Liner notes: The Priceduifkes/Direct Hit! split 7"

Welcome to the second edition of Liner Notes, a feature in which I will talk about the production design, packaging, and process of buying a particular record. I am building a collection of vinyl. The look and feel of the record is important to me, otherwise I would be satisfied to have all my music solely in a digital format. People do not buy records because it is convenient. They take up a lot of space, they are fragile and they get dusty. Record collectors do not mind these drawbacks so much because of what we get in return: big artwork, full liner notes and the tangibility of vinyl.

This is a quick and dirty split between two of today's exciting pop punk bands: The Priceduifkes from Belgium and Direct Hit! from Milwaukee. The split 7" features a new song from each band and the bands doing a cover of one of each other's songs. The split was just released this summer with a 600 copy run (250 blue on Say-10 Records, 250 red on Red Scare Industries and 100 green available through Interpunk). I was lucky enough to get one of the translucent blue copies directly from The Priceduifkes when they were here in Chicago, supporting Masked Intruder at Beat Kitchen. In fact, I got the last copy of this split they had on them. I had never heard of The Priceduifkes before that show, but I was hooked on their sound right away. Naturally, a new split with a pop punk powerhouse like Direct Hit! is going to attract my attention.

There is one cover for the Direct Hit! side and one cover for The Priceduifkes side. Direct Hit! gets the blue zombie-like guy holding a beer, smoking a cigarette and bleeding in various places. On the flipside, The Priceduifkes get a more normal, if scruffy looking bro, also drinking a beer. Buddies post-zombie apocalypse? Maybe. When unfolded, the two covers reveal themselves as one glorious image, pictured below.

The roses on The Priceduifkes' side guy's shirt appear again on the inside cover and again on the center label of the record itself. Why roses? They match the rest of the reds on the cover. If anyone has some greater thematic insight on that, please share. This split is definitely worth checking out. If you are a fan of Direct Hit! you are pretty likely to get into The Priceduifkes as well.