Total Soul Ignition

It's great when my friends turn me onto cool bands. I mean, I can't listen to everything, and so people whose opinion I trust are really helpful in steering me to stuff that I might enjoy. Back in 2023 I picked up the 'Staring At Patterns' 12" by Method Of Doubt thanks to a glowing review from Mike at the time that I just couldn't ignore. And here we are in 2026, and after seeing both Mike and Ralf post about the new 7", 'Total Soul Ignition', I figured I would check it out. After a quick search, I then found a UK distro selling copies and placed an order.

The purple is a second pressing and is out of 300 copies. Seems funny to me that they only realised after selling out of the first pressing that purple might be a suitable colour to press these songs on.

I enjoyed the band's 12" a few years ago, and at the time I remember reading about how they had broken up, so this 7" was unexpected. I have no idea what changed and why they decided to come back, but it's good that they did. These four songs pick up where that last record left off, and I can immediately see why the first press sold out so quickly. This is really good stuff and reminds me of other modern bands who are hardcore without being too hard. There's a quote on the bandcamp page which made me chuckle:

Listeners also enjoyed: Four Walls Falling, Supertouch, the sound of their own voice.

Haha!

Dreamy II

Earlier this year I picked up a Beat Happening LP. I'd never really been interested in the band before but got around to listening to them as a part of my journey into the early Sub Pop catalog. 'Dreamy' was their fourth album from 1991 and it turned out that the turquoise vinyl copy that I picked up was quite rare. I've really enjoyed the LP this year, and not long ago I stumbled across a copy of the more common grey vinyl version for sale at a much lower price than it usually sells for, and I couldn't help but grab it.

This is absolutely top condition, with shrinkwrap intact as well as both stickers still present.

This copy also has a Sub Pop singles club subscription form included. A lot of the 7"s had these things built into the folded covers that were printed on the same glossy paper as they were kinda part of the sleeve. But the ones that came with 12"s were just photocopied pieces of paper. They don't look as good, but seem generally rarer. This one is advertising releases from February to July 1991.

As I mentioned in my last post, this is unlike anything else I have ever listened to, but I'm loving it. I'll definitely get around to investigating more of their catalogue at some point.

Feral Sorrow

I don't often bother with demos. I guess historically most were on cassettes, which is a format I have never really had any interest in, so any time anyone mentioned a demo my brain just said 'no thanks'. But at some point last year, I checked out a demo from a new band called Colossal Rains. There were only three songs, but I was really into it. So when a 12" went up for order earlier this year, I was all in.

The band features a couple of members of Blacklisted doing something a bit different. George Hirsch (vocals in Blacklisted) plays guitar and sings in this band, and Dan Sausages (bass in Blacklisted) plays guitar here. There are also a couple of other dudes, but I'm not really familiar with their work.

This record was released by a label called Memory Music (a label owned by Will Yip), and this colour is called 'Koi Pond' and is out of 100 copies.

This has been my daily go to for the past two weeks or so. It's very slow and brooding stuff, as the title alludes to. I'd say that this is ideal late night listen rather than Summer afternoons. A really interesting record with a lot going on, and well worth checking out. Probably my favourite release of 2026 so far (although it may also be the first one I have actually obtained come to think about it).

This Is A Call

Last week (or possible the week before) I was chatting with Nico and he was telling me about some recent Foo Fighters 7"s that he had picked up. He was enjoying the vinyl colours, saying how they looked different to modern records (probably because they weren't pressed at the place that most records are these days). Well, this reminded me that back when Foo Fighters first appeared on the scene, in 1995, I bought their first release. It was a three song 12" on glow in the dark vinyl. I owned it for a short amount of time and then sold it, probably thinking that it was mainstream rock garbage. Well, a little over ten years ago I actually got really into Foo Fighters and listened to all of their records a lot, although I wasn't really too bothered about trying to collect their records. But I was feeling nostalgic for that first 12" single that I bought back in 1995, and went to discogs to see how much it might cost these days. On average it looked to sell for about £25. I then went to eBay and found a copy for auction with no bids and only a couple of days to go. I watched it and ended up winning it as the only bidder for £10. Good deal.

I definitely remember owning this thirty years ago (!). I distinctly remember the front cover, and the photo on the back cover. But I had no memory of the second and third songs, which (unlike the first song) did not end up on their debut album.

I'm not really planning on picking up any other Foo Fighters records. I just felt like I wanted to correct the mistake I made when I sold this many moons ago, as I think that this is a cool record.

No Strings Attached

Recently I've been checking out some SST Records releases by bands that I hadn't been interested in previously. So here's another one. Idecided to check out Meat Puppets and immediately found this pink vinyl copy of their 'No Strings Attached' double LP. It was pretty cheap, and I was sold on it when I saw that it still had the shrinwrap on with the original 'color vinyl' sticker attached.

Technically this isn't really a Meat Puppets LP. It's more of a compilation of songs from their first six full lengths and their first 12" EP. This was put out in 1990 after the band left SST, and it contains 24 songs. It does seem a slightly weird / pointless release in some ways, but I guess things were different in 1990. I imagine that it was probably designed to be a cheap introduction to the band in the hope that anyone who was into it would then buy seven more records. But I'm just guessing.

A bit like the Minutemen record I got into a few weeks ago, this isn't exactly a punk record. The band are described as being punk mixed with b2country and psychedelic rock, which I think is fair. Generally this is really interesting and definitely has me curious to check out more of their records, although I am slightly put off as they have about 20 albums out. We shall see.

The American Scream

As mentioned a few times recently, I've been spending time trawling through the discographies of some older or longstanding record labels, trying to find things to listen to that I had never heard (or heard of) previously. At some point recently, I ended up perusing the Nemesis Records discography. Back in the early 90s I picked up a lot of their catalogue, but quickly realised that some of it was a bit questionable, so it ceased to be a label that I tried to collect every release by. But still, it seems there are some bits that I overlooked altogether, and included in this category is the Final Conflict 'The American Scream' 7". I had never heard this before, but checked it out online and it was definitely worth my time, so then and out of curiosity I looked to see if I could find one for sale. Immedistely I found a green vinyl copy for sale in the UK. Done. Easy.

The green vinyl is very pale. It's a nice colour, although I'm not sure that I captured it too well in this pic.

So when I went to add this to my collection on discogs, I noticed another copy for sale in the UK, and the description said that the vinyl was more yellow than green. So I couldn't help but grab that too. I mean, the brief bit of online research that I did on this seemed to suggest that all colour copies were on green, and all the photos I could find looked like the same pale green. So I took a chance on the yellowish copy.

Apparently this band formed in 1983, and in some form or other are still going. They don't appear to have released any new music for twenty years, but still play out from time to time. I wonder if they still play any of these songs? Anyone know?

Rock For Live

So I never really wanted to get into collecting Bad Brains records. Until recently, all I had was some 90s repress of the first record (originally a cassette). I remember like twenty or so years ago someone had a Bad Brains collection listed on HYE, and it just went on and on and on. At this point I realised that there were a lot of Bad Brains records, and my overriding thought was 'do not go there'. I have most of their records digitally, and figured that this would be ok, especially as there are so many different pressings of their records. Heck, a lot of them were pressed on different labels to, so it always felt like just too much to get into, and even twenty years ago I felt like I was too late to the game. But all it took recently was Dave Byrd posting a copy of 'Rock For Light' for sale on instagram for my brain to immediately think 'I want that!'... and here we are.

So this is a Caroline Records pressing of 'Rock For Light' on gold vinyl. One of the reasons that I wanted this one is that it has two differnt hype stckers on the intact shrinkwrap. I figured I would be highly unlikely to see another one of these is such pristine condition, so if I was ever going to consider wanting this, it had to be this copy.

To the left is a white 'Limited Edition Colored Vinyl' sticker, and to the right is a sticker which proudly announces 'Remixed & digitally remastered by Ric Ocasek, contains 3 bonus tracks'. Probably if I had seen this for sale back in 1991 when it came out I would avoid this like the plague for being a dirty reissue (actually, that's not quite true, as in 1991 I had never even heard of Bad Brains, but you get the point). But in 2026, this feels like a cool version to own.

Only a few days after receiving this, I did a search on eBay for 'SST colour vinyl' and chanced across this green vinyl copy of the 'Bad Brains Live' LP. It was for sale in the UK and it felt like it would sell for a good price. In the end I won it for a little less than a new release costs these days, so I definitely got a good deal. This was put out by SST Records 1988, although this colour pressing is more likely from the early 90s, when SST rerpessed a lot of their records on colour vinyl.

