Tags Matching: worcester

Free To Think, Free To Mosh

By b. murphy | Published 12/18/2011

You already know I love this Bane EP. But there is more to this one than meets the eye. I got this info from Dalbec. Apparently, when they were distributing these EPs, he stashed 1-26 (why 26? Or was it 24? it definitely wasn’t 25) to give to friends and family. The one from earwax666hotmail is #6. If I were you, I’d assume this came from an interesting collection. Someone connected to the band in some shape or form. I also love that the yellow vinyl has a “yellow” stamp and of course, the black vinyl has a “black” stamp. Details, details.

And if you are interested in some OLD footage, check out this Backbone gig from Sir Morgan’s Cove in Worcester with Cast Iron Hike. The Bad Brains tee in the audience is dope.

Al-Bums In Worcester, Mass

By b. murphy | Published 05/15/2011

The other day, I rolled by Al-Bums in Worcester, Mass. If you didn’t know, it’s no longer there. It’s now a tattoo shop called the Tattoo Project. Pretty chill. Two of the kids working there are straight edge. Pretty hardcore. Both have varsity font X tattoos under their left eyes. Yeah, gnarly.

But if you remember Al-Bums, you’ll remember how it had a real weird selection of EPs. Lots of it was trash. Just old, scratched to shit rock EPs that had been sitting under the shelf for 20+ years. Just beat shit. And the rest of the selection was old hardcore filler EPs. I can only imagine that Dalbec and Tre sold their filler records to Al-Bums before leaving the city. That’s the only way to explain the 4th and 5th tier hardcore EPs to be found there. I mean, don’t get me wrong, everyone should own the X plagued by rage X ep.

This lot from aapjekoala reminds me greatly of those bins at Al-Bums. Seriously, check out lot. A few bangers, but plenty of weirdos. What’s your favorite?

Why So Serious?

By b. murphy | Published 12/27/2010

Why So Serious? … Good question. I always like that I Rise had fun, took chances and just loved playing. I booked a show about a million years ago at the QVCC in Worcester. It had way too many bands for a cold night in January or February, but I said, Fuck It. I wanted all my friends to be able to play. Sadly because it was so cold and dreary, members of Have Heart weren’t feeling well. They weren’t going to be able to play a full set. I was at first, down on that. But thankfully, Pat asked if his friends in I Rise could play a few songs. I was stoked. I had initially planned on getting I Rise on the bill, but obviously, the bill was already too long. I Rise got up and slayed it. The crowd loved the home town heroes, and the Brothers Kantarelis were psyched. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Grab this limited Sound And Fury 2008 ep from xambiguousmarix. It’s a dope EP, and you can’t go wrong with limited vinyl.

Worcester Card Renewed

By b. murphy | Published 12/09/2010

I was told that if I didn’t post up this EP, my Worcester Hardcore Crew card was going to be pulled. I didn’t want that. I mean, I’m not a Kanteralis brother or Jeff Hunter or Felicia, but I cut my teeth in Worcester. I lived there for 6 years during what some would consider the high life in Worcester. That’s got to count for something.

When I moved into Worcester, some of the first kids I hung out with were in a band called Barrit. They all lived at 34 John St. At the time, it was just two floors, the 2nd and 3rd floor. But after a few months, all the Barrit kids moved out of the Acapulco building (now Tortilla Sams) and into the first floor of John St. Those were wild dudes having wild times. But you know what, no one in Barrit even lived there, as I recall. Pete and Zach lived away. Lou lived with his girl down the street, Steve lived across town (which at the time, felt like it was a million miles away). I have no idea where Nate lived … Andy hadn’t joined the band yet, but he didn’t live nearby either. Thing is, everyone was always there. And I mean everyone. The first floor was mayhem. People were in and out of that place at all hours. Most stories aren’t appropriate for the internet –you’ll have to use your imagination. I’ll tell you this, when those dudes moved out, you could see hammer impressions in every wall. And I’m not talking hammer heads, or claw heads. I’m talking about profile shots of hammers. Full impression of claw, head and handle. Intense. Plus, when I was dirt poor, those dudes always had tons of peanut butter. Like jars and jars. Over 5 open ones, for sure. I would go down and steal some. It kept me from starving. I liked that. I ended up seeing Barrit 4 times in my life, but sadly, none of them were the typical ridiculous shows. I didn’t catch the WPI show, which was probably the craziest show. It involved lots of time setting shit up, fucking around and then later, lots of broken stuff. Barrit was famous for that.

Maybe deathwishinc can chime in with a story or two. He lived on the 2nd floor for a few months during this crazy time period (of course, you know it was 1998. Best year ever?). I bet he was at the Worcester gig too. And despite hawks eating panther meat, Tre is a good dude. He probably traded all his Wormtown pride for Witchtown pride, though … Wait, does anyone have Wormtown pride?

Rock & Shock in Wormtown!

By Josh | Published 10/16/2010

This weekend is the annual ‘Rock & Shock’ Horror Convention & Concert in Worcester, MA. The convention is at the DCU Center (formerly the Worcester Centrum) and half the room is full of vendors selling horror movie related action figures, shirts, movies, posters and other novelties and the other half is a bunch of C & D list celebrities and actors signing (selling) autographs. This year I’m going on Sunday so I can get Danny Trejo to sign my Devils Rejects poster (which is signed by over 20 people from the movie!) and possibly get pictures with/of George ‘Night of the Living Dead’ Romero, Bill ‘Texas Chainsaw II’ Moseley, Doug ‘Hellraiser’ Bradley, Judah ’30 Rock’ Friedlander & William ‘Greatest American Hero’ Katt.

