Even The Score

Sometimes I don't set out to collect a record, but it just happens. Case in point, this Even Score 7". The original 7" was released by Axtion Packed Records in 1990 and then reissued by Victory Records via their Swingin' Singles Club imprint in 1997. The reissue had (in my opinion) much nicer packaging, and came on 5 different colours of vinyl. I got one copy back when it came out on red vinyl, but was never fussed about owning any other copies. But then a couple of years ago I picked up a purple vinyl copy for super cheap, and now I picked up a pink copy for even cheaper. It was impossible to resist, given that pink is the best colour there is.

So of course now that I have three copies I'm feeling that I have no reason to not try to find the other two. I'm looking for white and clear. If anyone wants to help, please get in touch.

Pissed Playground

I was having fun last year picking up cheap 7"s from within the UK, and I stumbled across the band PHC. I'd never heard them before, but really enjoyed the 7" (which was released in 1989) and ended up picking up 3 copies of the thing, which then made me keen to pick up the full length. So when a nicely priced copy popped up for sale in the UK, it was an easy decision to grab it.

The 'Pissed Playground' LP was released by New Beginning Records in 1989 and it was pressed on black vinyl only. The front cover art is kinda whack, but the back cover art is kinda cool I think.

All copies also came with a promotional poster, and fotunately this copy has it included. Overall it's in top condition, especially considering the age.

I'm not sure where this went wrong exactly, but somewhere between the 7" and this LP the sound seems to have changed. The guitar is barely audible on this record, and pretty much all I can hear is the bass. But then the record itself feels pretty disorganised, with lots of little breaks from the songs. It even starts off with a cover song, which I'm not sure I've ever seen before. So overall this has been a major disappointment sadly.

Closure

Back in 2001, Integrity was in a bit of a weird place. The Melnicks had left, and the people who had played in Integrity 2000 also seemed to have moved on, so a new band was recruited for the next record. I'm not going to pretend I know anything about what was going on back in 2001 with Integrity, but what I do remember is that it felt that the average hardcore fan had started to move on to the new, exciting bands of the time. Bridge Nine was the cool label, Equal Vision released the first American Nightmare LP, Bane 'Give Blood' and Converge 'Jane Doe'. It suddenly felt that Integrity was old hat. So when they released 'Closure', it kinda felt like it came out to very little fanfare. It felt like a very low profile release and to make matters worse, there wasn't even a proper vinyl release for it. Victory put it out on CD, and then some time later a small number of vinyl copies surfaced, which were for some reason pressed by an Australian label called Drug Bust Records. I remember when it came out, and the vinyl version of the record was not easy to get hold of at all. But for anyone who did pick this record up, it was definitely a different style, and as such is often regarded as the band's weakest release. So it seemed kinda cool that twenty years after it's initial release, it has been reissued.

Despite being put out by an Australian label, tt did have the Victory logo on it, so I'm sure that someone at the label must have given permission for it to have been put out. But in recent years Dwid has been pretty open about the fact that he regards the original vinyl pressing of 'Closure' as a bootleg, as he was never involved in the decision to release it. So twenty years later, the record has finally been officially released on vinyl for the first time via Dwid's own label, Holy Terror Records.

There were 3 colours of vinyl pressed, each out of 100 copies, and they were sold as a set of three.

Each colour has a name, so we get (in order) 'Gonz', 'Murnau' and 'Death Sun'. I think the names are themed around the 1922 film Nosferatu, although not 100% sure.

I almost didn't notice this, but the inside of the sleeve features a photo of the band. A nice touch, even if almost impossible to actually see.

As I type this, the triple pack is sold out. But at this stage, it is unclear as to whether there will be another pressing or not. Although if I know Integrity, it seems more likely than not.

And of course, it wouldn't be right for me to buy an Integruty release without also picking up a test press. This one comes with a hand drawn sleeve made by Dwid, featuring the Count Orlok character from Nosferatu.

I Wanne Be... Your Sledgehammer

It was only back in April this year that I scored a Sledgehammer 7". The band featured Dwid alongside dudes from Liar & Congress and released a 7" / CD EP back in 2004. It took me almost 17 years to obtain a copy of this 7", and then a few weeks later here I am posting up two more copies of the thing.

After posting the orange vinyl copy that I picked up a few weeks ago, I went straight to discogs and found a red vinyl copy for sale. And then it turned out that the seller also had a cheap black vinyl copy for sale too.

There's a clear yellow vinyl copy that exists too that I need, and a red vinyl in a limited sleeve too. If anyone has either and would let them go please let me know.

Dag With Shawn

There are some records & bands that I just can't resist buying. And whilst I never really set out to collect Dag Nasty records, I have managed to amass quite a good collection as the years have rolled by. The latest is this clear vinyl (officially referred to as 'sea glass' by Dichord) repress of the 'Dag With Shawn' LP.

I had no idea when this originally came out. It could have been 5, 10 or 15 years ago and I wouldn't have been surprised. Turns out that the blue vinyl copy that I bought was back in 2014, which is close to 7 years ago. Nuts.

