The Endless Quest...

Pale Creation 'Twilight Haunt' LP

2012-01-25T15:40:00.000-08:00

Back in July 2010, I picked up a 7" on A389 Records by a band called Pale Creation. The 7" came as part of an Integrity pre-order package, and I had to buy it in order to get a rare Integrity record. No doubt if I wasn't forced to buy it then I probably would never have heard it. But in the end I was glad to have had to buy it because it ended up being my favourite 7" of 2010.

Anyhow, because this was a 7" by a band I had never heard on from a label that I knew was putting out a lot of current acts, I just assumed that Pale Creation was a new band. But then someone directed me to a free download of their album, 'Twilight Haunt', which it turns out came out way back in 1999 on East Coast Empire Records. I did some research and discovered that this album had never been pressed on vinyl, but was (for some weird reason) released as something called a 'CD'. No, I have no idea what that means either, but it sounds kinda lame.

A couple of months ago, A389 Records decided to finally right this wrong and press up some vinyl copies of this long lost album. A very limited run of only 250 copies was pressed on 'blue storm' vinyl:

"I ACCEPT THIS GIFT OF ART"

(Despite the very limited pressing, there are still copies available for purchase in the A389 online store HERE)

In My Brown Head

2012-01-23T12:50:00.000-08:00

Continuing the recent SST colour vinyl reissues, here's a brown vinyl copy of Black Flag's 'In My Head' LP. Way back in the early 90s, this one was issued on pink vinyl, which remains one of the few colour vinyl 'original' (ahem) Black Flag records that I'm still missing. Seems a little less urgent now though seeing as it is easier to find a colour version, and this brown seems like a much better colour choice seeing as it nicely matches the cover.

And here it is next to the brown vinyl copy of 'Loose Nut' that I also picked up, just to show the different shades of brown.

There's also a yellow and a light brown knocking about out there. Beyond that, who knows? I still need the original early 90s pink pressing though. Can anyone help?

Loose Nuts

2012-01-22T10:43:00.001-08:00

You may or may not know that SST Records have recently repressed a few records on color vinyl. This hasn't really been done since the early 90s, which is when pretty much all the SST color vinyl was originally manufactured. But now, twenty years later, the latest round of represses have appeared on non-black wax. And to keep things interesting, there's more than one colour of everything. Yay!

Case in point - 'Loose Nut'. The original early 90s colour pressing was on clear blue (I picked one up in June 2008). Now we have at least three new colours on the scene... a brown, a light pinky grey, and a deep pink:

To make things worse (for me) I have just scanned eBay and seen a super dark grey version which the seller describes as 'olive'. I'm starting to think that these were maybe pressed on 'scrap' colour vinyl, which is where the plant uses random leftover colours which then results in almost countless different variants. If that's the case then I best give up now or I'll end up owning 20 copies on varying shades. Although, in a way, that would be kinda cool...

Fire & Ice Collections LP

2012-01-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

As you probably know by now, I struggle to keep up with the latest bands these days. And my level of interest is not what it used to be. But I do love to hear new music and last year, after much hassle from Mike, I finally caved in & downloaded some Fire & Ice songs. He kept telling me I would like the band, as they feature dudes from Iron Boots and Down To Nothing, both of which I have also kinda liked. Well, I soon found myself playing these songs on a daily basis as I rode my bike to & from work, and it felt good to be listening to a current band who really brought the mosh. Or in my case, the pedal power. It was inevitably only a matter of time until I started buying their records.

I picked up a couple of their 7"s a couple of months ago, and now I have the 12" which compiles both the 7"s onto one handy disc. This is on glow in the dark vinyl.

This record has without doubt the biggest lyric sheet I have ever seen in my life:

This would definitely have been my top record of 2011 if only it had shown up in 2011. Goddamn post office. They ruin everything.

New Breed Compilation double LP

2012-01-17T14:41:00.001-08:00

Today's entry is an old New York hardcore compilation which (for those of you who don't know) was originally released way back in 1989 when Chaka Malik (singer of BURN) and some other dude released a TAPE compilation of some up & coming New York hardcore bands. The comp was called 'The New Breed', a name that was to hint that these bands represented a new generation of kids set to take over the scene. Apparently 700 of thee tapes were sold, and ever since this comp has always been regarded as a classic, even despite having never been released on a 'proper' format (at least that's how I see it - tapes just don't count in my book). Well anyway, fast forward 22 years and these dudes have decided to finally release it on a proper format. Oh yeah, and they've also put it out on CD too for some weird reason.

I got my order in pretty quickly when this was announced back at the start of November. This meant that I was lucky enough to get one of the first 200 copies which come in a screen printed cover, and which are on colour vinyl. The regular black vinyl pressing has been available for a few weeks now, but the special covers were slightly delayed. Mine finally turned up yesterday. First thing to say is that this was worth the wait. This thing looks great. Straight away I'm loving the front cover, which is a red & yellow New Breed logo on top of a light blue background. Very simple design, but very striking:

The back cover has the track listing glued on the back and is numbered in the bottom right corner.

The cool move here is that this also includes a copy of the original zine that came with the tape. I guess this has simply been photocopied, just the original zine probably was way back when.

There is also another insert - a single glossy sheet that has a full colour photo collage on one side, and a written piece about the history of the comp, the social backdrop against which it was created, and it's relevance today on the reverse:

The vinyl itself is nice looking. It is pressed on clear blue vinyl. I'm not sure if this is intentional, or if other copies are like this, but my two records are slightly different. One is pure clear blue, whilst the other is clear blue with some black streaks in it. The two do look quite different when laid side by side, although I'm not sure that this picture really shows it that well:

I also got a little hand written apology for the delay. I particularly like the wording about the spirit of '89.

It's clear that putting this comp to vinyl was a real labour of love. The quality and the passion really shines through. I'm stoked to have got this special pressing, and it's great to see this thing finally put to vinyl. I have to wonder though how many of the original band members are aware of this and/or have been sent copies. Anyone know?

For now I'll leave you with the first paragraph & final sentence of the liner notes:

At its best, music can perfectly capture a moment in time, a location, or the life and surroundings of its creators. In this way, the New Breed tape compilation was completely successful. Like many classic recordings before it which captured the essence of their time, place, and the feeling of the conditions under which they were created, the New Breed compilation captured the New York City of the late 1980s.

More than two decades later, the New Breed still resonates with all the power and energy of its time, and all that NYC was, is, and will be.

(If you want to read the rest, go HERE)

Integrity / Hatebreed Gold

2012-01-15T14:55:00.000-08:00

Not much to say about this one. Another colour of the Integrity / Hatebreed split 7". This came out somewhere round '95 or so I think. I bought one copy when it came out. I used to be happy enough with one copy. Unfortunately, not any more. So now I'm going back & adding more copies of records I don't even listen to into boxes on shelves. Kinda pointless really. Well, aside from being fun.

Striving Higher

2012-01-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

Way back on Black Friday I ordered some stuff from Six Feet Under Records. The main thing I wanted was the Tremors 7" on green vinyl. I picked up the UK pressing last year and loved the record so figured I may as well pick up the US pressing too. The US version has a different sleeve and one less song. It still looks good though:

After adding that to my virtual cart, I had a look to see if there was anything else I wanted to pick up whilst prices were low...

My second choice was the new 7" by Inside, a Japanese straight edge band. This record is imaginatively titled 'Tokyo Straight Edge'.

When I ordered this I thought it would be interesting. I kinda figured it would be a straight edge record with a Japanese hardcore influence. In reality this is just a Japanese band that sounds exactly like a US band, but with lyrics in Japanese and there's pretty much nothing here that interests me.

The next record I went for was the Alert 7". I have read good things about this band and I'm always interested in good quality straight edge bands. I think this is the most common version on clear purple vinyl.

This sounds pretty much as you would expect. Straight edge by numbers. If you like that kinda thing you will love this. I'm a sucker for this stuff. I don't know why its taken me this long to check out Alert. Idiot.

Finally, the the 'Striving Higher' compilation LP. I guess I wanted it to check out some bands that I never heard before. Yes, I could use the internet I suppose, but I ended up ordering this last minute as an impulse purchase & I wasn't going to sit down and spend an hour trying to listen to loads of bands online in order to decide if I wanted part with $12 or whatever it was. My time is worth more to me than that. Plus, that would be no fun. So I just ordered the record. I had the choice of two vinyl colours, and I chose red. No idea which colour is the rarest and I'm not sure I'm really bothered either.

This comes with a big glossy booklet. Like comps of old, each band gets their own page of the booklet. Gives me something interesting to flick through whilst listening.

Oh yeah, and it also comes with a complimentary Blacklisted flexi:

I own a lot of compilations. But there are only a very, very small handful that ever get played more than about twice. I guess that in theory comps are great, but in reality they aren't. The problem is that when you want to listen to a record, you have a particular type of sound you want. So the problem with comps is that the first song may be exactly what you are looking for, but then the second might be a different band with a different sound that isn't the kind of thing you are in the mood for. However, there are times when comps are perfect. Firstly, when they bring together a bunch of bands from a particular time and/or place. I'm thinking of Revelation's legendary 'New York Hardcore' comps, or Dischord's 'Flex Your Head'. Or secondly (which was mainly the case before the internet) when you want to check out a bunch of bands you never heard before. For me, this comp serves the latter purpose. I've listened to it a few times the last three days and it's been a good introduction to a few bands I never bothered to check out before. The stand outs for me were the songs by The Mongoloids, Rhythm To The Madness, and Blacklisted. My stand out favourite, however, is the song by War Hungry. Why did I never listen to this band before? If this song is anything to go by this could be my new favourite band.

Sinking Ships Demo 7"

2012-01-08T11:34:00.001-08:00

I picked up a couple of rarer Sinking Ships 7"s on eBay just before xmas. I wasn't THAT excited by them, but it looked like they were going to go for cheap, so put in a couple of lowish bids and was surprised to find that I won. I guess some bands get forgotten about quick. It took me a while to get this band, and whilst they are far from my favourite band of the past ten years, they have some really great songs. These two 7"s are a couple of rare versions of their Demo 7" that was pressed to wax by Excursion Records.

Pre-Release version. This one is numbered 2/30, and has a printed acetate front cover.

And the 2005 West Coast tour cover. Number 2/64.

Just for information, the rarest version of this 7" is known as the 'Treasure Hunt' edition. This is because, when the record came out, the label packed up ten copies and hid them in various locations around Seattle. Clues to the locations were then posted up on the Excursion website. At least one copy was buried in the ground. All copies were found and claimed years ago. I guess anyone outside of Seattle was at a slight disadvantage. Anyway, this all happened a few years ago when it came out, but if you are interested you can still view the clues to the hiding places (and where the things were eventually discovered) on the Excursion website HERE.

So that was 2011?

2011-12-31T23:20:00.000-08:00

So 2011 is over. Not the best of years in some respects. This was without doubt the busiest year of my life with regard to work, which ended up impacting on my personal life as I seemed to have far less time to do good stuff. I feel that I haven't listened to much new music this year. Or, in fact, much music at all. And the blog... well, I think it's fair to say it was a struggle to keep it going. I had a couple of months where I did pretty much nothing, and it constantly felt like a hassle that I was behind with and just didn't have time for. And then I volunteered to help out with Vinyl Noize, which I also didn't really have the time for but wanted to get involved with. On the positive side, however, I did find the time to release the Hope Defeated 7", but it took longer to sort out than I would have like as I struggled to fit it in around my work schedule (and I still haven't put the energy into promoting it that I would have liked). Let's just say that I need to work on my time management in 2012 else I am going to go insane.

Anyway, I decided not to do the end of year graphs and analysis that I have done the past couple of years. I was always so far behind with this blog that any kind of monthly analysis would be skewed. There were quite a few things I didn't blog about until 3 months after I got them. So instead, I'm just rolling with the obligatory 'Best of' list that everyone else is doing... although given the lack of new music I picked up, this wasn't easy. I mean, I wasn't exactly spoilt for choice!

(Note - these lists are not in any kind of order)

My Top 5 7"s of 2011

Hope Defeated '2010 Demo' (Endless Quest Records) - A great hardcore 7" by a new Canadian band that I released myself. I don't think I will ever tire of these songs. If you don't have one then please help me out and order one from my online store right away!

Times Together 'S/T' (Anger Battery Records) - Fantastic 7" in the vein of Uniform Choice, but from a UK band no less. I can't stop listening to this at the moment.

Tremors 'Island Songs' (The Essence Records) - Frantic hardcore punk from a London based UK band. Expect big things from this band in 2011.

Sacred Love 'S/T' 7" (Youngblood Records) - This record throws together elements of bands like 108, Burn and Civ together, this is a great 7". Their 12" wasn't bad either.

V/A 'No Peace / War' 7" (Organized Crime Records) - A Japanese hardcore tribute featuring all the best Holy Terror bands. Came in great packaging on different vinyl colours with matching obi strips.

My Top 5 LPs of 2011

Roses Never Fade 'S/T' (A389 Records) - I've been listening to this regularly for months now and still don't know how to describe it. Not heavy at all, just haunting. Looking forward to the new 7" in 2012.

Rot In Hell 'As Pearls before Swine' (Deathwish Inc) - Finally saw the light of day in 2011 about three years after it was recorded. An ugly and aggressive record that really put Rot In Hell on the world map.

Integrity 'Detonate World's Plague' (Holy Terror) - A new Integrity record in 2011, and it was really good. Some complained about the recording quality, but I guess some people are just stupid.

Hang The Bastard 'Hellfire Reign' (Holy Roar) - Ok, this probably came out in 2010, but I only got it in 2011 and I probably played it more than any other record, so it's going on my 2011 list.

Capital 'Givers Takers' (Underground Communiqué) - Their 3rd LP, and in my opinion their best.

My Top 5 Scores of 2011

Ok, so this is kinda a dumb top 5, but when I look back on this in a couple of years I'll find this interesting. These are the top 5 hot items I added to my collection this year. The first four had been on my want list for many years, so it was good to finally pick them up.

Floorpunch 'Division One Champs' (In My Blood) - Gold vinyl

Youth of Today 'Break Down The Walls' (Wishingwell) - Blue vinyl

Uniform Choice 'Screaming For Change' (Wishingwell) - Purple vinyl

Dinosaur Jr 'The Wagon' 7" (Sub Pop) - Purple vinyl

Beta Minus Mechanic '69 Camaro' 7" (Crisis) - Test Press

And finally...

Thanks to anyone who read this thing in 2011 & a bigger thanks to people who posted comments. See y'all in 2012...

Second Nature Tests

2011-12-31T14:11:00.001-08:00

I always like to get a good deal. Unless absolutely necessary, I don't like paying top prices. It's cool to pick up rare records, but it's more satisfying when you know you get a good deal. I watched these two records end on eBay with no bids at least 5 times. Then I emailed the seller and made an offer quite a bit lower than the opening bids. Seller accepted. Job done.

This is the debut (and I think only) album 'Voices' by Able Baker Fox. This came out a couple of years ago on Second Nature Records. The band features the dude who plays bass in Coalesce on vocals. You know - the dude who used to sing in The Casket Lottery, one of my favourite bands from the turn of the century era. I didn't actually buy this LP when it came out because the limited version sold out quick. This test press is the only copy of this album I own.

The same seller also had a test of the Waxwing / Casket Lottery split 7". This one was also released on Second Nature Records, circa 2000 if my memory serves me correctly. This test is number 2 out of I don't know how many.

