Unified Action

Today's post is a 12" EP by a newish UK hardcore band. Unified Action features my old mate Lins on vocals who has been around for longer than the moon and who has been in a couple of great bands in the past (Tied Down amd Break It Up). I'm not exactly sure when and why Tied Doen ended, but Unified Action carries on in a similar vein, playing stuff that sounds like it came out of the States in the mid 80s.

The debut release comes on a 12" and there were only 250 copies made (100 on clear and 150 on black). Even if clear were the more common colour I'd probably have ordered that one because that's how I roll.

I really like it when records come in black and white covers. I just identify this with old school hardcore punk records. I mean, how many other types of music come in black and white covers? Anyway, these records are all stamped out of 250 copies. Presumably the clear ones are numbers 1-100 and the black numbers 101-250. I'm guessing but it makes sense. The number I got sent was one away from being my number.

In total this thing has 9 songs that clock in at around 11 minutes, and that gives a big clue as to what this sounds like. Fast, angry hardcore from the frozen northern wastelands of a decaying shithole of a country, trying to warn us all about the impending doom we are all facing. If that sounds like your cup of tea then there are still a few copies available from the label, HERE.

Hiding In Plain Sight

Without a doubt the 7" record format is much less popular these days, and the number of 7"s pressed and purchased is definitely on the decline. But thankfully there are still some great 7"s being pressed and helping to keep the format alive. This new Precious 7" is a great example. Titled 'Hiding In Plain Sight', it was released at the end of 2022 by Indecision Records.

I'm really stoked that thsi record came out. The band released a full length back in 2018, and they have been quiet ever since, to the point where I had assumed that the band was done. It's great that they are still going, and hopefully there will be more at some point in the not too distant future.

The band features the vocalist and bass player from Threadbare and some dude from Adamantium. It doesn't sound particularly 90s really, but I would assume that anyone who likes 90s hardcore would enjoy it. I say that because it is one of those records that sits between genres. If you like your music to sit clearly in pre-defined categories, this band probably isn't for you.

There were 100 copies on this pink vinyl, and 400 on black vinyl. Both colours are still available as I type this. There are only two songs on here, but it's well worth the money and you'll be doing your bit to keep the format alive.

Punk As Fuck

Another trip aboard the repress train that I couldn't pass up. When this one went up for preorder I jumped on it immediately. Down By Law's 'Punkrockacademyfightsong' LP came out in 1994 and I remember it like it were yesterday. I absolutely loved this record when it was released and can still sing pretty much every word. But back then Epitaph Records didn't do colour vinyl so all copies came on black. But for some reason in 2022 they decided to press it again on purple.

This seems for me a really strange choice to repress in this day and age. I mean, does anyone really care about Down By Law still? And why this one? Is this somehow their most popular record and I never knew it? Too many questions. But I just checked and it seems that this is still available to buy. Given the speed with which most records sell out these days, I can only assume that the answer to my first question is 'no'.

Just A(nother) Minor Threat

When I decided to buy the blue vinyl Fugazi 'Repeater' LP I decided to also pick up the latest repress of the Minor Threat self-titled 12". This time it comes with a light grey cover and is on silver vinyl.

I'm not a fan of these modern day silver and gold vinyl colors. The records generally look like they are made of a cheap plastic that reminds me of kids toys. I can imagine a toy truck being made of this color plastic. But it doesn't seem quite right for a record.

This is a great example of a record where I have no idea what I am doing. I have never really tried to collect Minor Threat records, but this now represents the 4th colour vinyl pressing of this record that I own. It feels like they are going to keep on pressing this one for years to come on different colours and I'm not entirely sure I want to carry on playing the game. But for now I feel I should grab these things whilst they are available and then figure out if I need them later on.

Repeater

So I will admit right up front that I've never really been a huge Fugazi fan. Back in the early 90s I picked up their first couple of records and thought that they were ok. But they weren't exactly a life changing band for me. Far from it. I remember buying 'End Hits' when it came out and thinking it was really boring and I sold it again. Anyway, by far my favourite of their full length records is the first one, 'Repeater'. This was the first Fugazi record I ever bought, and it takes me back to the time I bought it, so when I saw that it had been repressed recently on blue vinyl I figured I would pick one up.

Other than white vinyl, I guess clear blue seems like the most suitable colour for this to have been pressed on, and I like that whoever is involved in making such decisions seems to be picking colours that suit the artwork.

I am going to guess that in time all of the Fugazi records are going to be repressed on colour vinyl and I will probably get sucked into buying them all. Well, except 'End Hits'. But if this does happen then I will end up owning two copies of each record - one black vinyl first press, and one colour vinyl repress from 30 years later.Yet Fugazi is not really a band that I feel I need to own multiple copies of. So I'm already having a debate with myself about which copies I should keep. As ever, it's not an easy decision.

