It's Alive Records



06/25/09 - Distro update... Time for another Distro update. We got a bunch of great restocks and new stuff from some our favorite label buddies. Check it out! ADD Records Madison Bloodbath Gittin' Loose With CD Off With Their Heads / Dukes Of Hillsborough split 7" Pretty Boy Thorson & Friends Howling! 7" Pretty Boy Thorson & The Falling Angels / Cortez The Killer split 7" Pretty Boy Thorson & The Falling Angels Ain't It Funny CD Pretty Boy Thorson & The Falling Angels Take It Easy CD Shaking Hands s/t CD Stranded Broken Bottles And The Way We Live 7" Tim Version Prohibition Starts Today LP Vena Cava / Sick Sick Birds split 7" Cabana 1 Records The Bugs s/t 7" The Challenged Relapse CD Deadbroke Records Down In The Dumps Dumps Luck LP Dragonzord Hole World 7" Fellow Project The Buried Life CD Go Sell Drugs American Handjob CD Shang-a-lang / Jonesin' split 7" Dirtnap Records The Ergs Hindsight is 20/20 My Friend CD Marked Men Ghosts CD Mean Jeans License To Chill 7" The Riff Randels Doublecross CD Something Fierce There Are No Answers LP Dirty Witch Records (France) Mcrackins / Los Di Maggios split CD Sons Of Buddha Buddha Hates Us All CD/LP Don Giovanni Records Dustheads Collected Sounds CD For Science Revenge For Hire CD For Science Way Out Of Control LP For Science Tomorrow's Just Another Day LP Groucho Marxists Manifesto LP Hellhole Uppers 7" Measure [SA] Songs About People... LP Pregnant Wanna See My Gun? 7" Dumb Records (Japan) The Headbangers Meet The Headbangers CD The Kobanes Public Affection CD So-Cho Pistons s/t CD Eat Shit And Die Recordings (Canada) The Blame Its / The Old Wives split 7" The Jolts Born Speedin' 7" Knowhere Records The Jizz Kids / The Guts split 7" Lawyer Beaters Waited Enough CD Meat For Dogs Il Diario Di Sheena LP The Rydells Vow To Defend CD V/A Let's Go Ghoulie - A Tribute To The Groovie Ghoulies CD Making Believe Records (Italy) Cani Pazzi / Lobello split 7" Darlington / Teenage Bubblegums split 7" Devastated s/t CD Kill That Girl We Wanna Be Monkeys CD Los Di Maggios / Teenage Gluesniffers split 7" Maradonas Qualcosa Da Dire CD Out Of Tune / The Cunninghams split CD Ponches / Deans split CD Teenage Bubblegums Bubblegum Dreams CD Merman Records (Canada) PG-13s Get Back 7" V/A Sea Creatures vol.1 7" Muy Autentico Records Dude Jams / Rumspringer split 7" Jonesin' / Dude Jams split 7" No Breaks Records Full Of Fancy Sweet Baby Jesus LP The Prozacs Playing The Chords We Love LP Revolutionary Youth Bleed/Decay LP Sandwich Man Records Chinese Telephones Democracy CD Snuffy Smiles (Japan) The Centerhits City Girl Friend 7" Gleam Garden / The Tim Version split 7" Pear Of The West Passed Out The Wasted CD Your Pest Band / The Centerhits split 7" The Creeps - awesome Canadian pop punkers! Lakeside Cabin CD, Back To The Bin CD, These Walls 7", and The Visitors (members of The Creeps) Lost On The Globe CD And if you haven't noticed already, the Distro section now has Print Zines and Xerox Zines. Check it out! We also got a re-up on Barrakuda McMurder Slow Crawl 7"s! If you ordered in the past two weeks your order was delayed a bit, but has been sent out! The Dopamines s/t LP has sold out and is temporarily out of print. We're fixing that though. We're pressing another 250 copies for their European Tour coming up this Septemeber. The packaging will be of the ghetto-fabulous variety: silk-screened fold-over covers, mixed color vinyl.
05/29/09 - Distro additions, It's Alive goners... There were a bunch of great new additions add to the distro section of the store today from Cold Feet Records, Traffic Street Records, Squinty Joe Records, Surfin' Ki Records and House Party Records... Get Some! Andrew Jackson Jihad / Apocalypse Meow split 7" - another winner from Andrew Jackson Jihad Apocalypse Meow / Rational anthem split 7" - members of Off With Their Heads Dangerous Chickens Shark Attack 7" - members of The Manges Dead Mechanical / Full Of Fancy split 7" - two great bands, 3 great songs Dopamines Soap And Lampshades 7" - definitely one of the best 7"s to come out this year Fracula Music For Derelicts 7" - Italian indie pop punk Grizzley Ends The Unfortunate Demise Of... 7" & CD - fantastic UK pop punk! Hextalls Call It A Comeback LP - back in stock! Marianne Dissard / Desing split 7" - acoustic indie slow jams Moto No Way Street 7" - lofi Italian punk rock n roll Rational Anthem / Strait A's split 7" - Florida pop punk meets Minnesota pop punk Rumspringer s/t 10" - one of the best up and coming bands doing the passionate punk thing Rumspringer / Sleep Like A Log split 7" - two more great bands digging out of the underground Turkish Techno / Troublemake split 7" - one of CA's best new bands and Tst Sam's rad band Vapids The Point Remains The Same 7" - brand new songs from Canadian pop punk veterans Vapids Charm School Dropouts LP - out now for the first time on vinyl! Visitors Tropic Of Cancer 7" - fantastic Canadian group with members of the Creeps V/A Dangerous Intersections 3 7" w/ Closet Fairies, Apocalypse Meow, Dopamines & Todd C. V/A Dangerous Intersections 4 7" w/ Strait A's, Like Bats, Rumspringer, Barrakuda McMurder Also, we're getting really low on some It's Alive releases. If you've been waiting on any of these, wait no longer! IAR16 - Fear Of Lipstick Indie Band - just sold our last copy! Try Interpunk or Vinyl Collective IAR19 - The Mugwumps Do Time - less than 30 copies left! Won't be repressed IAR20 - The Steinways Unoriginal Recipe - less than 50 copies left! Won't be repressed again IAR25 - The Dopamines s/t LP - less than 5 copies left! Won't be repressed anytime soon IAR26 - The Dazes / Wimpys Greetings From Japan - less than 50 copies left! Repress is likely IAR27 - Varsity Weirdos High School Teen Party - less than 5 copies left! Won't be repressed IAR29 - The Copyrights We Didn't Come Here To Die - less than 30 copies left! Repress is likely IAR32 - Barrakuda McMurder Slow Crawl - less than 5 copies left! Repress is likely Copies of Barrakuda McMurder Slow Crawl can still be bought from House Party Records!
05/22/09 - The Gateway District Two summers ago Dear Landlord came out west for the first time. On their merch table at their show at the Awesome Fest in Riverside, California. Brad "Half Pint" had copies of a 4 song 7" by his latest band, The Gateway District. It was, without a doubt the best 7" that came out that year. I told Brad and fellow former Rivethead bass man Nate that if they ever wanted to do another record that It's Alive would love to do it. We were hoping for a 7" and got the incredible news that they were recording a full length instead. When asked if we'd be into it, you better believe we were! I didn't need to hear song one before knowing it was gonna be awesome - and so it is! This is likely to be considered by many the best record It's Alive has ever put out - and they're probably right! Available now for pre-order in the store page, The Gateway District Some Days You Get The Thunder. 13 songs of punk rock served straight up, country fried and even a little folkified. Check out song samples at our myspace page and the The Gateway District myspace page. Pre-orders will begin to ship when the album is officially released on June 30th, 2009. If we get them sooner, you'll get them as soon as we do! CD's, LP's, T-shirts and Super Packs are all available for pre-order. The Gateway District is one of the latest and definitely greatest bands to come out of the Minneapolis, MN scene. Members include Maren (of the Soviettes and Salteens), Carrie (of American Monsters and Salteens), Brad (of Dear Landlord and Rivethead) and Nate (of Banner Pilot, OWTH and Rivethead). Call it a super-group, a side project or whatever you want. All three song writers bring a style of their own to this album making for a great mix of character and approach from song to song. The artwork is fantastic and something you should care to own - 16 page full color booklet. Each band member contributed art for each of their songs, so again, three styles come together to make for an awesome whole. Some days you days you get the thunder... This is gonna be one of those days! The Gateway District will be doing some touring in support of the album. They will have CD's of Some Days You Get The Thunder for sale at all dates! Catch a show if you can! All dates with Banner Pilot and The Manix Thursday May 21 - Minneapolis, MN Getthefuckouttamyhouse w/ Dopamines, Pretty Boy Thorson, Brickfight, Straight As Friday May 22 - Cedar Falls, IA 1108 House w/ Quick Fix Saturday May 23 - Chicago, IL Windy City Sound Clash @ Reggie’s Monday May 25 - Columbus, OH Monster House w/ Dopamines, Fop & The Dandys Tuesday May 26 - Dayton, OH Dayton Dirt Collective w/ Dopamines, Black River Falls, Raging Nathans Wednesday May 27 - Cincinnati, OH Bikehaus w/ Dopamines, Till Plans Thursday May 28 - St Louis, MO Tip Top w/ The Humanoids Friday May 29 - Oklahoma City, OK OKC Infoshop w/ Needlepoints Saturday May 30 - Des Moines, IA Haunted Basement w/ Tyborn Jib, Steve Martin Memorial Service The Dopamines are also touring coast to coast! Don't miss out on their live show! They're one of the best bands going these days. Catch them at the places and dates below: May 11 - Phoenix, AZ Trunk Space w/ Brickfight, Rumspringer May 12 - San Diego, CA Radio Room w/ Brickfight May 13 - Pomona, CA Characters w/ Brickfight, The Maxies May 14 - Los Angeles, CA Juanitas w/ Brickfight, The Uglysticks, Regal Beagle May 15 - Berkeley, CA 924 Gilman w/ Brickfight, Canadian Rifle, Anchor Down, Emily’s May 16 - Portland, OR Mafia House w/ Brickfight May 17 - Seattle, WA The Funhouse w/ Brickfight May 17 - Seattle, WA FBK House w/ Brickfight, Mark Sparkles May 18 - Spokane, WA The Boulevard w/ Brickfight May 19 - Bozeman, MT The Filling Station w/ Brickfight May 20 - Minot, ND Pangea House w/ Brickfight May 21 - Minneapolis, MN Getthefuckouttamyhouse w/ Brickfight, Straight A’s, Banner Pilot, Pretty Boy Thorson May 22 - Chicago, IL Windy City Sound Clash May 23 - Chicago, IL Windy City Sound Clash We're always adding to the distro! We just got in a bunch of releases from Team Science and House Party Records including 7"s, 12"s and CD's from these bands: Cutman, Dance Of Days, Ghost Town Trio, The Hextalls, Overdose, Lie And Wait, O Pioneers, Papermoons, Teenage Kicks and The Visitors.
