Four New Releases from Rivalry Records

Currently playing: Metroschifter - S/T (7" picture disc, Redwood Records 1999)

It seems without question that Rivalry Records is the best modern hardcore label. I've yet to hear a bad album that they released. Following up on last spring's 7" split records (Champion vs. Betrayed, Go It Alone vs. Blue Monday), Rivalry released four albums this summer which I waited far too long to purchase: "Mill City" by Another Breath, "From Anger and Rage" by Verse, "Substance" by Betrayed, and "What We Know" by The First Step.

The vinyl versions of all four of these albums came in the mail today. They're all single LPs on colored vinyl. The Betrayed and Verse albums are on a sort of beige/cream-colored vinyl, in gatefold packaging. The First Step album came on a very cool black/blue mix, very similar to the Go It Alone vs. Blue Monday split 7". The Another Breath album is done in translucent navy blue. I'd take pictures if I had a digital camera...

I've listened to each of these records only once, and my first impression is quite positive. When you spin a hardcore record for the first time, the music often seems generic. It often takes a while to decipher the lyrics which so often distinguish a great hardcore record from a mediocre one. None of these records were like that -- each one left a very solid first impression. Look for a full review of each album over the next few days, after I get a chance to digest the new music and come up with an informed opinion.

An Introduction

Currently playing: Betrayed – Substance (LP, Rivalry 2006)

This isn’t really intended to be a comprehensive music review website like Punknews.org or Absolutepunk or Pitchfork – most of those websites tend to focus on a specific genre and feature reviews and news updates from a variety of contributors. On many of the big underground music websites, contributors receive stacks of CDs which they're expected to review. This often leads to people writing reviews of music they really don’t care for, and wouldn't have listened to unless forced. This blog is different – no one is going to send me music to review (at least not anytime soon!), so I’ll just be writing about what I like to listen to. Although my tastes definitely lean to the heavier side of things, I intend to write about a variety of underground rock genres: primarily punk, metal, and indie rock, along with their nearly infinite sub- and sub-sub-genres: straightedge/youth crew hardcore, math rock, death metal, tech, black metal, post-rock, emo, post-metal (is that technically a genre yet?), grind, etc.

Most music journalism outlets overlook album artwork and presentation, two factors I intend to focus on in my reviews. For those listeners who download the majority of their music, album art is an irrelevance. Even though it’s possible to make a well-packaged compact disc (Circle Takes The Square’s fantastic As The Roots Undo comes to mind), the 5” CD jewel case or digipack definitely limits an artist’s options. I consider this to be a major limitation for much of modern music. I particularly value those albums whose packaging and presentation is a work of art in and of itself, separate from but related to the music on the disc.

You can probably guess where this is going: a somewhat fanatical loyalty to the vinyl LP music format. I desperately hope that as the compact disc comes closer and closer to its inevitable extinction, independent record labels will continue to release music on vinyl. When you pick up an oversized, heavy 12” long-playing record, there’s a sense of holding a work of art that you just don’t get with a CD. There’s the whole ritual of putting the needle on to a record, listening for twenty minutes, then flipping the record over – and maybe putting on the second record for Side C. You have to clean the record every once in a while, and you can’t leave records lying around on the floor or on top of your speakers. If the music on the LP is any good, these apparent inconveniences are in fact subtle reminders that you are handling a work of art that demands your respect. They create a relationship between you and everyone who contributed to making the record: the band, recording engineer, and record label put a huge amount of effort into the release. The extra effort involved in playing LPs seems like a way of showing these people that you actually care about what they’re putting out. For a truly incredible album, the vinyl format adds a sense of profundity and emotional weight that is absolutely impossible to get on a CD.

Besides writing about actual albums, I’ll occasionally blog about music news. If you’re reading this site, it’s probably safe to guess that you also read Punknews.org, Pastepunk, Lambgoat, Pitchfork, and the rest -- so I won’t bore you with mundane postings like “Band X signed to label Y.” Instead, I’d like to add a little more analysis. If I’m writing about a label’s recent signing, I might also write about how this signing relates to other bands on the label, and what this means for the genre of music put out by that label. You can get short news snippets at a dozen other sites; why repost them here?

Finally, I’d like to explain the title of this blog. As I said before, I think really excellent music commands some sort of respect from the listener toward the band. One way to show this respect is to listen to the album in the way the artist intended: straight through, without skipping songs, and while paying attention. Too few people actively listen to music; instead, music is just background noise for whatever else is going on in their life. In this blog I’d like to focus on music that demands the listener’s attention and doesn’t let you go: music that can’t just be background noise. Why would anyone care about any other kind?