A Drop Of Patience

It seems like a couple of years ago, but somehow it was ten years ago, that I picked up a couple of colour vinyl copies of a repress of the Absolution 7". At the time I was trying to cut back on represses, but then I found out that the record was actually a re-recording of the 7" rather than a repress, so that made me feel better about wasting my money. And then a while ago I saw another couple of colours for sale on eBay. I wasn't sure what was going on, but it turns out there was a second press with two more colours, and I got sucked into buying these as well.

The green vinyl is the more limited colour, out of 150 copies. The paper sleeve is also stamped with the Absolution logo in green ink to match the record.

The clear vinyl is the more common second press colour out of 400 copies. As is always the case with clear vinyl, it looks great.

It's kinda funny, but I own one copy of the original pressing of this record, and now 4 copies of the re-recorded version. Admittedly the new recording sounds a lot better but still, it feels a bit back to front.

Shown above are the first press copies (gold/60, purple/150) and the second press colours (green/150, clear/400). I don't think the label's site exists anymore, so no idea where anyone coule try to buy this other than eBay. The label has an instagram which is full of weird pictures of stuff that makes it look nothing like a label that has released some hardcore records. Peep it yourself. Weird huh?

Batman 2

At the back end of last year Revelation pressed up another colour version of the Youth Of Today 'Can't Close My Eyes' 12". On average this one now seems to get pressed on a new colour every couple of years, and there probably isn't too much excitement about these things in the record collecing community. Except this time there was a bit of a buzz about it, because 100 copies of it were a little more special than the average repress.

In total there were 1,000 copies of this colour pressed. But 100 of them have a blank white label with a batman stamp and a batman stamp in the bottom corner of the front cover, as a tribute to the orange vinyl 7" pressing (although that one had a couple of extra stamps on it). I was lucky enough to get one of these in the few minutes that they were available, but of course I also had to pick up a regular one too because, you know, they are different.

The batman version also came with a numbered print. I scored number 3/100. It's kinda cool I guess, although I would have preferred if it were the reord that were numbered rather than the insert. ALthough if it were then it would be different to the 7" version. So I guess this is fair enough.

The batman stamped version sold out in a matter of minutes, so it's cool to see that Rev are still able to crank out stuff that there is a bit of excitement for... whereas the regular, unstamped one is still very much available and I would guess is likely to be so for quite some time.

Sweetbelly Freakdown

A couple of months ago I was driving my car when my phone lit up with a couple of messages from Nico. He seemed pretty desperate to get hold of me. When I eventually parked up and read the message, he was trying to alert me to a test press being sold on discogs for cheap. To be fair, he had found a great item at a good price, and I'm really grateful that he flagged it to me. And here we are:

Released on Jade Tree Records, catalogue number 1032. This is a test press for a full length LP by a band called Sweetbelly Freakdown. The band contained all of the final 4 members of legendary DC band Swiz. So you know, it sounds a little bit like Swiz... although in my opinion the songs on here aren't quite in the same league. The record was released in 1997, and a couple of years later the band was formerly done.

Pictured above is the test press with the regular cover. I've always really loved the artwork on the cover of this one. And whilst the record isn't quite a match for the power of Swiz, the first song here is an absolute banger, with an opening cry of 'Help me Obi Wan Kenobi!'. Yup, this is a pretty nice one to have for sure. Thanks Nico !

Tales Of The Ancient Age

Back in 2008 I picked up the 3rd Annihilation Time LP. I remember being slightly disappointed that I was sent a black vinyl copy rather than one of the red vinyl copies. Well, here we are almost fifteen years later, and I finally got around to upgrading. It helped that the red vinyl copy is pretty cheap these days.

This one was released on two different labels (Tee Pee Records in the US, and Reflections Records in Europe) and both labels put out a limited red vinyl copy. This one here is from the US pressing.

Of the three Annihilation Time full lengths, this one is probably my least favourite. But it's still a solid record. A lot more rock 'n' roll and less punk than the first album, and much more like the second only without quite as strong songs.

I already sold my black vinyl copy and got enough money to cover the cost of this red one, so it worked out pretty well.

Don't Forget The Repress

So back in 2016 I had a parcel get lost with a lot of records inside and, as a result, I decided to quit buying Revelation represses. There were a few in the box and after they got lost I couldn't face buying them again. And I stuck to that for a couple of years, until something tempted me back in, and then a couple of years later still I made the decision that I did want to go back and fill the holes that I had left, which meant tracking down 4 different colour copies of 'Don't Forget The Struggle, Don't Forget The Streets'. For some reason I wasn't overly excited about this... and then another colour got pressed. I picked it up and then started to find the older colours. And then another colour got pressed. Damnit. This was a moving target.

I picked up this 'first press' solid red vinyl copy this week in a trade. There were 2,108 copies of this one pressed in 2016. Somehow that is now almost 7 years ago. Crazy.

In a relatively short time I have managed to find 5 of the 6 colours that exist for this Rev pressing. I still need the clear blue vinyl copy and now I'm this deep I will find it eventually. And even though I wasn't really too interested in picking this one up at all, I think that these colour pressings look pretty cool all laid out together.