For anyone unaware, this is a recording of the original Dag Nasty line up, with Shawn Brown on vocals. These songs were recorded way back in 1985, and then Shawn left and Dave Smalley stepped in and the rest is history. Of the 9 songs on this record, 8 were re-recorded and appeared on the 'Can I Say' LP. So it's cool that these songs were pressed on vinyl, as I'm sure some people out there would prefer Shawn's vocals to Dave's.

Blasting Concept

With the recent limited colour vinyl represses of some of the releases on It's Alive Records, I decided to look through the label's discography and find out what other stuff they may have released that I knew nothing about. One thing that caught my eye was the cover art for a 12" by a band called Blasting Concept. Featuring a skeleton wearing a purple rode riding a motorbike through flames, it looked like it could be pretty interesting. I managed to find the song online to listen to and was into it within about 5 seconds. So I knew I needed to own a copy.

Rather disappointingly, my copy doesn't quite look as cool as to online version as the rider isn't wearing the cool looking purple robe. But speaking to Fred who released this, it's because they didn't have much purple ink so only a few of the sleeves were 'full colour'.

The band's bandcamp page describes them as simply BL'AST! meets Mountain. Played by retards. What a great description, haha! Personally, this reminds me a lot of the second Annilhilation Time LP generally speaking, but there's one song that sounds super like the band Magic Cirle too. It's like hardcore 70s rock. Very damn catchy and head bob inducing, and perfect for Summer days.

I also love how this has such a DIY feel to it, with a screen printed cover and blank label on one side. With only 300 were pressed back in 2010, this is one of those records that is probably only really known around their local area in California. Interestingly, it seems that they had a full length put out by Ebullition Records in 2015. I'll probably check that out at some point, although the cover art is pretty much the opposite to this record, i.e. it's kinda off putting.

One SIded War

Here's a record that I really can't make my mind up on. The band is called One Sided War and the record is titled 'The Sum Of Days'. It's an old recording, and features 10 songs, of which 6 were released on a CD back in 1998. The band features Matt Warnke (Bold vocalist), some dude from Citizens Arrest and some other dude from Supertouch, the band released a 6 song CD on Ambassador Records and then later recorded 4 other songs... all of which have now been pressed onto vinyl forthe first time. There were two colours of vinyl made, and I picked up the clear yellow, which was exclusive to RevHQ and limited to 200 copies.

I know that the point of a record label is to sell records, but I did find their description of this record slightly amusing. It starts as follows:

During the "Youth Crew Revival" of 1997 when bands like Floorpunch, Ten Yard Fight, Fastbreak, Better Than A Thousand and In My Eyes were in their heydays, Matt Warnke of Bold and Chris Daley started ONE SIDED WAR to leave their mark on that era.

Talking about making a mark... until this record was released, I'd never heard of the band before. I was around back when this came out, and was interested in what was going on and was buying new releases all the time, but I would say that the mark that this band left was none whatsoever.

So as mentioned, I'm not sure what I think of this. I played it a couple of times and it totally failed to grab me. But then I played it again a couple of days ago when I took these photos and i really enjoyed it. It reminded me a bit of Bold, but sounds almost halfway between the LP and the 7". So I haven't made my mind up yet, but there's enough to make me go back and try again at least.

Smoke & Cowards

I just realised a few days ago that there were some records I received a few months ago that I never got around to posting about on here. I distinctly remember taking photos, but somehow the photos vanished, and I forgot about the records. So this weekend when I realised, I took the photos again. This means that I have a few more records to post about before the 2021 well runs dry.

Earlier this year I posted about the latest LP by The Casket Lottery, but I also picked up a couple of test pressings of a couple of their earlier releases. I've loved this band for 20 years now, so I'm stoked to have been able to find some test pressings, which are from an era when tests were scarce.

The first is a test press of the third album, 'Survival Is For Cowards', which was released by Second Nature Recordings in 2001. I still remember the excitement of receiving my copy of this in the mail back when it came out. I was REALLY into this band back in 2001. But I was still just as excited to receive this test press 20 years later.

The record comes in a plain black sleeve which is sealed shut via the use of a sticker. On the back of the sticker it's stamped with a number. Mine is number 000006 out of only 8 copies that exist.

The characters on the sticker are from the scene on the front of the regular cover.

The second test press I scored was for the band's last release before they went on a hiatus for 8 years, the 'Smoke And Mirrors' 12" EP. This one was released as a 12" 'picture disc', although its a bit of a weird one. It looks like a clear vinyl 12" with a picture disc style centre label. It comes in the same cover as the regular release, i.e. a plastic sleeve with a sticker on the front.

It doesn't really look or feel like a traditional picture disc. But the test press is kinda cool, because it contains the same proportion of vinyl vs. picture disc. It basically just looks like a 12" with a giant label.

Here's the test press next to the regular version of the 'picture disc'.

In typical style, as happy as I am with these tests, the sad thing about this story is that I could have bought tests of the first two LPs a few years ago but didn't. I wish I could go back and buy them. The chance of finding them now seems pretty remote, and having the set of all 3 would have been pretty damn cool. Ah well.