(Ironically my wife painted the door behind the record black last week.)
A few months back I read a post somewhere by Dan Yemin that Paint It Black wasn’t going to release a new full length album for some time and that instead they’re going to go back to their Hardcore roots and release a bunch of seven-inches. The first of these promised wax singles comes to us on Bridge Nine Records. They made 2500 of them (300 brown, 700 white, 1500 blue). I was lucky enough to get brown but from the pictures on their website they all look pretty rad to me. And before I get to my review of the new PIB songs, I just want to take a quick aside and mention one of my favorite things about records. Sometimes, if you look close enough between the label and where the last song ends on a record you find secret messages etched by the label or by the band or just by some psycho at the pressing plant. If you’ve never looked, immediately get out all your records and do so. It’s another one of the subtle nuances to record collecting that I adore. I am being dead serious when I say that it’s the first thing I look for with every new record I’ve bought in the last fifteen years before even bothering to listen to it or gawk at the sleeve art. “Amnesia” didn’t disappoint in this department either.
Side A – “clown college…?”
Side B – “I’d be the Dean!
Alright. Alright. Hidden messages and colored vinyl aside, is it worth buying? Now, I might be biased in my opinion as their song The Pharmacist is one of the best Hardcore songs ever written, but if you’re into early Black Flag, Minor Threat, and/or any other Hardcore music, the answer is yes. The answer is yes for the opening track alone. Salem (MA) is not only where PIB recorded this seven-inch (and the home of the witch trial), it’s also one of the most unrelentingly brutal songs you will hear pointed at Christian Conservatism ever. Shit, it’s one of the most unrelentingly brutal songs you will ever hear period. When Yemin spits “remember this next time you’re kneeling at communion” he’s not making a friendly suggestion. I haven’t heard so much genuine emotion since Ian asked “what the fuck have you done”. In the nine minutes or so it takes before the songs on “Amnesia” run out PIB have crammed in more piss, vitriol, anger, and Hardcore breakdowns then most bands do in a career. The only track where they even take a slight respite is the closer, Bliss, an ode to city life, youth, freedom, and Mission of Burma. Look out for their next incher on Fat Wreck Chords in the months to come, go see them with Naked Raygun when they come around, and feel free to use the comments section of this review to post some of your favorite hidden vinyl etchings.
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Wow they etch clown college on it? Man I say that all the time. I don’t know why. That fact alone makes it worth buying.