Pages

Sunday, April 27, 2008

CHRIST ON PARADE ' LOUD AND LIVE" LP/CD OUT NOW

CHRIST ON PARADE " LOUD AND LIVE" LP/CD OUT NOW!
13 Tracks Recorded live on their 2007 West Coast tour on KFJC radio, this represents the set the "all original members" band played on both their 2007 West coast and European tours featuring classic tracks from all Eras of the band, with original Vocalist Barrie picking up some of the second vocal duties of the later material.

It was re-mixed from it's original broadcast, mastered by George Horn Mastering and come complete with a "Evil Live" styled Record jacket and lyric insert. CHRIST ON PARADE's reunions, including a recent successful one of Japan, have been marked by dedication to presenting the band as they are and were- the equipment and the sound, attack and intent are not falsely " updated" or "modernized" and while this record does peek through a lighter side of the band inbetween tracks, it's very true to their original records sound and will stoke out both old and new fans..Since ( In between?) CHRIST ON PARADE members have played in BLISTER, GAG ORDER, HELLBILLIES, PLAN 9 and NEUROSIS.CHRIST ON PARADE plan to tour the East Coast in the fall.

LP's are on Green vinyl and limited to 550 Copies, CD's are limited to 600.

Track list: Chaos Breeder / Self-Serving / Drop - Out / Thoughts of War / Final Solution / Another Country / Riding The Flatlands / My Life/ Teach Your Children Well/ Joshua Brown/ Pressured To Succeed / Flash / Everyone's Crazy

Oh one weird thing with this release on the back of the LP there's a small white box- We originally were going to hand number these but since the record was delayed and missed the Japanese tour, It would be primarily now sold through mailorder, we had the records shrinkwrapped.( shrinkwrapped records help keep the interior record stable in shipping- hence slit seams being such a huge problem now and not so much in the 80's when it was customary). So feel free to write in your own number when you get the LP!

Friday, April 25, 2008

PRANK RECORDS UPDATE-MAN IT's BUSY! YET AGAIN

I posted awhile back how MAY is incredibly busy, and it's turning out to be one of the busiest months for Prank Yet. At the printers right now is The New World Burns to Death LP and You can check out a track of it at the Profane Existence Message board. The CD should hit shops in Japan next week, but the LP HOPEFULLY, HOPEFULLY will be done in time for Chaos In Tejas. WB2D are headed to Europe shortly after and will have the LP on Sale for the entire tour.

The Vinyl Version of the New GAUZE is also underway, though the tests came back bassier than expected and that might push this into June.Both the initial Presses of WB2D and GAUZE are being done on heavy weight sleeves, stoked.

Also in Production are the Prank vinyl versions of Paintbox 's two LP's "Singing Shouting Crying" ( which had a Canadian Press a few years ago on the recently re-invigorated Ugly Pop label) but is being re-issued with new artwork, lyrics, mastering and a slightly different A/B side, and the long awaited vinyl issue of their classic Second LP " Earth Ball Sports tournament" , which will receive a deluxe gatefold treatment.

Also in the works with HG FAct is a split 7" release between SIGNAL LOST and japanese band PROTESS, which features two tracks from each band. Singal Lost also have a song on the "Viva Kopi" benefit sampler LP , with a DIRT cover! A benefit for the Kopi Squat in berlin which appears to have a reprieve from developers. Awesome!

We also have everything in now for the new AVSKUM LP/CD, their fourth LP which the band says is their best record yet. This will go into production in May and should be out for Punk Illegal!!

*** UPDATE- Just finally got the hear new AVSKUM: HOLY COW!!!! They were Not Kidding!!!!!!!NEXT LEVEL!

Finally, Out any Day is CHRIST ON PARADE " Live and Loud" LP/CD which ended up taking longer than Expected to finish. This is an "evil Live" styled treatment of a live set from their 2007 tour recorded on KFJC and features the set they were doing on the tour with tracks from all eras of the band and is limited to 550 copies on Green vinyl and 600 CD's. CHRIST ON PARADE just completed a successful tour of Japan and is contemplating a fall East Coast tour with select West coast dates as well.

