Fist Sized Chunks

I spent a lot of time in 2024 listening to a large number of early Sub Pop 7"s. It was an interesting journey, which got me checking out lots of bands I had never heard before. Some of them I knew that I would check out further in time, one of which was Skin Yard after I enjoyed their 'Start At The Top' 7".

I recently played that 7" again and then went straight to the internet to see whether I could find any more of their records for sale. I ende up picking their third LP from 1990, 'Fist Sized Chunks', for two reasons. Firstly, because it was on colour vinyl, and secondly because it was relatively cheap, and thirdly because it was in the UK.

As I mentioned in my last post about this band, they had Jack Endino on guitar, who is somewhat of a legend in the Seattle grunge scene of the late 80s / early 90s, and who has spent most of his life recording & producing other records (including Nirvana's 'Bleach'). This record right here is a very typical grunge sounding record, and sounds a hell of a lot like Soundgarden. Really good stuff and I'm really keen to check out more of their catalogue at some point

Return Of The Frog Queen

I'm a fairly patient guy. Back in 2018 I saw that Sub Pop had repressed the first solo LP by Jeremy Enigk on a very pretty purple marble vinyl, and I wanted a copy. Well, time passed by and eventually, seven years later, and I finally ended up with one.

I stumbled onto this on eBay UK. It was a brand new, sealed copy which cost less than half of what most new records cost these days.

Like a lot of people, I was absolutely obsessed by Sunny Day Real Estate in 1994/95, so when their vocalist came out with a solo LP in 1996, I was pretty excited by it. I have vague memories of regularly listening to it late at night, and every time feeling like I had been on an emotional journey. It's a beautiful record, and even though I do try my best (!) to not pick up additional copies of records that I already have, I could not resist this one. Interestingly, the original catalogue number for this one was SP323, but this remastered purple version is SP1208, so I could argue that this is technically a different record, which of course makes it all ok.

Beefeater

Lately I've been getting more interested in earlier Dischord stuff that I haven't really given much of a chance to before, and the next step in my journey is Beefeater, a band active from 1984 to 1986. I once listened to one of their records around the turn of the century, and back then my thoughts were simply 'what the hell is this?'. The band's description on discogs refers to them as a 'punk/post-hardcore band whose music included elements of funk & jazz', which is not a mix usually associated with records that are considered good. And that was firmly my view in the early 2000s. But recently I gave them a chance and I was blown away at how good they are. Next step was to look to see if their records were available to buy for a reasonable price, and the answer was a big 'yes'... so I grabbed two of them.

The debut LP 'Plays For Lovers' was released in 1985 as Dischord 17. I don't really understand the picture on the front cover, but as I am starting to realise, this is a band that basically just did whatever they wanted without worrying what people might think.

The second LP, 'House Burning Down' was released in 1987 as Dichord 23. When you drop the needle, the first thing you hear is some chap talking.

Hi, this is Ian Mackaye of Dischord Records. I'd just like to thank you for choosing this hardcore product.

Then it launches straight into some hardcore funk fusion type song, which on paper sounds terrible, but is actually really good.

I don't usually listen to two records by one band at the same time, but for some reason at the moment I'm finding this band really addictive. I listen to one, it ends, so I put the other one on. Another great example of my tastes changing over time to the point where I almost feel annoyed at myself for dismissing this so quickly 20+ years ago. But hey, at least I'm learning.

Slip Promo

I came across this Quicksand promo 12" recently on discogs. I can't remember why I was looking at this, as I have owned one for probably 30 years or so. But one of the copies for sale caught my eye as it said that it came with a press sheet. Mine didn't have one, so I figured I'd buy this one as it was pretty cheap.

This is a 4 song 12" which served as a promo for 'Slip' back in 1993. This was back in the days when the only way to circulate music was to send physical copies around, although I'm not sure where they would have been sent... radio stations? Record shops? Given it was 1993, and CDs were in full swing, I'm slightly confused as to why they pressed vinyl promos. But anyway, when this arrived it did indeed have the press sheet included.

I took a photo of the sheet so you can click on it and read it:

Witht he gift of hindsight, this seems pretty sloppy to me. Some of it is factually incorrect, but generally it's just interesting to read this for the first time all these years later.

Judged & Jugded

I came across this Burn 7" in a record store in Texas. It looked different to the other copies I have, being on a slightly dark clear red vinyl with a bit of white streaking in it. The same shop also had a copy of the opaque red vinyl in stock, so I was able to compare the two side by side. Given that this one looked different, I decided to buy it.

I initially assumed it was a variant of the opaque red vinyl pressing from 2021. But given that the store sold both new and used records, and the 7" section was a mix of the two, it could also possibly be a variant of the clear red vinyl pressing from 2015. I figured that I would never know. But then I noticed a detail that gave the game away. The clear red copy has the spelling mistake on the label ('Jugded'), whereas the opaque copy has corrected this error. Given that the label on this copy has the correct spelling ('Judged'), this is therefore a variant of the 2021 opaque red vinyl pressing.

The photo shows the 2015 clear red on the left, the 2021 opaque red on the right, and this quirky variant in the middle.

I appreciate that a lot of people will think this stupid, but I love stuff like this.

2025: The Unquiet Year

So as much as I was dreading 2025, it was actually a pretty good year for me. On a personal note, I ticked off some big projects that had been on the 'to do' list for two to three years. Early in the year I bought a new car (after owning my last one for 17 years!), then had some long overdue and expensive roof repairs carried out, and enjoyed climbing onto the scaffold to do a spot of painting myself. In summer I went to California to do the San Diego to San Francisco drive that I had wanted to do for a few years, and met up with some good friends on the trip. After we got home, we had a new patio laid in the back garden, which ended up being a pretty major project, and then the year closed out with trips to Barcelona, Malaga and Texas. I was constantly busy, and unsurprisingly it turned out to be quite an expensive year(!), and for this reason I intentionally slowed down on my record buying habit for most of the second half of the year.

I also went to three really cool and important live shows. In May I went to see Jonah Onelinedrawing play in a small venue about 5 miles from my house, which was a perfect and beautiful show, and led me to obsess over his music for a few weeks afterwards. Then in late June I went to the Big Frank Harrison memorial show in Orange County, California and I got to see Farside play for the first time in my life and, despite them only playing 5 songs, it was an amazing and memorable experience. I felt so lucky to be there, and it made me so happy to have found such a great scene. And then in September I drove up to Leeds to see Cave In play 'Jupiter' in its entirety to celebrate its 25th anniversary, which was every bit as incredible as I had hoped.

I also continued to do 100 push ups a day, which I have managed to carry on for 2.5 years. I only mention it here as I have done so the past two years.

Anyway, on with the lists...

MY FAVOURITE 2025 RELEASES

Without a doubt, 2025 was a great year for new releases. In fact, there were so many (mainly in the second half of the year) that I literally could not keep up. I generally like to only listen to something once I have the vinyl, and for various reasons it seems difficult for me to buy records quickly these days. So I have broken my list into different sections. First up, a photo of my favourite new releases for which I did manage to buy a physical copy:

Shown in the photo are:

Diaz Brothers 'The World Is Yours' LP
Higher Power 'There's Love In This World If You Want It' LP
Onelinedrawing 'Alien Wondering' LP
Propagandhi 'At Peace' LP
Restraining Order 'Future Fortune' LP
Scowl 'Are We All Angels?' LP
Turnstile 'Never Enough' LP
Ursula 'I Don't Like Anything' LP

I have nothing to say about these that I haven't already said in the posts (linked above). But I loe them all.

Next up, there were actually four new releases that I did listen to even though not getting the vinyl yet. Despite what I said earlier, now and again (but very rarely) I will check out a record before getting the vinyl, either because I am too excited to wait, or because I want to decide whether it is really worth investing money in to get a copy to file away on a shelf and never look at. I listened to these four quite a bit, and will hopefully pick up vinyl copies at some point very soon.

The above records are:

By A Thread 'Mirrored Life' LP - This band seems to crank out a record roughly every 12 years, so it's a rare event. I just could not wait to listen to this.
Miltown 'Tales Of Never Letting Go' - I loved this band in the late 90s, and somehow their unreleased LP appeared out of nowhere with no warning this year. An amazing surprise.
Speedway 'A Life's Refrain' - I just had to check this out because there was such a buzz about it, and deservedly so.
Suzzallo 'The Quiet Year' LP - I had to check this to see if it would be something I might like. Without doubt, it is one of the most beautiful records I have ever heard, and it absolutely broke my heart.

If I absolutely had to pick a favourite record for the year it would come down to a choice between Turnstile and Suzzallo. I didn't think 'Never Enough' was that good when I first got it, but I have found that I keep going back to it and it just does not get old. It's also cool to see the band still continue to grow in popularity, and I back them 100%. The Suzzallo record is a totally different type of record, and I really wish it didn't exist, but it is a truly beautiful work of art and I rarely get this invested in a record emotionally these days. It is truly special and needs to be heard, but you need to understand the backstory to fully appreciate it.

2025 RELEASES I DIDN'T GET AROUND TO CHECKING OUT YET

So here's an image of the 2025 releases that I didn't get around to buying or checking out yet, despite wanting to. Most of these came out in the second half of the year, at which point I was doing my best to conserve money. But also, as Ralf mentioned, buying new releases these days can be difficult. Often there are preorders with lots of different colour options, and what I have learnt is that often the mock up pictures of the records turn out to be nothing like the finished product. You order the one that looks the best from a mock up, and it turns out to look nothing like you expected when it arrives. So what I generally do now is wait until I have seen photos of the actual records, and decide which colour I want then, and half the time that means that the one I end up wanting has sold out. Some records are so ugly that picking the nicest looking one means more than ever before, and sometimes it takes a while. Anyway, I will get these eventually. It's just a question of time.

The image shows the covers of these records:

Casket Lottery 'Feel The Teeth' LP
Deadguy 'Near Death Travel Services' LP (Relapse Records)
Drain 'Is Your Friend' LP (Epitaph Records)
Mirrorless 'S/T' 12" (Equal Vision Records)
Planet On A Chain 'Ritual Routine' LP (Revelation Records)
Soulblind 'Red Sky Mourning' LP (Closed Casket Activities)
Spaced 'No Escape' 12" (Pure Noise Records)

I haven't listened to any of these at all, but I figured I would leave this here as a reference point for my record shopping in the next few weeks. I will do my best to pick these up as early as possible in 2026.

MY FAVOURITE PICKUPS

When it comes to picking up cool or rare items, there aren't too many that I could throw up on here this year for various reasons, but I did manage to pick up and post a few cool items. As ever, I dug out my favourites for a photo:

The photos shows these:

Bent Blue 'So Much Seething' LP Test press - a gift from Dave at Indecision, and I just love the front cover art.
Ceremony 'In The Spirit World Now' LP on clear vinyl - I was totally obsessed by this at the start of the year, and was happy to pick up the nicest (and rarest) colour.
Dag Nasty 'Field Day' LP Test press - Nico grabbed this for me and hand delievered it. I used to hate this record but have grown to really like it as I have got older.
Soundgarden 'Ultramega OK' LP on blue vinyl - this band was last year's obsession, but some of their records are now really hard to find. I was stoked to add this one to my collection, especially as it is in perfect shape.
Living Memories Test Presses of both 12"s - one of my favourite current bands, and I was happy to be able to grab these tests.
Power Alone 'Rather Be Alone' LP Test Press - I love this record and was happy to be able to buy a test press, and even more stoked to have the singer, Eva, fix the creased sleeve with some custom artwork.
Nirvana 'Sliver' 7" first press - I don't collect Nirvana records, but this 7" is the exception. Picking up copies of this was a focus in 2023 and 2024, but it took longer to find a good condition first press at a good price.
97A 'Better Off Dead' 7" on red vinyl - I was so stoked to get this after having it on the want list for well over two decades.

OTHER STUFF I LISTENED TO A LOT

I almost didn't include this section this year, but when I glanced back through the blog history it turns out that I have included this bit every year since 2013 (despite me thinking I'd added it about three years ago). So anyway, tradition dictates I list this stuff, which is records that I spent a bit of time with despite them not being released in 2025.

Shown in alphabetical order are:

- Glassjaw 'Don Fury Sessions' - never listened to this band before, but this is incredible.
- Government Issue 'Crash' - I bought a few GI records, and listened to this one most, but the whole catalog is great.
- Heiress 'Nowhere Nearer' - this is so incredibly poweeful that I just kept going back to it.
- Journeyman 'Newidolson' - released by Redemption Records in 1993, and I only just found out this exists this year. Awesome 90s post hardcore featuring members of Release.
- Metallica 'Hardwired... To Self Destruct' - the next step in me working my way through the Metallica catalog over a 35 year timeline. I still haven't got to either 'Load' or 'Reload' yet though.
- Mil-Spec 'Marathon' LP - only a couple of years late to this one once a reasonably priced colour copy appeared.
- No Use For A Name 'Leche Con Carne' - Never heard this before and I get the feeling this may be their most popular record. I can see why.
- Soulside 'A Brief Moment In The Sun' - probably my favourite record by them, an absolutely great record, especially the song 'Tambourine'.

AND FINALLY...

I still have a bit of a backlog of records to post from the last few weeks, so January will probably be a busy month on here. But I want to keep this blog going in 2026 so hopefully I will start as I mean to go on and have a productive January.

I have a couple of plans in the pipeline for 2026, both in terms of records and general life activity. So hopefully 2026 will be as good to me as 2025 was.

As ever, thanks to those who carry on reading, commenting, and sending emails. Music brings people together like nothing else, even if like me you spend 99% of your time enjoying it alone. Happy 2026!

Sticker Day

Three years ago, in 2022, I picked up a very cheap copy of the Dag Nasty 'Trouble Is' 12". It was brand new and very cheap, but I was still slightly bummed as it was missing a crucial ingredient - the hype sticker. So when I came across a copy with the sticker on my recent US trip in a Texas record shop for only $7.99, I figured it was time for an upgrade.

Of course, there is always more work to do, and for this record I am now on the look out for one of the black vinyl copies that comes in a DJ sleeve with hype sticker.

We Object

Possibly the strangest record I picked up in Wanna Hear It Records was a compilation 7" which I believe was put out for sale as part of the store's 5 year anniversary celebrations. There were a few in a box on the counter, and I couldn't resist adding one to my pile, largely out of curiosity.

The record was made as a wedding souvenir for Joey (owner of the shop and label 6131 Records) and his wife Nicole (sister of DFJ from Boston hardcore), which took place on February 13th 2013. The record is a compilation featuring four very different artists, and th songs are all wedding themed in some way. The songs are:

1. Rotting Out 'Life Of My Own' - a CroMags cover.

2. Ivy League 'I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You' - this is kinda cool pop punk song, and a cover of a song by 'Black Kids' (whoever they are!)

3. Brendon Urie 'First Day Of My Life' (Bright Eyes cover) - a solo artist doing what almost sounds like a typical wedding song to me.

4. The Rival Mob 'We Object' - the highlight of the record and the main reason I bought it. This song is absolutely fantastic, and is not a typical Rival Mob song. It sounds almost like a metal song. I don't think it is possible to hear this song anywhere else other than this record though, which is a shame... although more for you than me.

According to discogs there were 200 copies on blue and 50 on yellow. I think (but could be wrong) that these were made and just given to wedding guests as gifts. There were probably a few left which have been sat around for twelve years and he decided to sell them. So other than get one from the shop wilst the last remaining copies are for sale, this will probably be a really difficult record to get hold of.

Proud Youth

As I said in my last post, it seems that Wanna Hear It Records always seems to have the colours of records that I don't have in their racks. When I came across a copy of the Insted 'Live At CBGB' LP on gold vinyl, and I had to check my spreadsheet to see which two copies I already owned. Of course, it turned out that the copy I held in my hands was the one I was missing, so for $13 I decided to take it.

