Spells - Past Our Prime LP - White Vinyl (/300)

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Snappy Little Numbers / Big Neck / Rad Girlfriend / Keep It A Secret / Shield (2024)

Spells are back with their third LP, not counting their two excellent singles comps.  Past Our Prime has been a long time coming, and while I realize bands are not on the yearly album cycles of yesteryear, four years sure feels like a long time since their last full length.  I always wonder if the band is going to undergo any sort of major change or if they we still keep cranking out the tunes that I like.  In the case of Past Our Prime, it's kind of a bit of both.

One of the key selling points of Spells for me is just how so many songs sounded like a party.  Huge energy, catchy riffs and singalong choruses.  While I would never say that this album is lacking in energy, riffs or singalongs, the vibe in general feels more serious to me.  The songs feel a little slower and at times lean into a darker territory, with churning bass and pounding drums.

What this album also has is a huge old pile of gang vocals.  Do you like gang vocals?  My friend, do I have an album for you.  Essentially every song has a thunderous chorus with what feels like the entire world singing along.  Even outside of the choruses, there's a ton of dueling vocals and combo vocals between Stevie and Dusk.  That's not really a surprise when a band has two dedicated vocalists, but it really stands out on this album.

So what does this all mean at the end of the day?  Past Our Prime does feel different than past Spells albums to me.  I don't get the same sort of Rocket From The Crypt leanings or upbeat-ness (unsure that's a word, but let's go with it).  But what I do hear is a band that is coalescing into something bigger than their back catalog.  Every member moves in lockstep with each other, you can hear just how ridiculously tight and on point everything is.  The album is massive sounding and everything has a feeling of being more important than it used to be.  It's an extremely well done and great sounding album.  As I've said, I always felt like Spells was a party band.  They still are, but there's a chance you might get punched in the face at this party.

Spells - Past Our Prime:
https://snappylittlenumbers.bandcamp.com/album/past-our-prime

Casual - Fear Itself LP (Black Vinyl, UK Version) & 2xLP (Black & Red Swirl, RSD Version)

 

Jive (1994, UK Pressing)
Get On Down (2024, RSD Pressing)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Wrapping up the fifth and final Record Store Day purchase for 2024 is Casual.  But as an added little bonus, I'm also including the 1994 UK pressing of the album, which until this year was the only version that had a picture sleeve.  I picked up the UK version quite a while ago, maybe close to two years?  But it had remained in the 'to write about' pile as I had already written about the non-picture sleeve US version on this site at the beginning of the Ed Lover Dance Day project.  That made it not as big a priority to get to, but we can add it here for a two for one deal.

The picture sleeve is the only selling point of the 1994 UK version.  As a single LP, the album is crammed onto two sides of vinyl and does the dynamics no favors.  It doesn't sound bad or anything, but it definitely doesn't compare to either of the double LP versions.  I wasn't sure Fear Itself would ever get the proper reissue treatment, but it was important to me to have a copy with artwork.

The new double LP Record Store Day version on colored vinyl looks pretty good and sounds pretty great.  The bass sounds low and full on my stereo, and that's always been one of the real selling points of this record for me.  The colored vinyl matches the art well enough, but the black in it isn't really dark enough.  The inclusion of the obi strip covers up most of Casual's face on the art when everything is in a plastic sleeve, so I wouldn't say that's a bonus, but it is nice to have the bolder spine when it's sitting on the shelf.  I personally would have made the bulk of the obi also be based around that portion of the album art.  I've seen it enough times to know it's a thing and I'm not sure why they didn't go that route.

The album itself is among the very best.  If I'm ranking my favorite hip hop records of all time, this is my number two on the list, only behind Del's No Need For Alarm.  It's a nearly perfect record showcasing everything I love about that era's production.  Casual's rhyming has always been more straightforward that the rest of the Hiero crew, but that doesn't make him a lesser MC.  In fact, because his flow is a bit more straightforward, it sort of forces his to really show his command of rhyming and building complicated, but easy to follow patterns.  He can tell stories when he needs to and battles better than all but the absolute most elite rappers on the planet.

