Trial By Fire

So after rediscovering the Explosion LP (in my last post) I also had a quick scan through the other Jade Tree releases I own to see if there was anything else that I'd forgotten. The answer was a resounding 'yes'. I listened to the Trial By Fire 'Ringing In The Dawn' LP and was instantly annoyed at myself for forgetting how good it is. And once again, a quick look on discogs I found a solid yellow vinyl copy being sold by a UK seller for a crazy low price, so I just bought it.

This record came out back in 2002 and I got it directly from the label. I was sent one of the clear copies, so I was happy to be able to upgrade to this superior solid colour.

Just like the Explosion LP, I now have a solid yellow to go with my clear yellow/orange copy. I think the clear copy was feeling a bit neglected having not been touched for about 20 years, so its probably happy to have a friend to keep it company.

I remember seeing this band live back when they toured this record in September 2002. I have pretty much no memory of anything other than the singer was a big dude with a beard. Musically this is very much in the same ballpark as Paint It Black, Kid Dynamite, etc. So they seemed right at home on Jade Tree. I guess part of the reason that I forgot about this one is that the band seemed to do nothing else after this, which is a shame.

Flash Flash Flash

One of the cool things about having a lot of records and being a music fan generally is when you rediscover things from years gone by. So there I was flicking through my phone trying to find something to listen to and I decided to listen to the first Explosion LP 'Flash Flash Flash'. It had been a while. But goddamn, I was singing along and started to wonder why I'd lost interest in the band at some point, because this LP is absolutely fantastic.

SO of course I went to discogs to see what else might exist, and I was reminded that the copy of 'Flash Flash Flash' that I own is on clear yellow/orange, and there was a solid yellow copy out there. And by luck there was one for sale on discogs from a UK seller for a good price. So for whatever stupid reason I decided to buy another copy.

This came out back in 2000, and around this time Jade Tree were in a phase of releasing LPs on two different colours at the same time, and a lot of them they pressed on a solid colour and a clear colour. The first Kid Dynamiet LP comes on both solid red and clear red, the second Kid Dynamite LP comes on solid green and also on clear green, the first Paint It Black LP comes on both solid blue and clear blue, and there are more. But what I remember is that there was never any pressing info, but I always wanted the solid colours just because they look nicer than clear colours.

I ordered most of the Jade Tree releases direct from the label back when they were originally released, and always got sent colour vinyl copies. But sometimes I got clear colours and sometimes solid colours. But picking this one up has kinda made me want to collect second copies of the LPs I have. At this point in record collecting I think that another collecting goal is exactly what I need, haha.

My conclusion to why I gave up on this band is that a few years went by after this record came out, and when the band released something else it was 4 years later, and in that time a hell of a lot had changed, both in my life and in the hardcore scene. That happens sometimes. But given how much I have been enjoying this record again lately, I'm keen to explore what else they did that I have been blissfully anaware of for the past decade or two.

Nowhere II

I held a sealed reissue copy of the 'Nowhere' LP by Ride at my house for a few months for Nico. A few weeks ago I sent it over to him, abd he recently posted it... and I thought that the clear blue vinyl looked so good that I decided that I also wanted one.

This record was originally released in 1990. At the time I had friends at school who were into this, but at the time I wasn't. But I gaveit a try back in 2014 and enjoyed it, and eventually teo years later managed to find an original copy on eBay. I was fine with that copy until I saw this beautiful clear blue vinyl reissue.

This was pressed last year (2022) and I have no idea how many were made, but it's still pretty damn easy to get hold of. I doubt it will ever be hard to find or valuable, but who cares when it looks this pretty?

Texas Of Today

Ten years ago I was sweating about getting the four clear vinyl 7"s from Rev's 25 year anniversary show in Chicago. Ten years. Wild. Anyway, back then it became apparent that a few copies of the Texas Is The Reason 7" came with the wrong label. It was never a huge want of mine, but as time went on I started to want it more. Well, a decade later and Mike was kind enough to hand deliver one straight to my record room.

