Power Trip - Demo 2008

Artist: Power Trip
Title: Demo 2008
Release Date: 2008
Label: Self Released

Track List:
1. What Have We Done
2. This World
3. Acid Trip
4. Untitled
5. Vultures

I feel kind of conflicted about posting this. Let me preface this entire post with this: go to Withdrawl Records and order the demo in 7" format. While your at it head over to Double or Nothing Records and order their latest 7" on all three colors.

For those not in the know Power Trip is fronted by Riley from Balls Out. If you're from outside of Texas you probably aren't familiar with them since they (to my knowledge) only went on one tour with Look Out! (now Lie and Wait) back in early 2006. Power Trip sounds very little like Balls Out, but Riley's intensity as a vocalist is still present, in fact he's gotten even more angry and more passionate than he was when Balls Out was still going. Balls Out played a show tonight actually, but it was because it was one of the last shows at Red Blood Club, the last punk venue in Dallas. Power Trip played as well and they opened with a Leeway intro which is only fitting given how the rest of their songs sound. I should also mention that the rest of the dudes in the band used to be in a band called Reality Check which was pretty good, but Power Trip is on a whole other level. Most of them aren't even out of high school yet which blows my mind. Nick also has a new zine out that's pretty gnarly. Power Trip is the real deal.

Download: Power Trip - Demo 2008 (LAME 3.98r V0)

Out To Sea - Mouth Like A Sailor Demo 2008

Artist: Out To Sea
Title: Mouth Like A Sailor Demo 2008
Release Date: 2008
Label: Self Released

Track List:
1. Out To Sea
2. Hearts For The Heartless
3. There Was A Man...
4. Broken Mirrors
5. The Animated Dummy
6. A New Flame

I told Kurt I would post this online just to spite him so here it is. Out To Sea is from Dallas. Kurt (guitar) is also in Highlife who is doin' big thangs in 2008. Jeff (guitar) was in Balls Out and he's one of the best dudes ever. I play D&D with Blake (vocals). Ernest (bass) is only half Mexican and he was in Serious Youth so who cares about him. I don't really know Chris (drums) but he seems like a nice guy. I really can't stop listening to this demo, it's recorded so amazingly well. It sounds like a full fledged release on a major label, but they put it out themselves. Blake's vocals are the kind of sorta melodic screaming that used to be so huge many years ago now and it works perfectly with the music which is also pretty melodic in places but with just enough crunch to still be hard as fuck. Kurt told me they overlayed the guitar tracks 6 times in the mastering process. I really can't say enough good things about this band, good dudes, good music. I don't know if they're sending out these demos through the mail, but you should send them a message on myspace and ask them to sell you a demo and a t-shirt (designed by Ernest's brother-in-law).

Download: Out To Sea - Mouth Like A Sailor Demo 2008 (LAME 3.98r V0)

Tarpit - Wake Up

Artist: Tarpit
Title: Wake Up
Release Date: 2006
Label: Collapse Records

Track List:
1. Smoke and Mirrors
2. Slave
3. The Cycle
4. Your Shit Stinks
5. The Swan
6. Gloom Merchants

Holy shit this band rules. Very very fast and obviously very very angry hardcore from Virginia Beach. The only thing I really know about this band is that some of the members were in Iron Boots and Victims. They recently released a new full length called "Vultures". Since I managed to snag this 7" a while back I've included high res scans of the artwork. Hopefully someone out there enjoys this band as much as I do, because I once drove about two or three hours with this EP on repeat the whole time.

Download: Tarpit - Wake Up (LAME 3.90 APS)

Seeker - Demo 2008

Artist: Seeker
Title: Demo 2008
Release Date: 2008
Label: Self Released

Track List:
1. Intro
2. Losing
3. Life Not Lived
4. Subtle Cull
5. Lush

TEXAS STRAIGHT EDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My friend Ernest thinks Seeker isn't quite as good as I and some others around these parts make them out to be. I have to respectfully disagree. Seeker fucking rules. It's so good to see another awesome straight edge band from Texas. Currently On My Side holds the title of my favorite, but Seeker is a close number two. They're from Austin and comprised of members of Vitality!, Layin' it Down, Black Past, and probably a bunch of other bands I don't know about.

This is a sorta bad rip I did myself from the cassette demo. There's better sounding tracks available on their myspace but you can't download them. I have no idea if they'd be angry at me for posting this here, but it's so good I can't resist.

Update: Seeker was kind enough to make available a digital copy of the demo straight from the source so we can skip all the awkward analog to digital business. It sounds MUCH better than the copy I had previously supplied.

Download: Seeker - Demo 2008 (FhG 256 kbps)

Look Out! - Unrestrained

Artist: Look Out!
Title: Unrestrained
Release Date: 2006
Label: Triple B Records and Team Science Records

Track List:
1. Barren Waste
2. People of the Book
3. Prophet of Doom
4. Unrestrained
5. Truth & Chaos
6. The Serpent

Sometime in 2006 San Antonio's Look Out! became Lie and Wait. Tyler Lutz, their singer is a huge Quicksand fan and at times it shows, not so much on this record though. Lie and Wait doesn't really sound like Quicksand but it's fairly obvious the influence extends past the name of the band. Tyler also has a shitload of nu-metal shared on SoulSeek, thank god there isn't a hint of that in this record. "Unrestrained" for me personally represents Lie and Wait at their best. That isn't to say their newest release "Led Astray" is bad or even worse in any way, it's just that having seen them play these songs so many times I've grown very attached to them. It's clearly a sort of transition record, coming after 2004's "No Control" which is no where near on the same level as "Unrestrained" and before "Led Astray" which is a better representation of what the band sounds like now. My favorite song on this, "People of the Book", is lyrically a fucking awesome song, dealing with religion and how it will be the death of us all. Musically "Unrestrained" is heavy and full of very catchy guitar riffs that will get stuck in your head for days and the recording quality helps the whole record shine.

