I've Seen The Needle And...

I was actually pretty out of touch with hardcore when THE DAMAGE DONE were an active band, circa 2000-2003. Back then I had a couple of years where I was studying hard for exams, and in that time a lot of new labels and bands were springing up and I just didn't have the time to keep up. The 90s had ended and the hardcore landscape was changing. The internet was really starting to become a major force of news and gossip, and I no longer knew where to look. With nobody to give me any advice, and all of the older labels that I had grown up following and trusting starting to put out crap (or stopping releasing vinyl altogether), as well as the lack of spare time on my hands, I started to really feel like I was losing touch with what was going on. So it's no surprise that, all these years later, I'm still hearing some of the bands from that era for the first time.

Well, a couple of months ago I acquired this awesome test press for the 'City Of Hope' 7" by The Damage Done, which was released by Rival Records (before it changed name to Rivalry) back in 2003, during my period in the hardcore wilderness. Despite having never actually heard the band before acquiring this record, it's one of my favourite pickups this year. It's taken me a couple of months to get around to posting about this one as, believe it or not, I needed several attempts to get a half decent photo. I seriously took over 100 photos of this 7" just to get two that were just about acceptable.

A few years ago I struck up a friendship with Kyle Whitlow. He used to sing for The Damage Done, and he also ran Rivalry Records and released some great records. Being a record nerd, you may also know him as a guy who used to have one of the most jaw dropping record collections on the planet (check Seeking The Simple for the proof). I bought a couple of records from him back when he was selling a big chunk of his collection, and around that time we got into a couple of discussions via email talking about the reasons he was selling. As the years rolled on, our email discussions continued on all manner of subjects, to the point where I count Kyle as a really good friend, and his emails are the highlight of my inbox. When I get an email from him I like to wait until I have a few minutes to read it uninterrupted, as I know it's probably going to be long and raise some interesting points for me to consider. From my point of view, we seem to have a lot in common in the way that we think, and we both love to analyse stuff and think about stuff that most people don't dwell on for more than two seconds. Well anyway, a few months ago I bought a Damage Done test press from someone and mentioned it to Kyle, and he told me that if he'd known that I'd wanted one then he'd have given me one. I wasn't sure if he was being serious or not, but regardless, I asked for a refund on the one I'd just bought and then set up a cheeky little reminder for Kyle to send me a test press. And I was stoked when, a few weeks later, he actually sent me this awesome personalised copy.

I'm almost embarrassed to say that this is currently the only record by The Damage Done that I own, and I'd never even heard this until this came my way. As I said earlier, I just plain missed it. But this is a great place to start. Recently I've had some fun watching videos of the band on youtube, and listening to other bands of the era. I truly believe that the early 00's were an awesome time in hardcore after the bullshit of the late 90s, and I really love the sound of the bands from those days, even all these years later.