A long overdue mini update

Greetings all. It's been a while since the last Coliseum update...

First, we're very happy to welcome Coliseum's new drummer Carter Wilson to the fold. Carter hails from Birmingham and we tracked him down on the suggestion of Young Widows, who we thank very much for the tip. He joined the band in August and has seamlessly learned our old songs while diving headlong into new material. Many movies, burritos and good times have been shared in the last few months and we look forward to many more down the road. We'll be hitting the road this month for the first time since June, debuting some new songs and playing our first batch of shows with Carter.

We'll be playing a last minute surprise show at Skull Alley in Louisville on Wed Oct 14th, then headed a bit southeast for a secret free show on Fri Oct 16th at the hometown of the Biltmore Estate with our good friends and labelmates who are celebrating a new album release next week... A "blue" album, if you will...

Starting Oct 28th, we'll be joining Russian Circles and Young Widows for a brief run through the South, stopping off at The Fest in Gainesville and Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, where we'll all share the stage with not only the almighty Jesus Lizard, but Flipper, 7 Seconds, Melt Banana, The Night Marchers and more! Wow.

Other than these dates, we'll continue to lay low and work hard on our as yet untitled third album... We're deep into the writing process, taking broad steps to cross some new ground and challenge ourselves with different approaches to songwriting. Recording will commence in January 2009 with J Robbins producing, all other details will follow.

In Auxiliary Records news, the new reissue of YOUNG WIDOWS Settle Down City LP will be available this month. Featuring all new artwork, we're really happy to finally have this great debut record back in print after being gone for a couple of years now. Keep an eye out for that.

As always, all merch from Coliseum, Auxiliary, Young Widows and many, many other great bands is available from www.ShirtKiller.com!

Thanks!
Ryan / Coliseum

COLISEUM Tour Dates:
10/1/4/09 - Louisville, KY @ Skull Alley w/ Alcohawk
10/16/09 - ???????, ?? @ w/ ???????? (Announced next week!)
10/28/09 - Covington, KY @ Mad Hatter w/ Russian Circles, Young Widows
10/29/09 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl w/ Russian Circles, Young Widows
10/30/09 - Gainesville, FL @ Common Grounds / The Fest w/ Coalesce, Torche, Russian Circles, Young Widows and more
10/31/09 - Orlando, FL @ Backbooth w/ Russian Circles, Young Widows
11/02/09 - Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree Café w/ Russian Circles, Young Widows
11/03/09 - Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon w/ Russian Circles, Young Widows
11/04/09 - Little Rock, AR @ Juanita's w/ Russian Circles, Young Widows
11/05/09 - Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves w/ Russian Circles, Young Widows
11/06/09 - Houston, TX @ Rudyard's Pub w/ Russian Circles, Young Widows
11/07/09 - Austin, TX @ Waterloo Park / Fun Fun Fun Fest w/ Jesus Lizard, Melt Banana, Flipper, Russian Circles, Young Widows and more!

YOUNG WIDOWS Tour Dates:
Oct 28 @ The Mad Hatter, Covington, KY w/ Russian Circles, Coliseum
Oct 29 @ The Earl, Atlanta, GA w/ Russian Circles, Coliseum
Oct 30 @ The Fest 8, Gainesville, FL w/ Russian Circles, Coliseum
Oct 31 @ The Backbooth, Orlando, FL w/ Russian Circles, Coliseum
Nov 2 @ The Bottletree, Birmingham, AL w/ Russian Circles, Coliseum
Nov 3 @ Spanish Moon, Baton Rouge, LA w/ Russian Circles, Coliseum
Nov 4 @ Juanita's, Little Rock, AK w/ Russian Circles, Coliseum
Nov 5 @ Rubbergloves, Denton, TX w/ Russian Circles, Red Sparrows, Coliseum
Nov 6 @ Rudyard's, Houston, TX w/ Russian Circles, Red Sparrows, Coliseum
Nov 7 @ Fun Fun Fun Fest, Austin, TX w/ Russian Circles, Coliseum
Nov 8 @ The Conservatory, Oklahoma City, OK w/ Russian Circles, Red Sparrows
Nov 10 @ Launchpad, Albuquerque, NM w/ Russian Circles, Red Sparrows
Nov 11 @ The Clubhouse, Tempe, AZ w/ Russian Circles, Red Sparrows
Nov 12 @ The Casbah, San Diego, CA w/ Russian Circles, Red Sparrows, Helms Alee
Nov 13 @ Chain Reaction, Anaheim, CA w/ Russian Circles, Helms Alee
Nov 14 @ The Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA w/ Russian Circles, Helms Alee
Nov 15 @ Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA w/ Russian Circles, Helms Alee
Nov 17 @ Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR w/ Russian Circles, Helms Alee
Nov 18 @ Neumos, Seattle, WA w/ Russian Circles, Helms Alee
Nov 19 @ Neurolux, Boise, ID w/ Russian Circles, Git Some
Nov 20 @ Kilby Court, Salt Lake City, UT w/ Russian Circles, Git Some
Nov 21 @ Marquis Theater, Denver, CO w/ Russian Circles, Git Some
Nov 23 @ The Riot Room, Kansas City, MO w/ Russian Circles, Git Some
Nov 24 @ Nutty's, Sioux Falls, SD w/ Russian Circles, Git Some
Nov 25 @ Triple Rock , Minneapolis, MN w/ Russian Circles, Git Some
Nov 27 @ Magic Stick, Detroit, MI w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Nov 28 @ Soundlab, Buffalo, NY w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Nov 30 @ Daniel Street, Milford, CT w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Dec 1 @ Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Dec 2 @ The Middle East, Cambridge, MA w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Dec 3 @ DC9, Washington, DC w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Dec 4 @ First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Dec 6 @ Il Motore, Montreal, QC w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Dec 7 @ Lee's Place, Toronto, ON w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Dec 9 @ The Strut, Kalamazoo, MI w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Dec 10 @ The Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Dec 11 @ Skull Alley, Louisville, KY w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo
Dec 12 @ TBA, Chicago, IL w/ Russian Circles, Phantom Family Halo

(In lieu of an Aux update here's a Coliseum update. Much news in the Auxiliary camp will be posted after tour ends on May 22.)

