I’ve always had mixed-feelings about year-end top ten lists. More often than not they are meant to say more about the author of the list than the music he or she is writing about, and when creating such lists I’ve definitely fallen into the trap of compiling the list based on what I think I “should” be listening to rather than what I actually am listening to. However, these lists are also very helpful as buying guides. There are tons of records that I’ve ignored upon release, only to pick them up after reading about them on multiple lists. So, in the interest of helping others’ minds be blown, here are a list of records I enjoyed in the year 2008.

I compiled the list by making a smart playlist in iTunes of all the music I acquired in the year 2008 and sorting by number of plays. This gave me a rough idea of what the list would look like, and from there I decided on 10 releases that I think are the absolute must-haves are 2008. If someone came back from a year-long trip to the moon or Antarctica these are the records I would insist that that person find post-haste:

Nightmare / Skitkids: Split 7″

I’m not kidding when I say that this may well be the best split 7″ of all time. Off the top off my head I certainly can’t think of another that rages this hard. Nightmare’s long history and substantial back catalog must be a tough thing to overcome when that band sits down to write a song, but their two tracks on this release are as good as anything on their classic Give Notice of Nightmare LP. The guitars are so noisy and out of control that I can hardly tell what’s going on, and the substantial language barrier doesn’t stop the band from writing a phenomenally catchy chorus (”No retreat! Never surrender!”). As for Skitkids… wow. This is a band that has really come into its own over its past few releases, and their tracks here may well be the best thing they’ve ever done. The little lead guitar break on “Ackliga Javlar” has quickly become one of my all-time favorite moments in music. It’s rare to find guitar playing that truly sends chills down your spine (especially in punk rock), but this is the real deal.

Reprobates: Stress 7″

This debut EP from Toronto’s Reprobates bowled me over on the first listen. This thing is such a riff monster… the guitars on this are so catchy, whether it’s the seething, mid-paced “Failure” or the barreling “Stress.” Throw in the layer of squalling feedback over top of everything and you have one of the most disturbing, claustrophic pieces of music in the hardcore canon.

Shitty Limits: Espionage 7″

For my money, “Espionage” is the best punk song written in the year 2008 (the only real contender being Eddy Current Suppression Ring’s “Which Way to Go”). The song’s main riff is so evocative of the James Bond / spy movie aesthetic without ripping off anything in particular, and the lyrics romp through that same imagery with a wit and humor that is rarely found in punk in the year 2008. My wife Kelly said it best when she predicted that “Espionage,” if there’s any justice in this world, will be on all of those “history of 2000’s punk” compilations in 25 years.

Direct Control: Farewell 12″

My favorite active hardcore band dropped this EP in a criminally limited edition of 100 copies, all of which were sold during the first 5 minutes of No Way Fest 2. Luckily I managed to snag one, because if you like fast hardcore it just doesn’t get any better than Direct Control. After slowing things down a bit on their past releases and exploring some catchier song structures, “Farewell” captures the fury of their early records like Nuclear Tomorrow, with tracks like “Lion’s Den” and “No Change” equaling and even exceeding the velocity of their earliest material. If Direct Control want to grant me 2 wishes in 2009, let them be this: 1. get this record out for real and 2. don’t make this your last record.

Parasytic: Hymn 12″

Anyone who saw this ferocious Richmond, Virginia metal/crust band live was eagerly anticipating this slab to drop. You know how a lot of 80s bands added metal to punk and came up with something that was essentially the worst parts of both? Well, Parasytic have managed to distill the best parts of both into one of the most crushing LPs in recent memory. If you’re listening to this for the first time make sure to get to the end, because the album’s best songs (”Madmen” and “Animal Sacrifice”) reside near the end of the second side.

Cola Freaks: Ingenting Set 7″

After a so-so debut EP, Denmark’s Cola Freaks reinvented themselves on this record and the results are breathtaking. While everything about this band is brilliant, their secret weapon is the haunting bass line… I can’t think of a more memorable performance on the 4-string this year. I can’t wait to hear more from this re-energized band.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring: Primary Colours 12″

This one was pretty hyped this year so I imagine everyone has heard it already, but if you haven’t I encourage you to check it out. To me, this record sounds like the Stooges’ Fun House (a key influence for just about every Australian band ever it seems) if the Stooges were way into pop instead of jazz. The riffs on this thing are almost retardly simple but instantly memorable, and one could say the same thing about the vocals. In a scene where everyone is trying to be more intense than everyone else, it’s nice to hear a loose, jammy band that can still write truly memorable songs.