04/27/09 - Three new 7"s and more on the way! With getting laid off a few months ago and a baby on the way any day now you'd think it'd be a bad time to be putting out a bunch of records. And you might be right! We're really testing our label's strength to see if it can sustain itself with enough sales income to pay off current projects fast enough to keep us out of bottomless credit card interest holes and bring in the funds for future projects. If all goes well you can expect 2009 to be the biggest and best year for It's Alive so far! And if it doesn't, shit, I guess I'll be selling oranges on the freeway off-ramps. Our next three records are set for a May 12th release, but all are available for ordering on our store page now! Chances are good that they'll ship before the official release date if you order direct from us. No Idea, Interpunk and Vinyl Collective will all have them in time to sell for the official release date as well. First up and long overdue is Greetings From Japan, a split 7" with our two favorite Japanese pop punk bands The Dazes and The Wimpys. If sugary sweet bubblegum pop punk or boogie woogie rock n roll is your thing, then this 7" is for you. The Dazes and The Wimpys have been doing their thing for the better part of the last decade. There are a healthy amount of bands in Japan doing this and other over-the-top pop styles, but none do it better than these two. Japan has been really good to It's Alive Records since the start. It's one of the few places that never gave up on traditional pop punk. We're stoked to finally be releasing a record with some bands from Japan. Check out the distro section of our store page for other records from these two as well as Hirocky T. Wimpy's label Popball Records. Next up we have Barrakuda McMurder with their debut release Slow Crawl. This is Grath Madden of The Steinways first band and first release since the unfortunate end of The Steinways. If you were a fan of his past material you're sure to love this new ep. The melodies and harmonies are back in full force as well as the shitty attitude. The songs are still about love and all that junk, but they read a little more personal than before. A great first release from a new band showing lots of promise... If you're into this kinda thing, which we are! This was co-released with our new buddies at House Party Records out of Nova Scotia, Canada. It's the first of a few co-releases we have planned for later dates. Call this one a honeymoon. And finally we have Songs About Fucking Up, a split 7" with The Copyrights and The Dopamines - two of the very best bands the underground has to offer in the way of melodic pop punk rock. At some point the new-school becomes the old-school, or at least the not-so-new-school. The Copyrights were the new kids on the block seven years ago when they got started, but today have become a band that is inspiring newer, younger acts. The Dopamines are undeniably one of these bands. This ep showcases both bands at their very best doing what they do best - singing about fucking up! Check out The Dazes, The Wimpys, Barrakuda McMurder, The Copyrights, The Dopamines and It's Alive Records myspace pages for songs samples from all these releases. Our next three releases will be The Manges Rocket To Hollywood LP, The Methadones / The Copyrights split LP and The Gateway District Some Days You Get The Thunder CD/LP. Check out the releases page for more info on each. We're shooting for a June release for all three with more news to come soon! In the meantime check out the The Manges, The Methadones, The Copyrights, The Gateway District and It's Alive Records myspace pages for song samples from each!
03/19/09 - Contest winners, Zines, Fests, Records, oh my... Interpunk recently ran a promotional contest for the vinyl release of The Copyrights We Didn't Come Here To Die album recently released by us and Insubordination Records. The winners have been chosen and here they are: Grand Prize Winner Sarah Patton - Chapel Hill, NC Four Runner Ups Daniel Jones - Portland, OR Matthew Trimm - Orlando, FL Kerry Boone - Fairmont, WV Chris Chambers - Seattle, WA Congratulations to you all and thanks for entering! Your prize packs have already been shipped out. Poison Heart Zine out of Italy just released a new issue with an It's Alive Records interview. It's a great zine that we are always happy to send records to. They keep their zine up online but also run a print version! They cover all the great pop punk stuff happening both here and in Europe. Check them out sometime. They only downside, most of it is in Italian! So if you don't read Italian, I suggest checking them out online and using the google translator function. If you haven't heard already, there's a great three day fest happening in Chicago May 22, 23 and 24 called The Windy City Sound Clash. A handful of It's Alive bands will be playing alongside a bunch of other heavy hitters. If you can make it, I highly suggest doing so. Sadly, we won't be able to make it out this year. But hopefully it's a big enough success to happen again next year! It looks like the dates for the Insubordination Fest have been officially set for June 25, 26 and 27. The official band line up hasn't been listed yet, but keep an eye on the myspace page for announcements. We've had the pleasure of attending all three years of this one so far, but we're not sure if it's gonna happen for us again this year. We'll see. It's the best time of the year, so if you can make it, do it! Finally, new distro items you should check out! The Visitors Lost On The Globe CD - features Scott of The Creeps, one of Canada's finest bands Teenage Bubblegums Bubblegum Dreams CD - the title says it all, Italian sugar overload Ponches / Deans split CD - a nice pop punk split from Italy's Making Believe Records Down In The Dumps Dumps Luck LP - my pick of the bunch this time around, dirty pop punk rock Accelerators s/t LP - the euro scene's biggest export in a while, now available here on vinyl Dead Mechanical Medium Noise LP - fantastic album from one of the best bands this decade Darlington / Teenage Bubblegums split 7" - more bubblegum with the one and only Darlington Dragonzord Hole World 7" - chill out with this record from Dead Broke Records Shang-a-lang / Jonesin' split 7" - two of today's best doing the dirty pop punk thing, great split Psyched To Die Sterile Walls 7" - thrashy hardcore from former Ergs and For Science Dead Mechanical A Great Lie 7" - maybe the best 7" released in all of 2008
03/12/09 - Distro Overload, Get Some! We recently received a bunch of great records from great labels run by good dudes. Check out the distro section for all the goodies from the likes of ADD, Art Of The Underground, Asian Man, Bitchin' Riffage, Dead Broke, Dirt Cult, Housparty, Killer, Let's Pretend, Traffic Street, Stardumb and Squinty Joe. 7"s Be My Doppelganger Convertible Girls - One of the best bands around, fantastic packaging Brokedowns / Sass Dragons split - Some of the best heavy hitting shit I've heard in a long while Brokedowns / Turkish Techno split - Chicago meets Southern Calironia with awesome results The Chromosome / Tarjas split - Italy meets Finland and great pop punk happens Full Of Fancy / Screaming Femailes split - Females representing better than ever these days Get Bent s/t - First recording and last record from this short-lived giant, so incredibly good Pretty Boy Thorson Howling! - Broken down old style country jams without corny pretense The Side Project New Brain - Great new pop punk outta the midwest where it's done best Unwelcome Guests The Painter - Stripped down indie pop the kids are digging on these days Unwelcome Guests / Saint Sweetheart split - Two of the best bands doing the indie thing V/A Come And Take It - Blotto, Conniption Fitts, Sass Dragons, Prohibition battle royale V/A Dangerous Intersections II - Basement Black, Dead Mechanical, PBT, The Mesure [SA] 12"s Blotto Get On Bored - Japan's most Gainesville band doing what they do best Gordon Gano's Army s/t - One of the UK's best indie pop band's debut album The Hextalls Call It A Comeback - Pop, punk, comedy and Canada, you can't go wrong with this The Radio Faces Party At The Bushwick Hotel - Best of the Ergs, Bent Outta Shape & Momacs Riverdales Phase 3 - Re-released with new tracks, finally on vinyl for the first time Tiltwheel Hair Brained Scheme Addicts - One of the best punk alums of all time Vaginasore Jr. This Here Penninsula - Really fantastic rollicking, folky, almost country punk rock CD's Accelerators s/t - Debut album from Holland's most rocking new pop punk band in years Be My Doppelganger Rock N Roll, Genius! - Debut album from this up and coming powerhouse Gordon Gano's Army s/t - One of the UK's best indie pop band's debut album Tiltwheel Hair Brained Scheme Addicts - One of the best punk albums of all time Vaginasore Jr. This Here Penninsula - Really fantastic rollicking, folky,almost country punk rock Vena Cava Weapons Of Mass Communication - Hard rocking pop punk done right We've also got a new army style It's Alive T-Shirt in the merch section. Made especially for all those Johnny Ramone types out there, get some! Four new releases coming in the next couple of months, stay tuned!
