Grilled Tofu Sandwhich

Fuck I'm hungry.


I need to learn to use this photograph machine

TOFU SCRAMBLE, BY ME.


I'm not a photographer, the picture sucks I know I know. I ate it all before I realized how bad I was at this.

Small package from Mad At The World Records from Montreal. It's nice being able to order something from the same country I live in every so often.

The Cheap Tragedies full length Volume 1: Souvenirs And Evidence is an excellent mix of hard rock influenced punk and straight forward youth-crew hardcore. Featuring an all-star lineup of sorts its rather surprising they aren't more well known. Whatever, this rules a ton!

I'm not going to review a shirt, but if you haven't checked out Omegas from Montreal, get on that shit ASAP. You are missing out big time!

alright, so I made a pretty big Deathwish order the other week. There was alot of stuff that I wanted but I'm cheap so I wanted to wait for the Lewd Acts LP to come out so I'd only have to pay shipping once. Super stoked at how fast this shipped, especially considering the Lewd Acts LP was a pre-order.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.....

Unfortunately at this point I almost wish I just ordered ahead of time and forgot about Black Eyed Blues. If you have ever heard me complain about music, you'll know that I don't think very many current bands can pull off successful full-lengths. Case in point, Black Eyed Blues. I consider myself a fan of Lewd Acts, I liked their various material before their LP and with the exceedingly strong Lung Patrol EP I had my hopes way too high. First side of the LP is pretty solid, although for some reason parts come off as Cursed worship, weird. Side B is boring, especially lyrically. I'm sure other people will eat this up though, so more power to them. Whatever, at least I don't have to worry about flipping the record over. Record packaging (and poster) sure are pretty though, major high five to whoever designed them

Speaking of not flipping over records, Creatures' 12" EP I, Lucifer is up next! I'm not going to lie, I didn't have real high expectations for this one, but it was a pleasant surprise. Initially coming off as a poor man's Iron Age, the EP manages to hold its own by the end. Great heavy thrash riffs, it's clear these guys know their way around their instruments. The lyrical style isn't really my thing, but the vocals fit real well. Inhabiting only one side of the 12", this is the perfect length. And with the well placed instrumental track it's clear that length and timing is something these guys are conscious of, more bands should follow suit. The whole satanic thing is beginning to get a bit stale, but Jesus God loving Christ this album art is awesome. Possible candidate for my favorite of 09.

Cold World drops some new material in the form of a split with Pennsylvania veterans Strength For A Reason. Heavy without coming off as needlessly tough, the SFAR shares similarities with early Hatebreed, not a bad thing at all. In fact, I think their side is slightly stronger (no pun intended) than Cold World's. The Wilkes-Barre side has got a wicked intro complete with trademark sample, and it kicks into one of the strongest Cold World songs I've heard since Ice Grillz so highfives to them.

Streetwalkers are straight forward hardcore band that apparently shares member(s) (don't know who) with some band called Ceremony or something. The Vile Thoughts EPsounds like a modernized early black flag. In short, I like it alot. pick this up asap, probably my second favorite record of this batch!

Outbreak are back with a two song one-sided 7" clled Working Dead it's okay. They're maturing as a band and the energy comes through very well in Ryan's voice, but there's something about this EP that prevents it from connecting. Pick it up if you really like Outbreak. Oh, I listened to it 4 times in the time it took me to write this blurb, it's short in case you hadn't guessed.

Ahh yes, the most exciting of the bunch, Boiling Over's Trash City. As if the name didn't give away the surprise, this is great 80s Boston hardcore revial. Musically great, lyrically on point, I have absolutely no gripes with this record in the least. Will be getting regular rotation from me, for sure.

Returning to the realm of heavy hardcore, Downpresser are back with their second EP, Age of Ignorance there's something about the vocals and lyrics that have me coming back to this band. This doesn't surpass the Perverted Justice EP but it comes pretty close. These guys seem to bust their butts and it seems to slowly be paying off, hopefully they manage to tour thoroughly because they are a band I would really like to see.

Lastly is Mother Of Mercy's Passing Through The Fire everyone and their cousins seem to ride this band's dick right now, and with good reason. Just straight up good music. No lyrics insert here and Bob's vocals are hard to make out but other than that a solid EP, their full length, III is out on Six Feet Under, check both of these out. Oh, R.I.P LetxDown.

Fuck that was way too long, next time I get an order like this it's getting split up into two posts.

Also, I ordered a Terror LP and it was out of stock apparently. The nice people at Deathwish sent me a coupon for $11 in store credit and a copy of TUI's Secrets of the World. Don't know if this was intentional or not, but wicked! I now have two copies, if you want to trade for this one, let me know! (I'll trade for pretty much any LP)

I'm going to start reviewing things (mainly records) that I get in the mail. Here's today's!

I put off ordering any Polar Bear Club stuff because I don't buy CDs, and with their B9 signing, I knew vinyl was soon to come.

This band has always reminded me very strongly of a blend between Saves the Day and Jawbreaker and as such I find it very hard for them to disappoint me. Redder The Better has what I think to be the optimal length for a punk record, slightly longer than a conventional 7" EP, but still shorter than an LP. Musically I think it was their strongest work to date, but the lyrics pale in comparison to Sometimes Things Just Fall Apart. Their first full length has a good number of standout songs, especially "Our Ballads" highlighting the mysterious belief that punk is a boys club only, and it's something that bands will rarely tackle for some odd reason. The album does drag on at points, I can see myself just listening to this one side at a time, it's not so much that Side B is worse just that it's alot of similar (although good) sounding music to digest at once.

The Summer Of George EP is a fantastic sample of what's to be expected from their new album, and if it does follow suit with the EP it will feature much more concise songs, stronger vocals (not that they were poor before) and lyrics dealing with a variety of topics. On the EP alone, "Dead Man" deals with one wasting their life while "Boxes" is about dudes in punk rock bands who somehow get the idea that they're in Aerosmith and start treating people like shit.

I also picked up the R'N'R/Fit For Abuse Split which for some reason is only 1$ on the B9 e-store. Both of these bands were slightly before my time, so it's taken me a while to get around to listening to them. Both sides are wicked with RNR being the stronger of the two sides with two songs about the state of modern punk and hardcore (The meaning of "Punk's Dead, Hardcore's Next" is pretty obvious, while "Your Own Band" address the high number of imitation bands springing up and following trends.) Pressed in 2005, the problems still remain. Ironically, it's no surprise these bands are being ignored by the Bridge 9 crowd.