Work In Shadows Record Label

There’s a new label out there that may be of interest. Work In Shadows was started by our good friend Adam to not only put out releases by bands in the hardcore scene, but also bands from his home state of North Carolina.

The label’s webstore is live now with their first two releases:

Just Die! – A Momentary Lapse In Positive Thinking LP is available now and Low Places – Spiritual Treatment cassette is coming very soon.

Both very limited releases. Solid bands, solid albums, solid label.

This is not some fluff early-to-mid 90s pop-punk release only 5 dudes in your high school gave a shit about. No major label license release non-sense. No pre-order bullshit with continued broken promises of when it will finally ship. None of that.

This is real hardcore punk for real hardcore punk fans. This is as DIY as you get. Pick up these two releases and support the label. Tell Adam we sent ya!

The Felice Brothers

The new Felice Brothers album – Celebration, Florida is one of those records where a band goes off the rails and makes a record so void of what you thought they sounded like that you either hate it or celebrate it as genius. These guys did the genius thing. Celebration, Florida is just filled with randomness and that is exactly what I want at this stage in my life. Like a good 60’s rock record with endless shifting styles and feel, they spread it all over. I’ve read several reviews where the variety of sounds was talked about as a negative but it’s one of the best aspects of the record.

The Felice Brothers were roughly associated with the whole new-grass scene for years, though that isn’t really a fair assessment. That whole old world instrumentation gets left in the dust on this one…..pure rock. This new record kind of reminds me of Pink Floyd – The Wall in that it jumps all over, but in the end has an overall feeling that saturates the whole piece. I would be hard pressed to nail down what this album sounds like style wise, so I won’t even try.

This album has all the feel of a record that could easily make my top 5 albums of the year. That said, I was drunk as a bastard the first 10 or so times I played it and it was #1 with a RAAAAAAAA!!!!!! Fantastic record though and the video for Ponzi is one of the best I’ve ever seen.

These guys are put out by Fat Possum, who are killing shit right now. The fact is that all their records are 180 gram vinyl so they all sound great. I bought this and a Jay Reatard record at the same time and they both sound amazing.

Harmony – Self-Titled LP

One thing that I sometimes have to give props to is this blog. And Twitter. And Facebook. But it all goes back to TSPV here. In my time “contributing”…and I put that in quotes because I don’t take myself seriously and never think that anyone cares or gives a rat’s ass what I have to say and feel like I am so obsessed and such a fanboy that I lose all words to be sensical when it comes to this stuff…BUT…during this whole time I have fomented a few great e-friendships and connections. In the process I have been able to get turned on to a lot of new music and bands that I would have otherwise never known were out there.

I have mentioned this before in the Abraxis post (here) and I could on and on and on. Well…my good e-buddy Craig from Australia and who runs/owns Midnight Funeral Records turned me on this band: Hamorny. If I recall correctly he had been raving about them for quite some time after I posted about Whirl (here) and mentioned them non-stop on my Twitter. I’m a sucker for Shoegaze music and all the bands involved in that genre. Well, Craig mentioned to me that I should check out Harmony, as they had a feel of Shoegaze and then some and I’d dig them. And they happen to be a local Aussie band.

Well…fuck me was he right!

Harmony play a style that is all things Shoegaze in essence but soundwise is more of a Folk and even Americana…would it be Australiana then?…style that is just tough to really pin down.

I don’t know much of the history of the band or their members…I just know that I soon as I listened to the tracks on their Soundcloud page (here) I was hooked! They were/are a breath of fresh air into this hardcore punk who also listens to and loves Taylor Swift kid’s life…yeah…that AWESOME!

The record itself seems to have been self-released by the band on their Solar/Sonar label. It’s all on black 180gram vinyl. It definitely feels nice and heavy. According to the band’s webstore, the records is out of 250 copies. And pricey. At least for us U.S. residents. I think after all was said and done with shipping it came close to $47. Or was it $57?…I can’t remember but it was pricey…and it hurt…but it was OK because it’s so damn good the music and well worth it. Plus now I can say that I feel the pain when my Aussie HxC brethren order records from the U.S. and how much it costs for them. Ouch.

So yeah…if you dig great music…get this record…you’ll be glad.

If this post doesn’t make sense…then it’s OK too…I’ve had quite a few beers tonight. So this is interesting to say the least. Ha!

“Drunk blog posting since 1995”

Mamiffer – Hirror Enniffer LP Tour Edition

My obsession with Mamiffer has already been documented in previous posts and reviews and in my general daily nonsense. The group recently went on an U.S. tour and hit a few major cities. Unfortunately they did not have any stops close to me in Florida. That’s OK because I know that bands, especially smaller ones not on any type of major label, have difficulties affording to make their way here. It’s costly and sadly the music scene down here just plain sucks and there aren’t many venues that could host them. Hell, the only times I have seen Converge make their way to South Florida has been as part of a larger tour and as a supporting act. I’ve seen them twice and both times were with Mastodon.

So Mamiffer went on the road. For the tour they had some leftover copies of their first album, Hirror Enniffer, and made something special to have for the fans. An over-run / tour edition was made with an alternate insert and a few random copies were to have an alternate cover. Luckily for me, since I have a plethora of connections (right!), I was able to get my hands on one of the tour copies with the alternate cover.

Now…when bands say that things they put out are “hand-made” or “hand-assmbled”, sometimes the product falls short. There doesn’t seem to be a true sense of there being a personal touch to what is created. Not the case here with these tour versions of Hirror Enniffer. The covers are hand-stamped and stained. So you know these were handled by Faith and Aaron. (OMG!!! Insert fanboy gushing here!)

The vinyl itself is the smokey clear which in the original run is out of 100. So since it was an over-run, they used the additional / spare copies and made covers and inserts just for the tour. Based on the numbering, a total of 32 were done for the tour only with the over-run.

The new inserts have new photographs by Faith and also the numbering is contained within.

This is definitely a lovely and unique addition to the collection. That’s for damn sure. And I’m extremely thankful for having it. Even more so for the friendships I have been able to build via this band.

One thing though that caused a slight letdown is the vinyl itself. It arrived warped. Not anyone’s fault. I have received warped records before, but not this bad. This all essentially happened much thanks to the Florida summer heat. Leave a record or package sitting at my front door…which faces west by the way…in the afternoon sun and sure enough you will get a nice new bowl in the shape of a record.  Surprisingly enough I am not upset. Not even disappointed. Just more of a “Oh maaaaan!!!” feeling. Warped records can be fixed. Just gotta find two pieces of glass and heavy books. Problem solved. It’s not like I was going to play the record anyways. Ha! (But I do have the regular version to play to my heart’s content, so not worried at all.)

But it was all made alright with the custom-made hand-drawn space kitty on the package! That was a nice touch.  =)

“Kittens in outer space since 1995”