The LP is a recording of a live show from 2004, and was released in 2005. I remember it being released, and at the time I picked up one copy, on blue vinyl. I then picked up a clear vinyl copy for uber cheap on eBay UK in 2013. And here I am, twenty years after this was released, completing the set.

Boston 7" Haul

On the last day of my last US trip I did the same as I have done for the last four December trips, and visited Wanna Hear It Records. It's a really good shop, with a good balance of new and used releases, and I always seem to manage to find some cool stuff in there, and this trip was no exception. One area of the store that is enjoyable (but time consuming) is the used 7" section.

This year I pulled out a bunch of stuff, most of which were in the $2 - $5 range, which is insanely cheap when compared to what things like this would cost either at home or online. Generally I didn't buy anything mindblowing, but for the price I couldn't leave these behind.

Shown in the photo are:

Blacklisted 'Live From Nowhere' (6131 Records) - Blue vinyl
Blacklisted 'Live At The BBC' (Six Feet Under Records) - Clear vinyl
For The Worse 'The Chaos Continues' (Bridge Nine Records) - Blue vinyl
Not Sorry 'Moving On' (Salad Days Records) - Blue vinyl
Panic 'S/T (Bridge Nine Records) - Clear vinyl
Piece By Piece / Donnybrook 'Split' (? ) - Clear vinyl
Restless Youth ' (Painkiller Records) - Dark Red vinyl (2 copies)
Stand & Fight 'Impact Demo' (Bridge Nine Records) - Red vinyl
Stand & Fight 'S/T' (Bridge Nine Records) - White vinyl
Waste Management 'Power Abuse' (Painkiller Records) - White vinyl
Voicebox 'Silence Lies' (Workshed Records) - Blue vinyl ***

Of the above 12 records, I already owned 7 of them on different colours. But there's something about cheap 7"s that is impossible to say no to. And it always seems that for the 7"s I already own, Wanna Hear It always seems to have the colours that I don't have in their racks. A lethal combination.

*** The Voicebox 7" is an interesting one. I already own too many copies of this 7", and wasn't really looking to buy more, but as soon as I slid this one out of its sleeve to check the colour, I thought that it looked more clear than my other blue copies. For $3 I decided to take it home to find out. Turns out I was right. The new copy is the one on the right in this photo.

2025 Boston

I used to have the best Bane collection in the world. I had a near complete collection, and was obsessed with keeping things that way. But then, a couple of years ago, things got a little out of hand, with three of their albums being repressed on many different colours spread across many different retailers. I immediately decided that this was not for me. It became more about money then fun, and the decision to stop was made easier due to most of the vinyl colours being splatters that I thought looked ugly.

Well, earlier this year I saw Bane play live for the first time in almost ten years, and I ended up going home with an ugly ass copy of the 'Boston 6:58PM' 12". But on my recent US trip I was in a record store in Texas and found a white vinyl copy in the racks. I decuded to buy it as white vinyl would no doubt look nicer, and it would then allow me to sell my splatter copy.

Then on the final day of the trip, I found myself in Newbury Comics in Boston, where I found a pink vinyl reissue of Bane's first LP, 'It All Comes Down To This' on sale. Most of the reissue copies of this record were pressed on unattractive splatter colours, but the clear pink looked nice, and with a reduced price copy in my hands I couldn't think of a reason to not buy it.

This reissue almost qualifies as a different record. For starters, it has a different catalogue number, comes in a gatefold sleeve and has two extra songs on the end.

After seeing Ralf's posts on this record a year or so ago, I knew that the clear pink vinyl was the best looking version. But also, it sits nicely next to the pink vinyl first pressing copy that I have owned for around 25 years. I've always thought that pink is such a great colour for hardcore records.

Interestingly, all of the official pressing info on this reissue states that the pink vinyl is limited to 300 copies. But the sticker on the shrinkwrap states that there are 250 copies. I guess accurate information probably matters about as much as making records look nice these days, haha.