At the Same time We also will finally have CROW " live at GIlman" DVD on crow records for sale.

We have just re-pressed the GRIMPLE " Get me out of the Van I have no Key" 7" Debut on Clear vinyl, The first HIS HERO IS GONE 7' " the dead of Night In Eight Movements" on Clear vinyl, the DROPDEAD / TOTALITAR Split 7" EP on multi-colors of vinyl, HIS HERO IS GONE LP/CD's "fifteen Counts Of Arson"and " "Monuments To Thieves" and AVSKUM "Punkista"LP on purple vinyl.

Like I said= Busy! Prank pretty much has the summer off after that, taking time to pay some folks, re-press a few other things and will roar back in the fall with IN/HUMANITY Re-issues, SUNDAY MORNIING EINSTEINS LP and a few other things up our sleeve. Meanwhile, because we're not busy enough :) , and since postal rates are about to go up and the dollar is at an all time low, we've launch a one-week "buy wholesale" sale. Details at a number of online spots, but try My post a Viva La vinyl about it Brew More coffee!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

VICTIMS EAST COAST TOUR !


Sweden's VICTIMS are touring the East Coast and Canada starting at the end of this month. They have a, indeed, killer new record out now on Combat Rock Industry after a bunch of great records on HAVOC.
Jon From Acursed plays in VICTIMS and ACURSED's Prank Debut "Tunneln I ljusets Slut" has picked up a couple of cool reviews at the Grind and Punishment BLog, Cult Punk and Attackfanzine.net

** UPDATE- if you haven;t picked up " Tunneln I Ljusets SLut" yet, VICTIMS will have copies of the limited edition Milky-clear vinyl and CD's on the Road! Check it out!

BLOWBACK WEST COAST TOUR- NOW WITH TRAGEDY!

BLOWBACK (Japan) West Coast Tour 2008 was scheduled with Severed Head of State, but for various reasons they had to bow out of the tour and Now raging japanese hardcore sensation BLOWBACK will be joined by TRAGEDY and a host of other cool bands:

FRI May 23 Portland OR @ The Know w/ WARCRY
SAT May 24 Seattle WA @ Capitol Hill Arts Center 1621 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122 w/WARCRY
SUN May 25 Corvallis OR @ Fox n Firkin 202 SW 1st St Corvallis, OR 97333 w/TRAGEDY
MON May 26 Ashland OR @ Musichead w/TRAGEDY
TUE May 27 San Francisco CA @ Annie's Social Club 917 Folsom St. @ 5th. St. San Francisco, CA 94107 w/TRAGEDY, BORN/DEAD, ACEPHALIX + D.J. KEN PRANK ( that's me!) - Spinning Japanese Hardcore -Doors open at 8pm / Show at 8:30pm $8.00 Admission / 21+
WED May 28 off
THU May 29 Sacramento CA @ T.B.A. w/ TRAGEDY
FRI May 30 City of Industry CA @ T.B.A. w/ TRAGEDY
SAT May 31 San Diego CA Che Cafe w/TRAGEDY, CRIME DESIRE, WACO FUCK 6:30 PM
SUN June 1 Conoga Park CA @ Cobalt Cafe w/TRAGEDY
MON June 2 Phoenix AZ @ Tio Leo's Mexican Cantina> 5025 N 7th Ave Phoenix, AZ 85013 w/TRAGEDY
TUE June 3 Las Vegas NV@ T.B.A. w/TRAGEDY
WED June 4 Fresno CA @ Cafe Infoshop Fresno 935 F St. Fresno Ca w/TRAGEDY, ADT, DOOMSDAY HOUR 6PM Show $8
THU June 5 San Francisco CA @ Thee Parkside w/TRAGEDY
FRI June 6 Berkeley CA @ 924 Gilman Street w/TRAGEDY, ADT All ages. 7:30 PM
SAT June 7 Portland OR Satyricon w/TRAGEDY

BLACKWATER records will release BLOWBACK's Newest LP " Living vibration" LP soon here in states. The rest of their catalog is out on CD on HG FACT

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

NEW GAUZE= PRANK LP VERSION ON THE WAY!!!