Greetings. It's been a while since any updates... In tour limbo, brain barely works, drive, load in, zone out, play, load out, sleep, drive, repeat, repeat, repeat...

Quick summary of what's below:

COLISEUM skateboards out now

COLISEUM True Quiet / Last Wave 7" finally out

Album Number Three / Plans for the rest 2009

Coliseum skateboards from Hooligan Skates are done and we have them now on tour. It's our first deck and also the first deck featuring artwork from our good pal John Baizley of Baroness. There are only 50 of these made and whatever we don't sell on tour will be available from Shirt Killer after May 22nd.

The True Quiet / Last Wave 7" on Deathwish is finally done after numerous setbacks... First the plates were lost in the mail, then there were 100 test presses made in time for the beginning of our shows with Converge in March - which were mastered too fast and deemed unsuitable for release (collector's alert). Now, finally, the proper version of the 7" is done. The pre-orders should ship from Deathwish in the next couple of weeks and we'll have the non-limited version with us on tour beginning a couple of days from now in Chicago. The limited edition with vellum covers and sealed sleeves is available from Deathwish and will be available from Shirt Killer soon.

We're at the tail end of a nine week tour... The Napalm Death dates are about to wrap up and we'll play a few headlining shows on the way back to Louisville, ending with a homecoming 7" release show on May 22nd at Skull Alley in Louisville.

After this, we'll be doing a very brief tour that will be announced soon then hiding out to work on our next album, which will be recorded later this year and released early 2010. You can catch us at Dude Fest in Indianapolis in July, Best Friends Day in Richmond in August, The Fest in Gainesville in October, Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin in November, and maybe a couple of other shows... But that will be about it. After two years of extremely intense touring, it's time to get back to the drawing board and take a new leap creatively. We're not going to write No Salvation Part II or Goddamage Redux in order to simply start the album/touring process over again. There's a new Coliseum chapter that's begging to be written and we're anxious to see where our inspiration leads us. Darkness lay ahead. We'll see you there. 

Updated tour dates

Updated Coliseum and Young Widows tour dates:

COLISEUM Tour Dates

03/20/09 - Chicago, IL @ Subterreanen w/ Get Rad

03/21/09 - Toronto, ON @ Rancho Relaxo - NEW VENUE
03/22/09 - Montreal, QC @ Underworld w/ Have Heart
Dates below with Converge, Ceremony, Rise And Fall, Pulling Teeth
(Coliseum plays third of five)
03/23/09 - Allston, MA @ ICC Church
03/24/09 - Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place
03/25/09 - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
03/26/09 - Lemoyne, PA @ Championship
03/27/09 - Brooklyn, NY @ Europa
03/28/09 - Richmond, VA @ United Blood Festival
03/29/09 - Philadelphia, PA @ The First Unitarian Church
Dates below headlining with Young Livers supporting:
03/30/09 - Wilmington, NC @ Luckys
03/31/09 - Columbia, SC @ New Brookland Tavern
04/01/09 - Orlando, FL @ Black Box Collective
04/02/09 - Miami, Fl @ Churchills
04/03/09 - Lake Worth, FL @ Klein Dance
04/04/09 - Tampa, FL @ Transitions
04/05/09 - Gainesville, FL @ Atlantic
04/06/09 - Atlanta, GA @ PS Warhouse
Dates below with Napalm Death, Kataklysm, Toxic Holocaust, Trap Them
(Coliseum plays second of five)
04/10/09 - Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock
04/11/09 - New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
04/12/09 - Springfield, VA @ Jaxx
04/13/09 - Covington, KY @ The Madhatter
04/14/09 - Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre w/ THE HAUNTED
04/15/09 - Sudbury, ON @ Serbian Center

04/16/09 - Buffalo, NY @ TBA (Coliseum only)

04/17/09 - Worcester, MA @ New England Metalfest
04/18/09 - Syracuse, NY @ Lost Horizon
04/19/09 - Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
04/20/09 - Virginia Beach, VA @ Peppermint Beach Club w/ TORCHE
04/21/09 - Wilmington, NC @ The Soapbox
04/22/09 - Spartanburg, SC @ Ground Zero
04/23/09 - Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
04/24/09 - Raleigh, NC @ Volume 11
04/25/09 - TBA (Coliseum only)

04/26/09 - Austin, TX @ Emo's
04/27/09 - Houston, TX @ Meridian
04/28/09 - San Antonio, TX @ White Rabbit
04/29/09 - Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX @ Ridglea Theatre
04/30/09 - Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theatre
05/01/09 - Phoenix, AZ @ The Clubhouse
05/02/09 - San Diego, CA @ SOMA
05/03/09 - Los Angeles, CA @ Key Club
05/04/09 - San Francisco, CA @ The Grand Ballroom
05/05/09 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
05/06/09 - Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven

05/07/09 - Boise, ID @ TBA (Coliseum only)
05/08/09 - Colorado Springs, CO @ The Black Sheep
05/09/09 - Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
05/10/09 - Lubbock, TX @ Tequila Jungle
05/11/09 - Tulsa, OK @ Marquee
05/12/09 - St. Louis, MO @ Fubar
05/13/09 - Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
05/14/09 - Cleveland, OH @ Peabody's
05/15/09 - Toronto, ON @ Opera House
05/16/09 - Ottawa, ON @ Babylon
05/17/09 - Montreal, QC @ Foufounes
05/18/09 - Quebec City, QC @ Imperial
Dates below Coliseum headlining:

05/19/09 - Albany, NY @ Valentine's w/ Trap Them

05/20/09 - Bowling Green, OH @ Howards Club

05/21/09 - Cincinnati, OH @ Warsaw Arena
05/22/09 - Louisville, KY @ Skull Alley w/ Lords, Bison BC, Mountain Asleep

YOUNG WIDOWS tour dates:
Mar 19 @ SXSW, Austin, TX
Mar 20 @ SXSW, Austin, TX
Mar 21 @ Radio Room, Austin, TX w/ Cursive, The Van Pelt (SXSW)
Mar 22 @ The Lounge on Elm Street, Dallas, TX w/ My Disco
Mar 23 @ The Bottle Tree, Birmingham, AL w/ My Disco
Mar 24 @ Halloween House, Indianapolis, IN w/ My Disco
Mar 25 @ The Beat Kitchen, Chicago, IL w/ My Disco
Mar 26 @ PJ's Lager House, Detroit, MI w/ My Disco
Mar 27 @ Casbah, Hamilton, ON w/ My Disco
Mar 28 @ Sneaky Dee's, Toronto, ON w/ My Disco
Mar 29 @ Soundlab, Buffalo, NY w/ My Disco
Mar 30 @ Great Scott, Boston, MA w/ My Disco
Mar 31 @ VFW, Wallingford, CT w/ My Disco
Apr 1 @ Club Europa, Brooklyn, NY w/ My Disco
Apr 2 @ Talking Head, Baltimore, MD w/ My Disco
Apr 3 @ MAC ROCK Festival, Harrisburg, VA w/ My Disco
Apr 4 @ Kung Fu Neck Tie, Philadelphia, PA
Apr 5 @ Cafe Metropolis, Wilkes-Barre, PA w/ My Disco
Apr 6 @ DC9, Washington, DC
Apr 7 @ Gallery 5, Richmond, VA

COLISEUM 7" Available for Pre-order

The Coliseum "True Quiet / Last Wave" 7" is now available for pre-order from Deathwish. The first 1000 copies of the 7" will have awesome limited edition packaging - an outer vellum cover featuring artwork by our pal John Baizley of Baroness with a metallic spot color that lays over a full color printed sleeve. The two layers work together to create the entire image on the front and back. It's then all inserted in a polysleeve with a fold-over flap and sealed with a silver foil sticker. There are two different colors of vinyl for this edition as well.

Deathwish is also offering a 7" + t-shirt pre-order combo, featuring an exclusive version of the Coliseum shirt featuring Baizley's artwork, all for only $15, which is pretty damn cheap.

Pre-order the 7" here and pre-order the 7" + shirt combo here. 

Oh yeah... Did I mention we're touring with Napalm Death and our great pals Trap Them and Toxic Holocaust? These two months across North America are going to be insane.

MODERN PROBLEMS Print Available Now

This one has been in the works for a while and I'm very excited to announce my first official art print - Modern Problems, available now from Shirt Killer. This is a massive 18x24" screenprint of the design from Coliseum's t-shirt of the same name, in a signed and numbered edition of 50. It's screenprinted with water-based ink on heavy 100lb French Speckletone Starch Rain paper. Hope you dig it.

AUX16 - COLISEUM No Salvation LP - Repress available now

After a few months of being out of print, the third vinyl pressing of No Salvation finally arrived at Shirt Killer today. Even though it looked like some of the boxes had been drop-kicked during shipping, all the records and jackets are in good shape. There are 500 copies in this pressing - 150 on "Oil & Gasoline" colored vinyl and 350 on "Blood & Urine" colored vinyl. Classy, huh? You can get this sucker now from Shirt Killer or from us on tour, although it's probable the more limited color will be gone by then.

The story of... AUX7 - COLISEUM and DOOMRIDERS Not Of This World 12"

AUX7: Coliseum and Doomriders 

Not Of This World: A Salute To Danzig split 12"

Released December 2005

Coliseum: 

Am I Demon (Danzig cover)

American Machine

Ride On Death Riders

Doomriders: 

Hell Roaring

Possession (Danzig cover)

Pressing:

966 copies total

100 red & white swirl vinyl with foil stamped cover

566 white vinyl

300 black vinyl (second pressing at later date)

OUT OF PRINT

The idea for the Coliseum / Doomriders split came up during Coliseum's first tour in Summer 2004 while hanging out with Nate Newton from Converge at his house in Salem, MA. Nate was putting music on my iPod and there had been rumblings around about his new band Doomriders, a thrashy skaterock hardcore band, who had just recorded a demo. Nate played me the tracks from the demo and I was hooked, they were awesome punk/hardcore songs with skating and "fuck the man" inspired lyrics. This was exciting to me and many others because it was the first time Nate had been the full-time frontman of a band since Jesuit. Nate suggested we do a split, I agreed, and we were off.

I believe I first met Nate and the rest of Converge sometime in the late 90s or early 2000, when I was in the National Acrobat and we opened for them at the Creepy Crawl in St. Louis. Nate was the first to come up and introduce himself and as years went on and paths crossed we remained in contact and we all became friends. Those guys were incredibly gracious to the Acrobat, inviting us to play a weekend of shows with them and Cave-In, including a mind blowing packed show at CBGBs that the Hope Conspiracy also played, some of whom also came to be some of my greatest friends I've met through music. I suppose an Acrobat related post should grace this blog sooner or later...

So, anyway, the Coliseum / Doomriders split took over a year to come to fruition, as these things tend to do. Doomriders recorded their two songs during the sessions for their Black Thunder LP at Kurt Ballou's Godcity and Coliseum recorded our three songs sometime over the summer of 2005 at Chris Owens' current Headbanging Kill Your Mama Music studio.

