Vinyl XXX Edge

Hey mates, we’d like to announce that our friend Alex from UK started his DIY label called Youth Crew Alex Records. His goal is to release as many demo tapes as possible and despite the name of his label Alex will not just be bringing out youth crew bands tapes.

Youth Crew Alex Records

YCAR’s first release will be the fantastic IN THIS FOR FUN tape. Details are still being worked out but it will be a double sided tape with artwork by the band’s drummer Crab.

YCAR will be looking overseas for future releases. Hoping to bring some of the fantastic 08/09 youth crew revival bands music to a wider european audience. 

As a collector myself I know how fun it is when you recieve a release that has something special with it or is packaged in a special way so I will be trying my best to make each release as stand out as possible! Each run of tapes will be limited to 50 and will be repressed only if demand is huge!

xDanchox about the shows in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria:

I thought after the mini tour with BANE I’ll need a rest. I’m listening to them quite too often and too much and I thought I’ll feel like stopping for a while. It happened just the opposite, after the third and last live on my BANE tour I’m a completely different person. I don’t feel like listening to hardcore anymore, I don’t feel like playing, I don’t feel like going to hardcore gigs if BANE are not playing. Man, these guys have great attitude, great music and they create perfect atmosphere live. I’ve never seen this on another show or from another band and I’ll probably never feel this way again. Sounds exaggerated but I’m writing this one week after the events so be sure it isn’t temporary excitement but an objective interpretation of what happened.

In the morning of April 6 we left Sofia and headed for Budapest where was the first show. We arrived early in the afternoon full with energy despite the long and tiring trip. We took a walk in the center of the town and no matter all the beauty, calmness and nice girls there, our hearts were leading us to Durer Kert Club. We got there one hour earlier to get used to the ambience and relax a little bit. We immediately realized the show will have over an hour delay. During this time we had the chance to meet few people we were expecting - Bence & Meli, our host Csontee and the great dudes from I Drink Milk. Big ups for them and for the rest of the positive kids we met. So about the show. The local band Zero Mentality played really well but I couldn’t pay them the deserved attention as I was thinking only about the fact I’m going to see BANE. To Kill got on the stage with a guest second guitarist because the original player was in the hospital with his girlfriend who was recovering after a road accident. We hope she’s fine now! To Kill made a great show, good music, good attitude and good words. They are a band completely dedicated to the attitude towards animals, animal rights, liberation and of course against people’s primitive feeding habits.

“This is my therapy. You breath life into me. My only sanity. Within these walls is where I’m free.” These words marked the beginning of the BANE set. After these first words everyone were on the stage singing with Bedard! A true 100% hardcore show. The atmosphere changed right after the first chord. The kids in the club became more, the smiles wouldn’t fall off their faces. Every track was boiling the audience until its limits. Endless stagediving, headwalking and circle pit. No beatdown shits, no pseudo aggressive attitude of fat and complexed pussies, no fucking ridiculous pseudo violence. Bane played some of our favourite songs - Swan Song, My Therapy, Ali, Superhero, Can We etc. Without exaggerating I can tell this was the greatest show in my life! For the kids from Budapest it may sound too much but they are seeing BANE two times a year and the big cities with lots of shows (where BANE also play) are close and easy to travel to. After the show we went to Csontee’s home to have a rest and on the next morning we started the tough trip to Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

And hell it was really a tough trip. Instead of four hours, we traveled ten! Fortunately we easily found the place and we took a walk around. In front of the club a crowd had already started to gather, this is why we decided to join it. The show was arranged by the local DIY promoter Paul. He was a great dude. Thanks for the vegan food and the attention! It was awesome!

The gig started without the previously announced two English bands which had an accident with their car and couldn’t come. However the local crust punks Pavillion 32 played for the insane audience and were enjoying solid support. I’m not much of a crust fan, this is why I can’t neither deeply analyze or appreciate their performance. If they had played only a few songs I’d like them more but I was quickly bored. And here comes the surprise. To Kill had quite a lot of fans here in Romania. Everyone knew their lyrics and were totally enjoying their set. I actually started to appreciate and enjoy their style too. However we all had gathered for BANE. They played quite a different set which didn’t include some of their most powerful songs. The experience was darkened somehow by technical issues. Bedard’s mic was not working 60% of the time. It was really annoying. Another problem were the drums… Despite all problems it was still a great show with a bunch of psychos on stage totally making music from their hearts!