Prank is honored and stoked to announce that PRANK 100 will be the vinyl version of GAUZE 's latest LP released in Japan on CD by XXX Records, Who keep all of Gauze's catalog in print on CD in Japan. (Try Record shop Base for ordering these from overseas and Armageddon Shop has also been importing copies) .

The 12" been mastered by George Horn to vinyl at 45 RPM and should sound huge as it's a short, to the point record, ten songs clocking in at a little over 13 minutes. The initial first press will be 1,000 copies and hopefully will be released in May or June.

As a fan, Gauze have been one of my favorite bands since the 1980's and it was honor enough to assist with their 1996 US tour, which was one of the crucial turning points -along with tours by Assfort, Gaia and Smash Your Face and others in American acceptance and then fanaticism over Japanese hardcore. Gauze's 7" EP on Prank has continued to be a steady part of the prank catalog, and for many people in the US and Europe, one of the few records they can find and their introduction to the band.

I spent years in Alabama listening to their third LP over and over- a record that was taped onto cassette, and then by default glued to my car's stereo for the better part of a year or longer in the early 1990's, this new record is quickly becoming glued to my home and car's stereo as well with it's psychotic intensity. There's been low grade MP3's of this floating around from almost the moment this was released, but they compress a record that was already really compressed in recording and miss a lot of the impact of the manic drumming that drives the entire record. It's case in point of how people who JUST are downloading and listening to mp3 are often getting a signifigantly diminished musical experience.

The recording of this new LP is completely lo-fi and raw, but the thing I like most about it, in Gauze's way of simplicity is there is no trickery, there is no reliance on low end to accomplish brutality, the speed, the music captured in a simple , straight forward recording speaks for itself. There's been a lot of records that prank has released, (past, present, future )where the band thickens the recording in mixing, and the overall effect is it slows the record down. This might, ironically be an after effect of what was "the prank sound" of low end bashing and down tuning, but the point stated here is that's not the only way you accomplish brutality as the songs here are completely, once again, jaw dropping in intensity ( especially tracks 2-4, 6,7) .

Since Japan has largely abandoned Vinyl buying- or at least on the massive scale it was in the 1990's , were it was virtually propping up entire labels and bands, there were no plans to release this on 12" vinyl, which did not sit welll with us at the prank office!!! So we worked things out to release this here. It will also reduce the cost for people of the high expense of importing from Japan, and hopefully make the music more broadly available. We do plan on keeping this release available.

27 years on, Gauze probably can stake claim to be the World's greatest and longest standing, continuously playing hardcore band in the world from the 1980's. They still play monthly in Tokyo to packed live houses, and We've tried to convince them to return to the US, though the 1996 tour was marked with difficulty (Out of four shows, one was cancelled in San Francisco when some dork swung on the sprinkler pipes and yanked them loose, flooding the venue...), One was spottily attended ( In Chicago), and two were packed full. This was before the manic interest in Japanese hardcore, and before the internet was used as a tool to keep people informed. We'll keep working on convincing them to return, but meanwhile there's a virtual feast of Gauze live shows on You Tube

Saturday, April 12, 2008

TIM YO- TEN YEARS AGO, APRIL 3RD. WE MISS YOU.

Pat At gilman ( sound, security, Store and a man seemingly quickly ammassing a monsterous 90's Punk collection..though not Pat Wright, a quiet, unassuming but-yet-as-much -fixture of GIlman at this point as much as the spray painted ceiling or well worn stage) pointed out to me last night that on April 3rd, 2008 marked the ten Year anniversary of Tim Yohannon's death

This largely went unnoticed, even in the Pages of MRR, who I guess in best fitting tribute to Tim published the magazine's 300th issue in April with a great All Northern California issue..( though the fifth anniversary was marked by a tribute from MDC!! Oh the irony that this song is seemingly also available as a Ringtone)

These days there might be fewer people involved with the magazine that knew or even met Tim than those who never did, but it's a testament to both the hard work of people who followed to carry the torch of the magazine as much as his incredibly organizational skills that, ten years and 120 issues later that the thing still comes out.

