I acquire that one. I headed over to the 6131 store and saw that there were only two colors pressed, so I put in a pre order for 2 copies. The layout was slightly redone, obviously its in black and white now and different back picture. You can check out my old post on this album for more info.

The colors were a kind of whitish gray marble and a reddish black swirl. I'll go ahead and coin them "bone" and "blood red" marble. The red actually looks very nice when held up to the sunlight. I'm not sure which one is more limited or what the pressing info on this is. One thing I found interesting was that the blood red version came with the "Rotting Out" sticker on the polybag, while the bone marble version had no sticker. I'm not sure if it is like that for all copies, but that may possibly be a way to tell the colors apart if it is sealed?

Another big ass poster, though not quite as big a poster as the first press, still pretty cool. The lyrics are on the back. I've been listening to this release alot lately and it is really quite excellent. However, some bands are better on record than they are live, and some bands are better live than they are on record. Rotting Out is better live than they are on record. They are one of the best live bands I have seen in a long time, and I'm hoping that they can find a way to channel that live stage presence and energy into their recordings a little bit more for their next release.

Tonight I'll be Rotting Out

Since I am going to see Rotting Out and FocusedxMinds tonight in Santa Cruz, here is my 2nd pressing of "Vandalized" on blue /400. I always flip flop on which singer I like more from Rotting Out, the original singer or the one on Street Prowl. The original singer is very good (Mike) with a more traditional hardcore sound. Mike's vocals remind me more of Chain of Strength. The new singer (Walter) is very good as well, sounding a bit more punk rock. Walter's vocals remind me more of  Youth of Today. Keep in mind these are just broad generalizations of singing styles, so don't get all pissy about it. Since I have only seen the new singer live though, I'll have to give Walter the slight edge due to the stage presence he has and the live show he puts on.  This is a really great release though, and a quick search shows that some are still available at RevHQ.

Also, a while back I posted this long ranting article about how I didn't get a red copy of "Rotting Out" when I thought I did... long story short, I finally tracked one down. Now I just have to track down the clear, and black with no label I guess? I'm halfway there...

Street Prowl on Red.. Wait its BLACK vinyl!?! WTF

So now that I'm done ranting about not getting the red vinyl on the Stick Together "Surviving the Times" pre order, I figured I'd give another story on how I missed out on some Red vinyl. This past December I saw Rotting Out with Madball and Take Offense in San Francisco. I knew before the show that their new "Street Prowl" LP had copies on black, red and 200 on clear which sold out pretty much immediately. At the beginning of the show I asked their merch guy if they had red copies, he said yeah they had a bunch. I asked him to hold onto one for me until the end of the show, and he said "no problem".  

Ok, so Madball finishes and a rush is underway for the door/merch tables. I had a long night of drinking and was feeling pretty good by then so this next part of the story is my own damn fault. I go to buy my copy of Street Prowl and I ask the guy if its on Red vinyl, he looks at me and says "Yeah". My friends are in a hurry to go so I grab my record and Rotting Out "Raiders" shirt and get the hell out. Now keep in mind, the record isn't even SEALED. I could have easily pulled it out and looked at it. It's not until the next morning when I go to check out the record that I realize I had a copy of it on black. Fuck. I really doubt the guy did it on purpose, because he was trying to get a few people their merch all at the same time. It's really my own damn fault for not taking the 2 seconds to look at the vinyl. And even more my fault, I should have just gone online that day and picked up a red one because they were still available. You live and you learn, right?

So onto the release. This is a really quality album, and they did a really nice job with the layout, cover art and big ass poster. I really like Rotting Out, they play fast ass hardcore punk with no frills.  I've seen them live a few times now and their singer always has great stage presence, jumping around and getting crazy as well as interacting with the crowd in between songs and telling little stories. If you haven't had a chance to check these guys out yet I would definitely do so. I'm anxiously waiting for a 2nd pressing and hoping to scoop this on some nice colored vinyl, but until then this will have to do.