Brotherhood LP on White

2011-12-28T14:36:00.000-08:00

I don't trade much these days. To be honest, I don't have many records that I would let go. But now and again, a trade comes along. This particular one was interesting. Some dude emailed me wanting my Bolt Thrower LP. I had no memory of where I got a Bolt Thrower LP from, which is odd as I remember where most of my records came from. I can even remember specific trades from like 13 years ago. Hey, I have a good memory, what can I say? Yet I could not figure out where the Bolt Thrower LP came from. Anyway, I checked the dude's trade list and found a few things I liked. He proposed trading his white Brotherhood LP. Like me, he said he had no real idea of when or where he got the Brotherhood LP. Kinda funny. Almost as if these things had appeared in our respective collections just so that we could arrange this trade. So why stand in the way of destiny?

Brotherhood 'Words Run... As Thick As Blood' 12" on Crucial Response Records. White vinyl is from the third press, and is limited to 320 copies. I think this was pressed in the late 90s. I remember that when it came out I wasn't interested as I had the first and second pressings. This new white one seemed like a crappy repress and seemed real easy to get too. Fast forward ten years or so and I decided that I did want one after all, and all of a sudden it didn't seem so common. But all good things come to those who wait.

This pressing also comes with a giant poster. I wonder if somewhere somebody has this on their bedroom wall?

My copy also has some black streaks one one side of the record, although this is not an official transition press (ahem):

Also, for the third pressing, the label changed the back cover. This is what it looks like:

And this is the back cover on the first pressing. I actually think that the third press looks better.

To finish this post off I thought I would take a revised family photo. Well, you know, I had the day off work and there wasn't much else to keep me entertained. Looks good though, right?

Rot Integrity Hell

2011-12-27T02:45:00.000-08:00

As I recall, the Integrity / Rot In Hell split 2x7" went up for pre-order way back in February 2010. I remember seeing the pre-order announced and the same day going to place an order, but the limited colour had already sold out. So I decided not to bother ordering at all. I then sat back and watched as months passed & many people grumbled and complained about the delays. I guess it didn't bother me too much as I hadn't lost any money. Anyway, finally a month or so ago, these things finally started shipping out, about 21 months after the pre-orders were taken. Once I knew the record had actually made it into existence, I decided to get on the case. First up I went to the label's website and ordered the more common colour, and was pleasantly surprised to have it arrive in the mail the next day. Pretty good service. I almost felt guilty for getting such great service when a lot of people had obviously received the opposite.

The common colour is a blue / green swirl. My copy came with a couple of stickers.

The cool thing about this is that the sleeve contains an illustrated booklet. Or rather, the sleeve is part illustrated booklet. Looks really good. Illustrated by Dwid.

Next I grabbed a copy of the white vinyl from Dwid himself. White is the band colour out of 100. The first pic shows the gatefold sleeve folded out:

And finally, I was fortunate enough to get a test press. I got this one from Dwid. He sold a small number of copies (maybe 5?) with specially made hand painted covers. Mine features one of the characters from the illustrated booklet.

The label who released this, Thirty Days Of Night Records, are now also selling five test press packs in their online store, but their copies are without sleeves. Cheaper though. Definitely worth investigating if you like both bands and collect tests.

In Contrast Of Xmas

2011-12-26T12:44:00.001-08:00

I don't celebrate xmas. No tree, no cards, no gifts. I try to ignore it as best as possible. But this year I did buy myself a gift, which arrived in the mail on 24 December, and which I didn't get around to opening until the next day. So I guess it almost qualifies as a xmas present.

Integrity 'In Contrast Of Sin' 7" test press. This is a test of the original from 1990 (or thereabouts) on Victory Records. This copy was owned by Ati Moran from when it came out until a few months ago when he sold it on eBay and Dobek bought it. But then Dobek needed some money to fund his crack habit so I helped out.

As with most tests, it's not much to look at, being in a plain white dust sleeve with regulation United labels:

Although there is a homemade cover that Dobek knocked together which I'll probably keep:

I got my other copies out to take a family photo.

Made me think I should probably get serious and pick up one of the later black vinyl copies with the green cross on the sleeve, and also one of those copies with the promo sleeve.

Orange 9mm 12" Light Green

2011-12-19T15:30:00.000-08:00

It's not often these days that I manage to cross a Revelation item from my want list. Most of the ones I want or need are toward the rarer end of the spectrum, and prices just seem to keep on going up. So no chance of me picking up a Warzone on clear anytime soon I don't think. Ah well.

However, this one got me WAY stoked. I spotted this on ebay and knew from the photo that I wanted it right away. The seller was obviously lazy and wrote a shitty one sentence description that failed to mention that it was light green vinyl which is it's main selling point, because according to the Rev discography here, there are only 3 of these things out there. Now, I know this ain't true, because Mark has one and Nick has one, so counting mine would mean that nobody else in the world except us blog nerds could have one. But you just know that Kevin Finn will have one, and some dude who just sent me his trade list also has one, so there's 5 right away. And I'd bet my last dollar that Geoff has at least one, making six. But how many more might there be? Will we ever know? Probably not. But still, no matter whether there are 3, 6 or 50, in terms of Rev colour vinyl, it's rare and not an easy one to obtain.

I was stoked to win this for $32, although I definitely was not stoked to have to wait weeks and enter into an eBay case when the seller failed to send it a month after the auction ended. But thankfully he sent it in the end and it now sits happily on my floor.

I took my own photo comparing this light green one to a dark green one. As you can see, they're pretty different:

I also thought the time was right to crack out my orange and salmon copies to take the family photo.

I remember being into this bigtime when it came out. I asked the dude in the shop (Bad in Leeds, if anyone remembers that) to play it for me as I hadn't heard it but knew it was ex Burn, and I was therefore excited. I immediately loved the post hardcore groove that blasted out of the shop speakers and couldn't wait to buy the thing and get it home for proper listen, and so that I could tape it and walk around with it on my walkman. Who could have guessed that 17 years later i would be buying the same record again for the fourth time?

Times Together 2nd 7"

2011-12-15T16:33:00.000-08:00

Yet another new release from yet another UK band. That makes two in a month. Anyone would think I had my finger on the pulse or something.

This is the second 7" by TIMES TOGETHER. I don't mind admitting that I was pretty excited to get this one, as their first 7" was my 2nd favourite 7" of 2010... although if I went back & re-did that list now I would place it at number one, cos I listen to it more than the record that I did put at number one. Ah well. Anyway, this 7" has just been released by Anger Battery Records. I pre-ordered the three 7" pack from their store and got one of each colour.

This pic shows the black 7" with the front cover, which kinda reminds me of the Judge 'Storm' 7" (for obvious reasons). Not sure I'm into all the little squares over the picture though. Black vinyl out of 250 copies:

Comes with a fold out glossy insert:

And here's the back cover, and the green vinyl (150 copies) which is a very close match to the green on the cover of the Chain TTD 7".

And finally the clear vinyl. This is only available from the band or via mailorder and is out of 100 copies.

I had no idea that pre-ordering would get me a limited sleeve, so that was a nice surprise. The 'sleeve' comes in the form of a single piece of card that sits on top of the regular sleeve.

It's also numbered out of 30, just like the release show version of the first 7" that I picked up recently.

So what's this like? Well, the band sounds like Uniform Choice, there's no denying that. But this 7" marks a step forward from the first 7" for me. I mean, musically I find it quite similar, but lyrically I think this shows progression. Lyrics feel a little darker and maybe a little more depressing - the soundtrack for people who feel let down and fucked over. Yet throughout it maintains a positive edge. To me, a couple of the songs can be read two ways... they are either about being let down by friends, or they are about being betrayed and left by someone you have loved deeply. What's really great though is that rather than all the songs being negative and critical, the penultimate song is open, honest and positive. Heck, it's just one of those beautiful songs. "I'm better when I'm with you". The record then ends with an instrumental called 'Rain' which is slow, reflective and a little sad. All in all, listening to this record feels like a short trip on an emotional roller coaster, which is quite an accomplishment for a straight up hardcore band.

Dinosaur Jr Sub Pop 7" Purple

2011-12-14T15:19:00.000-08:00

So it turns out that this record here has for the last couple of years been one of my top 5 most wanted records. I have probably looked for it on eBay every week and not seen one for sale. There has been one on eBay for a fixed price (of $130) for about three years now, but I figured that was too much so refused to pay it. And it seems that everyone else felt the same as it remains one of those items that is permanently for sale. But finally someone put a copy up for auction, and I knew my time had come. After sitting at $10 for almost the entire duration of the auction, the last couple of minutes saw some furious bidding action, which ended up with me winning at a price which was slightly more than $10 and slightly more than I expected I would have to pay.

Anyway, here it is - Dinosaur Jr 'The Wagon / Better Than Gone' 7". Sub Pop 68. Purple vinyl. The pressing info for this is reportedly 10,000 copies on white vinyl and 200 on purple. That's not quite correct as there are also some clear pink copies floating about. But still, you get the idea. One in fifty is purple. It's pretty hard to find.

All the photos I had ever seen of this record made it look like a solid purple. But actually it's kinda transparent when you hold it, as hopefully this picture shows:

And finally, here are all three colours together. I'm super happy to be able to take this photo.

Hopefully soon I can track down the first album on red vinyl which I'm still missing. Then maybe I'll start thinking about collecting the SST 7"s on colour, although I'm not sure I have the energy for that.

One Step Closer Than The Last

2011-12-12T07:09:00.000-08:00

One of the bands I revisited lately in my return to the mid-late 90s is Harvest. This band was pre Hope Conspiracy and one of the early bands on the Trustkill label. They played metallic straight edge, but before that was an embarrassing scene of it's own like it seems to be now. Anyway, I decided to scan eBay to see if there were any interesting Harvest records floating about and spotted this 7", which I bid and won for cheap. This is a two song 7" called 'One Step Better Than The Last' which features two songs from their final album 'Transitions', which was a CD only release.

I once heard that Trustkill used to make a limited purple vinyl of 100 copies for each release which were for friends and band members only. Not sure if that is true, or if the colour of this record could ever actually be described as purple anyway, but still, this is an interesting colour of a good 7". Harvest used to be one of my favourites of their era and I've been enjoying playing their songs again recently.

Abolition LP

2011-12-11T03:39:00.000-08:00

I'm now going to talk about something that is an increasingly rare event for me - picking up a new release! I got this one about three months ago, but as ever I am behind with this blog and now trying to get caught up by the end of the year.

This here post is dedicated to the debut LP by ABOLITION, a straight edge band who hail from London, UK (i.e. just up the road from me). Abolition have been going for a couple of years now and prior to this LP released a couple of 7"s. They also played first on the bill at last year's UK Unbroken show which seemed very apt seeing as Unbroken are probably their biggest influence. I've met their guitarist Sam a few times and dude is chill. A young kid who knows more about 90s hardcore than most people who lived through the 90s and who (bizarrely for someone in their early 20s) collects Moo Cow Records releases. You can't get much more 90s than that. Anyway, even if you never met Sam, you'd be able to figure pretty quickly that Abolition are heavily influenced by the 90s. They sound like someone threw a few mid 90s metallic edge records in a blender. I hear elements that remind me of Unbroken, Abhinanda, Chokehold, Harvest, Strain, Outspoken, Strife, etc. I think it's probably fair to say that not for sixteen years have I heard a band that sounds so much like 1995.

In terms of the record itself, I pre-ordered and got one of the 100 red vinyl copies, which are now sold out (just like the majority of the bands I mentioned above - ha!).

The LP was released by Holy Roar Records, but also features some weird logo for something called Pink Mist (which is a collaboration of Holy Roar & a couple of other labels). Kinda odd that the whole of the front & back cover is black & white except for this stupid pink logo in the top left corner. Ruins the vibe if you ask me.

I'm also digging the shout out to straight edge. Feels very 90s to me.

Overall I think this LP sounds great. The music is much more powerful than previous releases, although I think this is probably in part owed to the quality of the recording, which really is top notch. Whilst I thought that I had tired of that sound and left it in the past, listening this LP has made me realise that a lot of the mid 90s metallic sxe stuff does still sounds good today, and it's good to see that this sound is not exclusively the preserve of a few bitter old bastards trying desperately to hang on to the glory days of their youth that probably sucked anyway.

Wayfarer 7" Picture Disc

2011-12-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

Wayfarer are probably best known for a split 7" they did with Rot In Hell. They are a UK band who play slow and heavy metallic hardcore and who have a slight obsession with norse mythology. Their latest release is a two song 7" picture disc.

An interesting choice of format if you ask me. I don't think I have ever met a single person who actually likes picture discs.

Drug Test Numbah One

2011-12-08T15:52:00.000-08:00

Is it true that when you pick up numbered records, a low number is more desirable?

My opinion is that it depends on what the record is, and how many it's numbered out of. A lot of time the answer would be no. For example, a test press is so limited that if you get any number you've struck gold. But if you get a low number of a large numbered range (e.g. number 8 of 300) then that's kinda cool and possibly slightly more desirable than (say) number 368. But it depends on the band and the record too. However, the one thing I am pretty sure nobody would dispute is that owning a number 1 is pretty much always going to be more desirable than any other number, to the point where it would probably make that one copy more valuable than any other.

Well, if that's true then it would seem that any other copies of the records I just bought must be pretty much worthless...

I recently won these three copies of the DRUG TEST / R'N'R Split 7" on eBay for the grand total of $18. I'm not entirely sure of the history of this record, but I think that there were only 100 copies of this split 7" made back in like 2003 or whenever and that was that. Then five years later or so, once both bands had broken up and disappeared into the mists of time, a different label (Words of War Records) decided to reissue it. The three copies I have just picked up are from that second (reissue) pressing.

First up is the 'Newsletter Edition'. Not sure why it's called that, but that's is what it is called. This is on light blue vinyl and the record has a small hole. I got number 1 of 52. What happened here is that there were 52 of the original sleeves leftover from the original 2003 pressing that got numbered and used to house this version. A cool way of bridging the gap between the original pressing and the reissue. Sell a reissued record in an original sleeve.

Next up is the pre-order version. Light blue vinyl with a small hole in the record. Number 1 of 50. Also features really crap cover art. Some dude with a load of needles stuck in him throwing up some green sick. Or maybe he's eating spinach a la Popeye. I'm not sure. I can't bear to look at it long enough to make my mind up.

And finally the 'regular' version. This one is on dark blue vinyl, has a big hole in the record and is not numbered. It comes in the same awful sleeve that the preorder version comes in, but the photo shows the back of the sleeve instead.

If anyone happens to have the mp3s for this then let me know. I need them & can't find them on the internet.

Pushead's Revenge

2011-12-07T15:41:00.001-08:00

In a first for nerdy multi tasking, I have just posted up on Vinyl Noize about this 7" and decided I would feature it on this blog at exactly the same time. I call this duel blogging - one subject published on two blogs simultaneously. This either makes me pretty cool or extremely sad. I'm just not sure which.

So despite being straight edge for 17 years, I can also get down with some sludgey stoner rock from time to time. To be honest, I mainly listened to this stuff in the late 90s when hardcore was all over the place and all kinds of weird sounding bands were being released by 'hardcore' labels of the day. But as a result I found myself listening to some bands that sounded like Black Sabbath with sketchy vocals, and I still rock some of this stuff from time to time. Cavity were one of my favourites of this genre. I guess Pushead liked them too because he released a 7" of them, which I had my want list for ages pretty much only because it was released by Pushead and therefore comes in nice packaging. But isn't that the point of record collecting anyway? There are probably at least three versions of this thing, and I'm guessing this is the most common one, but it's still cool. The 'Fiesta Grande' version of the Cavity 7". This one is on orange vinyl in an acetate sleeve. Minimal, but still a nice looking record.

My Luck Final Press

2011-12-06T16:25:00.000-08:00

Another entry into the Youngblood Records collection, this time via Kyle Whitlow's eBay purge. After getting rid of this 7", his life is simpler, and he has a whole $5 in his pocket... whereas I'm $5 down, but my life (and YB collection) seem more complete. We all win. This is the final pressing of this record, numbered out of 100 copies with stamped labels.

In celebration of wining this 7" I downloaded the mp3s and have been playing this again these last few days. A great and pretty much forgotten 7". Listening to these songs takes me back to when this first came out and I used to travel to work with these songs (and some other 7"s that came out around the same time) on a minidisc(!). That was a pretty dark time in my life and I was working possibly THE shittiest job I have ever worked at that point. Songs like these kept me going for a couple of months until things picked up a little. I guess MY LUCK got a little better since those days...

Unit Pride Gold Mystery

2011-12-05T15:42:00.000-08:00

So I picked up a long standing want recently, which I don't feel like I have done for a while. I'm not sure how long this one has been on my want list. At least ten years probably, which is no doubt hilarious to some idiots. I've seen this one go on eBay lot of times and every time I think I am watching one that is going to go cheap, the price leaps up at the end. Not this time though. For some reason the gods were smiling and I picked this one up for only $16, which I consider to be a bargain.

Unit Pride 'Then And Now' 7" on gold vinyl. This is the second pressing of this 7"... well, kind of. It has slightly different songs to the first pressing too, which I suppose kinda makes it a different record, although it's not really. There were 1000 copies on gold vinyl which were all hand numbered on the dust sleeve.

As you can see, I got a mid range number. 640 of 1000.

Also, I'm guessing that this was sold in a store at some point as someone seems to have seen fit to write the record name on the flip side of the dust sleeve, which is slightly annoying if you are a perfectionist nerd.

This thing also comes with a mid size lyric sheet, and my copy is no different.

So there you go. I finally picked this thing up after ten years of half wanting it but never quite bidding enough. Cool eh?

Well, to make the story just a little better, it turns out that the copy I did get has some quirky feature to it. There's something about it that makes it stand out from the other 999 copies. Or rather, from 996 of the other copies...

So when I took it out of the sleeve I noticed that this one has photos printed on the inside of the sleeve. Here's a pic of the sleeve unfolded:

And here's the other side of the unfolded sleeve, which also features the same photos but without any of the text:

Now, I probably would have just assumed that all copies came with a print on the inner sleeve if it hadn't been for the fact that this copy is numbered in the corner, as shown here:

As you can see, it says '#1/4 Covers' in the top corner.

So naturally, I now wonder what this is all about. I mean, is this really one of only four copies that had the photos also printed on the inside of the sleeve? That's what the number seems to suggest. But you have to wonder why this was done. I can see the point of the label wanting to do a test print of the photos that were to be used for the cover before actually making the real covers, as I have done this myself. But why do that on the back on a proper sleeve after the sleeves were made? Surely any test prints would have been done before the covers were made, not on the back of one of the finished sleeves. That makes no sense at all. Or maybe the test print was done on a piece of blank paper, but then for some reason they printed a real cover on the back of the test print? Seems plausible I guess. But if that was the case then why put record number 640 into one of the special sleeves? I mean, surely if you only had 4 test print sleeves then you'd put numbers 1-4 in those sleeves, wouldn't you?

Unfortunately this is all just speculation and I don't think it likely that I (or anyone else for that matter) will ever know what the hell is going on here. But regardless, it's cool that I got some weird anomaly copy for so cheap after having it on my want list for so long.

If anyone knows anything about this or has seen one before, please get in touch.

One Up on Blue

2011-11-29T15:17:00.000-08:00

Once again proving I am at least 5 years out of date, here's a blue vinyl 7" by One Up. I really liked this band. When I had been out of touch with hardcore for a couple of years I got given a CD called 'Locked & Loaded' which had a few current bands on (this was circa 2003/4 I think), and I loved the One Up song. I then tracked down their 7"s. And I'm still picking up variations today when I spot them for cheap. They had a couple of 7"s on Bottled Up Records, so you know there are a lot of variants out there! This was their third and final 7", released by Broken Glass Records, and it features a Texas Is The Reason cover on the flipside. It's actually a really great cover, and I think it's kinda cool that a dirty hardcore band like this would choose to play a cover of a band that is very different to their own sound. Keeps things interesting and really makes this 7" worth owning.

I think blue vinyl was the more limited colour of this 7". There were also some on green vinyl... and I actually have a spare copy that I have put up in my store if anyone is interested.

Trade - Records for Food

2011-11-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

Catching up on this blog and I'm throwing up here three UK hardcore 7"s that I got from a friend about three months ago. I just haven't got around to putting up here until now. Mainly because I am lazy.

First here is the first (I think) 7" by BRAIN DEAD. I saw this band play once when they were a pretty new band. I forget who they were playing with, but it was a show at the Fenton in Leeds. Anyway, I didn't hear the name of the band when the singer said "Hi, we're Brain Dead". What I heard was "Hi, we're GRIND EGG". I was disappointed when I found out the band's real name. I think my name was better.

This version is the record release version, with a really interesting cover. This is just a single sheet of paper that sits on top of the regular cover.

Next up is the second 7" by Brain Dead. I already have this on green vinyl. But this version is the release show version with a limited sleeve. I love the dark green limited cover. Looks great.

And finally, a UK hardcore compilation 7" that came out in about 2006. This one features three bands - Brain Dead (again), Self Destruct, and Search And Destroy (whose 7" I released, and that you can still buy HERE if you want). I bought a test press of this comp a while ago, but this version here is the pre-order version, in a limited orange sleeve. This one is numbered out of 30. I bought this from the label when it came out but wasn't quick enough to get one of the first 30, so I'm stoked to have picked one up in the end.

Finally... I arranged to buy these things from a friend of mine, but in the end we met up for lunch to do the deal, so I ended up part buying and part trading for food.

Records and burgers in the sun. Life doesn't get much better.

SALE

2011-11-27T04:56:00.000-08:00

Just to let you know, I've just put some stuff up for sale. Check out...

Endless Quest online store for some Endless Quest Releases, a couple of distrubuted titles, and some used rarities

My eBay listings for some less rare (and cheaper) items ending in the next day or so.

Thanks!

Bold RevHQ Order

2011-11-22T15:18:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to ordering the latest piece of Revelation vinyl a couple of weeks ago, the BOLD discography. In all honesty Bold are probably my least favourite classic Rev band. The LP I can listen to, but the 7" these days I find awful. I can't listen to it. But obviously a new piece of Rev vinyl on the scene I'm down. This discography is pressed as a double LP. When I first took the vinyl out of the sleeve I thought I had been sent a black vinyl copy, but it turns out that the red vinyl record I was holding is just super dark unless you put it to the light. Good to see that the vinyl colours are closely matched to the cover art, which is always a nice touch.

As usual, when I placed the order I thought that it would be a waste for someone to pack me up one record and mail it all the way from California. So I had a browse around the RevHQ online store and found a few other bits to pad out the mailer. First up was the latest Revelation re-pressing - a red vinyl copy of the second Shai Hulud LP. I bought the clear vinyl first pressing of this when it came out in 2003 and I'm not even sure I have ever listened to it.

I also picked up the recent vinyl pressing of the Harkonen 'Shake Harder Boy' LP. This one came out in 2002 on Hydrahead, which was at a point in time when vinyl was not so popular, so it was only issued on CD. Thankfully someone has seen sense to correct this mistake nine years later, which is a good thing as this is a great album.

I also noticed that Rev had a couple of the recent Black Flag 7" colour vinyl reissues in stock. There were 4 of 7"s repressed on colour recently, and the addition of these two means I now only have one left to get.

I also took the opportunity to pick up a copy of the Converge / Drop Dead Split 7" that came out a while ago. There are an almost infinite number of variations of this one. I'm just happy with the one - a very dark green with black streaks through it.

And finally, another recent Dischord reissue on colour wax. This time it's the Egg Hunt 7". One of the weirdest but also coolest covers of all time. Anyone know the story behind the picture on the front cover?

Number-rology

2011-11-19T17:12:00.000-08:00

Back in February 2010 I received an awesome batch of Youngblood Records releases, which included the (as was) brand new Lion Of Judah 7" called 'Number-rology'. I got two versions and I wrote on this blog "I think there was also a tour press of this record, which looks like a test press, with blank labels and no sleeve. I'd really like one of those too. Can anyone help me out?". Well, no fucker did help me out, so I had to find one myself... which evidently took over a year and a half. I recently picked one up on eBay, that showed up this week. As I suggested, this thing looks very much like a test press, with blank labels and coming only in a (stamped) paper dust sleeve. It's not much to look at.

Around the same time, I also received my latest direct Youngblood order, which included a copy of the second pressing of this record on clear vinyl of 350 copies. It comes with a proper sleeve and an ultra cool lyric sheet printed on the back of a mask. It looks a lot nicer than the tour press.

If you like the look of this clear vinyl copy then I have a couple of them for sale in the Endless Quest online store. Go on - treat yourself.

36 Inches of Sacred Love

2011-11-19T16:25:00.000-08:00

Back in March of this year, I was lucky enough to pick up the super limited tour pressing of the latest Youngblood Records release, the SACRED LOVE 'Dividing Lines' 12" EP. And now, 7 months later, the regular versions have turned up on my doorstep. I can't be bothered to review what this sounds like as I have done that before for you to read, but suffice to say this is a great record & I am stoked to have these copies.

First, the limited red vinyl version. There are 201 of these bad boys:

I also got one of the black vinyl copies in the regular sleeve, of which there are 265 copies:

And finally, after something like 13 years of ordering from Youngblood, I have finally cracked the code and made it on to Level 2. Here's the test press (number 16 of 25):

Unbelievably though, after all this there's still another version out there that I don't have. How irritating!

Finally, I thought it worth mentioning that I have a couple of copies of this in the Endless Quest online store (Probably not worth ordering if you are in the States as it will be cheaper to get it from Youngblood direct, but if you're in the UK or Europe then get it from me & save a few bones on postage)

Get Your Goat Test

2011-11-14T16:14:00.001-08:00

Back in 1994 I was living in Leeds in the north of England (where Henry Rollins used to live for a while) and there was a popular punk rock venue called The Duchess Of York, which was a pub slap bang in the middle of the city. This was a 200 capacity venue that lots of big bands played on their way to superstardom, such as Nirvana, and Oasis. In my first year I saw Rancid, Green Day and Jawbreaker. Back then I had little money and didn't know what the hell was up, but I remember making a conscious decision to go down there regularly and watch bands that I wasn't familiar with because it was better than sitting around at home. To be fair, I saw some right shite, but the best gig I saw from a band I was unfamiliar with was when I saw Shudder To Think. They were so tight and so damn different to anything else i had heard at that time that I was sold right away. The next day I was in town buying their record, and not long after that I was trying to track down their previous records. As I listed to their music now in 2011 it seems even more obvious that they were a band that was literally years ahead of their time. The world wasn't ready. Not that it matters. I was ready, and I don't care about the rest of the world.

So recently I stumbled across a test press of their fourth album 'Get Your Goat'. It was cheap and I couldn't resist a sneaky bid. This was also one of those tests that also served as a promotional copy, so it comes with some extras like a poster, promotional photo, and some press sheets. A nice little package.

I'm sure that a lot of people reading my blog won't have heard this band. They were on Dischord and then got signed to a major, where they released what is regarded as their best record, 'Pony Express Record'. It still sounds fresh and different 17 years after it came out. I still dig it. Guitarist Nathan Larson (who used to play in Swiz before Shudder To Think) went on to write music for films, and also married the chick who used to sing in The Cardigans. Drummer Adam Wade also drummed in Jawbox.

If you never heard this band then here's your chance. Check this video out. And remember, when I saw them play live I had never heard them and had no clue about what they sounded like. Put yourself in that situation. Imagine you have walked for twenty minutes into town to check out a band on the strength of the fact that they were on the same label as Minor Threat and Fugazi. Then st back & enjoy. You may be disgusted, but the 19 year old me loved it.

If you've never heard this band until now please comment to let me know what you think.

We Stick Together!

2011-11-13T15:47:00.000-08:00

Never let it be said that I do not keep up to date... even if it takes me like a year or so to get there. Ha! I started seeing a lot of pictures of this 7" around a while back & it seemed there was some hype around this band. Then again, it seems any current straight edge band seems to get hyped. Perhaps that's because there aren't actually that many sxe bands about anymore, as long as you don't include these novelty / joke bands that go around waving guns or utilising five singers with varying degrees of throaty barking vocals. Yes, I'm talking about proper youth crew type straight edge bands which it seems to me are becoming increasingly rare. Or maybe it's just that I'm just way out of touch. I wouldn't rule that out. Anyway, Stick Together are the exactly the kind of sxe band I like, and I was lucky enough to end up with Mike's spare copy on white vinyl, which seems to be the rarest colour out of 100 copies.

Yup, it's always good to listen to this kind of sound played by a current band. Makes me feel young. Well, ish.

Capital 'Givers Takers' LP

2011-11-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

After reading Nick's post and realising that this album was available, I decided to order it for myself. I've been trying to save money and not buy multiple copies of things lately, but without pressing info I couldn't decide which color to buy, so like a fool I picked up both.

'Givers Takers' is the third album by Capital. I'm not gonna say that this is my favourite band or anything, but whenever I listen to them I really enjoy them. They mix up a lot of good elements, and the lyrics are always really interesting.I guess they are a band I want to like a lot more than I actually do. Anyway, after saying that, I have been playing this album quite a lot. I guess its a good length for my bike ride to work. I've probably listened to this one more than their previous albums. I'm into it. I especially like the joke phone call that plays after the second song, and the song that follows it. You should check it out. And if you want to listen to this album without actually forking out money, you can download it for free. The band are giving the whole record away as a free download on their bandcamp page. How's that for hardcore?

Black Seaweed Tragedy

2011-11-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

I placed my first ever order with No Idea Records recently to pick up a couple of 7"s that Juan had drawn my attention to a while back on the They Still Press Vinyl blog.

The first is the recent Seaweed 7". I guess No Idea convinced them to reform and record a couple of new tunes. The songs themselves are ok. More like the last couple of Seaweed records than the first couple. It's Seaweed though. The record itself is on green vinyl and in a nice die cut sleeve. Not sure why it has a train on the front, but hey, I'm not knocking it. Looks great.

The other record I wanted to pick up was the debut 7" by Black God. Made up of dudes who have been in Black Cross, Black (aka Young) Widows, By The Grace of God and Endpoint. Black God has Rob Pennington on vocals but the songs are short blasts, and damn good they are too.

I also added the second Cheap Tragedies 7" for good luck. You know how it is... you can't just buy two records. This one comes third in more than one sense.

Times Together 7" Record Release

2011-11-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite 7"s of last year was the debut 7" from Times Together. I picked up 4 versions of the 7" in a trade with singer James. Recently I bagged the release show version on eBay for the price of bugger all. The cover of this is really nice. It comes printed on thick glossy card and looks great.

The band's second 7" has just come out on Anger Battery Records. I'm looking forward to it a lot. Could come just in time to make my best of 2011 list.

Sub Society 7" Pink

2011-10-30T10:17:00.001-07:00

I've had this 7" in my collection for a long ass time. Probably since before you were born. Well, maybe. But until a few short weeks ago I never knew it existed on colour vinyl. Then I saw it on eBay and knew I had to have it. Money was irrelevant... but fortunately it didn't take much.

The band is called SUB SOCIETY and this 7" is one of only two pieces of vinyl they released. This one was put out by Vinyl Communications, a label out of San Diego mainly active in the late 80s and early 90s. I have this on black, but I think this new copy I just picked up looks a bit more interesting:

This band gained attention from having some songs featured in a couple of skateboard videos in the early 90s. Well, that's how I picked up on them at least. I used to have a copy of this video and I must have watched it easily 100 times. Great soundtrack that also features several Operation Ivy songs (which was how I got into that band too). If you're in your 30s and used to skate then you probably love this video as much as I do:

I also did a bit of internerd research on this band. There's a website that a member of the band has put up that hosts most of their output as mp3s that you can download for free (including the songs on the 7" shown above). Check the link below if you are interested. Also, I read that the band's singer sadly passed away in 2010 from Heart disease at the age of 38. As well as Sub Society, he had been in a band called Inch, whose first LP I also have tucked away in my collection and which I am now going to revisit. RIP Stimy.

SUB SOCIETY WEBSITE & MP3s

Finally, if anyone wants my black vinyl 7" then get in touch.

R'N'R / Fit For Abuse Test

2011-10-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

When Kyle was continuing his mission to make his life simpler by selling his records on eBay a few weeks ago, I (as usual) ended up watching about 20 items... and then, a day or so before they were due to end, I (as usual) decided not to bid because all of them passed prices that I wanted to pay. Well, all except one that is. There was one record that was still stupidly cheap, so I kept watching it. And then on the final day, just before I went to bed I noticed that there was only about three hours of the auction left to run, so I sat and thought about whether I could be bothered to bid or not. The reason I was not sure about bidding is that I was not even sure that I cared about the record. So in the end, because I was not hugely bothered by it, I put in what I thought was a low bid, thinking "if I won it for that then that would be cool, but if I got outbid then I wouldn't care". Well, wouldn't you know it, when I woke up the next morning I discovered that I had won it.

This is the item in question. A test press of the Fit For Abuse / R'N'R split 7" that was released by Bridge Nine Records back in 2005:

Now, I have this split 7" in my collection. I only have one copy of it, which is the most common version. I've never been motivated to buy more copies as I just don't really rate it too highly. What I found interesting about this record when I bought it 6 years ago was that, even though I bought it for the R'N'R side (because back then I was loving the R'N'R LP) it's the band on the flipside - Fit For Abuse - whose songs are WAY better.

Anyway, even though I'm not hugely into this record, the main reason I was watching this thing is that it is on red vinyl. So what? Well, checking the B9 discography for this release, there were 19 test pressings made in total, of which 15 were black and 4 were on red. Yup, that's right - there are only 4 of these things in the whole of the known universe (although I concede that there may be more out there in a parallel universe). So I figured that this was probably just about THE most limited record ever made on Bridge Nine (although, that said, I am also aware of a green vinyl Betrayed 7" of which there are also only 4 copies known to exist), so if I had a chance to get it for cheap then that would be cool... and in the end that's what happened.

Ok, so the reason it was cheap is that the majority of people don't care about it, but it's still a nice one to have.

Opening the Fire & Ice account

2011-10-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

I don't know when it happened exactly, but at some point in the past couple of years or so I (like most people when they get older) started to become resistant to new music. I guess I just feel like I have heard it all before. When you have been around as long as I have, most new stuff sounds just like something older. I always used to be open to new bands and I never wanted to lose touch. But it just happens. You get old & you just don't have time to keep up. I mean, I want to listen to new music, but I find it harder & harder to sift out the good stuff from the eighteen million bands out there.

Well, fortunately, I have other people who advise me from time to time. Mike is one such dude. He kept telling me to listen to some band called Fire & Ice, telling me they were good and made up of dudes who were in Iron Boots & Down To Nothing. I dunno why though, but for a long time I just ignored him. But then he himself caved in & started listening to The Descendents & Rot In Hell because I shoved pictures of their records down his throat so often. By that point I figured I owed him, so downloaded some Fire & Ice.

Well, wouldn't you know it, I felt like an idiot for not taking his advice sooner. Fire & Ice crank out some great tunes. Once I realised this, it wasn't long before I started looking for their records on eBay. And recently I opened my account with one version of each of their two 7"s...

The first is the Winter 2009 tour press of the first 7" 'Gods & Devils'. It's not numbered, but I think there are 100 of these things.

I also got the record release version of the second 7", 'Grim'. This one has a folded paper cover slipped over the top of the regular cover and is numbered out of 50.

The songs on these two 7"s have provided the soundtrack to my bike rides to & from work these past few weeks. The perfect sound to get my legs pumping harder & faster. That's probably the best compliment I can give any band these days, and it's also about as close to moshing I get.

Ceremony Covers 12" EP

2011-10-20T15:03:00.001-07:00

I always thought Ceremony were just alright... well, until their 'Rohnert Park' LP came out last year. Then I thought they were next level incredible. They shifted their style to reflect a more traditional (aka old) hardcore punk sound. I thought this was a brave move for a band to make, given their previous sound. I even recommended that fellow old fart Lins87 check the album out as I figured he would be well into it, but I'm willing to bet he never did, the fool. Anyway, Ceremony are back with a new 12" EP of cover songs. To be honest, there's only one song that I was familiar with, and I'll bet that's one more than your average Ceremony fan, so I guess for a lot of kids this may as well be a new release.

Well, I have to say, there are no real surprises here. It kinda sounds like anyone who heard the last album would probably expect it to sound. I mean, here's a band who sound like an 80s hardcore punk band playing mainly covers of other 80s hardcore punk bands. If you liked the last album, you'll like this I am sure. And even better, this is a real treat for vinyl nuts, as it has a cool rose design screen printed on one side of the vinyl. Looks very nice, as you can see:

I believe these dudes have now left Bridge Nine for Matador Records. Not sure what to make of this, but if nothing else I'm not sure Matador have a history of making limited colour records, so it's probably bad news for us nerds.

The Rule Of Nines 7"

2011-10-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago, it was announced via the xStuck In The Pastx blog that the pre-order was up for the Rule Of Nines 7". For once, I was excited enough to order right away, rather than wait a few months in some stupid attempt to save money (which never works, seeing as buying later invariably means paying more).

The Rule Of Nines was a band fronted by Jon Roa in the 90s for a short period which also featured a dude who had been in Forced Down & Pitchfork. I had read Roa's piece on the band on Double Cross earlier in the year and remembered the song to be pretty good. So I ordered the record. It turned up last week and I have listened to it about three times a day since. In short - I'm loving it.

Getting in quick meant that I was able to order both versions that were available. So first, here's the rare version, with a 'badlands' sleeve numbered out of only 25 copies:

And here's the regular version, of which there are only 100 copies:

Yup, there are only 125 copies of this thing pressed in total. I would say that if you like the mid 90s, music and records in general then I think you'll have three reasons to pick one of these up. Head on over to the Irish Voodoo Records store to grab one before they vanish. And if you're quick, it looks like you may still be able to get one with the badlands cover.

Oh yeah... and because I'm a helpful person I thought I would post up the video for one of the songs for you to check out:

Blacklisted 7" Rocky Balboa Sleeve

2011-10-16T14:27:00.001-07:00

Some records you just want to own for the cover alone. Here's a shining example. The first Blacklisted 7" with Rocky cover.

As you can see, there were apparently 100 of these things made, but I have no idea whether this sleeve was made for a tour or some other special occasion. Anyone?

Purple = Brown

2011-10-15T02:11:00.001-07:00

I was in a local record store (remember them?) last weekend and found the recent Youth Of Today 'Can't Close My Eyes' 12" in the rack. Since it was pretty cheap, I figured I would ask what colour it was on. I mean, when I got my copies from Revelation a couple of months ago, I was slightly disappointed to find that my 'purple' copy was kinda grey and bland looking. So I figured that I wanted one that was properly purple. Anyway, dude in the store got the record out for me, and it looked brown. So I figured I would pick it up anyway.

And here it is next to the other copy I already had. Quite a difference in colour here, wouldn't you agree?

I still kinda want one that is actually purple, but I don't want to go the extremes of buying 6 copies like Dobek did... although you have to admit, this picture does look kinda cool, right?

Descendents 'ALL' Blue

2011-10-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to add anything to my Descendents collection for a long time, as it seems that there have been very few of the coloured SST records on eBay in the past few months. But a couple of weeks ago I spotted one that I was very keen on, the 'ALL' LP on blue. I've seen this go for $150 in the past, so I was stoked to bag it for $38, which seemed like a very good price to me. I can only assume that the rest of the world was asleep.

One thing I have noticed about Descendents coloured vinyl is that the SST dudes seem to have taken the trouble to match the vinyl colour it to the cover art pretty well. I mean, 'ALL' comes on blue and also grey. 'Enjoy' comes on white a pink. 'Milo Goes To College' comes on grey. I like it when vinyl colour matches artwork. It just seems like someone spent time thinking about things, which I am into.

I see that Tim McMahon voted this his favourite Descendents record in a recentish Double Cross poll. So if you're the kind of person who trusts Tim's judgement more than mine (you idiot) then I would advise you get onto this album ASAP... although you may be waiting a while to pick up a blue vinyl copy for such a great price.

FP D1C Gold

2011-09-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

Imagine the scene... you're sat at work one day when an email pops into your inbox asking you if you would be interested in buying some dude's spare Floorpunch 'Division One Champs' 7" on gold vinyl. What do you think you would you do?

Me, I replied within about two minutes to say "yup"... and after several weeks of negotiation and attempts to find rare Warzone records to trade, we eventually came to an agreement and I paid cash. Or virtual cash. You know... robot money.

If you know the story behind this record you'll appreciate how difficult this is to come by. Some refer to it as the chung king of the 90s. Most people who have one aren't going to let it go in a hurry. I think I've only ever had one chance at this before, about 5 years ago (for nearly half the price!). Cost is irrelevent though. I never thought I would own this, so I'm happy.

You're long gone, but I'll never quit.
Through thick and thin I'll stick with it.
Time goes on...

Mouthpiece LP ltd sleeve

2011-09-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

Being a lifetime Revelation Records collector, i was disappointed a few weeks ago to see that there was a limited copy of the Mouthpiece discography LP available for This Is Hardcore. I read before the show that the LP was limited to 50 copies. It was pretty obvious that it would sell out so my chances of getting one were slim. Turns out I was wrong. My chances were zero. It sold out and nobody I knew that was going was able to get me one. I figured I would have to pay big bucks on ebay at some point. Fortunately I was wrong on that count too. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get one from a very nice chap who had about six of the things spare and wasn't asking for much at all. Brilliant!

So for anyone who hasn't seen it, this version is the second pressing on green with a limited cover numbered out of 50 copies. The cover shows simply a bearded GI Joe and a gold Rev logo. Looks great.

Cool that I didn't have to hit up ebay. Shame I wasn't so lucky with that DTN LP with a screened cover. Don't suppose anyone has one that they don't want?

Tremors 'Island Songs' 7"

2011-09-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

Here's something that makes a real change these days - me picking up on a newish band early doors. Usually I'm about 4 years behind. Still, even though I'm always behind, at least I manage to keep in touch with the important stuff (unlike this poor fool).

Tremors are a newish UK band hailing from London town. I know nothing about them other than they have scouse scally Graham on vocals. Dude used to sing for a band called Dirty Money. You may have heard of them.

But back to the point - Tremors. I saw this band play a few months ago (not sure why exactly I went out of the house, must have been having an off day). It was a cold dark night and they didn't really grab me. I probably wanted a pizza to be honest. But despite me not being in the best of moods, I liked how the band had anger, energy & honesty. I figured that these short blasts would sound a lot better once I was familiar with them, so I knew I wanted to check out their record when it eventually dropped... which was a couple of weeks ago.

I was lucky enough to get one of the red vinyl copies numbered out of 100.

All I can say is that this band rages. This is what I would call 'proper' hardcore punk. No posing, no bullshit. Just fast, angry hardcore that harks back to the early 80s. Probably not the kind of thing that kids who love B9 releases will love, although there is no doubt in my mind that people who celebrate the early Dischord catalogue will lap this up. If that sounds like you, and you still feel the need to keep up with current bands, then you could do a lot worse than check this record out.

This version here is the UK pressing put out by The Essence Records. However, there is also a US pressing coming out on Six Feet Under Records at some point in the near future. The US version will have different artwork to the UK version, so if you're one of these weirdy record collector types then you might want to consider buying one of each. This red vinyl version is now sold out, but it's still worth picking up as this UK pressing features an extra song that won't be on the US version. Pick one up in THE ESSENCE STORE.

End To End

2011-09-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

The End To End 7" is probably most famous for being the OTHER record on Foundation Records. The one that isn't a Chain Of Strength record. I acquired a copy of this many moons ago, and never really thought it was anything special. It contains four songs, one of which is a live recording of an SSD cover which really should have been left off. One of the other three songs sounds like a Chain song, but the other two aren't so great in my opinion. Overall it partly suffers from the quality of the recording. Also, I never really understood the artwork on the front cover. What the hell is that all about?

This grey vinyl pressing was probably on my want list for about 15 years. No doubt some would find that hilarious.

This month's Integrity post

2011-09-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

If a month went by without some kind of Integrity post on this blog then you would know that there was something wrong. I like to think that one of you would even take the trouble to call the police or coastguard. No need this month though. Things are doing fine.

This months additions to the integ mountain are both clear, which is reason enough to whack them together in one post.

Item 1 - the split 7" with Creepout. This is the A389 repress. Clear is the band color limited to 100 copies. I think I have four copies of this record now and I still haven't listened to the Creepout side.

Item 2 is a curiosity. Yet another copy of the 'To Die For' 10". I previously bored you with the BLUE vinyl and also the RED vinyl copies that formed the first and second pressings. This clear one is a special one off of 50 copies which kinda combines the two. The sleeve is the blue cover on one side and the red cover on the other.

Also comes with a different insert to the two previous versions which is simply a picture of Grizzly Adams:

Like a fool I bought mine on eBay without realising that the label have some for sale in their store. So I thought I would be generous and give you all the heads up as there are only 50 copies in existence. HERE YA GO

Screaming For Purple

2011-09-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't bought many records for two months. Not really sure why. But all of a sudden it seems there are LOADS of records out there. New releases, newish releases, and people offering me stuff. And stuff on eBay that I can't resist having a go at... like this Uniform Choice LP:

I wish there was pressing info available for this record. I have seen different shades of this record, from a light lilac colour like this one, to a more deep purple verging on maroon. There is also a grey. But the more I look at variations, the more I wonder whether they are actually different pressings or whether (like the recent Youth Of Today 12" reissue on 'purple') it was all one pressing on the 'recycled' vinyl that usually ranges from grey to purple even though it's all one pressing and one 'colour'. I don't think that is the case with this LP, because I've not seen that 'colour' used on records that came out pre-late 90s, but it would be a convenient explanation for the colour variations. If only somebody actually knew!

THE (RE)LAUNCH OF ENDLESS QUEST RECORDS

2011-08-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, before I did this stupid blog, The Endless Quest was a record label.

Back in 2006 I released a 7" by UK band SEARCH AND DESTROY, and in 2007 I put out an LP by Boston, MA band 27. After that I spoke to three other people about future projects, which all eventually turned to nothing. Out of boredom I started writing this crap instead and other areas of life got busy. But I always hoped that I would one day be able to release another record. And now here we are in 2011 and I'm finally ready to have another go.

Almost a year ago a friend of mine (fellow blog nerd Doug) mentioned that he was in a band and sent me some demo recordings. I didn't expect much for some reason, but I gave the songs a listen and was blown away. The sound coming out of my speakers seemed to combine elements of various bands that I liked, and I found myself listening to the songs a lot. It then occurred to me that this would be the perfect opportunity to re-start Endless Quest Records. So I asked about releasing the demo on vinyl and the best part of a year later here we are.

The result of all of this is that I am now taking pre-orders for the debut recording by HOPE DEFEATED.

In January of 2010, five friends who had grown up in and around the Calgary hardcore scene realised that they were feeling let down by the monotony of "adult life". The anger they had felt growing up still burned bright, brought on by the daily frustrations of careers, families and domestic bullshit. They needed a release, and Hope Defeated was formed. A few months later the band hit the studio to deliver a message to themselves and the outside world.

The '2010 Demo' 7" contains four songs that bring together the best elements of mid 90s and early 00s hardcore. These guys have lived through both eras and come out fighting with a fresh sound that is difficult to pigeonhole. Throw the vocal rage of Striking Distance & 108 over the chugging groove of bands like Snapcase & Burn, mix in a strong straight edge influence, and wave goodbye to your dreams that everything is going to be ok.

&lt;a href="http://hopedefeated.bandcamp.com/track/the-mark">The Mark by Hope Defeated&lt;/a>

"I never meant for anyone to ever care. This is mine on my own the badge I wear"

PRESSING INFO
- 50 'blog nerds' edition (Red vinyl, hand numbered with stamped labels in a very special sleeve, specifically intended for readers of my & Doug's blog)
- 100 White vinyl
- 155 Black vinyl

Please note - this is not being announced anywhere else yet because I want to give the people who have supported my & Doug's blogs the first opportunity to get the special version. Once the 50 blog nerd copies are gone, I will start selling this elsewhere.

To order, go to my online store:

ENDLESS QUEST RECORDS ONLINE STORE

Oh yeah, also I thought I would run a TEST PRESS CONTEST - anyone who orders three copies or more will be entered into a draw to win a test press (which comes in a hand made cover of 15 copies).

I'm expecting that pre-orders will start shipping the first week in September.

Also, please note that I still have a few copies of my previous releases available, which I have listed for sale at a reduced price. Please take a chance and check 'em out.

Labels / distros / stores - please get in touch if you would be interested in helping distribute this record.

Time Is Now / 25

2011-08-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

Bargains on eBay seem increasingly rare these days. But sometimes you can pick one up as a result of a seller making some basic listing errors.

Let's just say, for example, that you were selling a marble red vinyl copy of the late 90s straight edge compilation 'The Time Is Now' 7". You'd probably be pretty keen to mention somewhere in the auction that this particular version is numbered out of only 25 copies, right? I mean, completely failing to mention this at all would be a pretty basic error, don't you think? It could only be worse if you also somehow also failed to take a photo of the numbered dust sleeve which clearly shows the #/25 written in thick marker pen. I mean, you'd be completely missing the main selling point of the record. Pretty much the only other mistake you could make would be to not show the vinyl at all in main listing photo and instead opt to show only the (crappy) photocopied sleeve. Thinking about it, I reckon that if you made these mistakes then you're really not going to do a very good job of making the record seem as attractive as it really is, and you're probably going to lose a lot of potential bids. On the positive side, however, you're pretty damn likely to make someone's day as you leave the door wide open for a person who knows exactly what this thing is to win it for a really low price. Someone like, for example, me.

I guess this whole disaster could only be worse if you then saw someone else sell their copy of the same record about two weeks later for about three times as much just because they took an extra photo and mentioned that there are only 25 of these things out there.

Outface 'Friendly Green' LP Pink Marble

2011-08-14T13:38:00.000-07:00

Here's another one for the Crisis (technically part of Revelation) Records collection - a weird pinky marble type colour variant of the OUTFACE 'Friendly Green' LP. I've owned this album for many years (not even sure when I first picked it up - probably about 1994) and never seen it on this colour before. My longstanding copy is on clear red vinyl. Once again, it makes me wonder how many variants of records are out there that I do not even know about.

This band featured some dude called Derrick Green on vocals who took over the shouting duties from Max Cavalera when he left Sepultura. On guitar was a dude called Charlie who later went on to play in CIV.

I never really liked this album much. It always sounded kinda confused to me, like the band didn't know what they wanted to sound like. There are moments of hardcore, reggae, ska and funk. The vocals came off sounding like a weird mix of Bad Brains, Into Another and Faith No More. I guess it always sounded too eclectic to make an impression on a young me and I filed it away and forgot about it.

After seeing this record for sale on eBay, I recently went back and checked it out again. Funnily enough, I've been enjoying this the past couple of weeks. It has a nice chilled out vibe which makes it perfect for my bike rides home from work in the sunny evenings. Sixteen years later, I finally get it.

Tarpit 'Checkmate' Test

2011-08-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

Back at work after a week off and there was only one piece of mail sat waiting for me... this test press of the Tarpit 'Checkmate EP' on Collapse Records.

A few short years ago someone sent me a 7" by this band. I never asked for it, I just got it thrown in with some other record I bought. I loved it & went on to pick up more of their records, including their LP, which I freakin' love. However, this is one band that I know nothing about. Literally nothing. Were people into them? What happened to them? I'm intrigued. Maybe if Bob could give me some info, that would be great.

Jesuit Discography & Big Trouble

2011-07-31T15:08:00.000-07:00

Did I ever mention that I used to call up Aaron Turner on the phone in the late 90s and reserve records for which I would then send money through the mail? Only 15 times? Well, I'm telling you again. This time to casually slip into the conversation that one of the records I bought whilst knowing nothing about was a 7" by a band called JESUIT. And now, 15 years or so later, their discography has just come out.

I know pretty much nothing about this band. Living in the UK I never saw them or heard anything other than the releases that came out many years ago (a 7" and a CD-EP). All I know is that they were oft referred to as insanely heavy with chaotic live shows. Dudes from the band went on to play in more successful chaotic heavy bands, namely Converge & The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Released by Magic Bullet Records, this discography apparently took 8 years to put together. After receiving it, I can see that's probably because it took the label that long to save up enough money to pay for the fancy packaging.

The cover art is, in my pointless opinion, outstanding. It features an illustration by Florian Bertmer, who clearly has an interest in boobs, butts and death. I can get with two of those. I love the bright colours used here, and I picked the green vinyl copy of the LP of the many choices available, just because I thought it went best with the artwork.

The package also comes with a 7" which contains the band's demo recording, wrapped in a sleeve which is the same art work that was used for the demo. Nice touch.

Also included is a 24 page booklet containing blurb from several 90s heads, as well as some great photos:

Oh yeah, and there's also a big fold out photo collage poster thing. So all in all, quite a lot of bang for your buck.

Generally I would advise anyone who likes Converge and collecting records (which seems to be about 5,000 people these days) to pick this one up. You won't be sorry.

I also bought a kinda novelty record at the same time from the same label. This LP is themed around the film 'Big Trouble in Little China'. It's by a pair of dudes calling themselves 'Big China & Little Trouble' and the record is entitled 'Lo Panning'.

This is the label's official description:

Simply denoted “Part I” and “Part II,” both sides of the LP successfully capture the hypnotic, enveloping vortex of David Lo Pan’s ancient raw powers. A subtly constant and humming melody anchors both sides almost like a raga, as Eyestone and Haley blast and churn compositional improvisation across the sonisphere. The results are a deliberately glacial and powerful presence seeping and oozing away from the melted minds of the creators and into the listening rooms of the new hosts of these diabolical spirits.

No, I have no idea what that means either. But what comes out of the speakers is some lo-fi drone type shit a bit like Sunn 0))) but without any vocal noises. I'm generally not into stuff like this, but I have to say that this is a really perfect noise to listen to late at night in a dimly lit room.

Oh yeah, and also you should note that this record glows in the dark!

Yes, that's right - IT GLOWS IN THE DARK!!!

Integrity 'Detonate VVorld's Plague' LP

2011-07-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

Mike was saying the other day how I should do more posts about Integrity records. So I rushed off an order for the latest 12" just so I could keep him happy.

I did a post about the test press for this record last month, and I don't have anything new to say on the matter. So instead, let's just get straight on with the photos...

Plain old black vinyl. 550 copies made.

Purple vinyl (250 copies) which comes with a huge white patch:

Red vinyl (or pink as mine seems to be) of 100 copies with red patch:

There's also a gold vinyl that I don't have yet because I wanted to save money. But I'll probably get around to it eventually because that's the kind of idiot I am.

I wonder what the most appropriate place for the patch would be if I were to attach it to something? Maybe across the ass of my jeans like those people who walk around thinking they look really cool when the rest of the world thinks they look like a fucking idiot.

Some Girls 12"

2011-07-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Today I have two questions for you to ponder:

1. When is an LP not an LP?

2. When's the best time to buy stuff on eBay?

And now, by sheer fluke, I have identified a record that just so happens to answer both of those questions... the debut LP by the early 2000's super group Some Girls entitled 'All My Friends Are Going Death'. This came out in about 2004 and in my typical 'slightly late to the party' style, I've just picked it up for the first time.

When I say that this was the band's debut LP, I was of course being economical with the truth because (shock, horror) this is not an LP. Rather, this is a compilation of their two previously released 7"s and four other songs.

This is kinda cool because it has no insert... mainly because it doesn't need one. It has all the lyrics and other information etched into side 2. I don't actually think I've seen that before.

I wasn't looking to buy this thing. I just stumbled across it on eBay and looked to be going for a low price. So I threw in a bid and won it for £3.50. Not bad considering I spend more than that on lunch each day. This of course means that the answer to question 2 is "when shit's cheap"... which unfortunately doesn't seem to be very often these days.

Zero Tolerance 'Fuel The Fire' / 100

2011-07-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

Zero Tolerance. Most known for being the other band to release a 7" on Hi Impact Records (the label that released the Turning Point 7" back in 1932). I got my gold vinyl Zero Tolerance from the dude who released it quite late (circa '96/97) and that was it. I was stoked. Fifteen years later I find myself buying a new Zero Tolerance 7"...

Well, not exactly. This isn't a new record. It's a vinyl pressing of a cassette release from 1991. Reaper Records pressed this onto wax last year and I didn't get around to buying one even though I kinda intended to. But then my friend Adam at The Essence announced that he was releasing his own version, so I decided to waited for that.

However, rather than actually press their own version, The Essence just bought 100 copies of the clear vinyl second pressing from Reaper on the cheap and packaged them in a different sleeve and numbered them. An interesting business model no doubt. But the result is a great record in great packaging. You can tell that time, thought & effort was put into this one:

What I find weird is that the sleeve for the Reaper version seems to have ring wear. Even on the test press copies. It's as if the ring wear is a part of the artwork. See HERE and HERE. Not a good look really, and in my opinion the sleeve of the Essence version is way better than the sleeve Reaper used.

Even though there were only 100 of these things made, it looks like there are still a few copies knocking about in the store waiting to be picked up by persons like you. So go here if you are interested before they're gone forever:

http://www.theessence.bigcartel.com/

Full Speed Ahead! (for the 11th time)

2011-07-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not I bought my first copy of this 7" back when it came out circa '97 or '98. Thirteen or fourteen years later I am still picking up variants that I don't have. I probably pick up another one about once a year on average... although truth be told, I only had one version for the first 7 years. So trying to collect the lot is a fairly recent objective.

This is one of the four different colour sleeve variations of the third pressing. There were 100 each of a red sleeve, yellow sleeve, green sleeve and blue sleeve. They were made as a tribute to the Minor Threat 7". For some reason this yellow one seems to crop up least often. At least, that's how it seems to me, as this is the last one I needed to complete the third pressing set of four.

This is now my 11th version of this 7" and there are still two variants that I am missing (one being the 'Rain Crew' version of 15 copies that I will clearly never own).

And who knows, maybe this post will serve as a reminder to Mike to get back to picking up ROTP 7"s again. Dude seems to have a short attention span sometimes ;o)

Cold World Sean Price

2011-07-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

I don't like hip hop. Never have. As a great man once said "it says nothing to me about my life". So when I heard that everyone's favourite wigger band Cold World had teamed up with some hip hop dude to make a record, I was not on the list of people who gave a monkeys. But then I saw some video clip that previewed the song and I found it catchy. Plus I liked the way that it was being compared to the 'Judgment Night' soundtrack from 1993, mainly because I can't imagine that anyone who would be into either Cold World or Sean Price would have heard of it.

This red one is the first press of 300 copies:

The song also comes packaged with 5 other crapper and pointless remixes of the same song, like one version with the curse words skillfully edited out, one with no vocals at all, and three without Cold World featuring at all.

You also get some futuristic 3 dimensional goggles so that you can see the mysterious picture on the front better.

I would also advise checking out the video of the song on youtube if you're a fan of the shirts off big belly mosh dance.

Outspoken 'The Current' 2011 Repress

2011-07-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

New Age Records continue their mission to reissue all of their 90s catalogue on limited colours of vinyl for those of us still standing in 2011 to lap up. The latest is the final 7" by Outspoken, which I remember picking up back when it came out like it were only yesterday. 'The Current' picked up right where the LP had left off, but with better songs and a much better quality recording all round. It really was a sad day when this band called it quits. I remember reading the 'final' interview in Second Nature fanzine and feeling truly sad. Yet here I am buying the same record again and somehow 16 years have gone by. And after all that time, this 7" still sounds good.

For this 2011 repress, there were 147 on 'cool blue' vinyl. My copy isn't that blue at all. It's only a shade up from white if you ask me:

There was also an obligatory 77 copies pressed on a different colour with Walk Proud labels that comes in an alternate, photocopies sleeve. The '77 pressing.(Anyone interested in knowing why New Age do this should read my history lesson.

Also, it's probably worth mentioning that New Age now have someone else looking after their mail order, so if you are thinking about ordering these then you don't have to worry that you'll be waiting 6 months. You can still sneak in an order as both appear to be in stock in the New Age store.

Deadguy 'Work Ethic'

2011-07-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

Ah, the 90s. My era. Looking back now, some of it was truly fantastic, and some was truly awful. When I get nostalgic I remember most of it fondly because I was there and it was an interesting time in life. But truth is a lot of stuff I forget about until some little reminder comes along of things. And that's what this post is about.

Dave from Six Feet Under Records was selling a load of stuff on eBay recently. I watched a lot of items and ended up not bidding on any of them due to the prices going higher than I was comfortable with. But one little item caught my eye and I was intrigued...

Deadguy. I remember when this band appeared in the mid 90s. Deadguy were born out of the ashes of No Escape (who are most widely known for that split 7" with Turning Point) and man, they were hard, loud and rockin'. There was a lot of buzz about them. I specifically remember how everyone was going nuts for the CD which combined the songs from both their 7"s. Me, I was more excited for the 7"s than a CD (I guess it would take the rest of the world another ten years to catch on to this!). Anyway, I had both 7"s on black, but a couple of years later, in the days of the Revelation trade board, I was stoked to upgrade my 'Work Ethic' 7" for a purple vinyl copy. And that was it. I was done. Until now.

Two to three weeks ago I saw the same record on eBay on clear blue vinyl. Now, believe me, my brain is like a huge vinyl database. No matter how many records I have or want, my brain retains all pressing info and can recall it with ease. So I saw this thing on blue and immediately knew that I didn't have it, but also that I had never seen or heard of it before. I struggled to believe I could be correct though, so I even went to my 7" box and pulled out the copy I have been holding for about 14 years just to confirm I wasn't getting confused. But no, I had a purple... which confirmed that I was right and that I was just finding out that this existed for the first time since it came out in 1994.

For me, this illustrates the fun of record collecting. No matter how much time you devote to it, you constantly find out about things that you never knew existed. It only makes me wonder what else may be out there that I have no clue about...

Supertouch Live on WNYU LP

2011-06-29T15:24:00.000-07:00

Still catching up on my backlog, here's one I got a long ass time ago... the Supertouch 'Live on WNYU 1988' LP. This one came out on 17 March 2011, which was a date selected because it was exactly 21 years to the day after these songs were recorded. I'm not sure exactly how this vinyl version came about, but it was released by a new and unknown label, Horror Hotel Productions, and the release was not very well publicised. Still, I managed to pick up on this early enough to bag me a couple of copies.

There were 500 copies made in total. The first 200 were on red vinyl, the remaining 300 were on black. However, I think that there were also 50 release show versions... although, to be honest, I'm not sure on this - I think there may have actually been 100 release show versions, 50 of which come in a white sleeve, and 50 of which come in a black sleeve. I'm not sure, mind. But were there 300 black vinyl in a regular sleeve and then an additional 100 black vinyl in release show sleeves (making 400 black), or were there 200 black in a regular sleeve and then 100 with the release sleeves? Does anyone know? Does anyone other than me care? Sometimes I doubt it.

As much as I like Supertouch though, I have to say that this LP is pretty dull aesthetically. The front cover is alright I guess, but the back is a bit boring, the labels are boring, and there's no insert of any kind. I dunno, I figure that releasing something on the 21st anniversary would have meant that there would be some kind of information included. Something. Not nothing. So overall I'm seeing this as a good one to have on vinyl, but at the same time, it's hardly great. A missed opportunity I would say.

Also, the label's online store meant that it was not possible to order one red and one black copy. So I placed an order and got sent red vinyl only. I still have a spare red if someone wants to make a trade for a black one.

Youth Of Today CCME 2011 Reissue

2011-06-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

Revelation recently sneaked out another classic reissue. Nobody I know seemed to know that this one was on the way, so it was quite a surprise to get the weekly Rev email and find out that there were two more pieces of vinyl to pick up.

The record in question is a 12" reissue of the Youth Of Today debut record 'Can't Close My Eyes'. Originally released as a 7" by Positive Force back in 1923, this was repressed by Revelation as a 12" circa '97. And now again, in 2011.

This year's pressing comes on two colours of vinyl - red and purple. I got one of each:

As has been observed, there is a fair bit of variation between the shades of purple that this thing comes on. As you can see above, mine is very pale purple and looks almost grey. Others are very purple. Dobek has so far managed to obtain and document FOUR distinctly different shades so far. Peep his photo HERE.

This reminds me of two other records which have always featured on peoples' lists as either grey of purple:

1. Deadguy 'Fixation On A Co-worker' LP

2. Warzone 'Live At CBGB'

Both of these records are frequently described as either grey or purple. I think the reason is because this color is actually just all the random leftovers thrown in together. Some dude used to call it 'putty'. Others have referred to it as 'scrap'. Whatever. The point is, any record pressed on this colour is always going to have a ton of variations just because of how it's made. So stop trying to buy up every copy, Dobek!

What I like about this record is that Revelation have based the layouts on the original 7" pressing of this record. The previous YOT reissues that came out in the late 90s were remastered and came in new artwork... which was, for the most part, not very good compared to the originals. The 90s reissue of this record has by far the worst cover of any YOT record ever. Here's a pic to show the current reissue along with the original 7" and the awful 90s reissue.

And here's a few more pics to show the recent reissue next to the original 7". It's kinda cool how they've tried to make this new 12" version as close to the original 7" as possible. God only knows why they didn't do this back in 1997.

I guess I wouldn't be surprised if the other YOT records got the reissue treatment soon. I guess they must have been out of press for a few years now. If they do get repressed it'll be very interesting to see what happens to the artwork.

'No Peace / VVar' Box Set & Tests

2011-06-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

Record Store Day. It was the best of days, it was the worst of days. But one release that didn't even make it on to the radar of most people who were participating in the day was a compilation that was sneaked out by Organized Crime Records.

Entitled 'No Peace / War' this 7" features Integrity and Rot In Hell (both of which I think are ok, as you may have gathered) as well as some other Holy Terror favourites like Gehenna, Vegas and Cape Of Bats. The idea of the comp is that each of these bands covers a song by a Japanese hardcore band. What I know about Japanese hardcore could probably be documented on a single grain of rice, but hey, this seems as good a place as any to start my schooling.

The Record Store Day deal was that there were 135 copies on blue vinyl made for punters in the States, and 185 copies on yellow for the rest of the VVorld. Unlike most of the RSD output though, there were only about two stores in the whole world that actually knew about and ordered this thing. In other words, this was next level hard to get. I mean, this one was so limited that there was no point in even trying to THINK about putting it on your want list for the day. No chance.

However, those of us in the know were always destined to get one through the secret channels in which we mix. So when the time came, I took the chance to own this thing on the most glorious format known to man - the box set.

The box itself is a regular 7" mailer, which has been adorned with some of the usual HT symbology. It is numbered out of 35 copies. I picked up number 34/35:

The box is then sealed by a thread of cotton wrapped around two Japanese coins which have been attached with some kind of rivet type thing.

Once opened, the inside of the box is decorated with the band logos.

Inside are four versions of the 7". Now, I know that I mentioned before that there were 135 on blue and 185 on yellow for the States and the VVworld respectively, but then you also get a green copy (mail order version) and red (band colour). Just like Japanese records, each record sleeve comes wrapped in an obi-strip, and the obi-strips here are printed in the colour of the vinyl inside. A great little touch if you ask me.

The care and attention that has gone into making these things is once again impressive. Putting these things together is clearly a labour of love for label owner Clint. As you can probably tell, it's not just any old fartknocker that gets the chance to pick up such special items, and I feel both lucky and privileged to get in on this.

But it doesn't end there. Oh no. I also had to go one stage further and pick up the tests.

Organized Crime does seem to have some bad luck with pressing plants. Pretty much every release seems to have a rejected test press, and an accepted test press. I'd probably start looking for a new pressing plant if I had this many problems. Anyway, this also means that there are two sleeve variations on the tests.

First up, the rejected test. Not sure what the cover is, but my guess would be that it is taken from a G.I.S.M record.

The accepted test is the 'punk' cover. I think this is taken from some Japanese punk comp LP (featuring G.I.S.M.) that came out before you were born.

A truly beautiful piece of art.

Skull Crusher 'Blinded By Illusion' 12"

2011-06-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

The thing that the mp3 generation are missing out on (in my opinion) is artwork. As I have probably said before, I have been drawn to some records & bands in the past by their artwork. A good cover will draw your eye to a release, and can grasp your curiosity. This record is a great example of that.

The record in question is a 12" by Skull Crusher called 'Blinded By Illusion'. It was released by Livewire Records in 2010. Unlike every other Livewire release, I initially ignored this record. Not sure why. Possibly it came out at a time when money was a little tight. I can't remember. But I recently saw the artwork somewhere on the internerd & it served as a reminder to pick this up. So I did.

The band features Ed McKirdy (owner of Livewire Records) on vocals and Gordo (of Double Cross) on drums, with some other dudes who I haven't heard of doing other stuff. For me this is a difficult record to pigeonhole. I guess it sounds like New York hardcore from an era when bands were bringing metal into hardcore. Kinda brought the Icemen 7" to mind, and maybe stuff like Cro-Mags... but with Dan O'Mahoney style vocals. Kinda interesting, kinda good in places, but also kinda average. Overall though I would say that this is alright. Not bad, but nowhere near as interesting as the cover would have you believe.

Roses Never Fade - The Man They Want To Hang 7"

2011-06-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

Somewhere around about 2007, I ordered a 7" by a band called Roses Never Fade. The only reason I had heard of the 7" is because at the time I (like most people) used myspace, and one day Dwid from Integrity posted up about another band he was in having some new 7" available to order. That was about as much information as I needed at the time, so I placed an order. At some point further into the future (could have been weeks, could have been months - I forget), I got a refund. No word of an explanation. But at least I got my money back. Needless to say (although I'm going to!), I never received the record. But until A389 put the album out at the start of this year, I probably didn't care, seeing as I had never heard the band and didn't realise what I was missing.

Once I got the album, however, I realised that Roses Never Fade was indeed good stuff, so naturally I wanted the 7"... although with there being only 100 copies in existance, it was not going to be an easy find. But thankfully I managed to track one down.

As I have mentioned before, this band is one of my current obsessions. I don't want to talk about the music because I don't know what I can say other than "I like it, you should check it out", but I've said that before twice already. So for now, I just want to show you the record itself, because it is a well crafted item. Entitled 'The Man They Want To Hang', there are only 100 of these things (hand numbered, of course), and each comes with a small noose attached to the dust sleeve by means of a wax seal.

Looks good huh?

There are 4 songs on here. One made it onto the 12" that A389 put out. The other three are exclusive to this 7"... although they were tagged onto the end of the album for the CD version released by Neuropa Recordings. So I guess they were exclusive to the vinyl format via this 7". Also, for the record, I would just like to say that the final song doesn't really fit with the rest of the band's output. It's longer, is not acoustic and sounds a lot heavier. To me it sounds like Isis with Dwid yelling over the top. I'm not sure why I am telling you this. You probably don't have the song, don't care, and even if you do then you're going to disagree with me because that's the kind of stubborn ass that you are.

Hang The Bastard 'Hellfire Reign' LP

2011-06-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

A few short weeks ago I went to see my old mate Robert Moron play with his current band Narrows in some shithole in London. It was in the uber fashionable Shoreditch zone of London, where people generally look like THIS and/or THIS. Thankfully though, the occurrence of a hardcore show in the cultural centre of this zone meant that the bellend ratio was reduced to a slightly less offensive level for the evening. Thank god.

There were three bands that played. The first I missed all but the first song and I have no idea who they were. The second band were called HANG THE BASTARD. Now, I acquired a split 7" with them on a year or so ago, but it never really struck me as anything too special and as such I wasn't expecting too much from them. I guess that's how life is generally though - high expectations are rarely met, whilst low expectations are easily exceeded. And the latter was certainly the case for me that night. Hang The Bastard blew me away. I don't know whether it was the duel guitar with Slayer t-shirts and bandana style approach, the bassist who looked like he could have been in a metal band playing working men's clubs in the 80s, the singer's Leeway t-shirt, or just the fact that a full metal assault was happening upstairs from some Friday night hipster fancy dress party... but somehow everything seemed perfect, and the band ripped the fuck out of the venue. I was so impressed that I came right home and ordered their debut LP, 'Hellfire Reign', which turned up a couple of weeks later.

Now, I can tell that these dudes are pretty well grounded in both hardcore and metal. But from an aesthetic point of view, the metal influence is much stronger. The cover of the LP is maybe a bit dodgy, but hey... hipsters would hate it, so I can't complain.

The record itself is on split blue and green vinyl. There were 400 on this colour. There were also 100 copies on black, but they sold to all the people who had the sense to have been listening to this band for a lot longer than me.

Ok, so anyone who knows me knows I am not the biggest fan of metal. But I make the odd exception, mainly if its hard and dirty. This band takes moments from a lot of bands I do like, or used to like a few years back, and puts them together on one record. It's interesting stuff, and I haven't managed to pull myself away from this record for the past two weeks now. And remember - you heard it here last.

Neglect 'Pull The Plug'

2011-06-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

Another hole in my colour vinyl Wreckage Records collection filled! Here's the Neglect 'Pull The Plug' 7" on green. Wreckage was a label that firmly believed in keeping their colour vinyl properly limited and hard to find. They would make like one record in every ten a colour record. I believe that this 7" on green was limited to only 200 copies:

This band was great. Pure negativity and hate. Hard as nails. I guess their 'gimmick' (if you can call it that, which you probably can't really) was that their main theme was suicide. I remember hearing stories when I was a kid about how apparently some Beatles records could be played backwards to reveal secret messages about killing yourself or some crap. Well, Neglect dispensed with this old fashioned idea of secret messages, and just got straight to the point. Their 12" was called 'End it', they had a song called 'Fuck Life', and their lyrics advocated slitting your wrists and blowing your brains out and stuff like that. If you've not heard (or heard of) this band before, then I can imagine that this may sound quite interesting, but back in the early 90s when this band was about and I first heard them, all I remember thinking to myself was "if you think suicide is so great, then why don't you stop singing & get on with it?". 16 or so years later and this is probably still a reasonable question to put to them. Haha! Anyway, since they briefly reunited in 2005 (ten years after breaking up), I'm guessing these dudes must have taken their own (much later & uncharacteristically positive) advice and decided to 'Hang On In There' after all.

Integrity 'Detonate Worlds Plague' 12" Test

2011-06-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

Last year Integrity dropped their first album in years, the aptly named 'The Blackest Curse', on hardcore super label Deathwish Inc. As far as I can tell sat here in my remote corner of the world, it went down pretty well with idiots the world over, and helped further build interest in the band that seems to have been steadily increasing over the past three years or so. Deathwish is a pretty big label in hardcore terms with good distribution, so I'm sure they shifted a fair few copies of that record. It's just a shame though they still didn't get around to putting together my suggested 'blackest' pressing on black vinyl with black labels in a plain black sleeve. Ha!

Anyhow, knowing how well received that album was last year, the latest release seems to me to be a relatively low key affair. It seems that not a lot of people are aware that there is a new Integrity 12" which is now available for purchase. I therefore think that people need to sit up and take notice.

Me, I still didn't get around to ordering the regular version(s) of this thing yet. But I did manage to acquire a test press because I'm a sneaky fucker like that sometimes. I believe that there are 20 of these things out there in a screen printed sleeve:

This record is entitled 'Detonate Worlds Plague +6'. That's because the first song on it is called 'Detonate Worlds Plague', and there are then six other songs on it after that one. And if you buy the CD version (which is only $6.66), it also contains all the songs from all of the 7"s that have come out in the past couple of years as well plus it has a 30 minute interview, which is really interesting.

Now, pay attention, because I am going to say this only once - this is the best Integrity record of the past 15 years. Seriously. If you ever listened to and enjoyed Integrity then I would advise you to give this record a chance. You won't be sorry.

The only thing left to do is give you the magic code. So here it is:

http://www.holyterror.com/store/

Self Destruct Release Show 7"

2011-06-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

Why do people sell lots on eBay? I mean, seriously, what's the point? Generally it seems that people do it to get rid of records that they probably couldn't sell on their own. Yet if they aren't the ones that are desirable in the lot, then people are buying the lot for the other records. Which means that they would still pay the same price if you took away the more undesirable records from the lot. Which means that you may as well sell the good ones and just give the unsellable ones away.

Anyhow, the lot I bought recently was two copies of the first Self Destruct 7" - the release show sleeve version (which I wanted) and the regular version (which I already had). The total price for the two was £2.99. I would have paid more for the Release show version on it's own, so I thought it was a good deal.

Self Destruct were a UK band active for not very long (or so it seemed), probably circa 2006-8 or thereabouts. In my opinion, a great band, but they seemed to come along at a weird time when the UK scene that had spawned them was starting to fall to pieces. Two years prior and I think they would have gone down much better. Then again, maybe my idea of how popular they were is slightly distorted by the fact that I had moved down south and didn't really see them play more than twice. Oh yeah, they also featured old Iron Hat from Rot In Hell on drums. Just in case that gets any of you Americans more interested. I know you love Rot In Hell over there.