Doomriders' Danzig cover, "Possession," was incredibly true to the original, complete with backwards guitar fading in at the beginning and Nate's great Danzig-esque crooning. I have to say I was pretty blown away by this... I expected a more Doomriders slant on the song, but they really hit this one on the nose and it was awesome. Their original song, "Hell Roaring," was a great barn-burner showing their mastery of combining d-beat and classic rock. I think they were still playing the song live as late as 2007, although I never saw them play the Danzig cover...

None of this would be complete without mentioning that Danzig himself invited Doomriders to open for him a couple of years later. First for one show and later for an entire tour... Incredible! Supposedly he heard this record and then invited Doomriders to play the shows soon after.

Coliseum covered "Am I Demon," which has always been my favorite Danzig song. I wholly believe that the first Danzig album is among the best hard rock / classic metal albums of all time, it's always irked me that this record hasn't really received its due in the annals of rock history. Our cover is not particularly true to the original, but wasn't too far removed. We dirtied the song up, played it at a lower register, cut out a verse, and made it a bit more Coliseum overall. Our then-drummer, Matt Jaha, is a virtuoso guitarist and he handled the solo in a much better fashion than I could've... We pretty much had Matt shred on his own, while throwing in bits of John Christ's original solo themes. We recorded two originals for the split, "American Machine" and "Ride On Death Riders." At the time "Ride On Death Riders" seemed to be a favorite for many people, its title a nod to Doomriders. "American Machine" took some Black Flag influence and maybe a bit of From Ashes Rise, our friends and tour mates who had recently disbanded. I've always really loved the opening riff to "American Machine."

Coliseum still plays "Am I Demon" as an encore occasionally. Last year, while on tour with Converge, Nate joined us on stage a few times to sing it with us, which was really fun. Mike "Gunface" from the Red Chord also joined us onstage once to play second guitar and knock out the solo, a true shredder and extremely nice fella.

It might also be worth noting that these were the first songs Coliseum recorded as a trio and these are the only songs from any of our split releases that don't appear anywhere else. Our great friend Greg Drudy released the CD version on Level-Plane, Coliseum's home base at the time, and I released the vinyl, obviously, on Auxiliary.

When preparing for this release, the Auxiliary funds were pretty much non-existent. My label partner Craig was no longer involved and we were looking for interesting ways to do the packaging on the cheap. I signed up with Revelation Records to distribute Auxiliary and they also agreed to help with some up-front manufacturing costs.

I still wanted to make sure that the costs were as low as possible, while doing packaging that looked cool and was interesting. So, Evan and I came up with the covers you see above, which were screen printed on one side of a large black sheet, then cut to yield two covers and folded for each individual LP. Honestly, in hindsight, I would've done this differently. I think these were too far on the cheap side, barely covering any of vinyl, leaving it open to getting scratched or warped easily. While I never actually heard from anyone that their 12" was damaged, it would've just been pure luck if they'd all come out unscathed. That said, it does look fairly cool and I've never seen any other packaging exactly like it.

Oh yeah, our good friend and often Auxiliary collaborator, David Brooks, had 100 of the covers foil stamped with "Not Of This World" at a local technical school. This was an idea we'd use to better effect later on the Coliseum / Young Widows split CD.

The design was fairly simple, using an altered photo of Danzig from his first LP spread, a witchy woman on the back, and some band logos and built typography that I still dig. Of it all, I probably like the "Not Of This World" logo the best of anything that was done exclusively for this layout. The inserts had a pretty cool collage with Doomriders' hooded skull character and Coliseum's pig head character arm in arm, with a Misfits skull poking out under a robe.

All in all, a fun release and a really good record. I think the CD version on Level-Plane could still be found fairly easily with a little searching online. I've often thought of releasing just the two Danzig covers on a limited 7", but since we just put out the Goddamage 2x7" and are preparing for another reissue with the Young Widows SCD LP... I don't want to end up just being a reissue label, putting out our old records on various limited formats... Then again, it's always fun to do and have these unique records. What do you think?

Download:

Doomriders "Possession"

Coliseum "Am I Demon"

Coliseum "American Machine" (Rough instrumental 8-track demo)

AUX13 YOUNG WIDOWS Settle Down City LP - Limited edition of 50

We recently found 50 copies of the first pressing of the YOUNG WIDOWS Settle Down City LP without covers and have screen printed 50 special edition covers that are available now only from Shirt Killer. Click here to check it out and order. The original pressing of the LP has been gone for quite a while and we plan on doing a new pressing sometime later this year.

UPDATE: Sold out, thank you for ordering and thanks to OMGvinyl.com for spreading the word. A full repress of this LP is coming soon along with the third pressing of the Coliseum No Salvation LP.

Some cool news...

I've been chomping at the bit to announce this one for a while... These are the most collaborative songs we've ever written, each containing a lot of things that we'd been trying to attain for some time now. The packaging is also going to be really amazing... Inspired by Pushead's Bacteria Sour 7"s, I enlisted our pal John Baizley to do the spider & web artwork, and it will feature a 2-color spot printed vellum sleeve over a full color seven inch jacket limited to 1000 copies with this packaging. Very excited about this entire thing... From the music to the design, I think it's a big new step for us.

NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT FROM DEATHWISH INC & COLISEUM:
www.deathwishinc.com - www.myspace.com/coliseum

COLISEUM “True Quiet / Last Wave” 7"EP out soon, winter/spring tour dates announced...

Founded by Ryan Patterson (Black Cross, National Acrobat) over a half decade ago, and since solidified by Mike Pascal and Chris Maggio, Coliseum have grown to become today's quintessential contemporary hardcore/punk band. Successfully melding their progressive musicianship, punk fervor, and vital political/social awareness into one intense vision.

Originally based in straight-ahead hardcore and classic punk, Coliseum have continued to progress with each recorded effort. Before finding a permanent home on Relapse records in 2006, Coliseum released music on both Ryan's own Auxiliary label, as well as on Level Plane Records. Coliseum's first full length for Relapse, "No Salvation", was released in the summer of 2007 and was met by praise from critics and kids alike.

