Striving Higher

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.