New exclusive vinyl: Northstar’s emo classic ‘Is This Thing Loaded?’ (green/white LP)

Northstar‘s endearingly raw 2002 debut album Is This Thing Loaded? is an emo classic, and it’s getting pressed to vinyl for the first time in over a decade. We have two exclusive variants: green & white marble, limited to 300 copies, and opaque white, limited to 500 copies. Pre-order yours in the BV shop while they last.

We looked back at Is This Thing Loaded? for its 20th anniversary:

There’s an understated magic to Is This Thing Loaded?. Its scrappiness harkens back to previous eras of emo, when young bands were desperate to make something of themselves, pilfering the dregs of their record collections for parts and innovating in spite of themselves in the process. Northstar landed on something a bit too strange for long standing commercial success but just strange enough to be strip-mined for ideas. Is it any wonder that they’re so often namechecked as an inspiration by subsequent generations? Dikembe’s Steven Gray noted they “made [him] want to play music”. Oso Oso’s Jade Lillitri has paid lip service to Northstar several times; when the light catches his Long Island drawl just right it’s almost a dead ringer for Torres’s softened Alabama twang.

Read the full piece, and our interview with Northstar’s Nick Torres, here, and stream Is This Thing Loaded? below.