To celebrate the longtime friendship between Coliseum and Deathwish, we are proud to announce the upcoming release of Coliseum's "True Quiet / Last Wave" 7"EP. Featuring artwork by friend John Dyer Baizley (Baroness, Kylesa, Cursed), "True Quiet / Last Wave" gives us the first taste of Coliseum's evolution since 2007's "No Salvation". The hook-laden A Side "True Quiet" takes hold with its all too familiar story of self imposed isolation, told to a Dischord influenced metallic jangle. While the percussively driven B Side "Last Wave" serves as a hair raising commentary on the ethical and economical darkness of our present day. Both songs collectively embodying the honest artistry that defines Coliseum at their very core.

A new Coliseum album is due out on Relapse in 2010.

03/20: Chicago, IL @ Subterranean w/ Get Rad
03/21: Toronto, ON @ Adrift Clubhouse
03/22: Montreal, QC @ Underworld w/ Bane, Have Heart
03/23: Allston, MA @ ICC w/ Converge, Rise and Fall, Pulling Teeth, Ceremony
03/24: Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place w/ Converge, Rise and Fall, Pulling Teeth, Ceremony
03/25: Cleveland, OH @ The Grog Shop w/ Converge, Rise and Fall, Pulling Teeth, Ceremony
03/26: Lemoyne, PA @ Championship w/ Converge, Rise and Fall, Pulling Teeth, Ceremony
03/27: Brooklyn, NY @ Europa w/ Converge, Rise and Fall, Pulling Teeth, Ceremony
03/28: Richmond, VA @ Alley Katz w/ United Blood Festival
03/29: Philadelphia, PA @ The Church w/ Converge, Rise and Fall, Pulling Teeth, Ceremony, Genghis Tron
03/30: Wilmington, NC @ Lucky's w/ Young Livers
03/31: Columbia, SC @ TBA w/ Young Livers
04/01: Orlando, FL @ Black Box Collective w/ Young Livers
04/02: Miami, FL @ Churchills w/ Young Livers
04/03: Lake Worth, FL @ Klein Dance Studio w/ Young Livers
04/04: Tampa, FL @ Transitions w/ Young Livers
04/05: Gainesville, FL @ Atlantic w/ Young Livers
04/06: Savannah, GA @ TBA w/ Young Livers
04/07: Birmingham, AL @ Cave 9 w/ Young Livers
04/08: Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn w/ Young Livers
04/09: Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone w/ Young Livers
04/10: Louisville, KY @ Skull Alley w/ Young Livers

AUX4 - LORDS Moral Darkness 7" (Plus untold tales of AUX5 & AUX6)

AUX4: Lords - Moral Darkness 5-song 7"
Released January 2005

Side A: Let it Divide / Holy Ghost of the Infidels / Nothing Follows / Surprise You're Dead
Side B: Messianic Exegesis: U.S.A.

Pressing:
700 copies total
300 on white vinyl
400 on clear vinyl

Lords ended up occupying the fourth, fifth and sixth numbers in the Auxiliary catalog, partly because of various circumstances, partly because of a bit of naive thinking that certain releases would come out sooner or later... Yet still haven't seen the light of day. Regardless, it leaves stories to tell.

The Moral Darkness 7" actually did come out, in early 2005. At this time, Craig was will my partner in the label and he financed the pressing of the record, while Chris from Lords handled the recording at his studio, Stan from Lords designed the artwork, and Evan printed the covers at Monkey Drive. As usual at the time, this was assembled by hand by whoever was around that time. I distinctly remember my girlfriend Jamie bringing us a box of records to put together in Atlanta during a day off on a Coliseum / Lords tour due to a crazy ice storm hitting much of the South that week. We all sat in a friend's apartment folding covers and inserting records into sleeves. 

As can be the case with music, your memories get tied up with the songs and a certain era of a band becomes your favorite, regardless of how great they may have been before or after. This record and their previous House That Lords Built EP just may contain my favorite Lords songs for that reason. 

After this 7", Auxiliary planned on releasing Lords' debut full length, Swords. Originally Swords was planned for release on Initial Records, but Initial was in the process of closing its doors permanently and we decided that we'd press on and release it as our first full length on Auxiliary. But, these plans also changed when Craig left Louisville for a job in New York and eventually decided to no longer be a part of the label. With the label partner and chief financier gone, it was decided that even though I could've managed to get the CD pressed, there still wouldn't be enough funds to properly promote it.

Finally, after much deliberating and phone calls to other labels, Evan spoke to Jade Tree, Breather Resist's then-label, and they welcomed Lords to their roster and eventually released the Swords CD. I "retired" the AUX5 catalog number and we moved onto AUX6... Another planned Lords release.

AUX6 was intended to be a CD repress of The House That Lords Built EP with bonus tracks, assumedly the Moral Darkness 7", their songs from the split 7" with Coliseum, and a few other random demos and compilation appearances. The House That Lords Built was one of the last releases on Initial Records and we figured it would be sold out soon enough. But, Initial's distributor Mordam was purchased by Lumberjack Distribution, who took all of their stock and held on to it after Initial closed owing Lumberjack some amount money. Ultimately, the Lords House... CDs were still in print and still available, but the band only had access to them by buying them up front from Lumberjack. 

At this point, I don't know if the CD is out of print or not, but I would guess it's gone by now. In any case, when the original inspiration to release an Auxiliary version of The House That Lords Built struck, it turned out to be a moot point. Time went on, other records and current projects took precedence and the release still remains dormant. I'd still love to release a CD or LP of the first few Lords releases and maybe it will happen one day. We'll see that time has in store for that.

Download:

Lords "Let It Divide" from Moral Darkness 7"

Related downloads:

Lords "Mouth To Mouth" from The House That Lord Built EP

Lords "CFHC" from Louisville Halloween Comp CD

Interceptor

Found this in my mailbox one day.

