Botch – We Are The Romans 2xLP Reissue

This all started with the usual amount of internet and message board shit-talking and rumor mills. People have been clamoring for Botch reissues for quite some time now. Unless you picked up We Are The Romans when first released and/or represses a second, you’d be pretty shit outta luck and resort to eBay for absurd prices.

So the rumor mill went into high gear around late August. Was Hydra Head really repressing Botch‘s We Are The Romans?!?! OMG!!! That is so awesome. But wait…is this true?!?!

In typical HH fashion they teased fans left and right until fnally confirmed that the damn 2xLP was getting reissued. It turns out that they had a number of record-less jackets sitting around in a warehouse somewhere and figured why the hell not, let’s repress the record. Oh, their sense of humor and timing. Ha!

We found about 450 empty jackets and inserts from the original pressing in our storage unit. We used the original plates to press vinyl for them. Available on Orange A/B + Blue C/D vinyl, and White/orange/blue haze A/B + Black/orange/blue C/D vinyl.

 

“Selling Points”:
– This is it, the big one! Overstatement or hyperbole isn’t possible when describing how critical this full length was to the progress of metallic hardcore. Along with pretty much every band we have worked with in the past 10 years (you know what we are talking about…Cave In, Converge, Coalesce, Knut), Botch took hardcore to unexplored realms.

– Presented here in its original 2xLP packaging and pressed from the original vinyl plates, this repressing includes the 2007 remastered deluxe edition 2xCD as an added bonus. CD 1 features the remastered original record, while CD 2 contains several live tracks and nearly every track from Romans in their never-before-heard live-in-the-studio demo-form. The point we are trying to make is this thing is freakin’ awesome…

Pre-orders for the record went up on 9/28 @ 9am EST. That in itself was odd because HH was specific enough to announce when they’d be up for grabs. Of course this caused a frenzy of F5’ing and Blue Collar Distro’s servers to come close to crashing. All I know is that it took me a good 25 minutes to complete my order that day due to high volume of traffic. A lot of people walked away disappointed because they either couldn’t get their orders in quick enough or thought it wouldn’t sell out as quick as it did.

 

Luckily I was able to snag both colors and they are definitely typical HH fare as of late. Heavy vinyl, sturdy gatefold  jackets (although you can kinda tell they’re not brand new jackets as they have some wear on them from being in storage), and wild colors…especially on the haze one.

 

Orange A/B + Blue C/D (out of 250)

 

 

 

 

White/orange/blue haze A/B + Black/orange/blue C/D (out of 200)

Overall a very solid reissue. Great colors that match the artwork perfectly. And sounds phenomenal! It couldn’t have been made any better.

The rumor mill is at it again with word that Hydra Head may reissue the rest of Botch‘s releases. That’s fine by me. The only Botch record I have is the Unifying Themes Redux 2xLP on gold that was released by Garden of Exile a long time ago. Stumbled upon that one from a distro that has long since gone under.

“Needlessly saying ‘needless to say’ since 1995”

Whirr – June EP 7″

I was initally going to do a pretty intense…and somewhat half-assed…post about The Melvins’ Endless Residency 8xLP box set. But since I received this beauty in the mail today, I 86’d that idea.

Just hot off the presses we have the Whirr – June EP 7″. I have been hooked on this band since hearing their Distressor LP earlier this year. And of course the ties the band has with Deafheaven, another recent favorite band. After putting Distressor, Whirr got signed to Tee Pee Records and put out this two-song EP as a tease for what is to come when they release their full-length sometime next year. I think.

Two songs…“Junebouvier” and “Sundae”…more shoegaze indie-pop wonderfulness. Limited to 250 copies on simple Coke Bottle Green. I’m a sucker for this color. I remember the first time I ordered a record via mail…way back a million years ago before the Internet you kids are all crazy about nowadays…and I received a 7” in Coke Bottle Green. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. And it still is!

The labels are plain and simple. And that right there is very complimentary in the simplicity of the music. Plus the non-descript lables pretty much indicate that the music should speak for itself.

This 7″ is such a tease!

I want to listen to more Whirr now! Needless to say I am pretty stoked for their full-length.

“Impatiently waiting since 1995”