This Thursday, 4/17 at the Anne Bonney our friend Andrew Crawshaw (of Broken Press fame) is having a showing of his silk-screened poster art. Hemingway will be playing at 7pm sharp!

Two bits of news!

1. Preorders are starting to go out, check your mailboxes soon.
2. Helms Alee are playing the Hydra Head showcase at SXSW this year. If you are unlucky enough to be stuck in Texas, make the most of it and check them out.

Dear Friends,

It’s time for preorders of our two new releases, a 1-sided 12″ from Helms Alee, and the super limited second release of the Deadsure CD/LP. There are 150 copies of the Deadsure LP, and 400 of the Helms Alee LP. They are available in the store right now, and they will ship out early February!

Some quick notes on the Helms Alee records:

1. The band is ‘Helms Alee’ - we put that on the cover so that people could identify it without having to work too hard. We did make it a bit difficult to figure out everything else, because black is the limited color and the record covers are color-coordinated with the vinyl. We’re enigmatic like that.
2. The record is a 1-sided 12″, you play it on a turntable at 33rpm. Every single piece of the packaging is printed AND silkscreened. Take a close look. The plastic sleeve, the cover, and even the inner sleeve on both sides. We’re crazy. We even had the outer cover paper custom milled.
3. The b-side has a pretty picture etched into it (art by the talented and lovely Faith Coloccia of Everlovely Lightningheart). I suggest you DON’T try to play the b-side. Maybe make some hot cocoa and find some cats to cuddle with while staring at it wistfully (this works for me).
4. These are four of six songs they recorded a few months back, the other two are coming out as a 7″ on Hydra Head.
5. The guy who sings and plays guitar was in Harkonen and These Arms Are Snakes. The lady who beats the shit out of the drums is in Lozen. The lady who holds it all together on the bass guitar was in some band whose name I can’t remember and which I feel pretty bad about. She’s also a mean Pictionary player.
6. They have a myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/helmsaleemusic

Some quick notes on the Deadsure records:

1. The band is ‘Deadsure’ - we put that on the cover, but it’s basically impossible to read, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
2. The record is an LP which comes with a CD. It’s the long-awaited (by me, at least) follow-up to their debut EP which came out on No Idea about four years ago. Deadsure captures pieces of the greatest 90’s hardcore bands like Hoover and Braid and Maximillian Colby and Rorschach and you’re probably thinking “those bands don’t sound anything alike.” That’s true. And Deadsure doesn’t really sound like any of them, but there’s a similarly brilliant dynamic to the way these guys play music, a sense of urgency. There’s a weight to it that grabs you and makes you tingle in your bathing suit area.
3. Deadsure is broken up now, and the first version of the LP/CD is sold out. Pelt them with things and convince them to not break up.
4. Ex-Sparkmarker jams. They have a myspace page, too: http://www.myspace.com/deadsure

Other stuff:
1. A super limited hand-packaged cd-r version of the Helms Alee songs which was put out by our bestest friend ever Andy at Broken Press is also available from us. Super limited.
2. We’ve got copies of the Kids Explode + Shokei split lp, too. Hot, hot jams.

Upcoming releases:
1. RPR-009: Jason from Sparrows Swarm and Sing has a new band called Golden Holy that is going to take over the world. We’ve got songs up on the m-space, check that shit.
2. RPR-010: Playing Enemy ‘Here’s To What We Made’ lp. A collection of rare and unreleased Playing Enemy songs, including the songs that were to be the bulk of their next LP before they went the way of the dinosaur. Handpackaged on vellum, intense intensity as always.
3. RPR-011: Hemingway 10″? Crazy new piano-noise-pop-folk jams from 2/3 of the Playing Enemy crew.

We’ve been incommunicado, late on mailorder and everything else. Sorry.

photo by Stefanie Hatcher

Lots of things going on, here’s a summary to update you before we drop more details:

• The Assailant are breaking up, they’ve got two more shows left. We’ll be releasing a 1-sided 12″ of their last four songs, limited to 100 copies. Sign up for the mailing list, we will have maybe 50 copies for mailorder.
• Our next release is going to be a 1-sided 12″ with an etched by-side by Helms Alee, the new project of Ben Verellen of Harkonen. Preorders will be up in the next week or so. 100 copies on black, 400 on white. Recorded by Matt Bayles, art by Faith Coloccia of Everlovely Lightningheart, invaluable silkscreening assistance as always by Andy at Broken Press. Helms Alee also have a 7″ coming out on Hydra Head very soon, look out for that.
• The Deadsure LP+CD came out as a hand-packaged tour edition of 100, with art by Jason Fiske. It sold out and then they broke up. We’re going to be putting out a second version of the CD+LP with different art, which will be pretty limited as well. Preorders for that should be up soon.
• Still in the wings are the Playing Enemy LP, Owen Hart CD/LP, and an amazing album by a new band called Golden Holy, which features members of Sparrows Swarm and Sing.

We’re super excited about the new Deadsure record, Extra Large Youth, the follow-up to their EP on No Idea. It’ll be coming out as a handpackaged lp and cd in June with art by Jason Fiske of Sparrows Swarmandsing, just in time for Deadsure’s west coast tour with Heiress. We’ll probably be putting preorders up for that in early May, and we’ll have some goodies to go along in case you preorder. This is one of the most inspired records I’ve heard in a very long time, go listen to a few of the songs on their myspace page.

Coming up next:
- a limited hand-packaged 12″ from Playing Enemy, chronicling their final recordings, as well as some awesome rare/unreleased stuff
- Owen Hart full length - the great tacoma trendkill?
- and more, I promise it’ll be awesome

There’s a really wonderful top 10 records of 2006 list posted yesterday over at Holland Reno which includes the Elphaba cd Any Land But This which we released earlier this year. This record has gone under a lot of people’s radar, and it’s nice to see someone give this record the appreciation it deserves. Here’s what he had to say:

Elphaba - Any Land but This
A close second for most time logged by any album this year. Seattle’s Elphaba rip the most intense post-punk since In on the Kill Taker. Seriously, these guys do not mess around. Reviews all compared Any Land to Blood Brothers, and I guess that’s apt, but Elphaba has something a little more…something kind of inspiring. It’s like Elphaba were the ones to finally reach that perfect blend of Northwest agitation and D.C. angularity.

All of our releases are now available in Europe via our friends at Adagio830/Bis Auf’s Messer. They will be carrying all of our releases, including The Helm - Grim Harvest LP, and The Assailant - Cólera LP, as soon as those are out.

We’ve been keeping our heads down the last few months, working hard to get three new releases out and the new website designed. Preorders are now up for The Helm lp, The Assailant lp, and the debut ep from Blues. We are making some very limited Rome Plow shirts to go along with preorder packages, and we have Helm and Assailant test pressings set aside to give away in random orders if you pick up the preorder package. Check those out in the store.

If you want a copy of the Health/Elphaba split 7″ and you don’t already have one, now is the time, we’re down to the last half dozen or so, and we don’t have any intentions of repressing it.

Coming up next: a limited hand-packaged 12″ from Playing Enemy, easily one of the most innovative bands to have come out of the Seattle hardcore scene, which you could probably guessed, as they feature ex members of Rorschach and Kiss It Goodbye. After that, we’re going to release Deadsure’s brilliant follow-up to their debut ep on No Idea. Sometime later in 2007 we’ll be putting out the debut cd/lp from the pride and joy of Tacoma, Owen Hart.