Recent Work for Magrudergrind

Melt Banana live video from Tokyo

An awesome Devo cover from Melt Banana from our show together in Tokyo. 

MELT BANANA live video from Shibuya, Tokyo

Coliseum live video from Tokyo

On tour with Baroness and Minsk now... The shows are so good. Playing tonight with guests Boris headlining in Cleveland, great times.

Click the link to check out a live video from Shibuya, Tokyo:
COLISEUM "Fall Of The Pigs"

Japan Day 4 & 5

Last two days in Japan were amazing. Chinatown in Yokohama is the oldest in Japan and was really cool, then the last in Shibuya, Tokyo, was nuts. Tokyo is divided up into tons of huge neighborhoods / areas / burroughs... Shibuya being the Times Square x100 of Tokyo. Amazing. Went to Secret Base and Mandarake and spent probably way too much money getting some Pushead figures and other great stuff. The show was the best of tour, Melt Banana played before Coliseum and Torche, seems they are taken for granted in their hometown just like most great bands are, and they were awesome. Coliseum and Torche played great sets and then we all hung out late with Yuko, Agata, Tadashi, Jumbo and other great friends. This has been an amazing trip.

But yeah, vegan food here is practically non-existent. On day one I thought eating rice balls each day would be fine, but after five-six days of that... Whew... Looking forward to some green vegetables at home!

Japan Day 3

More amazing times in Japan. The shows are small but the clubs and sound systems are amazing, the audiences are incredibly appreciative and psyched on Coliseum and Torche. The bottom photo didn't do the situation justice, but it was an old fella who actually walked his cats... It was amazing. He walked down the sidewalk with his two cats strolling along by his side. 

Japan Day 2

Wow... First show was amazing. Stupid Babies Go Mad was one of the most intense bands I've ever seen. They set the bar incredibly high and the rest of us had to work hard to match their intensity. It was great to see familiar faces from Thomas Hooper and our new friends in Boris, who have lent us their incredible backline to us on this tour.

Of course I broke my camera display screen about an hour before the show began. Hopefully I can replace it or at least get some decent photos without knowing exactly what I'm shooting!

Japan Day 1

My Man

I truly had little hope, despite all the evidence in the polls and the passion I knew so many of us had for the man. I just knew something was going to prevent it, that the Republicans would try to steal the election again or that people just wouldn't get out there and make the change. But...

We did it. 

For the first time in my life, I am proud of my country on this day. Hearing his speech echoing through the nearly silent streets of downtown Los Angeles, coming from every car radio and television, is a sound I'll never forget. 

AUX3 - BLACK CROSS Sink, Knives & Chrome CD EP

AUX3: Black Cross - Sink, Knives & Chrome 3-song CD

First pressing October 2004 - 100 CD-Rs, with screen printed covers and spray painted CD faces

Second pressing September 13, 2005 - standard manufactured CDs

Still in print and available from Shirt Killer

My memory is a little fuzzy on this one and I'm on tour so I don't have as many photos to post. We recorded the songs in August of 2004 at Chris Owens' studio, our only recordings with Matt Jaha on drums. We were doing the "Tools & Chrome" cover for a Jawbox tribute / benefit comp and decided to record the two other songs we had written at the time as well. I think "Let Me Sink" and "Playing With Knives" are two of the best songs we've done and I really wish we'd had an album written at this time... The addition of Matt on drums made us a bit more energetic and sloppy, and the songs have a Swiz meets Drive Like Jehu vibe that I really dig. Regardless, it's a cool document of the long period of time between Art Offensive and Severance Pays, and a much, much better release than our "Roll Up Your Sleeves" 7" which came out really poorly in terms of recording and energy. 

We did a limited edition run of the CDs in time for a Black Cross voter registration show in Fall 2004, running off CD-Rs at home, printing covers and spray painting disc faces at Monkey Drive on the night before the show. The 100 CD-Rs sold through mostly at that show and the next couple of Black Cross local gigs. Sometime later in the year the Jawbox comp was released but seemed to be fairly hard to find.

A year or so later, Auxiliary signed on with Revelation as our exclusive distributor and we repressed this CD as our first mass-manufactured and distributed release. It's still in print and while in hindsight I probably would've released it as a 7" rather than such a short CD, I'm still very happy with the way it turned out.

The design is fairly simple, the front cover image came from a skiing poster and later popped up as an OBEY sticker, but it was definitely after this release. Yet another reason to search harder for source images and try to not use things just as they originally appear! I like the covered mouth with crooked Black Cross logo across it, and the border outside of the black print, something I've done with a few covers and am particularly fond of for some reason. 

Track listing:

1. Let Me Sink

2. Playing With Knives

3. Tools & Chrome (Jawbox cover, 7" version)

Pressing:

100 CD-Rs

1000+ CDs

Coliseum on tour now

Coliseum is on tour now with some of our best friends who happen to be in some of the greatest bands out there. Come out to the shows and have fun with us.

