Screw Record Store Day, seriously. At least, screw the "if someone else wants it, then I want it too" mentality that has people lining up outside record stores hours before they open, then going onto eBay before noon to bid $40 on the already-overpriced $8 single that they didn't get. Screw the major labels trying to turn their moldy $3 used bin-cloggers into re-pressed "collectibles"-- I mean, aren't these the same idiots who were trying to bury the mom-and-pop stores and telling us all along that vinyl wasn't worth shit anymore? And now here they are, trying to leech off what everyone else has already accomplished by going ahead without them.
Not that I didn't enjoy Record Store Day anyway, even if I took my time getting down to Redscroll at around 8pm... meaning all the high-ranking Record Store Day "exclusives" were long gone already, leaving nothing but a few random clunkers. I flipped through the box of RSD leftovers anyway, just for laughs, and I may have even visibly flinched when I almost touched an Eric Clapton record by accident. In the end, the only sort-of RSD record that I ended up buying was an extra copy of the new Iron Hand 7", which had been given a special hand-numbered sleeve (limited to 35 - I skimmed through all of them and pulled out #27 (pop punk)) just for Record Store Day, which also happened to be the same day as the Iron Hand record release show that Redscroll was sponsoring later that night.
photo swiped from Redscroll's blog
Waiting for the Iron Hand/Confines/Gowl show to start (Vaccine were also on the bill but had to drop out when their drummer got an infected leg or something) gave me some extended time to browse through Redscroll's used bins, especially the ones in the neglected back room where they happened to have every AC/DC LP up through "Flick of The Switch" for maybe three dollars each, including "Powerage" and "If You Want Blood". Now that's a fucking GREAT RECORD STORE! Redscroll improved the size of their used selection recently, so now they're definitely worth the drive from out-of-state or somewhere, though the store is still only about 4 yrs old so don't go there expecting to find any Huns singles or anything. What you will find is that they still don't sell much garage stuff (though that's slowly changing), so when they do get a used copy of something from X! or Die Stasi, they usually put it out for only a couple of bucks. The extra time I've spent in Redscroll and Brass City Records over the past two weeks has been worth it in more ways than I could've figured; as a for instance, now I know someone's been going to every store in CT and turning in all their used Daybed records.
I've seen Gowl a couple of times this year. Trying to figure out what Gowl are doing is funny, because they seem like straight-up grind with cookie monster vocals most of the time, but then they have these Melvins-like sludge-metal parts, and there's even a song midway through their split tape w/Stone Titan where they sound like fuckin' Montrose. Live, they're a bit different-- the guitar player holds back a lot, so the bass almost becomes the lead instrument, which is sorta cool... Confines is another band that I've been waiting to see for a while now, or ever since I first heard their demo, which was probably my favorite HC demo of 2009. They weren't quite as out-of-control as I had figured based on that whole made-up "mysterious guy hardcore" thing (which means what, they put a black and white picture of a house on the front of their demo?), but they still delivered. Their songs totally rip, but they still take the time to add some crunchy hard rock riffs-- not like metal or even mosh parts necessarily, but parts where they drop into a rock beat while still keeping the tempo up. The singer was flat-out nuts most of the time-- I kinda wish more people had taken his lead and had done a bit more moving around, just not me, I'd rather not get stepped on.
Iron Hand's set was vicious, probably the hardest set I've ever seen them play. Usually I mostly watch Ross' drumming whenever I see Iron Hand play, but this time it was different, as I don't think I've ever seen Brian sing as good as he did on Saturday. I still can't always pick up on what song they're playing because it's mostly just one big twin-engine roar that goes right over my head, but now that their record's out I'm getting better at it. I think "Phobia" is my favorite song on the EP, but they've put up the title track ("Usurper Divine") as a free dowload on their Bandcamp page, so that's the route that I'm going to take here. There's another Iron Hand song-- from their upcoming "Liquid Assets" 7" on Safety Meeting-- that you can grab for free also, providing that you can get your hands on the Safety Meeting 2011 sampler which was part of the Record Store Day swag that Redscroll was giving away. How 'bout that, some real Record Store Day goodness.
"Phoning It In"
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