Demo '08

Iron Chic has become one of my favourite bands these last years and slowly but steadily I've managed to pick up most of their records. One release that had eluded me for a long time though was their demo. It's highly sought after and usually goes for an amount of money I wasn't willing to shell out. Luckily YoYo Records decided to repress the demo for the last tour. I couldn't make it to any of the shows, but a buddy of mine was kind enough to pick up a copy for me.

Love Goes Through The Belly

One more Rvivr (related) record. Erica Freas released this LP with acoustic versions of Rvivr songs and some of her own singer-songwriter songs. What can I say? I'm a fan of her voice and this is a really good record for the quieter moments in life. I'm really glad my wife decided to pick this one up as well.

Bicker And Breathe

Last of the Rvivr records my wife and I picked up at Fluff Fest. If they had had any more, we would have picked up even more I'm sure. Bicker and Breathe is another 12" EP, released in 2014. Rvivr haven't released anything since then, which they will change soon hopefully. Pretty good release, but then which release by Rvivr isn't?

The Beauty Between

Rvivr's 2nd LP from 2013 has become a record I'd take with me to a remote island with the first couple of songs. As of now, if I could never listen to another record in my life, I'd be quite happy with it. The Beauty Between is one of the best records I've heard in years. Make that ever. I liked their previous releases, but this one is where it's at. Erica's voice sounds incredible on this record and Mattie's vocals work with hers perfectly. The songs are so goddamn catchy. It also has a certain late 90's / early 2000's Fat Wreck / Epitaph feel to me, so there's the added bonus of nostalgia for me. Just in case I haven't made myself clear: I love this record. I really do.

Beautiful Dirty Water

Second round of Rvivr. This 12" EP was released the same year as the debut LP. The songs on here are as good as anything the band has released so far. Of all their releases I've listened to so far, there's not one that I'd call bad or even just mediocre. All quality releases in their own way. Their songs are so catchy, it's hard to escape that. The Dirty Water EP is one-sided. On the b-side you get this beautiful etching, which I'd much rather show than the generic black vinyl a-side. This is a 2nd press copy out of 500, which is identical with the first press (also out of 500), except that the second press comes on 180g vinyl.

Rvivr

I didn't see a lot of bands at Fluff Fest to be honest, but the ones I did see I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm not the biggest fan of festivals, i.e. ones that are as a big as Fluff or bigger, which has mainly to do that there's usually a giant main stage somewhere (There are many more reasons, but this is pretty high on the list). No matter how much I like a band it's ten times harder for them to make me enjoy the show. Give me a small club with a low stage any day over one of those big rock stages.
Rvivr, whom I'd wanted to check out forever, were one of the few bands I watched completely - despite them playing on the main stage. The set they played was incredibly good and I don't think I've ever enjoyed a band playing such a huge stage as much as I did here. The music, the lyrics, the audience and the weather were a perfect match to make this one of the highlights of the festival for me. My wife was equally stoked by Rvivr's performance and she was the one who stormed off to the merch area to pick up everything vinyl the band had with them. So here's the first installment of a few records that I'm going to post about in the next few days. S.t. LP on generic black vinyl.

Head Over Heels

So, a good friend of mine and I were djing together a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I actually play the records I buy, sometimes even for other people. Now I'm not saying I'm any good at it, but getting to listen to exactly the music you want to listen to for a whole evening and getting free food and drinks on top of that sounds like a good deal to me. Anyway, said buddy put on this one song that immediately got me hooked, so I had to ask him what band this song was by and that's how I fell in love with Iron Chic.
Not only did I fall in love with this band though, but my girlfriend did, too. Now the good thing about having a girlfriend who is into the same music as oneself and thinks about music the same way you do is that you don't have to explain about buying and spending way too much money (only in the eyes of others of course) on records. On the contrary, me and the missus teamed up and got as many Iron Chic releases as possible for now. Sounds like an awesome girlfriend? You're right about that. Since I apparently live under an enormous rock, not all releases were still available, so it looks like I'll have to hit up ebay or discogs at some point in the nearby future. Expect to see more Iron Chic posts soon.
For once I seem to be extremely lucky since the band is going on tour in Europe in a couple of weeks, which I'm really stoked about. Enough time to learn the lyrics to sing along. Shouldn't be too hard considering that Iron Chic is being played 95% of the time in the apartment these days.


Going clockwise:

Spooky Action tape on Bridge 9 records - white - /250
Not Like This LP - European press on YoYo Records - black (180g vinyl) - 3rd press out of ???
(Cosmic) Future 7" on YoYo Records - clear vinyl - 3rd press out of ???
The Constant One LP on Bridge 9 - baby blue vinyl - 2nd press out of 1000
Spooky Action 7" on YoYo Records - clear vinyl - 1st press out of 400

Not too interesting from a collector's point of view. But as I said I had lived under a rock for too long, which means that all the releases have gone through multiple pressings by now, so I'm not even thinking about trying to go down that road...