There Near

A few weeks ago the latest Dinosaur Jr LP dropped. Given I have been a fan of this band for longer than I have been buying records, I was always going to buy one. Of course, this being 2026, there were quite a few different versions up for sale from various different sources. To date, there are ten different versions listed on discogs, but several weeks ago it was really hard to figure out as the discogs listings hadn't been created. I was struggling to figure out not only what existed, but also which was the rarest or nicest looking. In the end I got bored and went for one that the 'deluxe' version that came with a bonus 7".

This 7" only seems to come with this particular colour, and contains two songs that are not part of the album, but are previously unreleased.

Unless my count is wrong, I think this is their 13th studio album. Somehow it's been five years since the last one ('Sweep It Into Space') came out which I'm really struggling to comprehend as I would have sworn it was about three. Anyway, I wasn't overly excited by this one the first couple of plays, but armed with the knowledge that there is no such thing as a bad Dinosaur Jr record, I have persevered, and I'm now at a point where I'm loving it. Hardly a surprise really.

Trawler

This post feels a little later than it should have been, as I spent most of July and August listening to this record, so I'm not exactly sure why it's taken me until nearly the middle of September to put it up here.

Back in May I met up with a frind who I bought some records from, and he was keen to get me to check out the second LP by Australian band Melvic Centre. I'd not heard of them, and wasn't hugely excited at the prospect of checking them out. But I was told that it was the best release of 2025, which made it intriguing. Plus I was offered it for a very fair price. So I decided to play along and take it home.

This record was released last year (2025) by an Australian label, Evil Tone Records. This version is a UK pressing put out by Brassneck Records, of which there were 254 copies on 'prawn orange' vinyl.

Whilst I don't think that this would have been my favourite release of 2025 if I had actually heard it in the year, this is without doubt a great record. It's generally what I would describe as a 'melodic punk' record, but tat would just be a ballpark description and a bit of an over simplification of what is going on here. There are certain songs that remind me of some band that I couldn't quite put my finger on, so I opted to read a couple of reviews to see who others thought this sounded like, and I found references to UK bands Mega City Four and Neds Atomic Dustbin, as well as mentions of Farside, The Lemonheads, Big Drill Car and even Teenage Fanclub. Personally, I don't think it really sounds like any of those bands individually, but I totally get the references. Those are bands that were all doing something vaguely similar but adding their own thing, and that's what's going on here.

Very glad I let myself get talked into this one. Thank you!

Government Issue

I feel like I started a whole bunch of new collections these past couple of years. There are some bands that I started buying records by that I wasn't previously too bothered about, and then I set myself a goal to pick up whatever by them. One of them is Government Issue. It all started last year when I ended up picking up 6 of their LPs from a UK seller. I then figured that I would keep an eye out for any that I was missing. Here we are a year later, and I recently picked up another to help move this little collection one step forward.

The latest acquisition is the 3rd studio full length. This one is self-titled, and was originally released by Fountain Of Youth Records in 1986.

According to discogs, this red vinyl version is a slightly later press from 1988 on the same label. But it's the earliest colour vinyl pressing that there is, so it's the one I wanted.

This one definitely sounds different to the previous records, and I think is my favourite so far. It's a good balance between hardcore and melodic. It also sounds (and looks) very 80s, which for me is a good thing. These days I generally love anything which looks or sounds 80s, which is in stark contrast to how I used to think in the 90s (which was that anything from the 80s felt very dated). Go figure.

Anyway, this now means that I only have another one to find ('You') and possibly a live LP which I am less bothered about.

Blood Pact

Here's another release from last year that I only got around to spending some time with this year. This is a 7" by Urban Sprawl, who previously had a 7" come out on Rev about four years ago. Back then I wasn't massively impressed by them, but I have ended up returning to them quite a lot over the years. So when I saw a new 7" was out, I decided to check it out.

There were 100 copies on this gold/red vinyl, which I think looks pretty cool and is a nice match to the cover art. The cover is also similar to the Rev 7" on Rev, which I like.