02/17/09 - The New News Hey folks, here's a little update about what's what with a couple bands and the website these days... The Dopamines are have a nice two page interview in the latest issue of AMP Magazine. Sure, AMP has its fair share of pretty horrible mainstream crap within its pages, but there's also some pretty cool stuff in just about every issue. The main folks behind the operation (Brett and Lisa) actually have good taste in music. I think they just fill the pages with what they have to in order to sell copies to the kids at Hot Topic to keep the zine in business. The Dopamines interview turned out pretty good and the layout looks great. There's also an interview with our favorite Sicilians The Popsters in the issue! If you haven't picked up their new album Our Bites Bring You Back, get on it! We have copies in our distro. Pick the zine up at Interpunk if you're into it - it's the Dec/Jan issue with Bayside on the cover. Jon Lewis of The Dopamines and Grath Madden of The Steinways both got interviewed recently for episodes of the Rocket To Russia radio show. It's probably my favorite online radio show going. New episodes air every Wednesday and can be downloaded soon after on their website. Check it out, it's good stuff! There have been a couple of changes to the store page. First, we added a section above the distro wherein we're selling some test pressing copies of It's Alive releases. They're all really limited and we're not asking too much. Pick one up and we'll love you forever. Second, the prices for shipping have been changed. The United States Postal Service continually raises rates and we've got to keep up to keep afloat. The upside is whereas things got a bit pricier for international orders, they also got easier - all shipping is calculated automatically upon checkout. The Copyrights We Didn't Come Here To Die picture discs are currently featured on the front page over at Interpunk. The fine folks over there are running a pretty sweet contest that you should check out if you missed your chance at owning a copy of the Chicago Smasher 7". Check out the contest here. There's always new stuff being added to the distro section of our store page all the time. We recently got some great stuff you should check out: The Creeps These Walls 7" - the best release yet by these canucks. Maybe the best 7" this year! The Mugwumps Slit Your Tire 7" & Banana Brain CD/LP - restocks of one of our favorite band! The Marked Men Ghosts CD/LP - the final album by one of the best bands this decade. Team Stray Gender Studies CD - one of Ohio's best, their last album, hear what you missed. V/A Dangerous Intersections vol.1 7" - the first of many great records to come from up-and-coming Traffic Street Records. Wee Rock Records - damn near their entire discography (Brutally Frank, Fine Lines, Fugue, Honeymoon, Jim-Jims, Future Lovers, Peggy Sues, Itch, Jet Set and more!)
01/26/09 - We Didn't Come Here To Die! It's done, finally! The Copyrights debut album is now available on vinyl for the first time. Thank you to everyone who participated in the crazy pre-order deal - this would not have been possible without you! For those of you who did not pre-order the complete set of four discs with the bonus Chicago Smasher 7" it's not too late to get a set for yourself. Our buddies over at Vinyl Collective have it up on their pre-order page. If you're not looking to go the way of the completist, individual copies can be purchase right here on our store page. The records turned out fantastic. They look and sound awesome! Check out a shot of them here. You will not be disappointed. You can also pick up a copy in the near future at Interpunk, Vinyl Collective and Insubordination Records. Interpunk will be running a promotional contest for this release as well. There will be some sweet prizes to win for sure. If you pick up a copy here, be sure to check out the distro section of our store page. We recently picked up a ton of great stuff from all over the world, literally. Here's a quick run down of some of the stuff you'll find in there: Nearly every in print 7" from Snuffy Smiles in Japan, all current cd releases from SP Records also out of Japan, lots of cd lp and 7" releases from Stardumb Records in The Netherlands, some great vinyl releases from Italy's best bands including Mayo & The Manges, The Peawees and the Kelvins, the new Full of Fancy and Max Levine Ensemble lp albums courtesy of Georgia's finest record label No Breaks Records, a handful of newer releases from Recess Records including both Screeching Weasel re-issue lp's, and ton of other great records. Thank you to everyone that took advantage of our holiday sale on t-shirts and hoodies! We sold a bunch and that helps alot! Though the sale is over, we decided to keep the regular prices down from what they used to be: hoodies are now $22 instead of $25 and t-shirts are $8 instead of $10. We are going to be offering some t-shirt and hoodie silkscreening services in the near future. If you're in the market for some wares, keep an eye out!
12/02/08 - Two new records and a holiday sale! Times are tough all around, but we're hanging in there and hope you're all doing the same. With that said, we've got two new records for ya! First up and long overdue, the latest and greatest from Evansville, Kentucky's Be My Doppelganger, Sonic Annihilation! These four tracks make up what is definitely one of the best 7"s we've put out to date. Few bands over the years have gotten me as excited as Be My Doppelganger. They bring the hooks and the hits like few others out there can. They've been kicking around in the underground for a few years now and we hope to introduce a lot of new fans to the band with this release. If you dig it, and I am sure you will, be sure to pick up a few of their earlier releases available in the distro section of our store page before they're long gone. We've had the masters for this bad boy for quite a while now and I couldn't be happier to see this release finally coming together. Up next we've got the second release from Cincinnati, Ohio's drunkest, The Dopamines pairing up with their buddies Till Plains on their debut release. We see The Dopamines as one of the young bands leading the way for the newest generation of pop punkers in the little scene we call home. They do it better than just about any of their contemporaries and even better than many that have come before them. On the flipside we've got something totally different than anything we've released thus far. Till Plains bring it with a style of dissonance and intensity that's new to It's Alive. We're more than happy to have them on board to open us up to a wider style of underground punk rock music and to have been part of their very first release. This 7"s is a split with a new little label called Soapy Hand Records. We expect great things from our good buddy Nick Toerner and his upstart label. Keep an eye on them! Check out these myspace pages for song samples: It's Alive Records, Soapy Hand Records, Be My Doppelganger, The Dopamines, Till Plains Tons of new stuff has been added to the distro! We've got every release still in print from Tampa, Florida's Kiss Of Death Records, a handful of choice cuts from Finland's Killer Records, and a few restocks from our buddy Timbo over at Mutant Pop Records. There are new records being added to the distro weekly, keep an eye on it! For the months of December and January all of our t-shirts will be on sale for $7.00 (regularly $10.00) and all of our zipper hoodies for $20.00 (regularly $25.00). If you're looking to get someone some sweet new gear for Christmas now's the time. Or if you find yourself with some spending cash after the holidays, come back before the end of January and spread the love. From us to you, happy holidays! We'll be back early next year with more records for your eager ears!
10/10/08 - Distro A Go Go! In an effort to spread great records from near and far reaches of the world we do lots of record trading with other labels and bands to sell in our distro section of the store page. No, it is not a pretty display, but it gets the job done! We keep it updated near daily with new additions. It's easy to lose sight or just not even see the great additions within the current format, but hey, it's like digging for records in record stores - you gotta work for it! We've always got something new and great being added, but it can be hard to keep up with. So we'll be posting here every now and then when there are new records we think deserve a little extra special mention. Mutant Pop Records was one of, if not thee biggest inspiration for starting It's Alive Records. Timbo called it quits a time or two over the past ten years. Every time he stopped it sucked, but made for an awesome re-start! MP was gone for a few years this past time and it looked like Timbo was done for good... but here we are seeing the second, third or fourth comeback! We couldn't be happier. It looks like he's going all in too. This past month has produced six new Mutant Pop releases! We've got 'em all in our distro. Pig out! The Catalogs s/t 7", The Connie Dungs I Hate This Town 7", Dillinger Four More Songs About Girlfriends And Bubblegum 7", The Impulse International Saturday Suzie 7", The Loblaws Won't Stop! 7", The Peabodys The Future Will Kill You dbl 7" And here are a few other additions you should check out: Blotto / Ringers split 7" - Snuffy Smiles can't lose! We've always got their newest releases Kepi Ghoulie & Jerry Hormone The Lives And Loves 7" - Stardumb Records Lives! V/A Living Dead Special 7" - great first release from a promising Spanish pop punk label featuring tracks by The Connie Dungs, The Ritides, No Picky and F.A.N.T.A. Dead Mechanical Medium Noise 12" - Great album, thick vinyl, excellent packaging The Popsters Our Bites Bring You Back CD - Awesome new album by a fantastic Italian band The Riverdales Phase 3 CD - remixed, remastered, five new tracks, it's like a whole new record!
