2015 was our busiest year to date, both in terms of the amount of shows that we put on and the number of records that we released. We hosted 34 individual shows plus Book Yer Ane Fest IX, which included 126 different acts from all across the world. We were also involved in 15 different releases featuring local, national and international artists ranging from acoustic folk to progressive instrumental hardcore. We’ve certainly been kept occupied throughout the year!
We are also very proud to say that way have raised in excess of £600 for Maggie’s Centres through our Songs For Mum campaign, £1500 for Safe-Tay and the causes they support through Book Yer Ane Fest and over £130 for Dundee Refugee Support. We also hosted a number of Tins For Tunes shows in support of Dundee Foodbank and were able to make numerous contributions of food and toiletries to throughout the year. Once again, we want to thank each and every person who supports what we do throughout the year as we really couldn’t do this without you.
Our “End of Year Sale” will continue throughout December. The response we’ve had thus far has been fantastic so big thanks to everyone who’s picked something up thus far. We are down to one or two copies of many titles and some items have sold out already, so act fast if there’s something you’re keen to pick up. Order this week in time for Christmas delivery too!
As regards our releases for 2015, we certainly hope that you’ve enjoyed our output. We are very proud of each and every project that we’ve put out this year and cannot thank the bands and artists enough for putting their faith in us. It has been an utter pleasure to help put music we truly believe in out into the world. We very much hope to continue this trend into 2016 and beyond.
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The “Rebuild, Recover” EP from Get It Together was our first official release of 2015. While the EP originally intended to be released at Book Yer Ane Fest VIII, there was a huge delay at the pressing plant so the EP was only available digitally and on super-limited edition CD at that time. The 7″ finally arrived in February and became our first release of the year. The record comes on classic black 7″ vinyl with full colour artwork from Wolf Mask, lyric sheet, digital download code and MTAT stickers. The EP contains four absolutely banging tracks of rabble-rousing melodic hardcore punk and is, for our money, one of the best UK hardcore releases of the year.
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While the Get It Together EP was delayed at the pressing plant, the “Pink Couch” EP by Uniforms never made it that far. Recorded by Ross Middlemiss in November 2015, the EP was originally intended for release as a 7″ in Spring 2015. However, Uniforms announced their break-up with immediate effect in February 2015 and, as such, the EP was issued only on digital format. This EP is the lost “MTATV009” release which never came out and turned out to be the final recordings for the band, who played their last show at Book Yer Ane Fest IX. The entire back catalogue is available for free/pay-what-you-want download with all donations going to Skateistan.
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Our third release of the year was one that we were equal parts both excited and nervous about; the UK Tour exclusive 7″ from New York troubadour Franz Nicolay. The two tracks contained within were recorded by the legendary J. Robbins during the sessions for Franz’s incredible “To Us, The Beautiful” LP and features performances from members of Against Me, Leftover Crack and The Slackers. The 7″ was released to coincide with Franz’s UK Tour in March 2015 that featured Scottish dates with Broken Stories. The 7″ comes on classic black vinyl with original artwork again by Wolf Mask, digital download code and MTAT stickers.
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“Tomorrow’s Worn Out Blues” by Bonehouse was another incredible record that was delayed in physical form due to problems at the pressing plant (lesson learned!), this LP also proved to be the swan song for the band and was released physically on random coloured vinyl just in time to coincide with the band’s final shows in April 2015. The release of this record was a collaborative effort in conjunction with Black Lake Records, Wolf Town DIY, Boslevan Records, Steady Anchor Records, Tief In Marcellos Schuld and Pint Sized Records. A bona fide Ecossemo classic, we are very proud to have played a part in getting this record out. Very few copies remaining!
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“Live In Dundee” was recorded live at Buskers, Dundee at the release show for the Franz Nicolay 7″ in March 2015 by Russell Brown of Maxwell’s Dead. The EP was released digitally and in total old school DIY style on CDR with hand-folded collage artwork and free stickers in time for Tragical History Tour‘s European adventures with Get It Together after Uniforms fell apart and couldn’t do the tour. With an original “pressing” of 100 copies, this release harkens back to the genesis of MTAT when all of our releases were burnt CDs, unnumbered and pretty much given away for free. The first THT full-length, 13 years in the waiting, will be released through MTAT in 2016.
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Make Yer Ane Comp VI is the latest in the MYAC series and features 42 tracks of DIY goodness from across the globe including the likes of The Kimberly Steaks, Murderburgers, Wonk Unit (eng), Revenge of the Psychotronic Man (eng), Black Volvo (nl), Carson Wells, Sweet Empire (nl), Basement Benders (usa) and heaps more. Released digitally as a free/pay-what-you-want download, MYAC VI has been our most downloaded compilation in the MYAC series. Huge thanks to all of the awesome DIY punk labels and artists for being involved. Keep your eyes peeled for MYAC VII next year!
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Our second transatlantic release of the year, the “Short-Brain” 7″ EP from Chicago pop-punks The Fur Coats was a collaborative release with Rad Girlfriend Records (usa) and Drunken Sailor Records (eng). The EP itself contains four tracks of super-upbeat classic Chicago melodic pop-punk, coming on like The Smoking Popes/Naked Raygun getting rowdy and sarcastic after a few too many E numbers. Once again featuring the exclusive artwork of Wolf Mask, the 7″ comes on beautiful green vinyl with lyric sheet, digital download code and MTAT stickers. The 7″ was released in time for The Fur Coats’ UK tour which started at Summerpunks and ended at Wonkfest!
