Consolation Prize

It wasn't long ago that Dischord started repressing some of their classic records on coloured wax. Or so I thought. It was actuaslly five years ago now. Even though most people are starting to get frustrated & bored by Revelation's endless represses, the Dischord color vinyl pressings somehow seem less offensive... probably because they are less frequent. Here's my latest one - a great looking purple vinyl pressing of Jawbox's 'Grippe' LP.

I really like this purple. It's seems to be both solid and clear at the same time. A really interesting colour. Although, having said that, it's not quite the right shade of purple to go with the cover. Seems a shame to try to match the colour to the artwork but then get it wrong. Ah well, it's the thought that counts I guess!

I'd Buy That For A Dollar

You can't buy much for a dollar these days. Unless you're interested in late 90s 7"s by The Hollomen... in which case you can buy white vinyl record in a white sleeve, which you think will sit nicely with your copy in a black sleeve and your test press. Yes, that's right, I bought this for one buck.

Ok, so this isn't the most well known or liked band in the world, but it's on Hydrahead and has Aaron Turner in it. Surely that must make it worth at least, oh... a buck twenty five... right? Ha! Apparently not. At least, not on the day I bought it.

PS I just realised that technically I didn't buy this for a buck as I had to about six times that for postage. Balls.

Another Integrity Catch Up

Sometimes I really feel like I have made a mistake in trying to collect Integrity records. I mean, up until about 2008 or so, there weren't too many Integrity records out there. The band had been quiet for a long time. For the past few years, there seems to be a new Integrity record every couple of months, or a new pressing of an old Integrity record. Or a new pressing of a not so new Integrity record. I've got over 100 Integrity records and, believe me, there are still a LOT that I am missing. Every now and again I try to make a dent in catching up (or keeping up) before 20 new records come out and I temporarily give up again. So here's my latest catch up batch...

The first record is the third pressing of the reissue of the 'In Contrast Of Sin' 7" on Organised Crime records. This has been updated since it was first reissued back in 2010. This new version does away with the inside of the sleeve artwork and lyrics and replaces them with some words written by founding member Aaron Melnick. There were two colours - a blue numbered version and a more common green version.

Next up is a third press reissue of the 'Those Who Fear Tomorrow' LP, which has similar liner notes from A2. Again, there were two colours of this one - a stamped and numbered clear blue, and a more common solid blue.

Next we move on to the reissue of the 'Systems Overload' LP. This one came out at some point last year, and was later followed by the superior remixed version. I never picked up the first reissue as I felt burnt out on Integrity reissues, but I guess it was inevitable that I would pick them up in the end. There were three colours for the first press - the clear with black smoke pressing in the limited sleeve, a white vinyl and a red vinyl. Obviously I picked up all three.

And next is the common pressing of the 'Systems Overload' remix. This was originally pressed in very limited form on red vinyl for Halloween 2012 and then on black for RSD 2013. Both came in a folded poster sleeve. But demand seemed high for this recording, so Organized Crime then made some more with regular covers for the masses. There were three colours. I think these all look great. I love the simplicity of the cover art.

Of course, since I bought these the regular version of 'Systems Overload' got repressed yet again on two more colours. Then A389 released a new pressing of the 'Black Heksen Rise' 7" and then a brand new 7" featuring the 'Systems Overload' line up on numerous colours. It seems I am destined to never be up to date with Integ vinyl.

Forget The Cars

I've had a blue/orange mix vinyl of the first Fastbreak LP since it came out. But recently I saw picture of the more common blue vinyl and decided I wanted one. Fast forward a few weeks and that vision has now become a reality. I got one for a pretty low price too which makes it even better.

I was sure that from memory this came out on three colours - blue, orange, and a blue/orange mix. Looks like I must have imagined the orange vinyl though as that doesn't seem to exist at all. I did get outbid on a test press of this one a while ago, which was disappointing, but I'm sure I'll get another shot at some point. Anyway, as much as I like this LP, I never liked the cover. There are a couple of things that annoy me. Firstly, the song titles and 'credits' are listed on the front. I mean, seriously, why would anyone put all that text on the front? And secondly, where are the so-called Fast Women? The album is called 'Fast Cars, Fast Women' yet I see only cars. Talk about false advertising!

Photocopied Paper

Are you the kind of person who would buy a record you already own for a second time just because it has a piece of paper slapped on the front? If so, you've come to the right place. Here's my third copy of the first GIVE 12", and the second copy on grey vinyl. The difference between this one and the first grey vinyl copy that I bought is simply that this one comes with a photocopied piece of paper craftily slipped in front of the record cover.

