86'd Releases for 2013 26 Nov 2012
It looks like 2013 is going to be a monster year for 86'd Records. I only did one record in 2012 and that was under duress! I was broke as shit, but utterly unable to pass up helping release the first record by the mighty Utter Failure. Through the miracle of massively multi-label split releases (MMLSR?) it didn't set me back too far - and I can sleep knowing that when I croak my footnote in the grand and storied history of Krupted Peasant Farmerz is cemented.
AH! But enough of the past. The future holds a bunch more records... and gulp... the fanzine? We'll see.
So, barring any other too-good-to-pass-up releases I'll be doing 5 vinyl releases in 2013. All of them are split releases with other labels... a network of friends as they say.
Rubrics "Apathy is an Institution" 12" LP
I first met Ryan and Kerri Beth from Rubrics when Ryan's old hardcore band This Mountain Is Man was on tour and played Dead Broke HQ. His wife Kerri Beth was along too. This Mountain Is Man was fucking killer. I bought a tee-shirt, a hand screened CD-r demo, and exchanged phone numbers with Kerri Beth. After a few texts we lost touch. Flash forward a year or so - I hooked up with Alex from Get Better Records to trade some records and help book a show for his band Burning Bridges here on Long Island. I came across Rubrics on his bandcamp page and was hooked. I traded for as much Rubrics stuff as I could. When word went out about the LP in late 2012 I wanted in. Get Better Records and the band were organizing and pressing the record and assembling a group of labels to help with funds and distribution. I bro'd down on the phonewith Ryan - figured out it was the same dude from This Mountain Is Man - and the rest is herstory!
Check out some older Rubrics stuff below.
This bugger should be out sooner rather than later and will come in a B+W LP Jacket and will be stuffed with a huge newsprint poster and probably some other goodies.
Dead Uncles "Stock Characters" 12" LP
photo by catherinepeyton on flickr.
Dead Uncles from New Haven, CT is one of my favorite punk bands of the past bunch of years. I first heard 'em when I was looking to do a record for The Credentials. The band suggested a split with Dead Uncles. I checked out what I could online and fucking loved it right off the bat. I wrote to Brian, the bands drummer, and got my hands on everything I could - the self released "Cut Down To Sighs" 7", a self-titled 7" on Shock To The System label, and a split cassette with Dylan Bredeau. All killer, no filler. I put out the now classic (in my own mind) Dead Uncles / The Credentials split 7" and was fortunate enough to meet the guys and play a show with them up in Cambridge, MA for Smash It Dead Fest.
Check out the Dead Uncles track from the split 7" with The Credentials below.
Sometime between Smash It Dead and now the band broke up. But not without recording an EPIC full-length first. The album was released in limited quantity on cassette - but never available online for sale. The band resigned to the fact that "Stock Characters" would be filed in the dustbin of history.
My reaction was "this aggression will not stand, man!" Mark my words, I am going to will this masterpiece into existence on vinyl in 2013.
Rations "Martyrs and Prisoners" 7" EP
Rations is back. Out of about 20 songs that we had written we picked out 6 and recorded 'em with Tia's brother Ian. We recorded live on reel-to-reel tape (overdubbing vocals and lead guitar) in Ian's cavernous shed in the woods of Fort Solonga, NY. On our last record (How Much Land Does a Man Need? 7") we worked with 10 different labels in 6 countries to get it to the masses in the most decentralized and personal way available to us. This time around we're aiming to double the number of labels involved and try to hit a few more countries too.
Our goal is to get small quantities of our records to as many local scenes as possible to encourage hand-to-hand purchases and trades among labels and distros. Our hope is to use the occasion as an opportunity to strengthen our relationships with the international D.I.Y. punk conspiracy and to help further connect the network of ideas, music, and trade that happens outside the mainstream. We aim for counter-culture, not sub-culture.
Here's a song from the new 7" live on Long Island in August of 2012. Hosted by the awesome Razorcake zine.
Utter Failure 12" LP
Utter Failure will be heading back to the studio with the inimitable Bart Thurber (Spazz, Swingin' Utters, KPF, Fifteen, J-Church, Capitalist Casualties, etc., etc.) to record their debut full-length. This will be the follow up to last years debut 7" and the currently planned 4-way split 7" with Fast Asleep, No Mistake, and Rat Bastard. If the songs from those two records are any indication this record is going to FUCKING RIP.
It's pretty well established that Krupted Peasant Farmerz is my favorite punk band of all time. And Utter Failure is continuing in that mighty tradition. Helmed by the brothers Fraser from the Farmerz and joined by members of Shitkickers, Saros, Apeface, and more, the band expands on the KPF pantheon without re-treading or betraying what it was. Fuck it, I'm floored. Check out the 7" below.
Here's a bit from the rumor mill: The album might have a cover of the awesome KPF song "Fuck Your World" that appeared on the Farmhouse '94 compilation. The bands been playing a bunch of shows around hometown San Jose, CA and are shooting to have the record out by April.
Thanks 7" EP
Thanks is a garagey lo-fi pop-punk band from St. Cloud, MN. It's got Ryan and Jeff from the awesome Lost Cat Records making up 2/3 of the trio. Their 2010 demo tape is killer as fuck. I first hooked up with these dudes when they kindly asked Rations to contribute a track to their "Box of Sand" cassette/CD compilation. I've never met either of them in person but that hasn't stopped me from pestering them with creepy e-mails with requests for new Thanks demo tracks and late-night calls for digital affection. I consider these guys buddies, even if only through the ether. Jeff, who I surmise is the primary songsmith, has a column written for the perpetually upcoming 86'd Fanzine issue #1. I'd been hearing grumblings about a Thanks 7" for a while, but always kinda vague and non-committal. When it came time to budget for my 2013 releases I sent the guys an e-mail demanding the record come out. I pleaded with them to let me send them money. It worked: 86'd Records will be chipping in on the split release along with Lost Cat Records and others!
Ill Fated... But Still Ill
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The fanzine will be done shortly. I know I always say that, but I always mean it too. So, we'll see. Interviews with Gerge from Pretty Bullshit, Bricks from C.R. Phallacy, Keith Rosson, and Micah from Unwelcome Guests. It's got a track-by-track run album explanation of "Gates from Home" by Mike Hall from Sick Sick Birds, plus columns and other bullshit. The original idea behind the "fanzine" in the record label logo was to compel me to actually finish a fanzine, as I've started and abandoned as many as I have actually issued over the years. Mark my words!
Another oft delayed project is the "Celebrity Internment Camp" instrumental hip-hop concept album from the beat collective of Urban Sasquatch, Hindsight Genius, and the Red Carpet Hobo. This is gonna be an extremely limited CD release that will include a DVD and fold-out comic. Ayayay.
Oh, and the Traffic Violation digital re-issues. FUCK. I think I've bitten off more than I can chew here.