A quick goodbye and again in the car. Heading towards Sofia there were 800kms of almost no highways, only Balkan roads with a lot of goddamn trucks.

xAngelx about the show in Bulgaria:

I’m a huge fan of metallic, vegan hardcore bands so I went to the To Kill/BANE live thinking I was mostly a To Kill fan. This is an important remark to show you I’m really objective in my evaluation of what happened on that Wednesday in Swingin Hall Club, Sofia, Bulgaria. The night started with the usual friend gatherings and meetings in front of the club. We were not more than thirty people waiting in front of the place. We were all psyched if we were going to be all of the audience, not that we wouldn’t be able to make the place as it had been devastated by an horde of orcs. But still what kind of fucked up country we are if people are paying crazy money to see paralyzed dinosaurs like Agnostic Front or Biohazard and are not coming to see one of the most powerful hardcore bands ever! Fortunately the show was delayed and completely in Bulgarian style people started arriving with 30, 40 minutes delay. In the end let’s say we were enough to make this place hardcore enough! So BANE and To Kill finally arrived, unpacked their equipment and merch and after an hour we entered the club to see probably the greatest gig Swinging Hall Club will ever witness!

The show started with Brothers In Blood, tight and fast they usually make the audience boil but this time being the first band didn’t save even them from playing in front of one, two people who were really enjoying and singing with them. Now I understand what the words “I couldn’t appreciate their performance because I was waiting for BANE” mean. Then To Kill got on stage. I think there weren’t any people familiar with their songs, however it was really nice seeing a band so dedicated to the vegan straight edge lifestyle. And their music is really not a cliche so I think next time when they are in Bulgaria more people will be moshing with To Kill! AND THEN THEY CAME…

BANE were filling the stage as none of the other hardcore bands I’ve ever seen. A quick adjustment of the instruments and they started. The ambience completely changed. Right after the start of the first song Swinging Hall turned into HELL! Stagediving, pile ups and on every mouth I could see the words Bedard was singing, on every face I could see the smile provoked by the positive message BANE’s music is caring and spreading! I remember clearly what was happening until I heard the first words of “Can We Start Again” after it everything that is in my mind are images of blurry, happy faces and the sound of music coming right from the hearts of the people from BANE. One thing I can tell for sure. If you haven’t seen BANE live you can’t actually know what the words hardcore and straight edge stand for!

xDanchox:

The best show ever in Bulgaria!!!!

First of all who are the people behind Kingdom, how, when and why all this began?
Davin: Kingdom started in spring of 2006, with myself, Ben (our original drummer), and a couple other kids who have since left the band. We’re gone through a lot of member changes and I won’t bore you with the details, so I’ll just say that the current line up is myself, Dave (my best friend/our crucial guitar player), and Pierce (another great friend and wicked bassist). Ben left the band last year and now plays in a band called Brave Young, but still helps out with Kingdom (he helped write the new record and also recorded drums)

The reason we started Kingdom was because when Ben and I met like 5 or 6 years ago, we got talking about how while we were both vegan and straight edge kids, we didn’t like the sound of most modern vegan straight edge bands. We wanted to start a band with “mid 90’s” ideals (veganism, straight edge, a strong lean toward radical politics) that didn’t sound like it was out of the mid 90’s. So we took influence of course from old bands (Warzone, Buried Alive, early Hatebreed) but also more modern bands like Madball, No warning, and Nile.

What is the result of your presence in the sxe scene for these 2, 3 years? Do you feel all sacrifices are worth the effort, do you meet support of the kids? Do you feel you’re are changing something?
Davin: We have definitely been supported well both here and in Europe since we’ve been around, and we appreciate the shit out of that. And of course it’s worth it! Even just for the fun we have- playing the music we love and saying the things we want to say, it’s worth it. But I do think that we’ve been able to reach a few people here and there, and inspire people to make positive changes in their lives (whether it be to stop doing drugs, or stop eating meat, or just have a little more self confidence) and that, to me, has made every bowl of ramen and hard, cold floor we sleep on more than worth it.

Your new records is scheduled for 31 of March, what people should expect from it?
Dave: It’s still the same band, as Davin already said Ben helped us write songs for it, however it was my first time writing songs with the band so I brought in some heavier more Crowbar or Sepultura influenced stuff. It’s not metal, by any means, it’s still hardcore. Lyrically, there’s a lot of great topics that Davin has touched on, aside from of course being Straight Edge or going Vegan: the evils of consumerism, double standards concerning women and sex in society, how humans are a plague to the earth and should stop breeding, and triumphant songs about being exiled from a stale society! The vocals are also much heavier, deeper, and more intense. Also there’s a wide range of voices she uses. Pierce brought in some great punk rock style bass lines to some of the songs, as well. Overall, I think fans of Kingdom will still like it, and people who like hardcore of all kinds will have something to like here and hopefully we gain some new supporters.

You’ve scheduled a god damn great tour from March to August, and you’re playing almost all the time and almost everyday! Is this the first time you’re doing such an immense tour because damn it’s gonna be a good and rough one!
Davin: Hahaha yeah we like to keep busy. We’ve actually been touring like this since we’ve been a band. Staying put is boring and playing is fun, so it only makes sense that we live on the road. We had booked a 2 month full US tour before we had even played a single show, had a demo out, OR had a bass player. We’re real excited for our 2 month European tour this summer (with Dead Vows in July, and Rhinoceros in August), hopefully we’ll see you there!

So thanks in advance for the attention! We hope on Jul 20 we’ll meet you and see your live in Bulgaria and in full force!!! And we also hope will see a Kingdom release on a vinyl soon

I Drink Milk

I finally got my I Drink Milk package which includes Rearranged Demo 2008, Clearsight Demo 2008 and I Drink Milk Fanzine #3. I’m so psyched that I can’t wait to listen to the tapes and I will review them right now. I have the songs in mp3 so I won’t lose more time to write about these releases. Let’s start with Clearsight.

Clearsight Demo 2008

To our regret this amazing band from Kiev doesn’t exist anymore. Due to some personal reasons the guys from Clearsight decided not to play. But for our luck there are Still (Odessa) with members of Clearsight and some other projects which will be announced soon. Let’s focuse on this release. This is the remixed version of demo CD with a bonus Alone In A Crowd cover song. Very nice printed insert and fully ripped off Straight Ahead cover design. The tape is colored in green and it looks rad. Personally when I listen to Clearsight I can hear a lot of Ten Yard Fight and Straight Ahead influence. This is 100% youth crew style with short and fast songs and powerful singalongs. And although the quality of the sound is not very good this is one of the best bands coming from Ukraine. Give it a try.

Rearranged Demo 2008

Rearranged comes from Moscow, Russia. This great country is known with its powerful neo-nazi armies and good hardcore bands. And red square of course. Rearranged is one of the newest and one of the best bands (together with Ray, Cut’n'Run and What We Feel) from this part of the world. This tape has two versions. IDM version is hand-numbered out of 100. And my copy comes with IDM Fanzine#3 and obviously is one of the last. Numbered 91/100. So don’t think much, get a copy right now.

The sound of this tape is with good quality and the songs in it are killer. Real blast. These pals play music such as my favorite Uniform Choice and Youth of Today. They sing in english and play fast core with melodic parts and great lyrics.

Rearranged Demo 2008

This is the same tape but out of 150. It is Brainwreck Records release. My copy is 76/150. The same band, the same tape, the same sound. Blast.

And because of the fact that we are called Vinyl Edge we must finish with something released on vinyl. This is released on Positive and Focused Records and is out of 250 black copies. This is ninth P&F release. More pressing info: 30 pieces on black wax with pre-order cover. This version only comes with cd. And one very cool decision which we can call “friend press” is this box-set limited to 10. It includes: 

1 x testpress 7inch with yellow cover /10
1 x pre-order 7inch + cd
1 x Regular 7inch
1 x limited cd /10
1 x limited tape /10
1 x limited USB-card /10

Box-sets are handnumbered and stamped.

Golden X 7

Golden X are an Austrian youth crew band and damn they’re really carrying that thing from back in the days in their music. These mates sent us their EP but all the problems that could happen to zine makers actually happened. From broken gramophones to absolute lack of time for writing the detailed review this INSANE vinyl deserves. First of all we like to mention that the artwork is awesome, oldschool enough, symbolic enough and what’s most important a great fun! And this goes for the music too. All tracks Golden X recorded are a god damn punch in the face of everything bad and an anthem to everyone that care about their lives and want to have a meaningful existense. Lyrics with not even a piece of pointless, fake and modern hatred, only a true message for you to think about. We don’t want to spoil the pleasure of listening and discovering all amazing things about the record but there’s something really special about it! It is under track number 6 and under the name of ‘Wizards and Warriors’. After all these times we’ve listened to the vinyl we still don’t have enough words to describe how great this track is. We won’t reveal anything more, just buy the record, we really can’t think of a better end of an album than this. We hope we’ll be hearing a lot more about Golden X in the near future! We hope their music will really stay FOREVER YOUNG!

Here is an announcement for the upcoming The First Step - What We Know Sessions 7″ pre-orders:

I just got off the phone with the pressing plant. The First Step- What We Know Sessions 7” should be pressed sometime this week, which means I should have the records next week. I’m still waiting on covers, so it might be another 2 weeks before they ship. I have a ton of orders waiting to go out, so it will take me a little time to pack and mail everyone’s records. If you were part of the first 100 orders, you will get the most limited color. I printed the orders out as they came in, and I have the first 100 in a separate pile. If you don’t get that, the rest of the press is still pretty limited, and the music is the same on all copies. Again, it will take me a little time to send everything out, please be patient!!! I’ve been doing the label for years; no one is getting ripped off.

In other news, the RIGHT IDEA record is on its way to the plant. This was originally released as a 12” on REACT! Records, and quickly sold out. REACT! only does one press of 1000 records, so Bottled Up was asked to repress it. I am stoked to have the chance to put this out. I will not begin taking pre-orders for this until after I have started to ship the TFS records. I will be posting a mp3 from this record on the Bottled Up myspace this week.