I'm not entirely sure how many copies exist like this. But I'm really curious as to how they spotted the mistake. And of course, I'm also curious as to whether any copies got out there with the wrong labels that weren't found.

I love how someone made the effort to correct the band name on the label, but not the song titles. I mean, talk about a half arsed job.

Speak Out

I've managed to pick up a few records from within the UK recently, which makes a nice change. There seem to have been a few things popping up lately, between discogs, eBay and some private sales. Some dude sold a bunch of Rev records, and one item I bought just for the hell of it was this copy of 'Speak Out' with white labels.

I haven't really ever tried to collect different black vinyl versions of any Rev releases, but seeing as I already had most of the different copies of 'Speak Out' then I figured that grabbing this would actually complete the collection, which is something that I rarely manage to achieve.

This particular copy is from the second 'edition', i.e. the 90s pressing which came in a regular (non gatefold) sleeve. Some of the copies from the 90s have blue labels, and some have white labels. I don't know which came first nor which is rarer. Nobody knows. It was never documented anywhere.

I haven't done this for a while, but I decided to get all my copies out for a photo. Heck, it was a rainy day and I didn't have much else to do. So here it is.

The first, second and third press copies are on the top row. The second row has the 90s pressings. And the bottom row is the 'final pressing' from 2001.

I decided to post this today as Rev put up the new, remastered version of the LP for order. It's taken me a few weeks to get around to taking this photo, but I think I managed to have a complete collection of this for up to a monyj before this latest repressing. Proving once again that I can never have a complete collection of anything,

Crunch Time

I'd never consciously heard Rhythm Collision until this year when one of their records came on youtube after something else I was listening to on youtube.I was into it really quickly and went straight to discogs and bought a nice purple vinyl copy of their second LP, 'Now'. Well, a month or so later the guy who sold me the record got in touch and asked if I would like a green vinyl copy of their third LP, 'Clobberer!' which I was also pretty stoked on.

And then, another few weeks later, and the same guy hit me up again with more Rhythm Collision records that he was looking to sell. And as is often the case, I couldn't say no...

First up is this self titled 7" from 1990. There are two songs on here, and both were also on the first LP, so this is essentially a promo 7".

Copies exist on red and blue vinyl, and there is no information about how many of each there are, but based on the number of people on discogs who own one, it feels that the blue vinyl is probably the rarer of the two.

Next up is the band's first LP, 'Pressure', released way back in 1991. This one sounds a little bit more basic than their later records, and a little more poppy. I haven't listened to this one as much as the others, but in time I will get to it.

I'm not sure how many copies exist on red vinyl, but not all are.

Next up represents just how stupid I can be at times. Even though I am relatively new to this band, I somehow decided to buy three more colour vinyl copies of the second album 'Now'. DO I really need 4 copies of this record? Well, probably not. But they are nice colours and they were pretty cheap, so it seemed better than spending money on a new release pressed on some crappy colour that looks awful.

And finally, what I thought was the final LP, 'Crunch Time'. It turns out that this is actually a live LP, released in 1996 on Stiff Pole Records. From what I can tell, it feels that white is the more limited version of this one.

Crazy that until this year I had never heard this band, and now I have a pretty extensive collection of their records. I have to say though that in my defence I probably wouldn't have been so keen ot buy them if they weren't cheap. The band also seem to have released a bunch of 7"s but I don't think I can be bothered to try to collect those. But who knows? I'm starting to confuse myself these days so anything is possible.

Party Like It's 1999

It was only a little over a year ago that I got into Lungfish. I was initially attracted to check them out due to the cover art on one of their records, so I checked them online and instantly loved it. Fast forward a year and I have just bought the latest of the colour vinyl represses, which is their final record titled 'A.C.R. 1999'.

I noticed on discogs that this was the last Lungfish record released, with a release date of 2012. I was confused because the band went on hiatus in 2005. I went to Dischord's site to see if I could find any info, and what was there slightly confused me. This is what it said:

These 10-songs were recorded and mixed by Craig Bowen at Baltimore’s A.C.R. Studios but never released. After the session the band decided to continue writing new songs. Six of these songs were re-recorded at Inner Eat Studios and released on Necrophones, while four others remained unreleased, until now. Released in 2012.

