The Cocker Spaniels are actually one man named Sean Padilla. Technically, Sometimes You've Gotta Fight to Get a Bit of Peace is Sean's ninth album since he began recording and releasing his own music under this moniker as a teenager. Following the acclaim of Withstand the Whatnot in 2004, from which he became recognized as "The Only Black Guy at the Indie Rock Show," Sean set out to step up his game even more with his next release. And he succeeded by producing his best work yet. As with most of his songs, this album plays as if flipping through a journal and having the words sung back to you. While the stories are indeed personal, they are also about real-life subjects to which most people can relate, including (but not limited to) relationships, underemployment, wasted potential, and life in a small town. With his wide range of musical influences, Sean's music brings a little bit of something for everybody. This album even features a few extra players to help him out, including a wicked jazz flute solo (definitely a first in the Hornbuckle Records catalog). Despite Sean being a friend of the label since our cassette days, there is a reason why this album has brought us out of semi-retirement: it's fucking awesome. Do yourself a favor and cop a copy with quickness.

Sometimes You've Gotta Fight to Get a Bit of Peace will be released on July 27th and is now available for pre-order. All pre-orders will ship on or before the release date. The first 75 orders will receive a zine compiled by Sean about the making of the album.

• www.cspaniels.com
• twitter.com/seanpadilla
• www.myspace.com/cspaniels

LETGO is the first of David's releases to include full instrumentation, including drums (albeit a machine). As a result, the songs on this EP sound closer to the way were meant to be heard. With a loose concept based around and written during a failed relationship, the songs go from happiness (the shortest part) to anger to sadness to acceptance. Interspersed with the original songs are a couple of cover songs which felt as if they fit in quite well with the others.

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After finishing high school, David suddenly found himself wanting to do little more than sing and play guitar in his bedroom. This desire increased even more upon borrowing a friend's 4-track recorder, after which these songs seemed to more or less write themselves. This was an unusually prolific period for him, luckily fueled by a lack of any other real responsibilities. Inspired by punk rock, 120 Minutes, and Ween, David holed up in his bedroom for months and sang, played, and recorded everything that came to mind. On every song, all four tracks are crammed with layers of guitars and vocals with a marked lack of percussion, giving the songs a somewhat unfinished feel. But these are not demos, as they will most likely never be recorded again. Think of them as if Billy Bragg's early recordings were antisocial and influenced by the early '90s cassette culture.

Herringbone Brick is a time capsule of being bored teenagers in a small, Southern town in the mid-'90s. On summer vacation from high school, Matt and David locked themselves in a room for 36 hours, recorded each part in a single take, bounced tracks from tape to tape on a boombox, and produced this bit of juvenile weirdness. They were inspired by punk rock, ska, Ween, Vanilla Ice, thrift store records, prank phone calls, teen angst, and countless inside jokes. This is what they decided to do while everybody else in their town was getting intoxicated.

Originally released on self-dubbed cassettes, this is the one that started the label. Few copies made it any further than Decatur High School, but perhaps that's the only place these songs made any sense to anybody else. Then again, it's doubtful that anybody other than Matt and David really understood what was going on here.

Around the time that this tape was recorded, Herringbone Brick managed to play one show at a house party. However, their drum machine decided not to work that night, so real drums were improvised by a friend in attendance. A good time was had by all, although the only recorded proof of this show is a blurry photo of Matt and David dancing, which was subsequently featured in the photocopied liner notes. Nothing else really became of Herringbone Brick, as the band was soon abandoned to form Themack with their friend Jack.

Somehow these songs almost hold up, but it seems a bit ridiculous to expect money from anybody to hear them at this point. So if you're curious, head over to Last.fm for a preview or download the entire album (plus an extra track that was not on the original cassette) on this page. Enjoy.