Ok, so this particular piece of photocopied paper does look particularly awesome compared to most, but still... do I need to own two grey vinyl copies because of it? Apparently yes, I do.

Vital Times

I've talked about having patience many times before. If you want something and the price is high, you have two options - you can either pay now and potentially save money if you expect the price to carry on rising, or you can play the long game and settle down and wait for the price to come down. History has shown that most bands will break up and get almost forgotten about, and the prices of their records will drop significantly. Today's post is an example of this. Back when ON were about and creating a bit of a buzz, their 7"s would sell for a decent wedge, but I bought these two 'Vital Times' 7"s for less than $20 for the two.

Firstly, the white vinyl. This was the pre-order version out of 250 copies.

The second copy was this green vinyl 2008 west coast tour version. As you can see, this one is numbered out of only 75 copies. This used to regularly sell for $30-60 when the band were about, so to get it for $10 feels quite satisfying. And it's a cool low number too.

There's something to be said for the 'sit back and wait four years' approach. I might see if I can pick up a couple more ON 7"s I'm missing too. I could do with a release version of this, and the red vinyl version of the other 7" too. Maybe they'll come around by 2016...

Crossbearer

Another Cave In 7" for the collection. This is a third press copy of the first 7" they did on Hydrahead on solid green vinyl. It has blank labels which somehow make it look better than the copies with proper printed labels.

I dug out my other two copies of this one for a family photo - the clear green vinyl first press, and the yellow vinyl second press - both of which I have had since they came out many moons ago.

Interesting how all three have different labels. Early Hydrahead was a really exciting label at the time, with numerous different vinyl colours and covers... enough to keep a dude collecting for, what... fifteen years and counting...

Handsome

Somewhere in the late 90s someone told me about a band called Handsome. I don't know how they heard of the band, although to be fair I can't remember how we found out about anything pre-internet. Anyway, the main attraction to the band seemed to be that Tom Capone was in it and it sounded vaguely like Quicksand. What I remember most though was a local record shop had a huge pile of the band's full length CD on sale dirt cheap pretty much as soon as it came out. I think I bought one for about £3 brand new... and this was in an era when CDs were £10-12 as standard. The album was pretty good, although not as good as Quicksand. But it always felt weird that this band had seemingly come out of nowhere, put out an album on a major label which probably didn't do very well, and then disappeared. At least, that's what it felt like happened from where I was sitting... which was a few thousand miles away.

Fast forward to 2013 (a full 16 years after the album was first released) and 6131 Records decided to release it for the first time properly, i.e. on vinyl. There were 100 on clear vinyl (which sold out fast and I missed) and 400 on 'silver' vinyl.

So the thing I don't understand is why, after sixteen years of no vinyl existing for this thing, two labels both put this out within a few weeks of each other. Like I said, I got mine from 6131 Records. Only a few weeks later, Shop Radio Cast (a weird label that only seems to put out vinyl releases of older CD only albums) also put it out as an LP with a bonus 7" included. I have never heard of two labels both simultaneously re-releasing an old record before. Did these two labels both know the other was putting out the same record? Are the labels somehow connected? Was it planned? Is it a coincidence? Does anyone know? Does anyone else care?

Fucking weird.

Liveage!

Slowly but surely. That's the way I've been collecting coloured vinyl Descendents records. I've been slowly adding them since 2009. So here's the latest - a blue vinyl copy of their first live LP 'Liveage!':

I've never really understood why there SST Records released two different live Descendents LPs. I just searched the internet, and found something about this record on wikipedia which, if correct, explains what happened. It tells me that this LP was recorded during their 'FinALL' tour (the tour in support of 'ALL', which at the time they thought would be their final tour as Milo was leaving to pursue a career in biochemistry. Two years later they then later released a different group of live songs from the same tour as the 'Hallraker Live' LP. I guess there was just demand for Descendents records, despite there not being any new material. These days we'd probably call it a 'cash grab'. Ha!

There's only a couple of colour Descendents LPs I am now missing. I need one of the purple/brown represses of 'ALL' that came out a year or two. I can't believe I actually missed those. Surely someone out there must have one of these they can part with? The other one I need is a blue vinyl copy of 'Cool To Be You', which (unfortunately for me) seems to be the rarest and most expensive Descendents record out there. Still, the end is in sight, and I'm really hoping that I can finish this collection off in 2014.

