YES! Finally! I can’t believe it! Moscow Death Brigade!!!

Man oh man, I can’t really remember ever being this excited about anything on this blog. You may remember quite a while back when I wrote about Russian balls of steel hip hopers Moscow Death Brigade? I wrote then about how hard it was to find their shirts (and when I say hard, I mean fucking impossible). We’ll, I’ve kept looking ever since. This summer, I met a guy wearing a Moscow Death Brigade in Czech Republic. I scared the shit out of him when I drunkenly and excitedly attacked him to find out where he’d bought it, and it turned out the Czech Anti-Fa sold a version of it to raise funds, but that was a couple of years ago and when I tried to reach them – they didn’t even answer my emails about it.

Then, about a  month back, I woke up and checked Facebook one morning and the band had suddenly dropped a post on their page, saying shirts were now available through Street Influence Records. I flew out of bed and immideately contacted SIR, who agreed to ship one to Sweden! Wasn’t expensive either, 10 euros for the shirt, 5 for the shipping – what a steal!

Then, nothing happened. Russia being Russia, I thought maybe that’s the last thing I’d ever hear from SIR, but they kept answering my anxious messages, saying they were still going to ship my shirt. Then, yesterday, this showed up at my home:

And inside, was this:

Yeah, I’ve got one now. My holy grail of t-shirt hunting. Well, this and a decent Limp Wrist shirt. Good thing I’ve still got that to look for or my life would be empty and meaningless.

I have no idea if SIR still has any left, but I didn’t want to post this until I got my shirt, partially because I didn’t want to jinx it, and partially because sending money to Russia always feels scary and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being ripped off. Well I wasn’t  – quite the opposite in fact, got some stickers and a pin, very nice! Ok, that’s all. Well, that was a BIG thing, right? Huge.

Thisclose!

Got a new shirt. I love this shirt in so many ways. To begin with, it’s a good quality Gildan shirt and the print is nice and thick (which works good on a print with so few large white areas), but that’s not it. To appreciate this shirt, there’s a few things you need to know. You need to know about the band Discharge. You need to know that once upon a time they decided to change their style and go from d-beat punk to some sort of hair metal. You also need to know about the band Disclose, and their relationship (worship) to Discharge. You also need to know that Thisclose is a band that plays hair metal era-esque Discharge music, with funny lyrics. Finally, you also need to recognize the old Discharge graphics with three skulls. Why they’ve been replaced by deer skulls? I haven’t got a clue – maybe there’s even more you need to know about this, but I’m guessing it’s because they’re from the highlands or something? I don’t know and I don’t really care – I love deer and would have bought this shirt for just the graphics.

Check out Thisclose on Facebook and Bandcamp. The shirts may be sold out as I got one of the last ones, but hopefully they’ll print more. Well, actually, since I have one, I’d be happier if they didn’t, but…. you know.

Math the Band

I discovered Math the Band through the “related artists” feature of Spotify earlier this year, while listening to Atom and his Package. If you ever felt Adam didn’t rock out enough and used way too few computer games sounds (and could have benefited from adding a lot of female backup vocals), Math the Band may be your thing. Then again, it’s not for everyone. Music with a sense of humor is a big no-no to a lot of people. I love it though*.

One thing I really like about Math the Band is that when Kevin formed it as a solo project in his early teens, he had a pin that said “Math” on his backpack, so he figured that if he named the band thus, he already had some merch for it.

Since I first started listening to them, they’ve been selling nothing but ugly merch, way too arty and childish for my tastes. The other day, though, I discovered this shirt in their online shop and hit “buy” before I had time for second thoughts. I’ll give you an update once it arrives. In the meantime, check out the band, but listen on Grooveshark, as Spotify don’t have nearly all their stuff.

Math the band website

* This is the first band I have ever bought leagal downloads from, that’s how much I like them.

OFF!

Hey, guess what happened the other day? I bought a shirt! Doesn’t happen a lot these days, I must say, but I went to the OFF! gig and they’ve let go of their stupid “whites only” policy for shirts (the color of shirts, not the people allowed to buy them) so I coughed up some of my hard earned cash and… um… yeah, that’s pretty much it. If you want one, get it from the OFF! web store.

…DAMN, those guys were good!

I picked up the last one of these!

Remember this shirt? How I said I’d write and ask about a reprint? Well, no plans for that, but they did have one single shirt left and I instantly snagged it, couldn’t resist an oportunity like that. And yesterday, it finally arrived. Not crazy about the giant tag on the sleeve and by the neck, but the prints are great!

Nice Idiot!

I have a lot of personal connections to this shirt. First of all, I guess, I know all the people in the band. Norse, the bass player, is in the same band as me. Ove, the drummer, used to be in our band. Jocke, the guitarist, shares the rehearsal space with us and Micke T, the singer, is the guy from whom I stole the name for this blog (for which I feel bad). Also, this shirt was printed by my friend Andy. If you live in Europe and you need shirts printed, get in touch with Everyday Hate, chances are he can do it faster and cheaper than your local printer. He does all our shirts. Anyway, I really like this one, the black on charcoal thing, slightly distressed – very classy! If I remember correctly, I think the shirt is pretty limited so act fast if you want one.

