Shoot, Knife, Strangle, Beat and Crucify

A couple of months ago when I was losing my mind over Cast Iron Hike and Miltown, I was hot to pick up a copy of the split 7 inch that the two of them did together. The only trouble was that neither eBay or Discogs had one available. I threw it on my Discogs wantlist, and played the waiting game. One month later, when I got the notification that one was available, I didn't hesitate to pull the trigger.

I'd never heard of Miltown until this year, failing to have the band crack my radar for about 20 years. Now I'm making up for lost time, and listening to these songs like crazy. I'm not even a fan of The Cure, but Miltown's cover here is amazing.

Cast Iron Hike give us one song on their side...a GG Allin cover...and while I'm not a fan of GG, I do find that when other bands cover his stuff, for one reason or another, they are great. Plus given the results of the Presidential election here in the States, Shoot, Knife, Strangle, Beat and Crucify seems to fit my current mood.

Watch It Burn

It is funny how you can go years without having the slightest desire to listen to a band, and then after a little taste, you suddenly can't get enough and things boil over to a full on obsession. Such was the case with Cast Iron Hike.

After I started to fully lose myself into my 1996 playlist a month ago, my main focus was picking up records from that time period...and that bled over into the 1997 full length from Cast Iron Hike.

I really wanted the colored vinyl for Watch It Burn, but I was coming up empty on eBay and the only copies available on Discogs were from overseas sellers. I was desperate, so I tried a general Google search as a last resort...and that was when I discovered that Victory had some available. Wait, this was released 20 years ago...510 pressed on purple vinyl...and it is still available in the Victory store? How is this possible? They may want to remove that "only two per customer" limit now. If someone wants to buy ten copies, I say let them go wild.

This album rules so much. Bouncing around on the internet I soon found a video that was made for the title track, that I had no idea about. Then from there, I ended up devouring a bunch of live videos on youtube, and was disappointed to discover that the band had just played a reunion show in Massachusetts a few months ago. Man, if my Cast Iron Hike obsession had kicked in earlier, I might have made it down to see them live again. Poor timing.

Who buys from Victory Records in 2016? Apparently I do.

Stuck in '96: Part 1 - Cast Iron Hike

This past month has found me firmly entrenched in 1996. I stopped by to revisit an album or two, but soon found so many great records that I hadn't listened to for years. Suddenly 1996 was the theme of my daily playlists, and I was full on celebrating the 20th anniversary of those releases.

As I'll sometimes do when I get fixated on an older band, I'll do a search over at The Endless Quest blog, and see if Marcus has ever posted about them, and check out what he has had to say. This time, my obsession brought me to his blog to search for Cast Iron Hike. I found that, six years ago, he had a great post about a test pressing for the Boxed 7 inch. After reading it, along with all the comments, I sent him a quick message and we got to talking. I'd never heard this 7 inch, but after talking with Marcus, and checking out the link he sent me...minutes later, I'd bought a copy from the Discogs Marketplace. Since it was never released on colored vinyl, it made it a cheap and easy buy.

The general consensus seems to be that this 7 inch is the best Cast Iron Hike record. I'm not sure if it is really better than the LP, but The Most Beautiful Woman In Town may be one of the best songs the band recorded.