Blangk / Hedge

One of my favourite aspects of record collecting is getting a record you have never seen before, especially if it is something from a long time ago. I guess this is something that is rare these days thanks to the power of the internet. But a number years ago you would hear of records but not see them, and the first time your eyes and ears would be able to take them in was when you bought one for yourself. And even though this is now an old fashioned concept, it still holds true for a few obscure and forgotten records that have all but vanished from history.

I used to be a big fan of what was coming out of the Louisville scene in the 90s. Even though I was just a young kid in the UK, from everything I saw or read, it felt that there was a lot going on in this city that seemed hundreds of miles away from any other hardcore scene. But back in the mid 90s, Initial Records, Falling Forward, Endpoint and Metroschifter were all pretty popular bands, and they all grabbed my attention. And this led on to discovering smaller bands from the same scene. One of these was a band called Blangk. I picked up a 7" of theirs, then a full length CD, and then somewhere and somehow I became aware that they also had a split 7" with a band called Hedge. So I added it to my want list and waited. And finally, in 2020, a copy made its way into my collection.

There was one pressing of this record, with 500 made in (I think) 1994. It's not much to look at. But until a year or so ago I had never even seen it. I probably searched for it on discogs at some point but it wasn't in the database. I also used to try searching for it on eBay, but basically gave up because every time I would search for 'blangk' it would return search results for 'blank', and literally millions of items would be returned. The first time I saw this record at all was at some point in the last couple of years or so when someone posted a bunch of records that they had just received on instagram, and this was one of them. I could see the word 'Blangk' so asked if the record was the Blangk / Hedge split 7", and I was told that yes, it was. Finally I had seen what it looked like. Then I searched for it on discogs again, and found that since the last time I checked, someone had created a listing. So I added it to the want list and waited, and a couple of years later one appeared. At $8 I probably overpaid by $3-5, but who cares. It was just nice to end a long (probably 20 year or so) hunt.

This record got me reminiscing about the 90s Louisville scene. Whilst digging for information I discovered a site I hadn't seen before, with a lot of informationon the Louisville scene, here: Louisville Punk/Hardcore History. Some of the info is pretty scant, but it's still a great reference site and worth a bit of your time if you were ever interested in this scene.