To me this is a more typical live record. It's ok, but doesn't add enough for me to be likely to revisit it very often.

Interestingly, this live LP was reissued a couple of weeks ago for Record Store Day 2026 on a different label and on a yellow/red swirl vinyl, which actually looks ok. If I wanted one of those (which I don't) then I couldn't get it for less than I paid for this green copy, so this helps reinforce that I got a good deal, which is satisfying.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I think I'll try to get other Bad Brains records, but one copy of each will probably suffice.

Cry For Happy

These past few months I have been really interested in going back in time and exploring lesser known bands and releases on some of the bigger and more successful labels. I spent a bit of time going through the SST discography, and recently got interested in Minutemen, Buffalo Tom and Screaming Trees. Those were all bands that I had heard of but never really listened to, so their names stood out. But I also made a shortlist of other bands who sounded interesting, and figured that I would get around to checking them at some point.

One of these bands was Angst. They were a band from Colorado who formed in 1979 (!) and who then played through to the end of the 1980s. I checked them out and was really into it, so I had a look around and managed to find one of their LPs for cheap. 'Cry For Happy' was their fourth LP from 1988. I started here simply because it was available for sale in the UK at a really low price.

Unlike a lot of SST releases, this one comes with a lyric sheet insert.

Oh yeah, and I also found a test press of this LP too for cheap. You know I can't resist those classic Rainbo test press labels.

I'm really, really interested in this band. They originally hail from Colorado, but apparently moved to the UK for a little while, before then going back home to the States and settling in San Francisco. From what I read, they never made much of an impact, but did enough to get signed by SST, and managed to keep going long enough to crank out 4 LPs. They sound at times like a British indie band, and other times a bit like Bob Dylan. Yeah, I know, sounds weird, but it really works. I also read that apparently Frank Black said that Angst would be the band that he would most like to reform and play, and that they were a big influence on the Pixies. A great record for me to have found just before Summer gets going (if Summer gets going this year that is!), and I'm really keen to find the other three LPs at some point.

Another Breakdown

Last year (2025) some colour vinyl copies of Black Flag 7"s started popping up. Quite early on I managed to work out that these were not labelled as colour vinyl, and a lot of the sellers didn't realise that they had them. It was a bit chaotic, but thankfully I had some help and advice from a couple of fellow Black Flag collectors, and I ended up with a few different colours of each. Near the start of the year I picked up four different colour copies of the 'TV Party' 7", and then towards the end of the year I managed to find four colour copies of the 'Nervous Breakdown' 7".

Nobody really knows how many different colours exist, but I figured that if I came across any different colours then I'd probably grab them. Recently I spotted a copy on eBay on a nice orange colour. Turns out it was being sold by one of the fellow collectors who helped me previously, so I was more than happy to take this spare copy off his hands.

This now takes me to five copies of this 2025 repress. I mean, two of them are pretty similar really, but it still counts.

I'm pretty sure that these were all just one pressing, and there are definitely other colours out there. Another collector I know has amassed a much bigger collection of these, including a couple of much lighter browns, a couple of light greys and also a pinkish copy. So plenty more to keep a nerd busy for a long time to come.

Void Live

Back in 2021 I picked up a copy of the newly released Faith Live LP. It was released by Outer Battery Records, and the same label has recently put out a Void Live LP too. And even though I am not a big fan of live records in general, when the email dropped into my inbox at the start of the year announcing this was comnig out, I figured that I couldn't really own the Faith Live LP and not the Void one too, so I headed right on over to the store to buy a copy.

The LP is titled 'Void Live 1982', and each side of the record contains a different live set from (in theory) 1982. Side A has a set from The Wilson Centre in Washington DC on 30th April 1982, from a show that The Faith and Minor Threat also played. Side B contains a set from a show with Negative Approach at the 9:30 Club in DC from 5th December 1982. That said... after this got made and copies got sent out, the label found out that the show at The Wilson Centre was actually from 1983, not 1982. They've said that they will correct this on future pressings, but does this mean that they will change the title of the record too? I guess at some point we wil find out...