Double Negative: Raw Energy EP 7″

Double Negative’s debut LP was universally regarded as one of the best LPs of 2007, but they rendered it obsolete with this 3-song slab. This thing is just so dense and crushing that there is no escaping its fury. Sometimes I think about how often I get to see this band live and I just get so happy… while the rest of the world is still digesting this platter I am one of the few and the proud who are privy to “Saturation Tank…”

Socialcide: Unapproachable 12″

2008 may well be remembered as the year when the latest early 80s hardcore revival started to lose its steam. Honestly, I would have thought that no-frills hardcore had run its course, especially with bands like Double Negative and Reprobates expanding hardcore’s sonic pallette to incorporate the swirling feedback of bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. However, Socialcide proved that a lot of anger and a few power chords and still go a VERY long way. 6 months later and I just can’t get over how pissed off this record sounds.

Avskum - Uppror Underifran

I’ve never really paid too much attention to Avskum before (with the exception of their classic debut, Crucified by the System), but I checked out this LP after hearing several trusted sources give this their highest recommendation. Indeed, this thing is a fucking bulldozer… there are a lot of bands in the “heavier than everything else” race, but these guys take the cake. This is absolutely no-frills hardcore, the musical equivalent of a well-cooked steak.
So, those are the records that really floated my boat this year, but here are a few more that tickled my fancy:

Chronic Seizure - Ancient Wound 12″ and Live on WHPK 7″: I loved Chronic Seizure’s previous two EPs, but I never really felt they captured the band’s live intensity. Ancient Wound rectifies that with some of the band’s catchiest riffs and a great vocal performance. Ditto for the radio session 7″, which you should track down because it is limited to 500 copies and 100% essential.

Punch in the Face - At War with Everybody: This may well have been released in 2007, but I just got it this year. Like Socialcide, PITF play no-frills hardcore that sticks to your ribs. This reminds me a lot of classic Slapshot, especially in the powerful vocals. Great stuff.

Wormeaters - Cattle Cannot Choose: 2nd 7″ from this New Jersey band and they nail the formula. Mid-paced, tough-as-nails hardcore with a unique, almost death metal-style vocalist.

Civic Progress - Disposable: 2nd EP from this St. Louis band who have some of the catchiest riffs and most unique song structures of any band in hardcore. When they played North Carolina they covered Warsaw, which should tell you how ahead of the curve they are.

Kaiboushitsu - Dokuro Dokuro Dokuro: A bunch of Japanese hardcore all-stars temporarily abandon the popular Burning Spirits and crust styles to pay homage to the early 80s scene. This definitely captures the weird vibe of a lot of the ADK Records-type bands, and is highly recommended if you can track it down.

Instängd - Konkret Och Brutal: 2nd EP by this great Swedish band… people always compare them to obscure Swedish groups like Missbrukarna, but I think they’re a dead ringer for raw US groups like Urban Waste and Mecht Mensch.

Midnight - Farewell to Hell: Sounds like Annihilation Time playing Venom covers. I don’t know if that description would appeal to me without hearing the band, but I highly suggest you check these guys out if you’re into bands like Motorhead, Inepsy and Venom.

Stupids: Feel the Suck: Reunion 7″ from this also-ran UK punk band, but the A-side surpasses just about anything they did during their original run. Killer, heavy, melodic punk in the UK tradition of bands like Snuff.

Blank Dogs - The Fields: I just picked this one up, so it hasn’t had a chance to really sink in, but I like this a lot. Though I wish the vocals were more powerful and/or memorable, the music is great… sort of like if every Joy Division song was as great as “Shadowplay.”

Rabies - Final: This SoCal punk band goes out on a high note, adding some later Black Flag-style jammy parts into their snotty, Wasted Youth-styled hardcore. It’s too bad they broke up because this band was knocking down all kinds of walls.

Daily Void - Identification Code: Eventually I read so many Rudimentary Peni comparisons that I had to pick this up. I don’t think it sounds too much like Rudi P at all, but I love the warped pop vibe. If Jay Reatard is a weirdo trying to be normal, these are normal guys trying to be weirdos. Killer.

Blowback - Living Vibration: I wish this Japanese band’s tour had made it east, because Living Vibration is classic bulldozer Japcore.

