A month or three ago a friend of mine in North Carolina – presumably because he knows how much I love stuff in the vein of Black Sabbath and Queens of The Stone Age/Kyuss – recommended I check these guys out after he saw them open for…uh…somebody. I don’t remember who. Anyway, after checking out a couple of their cuts online I was stone dead hooked. Finally got around to ordering the vinyl last week and, man, is it sweet.
These guys are out of Portland, Oregon but would fit right in with any of the popular ‘Georgia Swamp Metal’ bands that are dominating so much of heavy music these days. As for the record itself; a pretty neat take on how they did the packaging on this one. The outer sleeve is a sort of ‘off white’ sleeve with a big center cut hole, similar to what you’d see with a 12″ DJ single or some such thing. Then, instead of a standard plain white outer sleeve you get a full color, full artwork sleeve that utilizes the large center cut hole.
Pretty awesome if you ask me. The record itself comes in a couple variants. Of course, there’s the standard 100 clear versions that Relapse does on every vinyl release as far as I know, but are never for sale unless you randomly stumble across one on eBay at some godawful inflated price.
QUICK SIDE BAR: What exactly does Relapse do with those if they’re not for sale? I mean, I’m sure (just assuming) they go to friends of the label…and the bands for their own use…but,that’s only gonna cover so many I’d think. And they do this, as far as I know, for EVERY record they press on vinyl. I’m genuinely curious both as a fan of the label and as the creator of this here blog dedicated to the sometimes obsessive culture of vinyl records. If anybody from Relapse is reading this, get at me. Oh, and if you’ve got an extra copy of any of the clear Baroness, Coalesce or Red Fang records laying around you’d like to hook me up with to write about that’d be cool too. HA!
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah..pressing breakdown. You’ve got 100 clear of this, 81 on maroon, and 300 each on 180 gram black…Purple with Marble…and this one; Pastel Green with marble. Although I see it myself a turquoise, but hey…that’s just me.
This is a really excellent record, in terms of not only the vinyl/packaging/presentation itself but the music cut onto it too…it’s already one of my absolute favorite records of the year. So, if you’re into stuff in the vein of Volume 4 era Sabbath…Queens of the Stone Age…and Kyuss…then you really need to hop all over this asap. It’s too damn good to pass up.
They Still Press Vinyl 
Red Fang rocks! It’s good to see that there are still rock bands in the Portland music scene and not just melodica driven folk music. There is another great rock band called Ape Machine from Portland that has also released a vinyl album called ‘This House Has Been Condemned’, (on orange vinyl) and i hear they have another coming out later this year produced by Ikey Owens (Mars Volta). It’s great to see a city that has become typecast as a folk rock ‘indie’ scene coming out with such strong rock n’ roll talent!
The best band in the goddamn planet are from there too. The motherfucking Mean Jeans!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have what I believe to be one of the 100 clear but am not 100% sure. It could be a marble type pressing as it doesn’t appear to be perfectly transparent. If I provide a pic can someone verify? The auction also came with the Wires 7″