09/30/08 - The Copyrights records, tour and more... The Copyrights Make Sound LP 2nd pressing has arrived! If you're in need of a refresher, the first pressing of green and black vinyl sold out in just under 2 weeks. We wanted this 2nd pressing to be on grey vinyl, but apparently there's no white vinyl to be found in Nashville to make the grey mix. We had to setlle for clear vinyl for half of the copies and black for the rest. For you completist collector nerds out there (we love each and everyone of you), you can tell which pressing is which by looking at the address info on the back of jacket. Just like we did with the Chinese Telephones s/t LP, the address is printed in a different color than it was the first time around. The ridiculous (-ly awesome!) We Didn't Come Here To Die picture disc LP's should be ready to go in less than 2 months. This coming year will also see the long overdue 2nd pressing of Mutiny Pop. The Copyrights are on their first Eurpean this next month with the always awesome Zatopeks. Be sure to check out their myspace pages here and here for tour dates. Both bands really deliver at their live shows. If you're anywhere near the tour route, don't miss it! We've got a list of the next 9 releases we plan to put out. If all goes according to plan, this is going to be a great year for It's Alive. We'll do our best to keep you posted here and on our myspace page.
08/25/08 - New Records, New News! Hey folks! For anyone out there keeping track, our past five release have been full lengths either on 12" only or 12" and compact disc. If you were wondering if the days of 7" records coming out every few months were over, stop wondering - we've got a couple more ready to go right now. First up we've got the second 7" by Canada's finest, The Varsity Weirdos. Much like their first 7", the second is loaded with all the pop and hooks that made their first so damn great. In addition to the old tricks, the all-down-strokers added a few new ingredients to the mix - a third lead vocalist and a hard-rockin' political jam. In the world of Ramones inspired pop punk music you are guaranteed to be inundated by a shit-ton of horrible, crappy bands. But if you've got enough love for the style to stick it out through all the crap, you'll be rewarded with the awesome tunes by a handful of great bands doing that Ramones thing right. The Varsity Weirdos are one of these bands. They might not be breaking any ground with this release, but they might break a few record players from all the repeat listens. And with the new we bring the old, made new again! The crazy collectible Retarded Gambling On Rock 7" with four variations of artwork and vinyl color is back... with yet another cover art variation and two more vinyl colors! I am not sure if I should be apologizing to all the vinyl collectors and completists out there, or accepting thanks for providing them with another fix. The first pressing sold out pretty fast and I don't imagine this one will hang around too long either. Hopefully some of you out there who missed it the first time will take advantage of its second pressing. After this one we're done, I promise! Speaking of crazy collectible releases. We're teaming up with our nutty buddies over at Insubordination Records to releases The Copyrights debut album We Didn't Come Here To Die on 12" vinyl. But it doesn't end there... This bad boy will be available with four different picture inserts - one for each band member. Check out the picture discs here. In addition to the crazy collectibility of the picture discs, 100 people will have the chance to own 1 of 100 copies of the Chicago Smasher 7". The only way to get a copy of the 7" is to pre-order the entire set of 12"s. Insubordination is handling the pre-sale. To get in on the action click on the link below. To find out more about the record, check out this thread on the pop punk message board. You can email us as well if you've got questions. Click Here To Pre-Order The Entire Set! We're always adding great new records to our distro lists on the store page. Below are a few titles that deserve a lot of attention and you should definitely consider adding to your shopping cart next time you place an order: The Copyrights / The Methadones split CD - two great bands, twelve top-notch songs. The Mugwumps Banana Brain CD/LP - Austria's finest export, finally available on CD! Sugus Learn To Be A Mornard CD - maybe the best poppunk album to come of Spain this decade. The Apers / 20 Belows split 7" - two great bands, one great new label Peabrain Records. Be My Doppelganger Convertible Girls 7" - one of the best bands playing pop punk today. Connie Dungs I Hate This Town 7" - back in print after many years with a new jacket on color vinyl. Dillinger Four More Songs About Girlfriends & Bubblegum 7" (repress) - need I say more? Fear Of Lipstick EP II 7" - even better than their first 7" on IAR, this record is fantastic!
06/15/08 - The Veterans and The Dopamines albums out now! We're proud to announce the second and third full length albums to be released on It's Alive Records. The first comes from the land of pretty women, pizza and pop punk masters. We're talking about Italy! More importantly we're talking about Andrea Carreda, front man of Italy's premier pop punk outfit The Manges! On The Veterans self-titled debut album Andrea has put together a classic summertime soundtrack of beach inspired tunes for all the pogo pop fanatics the world over. For this mission he enlisted the help of friends from all over the world from bands including Supermarket and The Popsters from Italy, Surfin' Lungs from The UK, and The Leftovers from the USA. Sure, this style of pop has been around for years and has been done many times before, but it's not often it is done this well. The ten tracks on this debut album from The Veterans are as catchy as they come. The second of our pair of full length albums comes from the land of beer, chili and more beer. I guess that could be any number of cities in the mid west, but we're talking about Cincinnati! We're talking about The Dopamines! Their self-titled debut album, which is also their first release ever, is all about growing up, getting drunk, falling in love, falling down and getting back up again. The rock on this record is a healthy mix of modern day pop punk with some mid 90's Pennsylvania style power punk and a touch of that early 90's Epi-Fat sound; all fueled by way too much alcohol! This band puts a ton of heart into what they do and this album shows it. If The Dopamines don't get you movin', you're probably already dead and just don't know it yet. We hope these are just the first of many releases from both of these great new bands. We feel lucky and honored to have been able to work with both of them! Check out tunes from both bands and all the most recent releases at our myspace page. Both bands, as well as every band we've ever released a record with can be found in our top friends section. Head over to their pages for even more great songs!
06/09/08 - First Things First Things have been quite the rollercoaster ride around here these past few months. Sorry for the lack of updates. Sometimes we get too busy with putting out records and all that it entails to get the digital word properly spread online. In addition to big happenings on the It's Alive front, we've gone through some big changes in our personal lives - some good, some bad, but mostly bad. But we're keeping it positive and hanging in there until things turn around, which they have already started to. The Steinways Unoriginal Recipe and The Peawees Walking The Walk all but sold out all available copies within a week or two of us releasing them. This is always awesome, but also kind of a tough thing to deal with as far as promotion - you can't send out review copies or get them into distros when there are none left! We're not complaining, mind you. Anyway, we've got represses and restocks available now, so if you missed it the first time (which wouldn't have been hard to do) now's your chance to get in on the good stuff. In the whirlwind wake of the former two releases we released the vinyl version of The Copyrights' third stellar album Make Sound. Much like The Copyrights' first two albums, this one's another pop punk piece of gold. And much like our last two releases before this, this one all but sold out all available copies crazy fast upon its release. We didn't even get a chance to properly post about it here on this website before most of our copies were sold. The pop punk message bored crowd has a big appetite and huge stomach for this stuff, and apparently it's growing! If you haven't picked up a copy of this album yet, act fast. We have about 5 copies left in stock. And no, they're not green vinyl copies! If you're looking to score the green vinyl version you might get luck out at Interpunk. If they're all gone over there, try ebay! And now that we're just about caught up with ourselves, it's time for more records! That's right. On June 16th we will release the debut album from The Veterans as well as the debut album from The Dopamines. We'll have more info to post about both albums within the week. In the meantime, head on over to our myspace page to check out a track from each band. Both bands are also listed in our top friends list, so you should click on over to those pages too to hear more of new tracks. Take our word for it - these are easily two of the best records we'll have put out to date. Both album will be available on cd and lp, both will have limited edition color vinyl copies, and both will be availlable in super packs (cd+lp+t-shirt). If the past few releases are any indication of how fast the limited color copies will go for these albums, I'd make a date with the F5 key for Monday June 16th!
- Old News Archive -