Wax Museums - LP / Magnet 7″: I really love genuine weirdness from my punk rock, but I hate when it comes off as forced or contrived. No one, and I repeat NO ONE, is going to mistake this band for anything but genuine freaks. Guard your nose holes.

PDX - Comp 7″: Wow, there are a lot of bands in Portland who really want to sound like the Wipers. This 7″ collects the best tracks from all of them.

Night Marchers: See You in Magic: John Reis returns with yet another new band and yet again they rule. What more to say?

Bukkake Boys - Splendid Thoughts: Yeah, their name bums me out too but this is first-rate hardcore in the tradition of Antidote and the Abused.

Mad Men - both tapes: Jonah from Fucked Up / Career Suicide playing all the instruments on a total homage to the catchiest early 80s hardcore… how could this not be killer? What I REALLY want to know, though, is how these guys managed to be the tightest band at No Way Fest?

Warkrime - Tighten Up: Like their fellow Californians Rabies, Warkrime’s last effort found them looser, more confident and more experimental than their early stuff. Again, like Rabies, I really wish this band hadn’t broken up.

Hjerte Stop - Vi Ses I Helvede: Everyone who has heard this band’s 7″ wants to know if the full-length delivers. It does. If you like Bad Religion’s first album and you’re not listening to this you may need to find a new life coach.

Video Disease - 7″ and Demo: Seriously tweaked hardcore from Southern California… I don’t think it’d be unfair to call them a poor man’s Sex/Vid, but I am a poor man and you don’t see Sex/Vid on this list, now do you?

Vile Nation - Self-titled 7″: I was underwhelmed by this band live and on their demo, but everything clicks on this 7″. There aren’t a lot of bands biting the Heresy / Ripcord style right now, so these guys sound really fresh.

Libyans - Welcome to the Neighborhood: The fact that I can play this song on Rock Band only makes it that much better.

Jabara - きせい CDR: Why on earth is music this great only released on CDR? Japan is a weird place.

This past Friday Logic Problem recorded the music for our upcoming EP on Grave Mistake. The session was really exciting. We had worked with the guy who recorded us, Will from Whatever Brains (whose new 7″ you should check out), before so we kind of new what to expect, but I had an even better time at this session than when he recorded our track for the upcoming No Bullshit Volume 4 7″ on No Way Records. Unlike a lot of recording sessions where everything feels very rushed, this session was loose, comfortable and creative. We were well-rehearsed, so we blew through the basic tracks in just a few minutes, recording everything live with very few takes. Then came the fun part: crazy overdubs. We wanted our recording to have a unique feel and texture, so we added a lot of weird noises into the mix… pretty much all of them were made with guitar and / or bass, but we heavily tweaked the sound with synth, delay and fuzz pedals, so the noises coming out of our amps seemed to have very little to do with traditional stringed instrumentation. Don’t worry, we haven’t made the Chinese Democracy of hardcore, but hopefully we have made something slightly more interesting than your standard 1-2 1-2 hardcore record.

Hopefully we’ll get a rough mix of the tracks in the next few days, when I’m sure I’ll obsessively listen to them over and over and over again. Then Cameron will catch back up with Will the day after Christmas to record his vocals. I got to take a peek at his lyrics and they’re really incredible. I was shocked at how good the lyrics were on our first EP, but these are even better. I also wrote the lyrics for one song, which was scary but I think I’m proud of what I came up with. With any luck we’ll finish up all the mixing and artwork around New Year’s and by late winter / early spring we’ll unleash this beast on the world. By which time, I’m sure, we’ll be totally sick of these songs because we will have written 8 more that are even better. So it goes.

Whoops, how did I end up with two of these?If you would like one of them for your own personal collection I would gladly trade for one of the following:

• Negative Approach: Self-titled EP
• SOA: No Policy EP
• Chicken Bowels: Keep Our Fire Burning EP
• Nightmare: Give Notice of Nightmare LP
• Aburadako: Flexidisc

Today I received a package of distro items from Sewercide Records in Canada. As I was opening the package I noticed that the entire thing was soaked in motor oil! The package reeks, is covered in grease, and stained that yellow-y brown color! This is a new low for the post office, though I’m not sure whether the blame rests on the US or Canadian leg of the journey. Incidentally, the contents of the package are in perfect shape because Dave Sewercide packs like a champ. This should be a lesson to you label-owners out there… shoving your records in a manilla envelope isn’t going to do the trick in a world where packages randomly get submerged in motor oil.

