7Inches - Singles awards of 2010 extravaganza- PT 2

The Already Overpriced Single award goes to Best Coast, there have been plenty of repressings of this on Art Fag, but they keep flying off the preverbial ebay shelves at ludicrous prices...kind of reminds me of the old Vivian Girls singles, it's like people wanted them to be rare already or something. It's nice to know there are super fans checking this stuff out and willing to shell out serious money for them, so I'm not complaining. $82 for this Best Coast single is very tempting sometimes...that's almost 1/10th of pressing your own!



Winner of single 7" that has no business being pressed, but I'm so glad they did:

Portal 13 Globes on Chrome Leaf Records. Of course they are better live. I was actually a little scared they were going to sacrifice something on stage, or hang themselves...like a snuff film amusement park. Extreme is always good, they do it the best. When these two worlds came together at the merch table I was seriously protecting this thing in my bag the whole way home.


Least wanted single (two years running): Brian Jonestown Massacre, not only that it's always listed for 9.99 or some nonsense. It had to be listed at least every week for the entire year, not selling once. Haven't you spent at least 10x that in listing fees? Throw it away already.
Dig! is the worst documentary.... not the way it's made...but both of those terrible bands make me sick...and of course the Dandy Warhols would be successful over BJM. Indie Rock? Get lost. Overrated creeps. The worst pathetic druggies with delusions of grandeur...sadly full of themselves. I might have even liked the part towards the end when they fight with each other in front of 10 fans...but then they probably staged it thinking that anyone gives a shit.



Best packaging for a single: It's a tie between PIAPTK's wedding album of handcut picnic plate lathe singles in the shape of hearts, his letterpress plate series and the Records Digest book/lathe cut series that all came out this year and Sonny Smith's 100 singles art show and boxed set.
Both of these are so insane/amazing that I couldn't choose. An amazing amount of work all for the love of the single. We don't deserve it and I hope you get over to their sites and pick these up because I'd like to see both of them continue their unique brand of sadomasochism.



Best new 7" label: Olde English Spelling Bee, congrats guys, there is no way I can even keep up with your releases let alone research all of these insane bands. I'm officially overwhelmed. The tip of the iceberg was the Big Troubles single, and they've been around since 2009. Still the best.


Special award this year for the longest band name with a single: The world is a beautiful place and i am no longer afraid to die on Top Shelf Records, I like their massive instrumental, emo, post sound, they do it right. You can't even abbreviate that.



Noisiest split single goes to (split decision): Mucky the Ducky and Hexlove and Aids Wolf and Satanized on badmaster Records, two singles that push the limits of what is even music, and that's a good thing.


Most obvious sign of the 7" apocalypse: Scion is not only promoting live garage shows at the Knitting factory but pressing records, which are unbuyable...it's one thing someine there has crazy taste and puts together shows, have free streaming songs from these bands on their 'radio' station but then to go and press records, you have no chance of getting? Thank god for ebay.

Brickmower on Stumparumper and The World is a Beautiful Place....on Topshelf Records

Pat has a new single out on his label, Stumparumper Records, this one is from NJ'ers, Brick Mower and was pressed by Single Piece slate, who I'm actually using myself to get a couple of 7"'s pressed for an art show in Boston...which I'll post about later.
"Garden Variety", still gets me, it's so rocking indie Eric's Trip in a perfect way. I've really been into that Merge book lately and this brings that all back..the avalanche of guitar rock singles in rows at the record store....do you get the xerox self released rock out garage single or another sad bastard Palace or Sebadoh single on Homestead. Brick Mower would fall into the first category... you want to see them live, with the singalong chorus, with a touch of weirdo in there, what is that slacker?...it's not pop punk.... they're just in that sincere genre....Fuck.... Garden Variety is on again...I want to hear these latest tracks.

Stumparumper says:
Brick Mower 'Box Turtle' floppy lathe cut 7" out now!!

We have a new release, and it's a very special one, for several reasons. Firstly, it's from those fantastic indie-punks Brick Mower, who have been tearing it up lately. But also! - it's a lathe cut 7", something we haven't done here at Stumparumper since our very first release almost 2 years ago (!!!!!!!!). But also also! - it's a totally new kind of lathe cut 7". It's called a 'floppy' because it's bendable, but it's nowhere near the thinness of a flexi. It occupies the space between normal vinyl and a flexi. It's cool. Plus, this new lathe cut has much improved sound quality over STUMP-01. This one was cut by a company in Seattle and, no offense in the direction of New Zealand, it sounds better than the ones Peter King cut for us way back when. But it doesn't end there! The 7" covers were designed and hand-silkscreened and super thick paper by one of our favorite artists, Ryan Duggan from Chicago. He's quickly becoming a premier poster artist and when you catch a glimpse of the illustration he did for this, you'll understand why. This release is hand-numbered to 50 copies, and we're already down to the last 16!! So get one now! http://www.stumparumper.com/merchandise.htm
(p.s. I know $8 is a lot for a 7", but each part of the final product is expensive and it's limited to 50 copies, and these things drive the price up. sorry, i know it sucks, but we're still losing money!)

It probably was their name that stuck with me whenever I came across it, so when I saw Topshelf records was releasing their first single, I went to go check out the tracks at their bandcamp page. The track names are equally epic and I have no idea how they're going to jam all of these onto a 7". It's sort of a Cap'n Jazz scream yourself hoarse along with a studio full of friends melodrama, combined with the massive dynamics of Explosions in the Sky, the complex intricate changes, to rock out walls of sound. But they even seem to ignore typical song structure at times reminding me of Firey Furnaces Blueberry Boat, that narrative story structure that dictates the direction of the melody...I'm into their completely unique direction in this kind of indie hardcore direction. Topshelf has 3 different color variations for $5:

Today we are thrilled to announce that we’ve got The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die’s spectacular debut EP 7” Formlessness now available for pre-order here. The first pressing ofFormlessness is 500 which we've split over 4 different colors. We have two different options: Single 7 Inch and a4 Pack (which includes every color of the album and is ONLY limited to 15).

Released earlier this year and taking some not-so-obvious cues from the likes of trail blazers like Sunny Day Real Estate or American Football, Formlessness plays like every record we love — but never quite just ONE in particular — and that’s our favorite part about it. The band has grabbed hold of classic moments like the more spastic buildups on a Kickball record or even the quieter lulls of Slint’s Spiderland in an entirely fresh and down-right invigorating direction. With the release of Formlessness, TWIABP are quickly joining the ranks of their peers like Annabel and Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate).

We’re ecstatic to be offering this record on vinyl. The first twenty-five orders will receive a FREE 2 song cassette titled “Josh Is Dead” and one random pre order will receive a free test press of the record with their order.