Bis Aufs Messer Weekly news 03 May 2024
Hi, welcome to another newsletter for May. A bunch of cool stuff arrived like lots of Dischord restocks (Fugazi, Hammered Hulls, Minor Threat, Q and Not U etc), a couple COUNT YOUR LUCKY STARS restocks like Penfold, Empire!Empire, Goalies … etc. also restock of the KOLYA LP, a few Charles Bronson LPs, CONTINUALS LP, the new LE ALMEIDA - I Feel In the Sky LP and restock of their previous one one plus ORUA restock, FLOWERTOWN - Time Trials LP repress, TRUE FAITH - The Always Hurt your More LP re issue. JIM SAAH - In My Eyes Book restock, SIEKIERA - Jarocin '84 LP, JAMES RUSHFORD - Turzets LP, TOM SKINNER - Voices of Bishara Live at "mu" DLP, X MAL DEUTSCHLAND - Early Singles (1981 - 1982) LP restock, Circus Lupus, Vile Cherubs, Young Ginns etc restock,
Our first run of SHELLAC - to all trains LP are gone already - but we getting more next week.
And TONIGHT On May 17th we have another Vernissage with live music by Nein Rodere. Don’t miss out.
https://www.facebook.com/events/786378463198544
We also added (adding) a few more second hand LPs and 7“s to our discogs
https://www.discogs.com/seller/XMESSERX
Thank you as usual
Til then thank you for all your orders & support.
Robert & Norman
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7“
DRINK DEEP - DD 7“ (This is the debut 7” of Berlin’s own Drink Deep – one of the most exciting new band that appeared in the local scene recently. This EP titled “DD” contains eight fast and punchy songs that revive a classic, yet forgotten sound among their hardcore punk contemporaries. This new band features players from three different continents who have put in the time and dedication in groups such as Praise, Remission and The Fog. They formed after the pandemic and have wasted no time, as they’ve been consistently playing across Europe during their first year together. Now we can appreciate the high energy from their live performances in a studio recording, and the combination of their early influences (Minor Threat, Bad Brains, 7 Seconds) is something that will surely remind people of when they first fell in love with hardcore.) 8.00
LP
CONTINUALS - same LP (dischord - The songs on this album were recorded in Baltimore, Maryland by J. Robbins at The Magpie Cage in October, 2021 and February, 2023. Specifically, the songs “March 3rd,” “Caught Me Slippin’,”and “Flying Cross” were recorded during the October '21 session, and all the rest of the songs were recorded during the February '23 session. Additional tracks (vocals, guitar, and percussion) were recorded by Ryan at his home in Alexandria (and in the case of “Before,” at Melissa’s home in DC). Ryan worked on the mixes for a while until he hit an insurmountable sonic wall, and then the whole band went back to Magpie to finalize all of the mixes with J.) 28.00
DIVISION OF LAURA LEE - At the Royal Club LP (lovitt - 25th-anniversary release of our 1999 album "At the Royal Club.“ Swedish musicians/skateboarders originally from Vänersborg, Sweden heavily influenced by post-punk bands, Britpop and the DC music scene (Dischord Records).
The name comes from Laura Lee, a soul singer, and the phrase "Division Of" which was spotted on a cardboard box at their practice space. The band resides in Gothenburg, Sweden.
This re-issue features a compilation of tracks from the our first two years as a band. Previously released only on CD and digital, the re-issue of "At the Royal Club" has been meticulously remastered for vinyl to bring a new life to the original recording. ) 32.00
FLESH OF MORNING - Here in heaven LP (Flesh of Morning is an electronic darkwave duo by Faiza Kracheni and Travis Benson. Named after the 1953 Stan Brakhage film, the duo is influenced by cinema, art, and moving images to create cold atmospheric minimal beats and pulsing synths coupled with ethereal vocals. Faiza’s lyrics explore calls for social justice, human isolation, and destruction.) 26.00
FLOWERTOWN - Time Trials LP (paisley. REPRESSED ON GREEN TRANSPARENT VINYL!