One of the many reasons that posts around here have been so slack is that most of my music-listening time as of late has been spent digitizing my collection of vinyl. I’ve been attempting to do this in a semi-orderly process, ripping records to high-quality mp3s in more or less the order they’re filed on my record shelf. For the past month or so I’ve been in the “punk” section (which includes everything that doesn’t qualify as “hardcore,” a term which I interpret rather broadly, or “77 punk,” which is conceived with similarly loose criteria). Most of these records come from when I was in college during the late 90s, spending most of my weekly paycheck at Plan 9 in Richmond. This was only the dawn of the ebay era so there were still plenty of great, reasonably-priced scores to be had in record stores, and I definitely racked up my fair share at Plan 9 over the years. Back then I would buy most anything that was even vaguely associated with punk, a strategy which introduced me to a ton of really great bands and also caused me to buy a lot of total crap.

Anyway, one of the bands whom I discovered through these barely-informed record-buying decision was the Lemonheads. Actually, I was very familiar with the Lemonheads from when I was really young… I remember when I got my first CD player when I was 12 or so, the only CDs I owned for the first 6 months were It’s a Shame About Ray and Master of Puppets. However, I had no idea that the Lemonheads had started as a punk band until I picked up a copy of the intriguing-looking Hate Your Friends.

Hate Your Friends - Lemonheads

If all you know about the Lemonheads is Evan Dando’s sensitive-dude-indie-folk, prepare to be bowled over. During the Hate Your Friends era the band had a clear affinity for early Husker Du as well as the great tradition of melodic, heavy punk bands from their home state of Massachussettes… Mission of Burma and Moving Targets especially. Further, Dando only sings about half the tracks. The other half are handled by Ben Deily, who shared guitar and vocal duties with Dando and wrote some staggeringly brilliant songs. Somewhat unexpectedly, it’s Dando’s songs that have the harder edge during this period… the title track “Hate Your Friends” could’ve easily come from Hüsker Dü’ s Everything Falls Apart LP, and though his voice still has that warm, melodic quality that would eventually make Dando famous, on Hate Your Friends it’s almost always tempered by some truly searing, fuzzed-out guitar work. If you don’t believe me check out “Rat Velvet,” whose opening chords could easily be mistaken for something off of Bad Religion’s How Could Hell Be Any Worse.

Rat Velvet - Lemonheads

Second Chance - Lemonheads

The Dando songs are a treat, but when I pull out these early Lemonheads LPs it’s because I want to hear the Ben Deily songs. I’m hard-pressed to think of a more earnest singer and/or songwriter in the late 80s punk scene… there’s this child-like innocence to Deily’s voice, which is only compounded by the way that he belts out his gigantic choruses without a hint of self-consciousness. The most interesting song in this style on Hate Your Friends is “Second Chance,” whose dark, Metal Circus-inspired verses lead into a gigantic chorus that could only be described as triumphant (despite the grim lyrics). “There’s no such thing as a second chance / There’s no such thing as another try.” The lyric is simple and straightforward almost to the point of awkwardness, and I think that if Deily’s songwriting didn’t have that primitive, slightly awkward quality his songs would be as obnoxious as the most overwrought emo band’s. As it is, though, they’re brilliant, reminding me of the Dead Milkmen if they didn’t hide under so many layers of irony.

By way of a post-script, I’ll note that the Deily/Dando era of the Lemonheads produced three albums: Hate Your Friends, Creator, and Lick. I own Lick, and while at this point Evan Dando the teenage punk is becoming Evan Dando the indie heartthrob (their cover of “Luka” from this album was, in many ways, the catalyst for that transformation), there are still some great moments on this album. In fact, my favorite Ben Deily song, “Ever,” closes the album, and Dando’s “Glad I Don’t Know” is the closest the Lemonheads ever got to the Dü’s New Day Rising sound. If you hate the major label era of the Lemonheads you’ll have no use for Dando’s “Mallo Cup,” but I retain a soft spot for this era of the band. I still haven’t heard the Lemonheads’ second album, Creator, but I have a feeling I’ll be spending a few of this month’s emusic downloads on that disc.

Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted here, probably the longest time since I started the blog. Kelly says that this is merely because I want to make sure that every single person on the planet has read my post about that awesome record score, but that’s not really the case. Though things are finally slowing down now, I’m coming off of one of the busiest few months of my entire life. Over the past 4 or 5 years I feel like I’ve been leading two parallel lives, one in which I’m a graduate student and one in which I’m a punk rock musician / writer / record label owner. Admittedly, the punk rock stuff is where my heart is, and the graduate student side of things has suffered somewhat. As I’ve sought to bring those two aspects of me back into balance, I’ve slowly realized how out of control my punk-related commitments are. The only problem is that at this point I can’t imagine not playing in both of my bands (they both rule so hard!) and my record label has real momentum, so it’s the writing, photographing and everything else I did for this blog that has fallen by the wayside. I’d love to reconfigure how I approach this blog to be something more spontaneous… shorter posts with more updates, but we’ll see if that actually happens. I’d love for this space to be something more like a representation of my stream of consciousness in prose rather than a repository for fairly well-thought-out and ambitious pieces of writing as it has been in the past. Again, we’ll see.

Just to give a quick update on the bands, both of them are going great. Logic Problem should be going into the “studio” (I use that term loosely) next weekend to record an EP for Grave Mistake Records. I’m very, very excited about that, partly because we’ll finally be committing several awesome songs to tape and partly because I feel like having an EP on Grave Mistake validates my musical endeavours in some weird way that I’ve always secretly craved. I know that it’s punk not to be worried about being on a “big” label and that self-releasing music (as I’ve done with almost everything I’ve played on in the past) is supposed to be the punkest thing you can do, but it feels good to have someone like your work enough that they want to put a large amount of their own time and money into promoting it. That we’ll be on the same label that released Wasted Time’s No Shore EP (for my money the best hardcore record of this decade) only makes it feel even better. Devour has also been chugging along. I feel like we’ve developed quite a lot as a live band over the past few months, and the comments I’ve heard from other people seem to confirm that. We’ve also written some really great songs lately and I can’t wait to put out a few more records. Though I LOVE the way our LP came out, I feel like we’ve progressed so far since that recording. Our new songs are so much more complex and dynamic, and I think we also have a better idea what we want from our playing and a recording. The next Devour record will be a beast, I assure you.

Sorry State has also been very busy, though in these tough economic times business seems to fluctuate with the news. When the first big stock market crash happened there was almost an entire week where I didn’t get a single order, which is very out of the ordinary for me. Still, I’ve been pushing things along and trying to get a bunch of vinyl out. Unfortunately, that’s been a slower and more difficult process than usual thanks to the backlog at the pressing plants. You know how Best Buy now has a vinyl section with expensive Metallica reissue box sets and shiny copies of the new Coldplay on 12″? Well, when Capitol Records decides that they want to press a bazillion copies of that Coldplay record, the pressing plant gives them priority over 500 copies of a new Shitty Limits 7″, and I get the shaft. This seems to be a problem at pretty much every pressing plant in the United States. However, while it makes getting records out a slower, more difficult, and more expensive process, the renewed interest in vinyl (and the easier availability of supplies like turntables) is ultimately a good thing for my label I think.

OK, that’s all for now. Maybe I’ll post some random thought this afternoon just to get the ball rolling. And remember, the best sort of positive reinforcement that you can give a blogger is comments, so if you want to read more that’s always the best way of getting me to post more.

This weekend I went to my very first record fair, put on my WXDU radio station in Durham, NC. My experience at this event is likely to skew my expectations for record fairs for the rest of my life. My friend Nick and I pulled up to the Duke Coffeehouse, where the event was taking place, and I walked up to the first table I saw and started flipping through records. After flipping through one or two records I didn’t care about, I saw a copy of Livero Di Vivere by Wretched with a $10 price tag. “Holy crap! Wretched!” I exclaimed, and kept flipping… what I found was a treasure trove of early 80s hardcore, all priced $3-$10. There were so many bands… Dezerter, Asta Kask, Battalion of Saints, NOTA… I was freaking out. I started talking to the guy running the table and he seemed genuinely excited that anyone had heard of these bands. Apparently he grew up in Philadelphia and as a teen spent all his money on hardcore records, and now he was just looking to offload them to someone who cared about them. Let me tell you, he found the right person. After combing through everything I had a stack about 8″ high. Here’s the haul, in alphabetical order:

• Adrenalin OD: Wacky Hi-jinks
• Agnostic Front: Victim in Pain (combat press)
• Angry Samoans: Yesterday Started Tomorrow
• Asta Kask: Med Is I Magen
• Attitude Adjustment: American Paranoia (Pusmort press)
• Bad Religion: How Could Hell Be Any Worse
• Battalion of Saints: Best of
• BGK: Jonestown Aloha
• Big Black: Atomizer
• Black Flag: Damaged (first press on Unicorn/SST)
• Bomb: S/T
• Cancerous Growth: Late for the Grave
• Capitol Punishment: When Putsch Comes to Shove
• Chronic Disorder: S/T
• Chuck USA: S/T
• Alice Cooper: Pretties for You
• Decry: Falling
• The Depraved: Come on Down
• Descendents: ALL
• Dezerter: Underground Out of Poland
• Execute / Inferno: Split LP
• Faith / Void Split LP (1st press)
• FOD: Shatter Your Day
• 4 Skins: White Neighborhood
• Government Issue: Joyride
• Government Issue: Give Us Stabb or Give Us Death
• He-Ho: Ruin
• His Hero Is Gone: Fifteen Counts of Arson (mysteriously, the only 90s record in the bunch)
• Instigators: Phoenix
• Larm / Stanx: Split LP
• McRad: Dominant Force
• Minor Threat: Out of Step
• Minor Threat: S/T
• Misfits: Evilive
• N.O.T.A.: S/T
• Offenders: Endless Struggle
• Poison Idea: Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes (Fatal Erection press)
• Prevaricators: Detente
• Psycho: Hosebags from Hell
• Radio Birdman: Living Eyes
• Replacements: Let It Be
• Scream: This Side Up
• Stupids: Peruvian Vacation
• Tales of Terror: S/T
• Upright Citizens: Open Eyes, Open Ears…
• Vicious Circle: The Price of Progress
• Vicious Circle: Search for the Solution?
• Wretched: Libero Di Vivere
• Youth Brigade: Sound and Fury

And then a bunch of compilations:

• Digging Water
• Discpan Hands
• Flipside Vinyl Fanzine Vol. 1
• Get Off My Back
• Let Them Eat Jellybeans!
• New Jersey’s Got It?
• Not So Quiet on the Western Front
• Party Pooping Punk Provocations Vol. 1
• Underground Soldier
• There’s a Method to Our Madness
• We Don’t Want Your Fucking War!
• Welcome to 1984

Like I said, everything was priced $3 to $10 (most things at the lower end of that range), so I was expecting this to total $3-400. However, when I showed the guy my stack he just looked at it, kind of winced, and asked “how about a hundred bucks?” SOLD! I’m pretty sure my feet didn’t hit the ground for the next 4 hours.

This mammoth score caused quite a stir among the record nerds in attendance. Nick says he was pretty sure one guy was about to tackle me when he saw how I had decimated that table. Later I heard the same guy complaining that everyone was buzzing about this guy’s table when all he had was “a bunch of teenage white kids screaming into microphones…” I’m glad this guy didn’t beat me to that table because surely these records would have been on ebay at 25 times what he paid within a few hours.

Checking out the other tables led to a few pretty decent scores… Stikky’s Where’s My Lunchpail LP, Warzone’s Don’t Forget the Struggle, Don’t Forget the Streets and an original Uniform Choice Screaming for Change on Wishingwell. I think that if I’d just found those 3 LPs I would have been pretty stoked to have gone to the fair, but I’m extremely glad things worked out as they did. Now I just can’t wait for next year.

It really gets my goat when I run across mp3 blogs congratulating themselves for the number of page views or downloads they’ve “achieved.” I especially hate this trend in blogs that contribute absolutely NOTHING to the world, simply uploading easy-to-find, in-print releases and copying and pasting descriptions from elsewhere on the internet. Not to get all Lars Ulrich on you or anything, but if you stole a bunch of merchandise from a store and gave it all away for free would you brag about how many “customers” you had?

I know that downloading is a fact of life, but some people have no class about it. Mp3 blogs can be very cool when they’re done well and get people to hear obscure, overlooked and difficult-to-find records, but starting a bullshit blog where you simply repost things you’ve downloaded off of soulseek is just leeching off other people’s hard work. People who start blogs like this should not be proud of themselves, they should be ashamed. Maybe one day I’ll go into my theory about how bullshit mp3 blogs have basically ruined people’s ability to appreciate good punk music and has directly led to the rise of pathetic, half-assed subgenres like “myspace crust,” but right now I’ve got work to do. Lucky you.

