Thursday

When I saw this record go for sale, I knew I wanted it. It was just a question of whether my offer would be good enough. Thankfully it was. I was kinda surprised as I thought that surely someone else would be willing to pay more. But if they were, then they didn't see this for sale, as it was only advertised on instagram.

This is a test press of the Turning Point / No Escape split 7". This particular copy was Tim Singer's personal copy (vocalist in No Escape) and he also included the original blueline proofs for the cover, which come as two separate pieces of paper.

I think I can safely say that this is one of the best split 7"s of all time. I mean, I'd be hard pressed to think of another. I think what helps this one is that these two songs are very much later Turning Point, which for me is their absolute best era. Still to this day I wish that there was a second LP in the style of songs on this record... although I guess the Godspeed 12" kinda has that covered.

Society Exists

A couple of weeks ago I came home from a busy day at work and sat down to catch up on the day's internet activity. Within minutes it became apparent that I had missed out on a newly released High Vis record. I saw a couple of posts from people saying that they managed to get one, and a couple of posts from people saying that they missed out. And there I was with absolutely no idea it was even coming out at all. Damnit. I felt pretty bummed. And then within an hour a friend texted me to tell me he had one for me if I wanted it. Incredible. People never cease to amaze me.

'Society Exists / Stationhouse Demos' is a 4 song 12" which compiles a couple of older songs with a couple of demo recordings. There were only 200 copies pressed, all on white vinyl, and all hand numbered on both the inner paper sleeve and also on the back cover. It was released by Farewell Records, the label that released the band's first two 7"s, that I never quite got around to ordering because I kept thinking I would buy them next week until they had sold out.

I really like the simple and basic design for this thing. EVerything is so minimal. It looks kinda minimal and DIY, which I think seems perfect given the songs on here. A little bit rough around the edges and not as polished as the 'Blending' LP.

Of the 4 songs on here, the first two were previously released as a digital only thing. The songs were recorded during covid, but don't feature all members of the band. To me who knows fuck all, they just sound slightly more basic then 'Blending', and also like they predate the 'No Sense, No Feeling'... although they don't. The second two songs are from the 'Blending' era. One is an earlier recording of one of the songs from that record, and another is a song that didn't quite make the cut. But all 4 of these songs are definitely High Vis, there is no mistaking.

FOr me, 3 of these songs are 'new' so I'm loving this. And I'm feeling very lucky to have a copy at all. I'm a little surprised that only 200 were made given how popular this band is right now, but at least I don't have to stress out too much about trying to find one. Kinda funny though that even though it's already been out for a couple of weeks, and it sold out in 2 minutes flat, there are currently only 47 people on discogs who want this. Maybe it came and went so fast that a lot of people still have no idea it exists?

Coffee Retentive

Another couple of records that I ended up keeping from my friend's collection, both of which are compilations released by Very Small Records in the earli 90s.

The first is a fun little 7" from 1990 titled 'If You Can See Through It... It Ain't Coffee'. I've no idea why it is called this, but it seemed that back in the late 80s and early 90s there was a shit tonne of pop punk compilations with stupid names (e.g. 'The Thing That Ate Floyd', 'Can Of Pork') so it's probably not worth podering too much.

This comp features three bands that were pretty well known (Fuel, Monsula, & Filth) and one other band that I'd never heard of before (Thumper). It looks like a few of the early Very Small releases, with a brown cover and art that someone drew by hand. As comps go, this is pretty cool, and I imagine back in the day would have been a nice introduction for people for a couple of these bands.

The second compilation is a double LP titled 'Vinyl Retentive'. Again, it feels that in the early 90s the double LP compilation of pop punk (and mainly bay area bands) was a pretty common thing. I guess it was just a good way for lots of new bands to get some material out there, and probably was a good way for people to check out new bands at an affordable price (obviously when records were cheaper than today).

There's a whopping 33 bands on this thing. It has some semi well known bands (Voodoo Glowskulls, Pinhead Gunpowder, Econochrist), some bands I have heard on other, similar comps (Pounded Clown, Logical Nonsense, Horny Mormons) and then there's a whole bunch of bands that I've never heard of, such as the brilliantly named Captain 9s And The Knickerbocker Trio.

This one totally takes me back to 1993/94 when I would spend whole days with my friends sat around listening to records desperately trying to find cool new bands to listen to. Fun times.

Sell It For What It's Worth...

Even though I am definitely a 90s hardcore kid by background, I was never really interested in Chokehold. On paper I should have been all over them, but for some reason I was never bothered. I think it stems back to some point in the 90s where I either bought something or agreed a trade on something, and instead of what I thought I was getting, some dipshit sent me a Chokehold LP. It was the 'Prison Of Hope' LP on clear & red split vinyl, which had no labels on it and came in a clear plastic sleeve. It kinda looked like shit and I was annoyedat having been sent it, so sent it back. And that was that. From that point on I associated Chokehold with an ugly record that I didn't want. So here I am probably about 27 or 28 years later picking up two copies of the same Chokehold 7".

The 'Tooth & Nail' 7" was put out by Jawk Records in 1997. I've seen pictures of it over the years, and know that there are several different colours out there. So when I found two copies in a shop for pretty cheap, I figured it was the right time to dip my toe into the Chokehold pool, so to speak.

These two copies I picked up are at the more common end of the spectrum. Clear vinyl with no labels reminds me of the record I sent back in the 90s, and appears to be out of 200 copies. The orange vinyl, which I think looks nicer, is the most common colour there is, out of 600 copies.

So of course after picking this up I made sure to listen to it, and it is indeed a great 7"> I think I'm gonna have to check out more CHokehold stuff, and I feel a bit silly for ignoring them for so long. Better late than never though, huh?

L7

Iwas never really a fan of L7 back in the day. To me they were one of those 'alternative' bands who were on a major label and got alot of press coverage which, by definition, didn't exactly make them alternative at all. They were pretty big over here circa 1992-94, on the back of the Nirvana's success, and I have no doubt were marketed to that kind of crowd as they definitely looked 'grunge'. To me they were just some watered down version of 'punk' and I wasn't really interested. I even saw them play once, which I think was in 1992 when they supported Faith No More. I have pretty much zero memory of that show, but I just googled it and it definitely happened. Anyway, in 2023 there is a certain nostalgia factor that came into play, and when I had the pick of records from my friend's collection, I decided that I'd take the L7 records. For some reason, these days I'd rather go back in time and check out old stuff I ignored or missed than the latest band with a record on ten different splatter colours of vinyl. I guess that's part of getting old, right?

The first record I grabbed was an early pressing of the first LP. This was was originally released by Epitaph records back in 1988. This copty here is a first pressing, although annoyingly it is missing an insert.

Second is the 'Smell The Magic' 12" EP, which was released by Sub Pop Records in 1990. This is probably my favourite, with some great songs. This copy is a German pressing on black. The original pressing was a US pressing on purple vinyl, which (of course) now seems to more expensive that at any time in the past.

FInally, the band's debut major label full length, 'Bricks Are Heavy', from 1992. This was the record that they were touring when I (apparently) saw them play live, and it has what I think is their most well known song, 'Pretend We're Dead'. This one still just about has the shrink wrap on, which includes a hype sticker that announces this copy contains a 'Special edition L7 60x40flyposter which may cause offence'... which is, of course, missing. I vaguely remember my friend having it on his bedroom wall, so I imagine it lived on the wall and then never made it back into the sleeve.

Overall these records are ok, but I'm not overly fussed about checking out more of their catalogue. But I'd definitely be interested in the purple vinyl 'Smell The Magic'. And the missing insert and poster from the other two records. Still, these were cool things to be gifted, and I'm thankful I've made the time to check them out all these years later.

Subject To Change

I'm still trying to work out what my policy should be on Dischord represses. Every time I see one of their records that has been repressed on colour vinyl, I can't help but want them. And now it feels like they have gone the way that Rev did a few years ago, with a new one being announced almost every week.

The latest one that I couldn't say no to is this 'Subject To Change plus First Demo' LP by Faith. As you might expect from the name, this record combines their 'Subject To Change' LP with their first demo on one handy platter. Given I already own three copies of 'Subject To Change', I'm not exactly sure what I felt that I needed this one, but I bought it anyway.

The main reason I wanted it is simply because it is pressed on clear vinyl. This record was first pressed back in 2011, and until this year has only previously existed on black vinyl. And that's pretty much all it takes to suck me in.

The Reaper

Back in February this year I picked up the debut release by UK hardcore band Unified Action. Coming out of the northeast of England in 2023, but sounding like they came out of Boston in 1983, this is a good old fashioned hardcore record, and definitely one of the best releases of the year so far. Well, the band played a release show a couple of months ago and made a limited cover version of the record for the show, with a nice pic of some poor dude getting impaled through the guts. I decided I wanted one, so did what any record nerd would do - I jumped in my car and drive 308 miles to Newcastle to attend the show.*

As much as I like the artwork on display here, this does slightly annoy me, because whoever was in charge of making it got the measurements wrong. The limited cover is a little too small, so the record sticks out the sides and top.

I was also lucky enough to get number 1/15. That's what you get for waiting outside the venue for two hours before the doors open, then sprinting to the merch table as soon as the doors opened.*

* Sadly, none of the above is true. I mean, the bit about the sleeve being too small definitely is, but the bit about me driving to the show is definitely not. I can barely muster the motivation to travel more than 3 miles these days, so I was lucky enough to be able to buy one of the leftover copies of this one. Muchas gracias, Lins87. Hopefully I'll actually get to see this band in real life at some point.

Low Coast

My current favourite record is this, the debut release from a band called Low Coast. 'Existnig The Dream' was released a couple of weeks ago, with a total of 300 copies being pressed on vinyl on a colour referred to as 'desert dusk'.

Low Coast is Jeff Caudill's new band. Over the years I have found that Gameface has become a band that I have turned to time and time again, and the same is true of Jeff's solo work. And also the band Your Favorite Trainwreck. Jeff has a great voice and is a really good songwriter, so anything that he puts his name to is going to interest me.

Low Coast is a new band and Jeff put it together over the last couple of years after the Covid pandemic. A couple of songs on here were familiar to me, having previously been released on the 'Old Blood' 12" record that Jeff self released in 2021. This band doesn't sound like Gameface musically, but Jeff's voice is so distinct that I'd probably tell anyone 'this sounds like Gameface'. But no, musically this is more like a laid back indie band, and it's a pretty perfect record for the slow, sunny days of summer.

Overall a really great record, but just a shame it was pressed on this swirly mix of colours. A nice clear blue would have probably been much more suitable.

Some Indecision 7"s

Last year I spent a few days staying with Dave who runs Indecision Records, and I ended up bringing home a bunch of his releases that I had missed out on over the past few years. At somr point I just took my eye off of Indecision and stopped paying attention. But chatting to Dave and hearing lots of his stories, I was keen to check out smoe of the bands and records that I had missed or ignored, and I discovered some great music as a result. So in recent times I have ended up buying a few more Indecision releases because I was confident that they would be good. I figured it would be easiest to just post them up in one post, so there goes...

Putting them up in alphabetical order, first up is a 7" by a band called Bayonet. This one was released in 2018 and features possibly the worst cover for a record that I have ever seen.

It's such a shame that the cover looks so awful, because the record itself is great. The band are from San Diego and sound like they would have fitted in well with the Boston scene circa 2001. Heck, I'm tempted to fold the cover inside out and just leave this as the cover that I see from this point forward:

Next up is the Count Me Out '110 demo' 7". This one was made for the band's reunion show back in 2018, and features early demo versions of 3 songs from the '110' LP. This is exactly the kind of record that does not need to exist at all, but it's still kind of a cool one to own because it looks nice.

Next up, a 7" by a band called Rats In The Wall titled 'Warbound'. This one features Eva from Power Alone & No Plan on vocals, and I would say musically it sits somewhere between the two. This is a really good little 7". A bit more towards the 'punk' end of the spectrum I would say.

The next 7" is a little bit less like the rest. This is a 7" by a dude called Boz Boorer. He's probably best known as Morrissey's guitarist for the last 30 years or so, but is also a musician in his own right, having cranked about 8 or 9 albums of his own. This 7" was released back in 2014 for record store day (remember that?) and features two songs that are rockabilly. Kinda reminds me of the early 90s when Victory had Hifi & The Roadburners, and Sub Pop had Reverand Horton Heat.

And finally, the Ursula 'Meet Is Murder' 7". This one was released in 2018. This might just be my favourite of the lot. At first I wasn't overly excited by it, but there is a lot going on here musically. At times it reminds me a little of Botch, but it by no means sounds like Botch. Clearly that makes no sense, but it might do if you listened to it.

There are still more Indecision releases that I haven't heard and at this rate it feels it could me until the rest of time to get around to checking them all out. But interestingly, most of them are pretty damn good. I just wish I hadn't lost touch with the label in the first place and kept up with it for the last ten years or so, although fortunately most of the releases are relatively easy to find and not expensive, which makes a nice change.