Can't say enough good things about the album and this new Get On Down pressing is the definitive version of it.  Even though it's a Record Store Day release, I still see it readily available on many online stores.  If you like 90s era hip hop and didn't catch this one first time around, I can't recommend adding a record to your collection more strongly than this one

Casual - Fear Itself:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m61K-0X-SVBBfbt_K3FmNlIs8uu6DMgcw

Night Court / The Dumpies - The Shit Split Part Duh 7"

Hovercraft (2024)

I feel like the split 7" is really an endangered species at this point, so I am always happy to see a new one get released.  Having that 7" include one band that I really like and one I'm not at all familiar with is exactly what I want out of a split.  A sure thing that I know I'll like and an opportunity to hear something new.

Night Court is back with four songs of ramshackle fuzz pop songs.  They are all pretty short as they would need to be to fid that many on one side of a 7".  As with everything they've released so far, I enjoy this immensely.  There's enough punk energy to keep things upbeat and exciting, the right amount of pop hooks to keep my brain singing along and just enough oddball chaos to keep things interesting.

My first impression of The Dumpies is that they are similar in spirit with The Marked Men.  Fast guitars with a mix of fuzz and jangle, distorted vocals, but an unwavering commitment to catchy melodies.  They're not quite as polished as The Marked Men just yet, but really who is.  I went into this 7" as a Night Court fan, but I'm leaving it being really interested in The Dumpies as well.  Though I will say that I wish all of their songs weren't quite so short.

Night Court / The Dumpies - The Shit Split Part Duh:

https://nightcourtpunk.bandcamp.com/album/shit-split-part-duh

https://thedumpies.bandcamp.com/album/shit-split-part-duh

Boogie Down Productions - Edutainment 2xLP - Yellow & Black Swirl (/2500)

Get On Down (20245, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

The fourth album I picked up on Record Store Day this year was the double LP reissue of the fourth Boogie Down Productions record, Edutainment.  I was really excited about this one as this was the most recent Boogie Down Productions album that had been released when I first started listening to them.  I've had the CD for decades and I have a mediocre single LP pressing that I picked up a few years ago, but there's a whole lot of songs crammed on to each side of that record.

This reissue is the first ever double LP pressing of Edutainment to be released.  Now, it wouldn't be truthful if I didn't mention that I'm bummed that this new reissue didn't include the two bonus tracks from the CD, "7 Dee Jays" and "30 Cops Or More."  Not that either is anywhere near the stongest song on the album, but for completist purposes, it would be nice.  I'm sure the nine minute run time of "7 Dee Jays" was the main culprit that probably would have pushed it to a triple LP.

That said, just having the vinyl version spread out over two LPs is a massive improvement over the original pressing.  Plus there is one extra bonus track, the remix version of "You Know The Rules."    Now there has finally been a high quality rerelease of every Boogie Down Productions full length (and the first KRS-One solo album).  It would be nice if someone tackled Live Hardcore Worldwide, but I don't think it's super important in the grand scheme of things.  The main album run is all out there and reasonably affordable (by today's vinyl price standards anyway).  And what a run of albums it was.

Boogie Down Productions - Edutainment:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kA9-4nMh9LtkMuoYvf2ZmIk12rdNpYFo4

Public Enemy - Revolverlution Tour '03 3xLP

Culture Factory (2024)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Number three in my 2024 Record Store Day pickups is this Public Enemy live album.  I’ve gone on record many times (including just two weeks ago) as not being a big fan of live albums.  This wasn’t even on my shopping list for the day, but when I was looking through things day of, I scanned the track list of this and thought that there were enough hits present that it was worth picking up.  Plus as a triple LP, it was fairly reasonably priced in comparison to some others.  The clincher was I had a gift card from selling some old posters to the store a few months ago, so I added it to the pile. 

I’ve never had the chance to see Public Enemy live, something I absolutely intend to correct next time they are playing anywhere near me.  I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, especially after the Ultramagnetic live album.  What I discovered when I put this guy on the turntable is that this album is Public Enemy backed by a live band.  There’s still a DJ and some of the classic production pops up here and there, but for the most part it’s Chuck and Flavor in front of a rock band. They still play the hits, and the vast majority of the tracks are from the group’s first four albums.  The band is very tight and Chuck and Flavor are super energetic frontmen.  

In general I like the album, but there’s definitely a little bit of weirdness scattered throughout.  The one thing that really jumped out at me is that it seems like they are rapping over a vocal track sometimes.  It’s particularly prominent on Flavor Flav songs, but every so often you hear it for Chuck D as well.  I can’t really figure out what’s going on with Chuck, it’s possible he picked a couple of random times to use a vocal track, though it may be just as likely that he just has a particularly energetic additional hype man that creates the feeling of a double vocal track.  I’m not sure, but luckily it only happens in a few places. 

