Phone Lines Down

I've loved Spiritual Cramp since discovering their self titled album in early 2024, and have had periods where I've obsessively wanted to collect some of their records. The problem has been that their stuff isn't always easily available. They have a few 7 inches that I'd love to get my hands on, but they don't seem to pop up often, so I've been stuck playing the waiting game.

As I was writing up a post for the new Spiritual Cramp album at the end of last year, I decided to quickly check Discogs to see if anything was available to pick up. I was happy to find that someone was selling a copy of the Phone Lines Down 7 inch, and I immediately added it to my cart. Look, I wasn't thrilled with the $25 pricetag I paid for this record, but seeing how there is only one copy available on Discogs now, and it is listed at $80... I guess I won't complain. Sellers get stupid when a band starts to get popular.

These two songs are exactly what I love about Spiritual Cramp... catchy, melodic and still delivering plenty of attitude. So good.

Spiritual Gang

Back at the end of September, my friend Gina was in town with her husband as they were starting their honeymoon vacation trip touring the New England coast. I met up with them that night and took them over to Green Hand Books to drool over the expensive horror paperbacks, and then on the walk to the restaurant, they wanted to stop and check out Coast City Comics. I'm not big on comics, so I'd never been into this store, and wasn't really expecting anything of interest. Wow, I was wrong. There were all kinds of fun horror movie things like pins and magnets, and I grabbed a few packs of Evil Dead trading cards to send off to my friends Alex and Sarah. I'm not one to be social and talk with people that work in stores... I will typically just pay for my shit and leave... but I ended up in a conversation with the guy behind the counter about punk bands and horror movie soundtracks while everyone else was shopping and I genuinely had a really good time there. I need to make it a point to stop in there more often.

As we were in Coast City Comics, I discovered that they had a small record section, so I started flipping through them. I wasn't really expecting much, but when I saw this split 7 inch with Spiritual Cramp and Chubby and the Gang, I was very excited and immediately placed it with the small pile of things that I was buying.

The split 7 inch is part of a comic book series called What's The Furthest Place From Here. Each edition in the series comes with a split 7 inch with bands performing a cover song. For this one, Spiritual Cramp does a Radio Birdman cover, and Chubby and the Gang do a song originally by The Kids. I was not familiar with either of these songs, but I love what SC and Chubby do with these covers. I think that I'm going to have to check out both of these old late 70's punk bands and see what I've been missing.

Rude

I was late getting into Spiritual Cramp. I did not care for them at all when I checked out their first 7 inch on React Records back in 2017, but I happened to hear a song from the band at the end of 2023 as their new album was about to drop, and I quickly became obsessed with them. That new record blew me away and Spriritual Cramp became my favorite band of 2024.

Having falling so hard for Spiritual Cramp, there was no doubt that I was going to preorder their newest album. I was so excited. I didn't need to hear preview song or anything... no questions asked... take my money.

When the album arrived, I couldn't wait to give it a spin... and then was promptly disappointed. Rude did not have that same driving energy that I heard with the self titled debut album. This record was missing that urgency that I loved with the earlier Spiritual Cramp stuff, and it felt a little tame and watered down. It took me a long time to finally come around with Rude, but eventually the songs began to click with me in a big way. I love this record, but it did take a handful of listens for me to get there. Honestly, the more I listen to it, the higher it climbs on my favorites of the year list.

Blue, red and black marble vinyl is limited to 250.

Never Mind The Spiritual Cramps

A couple of months ago, my friend Sarah had messaged me, asking if I could find her a limited record that she was interesting in buying. Easy enough task for someone like me that is always on the hunt for records, and within minutes I was sending her a discogs link for where she could buy it. I thought the price was reasonable, but for someone that doesn't collect records, the $50 price tag may have seemed a bit high. She ended up buying the record and then I got to talking about some expensive records that I had sitting in my Discogs cart that I've been hesitant to pull the trigger on... and after talking her into buying a record, I felt like it was time to treat myself as well.

