I started buying vinyl records way back in 2013 and started off by picking up a few essentials, and a few under-the-radar additions. American Radass (this is important), if I remember correctly, was the fourth record I ever bought, purchased on a whim from the new extinct Distrosauras Rex. Distrosauras Rex was a very small and affordable online distro, and I picked up many an obscure release from the site, sad to discover it’s no longer functioning. Funnily enough, when you google the distro the only link is for this site. I don’t know why I went for American Radass over some landmark records I was more familiar with – maybe it was that artwork, which is still one of my favourites. I think it has something to do with the cardboard cut-out Miley Cyrus cameo. I really like the tracklist on here as well; titles like Bakefast At Piffany’s and Big Bag Of Sandwiches being my favourite titles. At the time, being pretty new to the pastime it represented everything that seemed cool about collecting indie records.

Released: 2012                        Label: Flannel Gurl Records
Pressing: 1st press /150         Purchased From: Distrosauras Rex (RIP)

There’s a lot more to American Radass than it’s hip cover and dumb track titles. The music itself is high-quality twinkly emo along the lines of American Football in delivery, and it remains a shining example of how great the genre can be. I was listening to a lot of Snowing at this time as well and, with Dads, they became the basis of my 2013 foray into midwest emo, a genre I was only partly familiar with before I started collecting. Intricate guitar melodies and melancholic vocals quickly became the soundtrack to my high-school daydream days. There was something unabashedly lame about Dads, the way in which they embraced their stoner outlook and made music for stoners, for lazy days and empty mornings. It makes me want to smoke, and I have a couple of times while listening to it. I remember those times as good times, drifting off on waves of mathy emo – hazy and meandering in the aftermath. I remember thinking that fifth track Shit Twins was a masterpiece. Dads were a gateway into artists such as Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), Brave Bird and A Great Big Pile Of Leaves. Their first record, the fourth I owned, encouraged me to explore the genre further, and I did so from a pretty good starting point. The rest, as they say, is history.

These guys went on to sign with the excellent 6131 Records, and another EPs and LP after this first LP – 2013’s Pretty Good and 2014’s I’ll Be The Tornado respectively. I consider the latter to just about beat American Radass, but it’s a record I’ve never thought to pick up on vinyl. I don’t know why, but I’m happy enough owning the bands debut (disregarding the bands first outing Brush YourTeeth, Again).

This is indeed important. Fuck Dads.