I’m planning to revive it as soon as my complete collection is online. Doing a lot of things in little time does not mix well.

Clear version with screen-printed jacket and alternative artwork

Gunner Records is known for releasing music from great US bands for the European market that haven’t gotten much attention there up to that point. We’re talking about bands like Gaslight Anthem, Cobra Skulls, Red City Radio and PEARS among others.

This time Gunner Records has brought us ‘Tall Cans And Loose Ends’ by San Francisco’s Get Dead, which was originally self-released in 2012. It’s the band’s 2nd full length after their 2009 debut ‘Letters Home’. Unlike their most recent album on Fat Wreck Chords, ‘Tall Cans and Loose Ends’ is purely acoustic. All in all, it’s a very solid effort with heartfelt punk rock songs like ‘Escape Plan’, ‘This One’s For Johnny’ or the snotty ‘Fuck You’. It’s the perfect music to down a pint or two and sing along to.

As for the vinyl, a big cheer needs to go to Gunner Records! As we have become accustomed to already, they have again released two color vinyl versions, but as a treat one of these comes with special limited collector’s packaging as well, very cool. 380 copies on sexy as hell translucent red vinyl are packed in the standard sleeve. The ‘collectors’ version is on clear vinyl, limited to 100 copies and sports a screen-printed and hand-numbered jacket. Both together make an awesome duo and Gunnar’s (yep that is his name and label, no pun here) touch to release fantastic looking records is quite evident here. It is labels like this that bring joy to the collectors world and I can only urge everyone to head over to Gunner Records i and support this excellent label by picking up a red and the more limited clear version, and some other releases whilst you are at it.

Margate’s ‘Beards In Paradise‘ is another Cyber Tracks release. After a digital only release of their last album, the label thankfully decided to give their new record a vinyl treatment. It comes on translucent highlighter yellow vinyl, is limited to 250 copies and available exclusively through Interpunk. Again, Jimbo Phillips did a rad job with the artwork for this 10’’ mini-album.

One look at that cover and you’ll know what to expect: summer, sun & fun. And it does not disappoint. Putting the record on the turn-table feels like travelling back in time to the 1990s. It’s a perfect record for any surf or skateboard fan. Great skate punk and the songs are all killers, no fillers!

Go get it here while supplies last.

This Legend is a band formed by two ex-Yellowcard members. Their music and therefore this debut album can easily be defined as pop-punk. Basically there’s nothing bad about pop-punk. This Legend are carrying the pop part a bit too far though. The music’s not bad, there are some songs that are real bangers. But overall it’s too slow and sweet for me and too pop-punky in its entirety. I’m pretty sure it would be an awesome record if there were more fast songs like ‘My City‘.

The record has been released by Cyber Tracks, NOFX’ guitarist El Hefe and his wife’s record label and is pressed on cyan blue vinyl. The artwork was done by the legendary Jimbo Phillips, also known for NUFAN’s Leche Con Carne. You can easily see the connection looking at the covers. The release was announced for February 2015, and pre-orders had gone up about 5 months before (September 2014). I finally received the vinyl in late September 2015, nearly one year after pre-orders had started. Lame!

Anyways, it’s still available at the Cyber Tracks store.

Woo-hoo!!!! Another Fat Wreck compilation in 2015! I am ecstatic! But why should I be so happy? This year has seen a lot of Fat comps, an awful lot. Or to be exact and for the few of you that clearly have lost count, it has seen two. But in five different sleeves. After the three installments of the Greetings From series (each with the same tracklist, but a different jacket), we now have Fat Music Vol. 8 to celebrate 24 years … sorry, 25 years of Fat Wreck Chords. That’s why it’s 25 songs. The same tracklist, and even the same vinyl colors (including the labels!) surprise, surprise will be used for this year’s Fat Music for Fest People V, which is Fest 14 in 2015. Confused? Well the vinyl color options don’t make this whole thing any clearer either.

Besides black, there are red + blue, pink + gold, baby blue + mint green, orange + purple (retail version) and baby pink + pastel purple (second pressing mail order). My version is on translucent pink and gold and it is limited to 164 copies. The records are in a single jacket with an insert that tells us where the songs have been released previously. Besides the songs of Western Addiction and Swingin’ Utters all songs have already been released or are very likely to be released in the near future.

Joking aside, I’m glad that there is another Fat Music comp, which means the series will continue. I’ve always liked them a lot. I just wonder if it had to be on the back of that massive 10’’ compilation series. And I would have wished for a more exclusive release to celebrate their 24th … oops, 25th anniversary.

‘Mutiny At Muscle Beach’ is the Night Birds’ 3rd full-length and the first one released on Fat Wreck Chords. In my opinion, this is their most aggressive and energetic record so far. Their music is heavily influenced by surf punk and classic 80s punk bands like Adolescents, Circle Jerks, Naked Raygun or The Damned. With ‘Mutiny At Muscle Beach’ the Night Birds remain true to themselves. They haven’t changed a thing, just because they’re on a bigger label now. But being on Fat Wreck Chords might have inspired them to create killer songs like ‘Left In The Middle’ or ‘Blank Eyes’. Who knows …

And they still stick to their policy of not releasing any colored vinyl. Besides the standard black there is also a black heavyweight (180g) version, which comes in a screen-printed jacket. It is hand-numbered and limited to 500 copies. If you’re lucky, you can get one of the few random cover variants that are stamped on the inside or have a drawings by the Night Birds themselves.