06/25/09 - Distro update...

Time for another Distro update. We got a bunch of great restocks and new stuff from some our favorite label buddies. Check it out!

ADD Records
Madison Bloodbath Gittin' Loose With CD
Off With Their Heads / Dukes Of Hillsborough split 7"
Pretty Boy Thorson & Friends Howling! 7"
Pretty Boy Thorson & The Falling Angels / Cortez The Killer split 7"
Pretty Boy Thorson & The Falling Angels Ain't It Funny CD
Pretty Boy Thorson & The Falling Angels Take It Easy CD
Shaking Hands s/t CD
Stranded Broken Bottles And The Way We Live 7"
Tim Version Prohibition Starts Today LP
Vena Cava / Sick Sick Birds split 7"

Cabana 1 Records
The Bugs s/t 7"
The Challenged Relapse CD

Deadbroke Records
Down In The Dumps Dumps Luck LP
Dragonzord Hole World 7"
Fellow Project The Buried Life CD
Go Sell Drugs American Handjob CD
Shang-a-lang / Jonesin' split 7"

Dirtnap Records
The Ergs Hindsight is 20/20 My Friend CD
Marked Men Ghosts CD
Mean Jeans License To Chill 7"
The Riff Randels Doublecross CD
Something Fierce There Are No Answers LP

Dirty Witch Records (France)
Mcrackins / Los Di Maggios split CD
Sons Of Buddha Buddha Hates Us All CD/LP

Don Giovanni Records
Dustheads Collected Sounds CD
For Science Revenge For Hire CD
For Science Way Out Of Control LP
For Science Tomorrow's Just Another Day LP
Groucho Marxists Manifesto LP
Hellhole Uppers 7"
Measure [SA] Songs About People... LP
Pregnant Wanna See My Gun? 7"

Dumb Records (Japan)
The Headbangers Meet The Headbangers CD
The Kobanes Public Affection CD
So-Cho Pistons s/t CD

Eat Shit And Die Recordings (Canada)
The Blame Its / The Old Wives split 7"
The Jolts Born Speedin' 7"

Knowhere Records
The Jizz Kids / The Guts split 7"
Lawyer Beaters Waited Enough CD
Meat For Dogs Il Diario Di Sheena LP
The Rydells Vow To Defend CD
V/A Let's Go Ghoulie - A Tribute To The Groovie Ghoulies CD

Making Believe Records (Italy)
Cani Pazzi / Lobello split 7"
Darlington / Teenage Bubblegums split 7"
Devastated s/t CD
Kill That Girl We Wanna Be Monkeys CD
Los Di Maggios / Teenage Gluesniffers split 7"
Maradonas Qualcosa Da Dire CD
Out Of Tune / The Cunninghams split CD
Ponches / Deans split CD
Teenage Bubblegums Bubblegum Dreams CD

Merman Records (Canada)
PG-13s Get Back 7"
V/A Sea Creatures vol.1 7"

Muy Autentico Records
Dude Jams / Rumspringer split 7"
Jonesin' / Dude Jams split 7"

No Breaks Records
Full Of Fancy Sweet Baby Jesus LP
The Prozacs Playing The Chords We Love LP
Revolutionary Youth Bleed/Decay LP

Sandwich Man Records
Chinese Telephones Democracy CD

Snuffy Smiles (Japan)
The Centerhits City Girl Friend 7"
Gleam Garden / The Tim Version split 7"
Pear Of The West Passed Out The Wasted CD
Your Pest Band / The Centerhits split 7"

The Creeps - awesome Canadian pop punkers!
Lakeside Cabin CD, Back To The Bin CD, These Walls 7", and The Visitors (members of The Creeps) Lost On The Globe CD

And if you haven't noticed already, the Distro section now has Print Zines and Xerox Zines. Check it out!

We also got a re-up on Barrakuda McMurder Slow Crawl 7"s! If you ordered in the past two weeks your order was delayed a bit, but has been sent out!

The Dopamines s/t LP has sold out and is temporarily out of print. We're fixing that though. We're pressing another 250 copies for their European Tour coming up this Septemeber. The packaging will be of the ghetto-fabulous variety: silk-screened fold-over covers, mixed color vinyl.

05/29/09 - Distro additions, It's Alive goners...

There were a bunch of great new additions add to the distro section of the store today from Cold Feet Records, Traffic Street Records, Squinty Joe Records, Surfin' Ki Records and House Party Records... Get Some!

Andrew Jackson Jihad / Apocalypse Meow split 7" - another winner from Andrew Jackson Jihad
Apocalypse Meow / Rational anthem split 7" - members of Off With Their Heads
Dangerous Chickens Shark Attack 7" - members of The Manges
Dead Mechanical / Full Of Fancy split 7" - two great bands, 3 great songs
Dopamines Soap And Lampshades 7" - definitely one of the best 7"s to come out this year
Fracula Music For Derelicts 7" - Italian indie pop punk
Grizzley Ends The Unfortunate Demise Of... 7" & CD - fantastic UK pop punk!
Hextalls Call It A Comeback LP - back in stock!
Marianne Dissard / Desing split 7" - acoustic indie slow jams
Moto No Way Street 7" - lofi Italian punk rock n roll
Rational Anthem / Strait A's split 7" - Florida pop punk meets Minnesota pop punk
Rumspringer s/t 10" - one of the best up and coming bands doing the passionate punk thing
Rumspringer / Sleep Like A Log split 7" - two more great bands digging out of the underground
Turkish Techno / Troublemake split 7" - one of CA's best new bands and Tst Sam's rad band
Vapids The Point Remains The Same 7" - brand new songs from Canadian pop punk veterans
Vapids Charm School Dropouts LP - out now for the first time on vinyl!
Visitors Tropic Of Cancer 7" - fantastic Canadian group with members of the Creeps
V/A Dangerous Intersections 3 7" w/ Closet Fairies, Apocalypse Meow, Dopamines & Todd C.
V/A Dangerous Intersections 4 7" w/ Strait A's, Like Bats, Rumspringer, Barrakuda McMurder

Also, we're getting really low on some It's Alive releases. If you've been waiting on any of these, wait no longer!

IAR16 - Fear Of Lipstick Indie Band - just sold our last copy! Try Interpunk or Vinyl Collective
IAR19 - The Mugwumps Do Time - less than 30 copies left! Won't be repressed
IAR20 - The Steinways Unoriginal Recipe - less than 50 copies left! Won't be repressed again
IAR25 - The Dopamines s/t LP - less than 5 copies left! Won't be repressed anytime soon
IAR26 - The Dazes / Wimpys Greetings From Japan - less than 50 copies left! Repress is likely
IAR27 - Varsity Weirdos High School Teen Party - less than 5 copies left! Won't be repressed
IAR29 - The Copyrights We Didn't Come Here To Die - less than 30 copies left! Repress is likely
IAR32 - Barrakuda McMurder Slow Crawl - less than 5 copies left! Repress is likely

Copies of Barrakuda McMurder Slow Crawl can still be bought from House Party Records!

05/22/09 - The Gateway District

Two summers ago Dear Landlord came out west for the first time. On their merch table at their show at the Awesome Fest in Riverside, California. Brad "Half Pint" had copies of a 4 song 7" by his latest band, The Gateway District. It was, without a doubt the best 7" that came out that year. I told Brad and fellow former Rivethead bass man Nate that if they ever wanted to do another record that It's Alive would love to do it. We were hoping for a 7" and got the incredible news that they were recording a full length instead. When asked if we'd be into it, you better believe we were! I didn't need to hear song one before knowing it was gonna be awesome - and so it is! This is likely to be considered by many the best record It's Alive has ever put out - and they're probably right!

Available now for pre-order in the store page, The Gateway District Some Days You Get The Thunder. 13 songs of punk rock served straight up, country fried and even a little folkified. Check out song samples at our myspace page and the The Gateway District myspace page.

Pre-orders will begin to ship when the album is officially released on June 30th, 2009. If we get them sooner, you'll get them as soon as we do! CD's, LP's, T-shirts and Super Packs are all available for pre-order.

The Gateway District is one of the latest and definitely greatest bands to come out of the Minneapolis, MN scene. Members include Maren (of the Soviettes and Salteens), Carrie (of American Monsters and Salteens), Brad (of Dear Landlord and Rivethead) and Nate (of Banner Pilot, OWTH and Rivethead). Call it a super-group, a side project or whatever you want. All three song writers bring a style of their own to this album making for a great mix of character and approach from song to song. The artwork is fantastic and something you should care to own - 16 page full color booklet. Each band member contributed art for each of their songs, so again, three styles come together to make for an awesome whole. Some days you days you get the thunder... This is gonna be one of those days!

The Gateway District will be doing some touring in support of the album. They will have CD's of Some Days You Get The Thunder for sale at all dates! Catch a show if you can!