I've thought a lot about Tim In the past year or so, as people canonize and lionize him and in doing so, often Distort early 80's lore- from the thinking he was Really into early 80's hardcore by the late 90's, where his tastes had long since turned back more to raw Rock 'n'Punk like THE HUMPERS, or That he was involved with " bringing vegetarianism and hippism" into Punk. Vegetarian? I think the "new" MRR house was chosen for it's proximity to one of SF's best rib joints ( indeed one of the few times I had dinner with him fresh off the boat from 'bama before I re-went vegetarian we went here . But Hippie politics? sort of. He once told me,as was the custom he rode into San Francisco in the 60's with flowers in his hair . I actually think the link between Underground communities and Radical politics is what gave the San Francisco Punk scene it's enduring legacy in 1980's hardcore-where other scenes like New York, DC and Los Angeles had greater aesthetic and musical impact, few bridged the gap between late 70's punk and 80's hardcore as well as San Francisco, because I think, instead of abandoning the new more extreme evolution of punk rock, radicals like Jeff Bale, Jello Biafra and mostly Yohannon saw the potential to spearhead hardcore as a musical and politically progressive movement.

Tim was a person with the ability, skill, thought and vision to keep this scene organizing, progressing and moving and from that frame of reference, I've wondered a lot lately on what Tim's take on the punk scenes current large challenges that don't seem to be being met would be-from it's apparent dependence on corporate owned websites ( like this one), or Myspace for communication, how MRR would evolve and change in light of the digital revolution- MRR has largely remained frozen in amber in regard to it's online prescence, so the central communication and information of the punk scene-where MRR used to be front and center- has moved off to different mesage boards, websites and, uh, blogs that are updated quicker and in near real-time ( after recently threatening for Prank to divert it's advertising dollars to more effective click though Banner ads and web pages, I've been assured this is back on the drawing board at MRR HQ)...The buyout/collapse/diminuation of Mordam and it's transformation into a gutted Vendor for WEA... And how a largely, increasingly apolitical and nostalgia-driven, retro-obsessed punk scene would be approached. You can never guess someone's thoughts- I mean Tim was a guy who for all his serious and intense political and cultural viewpoints was the same guy who used Mrr's clout to bring the world the DIESEL QUEENS album on Vinyl!!! with hits Like " I like cheese!" and "manson family feud"... Thinking of all of that, his perspective, his humor, and drive that got all this stuff done, well, I miss him more than ever.

The enduring institutions he created do continue- MRR rolls forward, and has long since reignited it's radio show, did a great compilation (scroll down) and is about to Co-unleash this KILLER
BUM KON ultra-thrashed out reissue of the complete "drunken sex sucks" recording sessions with Smooch Records . 924 Gilman still cranks out great shows week-endly, though it's a complete mystery after the guy who invented the place smoked like a chimney and died of cancer at the young age of 52, why gilman still allows people to smoke indoors, (what's it going to take the entire staff to be on rolled in on chemo and oxygen tanks to finally raise their hands at their first and third meetings to finally go "well maybe we should think about ammending the policy.."? Increasingly. I'll stick to a bar shows where sensibly and in respect for the people who come there, work there and perform there, smokers have to take it outside and I don;t have to hack and cough all the next day) and while epicenter zone went up in flames..or well, drowned in sprinklers at the Infamous GAUZE/ ASSFORT/ HHIG show ( pictured on the 12" label of His Hero is gone's "15 counts of arson"), there's now heaps of new records stores in the bay that take inspiration from it. And I guess that's the point at the end of it, follow the example, build from it, grow and push it. Cheers, TIm, Cheers.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

TEST PRESSINGS, COLLECTORS, SCUM BAGGERY...

