#16 with a bullet!

The limited repress of This Is Berkeley Not West Bay is #16 on the 7-inch chart right now on Interpunk.

Wanna buy a copy and help push it up the charts?

Win a free copy of This Is Berkeley Not West Bay!

The AFI News HQ site is having a CONTEST to win a free copy of the repress of "This Is Berkeley Not West Bay"!

This Is Berkeley Not West Bay 2011

After Zafio dissolved, I tried to have the record repressed either on CD or 7-inch by a couple other labels, but it never happened. Eventually I retrieved the original tapes and decided to do a one-time reissue on the newly restarted Zafio.

Over the past 2 years, Noah Landis (Christ On Parade, Blister, Neurosis, Everything Must Go, etc) remixed the songs from the original DAT tapes and George Horn (Fantasy Studios) remastered the vinyl. Markley (Econochrist and every kick-ass Oakland band since) printed the covers at Econopress and the vinyl was pressed at Rainbo.

This pressing is 1000 7-inches on white vinyl with free mp3 download card. There are 4 test pressings. The bands have all received their copies of the compilation and some (see the Bad Skulls site) are also selling them direct.

It's available to stores through Revolver USA and available on-line to The Kids (tm) at:
Alternative Tentacles
1-2-3-4-Go! Records
Interpunk
Bad Skull (run by Brian Stern of Dead And Gone, Creeps On Candy, Look Back And Laugh)

This Is Berkeley Not West Bay 1994

1994- I loved the Modern Methods compilation, "This Is Boston Not L.A." I loved the new crop of East Bay punk bands and chose 4 of my favorites for a take-off on that compilation called "This Is Berkeley Not West Bay."

AFI, Black Fork, Dead And Gone, and Screw 32 were the bands, and this record was the 1st vinyl for 3 of the 4 bands- I believe AFI had 1 previous 7-inch. We had a record release show at 924 Gilman for the release with all 4 bands playing that was a blast. The bands were all active and touring so they helped spread the word about each other and Subterranean Records helped distribute the 7-inch to stores across the planet.

Zafio pressed 2 identical black vinyl pressings then. The 1st was 2,000 copies, the 2nd was 1,000 copies. After those were gone, that was it (I thought) for the Zafio version of the EP.

Zafio Records- what it is!

Kamala (and The Karnivores, Gr'ups, Cringer, Naked Aggression, Hers Never Existed) and Jesse Luscious (Blatz, Gr'ups, Criminals, Frisk) started Zafio Records in 1993 to put out the 2 Gr'ups 7-inches.

The Gr'ups did 2 European tours in 1993 and along the way Zafio added the US version of Jasper/Citizen Fish 's video compilation "Oriental Transistor." Guillaume and Kamala assembled the kick-ass international compilation LP "Blague" and Jesse assembled the kick-ass local compilation 7-inch "This Is Berkeley Not West Bay."

We continued putting out vinyl with some of our favorite local bands (Black Fork, The Tantrums, Sheephead, Multifacet, Sake) and traded with other d.i.y. labels from around the planet. Here's the currently incomplete discogs page for Zafio. Eventually we tried to step away from the label and our friend (& Jesse's bandmate in The Criminals) Dan Grr took over the label briefly. We dissolved the label, returning the masters & remaining records to the bands we could find in the late 1990s.

Fast forward to 2008. Jesse is looking after some of his old bands (Blatz, Criminals & The Frisk). After Alternative Tentacles took over pressing the Shit Split (with Filth & Blatz) on LP & CD, and Silver Sprocket took over pressing the 2 bands' 7-inches, he took the Filth, Blatz, Criminals, & Frisk music to the digital realm under the name Zafio Records.

In 2011, he finally finished the long-threatened repress of the now-classic east bay 7-inch comp, "This Is Berkeley Not West Bay," but that's another post.