This sounds just like their past material, and I'm happy about that. I was also curious about whether the band is still going, and it turns out that they played in the UK a couple of months ago. As ever, I am completely out of the loop and have no idea what is going on.

Skin Yard

Back at the start of the year I picked up a Skin Yard LP, hot on the heels of picking up their Sub Pop 7". The band features Jack Endino, who produced a lot of classic Sub Pop / Seattle bands like Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Tad, etc. Skin Yard were around from the mid 80s to the early 90s and play 'grunge' that is typical of that era. I have been keeping my eyes open for other records by them, and recently ended up finding a clear vinyl copy of their first LP.

This was put out by C/Z Records, which was another label based in Seattle, and released in 1986. I'm not sure of the pressing information, but for sure the majority of copies were on black vinyl, with this colour being more limited.

I was stoked to pick this up as it's quite hard to find these days, and I figured that their first LP would probably be a bit more raw then the later ones. However, I was slightly disappointed when I played this, as it doesn't quite sound like the other stuff I have heard. After some online research, I came across their bandcamp page, and it has this disclaimer about this record:

This is the first full length released by Skin Yard and is the the version of the band when Matt Cameron was their drummer. This record is notably different from all of the subsequent records that Skin Yard recorded and released: It is much "artier" and more cerebral than their other records.

So at least it's not my imagination. But of course, in my own typical way, I decided to stick with this as I often grow to like what is acknowledged to be the worst release by any band I like. And I'm now starting to dig it. It reminds me a little bit of early Faith No More in places, a bit like the mellower Bad Brains songs, and and also a bit like the band Outface who had a record on Rev's sister label Crisis many years ago. It's maybe not what I'd usually go for, although I seem to be saying that so much these days that I should probably acknowledge that I pretty much like everything now.

Exit English

Another one of my new(ish) collections that I started these past couple of years is Strike Anywhere LPs. I had one from back around the turn of the century when it came out, and even though I played it a bit and liked it, I never really felt hugely into the band. Well, I picked up two more LPs in the last couple of years for $10 each when on trips to the States, so I then decided I'd go after the others I hadn't heard. Recently I found a white vinyl copy of their second album, 'Exit English', which was released by Jade Tree Records back in 2003.

As far as I can tell, there were two colours of vinyl for the first press, being white and yellow. This fits with my memory of the period, when Jade Tree would generally do two different colours of vinyl for each release. Of course, additional colours have been pressed in the years since, but this is definitely a copy from the first pressing.

I stil wouldn't say I am hugely up on this band, but I get the feeling that this is regarded as their best record, and even though I'm new to it, I can see why. It sounds a bit more polished than their first LP but withuot sounding too clean. A great record for sure, and this definitely makes me want to hurry up and find the other two records of theirs that I am now missing.

Cannonball

Back on 17 October 2025 I placed an order for the latest Youngblood Records release. I think it was originally supposed to ship in March or April. But after almost forgetting about this record completely, it turned up at my door a couple of weeks ago on 20 August 2026. That's 307 days from order to delivery. Apparently there was a pressing plant delay. Whatever.

When the pre-order launched, most copies seemed to sell out in a couple of hours or so. At least, that's how I remember it. I ended up picking up one of the copies sold by the band directly on red with black splatter, which is apparently limited to 100 copies. I'm not a big fan of splatter, but this colour does kinda sit well with the artwork I think so I'm ok with it.

The band are from the UK and members hail from both Sheffield and Liverpool. I read a short article in which they say that their favourite era for hardcore is Lockin' Out bands from the early 00s like Righteous Jams, Mental, The Wrong Side, Rampage etc. I can hear that influence in this record for sure. The band is uncompromisingly straight edge, and this record hits like a whirlwind. There are eight songs which are done and dusted in just over 10 minutes, which does feel very short even by hardcore standards. Still, I'd rather it be over quick than too long and boring, and there's no chance of that here. Overall, a fun listen. The kids are doing alright.

