Friday, August 11, 2023

8/11/23 - Мир - MINDECISION 12" + GRAVEN IMAGE 12" repress out now!


WHAT IS UP? Very excited to let y'all know that I got a new one and a repress ready to roll - both of which are decades old hardcore punk from the Old Dominion state. Isn't that something else? Welp, let's go for it:

Мир - MINDECISION 12"

By now, it's not surprising that the dissemination of the hardcore punk movement in it's infancy seeped into the pores of nearly the entire planet. Of course, all the major cities worldwide developed burgeoning hardcore scenes that yielded the classics we know and love but there's something to be said about the less known spots on the map and their select inhabitants that were swept up in the fervor of it all, like some of those in the sleepy valley town of Roanoke tucked away in the tranquil Blue Ridge mountain region of Southwest Virginia. It was in that city, circa 1984, that four teenagers came together to form Мир or, for the non-Cyrillicaly inclined, simply MNP. The band name, pronounced "Mihr" per the  and which translates from Russian to peace, was also the group's mission statement and driving force in their brief existence. Having played a slew of gigs locally and elsewhere alongside contemporaries like CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, SCREAM, BATTALION OF SAINTS and DEATH PIGGY among others, they left as quickly as they came, disbanding in the summer of 1985 before most of the members left for college. Thankfully, the band entered the studio earlier that year before calling it a day. The tracks that made up the criminally underrated and sparsely circulated "MINDECISION" cassette are a crucial entry into the annals of early Virginia hardcore punk history, featuring twelve cuts of scorching USHC executed by small town high school kids. Remastered from the original reels by Chris Corry, each record comes in a jacket adorned with the original cover art by drummer Lawson Jaeger, featuring a 12" x 24" insert chock full of live photos, flyers and other ephemera plus liner notes by guitarist Spencer Edmunds. 

There are 100 copies on WHITE VINYL for mailorder only while they last!

Also, the GRAVEN IMAGE - STUDIO SESSIONS: '82-'83 12" has been freshly repressed on coke bottle clear vinyl and is limited to 175 copies. If ya missed out the first time around, get one of these while ya can!

As always, you can snag here and stream / download / snag here.

In distro news, the crown jewel of this update has to be the AMAZING new LP by France's DELETAR on the great Kick Rock Records. It's selling out from stateside distros left and right, get ya one if ya haven't already.

In addition to that, there's a very diverse smattering of fan club slabs in the store, only one of which is remotely punk related. Take a look... OHHHH YEAYYYUH!

Anyhow, keeping this one short and sweet. MUCH MORE TO COME BEFORE THE YEAR IS OUT like new slabs from PARANOID, PUBLIC ACID, HACKER and some others I can't announce yet. Expect pre-order info for a couple very soon... 

STAY COOOL,
-B.I.R.