Business As Usual

At some point towards the end of last year I had my ipod on shuffle, a Righteous Jams song came on, and it jogged my memory that the band had a second album. After reading an interesting article about how bad Metallica's 'St Anger' was, and then downloading it and really liking it, I decided that I should give more chances to bad records. So I downloaded the second Righteous Jams LP 'Business As Usual'. And wouldn't you know it, I ended up liking that too. So then I obviously had to buy the record. And obviously I didn't want just any copy. No, I had to get one of the blue vinyl copies.

I was surprised, but this one isn't that easy to get. It doesn't seem to come up for sale too often. Not sure why this would be. I mean, I can't imagine this is in many people's list of favourite records. I can only assume that the first pressing was a relatively small run. Perhaps also people who own it think there's no point in selling it as it wouldn't fetch more than the price of a sandwich. Whatever the reason though, I thought this would be an easy pick up, but it took a while. Anyway, as you can see, I managed to find one in the end.

The blue vinyl does seem like a good choice as it goes nicely with the cover. I also like the simplicity of the cover. Kind of like the first LP. No need for pictures. Words will do the job nicely.

Seems like only a couple of years back that Righteous Jams were THE band of the moment. I remember going to see them play in Sheffield and they absolutely killed it. An amazing show which even the band said was one of their best. Despite it seeming like a recent-ish show, it was either 8 or 9 years ago now. Insane. Anyway, the 'Rage Of Discipline' LP was undoubtedly one of the best records of the noughties and I think it's fair to say that this follow up was highly anticipated, but unfortunately the world was left massively disappointed. It received a universal panning, and it seemed that not long after it dropped the band was done. Shame though. I mean, it's actually a good record. I guess it's just too different to the first record. The main change is that the songs are a lot longer. But it's not bad by any means.

If anyone has any other tips for universally bad records for me to check out, please comment. I like a challenge.

Resurrection Of The Wolf

This one came right at the end of last year and I didn't get around to posting it unfortunately. I also didn't really find the time to play it until this week either. But after playing it three times a day all week, I figured I should get it up on here.

So No Warning broke up a few years ago (not sure when exactly - 2005-6?), but all of a sudden in early December news hit the internet that they had recorded a new 7". News dropped of a release show (which the band were not actually playing at), but then within a day or two the 7" was up for sale at Revelation and Bridge Nine. Figuring this would sell out in a matter of minutes, I placed an order as quick as I could. I'm not sure exactly how quick it did sell out, but I'm pretty sure it was within a day.

Don't get too excited though. The band aren't back together full time. They just met up in order to record this thing and sell it as a way of helping one of bassist Zach Amster, who it seems is currently in jail in California. The money from this release is intended to help his wife and daughter. If you want to read a little more then check out the band's current website HERE.

So what does this sound like? Well, it sounds exactly like No Warning. More 'Ill Blood' than 'Suffer Survive'. The first song is a new song, lasts for just over three minutes, and hits hard. Good stuff. The second songs is a Violent Minds cover that lasts for 44 seconds, and I'm not convinced there is much point to it to be honest. They could have got away with a one sided, one song record. People would have still bought it. Anyway, this looks like a one time pressing of 500 copies which is now sold out, but if the point is to raise money to help someone, then it would seem sensible to make more copies given the demand is clearly there. SO perhaps there will be a second pressing. We shall see..

New York Hardcore Compilation #2

When people talk about classic 'Noo Yawk' hardcore compilations, there are two that come to mind - Revelation's 'New Yokr City Hardcore The Way It Is' and this one - 'New York Hardcore Where The Wild Things Are' on Blackout Records. Most people have and enjoy both, but opinion is divided as to which is best. It's probably pretty obvious by now, but I'm with the Rev comp. But that doesn't mean I can't hang with the wild things from time to time. And as from now, I'm hanging with it on red vinyl.

I've had a gold one of these for a longass time. I always wanted a red one too, and recently I saw one on eBay so thought I'd have a crack. I was pleasantly surprised when it sold for what I consider not too much. I was also stoked that it still has the shrink wrap and color vinyl sticker intact.

Outburst, Raw Deal, Life's Blood, Breakdown... side A really does hit hard. Side B, on the other hand... Sheer Terror, Maximum Penalty, Uppercut, Norman Bates And The Shower Heads... well, personally I never thought that they lived up to the bands on Side A. Which is why I never ranked this comp quite as highly as the Rev one.

That said, I always enjoyed the cheeky Gorilla Biscuits song that wraps things up. I have a vague memory of CIV playing this tune when I saw them play in '95/96 (whenever it was) and stage diving. At the same show I chatted to Sammy for a few minutes. I don't remember anything I spoke to him about other than asking if he had any spare copies of 'Bringin It Down' on green vinyl that he could let go. His response was (I think) 'I only have one of those and I want to hang on to it'. Ha!