A few weekends ago one of my bands, Logic Problem, went on a little tour up the east coast. Actually, we just played 3 dates, one of which was in our home town, so it’s probably stretching it to call it a tour, but it was as exhausting as any proper tour I’ve been on.

The first show was in Richmond, Virginia at Nara Sushi, which, after a short hiatus, is back to having shows. Last time we played here the bands set up in the basement, but I guess that was a fire hazard. The basement was a cool space, but I could see a serious Great White scenario going down there if there was a fire, so in the end I guess it’s for the best that the bands play upstairs again.

First up was Unholy Thoughts, a new band featuring a couple of familiar faces from bands like Government Warning and Annoyed. This was their first show, and while they seemed a little nervous I thought they totally ripped. Unholy Thoughts seem like a punk band playing at hardcore tempos… sort of like the Freeze on This Is Boston Not LA or the Replacements on Stink. I almost hope that they don’t get too much tighter because I like the sloppy punk vibe… they’re a new band, though, so who knows what direction they’ll take.

Unholy Thoughts

Unholy Thoughts

The Ladies played next, but unfortunately I couldn’t get close enough to snap any pics. If you’ve heard their 7″ you know that this band plays some serious Dwarves worship, but I think they blow that recording away with their live set. Every time they play it’s total pandemonium, and tonight was no different.

Logic Problem was third, and we played a sloppy but fun set. All of the bands were using the same drums, but Seth had the good fortune to have the kick pedal fall apart on him about halfway through our set. He toughed his way through it, but things definitely weren’t the same after the equipment problems. Even though I thought we played a pretty lackluster set people still went crazy. Here’s a video of us covering “In School” by Die Kreuzen… despite our sloppiness overall I think we nailed this song:

Logic Problem: In School (Die Kreuzen) Live in Richmond from Daniel Lupton on Vimeo.

Our set was extremely well-documented from a photographic standpoint, so settle in. Thanks to Sarja for these awesome pics:

Logic Problem: Wasted Time-approved!

And thanks to Kelly for these pics:

And what the heck, here’s another video clip, of one of our songs this time:

Logic Problem: Over the Edge Live in Richmond from Daniel Lupton on Vimeo.

After Logic Problem, Time to Escape played what will probably be their next-to-last set ever. Unfortunately I didn’t get pics of this either, but they killed it. I’ve had terrible luck seeing Time to Escape in the past… every time I’ve caught them previously they’ve been down a member, but tonight they had what I consider to be their definitive lineup (with Nicktape from Coke Bust on bass) and they shredded through ten minutes of authentic harDCore. If you missed it I feel bad for you.

Socialcide took the stage after that and played, as always, a vicious set. This is the first time I’ve seen them since the LP came out, and I think everyone who has heard it realizes what a special record that is. People screamed the entire time for “Power Tripper” and “SDA,” and when they played those standout tracks everyone went wild.

Bad Advice closed the night with a ripping set of rocked-out punk played at hyper-speed hardcore tempos. Bad Advice really should not be good… they hadn’t so much as practiced in about a year, they’ve been playing the same 5 songs since they started and they almost always play so drunk they can barely stand up. Despite all of these facts they completely ruled. I also think it’s great in this day of every band pressing their demo to vinyl that they can headline a local show and make people go crazy even though they’ve only recorded a demo tape thus far. The demo isn’t even that good, but Bad Advice are so ripping live that word has spread around town the old fashioned way, and that rules.

After a LOOONG night of partying, everyone got our things together, made a stop of Vinyl Conflict where I spent way too much money (this will almost certainly be the case every time I visit Richmond from now on) and headed up to DC. We had a tip that an old record store called Orpheus Records in Arlington was closing their doors and having a giant going-out-of-business sale, so we stopped by there before driving into the city. While, as you can imagine, everything was picked over (Justin from Time to Escape got a mint copy of the Deadline 12″ a few weeks ago), I scored a big fat stack of obscure 80s punk for $1. The best find was TMA’s Beach Party 2000 LP, but I got probably 50 records that I will actually listen to, so I was pretty stoked.

