Typed Out Setlist

It's been a while since I did any eBay auctions. It's the type of thing that you can get easily addicted to if you let it. Sometimes I find the most random items in the garage, the shed or my closet and find myself thinking about how much money I can get for it on the 'Bay. In most cases, the records are never missed, but in some cases, those moments where you realize that 97a shirt your looking for was sold makes it a dicey undertaking.
The whole eBay thing reminds me of my buddy and I going through our collections in the 90s, scrounging to find a couple CDs or 7 inches to trade in at Double Decker. To think of the good music we let go to take a chance of some stupid record that had a write up in the Very Distro catalog makes me sick, but luckily, we're now in an age where nobody asks me "Where do you HEAR of these bands?" anymore (A pretty common question years ago).
I don't expect the stuff that's going up to go for much, but whatever. I feel like I'm getting to the point where I am wearing less and less hardcore shirts. It's not an adult crash type of thing, just, I have my favorites and find myself wearing those same 5-10 shirts more than the fiftysome sitting in the closet. So this is the process of the weeding out:

DEATH TENS DOES EBAY

PS- The title of this post is in reference to a song that fits my eBay experiences perfectly.

Bust It. Bust It Now. Congrats.

Its no secret that I'm big into Carpenter Ant. Being that I got on board with them midway through their existence, I've had to do a lot of searching to track down their different recordings, mostly records, tapes and the like. A few years back Chaos had hooked me up with a bunch of the vinyl on CD and Ray has always been good to me in sending a shirt, record or tape my way, so I thought through them and tracking down the different records and tapes that I had heard everything.
I had thought wrong. After getting the original demo from Giancarlo a week or so ago(thanks again), I realized that the songs on there were ones that I had never heard before with the exception of "Ghostriders". While the recording was raw, after one or two listens, I was into it. I have no idea what the band thinks of the recording, but I know there were only forty of the tapes made, so I figured why not upload the songs with the artwork for anyone who may want one. All I know is that I was completely stoked to get a hold of it. Here it is:

LINK--->CARPENTER ANT ORIGINAL DEMO

Tape Cover-

Read those goddamn words-

I was lucky enough to be here for this:

Cashing In

I'm going to admit it...I picked up the Unbroken box set off of eBay for well over the $30 it cost at the Glasshouse show. It was worth it, seeing as I am a huge Unbroken fan, but to pull off a weekend trip to California to pick up a copy would have been well over the prices that they are going for right now. Unfortunately, picking up everything and flying cross country wasn't an option, even for Unbroken. With only five hundred being pressed, I was worried that the price would climb even further down the road and didn't want to miss out on one. I know there were people at the show that missed out getting one and that completely sucks, but I also know there were plenty of people picking up multiple copies as well. I'm just glad I had some birthday money to use on it to offset the cost. Here it is Unbroken doing it's best Joy Divsion:

A Time (I Wish) We'll Remember

Timing is everything. When Blindside was playing shows, I was just getting into underground music, so while they were playing out around the Lehigh Valley, I was attending lame pop punk shows and seeing friends bands play that had been around for all of a week. By the time I developed a sense of what was good and what wasn't, I had missed my chance to see them. Such a bummer. I had been keeping my eyes open on eBay for their seven inch or the LP for a couple of weeks now and finally was able to grab the seven inch you see below:
Put out by 1124 Records, the 7 inch has a very early New Age Records feel to it with mid-tempoed tracks and dual vocalists. Honestly, I could listen to the opening of "Submission" on repeat for days. Very much worth the wait. They have a full length on 1124 as well, which I am hoping to track down as well. Here's the pic from the insert:

A couple a live shots I found from FOE's website from vocalist Brett Barto's collection:


You can tell it was the early ninties by the angle of the brim on everyone's hats.
Looking at those photos, I wish I had timed things a little earlier. Instead of standing around Scarlett's with my arms crossed listening to some shitty ska-punk band, I could have been up front for Blindside.

Not a Character Assasination

When I heard that Livewire was releasing The Weight by Over the Line, I have to admit I was pretty excited but also a little skeptical. While I am a huge fan of whole period of the '88 revival (for lack of a better term regarding the late 90s), the bands can be very hit or miss. For every quality band, there would be three or four bad imitations that would end up getting sold back to the record store after a listen or two. This was especially the case later on as the success of Floorpunch and Ten Yard Fight brought more bands out of the woodwork and began to imitate what some of the bigger edge bands were doing. I remember Over the Line being reviewed in Contention Fanzine and being described as generic and while I was interested in checking them out despite the description, I never got the chance.

When Livewire said they were putting out the record, I figured, "what the hell" and ordered the red and the blue vinyl as any good record collecting scumbag would. The records arrived in the mail and while the layout was well done the art was kind of...well...different. Don't get me wrong, it was well done, it just was pretty cartoony, like a cross between pushead and a marvel comic. Not really what I expected from a band who named themselves after a Turning Point song. I thought the layout inside and the labels for the record were incredible and so without further ado, I dropped the needle and gave it a listen. Believe it or not,the it reminded me of Burn a lot of times, which was not what I was expecting. The songs had a lot of groove ala Burn and the vocals would sound like Chaka at times and other times Curt Canales. So yeah, somewhere between Burn and Chain of Strength is what I heard, which is a pretty interesting combo if you ask me. Very listenable. While it will not get as much play as my Rancor or Atari records, I will definitely be listening more.

Leather Daddy

I received my order from Fashionable Idiots the other day which contained the new records from Allentown's Fresh Meat and Middle America: two newer bands who share some members if I'm not mistaken. First up, is Fresh Meat's Leather Daddy. I've loved everything I've heard from Fresh Meat so far and this is their best release to date in my opinion, which is a pretty good accomplishment seeing as their other releases are quality . The recording itself sounds really good, making the tracks sound strong. There's no labels on the record or the sleeve, so I can't really tell much about one side as opposed to the other, but the side with the single track reminds me of (what else) Brainbombs a lot. Mid tempoed, it will have you bobbing along to it as Ray Gurz screams "just do your stinkin' job!". The other side is just as good. It has two faster paced tracks that make you go from bobbing your head to violently flinging yourself into the furniture as you listen. The second song has a really rad guitar part that fits somewhere between Greg Ginn and Dick Dale, sounding incredible over top the track as it thrashes along. Overall, the record is solid from start to finish, with an infectious rhythm underneath the chaos that will hopefully get some kids' attention outside the Lehigh Valley. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the next Fresh Meat show in the LV. Limited cover below:


Every limited cover is listed as 1/100, which made me feel like an idiot for thinking they would just randomly send the first record to some dude in Jersey.

Do yourself a favor and pick this up----------> FASHIONABLE IDIOTS CATALOG

Middle America coming tomorrow!