Package From An Old Friend

This post is literally weeks late. No reason why other than I can't be arsed right now.

I got an email out of the blue one day from my old friend Atilano Moran (brother of Rob... who, I am sure you are aware, was in legendary San Diego grindcore band Kill Holiday). I traded with Ati back in the glory days of the Revelation trade board. Also, he used to work at Revelation in the mid 90s, and would often be the dude packing my orders and signing my customs forms. I even met him once when he came to the UK on holiday with Bane in November 2002. Maybe I'll meet him again one day. Who knows? Anyhow, his email was merely asking for my address, so I thought I would play along and give it to him. A week or so later a little packet rolled up. This is what was inside:

As you can see, I found a Forced Down 2x7" on clear inside along with two test press 7"s. At first I had no idea what they were. So I checked the matrix of each and then used my super-computer brain to figure out what I had.

Both 7" tests are for releases put out by Crisis Records. As you may or may not know, Crisis was a kind of subsidiary label of Revelation Records. The first release was a Farside 7". I may be mistaken, but I believe the early adverts said that Crisis Records was like the quiet little sister of Revelation. Something like that. I also think that I read at some point that Crisis was originally run by Walter Schreifels's younger brother Dylan. But again, my memory may be playing tricks on me. So anyway, Crisis put out a couple of releases and then went quiet for a few years. But then in the mid-late 90s, Rob Moran (from Over My Dead Body) was given the chance to resurrect Crisis Records. He signed up some unheard of bands like Shai Hulud, Will Haven and some other less known (these days) bands.

One such band was a girl fronted indie rock band called Chinchilla. Crisis released a full length LP and a 7" ep by them. The band was an all girl outfit from San Diego. The singer sounded like the singer of Copper in my opinion. I didn't listen to this band as much as other bands with girl vocals from the same era simply because the band name is crappy. But I just listened to it again and it's good, even in 2011. Here's the test next to the regular version of the record from my collection:

The second test is for another Crisis Records 7" of a band with a female vocalist. This test is for the Beta Minus Mechanic 7". I am at risk of sounding like some kind of fag at this point, but goddamnit I love this 7". This band sounded like Verbal Assault with female singer. The band were (I think) from Syracuse, NY, and had some connection to Earth Crisis. Not that that makes any difference. Ati sent me this because he saw that I won a test of their LP on ebay a few months ago. I guess he thought I would be into this. Turns out he was right. I friggin' love this 7". Having a test press of it made my day/week/month/year/life. It's also cool because the test is on the same baby blue vinyl as the limited pressing of the record, and not many tests come on colour.

Dude also threw in a couple of old fliers:

And a label from some old Revelation Records compilation LP:

I was really humbled by this package. A rare reminder that there are some truly nice and selfless people out there. I only hope that one day I can put a smile on someone else's face the way that this package put one on mine. Sincerely dude, thank you. Greatly appreciated.