The Sky Is Falling And The Missing Neighbours

Did you ever completely ignore a record and make a conscious decision not to listen to it, only to then change your mind 35 or so years later?

Back around 1992 or so I ordered a few things from Alternative Tentacles Back then they had an office in London over here in the UK, and I ordered a few t-shirts and a couple of records. I was into Dead Kennedys, Lard and Tumor Circus. Yup, all the Jello Biafra bands. Except for some reason I was not remotely interested in the records that he did with Nomeansno or D.O.A. and as at right now, I don't really know why.

Well, a few weeks ago I stumbled across the Jello with D.O.A. LP on ebay UK, and the text description said that the seller would throw in the Jello with Nomeansno LP for free. It wasn't the best listing, so I figured I could have a good chance at getting the two for a good price. And yes, I won the two for roughly the price that one of them would usually sell for.

'Last Scream Of The Missing Neighbours' was released in 1990. It contains six songs, of which the first five are about 3 minutes each, and the final song is nearly 14 minutes and takes up one side of the record. This copy is one of the UK pressing copies with a UK address on the sleeve.

'The Sky Is Falling And I Want My Mommy' is the title of the LP that Jello recorded with Nomeansno which came out a year after the LP with D.O.A.

This is also a UK pressing. I'd rather have US pressings of each, but these will do for now.

God only knows why I avoided these records for so long. Both are really good, and even though I hadn't heard either of them until recently, listening to these feels very nostalgic, reminding me of the early 90s when I used to listen to Dead Kennedys, Lard and Tumor Circus a hell of a lot. I definitely prefer the D.O.A. LP of the two, but both are fun listens, even if I am 35 years or so too late.

Little Kings

This is the third post in a row in a mini series of old Epitaph Records releases that I have stumbled on in recent weeks.

I was running down an Epitaph discography that I found online, and I was particularly curious abuot earlier releases. Turns out that they didn't actually release too much in the 80s. Seems that they put out mainly Bad Religion and a few psychdelic records. But the one that stood out for me was the 'Head First' LP by Little Kings. It was the 9th release on Epitaph, put out in 1989, with the band being described as a garage punk band from Los Angeles, California. With a copy for sale in the UK for £5, I figured I'd give it a go.

I really like the photo on the back cover. It just screams 1980s, and helps to date the record perfectly.

I was going to say that this is not the usual kind of thing that I would listen to, but these days that's probably not true. But even though this is described as 'garage punk', it just sounds like kinda typical 80s rock n roll to me. Not bad at all. Just not something I would have guessed in a million yers was on Epitaph.

Pablum

My last post asw about the band Coffin Break, and I mentioned that after recent discovering two of their albums released in the early 90s by Epitaph Records, I decided to look at the label's discography to see what else they had put out that I had never heard of.

One name immediately stood out and jogged my memory as I remembered hearing of Claw Hammer back in the early 90s. I'm pretty sure that they had a song appear on an episode of the 411 Skate Video Magazine. So out of curiosity I checked a song out online and was instantly nodding my head and thinking how damn catchy it was. Next stop was discogs where I found a sealed copy for sale in the UK for £7.50. It's almost as if it was put there just for me.

The band was from Long Beach, California and active between 1987 and 2000. Their bio on discogs describes them as 'a U.S. avant blues rock group'. That's not really a genre I am overly familiar with, and not something that I would really be too motivated to check out. However, this is a really interesting record, mainly because it sounds just so different to anything, largely due to the vocal. The singer sounds like the chracter 'Zed' from 'Police Academy' films trying to sing like Axl Rose. Sounds weird right? And yes, it is. But also strangely addictive. Check out the song 'Vigil Smile' if you're remotely curious.

Coffin Break

Another Sub Pop 7" that I was missing was the Coffin Break 7". It's not really that hard to find, but I knew I wanted a colour vinyl copy and I just had to wait for one to pop up in the UK for a reasonable price. Eventually it happened. This is SP85 and came out in September 1990.

Despite this being on SubPop, this isn't grunge. The band are described on discogs as 'hardcore punk', and on their bandcamp page as 'metal/punk'. Whatever it is, this was one of those records where it was an instant hit after one play and I wanted more. I immediately hit up the internet and quickly found two full length LPs for sale in the UK for only £10 each, so I grabbed both.

Both records are later releases. Also, both are on Epitaph Records. As we all know, a lot of bands on Epitaph became very popular over time. Coffin Break are one of the exceptions. I mean, of course they were relatively popular, but less so than other Epitaph bands of the same era (Bad Religion, NOFX, Rancid, The Offspring, Pennywise etc.).

'Crawl' is their third LP, and was released in 1991. A lot of this record is what I would call 'melodic punk', which is more in line with what I'd expect on Epitaph. Regardless of what you might call it, this is my favourite record at the moment.

'Thirteen' is the fourth LP, released in 1992. So far I'm less into this one, although it may be because I haven't listened to this one as much yet.

There are two albums that came before these two that I now really want, but sadly they aren't readily available at a decent price. So onto the wants list they go.

This made me curious about what other less known bands / records Epitaph may have put out. More on that in the next post...

A Couple More Sub Pop 7"s

I'm slowly continuing with my Sub Pop collection. Still regularly searching for the things I want. Recently I found a couple of different colours I was missing of a couple of 7"s I already have. Nothing overly rare or exciting.

First up, a clear red vinyl copy of the Afghan Whigs 'Conjure Me' 7" (Sub Pop 142). This is my fourth copy of this one, and there are two more I still need after this.

The other one is a green vinyl copy of the 'Deeper Road / R.K.' 7" by Rein Sanction (Sub Pop 160). This is my second copy of this one, and there's only one more to find.

Note to self - I need to put together a want list of all the Sub Pop 7"s that I am missing that I want. It's easy to lose track otherwise.

Mirrorless

Even though 2026 is almost two thirds done, I'm still chasing records for 2025 releases that I didn't manage to pick up in the year for various reasons. In my end of 2025 post on here, there were a total of 11 records that I was lacking vinyl copies of. I have managed to pick some of those up this year, although there are still four more to go. But here's the seventh one that I have managed to acquire, and it's one that I feel has flown way under the radar to this point.

The record is the self-titled, six song 12" by Mirrorless. I was immediately interested to hear this when I heard about it, as the band features people from some great 90s & 00s Louisville bands, most notably Chris Higdon who used to sing for Falling Forward, Elliott and Frontier(s).

I could have picked one of these up quite easily last year but decided against it as I didn't want this vinyl colour. But in the last twelve months or so I changed my mind. Even though I'm not really a fan of these splatttery colours, in the end it occurre to me that this colour is by far the best match to the coer art, and therefore for that reason I figured it would be the right choice.

Also, I like that the sleeve has some cut out bits, so part of the cover art is effectively bits of the inner sleeve which are exposed. The exact same style was used on the first Elliott LP and the first Elliott 7". I love these kind of things and noticing them, and wondering if anyone else has. Details for the nerds.

WHilst I don't think this is as good as Falling Forward or Elliott, it's still a good record, and I'm really glad to see Chris still making new music. Sonically this sits closer to some Falling Forward songs than anything by Elliott, as most of the songs are quite fast and hard and the vocal sounds close to screaming in places. Overall a great record and I really hope that this isn't just a one off.

Treacherous Jaywalkers

I bought some records from someone a few weeks ago and he was kind enough to throw in this 4 song 12" EP for free. This is a 12" on SST Records by Treacherous Jaywalkers, a band that I had never heard of before called.

The band were from Los Angeles and were active from 1984-1992. This is one of three releases that they had on SST - two 12" EPs and one full length. This record is titled 'Sunrise' and came out in 1987.

It definitely brings to mind other SST bands of the same era, and totally sounds like it would have been on a Santa Cruz skate video at the end of the 80s. At times the bass reminds me of fIREHOSE, other bits remind me of Descendents. It's good stuff and I'm grateful to have been gifted this else there's a chance that I would never had heard it.

Rites Of Spring

The last few months I have been digging into the Dischord catalogue and exploring some bands I'd never been interested in previously. This year Holy Rollers, Beefeater and Ignition have all clicked with me. So I figured I wanted to try another record that I checked out years ago that didn't grab me - the Rites Of Spring LP.

This was one of a few Dischord releases that I heard back when I was about 18 and which I didn't 'get' at the time. I then tried it again at some point and just wasn't that into it. And then a bunch of years flew by. With me seemingly now more interested in older records rather than new ones, I figured that this could be one that I may have changed my mind on. Listening to it on the Dischord bandcamp page, I couldn't really understand what it was that I didn't like about this before. But I definitely now wanted a vinyl copy. I just didn't want a recent repress.

A couple of weeks ago I spotted one for sale on eBay. It was part of a lot of four Dischord LPs. I didn't really want to buy four records when I already had three of them. But I fugred that the price was good, so I started to think that maybe I could buy the lot, keep the Rites Of Spring LP, and sell the other three LPs for enough money to cover the price of all four, this ending up with a 'free' Rites Of Spring LP. So that's my plan, and I think it should work out. I just need to go through the hassle of selling some records.

This copy is not a first press copy. Those are denoted by the $5 postpaid price on the back cover. This one here shows $6 postpaid. I'm not sure when it would have been pressed, but the person I bought it from probably got it around 1990, based on other records he had for sale.

Anyway, I'm happy that I finally get this record, and that I found a vinyl copy for a good price. I'm now getting close to having a respectable Dischord collection, but still a long way to go before there are no obvious gaps.

Masks

In late 2024 I picked up a record by Chat Pile. I'd never heard them but was drawn in by the artwork of the record. I still listen to it semi regularly. It's an interesting record, although I haven't got around to checking anything else that they've done, until semi recently when it was announced that they were putting out a 7" on Sub Pop. Given my interest in Sub Pop over the last couple of years, I knew that this was something I was going to

This 7" is very reminiscent of the Sub Pop 7"s of old. It has the same layout (with the Sub Pop logo, band name and song titles in a bar across the top of the front. It also has the same labels. And like a lot of the early Sub Pop 7"s, it contains only two songs.

The first song is an orignal song, and the second is a cover of 'Sifting' by Nirvana. They obviously chose a song by a classic Sub Pop artist, and the song that they chose fits their style really well. Even though I'm not a fan of covers generally, this is a good choice and they do it really well.

The white vinyl version is the rarest colour. There are 300 exclusive to Rough Trade. The other first press colour was green with smoke, but despite that colour being much more common, I managed to miss out. It seemed to sell out everywhere in an instant. A couple of months later and they announced a second press on dark blue vinyl, so I scopped one of those quicksmart.

Hopefully one of the green smoke copies will show up soon. Even though it's the most common colour, it looks the best, so it would be good to round this collection out and go back to focusing on older Sub Pop 7"s.

Horror Stories

One of my current projects is to own at least one copy of every Dwarves LP. I already picked up a couple of them earlier this year, and have been keeping my eyes open for others. Last week I found a copy of their first LP on eBay UK for cheap, and decided that I probably would never find a cheaper one, so pulled the trigger.

This record is titled 'Horror Stories', and this copy is a first press copy on Voxx Records, released in 1986. It has different (and far better) cover art than the later pressings. I actually love the art of this LP, although I'm not sure I can explain why. It just looks cool.

As the photo on the back cover shows, they were a very different band back then. Even though this is the first Dwarves LP, technically it is the band's second album. The first was released under their original name of 'The Suburban Nightmare' (which I think is a pretty cool name, and actually better than The Dwarves). They had also moved from Illinois to California. So even two albums in, they were still experimenting and trying to find their place and style.

