My two favorite ladies in CA - Lisa and Betty of Frontier Records once again sent over the latest batch of new color vinyl releases of three of my favorite punk rock albums from “back in the day”. They are as follows…

Adolescents - LP (aka: the blue album) on opaque pink vinyl

Circle Jerks - Group Sex LP on opaque yellow vinyl

Suicidal Tendencies - LP on opaque yellow vinyl

All three of these colored vinyl beauties are available in limited quantities and can be acquired straight from the Frontier Records website. Tell the ladies that MXV sent you if you stop by. Thanks as always to Lisa and Betty for sending them over!

Valient Thorr - Immortalizer CD
Volcom Entertainment

When I saw Valient Thorr last winter, they totally won me over with their amazingly energetic rock tunes and their fun attitudes. These intergalactic rockers from Venus by way of North Carolina transplanted me in time to the 1970s when rock and roll was rock and roll and the songs had some substance. I immediately bought all their albums and vowed to go and see them play again.

For their first album in well over a year, Valient Thorr took all the ingredients that made their previous albums so good, added a bit more metal seasoning and turning the whole thing up to 11. The basic structure of their music is grounded in 70’s rock, and sprinkled in there is tiny bits of metal and the attitude of early punk with a little southern twang.

Songs like the lead track, “I Hope the Ghosts of the Dead Haunt Yr Soul Forever” immediately grab the listener with its catchy guitar leads that make you stand up and take notice. “Tomorrow Police” harkins back to the early punk days with its lyrics dealing with the wrongs of “the system” and corrupt cops. “No Holds Barred” is an ode to wrestling including a section where Valient Himself starts reciting a whole slew of wrestling holds which I as a wrestling fan got a big kick out of not to mention the song itself is super catchy and energetic.

The whole album is a pretty entertaining listen from start to finish and a great follow up to their last album, which was a great rock album. This time out they recorded with Jack Endino who is no stranger to being at the helm of bands with a classic rock influence, as he recorded so many of the Sub Pop records back during the “grunge years”. I can only imagine that these songs are even better live, but until I get to witness them being played in person again, this album will be enjoying regular plays on the old iPod.

Related links:

Valient Thorr official website
Valient Thorr on myspace
Buy the CD from amazon.com

T.S.O.L. - The Early Years Live DVD
MVD Visual

Despite their storied past that included going metal, lawsuits and other unpleasant things, there is no disputing the greatness that was early T.S.O.L. . Their first couple of records are now regarded as punk rock classics and they’ve cemented a place in punk rock legend.

This DVD compiles footage from two different shows and sources, both recorded in 1983. This was right around the time that the band started experimenting with things like keyboards and going in a bit more of a goth direction before the band fell apart and turned metal simultaneously. There is a great mix of really early material plus the songs that were new at the time from the Beneath the Shadows album. The main feature was shot by Flipside and likely ended up on one of the VHS tapes they used to sell back in the old days. It was shot on one camera from a somewhat close distance. The show was outdoors so the lighting is great. The image quality is pretty good for a 25 year old camcorder recording. There’s a few glitches here and there and the thing was pretty amateurish, but considering the technology and the era it is pretty good. The audio is very good as well especially considering the equipment.

The second feature on here is much shorter and was recorded around the same time, this time by Target Video. The footage is fairly similar in quality to the Flipside footage. There is also a healthy amount of bonus material consisting of an old interview from that Flipside show that lasted about 40 minutes, a live clip from 2007 and a reading from Jack Grisham from his forthcoming book. The old interview footage was particularly interesting just because it was so long ago that is was like going back in a time machine.

As a pretty big T.S.O.L. fan, I was excited to see this was coming out. It’s always nice to see these old documents being brought out for people to see what they missed or relive their punk rock past. If you are a fan of the band it’s worth the few bucks to add this to your collection.

Related links:

Order the DVD from amazon.com

MVD Visual

T.S.O.L. official website

The folks over at Unrest Records up on Canada have been busy of late pumping out a lot of vinyl releases (which you will see many featured here soon). Among the many releases they have reissued all of the recorded output by one of my favorite Canadian punk rock bands, the Dayglow Abortions!

They have reissued every single album the band ever did, including many that weren’t released on vinyl in the first place. We’ll start at the beginning in this first installment.

Dayglow Abortions - Out of the Womb LP

This is the very first Dayglow Abortions record that has been out of print in its own format for a quarter century now. The songs were included on the Feed Us a Fetus LP which is why no one ever bothered to reissue this on its own. I found it odd that the label even bothered to make this its own release again but I think it is fairly limited and it is kind of neat for the sake of completion.

Dayglow Abortions - Feed Us a Fetus LP

This was hands-down the best record the band ever did. Aside from collecting the songs from the first record, it also had a side of brand new (at the time) songs that were even better than those on the first. My all time favorite Dayglow songs are on this album. This is the fourth label this album as been released on over the years which is a testament to what a classic it is. There should be one of these in every punk rocker’s record collection.

Dayglow Abortions - Here Today Guano Tomorrow LP

This was the third LP for the band who also added a third guitarist for the release if memory serves. The songs were a bit longer and a bit more metal but without going full on crossover like many bands did. They upped the number of solos at times to near ridiculous levels but overall it was a pretty solid album that is worth the purchase price for “The Spawn of Yog Sothoth” alone! The band managed to retain their brand of humor on this release as well.

All of these records, plus more, can be had direct from Unrest Records. I am pretty sure if you order direct you get colored vinyl versions of them too. Stay tuned for part 2 of the Dayglow Abortions reissues which feature all the albums that were CD only until now.

I came home the other day to find a package sitting on my doorstep from Frontier Records. Inside it was a note from Betty and Lisa saying “hi” and also there was a new colored vinyl record in there. This particular one is a colored vinyl first for the label.

Rikk Agnew - All By Myself LP on opaque blue vinyl

This is the Rikk Agnew solo album that came out way back in the early 1980s. Rikk plays everything on the record and sings. That was a lot to tackle. On top of that, the songs are pretty damn good too, Rikk is quite a talent. One of the songs, “OC Life” also made an appearance as a D.I. song and is a punk rock classic. This is the first time this record has been released on colored vinyl, and for the longest time it actually wasn’t even available on vinyl until recently.

I don’t know how many were pressed, but if you’d like this lovely blue disc for your own punk vault, you can grab one straight from Frontier Records. Tell them MXV sent you if you do. As always, many thanks to the fine ladies at Frontier for sending one over.