A new album from the prolific San Francisco duo; low fidelity dream pop songs by Karina Gill & Mike Ramos. Written and recorded between August 2020 and January 2021, named “Time Trials” for the obvious reason of what the last few months of 2020 was like globally, and the strange side effects of time slowing down and speeding up and generally getting more and more hazy. ) Karina says, “we’ve gotten more comfortable with - and hopefully better at - collaborating and playing together and recording ourselves. We hope these songs invite you to Flowertown as it exists for us - a way to be when ‘you can race the clock, but you’ll be the first one to stop’.“) 27.00
JAMES RUSHFORD - Turzets LP (blank forms - The latest in a prolific string of solo and collaborative releases by James Rushford, Turzets collects a pair of new works primarily created and recorded last year while the Australian composer-performer was in residence at La Becque, an art center on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The side-length piece “Fallaway Whisk” explores hesitation in its many forms—reticence of speech, sonic restraint—using live, abstracted translations of text from English to German against a lush and swelling soundscape. On the flip side, “Quire” is a work in ten movements influenced by the composer’s study of late medieval repertoire on portative organ, weaving the instrument’s woodsy interlocking melodies with angelic Yamaha CS-80 synth sweeps and stuttering glitches. The combined effort is somewhat a departure for Rushford, working in traces of Klaus Schulze, concrete poetry, and ars subtilior into a precise and ever-unfolding tapestry.) 30.00
KOLYA - s/t LP (Originally released by Caulfield Records in 2001, this is the long-awaited and recently remastered vinyl reissue of Kolya's only full length recording."One of the few bands that brought that 90's sound in the early 00's and hearing that transition of post-hardcore. You can hear it a lot in this record. Much similar to Relationship Of Command or Full Collapse.“) 35.00
LE ALMEIDA - I Feel In the Sky LP (ifb - Brazil’s indie wizard returns with a transcendent dose of jazzy and hazy psychedelic indie rock bliss. Perfectly crafted vibed out bliss! ) 22.00
SIEKIERA - Jarocin '84 LP (refuse - Comes in gatefold sleeve with inner sleeve with lyrics and 24-page booklet. “SIEKIERA (the axe) has cut everything that could be cut evenly” – Piotr Nagłowski, Jarocin 84 announcer, shortly after their set. “Even not quite punk people are crazy about SIEKIERA – the energy was huge. In one day, Siekiera became a nationwide sensation, and years later the word ‘Jarocin’ is synonymous with the band’s category for many.”- Robert Jarosz (Archiwum Trasa W-Z) Historical live recordings of Siekiera – one of the most legendary bands of the Polish music scene of the 1980s. Recorded during both of the band’s performances: the competition and the final set at the Jarocin festival in 1984. Two songs from the final concert appeared on the “Fala” compilation LP (Polton, 1985). Years later, most of these live recordings appeared on the Siekiera “Na wszystkich frontach świata” CD (W Moich Oczach, 2008), but only now for the first time are all the songs that were played on August 1 and August 4, 1984 being released in one place.) 30.00
STRYCHNOS - armageddon patronage LP (dark descent - Armageddon Patronage is the second album from Copenhagen’s purveyors of ‘accursed death’ Strychnos.
Armageddon Patronage embodies the immense drive of a band operating at full throttle, refining their distinct blend of extreme metal bound to no god, master, or genre. Following a string of intense and blood-stained festival performances Strychnos is now the name on the underground’s lips. Propelled by this vast momentum, the band toiled tirelessly to record and release Armageddon Patronage less than two years after their debut.) 32.00
THANK YOU, I’M SORRY - growing in strange places LP (cyls Thank You, I'm Sorry released their first full band album "I'm Glad We're Friends" in 2020 and we've been waiting for a follow up ever since. Saying "Growing in Strange Places" was well worth the wait is an understatement. Their third album finds the band following their most adventurous ambitions, sprinkling in styles ranging from dream pop to indie to riot grrrl. It's also a cumulation of a seasoned band that has found their footing through years of touring and hard work. The know when to take risks and when they have a good thing to lean into to. If that isn't growth, we don't know what is. ) 27.00
TOM SKINNER - Voices of Bishara Live at "mu" DLP (international anthem - Hand-numbered edition of 1,200. With insert and screen-printed jacket. In January 2023, Tom Skinner and his ensemble performed material from his recently-released album 'Voices of Bishara' (Brownswood, IARC & Nonesuch, 2022) at London club “mu”— a venue founded by the curators at Brilliant Corners and named after the seminal Don Cherry live album. Their performance was augmented by three pieces by Abdul Wadud, whose 1977 self-released solo cello album, By Myself, was a primary inspiration for Voices of Bishara. The woodwinds featured on Skinner's original Voices of Bishara album — Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia — had already been replaced in Skinner's live ensemble with Robert Stillman (who also plays with Skinner in The Smile) and Chelsea Carmichael; with the extended rhythm section of Tom Herbert (double bass) and Kareem Dayes (cello) still rounding out the lineup with Skinner on drums.) 42.00
TZOMPANTLI - Tlazcaltiliztli LP (20 buck spin - With first album ’Tlazcaltiliztli’, Tzompantli called forth a penetrating strike of Death and Doom Metal like a poisoned arrow through the heart. The band’s foundation in Indigenous / Native rituals, history and lore, and merging of traditional instruments into their sound made for one of 2022’s most uniquely voiced metal records. Now Tzompantli have again been summoned from the smoke of the ancient fires with a new offering at the altar of human sacrifice, ‘Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force’. Fearsomely brutal marches of war-like, percussive Death Metal are contrasted with melancholy passages of longing spirit and entrancing ceremonial invocations to the ancestors. The Tzompantli tribe has greatly expanded on this second album with 10+ musicians enlisted in the conjuring of wrathful deities and collection of invader skulls.There has been no shortage of fantastic Death/Doom records in recent years and Tzompantli’s latest entry in the genre’s pantheon demonstrates its continued expansion into wider musical and thematic arenas. The anguished fortitude at the heart of ‘Beating The Drums of Ancestral Force’ exalts in the blood and ash of empire and would be conquerors, a fiery lamentation to centuries of erasure.) 28.00
TRUE FAITH - The Always Hurt your More LP (a lacarte - Fresh on the heels of their Leucovorin Rescue b/w What Is Owed 7”, True Faith emerges with their debut full-length album, They Can Always Hurt You More — a bleak introspective view into the dehumanizing experience of medical trainees. Entering the last year of their medical education, the members of True Faith serve up this album as a reflection of the trials and tribulations of the past year.) 26.00
“While this album is a testament to our own personal experiences with mistreatment and abuse in the medical system, I think it really speaks to a greater theme of labor exploitation across all disciplines,” says Benson. From the echoing chorus of “haven’t you had enough” in Gestalt to the sobering resignation of idealism of The Passion, these songs are direct reflections of a system that eats its own.
