Magic Bullet Records Archive

12/01/2023

06/15/2023

2002 poster advertising three show celebrating the five year anniversary of Magic Bullet Records. All three shows featured PAGENINETYNINE, MAJORITY RULE, CORN ON MACABRE, and CRESTFALLEN.

The first two shows were in Pennsylvania to mark where the label was founded (State College, PA) and the third happened in Woodbridge, VA, where the label moved in the late 90's.

06/09/2023

PREVIEW TRACK ALERT: The Burning Paris "When You Were Here."

This song can now be heard across all digital services providers worldwide: https://li.sten.to/wywh

This is the second new original song by the band in ~20 years, another taste of what one can expect from the exceptionally brilliant "Everything is Broken & I Don't Feel a Thing" full-length album, releasing digitally July 12, 2023 on Pax Aeternum.

Also currently available for preview: "The Fire Lines," available on all platforms.

06/09/2023

Without question, one of the most talented and prolific songwriters to come out of the late 90’s DIY hardcore/metal/indie scene is Methuen, Massachusetts’ own Stephen Brodsky.

My first sonic encounter with Steve’s music would have been via a pink copy of Cave In’s split 7” with Piebald on Moo Cow while I was still at college. Within a couple of years, we had become avid letter-writers, tape traders, and landline callers in each others’ lives, dovetailing into putting out Steve’s first solo record (“Expose Your Overdubs”) on Magic Bullet in 1999. In the years since, no shortage of other collaborative projects and excursions went down: more solo releases, New Idea Society’s debut full length, Cave In singles and EP’s, Mutoid Man’s debut album, comp appearances… even my favorite Forensics set of all time (Philadelphia, 12/22/05) was only made possible because Cave In brought us along for that run of Northeast dates.

2023 officially marks 25 years of knowing my absurdly brilliant friend. Over that period, much of his solo and non-Cave In works went out of print as various labels disappeared and/or threw in the towel along the way (our current estimated count is 20+ releases that went obsolete). Thankfully, both of us have been OCD-level archivists of his work since the very beginning, with both of us keeping separate, duplicate tape, DAT, CD-R, and Cloud archives of everything.

All this said, I thought of no better way to celebrate 25 years of friendship and mutual longevity in our field than by steadily reissuing all of this great, lost music (and more) back into the world via Pax Aeternum. Thankfully, Steve agreed. The first two solo full-lengths (“Expose Your Overdubs” and “Olé Sunday”) and the 5-song “Olé Sunday” bonus EP (called “Spiral Sounds”) are already available wherever you stream music and we’ll be steadily bringing back everything else in the coming weeks and months while telling stories, sharing notes and artifacts, and making certain titles available digitally for the first time ever.

Stay tuned for regular updates/additions and thanks for continuing to support all involved.
- Brent Eyestone, Pax Aeternum

06/09/2023

PREVIEW TRACK ALERT: BLACK ARMY JACKET "Fortune Cookie" [remastered]

This song can now be heard across all digital service providers worldwide: https://li.sten.to/fortunecookie

"Fortune Cookie" is a song originally from BLACK ARMY JACKET's 1997 split 7" with Hemlock on Go-Kart Records and Sound Views. It is now part of "Open Casket: The Discography," an expanded 59-song collection covering all of the band's non-"222" album output. All songs have been remastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air and Mark McCoy has created brand new artwork for this digital release (on Pax Aeternum) and 2xLP (on Brainscan Records and State of Mind Recordings).

Both formats come out on June 30, 2023.

Please "enjoy."

05/10/2023

🚨 PREVIEW TRACK ALERT: THE BURNING PARIS "The Fire Lines" 🚨 This song can now be heard across all digital service providers worldwide (see the Linktree).

This is the first new original song by Magic Bullet Records alumni in ~20 years and but a taste of what to expect from the excellent, forthcoming "Everything is Broken & I Don't Feel a Thing" album, releasing digitally July 12, 2023 on Pax Aeternum.

Hear it anywhere:
https://li.sten.to/thefirelines
#2023

03/24/2023

Just announced: will perform in Toronto (and Canada) for the first time ever this summer. It will be a part (or “apart,” per social media users’ preferred nomenclature) of fest. Tickets available now!

09/02/2022

For Bandcamp Friday 09.02.22, we got around to hand-stamping and tagging some of the weird, uncirculated transitional colors from various pressings. Transitional colors happen when the pressing plants move from one vinyl color to another, leaving remnants of the previous color in the extruder. The result is often a low-run hybrid of random results that quickly disappears within the first couple dozen or less copies of the next color on the press.

Anyway, here’s an example from Majority Rule's ”Interviews With David Frost" 2018 repress/reissue run. A handful of white copies ended up with a killer red burst emanating from center while transitioning from red to white vinyl. Check the Magic Bullet and/or Dark Operative Linktree if you’re a collector interested in owning any of these. Thanks!

09/02/2022

For Bandcamp Friday 09.02.22, we got around to hand-stamping and tagging some of the weird, uncirculated transitional colors from various pressings. Transitional colors happen when the pressing plants move from one vinyl color to another, leaving remnants of the previous color in the extruder. The result is often a low-run hybrid of random results that quickly disappears within the first couple dozen or less copies of the next color on the press.

Anyway, here’s some examples from Beastmilk’s “White Stains on Black Wax” and “Use Your Deluge” 2014 reissue runs. A handful of white copies ended up with a red “thumbprint” mark while transitioning from red to white vinyl. On “Use Your Deluge,” blue “thumbprints” appeared on some white copies and some copies turned into outright marble blue while transitioning to solid white. Check the Magic Bullet and/or Pax Aeternum Linktree if you’re a collector interested in owning any of these. Thanks!

09/02/2022

MBL170-1: BEASTMILK "Use Your Deluge" 7" "Blue Thumbprint" transitional blue -> white vinyl. Hand-stamped and tagged edition of 11 available for Bandcamp Friday 09.02.22. (in Linktree)

08/12/2022

‘s July 12, 2001 flyer for The Locust, Waifle, Combatwoundedveteran, and The Chain Link Disaster at The Orpheum in Ybor City/Tampa, Florida.

This was during a time of early internet punk messageboard adoption, so a mildly violent incident at a previous stop on The Locust/Waifle tour in South Carolina got embellished and twisted to the point where a tonnnnn of idiots and straight up white supremacists paid money to get into this show thinking that they were actually going to get to beat up the members of The Locust.

The funniest aspect was that, because it was an early iteration of punk messageboards, nobody actually knew what The Locust looked like before the actually played. So dozens of dummies thought that my brother and I HAD to be in The Locust before the show started because the internet said it was “four brown guys, probably Mexican” (we’re not Mexican and neither was The Locust, but you know…. Florida intellectuals and all). I still remember collectively getting called a particular slur while some dudes we’re trying to mix it up with me and JP after they isolated us. We just started laughing uncontrollably.

Anyway, it’s never smart to post the full breakdown of what happened in a riot/street brawl on the internet, so let’s just say that I’m grateful for the entire touring party safely driving away from the venue with nary a scratch or nick on us and that I appreciate having way more friends in every town than The Locust ever had enemies.