The other bit of oddness is for pretty much an entire side of the third LP, Chuck and Flavor vanish and some other people play some other rap/rock songs that I’m not at all familiar with.  I like that it seems this is a full, uncut show, but I don’t listen to a Public Enemy record to hear other people who I don’t think are in Public Enemy.  Again, just a little odd.  

As far as my usual ambivalence to live albums, I’m not sure this one changes my mind too much.  It’s a cool listen and absolutely makes me want to see them live even more than I did before, but it’s not the sort of thing I see myself listening to all that often.  But if you were on the fence on picking it up, it’s pretty cheap on Discogs right now, so it’s not an expensive chance to take if you are thinking about taking the plunge. 

Custody - 3 LP - Orange Vinyl (/179)

Brassneck / My Ruin / Combat Rock / Shield / Sell The Heart (2024)

I have such fondness for Custody.  In addition to being PopKid alumni (We still have a few copies of their incredible Blistered Soul 7" in the PopKid Webstore & Bandcamp) they are also perhaps the most consistent and reliable melodic punk band going. With two prior LPs and a half dozen singles under their belt, it's no surprise to me that their third full length, appropriately called 3, is another triumph.

After writing about so many of their records, it's difficult to describe their sound without repeating myself a bit.  My go to comparisons are the melodic hooks of Samiam mixed with the dynamic guitar work of Leatherface.  That's not the be all end all of what they sound like, but it's certainly as good a starting point as any.  And if it's not obvious, comparing Custody to two absolute pillars of punk rock is no accident.  If you like Samiam or Leatherface, I just can't fathom you not being able to find something to love about Custody as well.

Compared to their prior albums, 3 shows Custody once again being as great as ever.  They aren't reinventing the wheel here.  Instead they're refining their songs that one step further to perfect them, rather than change what they are doing for the sake of it.  The ten tracks on this latest album are as good as anything they've done previously.  Searing guitar work, gigantic hooks and the sort of impassioned vocals that you just can't help but sing along to if you happened to be driving around listening to the album in your car at an unreasonable volume (or so I've heard).

Every Custody record is incredible and every Custody release is bittersweet for me.  They are a band that I wish I could have just kept putting everything out on PopKid.  They'd be quite the flag bearers, but I'm happy for all of the other labels involved as they've been able to add another classic to their catalogs.

Custody - 3:
https://custody.bandcamp.com/album/3

Nas - Illmatic Remixes & Rarities LP

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

The second Record Store Day release I'm going to write a little bit about in the Nas Illmatic Remixes & Rarities LP.  I am not a Nas devotee the way a lot of folks my age are.  Illmatic came out in 1994, as my interest in hip hop was starting to wane in favor of punk and indie rock.  The hype for Illmatic completely passed me by as by 1994 I had a car and a job, which meant my viewings of Yo! MTV Raps were becoming less frequent every day.  I wasn't aware of the famed Five Mic review in The Source.  I can't say how I missed something quite so big, but I did and it wasn't until many, many years later that I gave Illmatic a shot.

And it's a good record.  I still don't think it's anywhere near as incredible as a lot of folks do.  Lyrically, it's very good.  Production-wise, it's a mix of some of the best producers of all time, but the sound is that of a record caught in the middle of a transition in hip hop production.  Still very good, but starting to drift into territory that didn't connect with me.  But again, it's a good record and I like it enough that it made sense to pick up this remixes record for Record Store Day.

There's only one proper new song that isn't on Illmatic, "I'm a Villain."  There's also a really cool live 'freestyle' from the Stretch & Bobbito show.  Everything else is remixes of album tracks that originally appeared as b sides on singles from the album.  Maybe we don't need three versions of "It's Hard To Tell" on one album, but all of the remixes are good enough where it's fun having them all in one place for easy access.  Is it essential? Probably not, but it's very good and was not that expensive compared to the other RSD records I got taken for this year.

Zonaea - Zonaea LP - Pink Vinyl (/75)

Self Released (2024)

Zonaea hail from South Carolina and have already won the award for the band name I mistype the most while trying to write something (it's the 'aea' at the end that keeps throwing me).  The band reached out to me to send me an album to check out.  While I don't imagine it'll end up being the sort of thing that I listen to repeatedly, it does check a very specific checkbox of a style of music that I do enjoy listening to from time to time.

