7" Roundup - Volume 1

In addition to whatever albums I'm listening to, I thought it'd be fun to talk about the shorter, smaller records I've been checking out as well. Here it goes! These will be posted in 3 record chunks.

Fucked Up - Crooked Head

I picked this one up at the Newbury Comics on Newbury St. the other day. For those who don't know, Fucked Up likes to release extremely limited editions of basically everything they put out. Case in point: a single copy of The Chemistry Of Common Life on reel-to-reel tape I saw lead singer Damian Abraham carrying around when I saw them play at Great Scott this past October (I later found out 30 of these were made. HUGE difference, right?). Anyway, when it comes to buying records, I'm not really that concerned about getting limited edition stuff, first pressings, or every color of a single album. I just want the songs!

Anyway, the version of "Crooked Head" that appears on this single is markedly different from the version on Chemistry. The bridge section sounds a lot more like My Bloody Valentine, of all bands. It's billed as a "single mix," which means a lot of the noise in the middle of the LP version has been cut out. Either way, it's still a great song that manages to get itself lodged in my head from time to time.

The cost of the record is really justified by the B-side, "I Hate Summer." Call this blasphemous, but the closest cousin I can find to this song is that song the Hives wrote for Cartoon Network last year, except the Fucked Up song is a lot more pissed off and relateable. It's nice to see Fucked Up stepping away from their metaphor packed, esoteric, but still totally awesome hardcore in order to write a song like "I Hate Summer," and it makes the Crooked Head 7" one of the more interesting releases Fucked Up put out in 2008.


The Serious Geniuses/Jean Claude Jam Band - Split


The last time I wrote about The Serious Geniuses, I talked about how I was starting to get tired of people constantly comparing them to Archers Of Loaf, since I think they're strong enough to stand as their own, unique act. This 7" only furthers my idea. It marks the initial recording of "Marc Attack," one of the standout tracks from their 2008 album You Can Steal The Riffs, But You Can't Steal The Talent, and comes off a whole lot rawer, especially in the vocals. I thought the song ripped before, but it straight up burns this time around. It's a downright power-pop/indie riot. The second SG song, "Hoffstra," doesn't appear on the full length, which kind of makes sense, since it sounds extremely different from everything on that album, but still SG-ish.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Jean Claude Jam Band side of the split, since at first I almost wasn't willing to give them the benefit of the doubt beyond their (admittedly hilarious) name. Barker from Witches With Dicks/Ringers wrote all of the songs here, and what he presents are two punky/poppy gems with extremely well thought out lyrics. Definitely recommended.


Lemuria - Self Titled


I'm extremely vocal about how highly I hold Lemuria, and I don't care who I annoy in the process. I had all of the songs here already on my computer, but when I found this at Shake-It Records in Cincinnati, I couldn't resist picking it up. This release falls squarely into the time period where Lemuria was still writing faster, more upbeat indie-punk songs, and represents some of the best output of that time.

Since I'm still relatively new to vinyl, I never really bought into the whole "vinyl sounds better than everything else" argument that a lot of people like to throw around a lot, but this record stands as a case for that point. For some bizarre reason that I can not pinpoint, the vinyl version of this sounds a lot louder, a lot rawer, and a lot more intimate. At this point in their career, Lemuria were already writing extremely personal songs, but these versions sound intimate to the point that you feel like you shouldn't even be listening to them, like you're invading someone's privacy. Let me clarify that these are all awesome characteristics.

Unrelated, but I'm also amused at how TUFF all three members look on the cover for this, considering they're all some of the nicest, most sincere people I've ever had the pleasure of talking to.

-Erik