aaaand we're back!
First I want to thank everybody for all their patience and understanding over the last month+.
I made my annual winter trip to my hometown for 1 month, but the orders just kept coming and coming while I was gone. I wasn't able to fill anything until I returned, and everyone was very chill about that, and I appreciate it. By now, all mailorder is out the door save for the last couple days of orders.
And now that I'm back, everything is back to normal and things are moving fluidly again.
Okay, fuck, where to even start? I feel like we should acknowledge we're now living in a post-Gauze world, and a few of my friends were subjected to long rambling texts about all the feelings I had about that.....but by the end of January 2023, it's kinda old news I guess?
I could talk forever about how much fun I had back in Baltimore. My time back home is just a perpetual party, so many people to see, things to do, food to eat. And I actually enjoy making some guest appearances at the office, I'm a remote worker so I don't get much time with my coworkers, we really make the most of it when I'm around.
Although I will note, Baltimore let me down with its diner game. I'm looking at you Double T in Catonsville, it's fucked up for a diner to close at 9:30 PM lol. Where are we supposed to go late at night???? I expect this problem in Minneapolis, not in Baltimore.
One big highlight for me was seeing my best friend Jenny's elder son at his first orchestral recital!
Jenny mentioned Owen had a winter recital and invited me along, I was like, oh werd, hell yeah I want to go, I mean he's performing right? "I dunno. You'll have to ask him." LOL hmmm okay.
I roll up to their house and discover Owen, 8 years old, has been learning viola at school for the last 3 months! Wow! But apparently not practicing at home cause this was news to Jen too. Owen starts to head out the door (they live walking distance from the elementary school). I'm like, Owen do you need to change your clothes? Do you have to wear anything in particular? "No. I'm gonna get ready at school". Jen and I are like Okay dude, see you in a few.
Jen, her husband Steve, their younger daughter Eliza (6), and I are right behind him, we show up a few minutes after and walk right into a pure unadulterated chaos in this elementary school gym. Kids going hogwild, teachers trying to reign them in and get their instruments in tune, families scrambling for limited seating. Intense! Given the circumstances, we have to sit totally separate from each other, Steve at the front, Jen in the middle somewhere, I'm a few rows back with Eliza. You can picture me sitting next to this little kid being like, "Eliza just be chill, don't fuck this up for me dude, I don't want Jen to think I'm an idiot or something." "Okay Mr. Dan!" *holds my hand and sits quietly for like 60 seconds before she's wriggling around then she's up and running around, floating between Jen and Steve and me every few minutes* LOL well, I tried.
Jen had warned me that orchestra recitals at this age are not good, which doesn't phase me of course, have you heard my band Anal Butt? And holy shit, once they got started, it was not good LOL. It was like a horror movie soundtrack, totally discordant, out of tune, off time. Insane and deranged, just a complete debasement of music. But what really surprised me was that they only played like 30-60 second snippets of songs wtf. They'd say "now we'll play Jingle Bells!" and then just play the hook one time. What? LOL. But everybody I've talked to since has told me that this is par for the age.
Of course the big draw is to see Owen doing his thing, where is he in this crowd? Thankfully he was easy for us to spot....because HE WAS THE ONLY KID IN HIS STREET CLOTHES LOLLLLL. Everyone else is dressed up in white shirt, black pants, looking spiffy, and Owen's literally the only kid there in jeans and a t-shirt. Jen and I are looking at each other like, dude didn't we juuuust ask him about this? But wait, why the fuck did we believe him??? He's 8 years old! LOLLLLLL.
After they massacre enough Christmas songs, we all head on back to their house. I tell Owen how much I enjoyed hearing him play, ask him about his practice routine, you know I play an instrument too? I play drums. "I know Mr. Dan, mom showed me a video." Damn, and here I thought he'd be impressed LOL. Owen treats us all to another more intimate recital in the kitchen and then it's onto a dance routine he's been working on (??) and Eliza has a dance routine too of course and blah blah blah the fun never stops until it's bedtime.
When the kids are around they won't stop engaging with me and I can't really multitask/if someone is talking at me it's my natural response to listen, so I can barely converse with Jen and Steve, I just play with the kids and listen to them excitedly word vomit at me until they go to bed. After the kids are asleep, us adults can hang out for a few hours and I can finally have a real conversation with Jen and Steve. I tell them, man that recital was crazy, now that I know how totally fucked it sounds, next time I'll bring my handheld recorder and record everything and use it in my own noise music.
"Oh that'd be fun, what's the band called?"
"Anal Butt."
".....Owen's going to love that."
-Dan
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DECEMBER + JANUARY NEW ARRIVALS
This season we got a cataclysmically large update and first up, perhaps the most interesting to me, is the Alchemy Records reissue series coming out of Japan. Alchemy Records is the legendary Osaka label run by Jojo Hiroshige (Hijokaidan), one of the most important individuals to the Japanese experimental scene if not the global scene. This label is still going strong today, with a huge catalog of noise, punk, psych, no wave, experimental, all manner of weird shit.