Despite being from the southeast, it's really the pacific northwest that comes to mind when I listen to this album.  It's brings me back to the mid 90s when I was checking out bands like godheadSilo, Karp and Unwound.  While those aren't bands I listen to every day, they are bands that trigger a very specific nostalgia for a time where I was a bit lost and trying to figure out what I wanted to listen to.

The pounding, angular guitar riffs coupled with the slightly more gentle breakdowns is what reminds me the most of Unwound.  The vocals are a tad bit shoutier than I usually prefer, but they're not so over the top to where there's no melody being conveyed.  I tend to prefer the songs that are the closest to having conventional hooks.  "Ditch" being a song that stands out in that regard.  Though there's something to be said about the punishing guitar work in album opener "3's Become 4's."  End of the day, it's a totally solid record that has moments where I get really drawn into what's going on.  Again, not an everyday listen sort of thing, but certainly something I'd get out from time to time.

Zonaea - Zonaea:
https://zonaea.bandcamp.com/album/zonaea

J. Robbins - Basilisk LP

Dischord (2024)

I was later to the J. Robbins party than most.  I never listened to Jawbox in the 90s or Burning Airlines in the early 2000s.  It was my wife who eventually showed me the error of my ways and put all of this incredible music in front of me.  I've been trying to devour as much of it as possible since then and have been adding his various bands' records to our collection over the years.

Basilisk is the second J. Robbins solo record, following up on 2019's Un-Becoming.  Chances are that if you've been following J. Robbins career and have enjoyed the various other bands he's been a part of (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels, Office of Future Plans) there's probably a pretty good chance you will also like this new album of his.

Not that I have the most discerning ears in the world, but for my money these J. Robbins solo records are right up their with any of the other releases he's been a part of.  It's the same sort of angular, but familiar guitar work that constantly sneaks incredible hooks into songs that don't seem like the sort to house that sort of thing.  

There's keyboard and synth usage here and there, but it's so well done and isn't chasing any 80s pop throwback bullshit.  They actually enhance the songs, rather than work as a gimmicky sound effect thrown in just for the sake of it.  The vocals always have melodies that carry the songs and always seem to get lodged in my head after a few listens.  Basilisk is such a satisfying listen.  I think I appreciate J. Robbins much more now that I'm older and this is another record that sits right in the pocket of the sort of thing I want to listen to these days.

J. Robbins - Basilisk:
https://jrobbins.bandcamp.com/album/basilisk

Ultramagnetic MC's - The Ultra's Live in Brixton LP - Red Vinyl (/1500)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for thirty plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Record Store Day 2024 might as well have happened on Ed Lover Dance Day this year as every record that I bought was a hip hop release this time out.  The costs of these records were ludicrous, partly because the Record Store Day release tax is still a thing and everything is already priced high to begin with, but also because the store I go to seems to have marked stuff up another five to ten dollars per release after poking around online after the fact.  The flip side of that annoyance being that the store always has what I need and I don't have to camp out over night to get it.  That said, maybe I just hunt for leftovers the next day next time.  We'll see, there is a nice dopamine hit getting the records in hand day of.

On to the record for today.  Ultramagnetic MC's is one of my favorite hip hop groups and even though I'm not really a live album guy, I just couldn't pass up a live recording of these guys recorded in 1990.  I should have listened to my inner monologue and left it on the shelf.  I'm not going to sugar coat this at all, this record is awful.

There are a few tracks on here that are alright.  All of which are freestyles or DJ interludes.  But whenever the Ultras do an album track, they are rapping over the actual album being played.  So you can hear the vocals on the record, and then hear a second set of muffled vocals on top of that.  It sounds so bad and I can't believe that anyone would have ever played a show doing this.  

Maybe they didn't have instrumental versions available at the time, which would be forgivable - but most of their singles did have instrumental versions on them, so who knows what happened there.  But the bigger issue is I'm shocked that anyone would think it was a good idea to release a recording of this and then charge over 40 bucks for it.  Even the cover picture is kind of crappy and blurry.  

A regrettable purchase that, based on Discogs prices, I probably couldn't unload if I wanted to.  It'll probably just sit on the shelf next to all of my other Ultramagnetic MC's records.  While I play those others all the time, I can't fathom ever spinning this one again.