When I first moved to SF I had a job at Mordam Records distribution, where one of my tasks was to prepare test pressings for advance solicitation to other distributors, We'd staple a one sheet on the white inner sleeve they came in and send them out with orders, this pre-dated CD advances and was just only about on the nexus were things were then being issued ON both LP and CD in the early to mid 90's. No one ever thought of these are particularly collectible ( and admittedly when you're stapling together 50 copies of SCHERZO, SKRAPYARD, TALES FROM THE BIRDBATH, BUTT TRUMPET or Whatever, why would you??) and Mordam had even sold these off at a Gilman Swap before I worked there for $1 a piece.
PRANK has always liked to send out tests as well, ordering 20 or 30 extras and giving friends of the label and occasionally random fans an advance listen of the upcoming releases. Ironically tests are NOT the best sounding representation of the LP, the earliest pressed off the plates sure, but you need about 50 tests to wear the plates in and get an accurate representation of the record's sound....
Increasingly while the bands are demanding stupidity like "test covers", these have just seemed to now mostly seep their way onto Sale lists and Ebay as a way for people to score a few extras bucks on Prank's dime when their chips are down- like this dude in Australia we gifted an Iron Lung test pressing and he didn't even bother to listen to it.

So because of you, Mate, In your honor ( honour?). No more gifts. No more freebies for anyone.
While when you give a gift to someone the receiver is free to do as you please with it, the downside of this, which kind of bums us all out-is not so much the selling it, but that people couldn't even be bothered to listen to or respond to it...stifling the enthusiasm we'd hope to create by giving the person a gift of records we think are really great and work really hard to make... plus the way things seep out on the internet, it's just a policy we're sadly ending. We really love the records we make and love to do whatever we can to get people as excited as we are about them, but so it goes.

I joked that My next "test covers' would just be a white sleeve with a share of google or apple stock attached, but we'll just be making 5 or 6 tests here out for the band and I, I swear this on a humungous box of WORLD BURNS TO DEATH "the graveyard of utopia" test pressings I'm now taking outside to smash! ;)

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

PRANK'S EARLY YEARS!

There's a nice feature put together on the Early Years of Prank at The grind and Punishment Blog . I think this is a pretty good representation of Some of the things going on at Prank in the mid to late 1990's, though credit where credit is due, I'd like to mention that PASSIVE FIST records was also a key, if not more instrumental player in bringing the southern sound to the lime light. Pat who did the label continues to champion Southern Bands with his even brighter burning HYperrealist records

SYSTEMATIC DEATH WORLD TOUR UPDATE



Japanese Hardcore legendsSYSTEMATIC DEATH are playing select shows in the UK, Amsterdam and the US in late April and May.

UK
April 26th at the Junction, Bristol w/FUK and The Wankys
April 28th London @ The Purple Turtle, Camden TOwn W/ The Varukers , SIck On The Bus

HOLLAND
April 30th- Bar en Boos, Leiden, The Netherlands With ( the bay area's own) Nightstick Justice and Seein Red . Doors open at 20.00. This is systema's only mainland Europe show. "Since it's a national holliday that day ( "Queensday promoter suggests people that come by train or car try to come early since I can be very crowded on the roads/in the trains... The venue is also small..

U.S.A.
four shows with TRAGEDY :
Friday MAY 2ND - KNITTING FACTORY / NYC 74 Leonard street This show is now sold out.
MAY 3RD - AS220 PROVIDENCE, RI 115 Empire Street w/ DROPDEAD - this show is now sold out, they are contemplating adding an early show. Check the Armageddon Shop website for updates .
Sunday MAY 4TH - PORTLAND / SATYRICON SATYRICON W/ Tragedy, Hellshock and Autstic Youth
Monday MAY 5TH -POrtland @ The Know W/ Deathcharge and Dead Section

Partners in Crime will be issuing a two double LP's with the complete discography of SYSTEMA, and Tragedy will be playing other shows in the Northeast Before these gigs. SYSTEMATIC DEATH's material were recently re-issued in Japan on CD on FADE IN RECORDS More info as It comes in. SYSTEMATIC DEATH will also be playing Amsterdam, London and Bristol!



