Sick Of It All X Conne Island

Sick Of It All is one of the oldest hardcore bands, maybe the band that continuously has been together the longest in hardcore period. No hiatus, no break-ups, just 30 years of going strong. I was actually lucky enough to see them play live a few weeks ago and they were incredibly good as always. Probably the only band I truly enjoy in bigger venues. They just know how to put on a great show. They've been touring in Europe and Germany excessively over the past decades and one of the venues they have played on a regular basis is Conne Island in Leipzig, which is incidentally one of the longest running diy hardcore/punk venues in Germany.

To mark 30 years of Sick Of It All, 25 years of Conne Island and a very close relationship between band and venue a special edition of SOIA's s.t. 7" was pressed. 330 copies on gold vinyl. The back cover and the inside of the sleeve as well as the lyric sheet come with a new design, mainly showing pictures of Sick Of It All shows at Conne Island over the years. I think the packaging came out really great. The records are all hand numbered and come with a stamp. There are four different stamps altogether, all of which show characters from Batman. I have #192, which comes with a Robin stamp. Not all variants were sold to the public, so getting a complete set will be tricky. I'm pretty sure some people will try nonetheless. For me, one copy is enough.

To be honest, I wasn't even at the show, but that's why you can turn to each other for help, right? Good looking out, Mike.

Gift horses

With my last order from Speedowax I received two records I hadn't ordered. I always appreciate labels throwing in bonus stuff, even with small orders.

The first one is a split between The Hip Priests and Mannequin. The Hip Priests play garage mixed with punk'n'roll (?). I'm sure they're not bad at what they're doing, but it's not really my cup of tea. Mannequin are somewhere between pop punk, alternative and demo, sort of? I like the music, but the vocals for 1708 are a little annoying. Colour is a pretty decent song though.

Busted Outlook are more up my alley. Sounds like early 80's hardcore, sprinkled with some youth crew. I've just looked up this band and found out they're playing Fluff Fest this summer, which means I can catch them live. 150 copies on clear vinyl.

To sum up, two new records I hadn't ordered, three unknown bands, one of which I don't like, one I'll keep an eye out for, and one I'm looking forward to checking out live. Not a bad quota at all if you ask me.

Fade

Since I read a lot of good things on various blogs about the Fade demo 7", I took the opportunity and ordered a copy while ordering the Spirits / Tomar Control splits over at the Speedwax Records webstore, and holy shit, the three songs on this demo are so good. Incredibly good. Can't wait to pick up the other two 7"s.