Now fuckers, go and check out ‘Blank Eyes’ and ‘Left In The Middle’ already:

Vinyl colors

Sleeve variations

The Great Thieves Escape EP is a 4-way split 7’’ EP. Personally, I’m not too fond of 4-way splits because you only find one new song of a band you might like on it. The big advantage is that you get to know other bands. This EP starts off with Get Dead’s song ‘Coma State’. It’s a rough and unleashed punk song unlike the acoustic sound from their last full length ‘Bad News’ on Fat Wreck Chords. The second song ‘Horizon’ is melodic streetpunk by the Berlin-based four piece The Uprising. Side B starts with ‘Wake The Dead’, a garage rock song with distorted voice by toyGuitar.  The classic punk song ‘Second Chances’ by New Jersey’s own Lost In Society finishes off this EP.

Two small German record labels, True Trash Records and Flix Records, have teamed up for this release, each with different cover concepts. The artwork itself looks awesome, and there are three different screen-printed sleeve versions (77 lavender, 40 turquoise and 34 grey) for the 151 copies on black vinyl. There are also 150 copies each on white, red and purple vinyl in the standard sleeve. So, all in all there are 601 copies of this record floating around. Get your copy here (Flix Records exclusive version) or there (True Trash Records exclusive and standard versions) and enjoy this great 7’’.

You can check out the toyGuitar song if you need more to convince you:

Great Collapse is a punk band with vocals by Thomas Barnett from Strike Anywhere, backed by the likes of guitarist Chris Chasse (Rise Against), Joe Saucedo (Set Your Goals) on bass and drummer Kyle Profeta (Comeback Kid). Another “supergroup”? No, not again! Too many so called bands have shot up like mushrooms recently, just to live out each member’s personal imagination of music, only to leave the fans with a mediocre album. But Great Collapse is different. Very different. While listening to ‘Holy War‘, you never get the feeling that this is a release to cash in. The music is honest and the lyrics are political and serious. I really like what I hear and a few songs remind me of Good Riddance, both lyrically and musically. Although the album has its lows, it’s still a brilliant debut album that leaves you wanting more.

All in all another fine release of End Hits Records. So far, there isn’t a US vinyl version, the US CD is self-released, just like their debut EP ‘Elemental‘ (that’s gotten a vinyl treatment recently). It’s pressed on white or translucent red vinyl. Both colors compliment the artwork perfectly.

Here’s my favorite song from the album caled ‘Break In Case Of Emergency‘. Check it out:

What a band! After having released some 7’’s, but only four full albums, there is already a Flatliners collection of B-Sides, compilation tracks or yet unreleased tracks from various recording sessions. Unusually, this collection of random songs is better than a lot of regular albums by other bands. Some of the outtakes are even better than songs they’ve put on their albums! One of these songs is ‘Daggers‘ (one of my personal top 5 Flatliners songs ever!). Quite often great songs don’t make an album cut, because they don’t fit either lengthwise or conceptually. So, of course, ‘Division Of Spoils‘ doesn’t follow a concept and the songs do not always flow well in their order, but if you listen to each song on its own, there are a lot of killer tracks on that album.

The record comes on bone colored vinyl with black splatter for sides A/B and on grey vinyl w/ faint white splatter for sides C/D. It’s packaged in a gatefold sleeve. I find particularly interesting that there are two lyric sheets with information during which session the songs were recorded and how they were previously released (if at all).

This record helps bridging the waiting time for their next studio album. One thing is already certain, they won’t disappoint.

Lagwagon‘s ‘Hang‘ is barely a year old and here is already new music from the crooner himself, Joey Cape. His new solo album is titled ‘Stitch Puppy‘, named after a toy doll his daughter gave to him. It comes on standard black or opaque red vinyl.

Although Lagwagon is my favorite band and I’m a fan of all of Joey’s full band projects (Bad Astronaut, Bad Loud, …), I’ve always had difficulties getting into his stripped-down acoustic works. I can’t say there is anything particularly wrong with ‘Stitch Puppy‘, it just feels that equally not everything is right. Joey is undoubtedly a very gifted songwriter and lyricist, but the combination of melancholy music and the dark, mostly personal lyrics on ‘Stitch Puppy‘ is too depressing for me. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a bad album though. You can find some awesome tunes like ‘Moral Compass‘, ‘This Life Is Strange‘ or ‘Tracks‘ on this album and the flow of the songs is quite good too. Joey is aided by great guest vocalists like Chris Cresswell and various instruments like piano or cello, which keeps the whole album interesting. Still, and I guess it’s just me, it’s difficult for me to listen to this album in one go. On the plus side, this might be the perfect soundtrack for a cold and foggy autumn day.

Check out the song that is available for streaming: