Needle In Your Neck

Back in about 2004 I had fallen a little out of touch with hardcore. I spent a couple of years studying and everything else in life took a bit of a backseat for a while. I kept up with whatever Rev and B9 were doing, but other new labels and bands were springing up and I was out of touch. But when I started to get back into it, one crucial release that got me on the right path was a CD compilation / sampler called 'Locked & Loaded 2'. It featured songs by bands from a few labels that were up and coming at the time, namely Youngblood, Martyr, Perfect Victim, Old Guard and Walk All Night. Some of the better known bands on there were Cold World, Internal Affairs, Modern Life Is War, Over My Dead Body, Lights Out, Desperate Measures, and more. In total there were 25 songs, and I ended up playing this thing every day for about 3 weeks, mainly because I had a hire car with a CD player whilst my car was being repaired after some fool crashed into it.

Anyway, I collected records by lots of the bands on the comp, and one band whose 7" I enjoyed a lot back then was Drug Test. Their song was about throwing some fool down the stairs and it sounded hard. They had a 7" on Walk All Night records, and as was typical of that period, there were loads of different versions. I collected 4 different colours back then really quickly and cheaply, but I never really saw any other versions for sale until I was sent a list of stuff for sale with two more I didn't have.

First up, the record release show edition on black vinyl and numbered out of 100 copies.

The other copy is another limited sleeve version. I really like this simple cover that looks like it was done by a 4 year old. This was made for a show called 'USA for DTA' that took place on the 11th September 2004. I'm sure this would have been a great show, featuring Outbreak, The Wrong Side, Drug Test, Iron Boots and Tarpit.

Notice how the labels on this version are different colours to the release show version above. This is a giveaway that this colour is a second press copy.

Whilst I'm on the subject of this sleeve version, does anyone know what the 'DTA' is? I'm just curious. 'USA for DTA' sounds like a great cause, but maybe it wasn't? Let me know if you know.

Taking these photos was a good excuse to revisit this record. I think it's held up pretty good. A lot of the hardcore records from that period have I think. But adding two more copies was a good excuse to crack the others out and take a collection photo:

If you haven't heard this 7" before than I think it's worth your time. Especially the song 'Down The Stairs'. It still sounds great all these years later.