Eventually we arrived at the Corpse Fortress and hung out for a while until the Commie Pinkos (I think that was their name) played a solid set of old school punk with a LOT of covers by bands like Minor Threat and Zero Boys. Logic Problem was up second and we managed to locate the tightness that we lost the night before in Richmond. I think we played really well and people went crazy, particularly when we brought out a couple of old DC covers by Government Issue (”Time to Escape”) and Scream (”Came Without a Warning”). The camera died about halfway through the set, but here’s a video of us playing “Double Crossed” and a few pics courtesy of Kelly:

Logic Problem: Double Crossed Live in DC from Daniel Lupton on Vimeo.

After our set Socialcide starting setting up their equipment, but as soon as they switched on their amps sparks started coming out of the ceiling and smoke and weird smells started coming from the breaker box in the next room. Everyone quickly evacuated the house and opened all the windows to let it air out. I was worried that the show was going to be over, but it was decided that the rest of the bands would set up in the living room upstairs and if the house burned down then fuck it, at least it was a good show. As you can imagine, things were pretty tense when Socialcide finally hit their first chord, but they successfully channeled all of that pent-up energy into one of the most explosive sets I’ve ever seen. I’m happy that I watched it from the safety of the Logic Problem merch table, because people were dancing super hard and I’m pretty sure there was more than one bloody nose. Zach’s shirt was completely covered in blood by the end of their set, but I didn’t see a single person without a smile on their face.

Next Time to Escape set up for their (probable) last set ever. For this show they had their proper lineup with the original bass player, but honestly I prefer them with Nicktape. Their regular bass player doesn’t seem to take the band all that seriously, and their set was considerably sloppier than the night before. They still ripped, though, and they killed “Something Must Be Done” by Antidote.

Lion of Judah closed the night with a lengthy set of Fugazi/Swiz-inspired post-hardcore. I like this band and from what I heard they played a good set, but by this point I was pretty hardcore-d out so walking down to 7-11 for an iced tea and a candy bar seemed like a much better option than sweating my way through another band. Hopefully I’ll get to see this band under more relaxed circumstances sometime soon.

From there it was back to Raleigh where we played a show at the Brewery with Cloak/Dagger and Dean Dirg from Germany. A new Raleigh metal band called RBT (which stands, charmingly, for “Real Big Titties”) opened up and they didn’t do anything for me. We were up next and I dare say we played a furious set. This was the first time we’ve busted out the Die Kreuzen cover for the hometown crowd and people seemed pretty into it, though my strap fell off right after the breakdown and I played the rest of the song lying on my back. Unfortunately Nick broke a string during our 3rd-to-last song so we had to end early. That really bummed me out because I think we were working toward a pretty strong conclusion. Thanks to Neal Mims for these pics:

Next up Cloak/Dagger blasted through a set of old and new material. For some reason (maybe it’s because they’re on a fairly big label) I always forget that, at their core, Cloak/Dagger are an explosive hardcore band. Every time I see them live I settle in, expecting a middle-of-the-road set yet they always blow me away. I’m stoked that they still play stuff from the demo, but the new songs they played were great, definitely moving more in the Hot Snakes direction of their LP without sacrificing any of the intensity. I can’t wait to hear what they drop next.

Dean Dirg closed the night with a hyper, spastic set of hardcore-ish garage rock. I always thought of Dean Dirg as a poor man’s Henry Fiat’s Open Sore, but tonight they proved that they are a ripping band in their own right. Just about everyone I know picked up their new LP at the merch table and has been raving about it ever since, and that should tell you something because most people I know are jaded old jerks.

And so ends the tour chronicle. I had a great time, though I wish I hadn’t contracted the unholy mid-Atlantic death virus somewhere along the way!

Last week Devour played a show with Parasytic at Volume 11, and Kelly was kind enough to take a few videos of us. The sound on these isn’t great since the club is so big and loud, but the videos look pretty cool. It almost seems like we’re playing on a sound stage.

Here are two new songs, “Laugh Track” and “Living Scraps,” strung together for your listening convenience. These will probably be on our next record whenever and whatever that shall be:

Devour: Laugh Track / Living Scraps Live at Volume 11 from Daniel Lupton on Vimeo.

And here’s an old one called “Withdrawn,” but if you’ve picked up our LP you’ll hear that we’ve changed it around a little since we recorded:

Devour: Withdrawn Live at Volume 11 from Daniel Lupton on Vimeo.