TRAGEDY are also playing before this on the East coast Complete dates are listed Here

PUNK RECORD STORE EXPLOSION IN THE BAY AREA!

It's been a few years since THRILLHOUSE records opened in San Francisco- it's still the cheapest place in town to pick up the latest stuff distributed by Ebullition and No Idea, and in carrying up the smelly torch dropped by Mission Records, throws cool shows pretty often in it's basement and has spawned it's own cool THRILLHOUSE label ..

Now the East bay also has it's own punk record shop from the label 1-2-3-4 Go Records . It's a very "tokyo" styled shop-small, well organized and with a good mix of new and old stuff and I've already picked up a bunch of great stuff there ( including that Lost and Found government Issue 7" pictured on their site!). Was there Friday and it was packed with shoppers already! Both of these places have a full stock of Prank records titles.

I've still yet to be at/ find Bill Jackson's ( strung Up, Instant asshole, Born/Dead's) shop somewhere in Oakland that's reported;y a combination of Weekend Skate ramp, skeezy Used VHS tapes and Punk Records- (bill assured me they were doing the shop with everything Record wise at low, punk rock prices), but soon I promise soon I will dust off my Gibson Zorlac and head over.

GEARHEAD Records has a Storeabout two years old in Woodland, not too far from Sacramento that stocks a lot of awesome garage rock, Prank titles and also has nice vintage style clothes and accessories. Woodland is chock full of Killer thrift stores, so it would be a great day excursion from the Bay or Sacto.

Accross from AMOEBA on Haight Street, a DJ store has morphed into SHAXUL RECORDS which features a solid selection of Heavy metal and some punk-including Prank Releases-but an impressive array of Metal shirts and accessories, The store seems like it's still expanding, so drop in when you're up on Haight Street and See what's new.

As always there's the classics- AMOEBA ( now with an expanded "punk" section), STREET LIGHT, RED DEVIL, TIME TUNNEL TOYS and other places in the Bay area to pick up new and used punk. Check Prank records's guide to the bay area which I promise I'll fix the HTML on shortly....

CHAOS IN TEJAS 2008 FINALIZED LINE UP



Chaos in Tejas for 2008.
May 15th,16th and 17th at Emo's
The confirmed line up now stands at:

Thursday May 15th (outside)
Roky Erickson and the Explosives
The Strange Boys ( Texas)
Pink Reason

Thursday May 15th (inside)
Hard Skin (England)
World Burns To Death ( Texas)
Fy, Fan (Sweden)
Under Pressure (Canada)
No Fucker ( Utica, New York)
Iron Age ( Texas)

Friday May 16th (outside)
Dillinger Four
Leatherface (England)
The Marked Men (Texas)
Straight Jacket Nation (Australia)
Iron Lung ( Seattle, Wa)
Hatred Surge ( Texas)
Brain Handle
Sacred Shock ( Texas)

Saturday May 17th at Beerland(early day show)
Social Circkle
and more T.B.A.

Saturday May 17th (outside)
Los Crudos ( reunion, for a benefit cause, stoked)
Crude ( Japan)
Tragedy ( Portland, Oregon)
Inmates ( Ohio)
Invasion ( Spain)
Repercussions ( members of Deathreat, Pedestrians, Cold Sweat, Signal Lost, Army Of Jesus)
Deskonocidos ( Texas)

after hours show on the lamar pedestrian bridg.
Inmates
Repercussions
2 a.m.(when emo's end's)

You have to pay for both shows on thursday.they will be checking at the door that connects the 2 rooms.. Timmy says "sorry guys.roky ain't cheap."

And for what it's worth- on May 17th, unrelated to the fest there's a NEW BOMB TURKS reunion with the QUADRAJETS ( another fine export from Lee County, Alabama, Like Prank Itself) and SPACE COOKIE in emo's small room. You also have to buy a seperate ticket for this.

tickets are on sale now at www.emosaustin.com
Timmy also says "they ( tickets) are selling pretty fast.i would say at least thursday and sat will sell out."