** All dates with Banner Pilot and The Manix **

Thursday May 21 - Minneapolis, MN
Getthefuckouttamyhouse w/ Dopamines, Pretty Boy Thorson, Brickfight, Straight As

Friday May 22 - Cedar Falls, IA
1108 House w/ Quick Fix

Saturday May 23 - Chicago, IL
Windy City Sound Clash @ Reggie’s

Monday May 25 - Columbus, OH
Monster House w/ Dopamines, Fop & The Dandys

Tuesday May 26 - Dayton, OH
Dayton Dirt Collective w/ Dopamines, Black River Falls, Raging Nathans

Wednesday May 27 - Cincinnati, OH
Bikehaus w/ Dopamines, Till Plans

Thursday May 28 - St Louis, MO
Tip Top w/ The Humanoids

Friday May 29 - Oklahoma City, OK
OKC Infoshop w/ Needlepoints

Saturday May 30 - Des Moines, IA
Haunted Basement w/ Tyborn Jib, Steve Martin Memorial Service

The Dopamines are also touring coast to coast! Don't miss out on their live show! They're one of the best bands going these days. Catch them at the places and dates below:

May 11 - Phoenix, AZ
Trunk Space w/ Brickfight, Rumspringer

May 12 - San Diego, CA
Radio Room w/ Brickfight

May 13 - Pomona, CA
Characters w/ Brickfight, The Maxies

May 14 - Los Angeles, CA
Juanitas w/ Brickfight, The Uglysticks, Regal Beagle

May 15 - Berkeley, CA
924 Gilman w/ Brickfight, Canadian Rifle, Anchor Down, Emily’s

May 16 - Portland, OR
Mafia House w/ Brickfight

May 17 - Seattle, WA
The Funhouse w/ Brickfight

May 17 - Seattle, WA
FBK House w/ Brickfight, Mark Sparkles

May 18 - Spokane, WA
The Boulevard w/ Brickfight

May 19 - Bozeman, MT
The Filling Station w/ Brickfight

May 20 - Minot, ND
Pangea House w/ Brickfight

May 21 - Minneapolis, MN
Getthefuckouttamyhouse w/ Brickfight, Straight A’s, Banner Pilot, Pretty Boy Thorson

May 22 - Chicago, IL
Windy City Sound Clash

May 23 - Chicago, IL
Windy City Sound Clash

We're always adding to the distro! We just got in a bunch of releases from Team Science and House Party Records including 7"s, 12"s and CD's from these bands: Cutman, Dance Of Days, Ghost Town Trio, The Hextalls, Overdose, Lie And Wait, O Pioneers, Papermoons, Teenage Kicks and The Visitors.

04/27/09 - Three new 7"s and more on the way!

With getting laid off a few months ago and a baby on the way any day now you'd think it'd be a bad time to be putting out a bunch of records. And you might be right! We're really testing our label's strength to see if it can sustain itself with enough sales income to pay off current projects fast enough to keep us out of bottomless credit card interest holes and bring in the funds for future projects. If all goes well you can expect 2009 to be the biggest and best year for It's Alive so far! And if it doesn't, shit, I guess I'll be selling oranges on the freeway off-ramps.

Our next three records are set for a May 12th release, but all are available for ordering on our store page now! Chances are good that they'll ship before the official release date if you order direct from us. No Idea, Interpunk and Vinyl Collective will all have them in time to sell for the official release date as well.

First up and long overdue is Greetings From Japan, a split 7" with our two favorite Japanese pop punk bands The Dazes and The Wimpys. If sugary sweet bubblegum pop punk or boogie woogie rock n roll is your thing, then this 7" is for you. The Dazes and The Wimpys have been doing their thing for the better part of the last decade. There are a healthy amount of bands in Japan doing this and other over-the-top pop styles, but none do it better than these two. Japan has been really good to It's Alive Records since the start. It's one of the few places that never gave up on traditional pop punk. We're stoked to finally be releasing a record with some bands from Japan. Check out the distro section of our store page for other records from these two as well as Hirocky T. Wimpy's label Popball Records.

Next up we have Barrakuda McMurder with their debut release Slow Crawl. This is Grath Madden of The Steinways first band and first release since the unfortunate end of The Steinways. If you were a fan of his past material you're sure to love this new ep. The melodies and harmonies are back in full force as well as the shitty attitude. The songs are still about love and all that junk, but they read a little more personal than before. A great first release from a new band showing lots of promise... If you're into this kinda thing, which we are! This was co-released with our new buddies at House Party Records out of Nova Scotia, Canada. It's the first of a few co-releases we have planned for later dates. Call this one a honeymoon.

And finally we have Songs About Fucking Up, a split 7" with The Copyrights and The Dopamines - two of the very best bands the underground has to offer in the way of melodic pop punk rock. At some point the new-school becomes the old-school, or at least the not-so-new-school. The Copyrights were the new kids on the block seven years ago when they got started, but today have become a band that is inspiring newer, younger acts. The Dopamines are undeniably one of these bands. This ep showcases both bands at their very best doing what they do best - singing about fucking up!

Check out The Dazes, The Wimpys, Barrakuda McMurder, The Copyrights, The Dopamines and It's Alive Records myspace pages for songs samples from all these releases.

Our next three releases will be The Manges Rocket To Hollywood LP, The Methadones / The Copyrights split LP and The Gateway District Some Days You Get The Thunder CD/LP. Check out the releases page for more info on each. We're shooting for a June release for all three with more news to come soon! In the meantime check out the The Manges, The Methadones, The Copyrights, The Gateway District and It's Alive Records myspace pages for song samples from each!

03/19/09 - Contest winners, Zines, Fests, Records, oh my...

Interpunk recently ran a promotional contest for the vinyl release of The Copyrights We Didn't Come Here To Die album recently released by us and Insubordination Records. The winners have been chosen and here they are:

Grand Prize Winner
Sarah Patton - Chapel Hill, NC

Four Runner Ups
Daniel Jones - Portland, OR
Matthew Trimm - Orlando, FL
Kerry Boone - Fairmont, WV
Chris Chambers - Seattle, WA

Congratulations to you all and thanks for entering! Your prize packs have already been shipped out.

Poison Heart Zine out of Italy just released a new issue with an It's Alive Records interview. It's a great zine that we are always happy to send records to. They keep their zine up online but also run a print version! They cover all the great pop punk stuff happening both here and in Europe. Check them out sometime. They only downside, most of it is in Italian! So if you don't read Italian, I suggest checking them out online and using the google translator function.

If you haven't heard already, there's a great three day fest happening in Chicago May 22, 23 and 24 called The Windy City Sound Clash. A handful of It's Alive bands will be playing alongside a bunch of other heavy hitters. If you can make it, I highly suggest doing so. Sadly, we won't be able to make it out this year. But hopefully it's a big enough success to happen again next year!

It looks like the dates for the Insubordination Fest have been officially set for June 25, 26 and 27. The official band line up hasn't been listed yet, but keep an eye on the myspace page for announcements. We've had the pleasure of attending all three years of this one so far, but we're not sure if it's gonna happen for us again this year. We'll see. It's the best time of the year, so if you can make it, do it!

Finally, new distro items you should check out!

The Visitors Lost On The Globe CD - features Scott of The Creeps, one of Canada's finest bands
Teenage Bubblegums Bubblegum Dreams CD - the title says it all, Italian sugar overload
Ponches / Deans split CD - a nice pop punk split from Italy's Making Believe Records
Down In The Dumps Dumps Luck LP - my pick of the bunch this time around, dirty pop punk rock
Accelerators s/t LP - the euro scene's biggest export in a while, now available here on vinyl
Dead Mechanical Medium Noise LP - fantastic album from one of the best bands this decade
Darlington / Teenage Bubblegums split 7" - more bubblegum with the one and only Darlington
Dragonzord Hole World 7" - chill out with this record from Dead Broke Records
Shang-a-lang / Jonesin' split 7" - two of today's best doing the dirty pop punk thing, great split
Psyched To Die Sterile Walls 7" - thrashy hardcore from former Ergs and For Science
Dead Mechanical A Great Lie 7" - maybe the best 7" released in all of 2008

03/12/09 - Distro Overload, Get Some!

We recently received a bunch of great records from great labels run by good dudes. Check out the distro section for all the goodies from the likes of ADD, Art Of The Underground, Asian Man, Bitchin' Riffage, Dead Broke, Dirt Cult, Housparty, Killer, Let's Pretend, Traffic Street, Stardumb and Squinty Joe.