Lie and Wait broke up. Womp womp.

Download: Look Out! - Unrestrained (FhG 192 kbps)

My Luck - ...Is Frozen

Artist: My Luck
Title: ...Is Frozen
Release Date: 2001
Label: Youngblood Records

Track List:
1. Antarctica
2. Alone
3. Bitch Please
4. Dead
5. Caring for Nothing
6. Fingers Crossed

My Luck is a band from Houston, TX that I don't think gets the attention they deserve. Perhaps it's because in recent years they really haven't done much (that I'm aware of). Perhaps it's because guitarist Wade Allison is in Iron Age who is one of the best bands out there at the moment. Apparently their singer is obsessed with Antarctica. If you like Champion, Betrayed, or Chain of Strength then this 7" is for you. It sounds more like those bands than their recent work to me. "...Is Frozen" is long out of print, but when it was available there were a slew of colors of vinyl that you could pick it up on and you might get lucky and find one on eBay now and then. Sorry for the small album artwork picture, it's the best I could get.

Download: My Luck - ...Is Frozen (FhG 192 kpbs)

Fucked Up - Looking for Gold

Artist: Fucked Up
Title: Looking for Gold
Release Date: 2004
Label: Self Released

Track List:
1. Looking for Gold Part 1
2. Looking for Gold Part 2
3. Fate of Fates

There really isn't enough that can be said of Fucked Up. They come from Toronto way up north in Canada where the air is nice and clean. They are an absolute blast to see live. And, they do crazy shit like record 18 minute songs that still manage to be no less punk than their 2 minute songs. "Looking for Gold" is one of their longest songs (not quite as long as the more recent "Year of the Pig") and is definitely an odd record. Fucked Up released it themselves in 2004 and included not a single liner note or song title. The A side has a hidden track with lots of whistling and a drum solo. The B side "Fate of Fates" was later re-recorded for the "Hidden World" LP. Good luck ever finding a real copy of this little gem.

Download: Fucked Up - Looking for Gold (LAME 3.92 APS)

Black Flag - Damaged

Artist: Black Flag
Title: Damaged
Release Date: 1981
Label: SST Records

Track List:
1. Rise Above
2. Spray Paint (The Walls)
3. Six Pack
4. What I See
5. TV Party
6. Thirsty and Miserable
7. Police Story
8. Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
9. Depression
10. Room 13
11. Damaged II
12. No More
13. Padded Cell
14. Life of Pain
15. Damaged I


To celebrate the namesake of this blog, here is Black Flag's "Damaged". This album should really need no introduction. But for anyone who isn't aware by now, Black Flag is easily one of the most influential hardcore bands to ever exist. They got their start in Hermosa Beach, CA back in 1977. Their constant touring, especially to smaller towns, helped spread the DIY ethic that has been an essential part of punk for the last three decades. "Damaged" is Black Flag's first full length album and is the first release to have Henry Rollins on vocals. It was put out on Greg Ginn's (lead guitar) label SST Records in 1981 after being recorded only a few weeks after Rollins joined the band. For myself personally when I think of Black Flag this is the album that comes to mind as their most impressive and most important. Much of what they did after this pales in comparison to the raw energy found on "Damaged".

Download: Black Flag - Damaged (LAME 3.97 V0)

First Post

Hi, I've got some big things planned for this blog. It'll probably end up as a run of the mill music blog but hopefully I'll be able to cover some ground that others aren't. At least that's my goal. I'll be uploading releases from all sorts of punk, hardcore, emo, screamo, and crust bands from my collection.

The primary purpose of this blog is to provide as much information on each release as I can. I'm a huge nerd when it comes to organizing my music library and I will cater to people like myself. So you can expect everything I post to have complete, consistent, and clean ID3 tags.

Since I'm going to be uploading mostly punk related things here I'm not going to put a huge focus on bitrate, obviously the higher the better. But let's be honest, if it's a vinyl rip, 192 kbs isn't going to be much better than 128 kbs.

Some of what will be posted will be ripped from my own CD collection. Unfortunately I don't have a working record player as I just broke my needle about a week ago. If I ever get a USB turntable expect lots of awesome things. As for the rest of it, the sources will vary greatly, from other music blogs, stuff from bit torrent websites, or even things collected from SoulSeek. I intend on bringing the better parts of my collection available in an easy to access place and keep you from having to do hours of googling trying to find information on an album.

For future reference (if you're still reading this I'm impressed) I will probably never drone on this long again. In the future all my posts will be about what I upload. Oh, and before I forget, I will be using mediafire.com to host the downloads. If you know of something better send me an e-mail... rapidshit sucks.