Merchandise - Total Nite

This post is for Thomas of Closet Case because he didn't know whether to buy this or not. I saw Merchandise live near the end of March and they were great. They had a living breathing drummer, which made everything sound a lot better. I really enjoyed their demo cd when it came out, so the drum machine on subsequent releases kind of threw me off. I didn't give them a fair chance for a while after that, but now that I've heard what the current line-up can do live, I'll probably give Children Of Desire a listen. Iceage were good too, they had more of a punk sound/energy than I was expecting. Anyways, no pictures since this is a 12"(maybe later though). Here ya go. Edit: mediafire sucks now and is listing the file as copyrighted, so I took the link down (you can't download it anyway) but I'm leaving this post up for my incredible show review.

Stressors - First Recordings

http://www.mediafire.com/?i5hv75v1qnhd3

Previously, I posted the Stressors demo. However, it wasn't the very first recordings Stressors made. We did two sessions for the demo, and only used the second (for the actual tape). Above is the flyer for our first ever show. Zero Progress had to drop (I think they were already playing another show). It was in Little Sam's (Casket, Public Suicide, indie stuff) garage. I propped our small amp on top of a table. We sounded alright, I think people were into it. I'm not sure if we had actual tapes yet. I remember Public Suicide being pretty good. For some reason, our old bassist was blasting Andrew WK as we drove up to the house. I don't think there's any pictures of the show, but here's one of some old Burnt Ramen gig we did from the same time period.



The music I've posted here is one long track of the first takes of songs, some of which would end up on our demo. The track list is:
1. Public Transportation
2. Pariah
3. Pariah (take 2)
3. Stuck In The Desert
4. Mind Death
5. To Serve Man
6. Imposter



There aren't any vocals on them. I'm not totally sure why. Noah might have just decided it would be easier to record them separately at his house. He did end up overdubbing vocals on three of the songs (Mind Death, To Serve Man and Pariah). The only voice you can hear on this recording is Eagret yelling "oi!" on the breaks in "Stuck In The Desert." Also, someone says "serious" after "To Serve Man," probably referring to the jazz chord I played at the end of it for no reason.

These songs were recorded at the beginning of a musical transition period we went through. We finally decided to let go of an old crappy band name and head in a different direction. Our bassist didn't really like it, and when he heard the vocals on the recordings, it was another thing he disapproved of. I think he liked being in a lighter, more melodic, and less serious band. A few months later, we had our current bassist. These recordings might not be much, but after taking such a long blogging hiatus, I had to give you something. I also included the three songs from this session that vocals were later added to. I don't know why I haven't posted in a while, I guess it's because my scanner works on and off. I also don't often feel motivated to make blog posts. I wish I had a way to scan LP covers. Oh well. Zip it up and zip it out.