I used to own a second press of this back when I was about 17, although the copy I had back then was a second pressing copy with a different (and boring) cover. I bought it after hearing the band's two greatest LPs ('Blood, Guts & Pussy' and 'Thank Heaven For LIttle Girls') and I was both confused and disappointed by this thing. Time hasn't really changed my view. This is a pretty bad record. Interestingly, the young me decided that I did not need to own this and sold it, and the old me is now buying it back just so I can have a complete collection.

In Mass Mind

There are some bands that I have never been remotely interested in checking out for various reasons. One of them is The Make-Up. Yeah, I know that they are ex Nation Of Ulysees, which is a band that I think is pretty cool, but I always thought the name was lame, and either the photos of the band or artwork on whatever records I saw made me think that they were too 'artsy' and probably not for me. So why the hell did I just buy one of their records?

This record is the band's fourth LP, 'In Mass Mind', which was originally released in 1998. This pink vinyl version is a repress from 2023.

I bought this because someone who reads this blog regularly offered it to me for a very reasonably price. No doubt he figured that the Dischord Records and pink vinyl combination would be too much for me to resist. I wasn't overly keen on buiyng a Make-Up record, but it felt rude to say no. Plus, I figured that I would easily be able to sell it on for the price I paid if I hated it. So I took it home.

Given I had paid money for this and brought it into my house, I thought it only fair to give it a shot. So I cued it up and pretty much straight away found myself thinking that this was ok. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I had prepared myself for. It kinda reminds me of when I first heard Shudder To Think somewhere around 1994. Visually and musically they were not really what I was into at the time, but there was something alluring to them, and I had to admit that they were very cool. It's similar here, although the main difference is that I'm about twenty years late this time around. But yeah, this is a really cool record. I'm glad that I gave it a chance.

Big Chief

Here's another Sub Pop band that I got around to checking out recently. The band is called Big Chief and they were from Ann Arbor, Michigan, active circa 1989-1994. They had a guy named Barry Henssler on vocals, who used to be in a band you may have heard of called Necros. Anyway, I decided to listen to this band online, and cued up their first full length, 'Face'. Two songs in and I knew this was a band that I needed to get into. So of course I went internet shopping and found that their records are, in 2026, quite easy to come by and also quite cheap.

'Face was released by Sub Pop in 1992 as Sub Pop 147. As far as I can tell, this orange vinyl is the rarer version, with the rest of the pressing being black. It's a nice looking colour and matches nicely with the front cover art.

This record really reminds me of that early 90s grunge sound, and is similar to early Mudhoney. Just what I want from an early 90s Sub Pop release.

I also found a very cheap cope of the second album,'Mack Avenue Skullgame - Original Soundtrack'. I didn't think too much about this one before I ordered it. After hearing the first one I just figured that I needed this. The funny thing is that When it came and I checked it out, I realised that this one is very different to the first. With the gift of hindsight, the clue is in the title.

Similar to the first LP, there was only one colour vinyl pressing of this LP, which is this blue. The rest were black. And once again the vinyl colour is a good compliment to the front cover.

Here's what wikipedia has to say about this record:

Produced in Detroit with Al Sutton, it departs from the grunge sound the band were known for, instead reflecting the influence of 1970s Blaxploitation films and their funk soundtracks. Considered a funk album, it was also influenced by Detroit bands like the MC5 and contains a horn section, wah-wah effects and psychedelic blues guitars... The record is conceptual, serving as the soundtrack to a non-existent Blaxploitation murder mystery film projected by the band members which concerns a tragic love triangle between a pimp, a prostitute and a third character.

It's funny, because if I had heard this one first then I probably would have figured that this band is not for me and not checked anything else out. But after enjoying the first LP I had decided that I liked this band, so I gave this one a couple of extra tries, and bizarrely have started to enjoy it.