The Rock part of ‘Rock & Shock’ is a series of concerts held at The Paladium (Formerly E.M. Lowes). There are bands on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This years concerts included Suffocation with a series of other metal bands on Friday night, Gwar with a bunch of other metal bands on Saturday night and Twiztid with a bunch of other ‘rap groups’ on Sunday. Theres also a bonus show this year thats being held at the DCU Center. In true Halloween fashion this bonus concert includes Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie with special guests The Murderdolls.

So to comemorate ‘Rock & Shock’ here is a Rob Zombie 7″ that I’ve never seen. Looks like it might be a promo for the Sinister Urge album. Its a single for the song ‘Demon Speeding’ with ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ as a B-side. Funny that the song came out a couple of years before the movie did. The record has a great picture sleeve with a very nice picture Robs beautiful wife, Mrs. Sheri Moon-Zombie.

For the Alice Cooper portion of this post I decided to go with my favorite album ‘Killer’ which is complete with the calendar that it originally came with, but I also wanted to post the lesser known album, ‘From The Inside’. Alice was always big on cool packaging for his LPs from the ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ wallet, the ‘Muscle of Love’ cardboard box, and the ‘Schools Out’ fold out desk. The ‘From The Inside’ sleeve has a series of opening and little doors that show Alice and a cast of characters in an insane asylum and on the back its the whole crew getting out. A totally underrated album in an awesome package… classic Alice!

Bane 10 Year EP

By b. murphy | Published 05/06/2010

Seller the1234gorecordsstore always has some goodies up on ebay. Nothing monumental, but lots of little gap fillers. This would be one of those gap fillers if it wasn’t also gapped.

Here’s what the seller has to say about this record:

Only 450 copies made. You may know better than I but I believe when this came out that they either were selling the 7″ and you had to have the sleeve mailed to you or vice versa. Either way this one doesn’t have a sleeve.

In this case, we obviously know more than the seller. Here’s the real story.

The vinyl was pressed for the 10th anniversary gig Bane played in Worcester. Something happened with the vinyl such that it wouldn’t be available for the gig. BUT all the inserts and sleeves WOULD be available. So they whipped up 500 CDs and sold those in the place. Each CD and sleeve was hand numbered. EVR then went SUPER out of their way and allowed people to enter their record number and mailing address on a webform. They then mailed out the EP to every person when they finally got them from the plant. There were 500 pressed up. At the time of numbering, it was decided that 50 of them were going to be stashed aside for a special friends only thing. To this day, I don’t think that ever happened. Of course, since these were all hand numbered, some people created funny numbers like “Stevie of 450″ and stuff like that.

Now here’s the odd part. Somehow, the seller has the vinyl but no sleeve or CD. That’s real weird. I am pretty sure some scamming went along with these CDs, as the web form was simply an email to EVR with a number and mailing address. Pretty simple to spoof. It’s sad that hardcore kids would do that to a label that was basically giving these away.

So there you have it. I might just pick this up, as I have a sleeve in need of the vinyl.

Give More, Give Everything

By b. murphy | Published 03/30/2010

A while back, I posted a suspicious 50/50 Bane Give Blood LP.

This one is much more obvious. And it’s more obvious how the plant tried to rectify that whole “50/50″ vs Split vinyl.

This is what I feel like most of these LPs look like. Half swirly, half sharp.

Good pick up though.

I call Bullshit

By b. murphy | Published 02/20/2010

I hate shady shit.

The seller lists this item with a $30 Buy It Now.

Bane 7″ grn sXe Converge Have Heart Verse test press?

If you really thought it was a bane test press, would you set such a low Buy It Now price? No, I don’t think so. Seriously, give me a break. Quit trying to trick kids into buying your record based on assumptions you obviously know are not true.

As for this EP, it was released in 98 or 99 by The Life Recording Co (Dalbec’s label). It is a 4th press that was limited to 400 (I think). 100 of the records were stamped, the rest were not. The green vinyl varies a lot too. Some green is a super dark, while others is super light. I haven’t seen any translucent ones, but I wouldn’t doubt that some exist.

Bane Give Blood LP Red/Clear

By b. murphy | Published 02/16/2010

I came across this Bane lp the other day, and got excited. I’ve been looking for a perfect 50/50 split and at first blush, this appeared to be the case.

Here’s the deal with this vinyl. I’ll give you lots of context.

When It All Comes Down To This was initially released, the band wanted a clear/red swirl vinyl for the record release. The plant muffed up and produced pink. I can see how this would happen, pretty easy enough.

So when Give Blood was being pressed, they PRESSED their luck and asked for clear/red swirl. They were very specific, they wanted the clear and red to be swirled. The plant got on it and started pressing. BUT, when they began, they created vinyl that was a perfect 50/50 split. Not the swirl specified. Partway through the process, they twisted the wax and started swirling it better. So there are anywhere between 15 and 25, but maybe has many as 45 of this press that are perfect splits. Lots of transitions exist of blurry split to swirl. The whole press is only 150 or 175.

Most sellers claim their record is of the first “more limited” press without realizing the whole story. So when I cam across this one, I was initially psyched.

Then I asked the seller for a picture of the lp. After some “interesting” back and forth, he sent me the following pic.

I’m glad I asked for a pic, because this is definitely one of the first transition LPs, NOT the exact split.

My search continues!

Bane 10 Year Anniversary EP .. Or just CD

By b. murphy | Published 01/25/2010

This is a funny description, at least to me.

Does not include 7″. Comes with Picture Disc CD of tracks and code to redeem vinyl. We can’t guarantee this code will work. Item is being sold AS IS.

But, the record is listed as “used.” I would HOPE or assume that whoever sold this EP … CD back to Newbury Comics kept the EP. But then again, why would they keep the EP and return the sleeve? That’s just wack.

I spent many hours stuffing all those EPs. Good times. That’s probably actually my handwriting.

The Bjork cover is ill. Get into it.