Oct 24 - Athens, GA @ Caladonia w/ Torche, Clouds
Oct 25 - Memphis, TN @ The Hi-Tone w/ Torche, Clouds
Oct 26 - St Louis, MO @ The Bluebird w/ Torche, Clouds
Oct 27 - Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot w/ Torche, Clouds
Oct 28 - Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounger w/ Torche, Clouds
Oct 29 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Burt's Tiki Lounge w/ Torche, Clouds
Oct 30 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux w/ Torche, Clouds
Oct 31 - Seattle, WA @ El Corazon w/ Torche, Clouds
Nov 01 - Portland, OR @ Satyricon w/ Torche, Clouds
Nov 02 - Chico, CA @ Paradise Lost Video
Nov 03 - San Francisco, CA @ Slim's w/ Torche, Clouds
Nov 04 - Los Angeles, CA @ Regent Theatre / Safari Sam's w/ Clouds
Nov 07 - Tokyo, Japan @ Earthdom w/ Torche
Nov 08 - Osaka, Japan @ Fandango w/ Torche
Nov 09 - Nagoya, Japan @ Upset w/ Torche
Nov 10 - Yokohama, Japan @ F.A.D. w/ Torche
Nov 11 - Tokyo, Japan @ Shibuya O-Nest w/ Torche, Melt Banana
Nov 13 - Columbus, OH @ Ravari Room w/ Baroness, Minsk
Nov 14 - Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick w/ Baroness, Minsk
Nov 15 - Chicago, IL @ Reggie's w/ Baroness, Minsk
Nov 16 - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop w/ Baroness, Minsk
Nov 17 - Toronto, ON @ El Mocambo w/ Minsk, Burning Love
Nov 18 - Rochester, NY @ Club at Water Street w/ Baroness, Minsk
Nov 19 - Albany, NY @ Valentine's w/ Baroness, Minsk
Nov 20 - Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's w/ Baroness, Minsk
Nov 21 - Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian w/ Baroness, Minsk
Nov 22 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom w/ Baroness, Minsk
Nov 23 - Cambridge, MA @ Middle East w/ Baroness, Minsk
Nov 24 - Brooklyn, NY @ The Charleston w/ Violent Bullshit
Nov 25 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat w/ Caverns

AUX2 - LORDS / COLISEUM Split 7"

AUX2: Lords / Coliseum split 7"

Released June 2004, Out Of Print

The Lords / Coliseum split 7" was the first true Auxiliary release. My great friend and then-roommate Craig Sopata agreed to be my partner in the label, and he became the financier of the first couple of releases. Craig had a "real world" job and I had a "punk rock" job at Initial Records at the time, so among us we figured we had all the bases covered. Evan was the third party who also contributed ideas and his screen printing ability.

The split 7" was planned to coincide with a "Maximum Louisville" tour in the summer of 2004. The tour would kick off with a free show in Louisville featuring Breather Resist, Kodan Armada, Coliseum and Lords, continue for two weeks with Breather, Kodan and Coliseum through the Midwest, then two additional weeks on the East Coast with Coliseum and Lords. 

We'd essentially scrapped the idea for the record as the date for the show and tour grew closer and neither band had recorded their songs. I can't recall what inspired us to put it back into action, but on the last weekend of May 2004 Coliseum and Lords both recorded their songs at Lords member Chris Owens' guerilla studio. I can't quite do justice to Owens' studio at the time, which he dubbed "Headbanging Kill Your Mama Music." It was a two room attic in the back of a building that housed band practice spaces and wholesale restaurant dinnerware. It was a site to behold... Filled with White Castle and Taco Bell trash, random studio gear, duct taped headphones, etc. It was ridiculous but fun. 

Coliseum recorded the songs "No Salvation" and "Born To Hang," which Chris sang, while Lords recorded "Talking Whip," "Impeach Pit," which I sang and gave the worst 90210 pun song title of all time, and a cover of Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People." We tacked on Coliseum's Fear cover, "I Don't Care About You," from our previous LP sessions and we were done. A CD-R was overnighted to United Record Pressing in Nashville, and a few weeks later the vinyl was in our hands.

When starting the label, we had a few basic ideas that we wanted to follow. This was in the beginning of the downfall of many indie labels that had been going strong since the nineties, as well as the impending end of Mordam, a distributor since the eighties that was the last massive bastion of true punk/indie ethics in its approach. There are still distributors large and small out there now, but Mordam was the home base for countless labels, providing strength in numbers and a safe haven for everyone involved. CD sales in general were taking a sharp decline for everyone and when Mordam announced that it was being sold to Lumberjack Distribution, it sent many indie labels into a tailspin. Initial Records was already on its way out, but there were many casualties in the years to follow. Even most of the small-to-mid size indie labels that survive to this day have had to cut back or operate in a very different way. 

But, I digress... I was seeing things while working at Initial that were dragging the label down. The costs of operating an office, paying employees, advertising, etc. The costs of giving bands adequate budgets to record at good studios was increasing, but sales were abysmal. Mordam was taking pre-orders and making suggestions of amounts of CDs or LPs to manufacture, then the actual sales would be much lower, leaving considerable amounts of dead stock and more expenses that couldn't recoup. We were trying to scale back, but it wasn't working. Of course, I had a different vision of music and of records that I wanted to put out, and my tastes in records I want to release are generally of the variety that might sell one thousand copies, instead of ten or twenty thousand. 

So, Auxiliary would keep things on the cheap, put out records in amounts we knew we could sell on tour and through mailorder. We'd record them ourselves when possible, we'd design them ourselves, we'd create the packaging by hand when possible. While we hadn't made this decision yet, this idea eventually extended into putting out only Louisville bands, people in town who understood the scenario and weren't expecting a massive publicity and promotional push. When our bands that needed more than that, we looked to other more established labels.

The Lords / Coliseum split 7" packaging idea was Evan's, we found a stack of extra paper in the back of the Initial / Monkey Drive office, figured we could print two-up on a sheet, cut them diagonally and have a totally unique cover for practically no money. We photocopied and folded inserts then glued them to the inside. We put the Initial Records logo on the covers so that Mordam would distribute it to stores. I believe we did all the printing the night before the tour kickoff show, Evan, Craig, and I hanging out all night at Monkey Drive screen printing shop printing and cutting covers. At the show we were still folding covers and gluing inserts as people filed in. 

I still like the design, it's simple but effective and somewhat interesting. The damn octopus tentacles coming out of the top of the car have been seen in about a million different places, once again coming out of the animal clip art book I often used at the time. I even reused the image myself a time or two for some reason. I'm often torn between the idea of trying to find completely unique source images for collages or just going with something that looks cool used in a unique way. 