Future Fortune

Time certainly moves fast in the world of hardcore. Back in late 2019 and early 2020 I was all over Restraining Order, a young band from western Massachussets. They had a brilliant 7" on New Age Records and their debut LP 'The World Is Too Much' blew me away. Musically and aestheitically, this was a band I could really get behind. Well, then in 2023 they put out a second LP and my interest level literally dropped to zero. The record was put out by Triple B and features possibly the worst cover art I have ever seen, the vinyl colours were ugly as hell, and I had absolutely no interest in it whatsoever. But here we are at the end of 2025, and when I saw their third LP 'Future Fortune' sitting in the racks in a record shop, I was interested enough to examine it, and seeing that it wasn't on Triple B I figured it was worth a punt.

When I opened the shrinkwrap I was pleasantly surprised by the colour of the vinyl. It looks very pretty, and compliments the cover art really well. This colour is for some reason officially called 'Sweetart', and I am guessing that it is probably the most common colour as it is the 'retail exclusive'. But after seeing what the other colours look like, I think I have ended up with the best one.

Musically this is very similar to what they were doing five years ago, and after taking a break from them for a couple of years, I am suddenly brought back to why I was so interested initially. This band plays hardcore with a strong nod to the more punk end of the spectrum, which seems really refreshing against the current hardcore landscape. I now feel bad for ignoring that last record, although I'm only interested in forking out for a physical copy if I can get one cheap, given how ugly it is. But for right now, this will do nicely.

Zozobra Test II

Another record that I picked up from my recent trip to the States is one that I had been watching for about three months. Every week I get an email from Wanna Hear It Records listing their latest batch of used records for sale. Three months or so ago they got a text press of a Zozobra 2xLP which I was immediately interested in. However, what often happens is that I see something for sale, don't buy it, wait a few weeks, and then when I am thinking about actually buying it, I go back to find it has sold and gone. In this case, however, the record sat in the shop for several weeks.

Roughly a month or so after the record first appeared for sale, back at the start of October, Mike went to the shop and I asked him to send me a pic of the record. The pic he sent confirmed that I wanted it. However, I didn't want to ask him to buy it for me. Instead, I planned to order it. However, a few weeks later and I still hadn't gotten around to it, and somehow it had still not sold. So I decided that I would leave it down to fate. I knew I would be going to the shop at the end of my trip in mid December. So I just figured that I would buy it then. And if it sold in the interim then so be it.

Well, this time my luck was in and I was able to pick it up in person. A pretty satisfying way to close out the year.

Zozobra was a project band put together by Caleb Scofield (ex Cave In bass player who sadly passed away in 2018). They put out two full length LPs, 'Harmonic Tremors' (2007) and 'Bird Of Prey' (2008), both of which were released by Hydrahead Records. I actually picked up test presses of both records back in 2020. This double LP pack that combines both records in one sleeve was made specifically to raise money for Caleb's family following his passing in 2019. There were 600 copies of the set pressed on random colour vinyl, and they sold out uber fast when released, and I missed out. So picking up this test pressing all these years later makes me very happy.

Red Covers

I spent a lot of time with Ceremony this year. At the start of the year, I listened to their 2019 LP 'In The Spirit World Now' for the first time, and I was totally addicted to it. This made me want to improve my pathetic Ceremony collection, and in August I picked up a grey vinyl copy of the second LP 'Still Nothing Moves You' to replace my ugly green vinyl third press copy. So it seems fitting to close out the year with another Ceremony upgrade...

The band released a 12" containing six cover songs back in 2011, and at the time I picked up one of the common (but nice looking) clear vinyl copies, of which there were 1500 copies made. Well, a week or so ago in Boston I came across a copy of the rarer red vinyl pressing (500 copies) for sale for pretty damn cheap, so I added it to my pile.

When I bought this, my intention was to sell the more common clear vinyl copy that has been sat on my shelf for 14 years and keep the red one. But when I got home and pulled it out, I don't think I can do it. They're both very pretty things to look at, with their screen printed b-sides, so like a fool I have decided to hang onto both.

Siamese Dream

I gave up on Record Store Day years ago. I don't even look to see what's coming out anymore. But earlier this year MIke posted up some fancy colour vinyl repressing of the Smashing Pumpkins 'Siamese Dream' LP. I've actualy been trying to find an original pink vinyl pressing of this record for years, but it rarely comes up for sale, and if it does the price is always way more than I am comfortable with paying. So a relatively cheap and nice colour repress seemed like a good compromise. It was then just a matter of finding one. This was also available in Europe, but from what I can see on discogs, it looked like the Euro copies were pressed at the sucky plant, so I only wanted a US copy. I was fortunte to find a copy in a record store in Houston a couple of weeks ago.

I've never been a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan, and am happy to admit that I have only ever heard this record and the first LP, 'Gish'. I can't really explain why I never got around to listening to anything else. But even though I have been familiar with the first two albums for a few years, the only piece of vinyl I own is the Sub Pop 7".

Given the price of the original pressings of this record, as much as I hate to say it, this is a much needed repress. I'm happy to have an official colour vinyl pressing, although I'll still keep my eyes open and fingers crossed for the original bubblegum pink copy.

Instrument

Despite Fugazi not being active in over twenty years, you'd be excused for thinking that they were a current band given the number of times they've appeared on record blogs this year. Between me, Mike, and Ralf there was a bit of love for Fugazi this year, thanks in part to colour vinyl represses.

I thought that I had all of the Fugazi records that I needed, until a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled across a burgundy vinyl copy of the 'Instrument Soundtrack' in a Texas record store. For $11, I couldn't pass it up.

The burgundy pressing is from last year (2024) and is sold out by the label, but there are still copies out there in stores if you look.

The record is the soundtrack to the film 'Instrument', which is a 1999 documentary about Fugazi. I watched it once and thought it was ok, although I would have preferred a different format with more of an interview type format. The soundtrack contains 18 songs which are very different to their previous records, with most songs being laid back instrumental affairs. I'd never listened to this before, and whilst it isn't going to make it into the top 5 Fugazi records, it does tick the box for 'good background music while you work'.

The World Is Yours

Back in Summer I spent some time driving around California, and the record that that I listened to the most was the first LP by a melodic UK punk band called Diaz Brothers. I was late to the record as it came out back in 2020, but given how much I enjoyed it in summer this year, it was inevitable that I would eventually pick up the second LP, 'The World Is Yours', which was released this year.

I just got back from another trip to the States, and this was probably the record that I spent the most time playing whilst driving around Texas. There's something about melodic punk and american roads that makes for a good mix.

This was pressed on 4 different colours of vinyl (red, blue, green, white) and there is no pressing info. I assumed that there were similar quantities of each, and ordered the white thinking it went better with the cover than the others.

Spoiler alert, but given it's almost the end of 2025, I'm pretty sure that this will be in my list of top releases for the year.

Complete Services

As I said a couple of posts ago when I posted about the After Words LP, I seem to be increasingly drawn toward DC hardcore as time passes. The guy who sold that LP also had some Ignition 12"s for sale at a very fair price, so I decided to scoop up all three at the same time. Rarely have I been so excited to pick up a pile of black vinyl records. Anyway, let's get down to it in chronological order...

The first 12" compiles the band's two 7"s which were self released (although the second was also part released by Dischord). This 12" was released by the band, which I don't think I ever knew until this arrived. I always thoguht it was on Dischord.

'Machination' is the band's debut 12 song LP. This was released as Dischord Recprds 31 and Ignition Records 4 back in 1988.

And finally, 'The Orafying Mysticle Of...' from 1989. Whilst this is described as an LP, it only contains 6 songs, so in my mind it's more of an EP. But Dischord definitely refer to it as a full length LP.

I tried to get into Ignition many years ago and it didn't really click with me for whatever reason. But as I have thought and said before, sometimes a record will only grab you at a specific time. Just because you've checked something out and it didn't grab you doesn't mean you shouldn't try again at some point. As we reach the end of 2025, Ignition is everything I want.