An unlikely threesome - Dillinger Escape Plan, Integrity, End Of A Year

While in the same shop that I bought the blast from the past record featured in my last post, I also found a few other gems among the racks. First up, a Dillinger Escape Plan 7" - Cursed, Unshaven & Misbehavin'.

This is a live EP recorded around the time of their first album in 2000 while, according to sleeve notes, on tour with (of all bands) the Misfits. That would be an interesting evening. Now I'm a big Dillinger fan.... in a way. That first album, Calculating Infinity came out out in 1999 and is pretty incredible but original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis left after that, they shoved a load of melody in among the chaos and recruited a dude who sounds like he's doing a Mike Patton impersonation. Which wouldn't be so bad if Dillinger didn't record an EP with Patton on vocals while looking for a replacement that shows how good that would be as a permanent thing. Other albums haven't been as good. I've bought them all anyway, some bands just have that hold over me. Anyway, this is the original line up so I'm all in. The most interesting thing is that this 7" comes with a warning -

and instructions -

No chance of sitting back just listening. Side A is a gamble which track will actually play, while side B starts one track as normal, but then one track from the inside out. Pretty cool. 2000 of these pressed on black (there were colour variants) on Relapse Records.

Next, what other band would have a picture of this happy camper as their sleeve insert?

That's right. Integrity.

Their To Die For 10" on A389 Records. Deathwish put this out on CD years before A389 put out the vinyl. This is the 4th pressing, just on plain old black. Earlier pressings had a different picture for the insert. Blue sleeve on one side, red sleeve on the other.

And last, an End Of A Year 7".

EOAY are sort of post hardcore, post grunge, post emo. They bring to mind stuff like At The Drive In, Braid and The Pixies all at once. Their latest album from last year was a slow burner for me, took me a while to get it but I'm pretty into these now. This was released before that on Disposable Cultures, 500 pressed. This 7" has the snappy title of The Sorrowful & Immaculate Heart Of Emanuela Orlandi. A good little find. 3 good finds in fact, and that's it.