I picked up the glow in the dark vinyl, which was only available direct from the label. There were 400 copies made, and they sold out pretty fast, so I'm glad I grabbed one.

I also wanted to take a pic of the glow in the dark mode activated and, even if I say so myself, I think that this photo came out really well:

When the email dropped it said (quote) 'and for you Void super fans we have a limited edition of just 10 test pressings with a unique cover'. Well, I'm not exactly sure that I would qualify as a Void superfan exactly, but when I was in the store to pick up the glow in the dark record, I couldn't help notice that the test pressing was still available, and the price seemed very reasonable. So even though I didn't really want to spend more money, I ended up doing the sensible thing and buying one.

ALso, both of these records came with a copy of the zine. Turns out that the zine is more limited than the records, with not all copies sold coming with one. The label are selling the zine separately for $5. It's worth the money as it's quite thick, printed on quality paper and really well put together.

I couldn't fnid a digital version of this so actually put it on the record player. I have to admit that even though I don't like Live records, this one absoltely smokes. Side A especially is really, really good. The sound quality is great and the energy that comes through is fantastic. Definitely one of the best live records I have ever heard, and I'm really glad I let myself get sucked in.

The Clear Traversal of Route 7

My Dischord Records collection is all over the place. Some bands I still have never heard, and some of the records I do have I only have represses of rather than original pressings. I have no real focus or plan, although this year I have definitely been focused on triyng to check out more of the early catalogue that has passed me by.But one record I have had in my life for over thirty years now (!) is the Hoover LP. 'The Lurid Traversal Of Route 7' was released in 1994, and I bought it when it came out based on a friend's recommendation. I always liked it, and this is a great example of a record where the artwork really adds to my appreciation. I love the black and dark green colourscheme and the weird photo of a old sign. The whole thing is very early 90s emo.

I was recently surprised that Dischord professional collector Nico didn't have this LP, and reminded him that he should grab one. Around the same time, I realised that the record got repressed on clear vinyl in 2013. I'm not sure if I knew this and had forgotten, or whether I never actually knew. But when I saw it, I knew that I wanted one, so I added it to my discogs want list... and then, pretty damn quickly, one popped up for sale. The price was very reasonable, so I quickly paid up.

Given that this is my third copy of this record, I figured I would pull the other two out for a group photo. As a set of three, they do look pretty good together I think.

The black vinyl is a first pressing from 1994, the green is a repress from 2010, and the clear was apparently from 2013. It looks like there have been a couple of black vinyl pressings since, but no other colour pressings. I'm actually surprised by this. But it wouldn't surprise me if another pressing appears at some point in the next year or two.

I'd almost forgotten, but I once saw this band play live. According to my spreadsheet, it was on the 11th of December 2004 at Josephs Well in Leeds. I remember going, standing on my own and not saying a word to anyone all night, then going home. Pretty cool though to have actually seen them play live, right?

Holy Rollers

Towards the end of last year and the start of this one, I was getting into some Dischord (and related) stuff that I hadn't really been too into previously. This led me to looking through the label's catalogue and seeing if there were any other bands that I had never checked out, and I ended up listening to Holy Rollers for the first time in my life. They started out as a trio in the late 80s and ended a few years later in the early 90s as a four piece. I was quite into what I heard, so decided to look for records, and discovered that everything that they had done was super cheap. So I bought three LPs...

The first LP, 'As Is', was released as Dischord 42 in 1990. Bits of this really remind me of one of my other favourite Dischord bands, Jawbox.

The second LP, 'Fabuley', was released in 1991 as Dischord 58. The cover is, in my opinion, awful. But nevermind. Beyond the art, the record is great. It still reminds me a lot of Jawbox, but the guitar on a couple of the songs reminds me of Helmet.

I also got a test press / promo copy of this one too. It was super cheap. Nico tells me this is one of the most common of these Dischord promo releases. But still, the price that I got this for was a steal, being just a little more than a new release 7" costs these days.

This copy comes with a promo poster and press kit.

The third and final self titled LP, released as Dischord 86 in 1993. At this point one of the original members had left, and the band had expanded to being four humans rather than three, with a second guitarist added. You can tell that the sound shifted as a result.