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Our second, decidedly less summery release of the season was the debut EP from Dundee instrumental doom/progressive hardcore punks Shitgripper. Having formed at the tail end of 2014, these are the first “proper” recordings from the band and was put together in typically DIY fashion with drums being recorded by Ross Middlemiss before being recorded, mixed and mastered at home by drummer Jason Rees. Released on CD and digital download, the self-titled EP contains four tracks of bleakly uplifting instrumental hardcore imbued with noise, samples and a distinct sense of unease.
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Another summer release, “You’re Still Here” / “I’m Fading” is the debut digital single from Jaroen, a Glasgow/London based lo-fi/indie/emo project featuring Martin Robbie of GHC’s In Tongues. Quietly released in the summer, the two song single was released as a free/pay-what-you-want download through our Bandcamp page and has garnered some positive critical acclaim from the likes of Collective Zine. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more recordings coming in 2016 and possibly some (the first!) live shows!
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In the words of our own Barry “The” Kydd; “Well, I’m not sure what more I can say about this. It may seem self indulgent to make my no.1 an album that my band is on, but this is so much more than that. This list, as always, is made up of records that have affected me during the year and it would be a lie and a sham to deny that the biggest healer for all the pains of this year hasn’t been the incredible response I got to a hair brained concept I dreamt up while lying in hospital last December. To be part of a benefit album, along side some of my best friends and some of my all time heroes within the punk rock world, still seems wild now. All my friends knocked it out the park with some gut wrenching, beautiful songs.
I had a very speculative wish list for who I would like to include on this project and to get pretty much all of them involved still blows my mind. It swelled my heart to ping emails back and forth and to get “Yes” responses from all the people involved, but the correspondence with Thomas from Great Collapse was the one that has stuck with me the most. A lot of bands got that same email, many didn’t respond at all, but the manner in which Thomas replied and then stuck to his word has genuinely been one of the most touching and inspiring gestures I’ve ever experienced within this community. The specific details will remain a cherished private memory for me, but in a year when I’ve felt so lost for so much of the time, and so helpless in situations when all I desperately wanted to do was help, this was one way to focus those energies and try to not fall apart. All in all, to this point in the year we have helped to raise over £6000 for The Maggies Centre in Dundee through the record sales and running a mountain marathon with my brother in laws.
What the fuck else can we do with this pain but try and heal it? We’ve come too far to give up and we don’t quit”.
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The first full band recordings for over a decade, we were absolutely mad stoked to release the “Dark Days” EP by reunited Perth punk legends PMX in September of this year. More than ten years on from the release of the seminal “Rise and Shine” album, PMX returned with a refreshed line-up and renewed purpose and absolutely knocked it out the park with six tracks of pedal-to-the-metal technical melodic hardcore. Self-recorded and produced bar the drums recorded by Bruce Rintoul at 45-A-Side Studios and mastered by Jason Livermore at The Blasting Rooms in Fort Collins, Colorado, “Dark Days” is a stunning return and a masterclass in modern melodic skate punk, released on CD/digital download. New album in 2016???
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“Lies Lied Live” is the newest live album from “Scotland’s angriest young man” Billy Liar. Recorded live by Richard Neill at The Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh on April 8th 2015, “Lies Lied Live” features a host of previously unreleased tracks and a bunch of live favourites recorded live in front of a very lively and interactive audience of punks in our capital. The EP was released on CD/digital download in time for Billy’s autumn touring adventures with Joe McMahon that saw them hitting the road around the UK, USA and Europe. Stay tuned for the debut full-length in 2016!
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Dae Yer Ane Sampler II does exactly what it says on the tin; it’s a MTAT sampler containing 18 tracks of past, present and future MTAT releases, featuring exclusive tracks including a song from the forthcoming “Screamer Songwriter” LP from Danish punker Stoj Snak, and a Tragical History Tour track that you cannot find anywhere else. The sampler is available for free/pay-what-you-want download. Cheers to everyone who grabbed download codes at all the shows too!
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Our fourth and final compilation release of the year, Book Yer Ane Fest IX; The Comp features 44 tracks from artists that performed over the course of the weekend, including exclusive/previously unreleased songs from Elk Gang, Dave Hughes and Question The Mark plus a cover of Sleep’s “Dopesmoker” by Tim Holehouse that has to be heard to be believed. Thank you once again to all of the amazing bands/artists and their labels for being involved. The compilation will remain online and any/all donations will continue to go to Safe-Tay.
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Our final release of 2015 was the amazing “Swells/Repels” EP from Dundee’s newest Ecossemo crew Stonethrower and it as an absolute banger of an EP that was released on CD/digital download on the Sunday of Book Yer Ane Fest IX. We feel that this EP is a refreshing blast of fresh, angry punk air that exhibits all that is good about Scottish DIY; self-recorded/produced and released with the spirit of mutual support and understanding, all whilst stripping the enamel from your teeth. Huge thanks to Idioteq.com who hosted an exclusive stream of the EP ahead of release and for all their support throughout the year.
That’s it release and show-wise for 2015. New music coming in 2016 from The Shithawks, Stoj Snak, Tragical History Tour, Kaddish, Get It Together, Billy Liar and loads more. Thanks so much for your support throughout the year!
