This is amazing!!! VisionistFinland uploaded both The Phoenix Foundation and Cigarette Crossfire’s (almost) entire set from when they played Helatorstai-klubilla on January 5th! It looks like these dudes film just about every show they attend too. Major fucking kudos for that kind of dedication! Thanks for pointing me to these, Ilkka! Links to both are below since I can only embed one video…

http://youtu.be/il92xgBIbr8

http://youtu.be/zg1lLAGHqgQ

Time for another trip in the Wayback Machine… Remember not long after Life Giving Waters broke up? I mentioned doing a free download of some older, hard to find, LGW stuff. Ilkka and I had spoke about that a few times but it kept getting shelved due to schedules and such. Eric, their bassist, got in contact with me today after turning up some old master tapes. So he will be compiling them, making a cover and booklet with photographs included, and sending it all over to me for upload! The songs will include things like comp tracks, vinyl/split releases, and even about half a dozen previously unreleased songs that were sitting in the vaults in Finland somewhere! Everything should be ready to go by the end of the year. Set your bookmarks or whatever. Soooooon…

I just got some exciting news from Ilkka… Cigarette Crossfire are playing Ilosaarirock Fest with the Buzzcocks in Finland this weekend! Alongside a few dozen other bands.

And at the end of the month they’re playing Puntala-Rock with Better Not Born (singer Jere’s other band) and Angelic Upstarts! This is the biggest outdoor punk festival in Finland and the same stage where Leatherface played two years ago. Way to go guys!!!

Cigarette Crossfire - s/t 7”
Usually when I get melodic stuff like this to review, the number one influence is Jawbreaker. I am happy to report that said influence is nowhere to be found with this one. I appreciate that. A lot. This Finnish band sounds like a cross between Leatherface and the one good Manifesto Jukebox EP. Overall, not bad, I must say. (BD) 

Cigarette Crossfire / Shatterhand split 7”
One song from each here from two European bands. Shatterhand is British (you mean Scottish) and play a heavily political song in vein of Leftover Crack. It’s kind of dirty and the lyrics are more spit out than sung. There are harmonizing vocals during the chorus that sends it off balance, but other than that it sound cool. Cigarette Crossfire is from Finland and they do a more melodic hardcore thing. Theirs is also a very political song, about war and the world’s ambivalence to it. Check it out (FS)

Hopefully I mentioned already that the first 10 web orders of the Cigarette Crossfire 7” get a free sticker? (9 of those left) That’s reflected on the big cartel now… And I did say after getting the Shatterhand CDs that the first 50 orders of their split 7” would get a free CD since it looked like we got almost 100 extra copies over run. But after counting them it was right at 1000. So after running the numbers on that one I put up a new special! The first 50 copies of the Shatterhand split will get a CD (art included) of Complacency Is Not An Option for just $2 more! Hardly free but it is two awesome records for less than half price! You’ll help fund the upcoming UK tour with 40 Hells too…hah!

Hey everybody!!! The Cigarette Crossfire s/t 7”s finally showed up yesterday! Everything is up in the webstore now so please go buy some stuff so I can pay my ridiculous credit card bills! The s/t comes with a download card (first 10 web orders come with a sticker) and there’s options for all 5 colors on the split. Ilkka sold all their copies of the Shatterhand split via pre-order before they even arrived in Finland. Their last two shows went off fantastically also! 108 showed up last Wednesday and 95 on Saturday where they were even asked for autographs!!! It feels great to see his new band start off so well after all the years of hard work everyone has put into past projects. Obviously for the love of it all when there’s little to no returns monetary wise! They’re even talking about coming over for Fest this year… Freaking sweet!!! Ilkka is so excited about it that he’s wanting to put in an application 6 months before they become available…hah! So keep an eye open… Finland shall invade America this year!

Did I mention yet that I’m releasing the Cigarette Crossfire s/t 7” here? Well… I’m releasing the Cigarette Crossfire s/t 7”! It’s being pressed in Europe now and will arrive probably very early in January. And after the record assembly party on Sunday for the Shatterhand/Cigarette Crossfire split all of the other UAR releases are now ready for order on the webstore! Bombed Out’s copies of the Zapiain cd will be shipping off this week. Cigarette Crossfire’s copies of the split went out today and Shatterhand’s are right behind them. There’s also promos going out to Vinyl Vlog, Razorcake, Collective Zine, Maximum Rock n’ Roll, and Rubber Factory Records. With more to come! Everything will be sale priced at the below mentioned George Tabb benefit/record release show this Sunday too. That’s all I got for now… Stay tuned!

Yes! That’s Right! I’ve finally added some more band pages! There’s a new one for Cigarette Crossfire and The Phoenix Foundation (thanks for writing that Jallu) with more on the way. It’s starting to look like Unsane Asylum is the American home of Finnish punk rock, eh? Speaking of… The Shatterhand/Cigarette Crossfire test pressings arrived today (along with Shatterhand cd’s) and I’m sending off an approval so it’s just a matter of weeks before the splits become available… It’s up for stream at last.fm if you want to give a listen. And the Zapiain cd has finally been sent off to press so everything is now up in the webstore for order/pre-order. Please buy something so we can continue to do more releases… I’m booking a 3x record release gig on Sunday, December 26th also where we will have every UAR release for sale on discount! If you’re local come out and have some fun with a friendly, and not entirely smelly, group of punks. Before I go, you all might be interested to know that The Phoenix Foundation recently recorded a new LP which is coming out on their own Passing Bells label as a co-release with Stonehenge Records from France. Christophe helped me fill some gaps in my Snuffy Smile catalogue so he’s all aces in my book! Stay tuned for more…

The Shatterhand comp cd has just been added to the webstore! Orders will be shipping soon as the discs are delivered (which means soon as I can catch the UPS guy)… Meaning very soon! We will also be putting up pre-orders for both the Shatterhand/Cigarette Crossfire split and Zapiain cd imminently. But be aware that any orders placed with those will be on hold until everything arrives. The split test presses are on their way so as long as everything is ok on that one it should be out in about a month. Also Zapiain will be going off to press very soon so it will be out in about a month too. And I’ve had trouble building my new webstore so everything is still with the big cartel link below… Good thing I only have 5 things for sale so far, eh!

So here’s the big news kids! Remember those Shatterhand splits we’ve been trying to get together for over a year? Well the first one is finally happening! This one is with Ilkka’s (ex-Life Giving Waters) new band Cigarette Crossfire. Imagine if Manifesto Jukebox were on No Idea and you’ve got a good idea what to expect from this new project. There are songs from their first session online now… That I will link up after getting home from Fest. And Dave was an absolute fucking trooper getting these masters and label art ready in time!!! Also a massively huge thanks to Var and No Idea house for letting me use their computer. And my new Fest friend Ryan from DC for letting me burn the discs on his laptop. That’s what punk is all about! Helping each other out. This package is going to be gorgeous when it’s finished too. All the artwork is beautiful and the records will be on randomly mixed colored vinyl. Sweet. Ok I have to go see acoustic Tiltwheel so see you all soon!