Civilian Straight Edge

At some point near the end of 2021, I discovered the two Civilian Mind demos. I believe it was a piece over on noecho.net that brought this Arizona straight edge band to my attention, and mentioning that Civilian Mind were for fans of Verse and Go It Alone really pushed me to check them out.

Yeah, Civilian Mind definitely falls into those comparisons with early Verse. The lyrics are more personal, and these songs don't have the same spark that made Verse so exciting, but I'm very much looking forward to what this band does next. Plus, you know that I'm always down to support a new straight edge band.

I was surprised to see that Irish Voodoo Records was pressing those two Civilian Mind demos to a 12 inch record. I haven't heard anything from that label since the Done Dying 7 inches back in 2013. It looks like they have busy since I last checked in with them... it doesn't look like they have released anything that I'd be interested in checking out, but I guess it is cool that they have still been active.

The purple colored vinyl was sold by Ugly And Proud Records over in Europe. It is limited to 150, but Irish Voodoo had a few available in their store so I grabbed one there because the US pressing on brown vinyl didn't sound that appealing. Apparently, Irish Voodoo numbered the copies they were selling and I ended up with number 12 of 35.

Forced Dying

Back in December when I was posting about the new Done Dying records that I'd received, I stopped by the Irish Voodoo site to get some info on pressing numbers and was surprised to see that a second pressing was available.

Of course I didn't hesitate to order a copy.

100 pressed on clear with black vinyl. It looks like a third pressing will be available soon, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for that.

While in the Irish Voodoo store, this Forced Down record caught my eye. Nothing really new here. The band found some lost copies of the Rise 7 inch in storage. They were without covers, so they worked with Irish Voodoo to help sell them. There were three different covers in all, but the one that interested me the most was the one with the Record Store Day sleeve.

Forced Down were around in the late 80's/early 90's. Still worth picking up vinyl from them almost 25 years later.

Numbered and limited to 50.