It was a really fun release from start to finish. As time goes on and we all get busier and busier, great flashes of inspiration and late nights putting a project like this together become less frequent. There's still plenty of excitement when getting a professionally made release back from plant, but nothing compares to this type of project.

Oh yeah... The cover was subtitled "Maximum Louisville Split Series Volume I." Obviously we didn't continue with this idea, none of the other records panned out and the "Maximum Louisville" tag wore out after a bit as well.

Tracks:

Lords:

Talking Whip

Impeach Pit

The Beautiful People

Coliseum:

No Salvation

Born To Hang

I Don't Care About You

Pressing:

500 total

100 on clear vinyl with blue print

100 on blue vinyl with red print

300 on red vinyl  with red print

Download:

Lords "The Beautiful People" 

(I really loved how they Karp-ified this song.)

TRAP THEM Designs

Trap Them are a band that I've had the pleasure of working with over a few different projects, helping to shape their visuals and, well, sell some shirts, too. Trap Them's previous shirts and records were designed by the great Justin Bartlett, whose work reminds me of the classic Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, a book that has illustrations that gave me chills as a child. The band wanted to keep with occasional inverted crosses and sacrilegious imagery, so I worked on a logo that featured an inverted "t" in the center and came up with one of my favorite logos that I've done. Once I saw it printed I realized it was a bit too close to the original Tragedy logo, so I made a few adjustments when preparing it for their Seance Prime EP and shirts. 

The three letters "T-R-A" in sequence always end up looking like that damn (awesome) Tragedy logo! I don't know if it's just the way I write it or if that image is in the back of my mind pushing the pen in that direction or what... With Trap Them I think it ended up looking unique enough, but the logo I did a few years back for a band called Betrayed looks nearly identical out of the corner of your eye. When they put that logo on their black and white CD cover, it tricked me half the time I walked by it at a record store!

All of the Trap Them designs have been really fun and I hope that we continue to work together over the years. Most recently, I've been very satisfied with The Void and Hidden, their most recent shirt designs. For The Void, I created crop circle inspired geometric shapes in Freehand, shattered glass and dots with PITT pens, then text and textures by printing and scanning, finally assembling it all in Photoshop. With Hidden, Trap Them guitarist suggested a design inspired by a laserdisc cover of The Hidden, a film I've never seen but stars Kyle MacLachlan so it's got that going for it. We used that as our basis, added the ubiquitous skull and took it from there. The type is altered Alte Haas Grotesque, a font I'm currently obsessed with and pops up in quite a lot of my recent design work. 

Trap Them are a great band, they have improved vastly every time I've seen them. From the first time in a Louisville living room to most recently in Oklahoma City, they had become a completely different machine. I'm sure now with new drummer Mike Justian they will be even more intense. Their new album, Seizures In Barren Praise, is out now on Deathwish and is not to be missed.

AUX1 - COLISEUM Demo CD

AUX1: Coliseum Demo CD

Released March 2004, Out Of Print

In coming weeks, I plan on writing about each of the Auxiliary releases so far, including whatever thoughts, information, and memories I can muster up... Sometimes even four or five years ago seems like a lifetime away.

What I've referred to as Auxiliary #1, after the fact, is the Coliseum 4-song Demo CD that was released in time for Coliseum's first show in March 2004. We sent it out to friends and labels, sold it on our first few tours, and it was eventually rendered obsolete when the recordings were re-released in June 2004 on the Coliseum self-titled LP/CD. There's no Auxiliary logo on the packaging and it wasn't considered an Auxiliary release at the time... But for some reason I decided that it was our first release when working on the following Coliseum / Lords split 7", giving it the catalog number of AUX2. Possibly to make the split 7" seem a bit more legit? Who knows.

While this was considered the official Coliseum demo, we'd actually already recorded these four songs on a Tascam cassette 8-track and I posted MP3's online for a handful of friends to hear. Since Black Cross was signed to Equal Vision at the time, I first offered it to them and they declined. (How strange would it have been if Coliseum had signed to Equal Vision?) Greg from Hot Cross / Level-Plane Records immediately offered to do an LP and I quickly took him up on his offer. I knew Greg a little bit from Black Cross and Hot Cross playing a handful of shows together and from designing a couple of records for him around this time.

We felt that the cassette recordings were too rough for an actual release, so we recorded the four songs again with Jason Loewenstein on his reel to reel 1/4" 8-track machine. The cassette demo was recorded live without vocals in my garage, using just a few mics, while the Loewenstein recordings were a tiny bit more high tech... More mics, different amps set up in the bedrooms upstairs, then we did vocals later in the bathroom of his house, and mixed on his computer in his bedroom.

(Side note: Jason was renting his room from the owner of the house, Doug, who was the manager at local indie record store mainstay ear X-tacy. My girlfriend later worked at the ear X-tacy when she first moved to Louisville, and she and I bought the house from Doug in 2007. So I, somewhat randomly, now live in this house... My office is in what was previously Loewenstein's bedroom. Pretty wild.)

The packaging was designed by me, my brother Evan screen printed the covers, the first run were red and the second were silver. I had the CD-Rs printed and duplicated by Furnace MFG, traycards printed by Jakprints, and a small photocopied insert done at Kinko's and inserted under the tray. The design isn't much to speak of really, I was using this unaltered snake image from a clip art book that I was drawing source material from a lot at the time. It's all a bit basic and somewhat uninspired in hindsight, but it was a humble starting point for a future Coliseum visual aesthetic.

Remixed versions of all of these songs appear on the first Coliseum LP, and eventually the original cassette 8-track recordings will end up as bonus tracks on a reissue of that LP.

Track listing:
1. Detached
2. This Mind Locked Inside This Body
3. In Time
4. Pretty Situation

Pressing:

Around 200-250 compact discs

Download:

Coliseum "This Mind..." original 8-track cassette demo

Welcome

Contact: ryan(at)auxiliaryrecords.com