I've been obsessed with Spiritual Cramp since discovering them early this year. I really like this band, but I was a bit on the fence on how much I really wanted to collect their records. I'd been keeping my eye on the record release version for the first 7 inch for a while, and wringing my hands over if I should spend the money or not. It was released by REACT Records, and since I have a decent REACT collection, that made me want it a bit more... plus that Sex Pistols cover design and the fact that only 35 of them existed, really helped to force my hand. Fuck. If I didn't buy it, who knows if I would ever get the chance again... so while I was riding that Spiritual Cramp high, I clicked the button on Discogs to order it.

The copy that I received had a note inside to the original buyer, and I assume from the singer, Mike. Thanks for the five bucks bro.

Number 27 of 35.

Spiritual Reaper

The problem with being late to discovering a band is finding that their older records carry a high price tag. As I've been going back into the Spiritual Cramp catalog, I'm finding it difficult to put together a decent collection for cheap. When I heard that they had a new split 7 inch coming out with White Reaper, I knew that I had to get it before prices jumped after it was sold out.

On this split, each band contributes one song which features the other band as a guest... so White Reaper contributes to the Spiritual Cramp song, and vice versa. I'm obviously here for the Spiritual Cramp song, but both sides of this record compliment each other nicely. I'm not sure that I'll be tracking down more from White Reaper, but their song here is kind of fun.

The clear vinyl pressing seemed to only be available in the Spiritual Cramp store, and is now sold out. White Reaper does have a "black ice" version still available, but do I want to collect both?

Spiritual React

Back in 2017, Spiritual Cramp released their first 7 inch through React Records, and I straight up did not like it. I probably listened to one of the songs for about 10 seconds before I wrote it off as crap. I'd followed just about every React release for years, buying multiple copies of each one... but leading up to the Spiritual Cramp record, the label had slipped a bit and a few of the releases hadn't been very exciting for me, and I didn't give SC much of a chance.

Here we are, seven years later and suddenly I'm giving Spiritual Cramp the chance they deserve, and of course I'm fucking loving them. What I didn't understand about their sound back in 2017, is very much what I'm looking for in 2024. However, record prices today are not cheap, and checking the string of 7 inches the band has released over the years... well, it feels like they are all priced too high on Discogs. While I did find this red vinyl for the Mass Hysteria 7 inch at a good price, trying to get the more limited clear vinyl isn't happening as quick as I'd like. Man, I hate having to wait for someone to list records at a decent price. I don't have patience for that game.

350 pressed on red.

Talkin' Spiritual Cramp

So far, 2024 has given me two newer albums that have had me straight up obsessed. I posted about the new IDLES record earlier this month, but right there alongside it as one of my favorites this year is the latest from Spiritual Cramp.

The band caught my attention last year when I was chasing all kinds of new and different music. I was on Spotify and noticed they had a playlist for new releases that they put together based on my listening tastes. Normally, I would have ignored it, but given my mood most of last year, I figured that I'd give it a quick check to see if anything jumped out at me. One of the first things that I saw was a song called Earth To Mike from Spiritual Cramp. Given that my name was in the song title, I decided to listen to it... and it was so much fun. As I was getting into that song, Spiritual Cramp were set to release their new full length record, but I was still hesitant to commit to the band. I mean, Earth To Mike and a couple other songs from the Here Comes More Bad News EP were cool, but did I like them enough to hang with a full album?

As we were closing out February this year, early in the morning one of the newer Spiritual Cramp songs, Talkin' On The Internet came up on Spotify and I was instantly hooked. I immediately jumped in to listen to the full album, and by 10:00 that morning, I'd run through it three times. Fuck. It was so good. Two months later and I still can't get enough of this record, and I have to actively choose to NOT listen to it for fear that I'm going to overplay the damn thing. In fact, I'm also trying to not rush out and buy the three other vinyl options for this record like an addict.