This 7" was released by the UK's own Dead & Gone Records (which, ironically, is now both dead and also gone!). I think that this record was one of only about three D&G releases for which there was no colour vinyl pressing at all. Which means that the only limited version was the one with the release show sleeve, of which there were only 50... and since the release show was in some shit hole northern town, I didn't go and thus wasn't able to pick one up when it came out.

The best thing about this is that the sleeve is is printed on photographic paper. I like this, because all too many sleeves are made on photocopiers, and end up deteriorating over time as the ink wears off. So it's nice to see one on quality paper which is as good as bullet proof. Come back in 25 years and this will still look as shiny as the day it rolled off the printer.

Finally... as I mentioned, I now have a spare of the regular version of this. If anyone wants it, get in touch.

Revelation catch up

2011-06-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

I realised that I was a little behind with my Revelation collection a few weeks ago. I wanted to place an order in order to catch up, but at the same time I figured I should hold off on ordering until they put some of the RSD 7"s up for order, as I was missing the light yellow Burn 7". But then murphy sent me the Burn record, which effectively gave me the green light to order the other stuff that was outstanding.

The item I was least bothered about was the new album by rock / power pop band By A Thread. To be honest, I only ordered it because it is on Revelation. I got their first LP when it came out about 10 years ago, and I enjoyed that a lot back then, but the prospect of a new album in 2011 was not attractive. I guess time moves on and ten years later you wonder why you ever liked a certain band or sound at all. Well that was the case here. I was not excited by this whatsoever. The boring looking cover didn't help its cause much either.

I have to say though, this could be a contender for album of the year in my book. After I bought it I played it & gave it a chance, and my god, I am glad I did. I dunno whether the sunny weather makes a difference, but for two weeks straight I could listen to nothing else. Itunes tells me I have listened to this thing now 28 times, which is quite a lot considering I have had it less than a month and I stopped listening to it a week or so ago because I got hooked on something else. Anyway, suffice to say that this is a great, great record, and perfect for this time of year.

Next up was a hole I had to fill that really shouldn't have been there in the first place. Back in December I ordered the Past Present compilation LP, and the label sent me a black vinyl copy instead of a yellow copy. I know, I probably should have had them arrested or something, but instead I just left it a few months before finally placing another order. Anyway, I'm happy to finally have one of these things on egg yolk vinyl:

Next up, one that I would call "a repress too far". Haha! This is a repress of the Shai Hulud 7". Technically, this isn't on Revelation Records, but Crisis Records, which is (was) Revelation's sister label. But still, it has the Rev logo on the back, so I feel that I need it, even though I think this band is truly awful (sorry Juan!).

And finally, the second press of the Mouthpiece discography LP. The second press is out of 500 copies on green vinyl:

The vinyl colour is actually very similar to another classic Revelation release. I took a photo of the two together to prove my point:

It struck me that the first press of the discography was on white, and the second on this green, so I did start to wonder whether the two colours were specifically chosen as some kind of tribute to Judge. So I actually took the trouble to check this with Tim McMahon, who was kind enough to reply back & confirm that yes, I was right. So there you go. The 'Chung King white' and the 'Bringin' It Down green' were not random vinyl colour choices. And by the same logic, I would assume that if there's enough demand for a third press that we can expect to see it on clear orange. Ah well, here's to hoping...

Get Up Kids Sup Pop 7"

2011-06-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

My wants list and my approach to collecting is admittedly kinda weird at times. On the one hand, I have things on my want list that I want BADLY, that I would pay a lot of money for and which I would probably kill for if I really had to. I probably even devote a little time to trying to find these things by doing internet searches and maybe now and again trying to push a trade with someone. I would guess that this is how most people attack their own wants list. I mean, at the end of the day, if you want something, you do something to try to get it. You don't just sit there on your arse all day looking out of the window and hoping that by some fluke the thing you want will just drop out of the sky and land at your feet.

That said, however, I also have loads of things on my want list that would probably fit more aptly into a 'would be nice to own, but I'm almost indifferent about, and to be honest I'm not so bothered that I am ever going to put a lot of effort into finding. Basically, I'm happy to wait as long as it takes for one to fall into my hands at a decent price' list. But that's quite a mouthful. And again, if I'm honest, then probably 90% of my wants list falls into this latter category. Yes, it's true, the vast majority of the things on my want list I am not actually that bothered about getting. They're just on my list as a reminder that they exist and in case somebody will one day offer me as many free records as I can name. Oh, and because after 19 years, I don't know how to do much else other than buy records, and I need a list to remind me what to look for on ebay.

OK, so today's entry is a great example of me buying a record that I probably couldn't give less of a shit about.

The record in question is a 7" by the late 90s emo rock band, The Get Up Kids. This was released by Sub Pop as one of their monthly singles club releases back in 1999. On the back of the sleeve it says 'Edition of 1300' but it is well known that only 100 of these things came on clear vinyl. The clear version of this thing has regularly sold for over $100 for years. I always had it on my want list, but that was from when it came out, I put it on my list just because I figured it would be nice to have one, and because back then I probably quite liked this kinda crap and because it's a rare Sub Pop 7", and I always liked Sub Pop as a label... although into the mid 90s they started putting out some total rubbish and I had to acknowledge that they had totally fallen off.

Anyway, I was stoked to get this thing because it has been on my want list since it came out nearly 12 years ago. But at the same time, when I took it out of the cardboard mailer, as much as I thought it looked cool, I kinda realised that I didn't want it for the band or the music. I just wanted it because it was kinda elusive and (as Bod would say) "a nice one to have". But funnily enough, it did make me think to myself "why the hell am I still buying Get Up Kids records in 2011?". And I'm still struggling to find an answer.

Roses Never Fade LP Test & Yellow

2011-06-12T08:37:00.001-07:00

One of my favourite albums of recent times is the Roses Never Fade LP that came out on A389 Records at the start of this year. The band features Dwid and a dude or two from Pale Creation playing acoustic, creepy folk type music. It's quite different and very good. I would advise anyone to check this out as it is the perfect late night listen. Even more perfect for those of you who may live in a log cabin in the middle of a forest where the temperature never rises above freezing.

I was lucky enough to obtain a test press of this album recently. Unlike most tests, this one comes on colour vinyl. It's kinda purpley grey. I think technically this is probably the 'scrap' vinyl that United sell cheaper than black vinyl. The colour is just various leftovers all chucked in together. Mine also came in a sleeve hand-made by Dwid:

I also picked up a copy of the album on yellow vinyl too. This is the more limited colour (aka the band colour) out of 100 copies. I think the vinyl colour was a good choice. It goes well with the cover art.

Black Flag colour 7"s

2011-06-11T09:16:00.001-07:00

Two more entries into the Black Flag colour vinyl collection. One old, one new. Let's start with the old one...

'Louie Louie' 7" on red. No idea how old this one might be. My guess would be 1990-92. Somewhere round there. I got this on ebay uk for dead cheap.

The second is the 'Six Pack' 7" on white/grey/clear. The colour is somewhere between grey and white, but it's also slightly see thru. I got this one from RevHQ when I ordered some other bits and pieces recently, so it must be a brand new repress.

I still badly need a copy of the 'In My Head' LP on colour if anyone has one to give up, or if anyone knows anyone who might give one up. Get in touch.

OFF! ctwbwra 7" Wine

2011-06-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

This 7" is by Off! and has no title... although is referred to in old speak by the titles of the songs it contains - 'Compared to what b/w Rotten Apple'. The two songs here clock in at less than three minutes in total.

I'm not sure if this was a Record Store Day release or not. I can't even be bothered to research it. All I know is that there are three colours and I only got one because the others seemed to sell out before I even knew that this record existed at all. Ah well. That's how the cookie crumbles sometimes I guess. Anyway, this copy is (I think) third pressing. I believe this colour is called 'wine'. Even though I don't drink wine and I know nothing about it, I'm pretty sure that wine isn't actually this colour... well, unless it has some engine oil mixed in with it maybe.

I'm loving this band right now. I really hope that they come to the UK at some point. I'd love to see their live show.

Youth Of Today CCME 12" on Yellow!

2011-06-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

Anyone expecting this post to be about the latest Revelation Records reissue is going to be disappointed, because this post is about something else entirely - the dodgy European Pressing on We Bite Records, which I coincidentally won on eBay a couple of weeks before anyone even knew that another Revelation pressing was on the way. I decided to hold off posting the recent Rev pressing just to annoy Lins87... although no doubt he's probably too busy getting drunk and sleeping with 6 girls in one evening to care. We've seen 'Geordie Shore'. We know what life's like up there in Newcastle.

Anyway, I was never bothered about these bright yellow euro pressings of the YOT records before. I always thought that they looked awful and cheap. But something recently made me want to pick them up. I guess that when I got that Wishingwell LP a couple of months back it just reminded me that I should have more Youth Of Today records in my life. Even if they are on godawful bright colours.

I always thought that these things were on a solid yellow colour. But this one turns out to be kinda clear (as you can see) which I think somehow makes it look slightly less offensive:

Finally... I'm not entirely sure if this is supposed to be funny or not, but one of the names on the thanks list did make me chuckle...

Integrity Flexi Test Press

2011-06-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I posted about the Integrity flexi disc. Today I'm back on the same subject with the fifth version of this record - the test press.

Yep, every record needs a test press, and flexi discs are no exception. The test for the Integrity flexi is a plain blue flexi which is only distinct from the other blue version by the fact that it has blank 'labels'.

It also comes in a sleeve. The sleeves for the regular flexis are card, but the sleeve for the test is a 'two bit' affair, consisting of a piece of clear acetate on top of a piece of blue card. It's also numbered out of 7 copies.

As stupid as it sounds, the biggest dilemma in my life when I received this was whether I should store it in the black bag with the other versions, or keep it elsewhere. I thought about this long and hard for all of two minutes before concluding that no, putting it in the bag would not be the correct thing to do. So instead I chucked it on the floor with the rest of the stuff I have bought in the last 6 months. At some point in the near future I hope to find a spare couple of hours to tidy up, so that I can walk around my spare room without stepping on records... although I seem to recall saying the same thing about 6 months ago and here I still am getting slowly buried in plastic & cardboard.

Integrity Black Bag Set

2011-06-07T16:13:00.001-07:00

Organized Crime records recently had some fun pressing up a flexi disc version of an old Integrity demo, which was originally recorded and released (presumably on cassette) waaaaay back in 1989. There was a black flexi in a black sleeve made for the A389 show in Baltimore, which I believe sold out very quickly. There were then clear vinyl and red vinyl versions sold online. And then a blue flexi somehow got out there too. So four versions were made. I managed to get two of them from the label's online store, but I never got around to posting them on here because life has been too hectic for the past couple of months and I am just behind. But in a way that's a good thing, because a post about two flexi discs would have been dull compared to this.

Recently I heard that there was a super limited set of the flexis packaged in a bag. I figured it would be impossible to get one. On this occasion, however, I was more than happy to be proven wrong. This thing is really cool and I am very lucky to have one. So here we go...

The cloth bag, with the skull logo on the front:

Inside there is one of each of the four flexi discs. I got bag number 13, so all four records contained within are number 13s.

It's interesting how each version is slightly different to the others. First up is the black one. This is the one that was sold at the A389 jamboree. Black vinyl in a black sleeve, numbered out of 65.

This one also came with instructions on how to play and care for your flexi disc. Very caring of the label to include this I thought!

(Click the image to enlarge & read)

Crazy to think that some kids might have never seen or owned a flexi disc before. I guess I must just be old to have bought these things when they were common 20+ years ago.

Clear is the most common version, numbered out of 150:

Red, like the black, is also numbered out of 65:

And finally, blue vinyl. This is the rarest version, being numbered out of 45. This one also has a different centre 'label' as you can see:

Oh yeah, and to add some weight, the bag also includes a plexiglass square with the skull logo on it. This looks really cool. It also helps add some stiffness to the bag so that the flexis won't just flop over or get bent.

So there you go. The Integrity black bag set. Making flexi discs acceptable in 2011.

(((Oh yeah, finally... I have one spare red and one spare clear. If you want them, get in touch. I will sell or trade to anyone who may be interested)))

Chain Of Strength 2nd 7" w/ Blue Mindpower Sleeve

2011-06-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

I picked up another Chain of Strength 7" variant I didn't have a couple of weeks ago. Today seems like a fitting day to post this up, seeing as videos have been surfacing all day from the Mouthpiece / Youth Of Today show that took place yesterday in Pamona, CA (in case you haven't seen it, head on over to Double Cross and watch Curtis from Chain Of Strength join Mouthpiece on stage to cover 'True Til Death').

So today's record is the second Chain Of Strength 7", 'What Holds Us Apart'. Most straight edge collectors know the crack with this 7". There are at least 200 different versions of this 7" in total. If you want a comprehensive run down, you can either read Dobek's blog, or if you want something a bit cooler (sorry Dobek!) then watch a video of Kevin Finn talking you through 15 different versions, including all tests, over at Larry Ransom's site (a great little video if you haven't seen it before you should definitely check it out).

My latest addition is one of apparently one of 200 copies on Mindpower Records with a blue sleeve.

Now, here's the messed up thing... tucked inside the blue sleeve was a regular Foundation sleeve from the first press. Not just the sleeve, but also the huge poster insert. What's weird is that, as far as I am aware, there isn't supposed to be a first press sleeve and insert inside the third press blue Mindpower sleeve. The vinyl is definitely the later pressing record that goes with the Mindpower sleeve, because it has the black labels with silver text. So how did the first press sleeve & insert end up getting packaged with this third press sleeve and vinyl? Does anyone else out there have this strange concoction?

Also, whilst I am on the subject, I checked my yellow sleeve Mindpower 7" to find that it somehow has the first press vinyl inside, i.e. it's a first press record in a third press sleeve (check my second ever blog post to see that photo HERE). So between the two copies, what the hell do I have? A pair of hotch potch versions, or so it seems. Almost like someone who had three different versions of the record dropped all the different bits (records, sleeves & inserts) into a heap and then randomly re-assembled them without really caring what went with what. Nightmare.

fIREHOSE promo 7"

2011-06-05T15:17:00.001-07:00

There were a couple of Descendents promo 7"s on eBay a few weeks back. They went for $51 and $48 respectively. I watched them but in the end I didn't bid. But I did check the seller's other items and find another similar item that I liked the look of. In the end I won it for $7. I was beyond stoked.

The record is by a band called fIREHOSE (yup, that's how you write their name. Small 'f' and the rest in capitals). I won't go into much detail about the band, as you can read about them by using the link above if you are remotely interested. They came to my attention circa 1990 when I saw a skateboard video called 'Streets On Fire'. The final section of that video went to Natas Kaupas, who blew everyone's mind back then by spinning on a fire hydrant and boardsliding the roll bar in the back of a pickup truck. His section also had a great soundtrack - a song called 'Brave Captain' by an as then unknown band called fIREHOSE. A year or so later and a friend of mine managed to get his hands on a vinyl copy of the band's LP, and I was stoked to tape the first song onto a yellow Sony cassette, which I then played every day for god knows how long. It was one of those songs that makes a big impact on your life. You know how it is.

Nearly twenty years later I have just bought a 7" of that song. SST Records, catalog number PSST 079. The 'P' stands for 'Promo' (the real SST 079 was the band's first album, 'Ragin' Full On' which I scored a test press of back in September 2008). This 7" is a promotional record never intended for sale. I can only guess it went out to record stores and radio stations. Oh what a different world it was back then when labels had to send out free records in order to get their music heard. Promotion must have cost a small fortune!