I still have copies of the IN STRIDE, CRUMBLER, EFFORTS MADE, and LEARN records available. Questions, comments, concerns feel free to email me starttodayzineA​ThotmailDOTcom.​

I ordered one of the copies in the first day of the pre-orders so I must have the most limited EP! The other copy I ordered later so everything should be ok. Can’t wait!

P.S. Two important facts about ON and CONTROL 7″ pre-orders:

I’m a loser. Mike got his package and there were three copies - one on black, one on white and one on red. Marcus didn’t have such great success with his three copies. He didn’t get red copy, but he is now owner of one very limited “transition” white version of this EP. Even Brian who picked up only one copy of this record received it on white. And what about me? I ordered four copies and I was almost sure I will have all of the colors. But finally when I got my package I saw two “normal” black and two “normal” white. No red, no “transition” white or black. Nothing!

But actually this is not a big deal. I will try to live with it. I won’t give up. The main thing is that MINDSET rules hard and I truly believe it will have a great future and success.

Ok, lets finish with one nice picture that I made a few months ago. The difference between CANON Rebel XTi (on the last photo) and CANON Powershot A400 (first two photos) is obvious. Enjoy.

It sucks multiple cocks to be a vinyl collector living in an Eastern European country like Bulgaria. And I will tell you why - it costs you a lot of money and it is very risky. Seriously, I spend a shit load of money every month ($150-200; this big amount of money for this part of the world) buying records and I usually receive only 3-5 records. Not because they get lost, but ’cause of the shipping services taxes. Sometimes I pay 10 bucks for a record and 15 for shipping. This is a maggot shitty business. And the worst scenario is when I pay let’s say 50 bucks for a record and I receive some dirty sleeve with scratches and coffee spots. I get crazy when this happens. And, yes, it happens.

For example this Bold - Speak Out 12″ (Rev).

I received it and I put it back on eBay for sale. I’ve sold it with fixed price (15 bucks) because of this sleeve damage. I put also bonus stuff for free.

The worst thing is that I have one BANE record in near to this condition of the sleeve. And I hate it. Why would anybody buy a record and won’t take the best care of it? I can’t understand this. Nevermind, I am waiting two packages of pre-orders to arrive (ON and MINDSET) and one package to be announced it’s ready for shipping (TFS Sessions 7″). I’m so psyched.

If anybody reading this blog has any BANE records ready to sell/trade, please get in touch with xdanchox@vinyledge.com.

Hey mates, here are a few records for sale (fixed price is because of a restriction that ebay put on vinylxedge’s profile; sorry for this). I desperately need 50 bucks to buy two records. I don’t have a lot of time to get the money so I need your help. Buy this! Thank God I have this BANE / ADAMANTIUM split on grey doubled. It is always sad when I have to remove records from the collection.

Good for you is that I will put records for free in your package. So don’t think much, it is a fair deal. Bid and buy! Help in this never ending game..

Regarding Mindset’s myspace page we can see in this photo as follows:
First line: Transition Presses
Second line: Test Press /25, Tour Press /100, Record Release /75
Third line: Red /125, White /300, Black/400

The coolest thing in here is that all the pre-orders are shipped and on their way. I can’t wait my 4 copies to come. I hope there will be one copy in red. We will definitely write a review when we receive this record.

While saying the word “review” I’ve been reminded of something.. my turntable doesn’t work and I can’t listen to some records that I received from two cool bands - Golden X (Austria) and Angers Curse (Sweden). Sorry guys, I promise I will get the things in my hands and next week your records will be reviewed here.

Also I expect a few nice records to arrive these days:
BANE / ADAMANTIUM on grey (Indecision Records)
BANE Give Blood on clear/brown (EVR)
BANE 10th Anniversary on blue/yellow (EVR)
BANE 10th Anniversary on white/yellow (EVR)
ON Vital Times West Coast Tour Edition (S/R)

Hello pals, thanks for doing this interview. Please introduce yourself to the readers. Most of the information in the web is in spanish so we are not very familiar with Billy The Kid.
Hey! Thank you so much for taking the time! Well this is Manuel and I’m the drummer. There’s Pablo and Alejandro, both on guitar, Eddy on the vocals, Luna on bass and Perez throwing rhymes.

How did you choose your name? Why Billy The Kid?
Well truth is when we started this band it was just a side project, something to do on our free time so we didn’t really care all that much and at the same time we didn’t really want to go for the typical hardcore name, so Eddy said Billy The Kid and we were all cool with it. Turned out this band would become something serious to all of us and then when we thought of changing the band’s name people actually seemed to find it catchy and liked it, I guess it sticks to your mind or something.
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