7"s
Be My Doppelganger Convertible Girls - One of the best bands around, fantastic packaging
Brokedowns / Sass Dragons split - Some of the best heavy hitting shit I've heard in a long while
Brokedowns / Turkish Techno split - Chicago meets Southern Calironia with awesome results
The Chromosome / Tarjas split - Italy meets Finland and great pop punk happens
Full Of Fancy / Screaming Femailes split - Females representing better than ever these days
Get Bent s/t - First recording and last record from this short-lived giant, so incredibly good
Pretty Boy Thorson Howling! - Broken down old style country jams without corny pretense
The Side Project New Brain - Great new pop punk outta the midwest where it's done best
Unwelcome Guests The Painter - Stripped down indie pop the kids are digging on these days
Unwelcome Guests / Saint Sweetheart split - Two of the best bands doing the indie thing
V/A Come And Take It - Blotto, Conniption Fitts, Sass Dragons, Prohibition battle royale
V/A Dangerous Intersections II - Basement Black, Dead Mechanical, PBT, The Mesure [SA]

12"s
Blotto Get On Bored - Japan's most Gainesville band doing what they do best
Gordon Gano's Army s/t - One of the UK's best indie pop band's debut album
The Hextalls Call It A Comeback - Pop, punk, comedy and Canada, you can't go wrong with this
The Radio Faces Party At The Bushwick Hotel - Best of the Ergs, Bent Outta Shape & Momacs
Riverdales Phase 3 - Re-released with new tracks, finally on vinyl for the first time
Tiltwheel Hair Brained Scheme Addicts - One of the best punk alums of all time
Vaginasore Jr. This Here Penninsula - Really fantastic rollicking, folky, almost country punk rock

CD's
Accelerators s/t - Debut album from Holland's most rocking new pop punk band in years
Be My Doppelganger Rock N Roll, Genius! - Debut album from this up and coming powerhouse
Gordon Gano's Army s/t - One of the UK's best indie pop band's debut album
Tiltwheel Hair Brained Scheme Addicts - One of the best punk albums of all time
Vaginasore Jr. This Here Penninsula - Really fantastic rollicking, folky,almost country punk rock
Vena Cava Weapons Of Mass Communication - Hard rocking pop punk done right

We've also got a new army style It's Alive T-Shirt in the merch section. Made especially for all those Johnny Ramone types out there, get some!

Four new releases coming in the next couple of months, stay tuned!

02/17/09 - The New News

Hey folks, here's a little update about what's what with a couple bands and the website these days...

The Dopamines are have a nice two page interview in the latest issue of AMP Magazine. Sure, AMP has its fair share of pretty horrible mainstream crap within its pages, but there's also some pretty cool stuff in just about every issue. The main folks behind the operation (Brett and Lisa) actually have good taste in music. I think they just fill the pages with what they have to in order to sell copies to the kids at Hot Topic to keep the zine in business. The Dopamines interview turned out pretty good and the layout looks great. There's also an interview with our favorite Sicilians The Popsters in the issue! If you haven't picked up their new album Our Bites Bring You Back, get on it! We have copies in our distro. Pick the zine up at Interpunk if you're into it - it's the Dec/Jan issue with Bayside on the cover.

Jon Lewis of The Dopamines and Grath Madden of The Steinways both got interviewed recently for episodes of the Rocket To Russia radio show. It's probably my favorite online radio show going. New episodes air every Wednesday and can be downloaded soon after on their website. Check it out, it's good stuff!

There have been a couple of changes to the store page. First, we added a section above the distro wherein we're selling some test pressing copies of It's Alive releases. They're all really limited and we're not asking too much. Pick one up and we'll love you forever. Second, the prices for shipping have been changed. The United States Postal Service continually raises rates and we've got to keep up to keep afloat. The upside is whereas things got a bit pricier for international orders, they also got easier - all shipping is calculated automatically upon checkout.

The Copyrights We Didn't Come Here To Die picture discs are currently featured on the front page over at Interpunk. The fine folks over there are running a pretty sweet contest that you should check out if you missed your chance at owning a copy of the Chicago Smasher 7". Check out the contest here.

There's always new stuff being added to the distro section of our store page all the time. We recently got some great stuff you should check out:

The Creeps These Walls 7" - the best release yet by these canucks. Maybe the best 7" this year!
The Mugwumps Slit Your Tire 7" & Banana Brain CD/LP - restocks of one of our favorite band!
The Marked Men Ghosts CD/LP - the final album by one of the best bands this decade.
Team Stray Gender Studies CD - one of Ohio's best, their last album, hear what you missed.
V/A Dangerous Intersections vol.1 7" - the first of many great records to come from up-and-coming Traffic Street Records.
Wee Rock Records - damn near their entire discography (Brutally Frank, Fine Lines, Fugue, Honeymoon, Jim-Jims, Future Lovers, Peggy Sues, Itch, Jet Set and more!)

01/26/09 - We Didn't Come Here To Die!

It's done, finally! The Copyrights debut album is now available on vinyl for the first time. Thank you to everyone who participated in the crazy pre-order deal - this would not have been possible without you! For those of you who did not pre-order the complete set of four discs with the bonus Chicago Smasher 7" it's not too late to get a set for yourself. Our buddies over at Vinyl Collective have it up on their pre-order page. If you're not looking to go the way of the completist, individual copies can be purchase right here on our store page. The records turned out fantastic. They look and sound awesome! Check out a shot of them here. You will not be disappointed. You can also pick up a copy in the near future at Interpunk, Vinyl Collective and Insubordination Records. Interpunk will be running a promotional contest for this release as well. There will be some sweet prizes to win for sure.

If you pick up a copy here, be sure to check out the distro section of our store page. We recently picked up a ton of great stuff from all over the world, literally. Here's a quick run down of some of the stuff you'll find in there:

Nearly every in print 7" from Snuffy Smiles in Japan, all current cd releases from SP Records also out of Japan, lots of cd lp and 7" releases from Stardumb Records in The Netherlands, some great vinyl releases from Italy's best bands including Mayo & The Manges, The Peawees and the Kelvins, the new Full of Fancy and Max Levine Ensemble lp albums courtesy of Georgia's finest record label No Breaks Records, a handful of newer releases from Recess Records including both Screeching Weasel re-issue lp's, and ton of other great records.

Thank you to everyone that took advantage of our holiday sale on t-shirts and hoodies! We sold a bunch and that helps alot! Though the sale is over, we decided to keep the regular prices down from what they used to be: hoodies are now $22 instead of $25 and t-shirts are $8 instead of $10. We are going to be offering some t-shirt and hoodie silkscreening services in the near future. If you're in the market for some wares, keep an eye out!

12/02/08 - Two new records and a holiday sale!

Times are tough all around, but we're hanging in there and hope you're all doing the same. With that said, we've got two new records for ya!

First up and long overdue, the latest and greatest from Evansville, Kentucky's Be My Doppelganger, Sonic Annihilation! These four tracks make up what is definitely one of the best 7"s we've put out to date. Few bands over the years have gotten me as excited as Be My Doppelganger. They bring the hooks and the hits like few others out there can. They've been kicking around in the underground for a few years now and we hope to introduce a lot of new fans to the band with this release. If you dig it, and I am sure you will, be sure to pick up a few of their earlier releases available in the distro section of our store page before they're long gone. We've had the masters for this bad boy for quite a while now and I couldn't be happier to see this release finally coming together.

Up next we've got the second release from Cincinnati, Ohio's drunkest, The Dopamines pairing up with their buddies Till Plains on their debut release. We see The Dopamines as one of the young bands leading the way for the newest generation of pop punkers in the little scene we call home. They do it better than just about any of their contemporaries and even better than many that have come before them. On the flipside we've got something totally different than anything we've released thus far. Till Plains bring it with a style of dissonance and intensity that's new to It's Alive. We're more than happy to have them on board to open us up to a wider style of underground punk rock music and to have been part of their very first release. This 7"s is a split with a new little label called Soapy Hand Records. We expect great things from our good buddy Nick Toerner and his upstart label. Keep an eye on them!

Check out these myspace pages for song samples: It's Alive Records, Soapy Hand Records, Be My Doppelganger, The Dopamines, Till Plains

Tons of new stuff has been added to the distro! We've got every release still in print from Tampa, Florida's Kiss Of Death Records, a handful of choice cuts from Finland's Killer Records, and a few restocks from our buddy Timbo over at Mutant Pop Records. There are new records being added to the distro weekly, keep an eye on it!

For the months of December and January all of our t-shirts will be on sale for $7.00 (regularly $10.00) and all of our zipper hoodies for $20.00 (regularly $25.00). If you're looking to get someone some sweet new gear for Christmas now's the time. Or if you find yourself with some spending cash after the holidays, come back before the end of January and spread the love.

From us to you, happy holidays! We'll be back early next year with more records for your eager ears!

10/10/08 - Distro A Go Go!

In an effort to spread great records from near and far reaches of the world we do lots of record trading with other labels and bands to sell in our distro section of the store page. No, it is not a pretty display, but it gets the job done! We keep it updated near daily with new additions. It's easy to lose sight or just not even see the great additions within the current format, but hey, it's like digging for records in record stores - you gotta work for it!

We've always got something new and great being added, but it can be hard to keep up with. So we'll be posting here every now and then when there are new records we think deserve a little extra special mention.

Mutant Pop Records was one of, if not thee biggest inspiration for starting It's Alive Records. Timbo called it quits a time or two over the past ten years. Every time he stopped it sucked, but made for an awesome re-start! MP was gone for a few years this past time and it looked like Timbo was done for good... but here we are seeing the second, third or fourth comeback! We couldn't be happier. It looks like he's going all in too. This past month has produced six new Mutant Pop releases! We've got 'em all in our distro. Pig out!