So it sounds like these were old, unreleased songs that later got released I guess. ALthough six of them had actualy been released. Yeah. Colour me confused.

This is the 7th Lungfish record that has been repressed in the last year or so, and I've bought them all now. I'm sure that the rest will follow. By my count there are another 5 still to come. Quite why they are not being released in order remains a mystery, but at this point I'm down for whatever. Looking forward to whichever is next.

Sincerely

Even though I've been a big fan of Revelation Records for many years, a year or so ago I realised that there are several Rev releases that I had never heard before. Why? Because they were released on CD only. The majority of the CD only releases are in the Rev 110 - Rev 140 catalog range, which were released in the period from 2002 to 2006. In total there are 24 Rev releases that were released by Rev on CD only, of which 17 were in the 2002-2006 era. And I bought none of them, because i always prioritised whatever money I had for records. I always figured that CDs would never be hard to find or rare or expensive, so I skipped buying them. I guess it helped that most of the CD only releases were by bands I didn't have much interest in anyway.

So I went on a mission to download all of the CD only releases and give them a listen. And in doing that, I found a couple of gems. One of them I then discovered was actually released on vinyl, albeit by a differnt label. So I added it to my wants list and a few weeks ago a copy popped up for sale in the UK.

This record is titled 'Sincerely' and is by a band called End Of A Year. It was originally released in 2006. I genuinely had no idea that Rev even released this album until a year or so ago. But here I am picking it up in 2023, some 17 years after it first came out, which seems nuts.

This vinyl version was released by a label called Slave Union. Cool that they left the Rev logo on the back though. A quick check on discogs tells me that Slave Union have released nothing else I have ever heard of, or have any interest in. Apparently there were 400 copies on this sky blue colour vinyl. There's also a green colour which is rarer. If I ever see one I'll probably pick it up.

I have no idea how I'd describe this record musically. I read something that compared it to Embrace and Rites of Spring, but I'd say that if this comparison is there then it's vague. But still, it's in that kind of ballpark. Whatever it is, I genuinely feel that this is a really good record, and I'm glad that I finally got around to checking it out all these years later.

Parallel Worlds

My last post was the Prey 'Unsafe' LP that recently came out on Scene Report Records, and when I picked it up I also grabbed another record that they have put out recently. This record is titled 'In The Comet's Path' by a UK band called Parallel Worlds..

This band have actually been around for the best part of a decade, but have at some point changed their name. The band used to be called Young Conservatives, and I'm going to hazard a guess that they changed their name because the old one made them sound like a group of teenage Tories... which I highly doubt would have enticed the average UK hardcore fan to pick up their records or watch them play live. But even if this was not the reason, I think 'Parallel Worlds' is a better band name generally.

Again, just like the Prey LP, part of the attraction to this record was the artwork. There's something about the cover art for this record that grabs my interest. Without any indication as to what kind of music this band plays, I'd be intrigued to give this a spin. And even though I'm not a big fan of swirl or splatter vinyl colours, this one kinda suits the artwork, so it gets a pass.

The band features the vocalist from The Horror and Imbalance, and Dave on drums from Voorhees and 20 other bands, and a couple of other dudes i don't know who they are. I'm not sure how best to describe their sound. I can hear small elements of the aforementioned bands in places, but this generally sounds nothing like any of them. It's a hardcore record, but there's a lot more going on under the hood. The more I listen, the more I notice subtle little bits of guitar in some of the songs which kinda makes me want to describe this as something other than 'hardcore' as that sounds almost too basic. Whatever is going on here though is certainly interesting and is gonna keep me comnig back for some time. This has been on the daily playlist for the last couple of weeks and I can't see that changing for a while.

When this record came, the label had also thrown in another record for free. This is a record from the band pre name change. 'Non-Exist' is a 5 song EP from 2017 which completely passed me by.