Starting last year, a chunk of the early catalog is being systematically reissued by the Japanese major indie P-Vine, and of course we're getting copies of everything with more titles on the way. For the punks, SOBKaidan LP is a must, a punishing 1988 live recording of a collaboration set between SOB and Hijokaidan. You've never heard SOB be so fuckin noise.
Myself, I am most thrilled by this Hovlakin collection LP. This band has been on my radar for a long time, from years back when we were sitting around at Mike from Chaos Destroy apartment and we were spinning some of their early 7"s, but I haven't given them my proper attention yet. I love this sort of abstract bullshit noise so this band is right up my alley.
In the same vein of "weird Japanese shit", we also got some copies of all the new Specific Records releases, including the swansong Necronomidol 2xLP and the new Haru Nemuri 2xLP that our video game group chat was discussing.
Next, METAL. So much fuckin metal, of the ilk that I most appreciate. Totally fucked South American black/thrash like Graf Spee LP and 'bumble bee guitar and doo doo drums' southeast Asian black/thrash like Kambing/Ebwa split 12". Extra special shout out to this Voidd LP for being pre-Navel LOLLLLLL love it.
We also picked up copies of new Deconsecration LP, my favorite death metal band in the USA right now. Get hip to it! New record on SPHC coming soon, vinyl is done, just waiting on jackets to finish.
If you need that speed but don't want to deal with corpsepaint, man, we got so much fuckin GRIND GRIND GRIND in stock this time around.
Brutal goregrind is all the rage so of course we got stuff like Blue Holocaust new LP, Putrefaction Sets In new LP, and my personal favorite, Lymphatic Phlegm new EP.
I'm more of a noisecore guy and I could not be more thrilled by a new Napalm Death is Dead flexi and Nikudorei unreleased recordings CD. Behind the scenes, for real, between the three of us we are all geeking about the Nikudorei CDs. But I also want to draw some attention to this Romutus live tape. New generation of Finnish noisecore, I can't get enough of it! Totally wild and uncontrollable shit! New record on SPHC currently in production!
If you want to bypass all the stylization and just get to the straight grind, my big recommendation is the DxIxE CD. I haven't listened to this one yet, but I remember Mikeal from Penis Geyser telling me this is the best live band he's ever seen, and that's alway stuck with me. You may remember Whoresnation LP from their big USA tour last summer. And you know you need Agathocles/Kuolema/Eristetyt 3-way split 12".....for the Kuolema material, of course. =P
Enough about blastbeats, first and foremost this is a PUNK distro after all. And fuck, do we ever got punk shit.
All the latest Japanese shit, from veteran bands you already know like Asbestos new LP to younger bands like Vansuut EP (new band of Solpaatos guys! this is a record I'm excited for!!!) and Wageslave CD (new band of Strange Factory guys! that classic heavy Japanese crustcore sound, fuck, I can't get enough of it! please, someone put it on vinyl!), from reissues you know you need like Crow first EP reissue to more obscure stuff like Acute discography 2xLP and Banish Arms discography CD (begging someone in this world to put this absolute smasher on vinyl, this gets a HUGE recommendation). Also highly recommended is this UDA collection CD, gathering their 3 limited CD-R releases on Private Scandal into one convenient place.
ARGENTINA PUNK SPECIAL! If you want just one record to learn about classic Argentinian punk, it's gotta be the Invasion 88 comp LP reissue, legendary shit right here. Dig deeper with Paralisis Infantil discography LP and Division Autista discography LP.
Or, if you like South American shit but Argentina's too melodic, may I suggest this Autarkia demo LP for some noise-not-music toopa-toopa attack?
Of course we had to get copies of Exploator new LP, although I thiiiink I kinda prefer the Verdict LP for my Totalitar-school-of-dbeat needs. Or maybe you want to dig deeper into Sweden than 'bands that sound like Totalitar', in which case, you gotta get on this Black Uniforms CD reissue.
For that crust as fuck existence, I was duly impressed by Slavery LP and Mass Separation comeback EP. But I see a lot more discussion about this new Ninth Circle LP, which I still gotta listen to.
In the SPHC Records camp, we got a new release! I'm proud to drop the Pesadez LP, the vinyl debut of Central America's best younger band, playing ramshackle blackened d-beat noise with the boundless enthusiasm and energy I'd want from a band of this ilk. Wild shit!
We also got CD copies of the new Sun Children Sun album. It's magnificent and the vinyl version is currently in production, should be done this summer alongside new Exit Hippies LP.
And finally, my own stupid little band Anal Butt has a new release, an appearance on this noisegrind comp 12". Actually.....this is our best material so far LOL, truly just two Dan-s having a good time, so if you have an interest, give it a listen. Makes me real happy to share a record with friends like Sedem Minut Strachu and Cum Sock.
Also, there is a new issue of Garbage Fountain zine, featuring interviews with a few SPHC bands and some writing of my own. But this is not the reason it's my favorite zine in the game right now. That is because this zine is so artfully executed, exceptionally curated, and covers things happening NOW rather than being the historical documentation that our community is normally so focused on.
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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on the way for February:
can't even think about it right now.
Thanks and talk more later.
-Dan