This 7" isn't much to look at, but that's not really the point. It's a nice momento of an interesting time in my life. I guess that's what a lot of records are really. But goddamnit, this is also a great song. I haven't tired of this tune in twenty years and I seriously think I could play it every single day and never tire of it.

And for the old bastards amongst you, here's the video part it first featured in. Enjoy...

Record Store Day Part 2 - BURN

2011-05-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

I did my Record Store Day post a couple of weeks back & mentioned in there that I was missing the pale yellow variant of the BURN 7". To my pleasant surprise, my old friend who I have never met, Brian Murphy, came to the rescue, not only telling me that he had a spare, but that he would send it to me for nothing. A few days later and here it is:

Of the three Revelation RSD releases that came on differing colour variants, this one is the most obvious. Here are my two different colour variants next to each other:

Interestingly, the Revelation Records text file discography has now been updated, and it seems that they either have no record of, or fail to recognise, the RSD colour variations. Kinda weird given the fuss these days over the pale yellow GB 7". Ah well... just because the labels doesn't acknowledge them doesn't mean they don't exist. Or does it?

This next photo nicely pulls together the two themes of the is post - Burn & Brian Murphy. Something I kept from the first day I ever met Dalbec & co. It's been safely tucked away in a box for ten and a half years.

Gotta say, I'm suddenly curious - was there ever a shirt made with this design? I really hope so.

A couple of old B9 7"s

2011-05-08T03:38:00.000-07:00

Picked up a couple of old Bridge Nine releases on ebay recently through random events.

Firstly, The Hope Conspiracy 'File03' 7". Bridge Nine number 14. This one is an interesting one for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because the regular pressing was a two song 7" with an etched b-side, yet this one is the ultra rare double sided 7" with two extra songs. Only one hundred of these suckers out there, as the text on the poly bag suggests:

The other thing that makes this interesting is how it is numbered. Well, I guess the label must have lost their stamps and not been able to find any in any local stores, because these were numbered with a date stamper. So, record number 1 was 'Jan 01', and so on and so forth. Although, as you may have worked out, date stampers only number up to 31, so number 32 would have been 'Feb 01'. Which means that number 100 of 100 would have been 'Apr 10'. Seems a bit shit to me, but never mind.

I got pretty lucky with this one. Tre sold his a few weeks back and it ended on $57. I didn't bid because I was hoping to score it for less at some point. Then literally a couple of weeks later some other dude listed one, I watched it, and then ended up winning for $6.50. I think this usually goes for around the $50 mark, so I'm pretty happy to have scored a bargain.

I saw The Hope Conspiracy a couple of times back circa 2001/2. One time I asked the singer if anyone had ever mistaken him for David Arquette. He said he got it all the time. Sheep was also there and asked me who David Arquette was. Christ.

The second 7" is the Tenfold 'Now Is Our Time' 7". Bridge Nine number 2. This came out in 1997. I've had a blue one for years, but this clear vinyl copy is the rarest version, being numbered out of 100.

As you can see, this one is numbered using a proper stamper. I wonder what happened to the stamper in the years that followed so that it wasn't around when the label wanted to stamp the Hope Con 7"s?

Tenfold was a band that had Neal & Luke from In My Eyes in before they were in In My Eyes. They had another 7" on Stand Hard Records that I still never got around to picking up for some reason. Ah well. It's only been 14 years. I'm sure I'll get around to it one day.

A Staining Impression

2011-05-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite 90s bands without a doubt, but one which seems to get little attention or love from other miserable old bastards.. Eleven Thirty Four. This band had 7"s on New Age, Ammunition, and Livewire, as well as a full length on New Age and a frickin' awesome song on the Indecision Records compilation LP. Dudes were previously in a band called Function, who had a 7" on Revelation's sister label Crisis Records. I always loved both bands, and I firmly believe that their output has stood the test of time and regularly listen to their catalog. So I was stoked to find a test press for one of their 7"s up for sale in the Mankind Records online store. I didn't need to think about this one for so much as a second. Bought. Stoked.

Seemed like a good excuse to get the other two copies out of the box and snap a family portrait:

I also grabbed a 7" by a band called Generations. I don't know anything about this band whatsoever, but the cover sold it to me... bass guitar with Insted & In My Eyes stickers, x'd up hand and an X Swatch. This came out in 2006, and the main reason I grabbed it was because it was on sale for $2. It's pretty generic straight edge to be honest, but a sound I've always been a sucker for, and the nice cover and layouts make it feel like a quality release... even if I am five years too late! (No change there then)

If anyone wants to chime in & tell me anything interesting about either band then that would be cool...

Record Store Day 2011

2011-04-29T17:21:00.001-07:00

Ok, so Record Store Day 2011, the annual event intended to celebrate & hep preserve local record stores, took place two weeks ago. I have never participated before, but this year I had seen an impressive list of records that were being made specially for the day, and realised that I had to get involved. My main point of interest were the Revelation Records reissues, and since I knew that my local store would be getting them in, it was just a matter of what time I should get there to be sure that I could get them. Well, I know that there were a lot of people last year, but I found out from the store that nobody got there before 9am (for a 10am opening). So I figured I would get there at 8am to be safe. So when the day came around I set my alarm for earlier than I would on a work day, got up and drove ten miles, then walked to the store. I took with me a Nintendo to keep me amused for two hours, and a skateboard to sit on. As it turns out, I would have been better to stay in bed. I got there a full two hours before the place opened, but found the biggest gathering of people waiting that I have ever seen. I took this souvenir photo then turned around and went straight back home:

Fortunately, however, I had a couple of friends halfway across the world who were looking out for me. My iphone didn't stop buzzing as both Mike and Doug kept me up to date with where they were & what they had managed to lay their hands on, so I was able to relax a little knowing that I wasn't going to have to resort to ebay and pay five times the store prices. Then it got even better (or worse). Another friend of mine who lives about ten miles away told me that he had been to the exact same store that I tried to go to at 5 in the afternoon, where he had casually walked in & picked up the Revelation releases without a problem. Even better, he told me that they still had copies left. So the next day I was able to go back again and pick up a few bits myself. So here's everything I managed to acquire from Reissue Day 2011...

First up I'm going to deal with the Revelation releases. Now, it was known that there were three 7"s being repressed, with 1,000 of each being made. I figured that this was (is) a large number, and it would therefore be pretty easy to get these. However, just to keep things more interesting, it emerged pretty quickly after people starting buying the things that there was variation in the vinyl colours. There seem to be light and dark colour variations of each 7". Speculation is that these were initially pressed as editions of 500, but then the label decided to make 500 more, and maybe the plant didn't manage to make the same colours for the second run. As far as I can tell, this is just speculation, but it certainly sounds plausible.

First up is the Quicksand 7" on blue vinyl. I was lucky enough to get one of each colour variation. One dark, which includes black swirls, and one light, baby blue. The difference between these two is quite obvious:

Next, the Youth Of Today 7". Again, I managed to get one of each variation. However, this one's a weird one. The difference in colour is quite obvious in real life. One is maroon and one is kinda pink. However, it was almost impossible to get the difference in colour to show up in a picture. I guess it's to do with me having a cheap, crap camera, but also the way the light falls on the things. Still, after taking probably 50 photos, I have managed to get a couple of shots that show the difference:

Now, the BURN 7" was the first record that I almost went insane trying to track down. Back in '92/93 this (on pink vinyl) was by far my most wanted record. It wasn't until late '96 that I managed to track one down. Back then it felt like a huge and impossible task had been completed. So pretty funny that 15 years later I once again had the BURN 7" on colour vinyl at the top of my want list. This is one of the most important records I own, in terms of shaping my life, and this new pressing on yellow vinyl looks fantastic. Shame that I didn't get the light yellow version too, but I'm sure I'll get one eventually.

And the final Revelation release is the Elliott LP. Some thought this a strange choice, given that it is nothing like, and bears no relation to, the other Rev releases. However, in some ways, it does make sense. Firstly, the singer of this band has a new band - Frontier(s) - so there's probably been a bit more interest in Elliott again recently. And secondly, this is apparently Rev's second biggest selling release ever. Not sure where I read that, and I can't confirm that it is 100% true, but I read it somewhere, and I don't disbelieve it.

My copy has a few bits of pinkish red colour in it. Perhaps a clue that it was pressed right after the YOT 7"?

Another classic hardcore reissue - the Bad Brains first 7". I'm not really sure why it has taken this long to repress this record, nor why it was selected to do this for RSD, but hey, since I don't have this record at all I figured it was worth having:

I like how it has a sticker informing us it's a reissue. Presumably this is just in case someone happened to walk into a record store and see a Bad Brains 7" for sale for $5 and shit themselves thinking it was an original.

I also picked up the Rival Schools 7". The store I picked mine up from must have had about 40 copies of this thing on the shelf the day after record store day. I figure they'll be selling this one until the end of time.

And the Off! 'Live At Generation Records' 7" on Vice Records. What I like about this is that it has the same artwork / layout style as the other 7"s they have released on this label. What I don't like is that I realised abut a week after RSD that there was a second Off! 7" made for RSD, on Southern Lorn records, which is far more aesthetically interesting... and which I don't have.

Next up, the Interpol remix 12". This was probably the most limited thing I picked up. Apparently there was only 300 of these things made in total. It seems to sell on ebay for 5 times what I paid for it. I expect this one should at least hold its value for a while, unlike the other items, where the value is likely to fall significantly over the next few weeks/months.

A new Arctic Monkeys 7". I listened to this band's first LP loads when it came out, and the second LP was alright too. But that was probably 4 years ago now & I haven't listened to anything since. I like the minimal packaging on this one.

And finally, one that I now kinda regret buying - the Mastodon / ZZTop split 7". I like Mastodon, and I guess I picked this up because it was there. But it looks cheap and mass produced, and I don't really want anything by ZZTop in my collection to be honest

As much as RSD provided a bit of entertainment for a couple of days, all things considered I have to conclude that it is a bag of shite. I mean, come on, what is the point? To help preserve record stores? Well, if that's the case then why is it only one day a year? Also, I have to say, there's something wrong when, for one day of the year, every fartknocker under the sun gets up a 5am to line up outside a store and buy every record in sight... yet every other day of the year they spend money elsewhere. Seems to me that all RSD is doing is creating hype around a bunch of crappy reissues that most people seem to be trying to buy just so they can sell on ebay to make a fast buck. Plus it seems to now be becoming more about the day itself, and the competition to get their first and buy the rarest piece of crap, that people are losing sight of the point. What should be happening, in my opinion, is that this positive energy towards buying records needs to be re-focused a little. Instead of encouraging people to buy records once a year, stores & labels should be trying to make it more sustainable. So it needs to be a bit more regular. Also, the hype also needs to be about the music, not just the plastic. We need there to be this level of interest in new releases rather than just for reissues. I think we could do with something like this every month, although there is an argument that people might then get bored with it pretty quickly. I don't know. All I do know is there is something wrong when those of us who support vinyl for 365 days a year can't get into our local shop due to 200 people we've never seen before scrambling to buy a Doctor Who picture disc for twenty quid. Morons.

Hands Tied 7" on Gold

2011-04-26T14:36:00.001-07:00

Hands Tied 'Through The Wreckage' 7" on gold vinyl. This came out on Livewire Records late last year. It didn't make my top 5 7"s of the year list, although with hindsight, it probably should have done. I guess I didn't play it enough when I first got it, but after a while it ended up as a regular gym hit and in time I have found that it is one of those records that I simply cannot tire of. Fast & hard straight edge hardcore played by older dudes who have been around for years and who obviously still know what the fuck is going on. Unfortunately though it seems that not many other people know what is going on, because I was the only bidder for this item on ebay. I won it for $3, which seems even more crazy when you consider that this is the more limited colour out of 100 copies. I missed this when it came out because I was going through my prog rock phase.

The seller also offered me the red vinyl copy too for nothing. He had tried to sell it on ebay but got no bids, so asked me if I would like it thrown in for free with the gold one. I actually said no, seeing as I already have the red one & I didn't want this dude to lose a bit of money in sending it over to me... but he very kindly sent it anyway. What a true gentleman! You can see it here alongside the gold copy in a scene reminiscent of top (bottom) John Cusack film 'High Fidelity':

Anyway, as I already have this on red, I thought I would keep the generosity train running and offer it to someone for the same price I paid for it... which, in case you're a bit slow, is zero. If you want it, let me know & it's yours (unless you're a bellend, of course, in which case I will most likely give it to someone more deserving).

Rot In Hell Charity Auction

2011-04-25T03:54:00.000-07:00

Everyone's favourite ex Seconds Out band, Rot In Hell, held an online charity auction recently. Inspired by Jules from Side By Side's auction to help the victims of the Japanese earthquake/tsunami, the bass player from RIH held his own sale of rare items, with all of the proceeds generously going to himself. Since I have met this dude at least twice, and know that he could do with all the help he could get, I happily dispatched two days of earnings post haste. For this kind offering, I was sent a box containing the band's greatest hits.

First up is the ridiculously limited 7" made for a music festival in Baltimore, US of A. This record goes by the title of "Ulthedinn', although you can pretty much call it anything starting with a 'U'. I have previously referred to it as 'Urethra', 'Urine' and 'Ultimate Dinner'. Only thirty of these things were made, and the rumour is that they were hand crafted by a man using a lathe in his shed.

These were originally wrapped in a hat, but mine doesn't have one because apparently it was given to someone from Integrity. In a way that's better seeing as a hat would not doubt present me with storage issues and stress me out. If you are interested, however, you can see the headware HERE.

My copy also had loads of gadgets included, like two patches, a CD (of the 'Niu' recording) and a book. A fairly impressive package.

Next up is the test(icle) press of the 'Niu' 12" that came out on A389 Recordings. This one comes in a bright red sleeve, which I like. Also, good to see a record manufactured at an American pressing plant rather than that dodgy euro one that Tre likes.

Next, one of the two record release versions of the split 7" with Wayfarer. I was supposed to get both versions ages ago in a trade with vocalist John Thin Ice, but unfortunately he got confused and messed it up. This was sold at an all dayer here in the UK held by Carry The Weight Records. There's a flyer for the show included and it comes with a rune stone.

Finally, a test press of the split 7" with Wayfarer. The sleeve for this one is a single sheet which contains so much ink that it is surely only a matter of time before it self combusts.

Don't you just love charity?

£2

2011-04-23T15:26:00.001-07:00

Black Flag 'Louie Louie' 7" on SST Records on red vinyl. Even though I started collecting coloured Black Flag records a few short years ago, I was never really bothered by trying to acquire the 7"s. However, I stumbled across this one on eBay recently, had a cheeky bid and bagged it for £2. Since it costs more than that to break wind these days, I figured I got a good deal.

Movielife LP on Red

2011-04-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

Way back in December I picked up a white vinyl repress of the Movielife LP on Revelation. I also found out that they pressed some on red vinyl too. I said:

The second colour is red and is out of 503 copies. I'd like to be able to show you what it looks like, but unfortunately I can't because I don't have one.

Well, I finally do and I therefore can. So here ya go:

As this next picture shows, the record is almost transparent. You really have to click the picture to see what I mean, and if you do you will see the band name on the sleeve through the record. However, if you hold the record up and put your hand behind it you can't see anything, as if it's a solid colour. Kinda weird. Also, kinda not very interesting at all for the average human.

That's now 204 pieces of Rev vinyl in my house. According to the latest forecast there should be approximately ten more showing up in the next month. Get in the hole!