THE WORLD IS A VAMPIRE - Trenchsewer LP (ifb - the New Orleans' The World is a Vampire delivers a serving of unsettled noisy goth punk. Add doses of 90's grunge and goth influence but create something truly nightmarish with it as they layer on bouts of vicious hardcore and moments of complete dementia. The sound is blown up as if played through mud, with huge distortion and the maniacal, shrieking, spectral howls of Bryan from Thou. This is a masterful melding of genres feat. KC from Thou/Treadles, Clayton of Heat Dust, Scott from Secret Passage, Michael from Silver Dodling, and Rachel of Bitchface. Absolutely fantastic ugly punk for these times) 22.00
VELCROS - strange news from the vault LP (crazy sane. “This album gets better with every listen, as more and more tracks become memorable and stick with you.” (Ox Fanzine)
“In 1994, someone told me that guitar music was dead. I’m thrilled that, even after thirty years, there are still such fantastic new bands.” (Jan Müller, Tocotronic / Reflektor)
“A second band with the power of Velcros will be hard to find this year. Their punk is light-footed, their melodies hit the mark” (VISIONS) 24.00
X MAL DEUTSCHLAND - Early Singles (1981 - 1982) LP (sacred bones - "Gothics” - a time before the word goth had even taken shape - believed in the do-it-yourself punk ethos that anyone could pick up an instrument. Gray clouds were starting to form and in the unlikely city of Hamburg, a brazen and haunting gang of five women formed Xmal Deutschland. As any true punk would, Xmal Deutschland’s members Caro May, Rita Simon, Manuela Rickers, Fiona Sangster and Anja Huwe, started the band despite any previous musical experience. The “Schwarze Welt” seven-inch was released on the local punk label, ZickZack, in 1981 and introduced the band as an unsettling swarm of intensity. There’s an urgency in its repetitive dirge, a swirling mania that persists on the b-side with “Die Wolken” and “Großstadtindianer” whose crude synthesizer noises escalate intention. Most of all, Huwe’s uniquely venomous German vocals quickly became embedded in the unbridled and burgeoning scene of glamorous gloom.) 28.00
TAPES
BLEACHED CROSS - exhumed TAPE (a La Carte - “Exhumed” is the final offering from the studio sessions that produced the self-titled debut from Chicago’s Bleached Cross. Featuring a previously unheard B-Side entitled “Despise”, as well as remixes by The True Faith and Meatman (Trevor Vaughan), and unearthed demos from the time leading up to that recording session, this is simultaneously a bookend to the beginning stages of the band while also signaling the start of the next chapter in their sonic journey. Cold, introspective, and haunting, Bleached Cross have been making it their business to convert the masses into believers of their oppressive post-punk sound. With the release of “Exhumed” and future touring plans on the horizon, it’s not too late to join in their next ritual…LET IT BLEED. ) 14.00
BOOKS
JIM SAAH - In My Eyes Book (restock - In My Eyes, Photographs 1982-1997 features hundreds of impressive (and never-before-seen) photos of punk and hardcore legends such as: Fugazi, Minor Threat, Void, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, Jawbox, Government Issue, The Faith, Iron Cross and more. But Saah’s musical palette wasn’t just confined to punk rock, as evidenced by the inclusion of The Cramps, The Pixies, Lou Reed, Guided by Voices, Fishbone, Wilco et al. The hardcover book closes with several intimate interviews between Saah and longtime friends/fans including Ian MacKaye, J. Robbins , Jon Langford , artist Shepard Fairey, and photographers Cynthia Connolly and Patrick Graham. In My Eyes: Photographs 1982-1997 is by far the most comprehensive photographic music document of its kind, vividly capturing the essence of a time and a place—with all of punk's original passion, energy and total abandon still very much intact within its pages. This is a 12x12 , 332 page, coffee table art book.) 65.00
