Happy new years!!
2020 was a pretty historic year for us humans, for the wrong reasons. But in my own life, 2020 was fortuitously the year I moved my distro from an "in person, on the road" operation to a "big pro-level webstore" operation. And that move was a tremendous success and I want to pause for a moment and express my gratitude to everyone that bought stuff this year. Thank you.
The last few months have been pretty hectic in my life and I also want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as I was so slow to get mail out. As everybody probably knows already given the volume of e-mails I've been sending, in December I got unexpectedly corona-stranded in Atlanta for 2 weeks longer than anticipated, then I was back in Baltimore for a month with my dad in the hospital for an emergency gall bladder removal. I finally returned to Minneapolis last weekend, Dad's in good health, the busy season at work is fucking me up, and at this point just about all outstanding mailorder is out the door (or hand-delivered or picked up if you live in the Twin Cities hahaha).
As a result, we have 2 months worth of distro updates all coming at once. Let's dig in!
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DECEMBER + JANUARY NEW ARRIVALS
Once again my apartment is overflowing with records, I'm just gonna divy this out by region:
From Japan, everybody is talking about the Blaze discography LP that captures all the recordings of these 90's Japanese hardcore greats, and a lot of people have asked me about Kuoleva new EP, the latest from this younger tuneful raw punk band. Lots of hype around Gerogerigegege/Sedem Minut Strachu split 7", it sold out in a flash from the label. But personally, I cannot get enough of Xero Fiction second LP. This came out on CD awhile ago and I listened to it so much that my girlfriend banned it from the car LOL. The vinyl version came out a bit later but never got any distribution over here. This is pure bubblegum power-pop. Arguably not very punk. But god damn those are catchy songs!
Oh yeah, almost forgot, we restocked The Tits second LP too, if you missed out the first time.
We got all eras of South America covered. From the 80s, we got collection CDs of bands like Panico and Sentido Comun. From the 90's, if you like it fast we got reissue of Dios Hastio first LP....and copies of new Dios Hastio EP, fuck, I honestly didn't know they were still active but they haven't lost a single bpm....if you like it tuneful, we got Mutantex collection EP, reissuing their only recordings from the time that were previously available on the legendary Rodrigo D No Futuro soundtrack LP. If you like it current, maybe you'd be keen on Farmaco demo flexi from Argentina, which has garnered some hype. But personally, I am just ecstatic to get a box of Caras de Hambre LP, one of the quintessential documents of Panama punk, sold out instantaneously, and I think I'm the only American that managed to score any?
If you pay attention these e-mails you know I'm big on Finland these days, so I made sure to get some copies of the Kohti Tuhoa reissue. I imagine some people will be way into Netherlands' newest hardcore sensation Oust LP, and Gargara EP from Macedonia seriously shocked my system with its deranged raw hardcore punk that sounds like it's straight out of a Chicago basement or a Kansas City art space. But I must say, I'm most chuffed on Paa Kii new single, one of my very favorite bands in the game these days and they can't stop dropping power-pop hits.
And finally, the USA. People are seriously riding hard for Public Acid EP and Mutant Strain LP, and I see all the grinders going gaga over Deterioration/Incinerated split 7" and PLF/Incinerated split 7". But what absolutely stole my heart this time around was the C-Section demo tape. This really captures frantic and unhinged vibe of traditional Italian hardcore, sounds deranged and reckless in all the right ways and has that weird vague dissonance that bands like Wretched had. Please please please make a record soon lol.
For more commentary on this stuff and more, please scope our Instagram page, where we review choice new arrivals as they come. If it sounds cool when we talk about it, it'll sound even cooler when you hear it streaming on the online store, and even cooler still when you buy the record and slap it on your turntable.
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arriving in the mail someday:
-3 new releases on SPHC Records....just waiting on packaging for one of them to finish up
-giant boxes of reissues from Hungary and from Russia and from Poland
-giant box of oi from Spain
-giant box of metal from Italy
-giant box of grind from Germany
-latest releases from all your favorite Japanese bands
and more more more !!
Thanks and talk more in February
-Dan