Sunday, June 30, 2013

Lube Job compilation 7"

Here's a cool and relatively obscure compilation 7". I got it because it's got S.F.A. on it, and I love S.F.A. New York City Hate-Core as they call it, and that's spot on. Great band, especially the first 2 albums. Their 2nd album 'So What?' was released on LP as well as on CD, but the CD version was a split with another band, Necracedia from Philly, with their album 'Now I See Clearly'. Necracedia is also on here, they're a solid punk/hardcore band with some good rough, snotty vocals. Doomwatch was more of a crossover band, mixing punk/hardcore with some thrash metal. Pretty good stuff. Submachine was a punk rock band with a pretty extensive discography. For me, they are the weakest band on this compilation, not into the vocals, the music is pretty solid tho.

This compilation 7" was the first release on Rust Records, in 1991. Rust Records was a label from Pittsburgh, PA, but they didn't stick around for too long. They did only a couple more releases after this compilation, including a Submachine 7". After Rust Records folded, CI Records, another label from Pennsylvania, ended up with the leftover copies of this compilation (as well as the other Rust Records releases), added their name to the cover, hand-numbered them and sold em. My copy is one of the original ones tho, not the 're-packaged' ones.

Lube Job compilation 7"

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Apathy - s/t MCD

Apathy was a hardcore band from the Baltimore, MD area who were around from the mid 90s till 2001 or so. In 1997 they recorded their self-titled MCD, which unfortunately wasn't released on Gain Ground Records until 1999. I don't know why it took them so long to release it tho, it's a pretty solid record. Great metallic hardcore, but the vocals were their most distinguishing feature. They were handled by both guitarists at the time, Rob Ingram and Adam Brown, and their combined range makes Apathy sound like Vision Of Disorder at times.

After this release, Rob would focus solely on vocals and they would add an additional guitarist to the band, Ben Swan. With that new line-up Apathy would release a full-length album on Gain Ground in 2000 called 'What The Dead See Through The Eyes Of The Living', and a 2-song promo CD right before their demise in 2001 (neither of which I have unfortunately).

Rob Ingram now does a one-man hardcore band called Stateside Firefight as well as an Iron Maiden tribute band called Powerslave. Ben Swan moved on to do vocals for Samadhi and Age Of Ruin. I have no idea what the rest of band did after Apathy.

Apathy - s/t MCD

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Running Like Thieves - Same Time Next Year... demo

Sometimes when you buy a lot of records, you'll come across nice surprises. I got this demo as part of a big bag of demo's a guy was getting rid of over here. There were mostly youth crew demo's from the early 00's in the bag, not the stuff I go nuts for, but I love demo-tapes, so it's all good anyways. One of the surprises was this Running Like Thieves demo.

Formed in the late 90's by Matt Warnke (Bold, Crippled Youth) and Andy Guida (Supertouch, Absolution, Altercation), Running Like Thieves definitely had all the necessary NYHC credentials, but they went into a more melodic direction instead, not wanting to rewrite their past bands' songs. After recording a demo in 2001, the band signed a deal with Livewire Records and released (and re-recorded?) the demo on CD in 2002, with an additional track, as well as a follow-up 7" in 2003. Anyways, here's the original demo, not the Livewire release. This is more melodic hardcore/rock-oriented than their previous bands, and I will say this is not for me really, but I'm sure some of you are interested in checking out this demo.

Matt Warnke and Andy Guida are currently writing music under the name The Mistaken. Andy Guida is also drumming for My Rifle, who released a pretty good 7" on Wardance Records a while ago.

Running Like Thieves - Same Time Next Year... demo