All-around Breakdown: BLOODSTAINS’ Cesar Marin Dissects Self-titled Debut Full-length (Bloodstains Music)
BLOODSTAINS (CREDIT: BAINPHOTO)
BLOODSTAINS is an Orange County, California-based Hardcore Punk/SoCal Punk/Deathrock band first formed in 2020. BLOODSTAINS consists of vocalist Cesar Eduardo “Eddie” Marin, guitarist David Espinoza, bassist Nick Espinoza, and drummer Vincent “Vince” Catanho. BLOOSTAINS first ruptured onto our radar soon after formation thanks to friend of The Witzard and fellow writer Ben “Edge” Merlis (F**k You, Future Confusion, Surprise Vacation) posted about their Demo 2020 EP within a very sub-genre-specific Punk and/or Hardcore Facebook Group. A month or so later, we ran a feature on BLOODSTAINS’ Live at Vinyl Solution H.B. in-store mini-concert showcasing the entirety of their Demo 2020 EP and a cover of Joy Division’s iconic 1978 An Ideal for Living EP opener “Warsaw.” After a few years of silence, BLOODSTAINS re-emerged with their Anti-Social three-song EP, which was released digitally as well as across a multitude of uniquely-colored and randomly-packaged 7-inch vinyl variants on Hostage Records; those sold out incredibly quickly, but we were fortunate enough to snag a copy before they were all gone! Just a couple months ago, BLOODSTAINS returned once more with their self-titled self-released debut full-length released in conjunction with Hostage Records on vinyl once more. Bloodstains (the album) quickly sold out of 300 12-inch copies of Hostage’s first pressing and, now, we’re told a second WHITE vinyl European pressing is due out this summer on UK-based imprint Drunken Sailor Records. They’re very illusive, brooding, and mysterious, but we were lucky enough to track down BLOODSTAINS’ frontman and founding member Cesar Eduardo “Eddie” Marin for an exclusive track-by-track—as a matter of fact, All-around Breakdown—of the entire eight-track Bloodstains album from end to end. Check it out below, go stream Bloodstains digitally, and if you missed out on getting a copy of the first pressing of 300, patiently await the second 300 on Drunken Sailor Records this summer.
An introduction to our sound and the band. Felt right to name it “The Last Rites.” This is Orange County Punk.
One about growing up here; how it felt. A love and hate relationship with this place we call home. I feel a lot of people can relate to it, no matter where you grew up. This is from [the] perspective of a young Chicano Punk kid fighting to be inspired.
Just about fear and paranoia from our government. Never trust those b*stards. And some inspiration from my love of Horror and Sci-Fi 80’s films
“Salute the dead / fly your flag / spill the blood / (but don’t forget) PAY UP YOUR DEBT.” The irony and hypocrisy of Patriotism.
A revenge song. For a mother***er you know is full of sh*t. You know the type. You can find them at your job, school, and even in your local scene.
Nick [Espinoza], David [Espinoza], and I pretty much wrote this in a practice one night. Everything came kinda natural. Lyrically, it’s for the outcasts [and] misfits; those who don’t relate and refuse to. ANTI-SOCIAL.
I guess another moody one. David & Nick came up with these riffs and I channeled my obsession with suicide as a kid. I’m glad I fought it [through] and I hope anyone who feels that way does, too.
From the first few years when I moved to Santa Ana. The gunshots at [night] my brothers [and I] would hear every other day would scare the sh*t out of me. We may be from Orange County, but we’re not from the beach. Open your eyes and put your ears right to the ground.