According to discogs there were 250 copies of this one pressed on red vinyl. I'm going to assume that it didn't sell out, which is how come I got given one for free. Anyway, listening to this, I can totally hear how the band has progressed into Parallel Worlds, but this sounds much closer to a more 'traditional' hardcore sound. It almost sounds like sometihng that would have come out on SST circa 1988. Hopefully the new name will help give this band the attention that they deserve.

Unsafe

I'm really not sure how many other people are like me and can get sucked into buying something based purely on what it looks like. But here I am in an era when you can listen to anything for free and 'try before you but', and I'm still buying some records just because they LOOK nice. But to my credit, I rarely get it wrong.

This record is a new album titled 'Unsafe' by a newish UK hardcore band called PREY. This was released by the same label that put out the Unified Action 12" that I picked up earlier this year, and when I saw it posted on instagram it caught my attention.

The record itself comes in some really nice packaging. There is a faux obi-strip which looks very striking, and then there's the blue marble vinyl which looks fantastic. There are 250 copies made in total, and I don't imagine that they will hang around for too long.

This is a total ripper of a hardcore record which to me kinda sounds like something that would be right at home on Painkiller Records. But it turns out that this band is from about 20 miles away from me. Without a doubt one of the best hardcore records that I have heard this year, and really cool it is from a 'local' band.

As I type this there are still copies available from the label, Scene Report Records, and the price is very reasonable. Definitely worth checking out if you want a record that will tear your face off.

Alone In A Dream

Back in 2015 (although I would have sworn it was more like 2017) I bought a record by a band called Crime Desire. I think I was in a vageuly adventurous mood back then and picked it up on a whim. I clearly wasn't in the mood to write much about it in my post back then, but I do remember listening to that record in the garden in the summer of 2015 and enjoying it. So when I saw a couple of the band's other records languishing in used sections of a couple of record shops for cheap, I figured I would rescue them and taken them home.

The first record is titled 'Alone In A Dream'. It's a 5 song EP and was released in 2011. According to discogs there were 100 copies on purple vinyl.

The second record is 'Every Day...In Chains' and was released in 2010. This one is a 4 song EP and there were only 100 copies on blue vinyl.

Seems odd to me that this band was cranking out 12" EPs at a time when 7"s were still a viable option. But there's something kinda cool about a 4 song 12" EP in my book.

I'm not gonna pretend that this is the best band ever, but there's something kinda cool about picking up limited colour vinyl records for the price of a cup of coffee. Looking on discogs, this band put out a lot of records, with lots of limited colour vinyl pressings, limited sleeves, etc, and all can be bought for next to nothing. Kinda makes me want to try to collect some more, which in a way is kinda stupid because I'd basically be flushing my money doen the toilet as clearly not a single other soul cares.

Fugazi Colour Represses

AA couple of years ago Dischord pressed the first Fugazi 12" on red vinyl and then at the end of last year, 'Repeater' got rpessed on blue vinyl. It felt inevitable that there would be more colour Fugazi colour represses, but I didn't expect for four of them to come along at the same time. Given that I own a few Fugazi records already, which date back to the early 90s, I wasn't quite sure as to whether I would really end up buying them all again. But seeing the colour pressings, I felt that I couldn't pass them up. I think it helps that they are not pressed on crappy splatter colours, unlike most records these days.

First up is the 'Margin Walker' EP on clear green. Given that the previous two records were pressed on colours that nicely matched the artwork, green seems like a slightly straneg choice for this one.

Next is 'Steady Diet Of Nothing' on a silvery grey colour.

Then we have 'In On The Kill Taker' on clear.

And finally, 'Red Medicine' on an appropriate red vinyl.

So this is where Fugazi ends for me. I bought 'End Hits' when it came out in 1998, but I couldn't get into it, and sold it. I never bothered with 'The Argument'. I kinda felt that I lost interest in them as time rolled on, but these records here are all classics. And they look great together on coloured vinyl.

This of course means that I now own two copies of each of these records - the original black vinyl pressings, and these colour represses. Do I need two copies of each of these records? Probably not. But should I let these go, or potentially let the original black vinyl copies go? Not an easy decision. I'm sure that in time I will figure it out. But for now I'm stoked on these colour pressings.