There is also a back print (it says “The more I talk, the deeper I sink”) but when trying to get a photo of it, all I could see in the picture was this bald spot in the back of my head. My wife was very nice about it and claims it can’t be seen and that it must be a trick of the light but nevertheless… I won’t be posting that photo. Damn, I’m getting old! Also, I looked like an idiot (which would suit the topic, but I don’t feel like giving you the satisfaction) in this photo – thus the pixellated face.

You can find out more about Nice Idiot here.

New shirts – finally!

You know, sometimes, some redneck ass-backwards webshops in the u.s. of a won’t ship outside their own country. I don’t know whether they’re afraid us weirdos from Europe will screw things up or if they just assume international shipping is too complicated for them? Anyway, a few years back, I thought I was smart and ordered some shirts anyway and sent them to my friend Doug, who lives in Ohio, for him to send them on to me. Smart, huh?

Only… Doug didn’t get around to it and I wasn’t exactly reminding him very often so they stayed at his house. A couple of years ago, one of his bands were playing in Poland and we were traveling down there to meet up with them so Doug brought the shirts. On the night of the gig, I refused to accept them from him, I was too drunk and would only have lost them. I told him I’d get them from him the next morning. Except… my hangover erased it from my mind completely and they traveled BACK to America in Dougs pack. Fast forward a couple of years, I guess he got sick of having the shirts at his house and lo and behold, today they showed up at my house!

Yay! Finally! A ZZ top shirt! I love this one, although I’ll still be looking for an Eliminator jersey as well.

NRA! I love the NRA for my own reasons and I went haywire in their webstore.

Yeah! Guns!

Guns AND baseball bats, how great can things be?

There’s only one slight problem though. When I ordered these, I was a great deal bigger and fatter than I am today and even then, I think I may have overdone it a bit. I can go camping in this one…

You know, this is supposedly that classic 3/4 sleeve… I guess my seamstress Lolita will have to earn her money again. No, I’m not kidding, her name really is Lolita.

Only… that means the shirts will be gone for another couple of months (she’s cheap but not very fast)… Jeez!

Oufit of the day

Here’s something I understand other, real fashion bloggers do: write a post with nothing to say but “this is what I’m wearing today”. Well I’ve got two more things than that to say, so I think I’m ok.

First of all, in this photo is another new item I picked up in London, a short-sleeve army surplus shirt with all kinds of little tags and insignia on it. I have no idea if it’s real or not but if it isn’t, they did a pretty good job of it (and it was only 5 pounds so… I dunno). Worn here over my patriotic shirt that I got a while back.

Second I got up this morning, put on clothes without thinking much and realized as I was brushing my teeth that this combo might seem a bit… white trash? gun nut-ish? Inspired by the name tag on the shirt, I christen it my Stormin Norman outfit.

That’s all folks.

London, the whole shebang!

So, yeah, my PLAN was to take photos with my phone and upload them as I paused for beer in pubs with free wifi, making you feel almost like you were there. Alas, it was not to be. The U.K. is a backwards country. How they can function normally in the international sphere is beyond me, it’s like they pretend it’s 2011 when they all secretly know it’s 1979 and act according to that. So, anyway, here’s some shirt photos from my trip to London. More will follow later, but this is the big bundle.

Let’s start off with a few shirts from Topman. And no – they haven’t gone crazy about yellowish/blue-tinted shirts in the u.k. – it’s just my favorite setting on the cameraphone. Live with it…

Here’s 3 shirts from River Island. The one on the right (with me in it), I bought. Now, I like this company for making nice shirts. But I also hate them for not delivering outside their own country and not accepting non-u.k. credit cards. I hadn’t been home for  more than 5 minutes before my wife’s cat tore holes in my new shirt and now I can’t get a new one even though it’s in their online store. Hello? 2011, remember?

Here’s stuff from Topman, Sainsbury’s (!) and some other place.

The two shirts on stands are from Uniqlo. Top marks for messages but I thought Japan was about coolness and great design – how come these shirts seem to have been designed by some soccer mum who sells them on Cafépress?

Primark. Yes, of course! Well, they had a pretty good selection this year but in the end I only bought the one in the middle. Running this blog has made me more picky I think.

And yes, Johnny Cupcakes – of course we went there. Didn’t buy nothing though – I just don’t like them enough to cough up 40 pounds for those shirts. Very very nice store though (my wife was transfixed by the wall hanging machines or whatever you call them).

Biggest disappointment of the trip? I wasn’t able to find my favorite shirt vendor in Camden. Maybe they’ve quit, maybe they’ve moved, who knows? Stay tuned for Camden photos and some more shirts later this week.

Feeling good, religious and patriotic

No real news to share, I just wanted to let you know that I wore my new christian/patriotic shirt yesterday and I’m very, very happy with it. That 50/50 cotton-polyester mix… I like it! These days, all shirts are 100% cotton. Sure, they don’t crackle as much with static, but polyester makes clothes dry fast and wrinkle less. Without knowing and considering the environmental aspects of this, I say yay for polyester!

If you think my smile looks a bit strained, holding the phone right, angling my body right and looking into the camera (not my own eyes in the mirror) AND pressing the button is stretching my abilities to the limit.

Oh, that’s right. I also wore my “clean” new ATR shirt yesterday at work and that’s great too. Things are good on the shirt front right now.