This record sounds quite different to the other two, but I have to say, I think this is their best. Also, the last song on here ('Pure') is outstanding. If the rest of the record sounded like that then this would be fighting for a place in the list of top 10 Dischord releases ever. Yes, that's a strong statement, but listen to the song and tell me I'm wrong.

All of these records put together cost me a fraction more than the current price of one new release LP. For whatever reason, it seems that nobody cares about this band these days. But this is exactly what I am enjoying these last couple of years - exploring the lesser known bands/records from certain labels' back catalogues. I probably wouldn't have been into this sound when the band were actually around as my attention would have been absorbed by other bands back then, but all these years later this sounds really good to me.

Test Press Is The Reason

Revelation test pressings have always been pretty hard to come by. Even in the current record collecting climate, where test pressings are frequently made in larger than necessary quantities and sold by bands or labels online, Revelation tests continue to remain elusive and out of reach for most people. I think this is largely because the quantities have always been low, especially compared to modern pressings by most other labels. Rev continue to order 4 or 5 tests for most records they release, so it stands to reason that most people are unlikely to get hold of one. However, one of the exceptions is this test press of the Texas Is The Reason 7".

This is not an original test press from the first pressing from 1995. I think this test is for the clear vinyl pressing of the 7" that was made for the Rev25 shows back in 2012. It would have been pressed at Rainbo, but has plain white labels rather than the standard Rainbo labels.

I remember seeing this test press advertised a few years ago when Merchnow held a raffle to win one when you preordered a t-shirt. I think this was during a period when there were a few raffles to help the Black Lives Matter movement. At the time I didn't enter this raffle (although I did enter and win a Down To Nothing test press which I was stoked about at the time). Anyway, I found the ad for this raffle still online:

Given that five of these were given away by Merchnow, I always assumed that this wasn't actually a Rev pressing, but instead made by Equal Vision or the band themselves, so it was never really high on my want list. But when I saw this for sale, I reached out to Rev for info, and in response received confirmation that these were definitely made by Rev, and sent to the band. The band got Merchnow to make the covers that matched the black on black t-shirt design, and each member kept five copies, with the remaining five being given to the raffle. This nicely accounts for the 25 copies that this is numbered out of (mine being number 6):

I once technically owned a first press test press of this 7" for a couple of weeks, but sent it on to someone who wanted it more than I. Given the difficulty in finding a first press test, this will do nicely for me as a consolation prize. But with there being 25 of these out there, the chances of finding one are significantly higher than most other Rev test pressings.

Dead And Reborn

I had been a fan of the Dwarves for a long time. I was Sub Pop releases since I was a teenager, but when they shifted to Epitaph toward the end of the 90s I wasn't really into it. This carried on until I saw them play live in 2016 or so, and after that I started to appreciate their later records for the first time. A couple of years ago I picked up one of their later albums for a pretty good price and it exceeded my expectations. So I was then on a (slow) mission to catch up on the stuff I had missed. And recently I picked up two more records in quick succession from within the UK.

'The Dwarves Must Die' is the eight LP (although the seventh proper one) and came out in 2004, at a time when I was firmly not interested in anything that this band was doing. This one has been repressed a few times, but the white vinyl pressing from 2004 remains (at the time of writing) the only colour vinyl version that exists. Musically, it's all over the place, with songs of various different styles. But without doubt it is a fun listen, and the cover (as ever) has some boobs to look at.

'The Dwarves Are Reborn' is their ninth LP, and the one that follows on from the one above, but this one came out seven years later, in 2011. I'm not sure what went on the interim. There were a couple of 7"s released in between, but I'm not sure if they technically broke up for a while. Anyway, this copy here that I picked up is a first pressing copy. It seems that this one was repressed by the original label (MVD Audio) in 2018, and then on a different label in the 2020's (the band's own label, Greedy). Also, slightly out of character the cover promises boobs, but fails to deliver.

Interesting how for years I could not be less interested in anything they did beyond the Sub Pop releases, but now I recognise that this was not a smart move. There are way too many Dwarves records out there, but I'm definitely interested in trying to amass a complete collection of the LPs (well, 'complete' in the sense of one copy of each record, rather than all versons of all the records, which would be lunacy at this point). There are five more records I need to complete this objective, although this includes the first record which was pretty much a different band and sounds nothing like anything else they ever did, so there are only really four that I need. Game on!