September 4 , 2006 (Thanks to Andrew Weiss for photos)

BOY SETS FIRE GUITARIST JOSHUA LATSHAW SUFFERS MAJOR FALL

Long-time friend and Magic Bullet alumni Joshua Latshaw recently fell three stories while working a construction job, landing flat on his back and suffering a broken neck, 5 fractured vertebrae, 2 broken hips, a collapsed lung, and internal bleeding. This comes as devastating news to all in the MBR camp, as Josh has been nothing but a kind, supportive, and gentle giant of a man over the years and was a major catalyst in the founding of this very label.

Miraculously, in the two weeks since the accident and thanks to the highly skilled staff at the Shock Trauma Unit/UMB and now Magee Hospital/Philadelphia, Josh has fought incredibly hard to overcome these physical setbacks. On August 31, he stood up out of his wheelchair. On September 1, he walked. Unbelievable.

As you can imagine, medical bills and co-pays for the various treatments surrounding this type of accident are absurd. A PayPal fund has been established to alleviate some of the rapidly amassing bills over at the Latshaw household. If you wish to donate, you can do so via PayPal (jasonlatshaw@yahoo.com) or via traditional mail to:

Josh Latshaw Donation Fund
c/o Artichoke Artisans
406 Suburban Dr #177
Newark Delaware 19711

Updates on the situation can be followed at boysetsfire.com. Get well soon, Josh.

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SPARROWS SWARM AND SING COMPLETE FIRST FULL U.S. TOUR



After over 2 months chasing down the dashed white lines of our nation's highways, SPARROWS SWARM AND SING have returned home. We'd like to extend a huge amount of gratitude out to all who supported their outing with so much enthusiasm and made them feel at home in your town. The band's tales from the road and photographic evidence paint nothing short of an amazing time (yes, even in spite of having gear stolen in Portland). Expect SSAS back out on the road in winter and spring of 2007.

In the meantime, the band will be at work on numerous project in just as many formats. DVD's, vinyl, tapes, CD's, digital downloads... you name it, SSAS is working on it. We will have a lot more information on this onslaught of output in the coming weeks. In the meantime, be sure to check out O'Shenandoah, Mighty Death Will Find Me, their 79-minute Magic Bullet debut, available via the web at Insound. Type in "SparrowsInsound" at checkout and receive 15% off!

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MAGIC BULLET RECORDS PARTNERS WITH HAVOC TV FOR VIDEO ON DEMAND CONTENT

We are happy to finally announce an exciting new relationship with our friends at Havoc TV. Thanks to this deal, subscribers to currently 5 of the 7 major cable providers can now watch our video content in the comfort of their own homes whenever they feel like it via video on demand functions. So next time there's "nothing on," feel free to snoop around and check out such programming as the Fredericksburg Skateboards/Magic Bullet team video from '05. Of course if you're more web-oriented, you can view all parts from the DVD via the Havoc TV website:

Click here to view footage.

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THIS WILL DESTROY YOU FEATURED REVIEW AT PITCHFORK MEDIA, FUTURE PLANS REVEALED



Apparently you guys have been making enough of a racket and causing such a stir over THIS WILL DESTROY YOU and Young Mountain that even Pitchfork was forced to pay attention to what the fuss is all about. Perhaps a capper to the meteoric summer surrounding the band, the notoriously critical website's only complaint was that the album was "too short." We can deal... Go ahead and check out what they had to say here, and please continue to spread the word on these guys. All of us are humbled by the outpouring of support when it comes to this band.

THIS WILL DESTROY YOU and MBR are currently hard at work on the very special silkscreened LP + bonus remix CD that should once again manage to exceed all expectations. From there, focus shifts toward their second full length with Magic Bullet, which should see a spring/summer release and the start of a rather rigorous and massive touring schedule that will take the band across North America and Europe (supporting acts we're positive you'll be more than familiar with). Prepare for a rather exciting year.

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SPARROWS SWARM AND SING FEATURED ON NEW VICE MAGAZINE CD/DVD

SPARROWS SWARM AND SING has a track on the new Vice CD/DVD, packaged with select issues. There's 20,000 or so of these floating around, so shouldn't be tough to track down. It's a clip from Warm Blood Within, the third selection from O'Shenandoah, Mighty Death Will Find Me. Other bands include Hot Snakes, Cursive, The Blood Brothers, Every Time I Die, The Sword, and In Flames.

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UPCOMING RELEASES

After an exciting and successful summer featuring releases from some of our favorite bands on the planet (THIS WILL DESTROY YOU, SPARROWS SWARM AND SING, THE BURNING PARIS, PAUL MICHEL), the question becomes "how the hell do you follow that up?" And per usual, the answer is that there's seriously never any shortage of mindblowing music at our disposal... so we're eager to unleash quite a bit more as the air turns crisp.

First up is MASSACRE OF THE UMBILICAL CORD's I'm Surprised He Hasn't Killed Anyone. For those fearing that the label "went indie rock" over the summer, MOTUC should be nothing short of overcompensation to counter said argument. Like throwing a fresh swordfish onto the deck of a cruise ship at sunset, it's not going to be pretty any way you look at it. Violence, blood, death... If you like your metal on the maniacal side, this one's for you.

After that, we return to the far reaches of the ether with a split full length from AUGHRA and MOSH PATROL, the ambient soundscape projects of Brent Eyestone (FORENSICS) and Chris King (THIS WILL DESTROY YOU) respectively. Filled with chills and nostalgic elements sure to elicit trance-like contemplation, this will be the CD that kills workplace productivity tenfold, as zombie listeners steadily turn more comatose with each passing moment.

From there, the most homicidal split release possible comes hurtling toward your face in the form of a CONTROL/MASSACRE OF THE UMBILICAL CORD team-up. Remember DEADGUY live? Well, CONTROL would be like D2 or something... sent from the future to completely fuck you up. Mammoth slabs of hot-choppery just sent crashing down all around you... you don't know whether to shit or go blind. The absolute perfect pairing of the Carolinas' most legitimately frightening and dangerous live acts.

Speaking of devastation, did we forget to mention that we're done remixing the JESUIT discography? Yes, it finally happened. 3 years after Eyestone and Nate Newton hatched the concept on the leathery bench of the OLD MAN GLOOM van, it has come to fruition courtesy of the workhorse known as Kurt Ballou (CONVERGE) at the boards. Needless to say, it's sounding better than ever and well worth the wait. Currently in the mastering and artwork phase, we're hoping to unleash this early in 07. Are you ready to poop? After that, Brett, Nate, and Benoit are talking of reuniting for the purpose of recording a NEW release to unleash on the modern heavy music scene... you aren't ready.

In December, MBR's resident genius STEPHEN BRODKSY enters God City to record a new disc full of "heavy" tracks to hopefully make up for the lapse between his last solo disc. Hey, he's been busy. There's also talk of some very special lo-fi and demo-type releases we'll be helping with on some of his upcoming solo tour dates... more soon. We are still planning on releasing the 4-track era anthology, we just have about 40 more CD-R's and DAT's to sift through first.

Somewhere in there, we'll be firing up the vinyl presses once again. We took summer off because too much of it gets warped in transit during the hot months. But we'll be back with a vengeance... the aforementioned THIS WILL DESTROY YOU LP, SPARROWS SWARM AND SING's opus, and several titles we shouldn't spill the beans on just yet... couldn't be more excited!