The Catalogs s/t 7", The Connie Dungs I Hate This Town 7", Dillinger Four More Songs About Girlfriends And Bubblegum 7", The Impulse International Saturday Suzie 7", The Loblaws Won't Stop! 7", The Peabodys The Future Will Kill You dbl 7"

And here are a few other additions you should check out:

Blotto / Ringers split 7" - Snuffy Smiles can't lose! We've always got their newest releases
Kepi Ghoulie & Jerry Hormone The Lives And Loves 7" - Stardumb Records Lives!
V/A Living Dead Special 7" - great first release from a promising Spanish pop punk label featuring tracks by The Connie Dungs, The Ritides, No Picky and F.A.N.T.A.
Dead Mechanical Medium Noise 12" - Great album, thick vinyl, excellent packaging
The Popsters Our Bites Bring You Back CD - Awesome new album by a fantastic Italian band
The Riverdales Phase 3 CD - remixed, remastered, five new tracks, it's like a whole new record!

09/30/08 - The Copyrights records, tour and more...

The Copyrights Make Sound LP 2nd pressing has arrived! If you're in need of a refresher, the first pressing of green and black vinyl sold out in just under 2 weeks. We wanted this 2nd pressing to be on grey vinyl, but apparently there's no white vinyl to be found in Nashville to make the grey mix. We had to setlle for clear vinyl for half of the copies and black for the rest. For you completist collector nerds out there (we love each and everyone of you), you can tell which pressing is which by looking at the address info on the back of jacket. Just like we did with the Chinese Telephones s/t LP, the address is printed in a different color than it was the first time around.

The ridiculous (-ly awesome!) We Didn't Come Here To Die picture disc LP's should be ready to go in less than 2 months. This coming year will also see the long overdue 2nd pressing of Mutiny Pop.

The Copyrights are on their first Eurpean this next month with the always awesome Zatopeks. Be sure to check out their myspace pages here and here for tour dates. Both bands really deliver at their live shows. If you're anywhere near the tour route, don't miss it!

We've got a list of the next 9 releases we plan to put out. If all goes according to plan, this is going to be a great year for It's Alive. We'll do our best to keep you posted here and on our myspace page.

08/25/08 - New Records, New News!

Hey folks! For anyone out there keeping track, our past five release have been full lengths either on 12" only or 12" and compact disc. If you were wondering if the days of 7" records coming out every few months were over, stop wondering - we've got a couple more ready to go right now.

First up we've got the second 7" by Canada's finest, The Varsity Weirdos. Much like their first 7", the second is loaded with all the pop and hooks that made their first so damn great. In addition to the old tricks, the all-down-strokers added a few new ingredients to the mix - a third lead vocalist and a hard-rockin' political jam. In the world of Ramones inspired pop punk music you are guaranteed to be inundated by a shit-ton of horrible, crappy bands. But if you've got enough love for the style to stick it out through all the crap, you'll be rewarded with the awesome tunes by a handful of great bands doing that Ramones thing right. The Varsity Weirdos are one of these bands. They might not be breaking any ground with this release, but they might break a few record players from all the repeat listens.

And with the new we bring the old, made new again! The crazy collectible Retarded Gambling On Rock 7" with four variations of artwork and vinyl color is back... with yet another cover art variation and two more vinyl colors! I am not sure if I should be apologizing to all the vinyl collectors and completists out there, or accepting thanks for providing them with another fix. The first pressing sold out pretty fast and I don't imagine this one will hang around too long either. Hopefully some of you out there who missed it the first time will take advantage of its second pressing. After this one we're done, I promise!

Speaking of crazy collectible releases. We're teaming up with our nutty buddies over at Insubordination Records to releases The Copyrights debut album We Didn't Come Here To Die on 12" vinyl. But it doesn't end there... This bad boy will be available with four different picture inserts - one for each band member. Check out the picture discs here. In addition to the crazy collectibility of the picture discs, 100 people will have the chance to own 1 of 100 copies of the Chicago Smasher 7". The only way to get a copy of the 7" is to pre-order the entire set of 12"s. Insubordination is handling the pre-sale. To get in on the action click on the link below. To find out more about the record, check out this thread on the pop punk message board. You can email us as well if you've got questions.

Click Here To Pre-Order The Entire Set!

We're always adding great new records to our distro lists on the store page. Below are a few titles that deserve a lot of attention and you should definitely consider adding to your shopping cart next time you place an order:

The Copyrights / The Methadones split CD - two great bands, twelve top-notch songs.
The Mugwumps Banana Brain CD/LP - Austria's finest export, finally available on CD!
Sugus Learn To Be A Mornard CD - maybe the best poppunk album to come of Spain this decade.
The Apers / 20 Belows split 7" - two great bands, one great new label Peabrain Records.
Be My Doppelganger Convertible Girls 7" - one of the best bands playing pop punk today.
Connie Dungs I Hate This Town 7" - back in print after many years with a new jacket on color vinyl.
Dillinger Four More Songs About Girlfriends & Bubblegum 7" (repress) - need I say more?
Fear Of Lipstick EP II 7" - even better than their first 7" on IAR, this record is fantastic!

06/15/08 - The Veterans and The Dopamines albums out now!

We're proud to announce the second and third full length albums to be released on It's Alive Records.

The first comes from the land of pretty women, pizza and pop punk masters. We're talking about Italy! More importantly we're talking about Andrea Carreda, front man of Italy's premier pop punk outfit The Manges! On The Veterans self-titled debut album Andrea has put together a classic summertime soundtrack of beach inspired tunes for all the pogo pop fanatics the world over. For this mission he enlisted the help of friends from all over the world from bands including Supermarket and The Popsters from Italy, Surfin' Lungs from The UK, and The Leftovers from the USA. Sure, this style of pop has been around for years and has been done many times before, but it's not often it is done this well. The ten tracks on this debut album from The Veterans are as catchy as they come.

The second of our pair of full length albums comes from the land of beer, chili and more beer. I guess that could be any number of cities in the mid west, but we're talking about Cincinnati! We're talking about The Dopamines! Their self-titled debut album, which is also their first release ever, is all about growing up, getting drunk, falling in love, falling down and getting back up again. The rock on this record is a healthy mix of modern day pop punk with some mid 90's Pennsylvania style power punk and a touch of that early 90's Epi-Fat sound; all fueled by way too much alcohol! This band puts a ton of heart into what they do and this album shows it. If The Dopamines don't get you movin', you're probably already dead and just don't know it yet.

We hope these are just the first of many releases from both of these great new bands. We feel lucky and honored to have been able to work with both of them!

Check out tunes from both bands and all the most recent releases at our myspace page. Both bands, as well as every band we've ever released a record with can be found in our top friends section. Head over to their pages for even more great songs!

06/09/08 - First Things First

Things have been quite the rollercoaster ride around here these past few months. Sorry for the lack of updates. Sometimes we get too busy with putting out records and all that it entails to get the digital word properly spread online. In addition to big happenings on the It's Alive front, we've gone through some big changes in our personal lives - some good, some bad, but mostly bad. But we're keeping it positive and hanging in there until things turn around, which they have already started to.

The Steinways Unoriginal Recipe and The Peawees Walking The Walk all but sold out all available copies within a week or two of us releasing them. This is always awesome, but also kind of a tough thing to deal with as far as promotion - you can't send out review copies or get them into distros when there are none left! We're not complaining, mind you. Anyway, we've got represses and restocks available now, so if you missed it the first time (which wouldn't have been hard to do) now's your chance to get in on the good stuff.

In the whirlwind wake of the former two releases we released the vinyl version of The Copyrights' third stellar album Make Sound. Much like The Copyrights' first two albums, this one's another pop punk piece of gold. And much like our last two releases before this, this one all but sold out all available copies crazy fast upon its release. We didn't even get a chance to properly post about it here on this website before most of our copies were sold. The pop punk message bored crowd has a big appetite and huge stomach for this stuff, and apparently it's growing! If you haven't picked up a copy of this album yet, act fast. We have about 5 copies left in stock. And no, they're not green vinyl copies! If you're looking to score the green vinyl version you might get luck out at Interpunk. If they're all gone over there, try ebay!

And now that we're just about caught up with ourselves, it's time for more records! That's right. On June 16th we will release the debut album from The Veterans as well as the debut album from The Dopamines. We'll have more info to post about both albums within the week. In the meantime, head on over to our myspace page to check out a track from each band. Both bands are also listed in our top friends list, so you should click on over to those pages too to hear more of new tracks. Take our word for it - these are easily two of the best records we'll have put out to date. Both album will be available on cd and lp, both will have limited edition color vinyl copies, and both will be availlable in super packs (cd+lp+t-shirt). If the past few releases are any indication of how fast the limited color copies will go for these albums, I'd make a date with the F5 key for Monday June 16th!

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