Food For Thought

>p?There are so many DIschord bands that I haven't listened to that it's ridiculous. In the current day and age where it is possible to listen to anything you want within seconds of thinking of it, there is no excuse. But I think I'm partly tinted by an experience when I was younger. Back when I was 19 I was given some dude's records to sell, and there were a few Dischord releases in there that I checked out but didn't get along with. At the time I was heavily into Chain of Strength and Earth Crisis 'Firestor', so bands like Nation of Ulysees, Circus Lupus and Gray Matter didn't sound like what I wanted at the time. And over the years I have just got those bands in my head as 'bands I don't like'.

Well, a couple of years ago I was looking for stuff to listen to and decided to give Gray Matter another chance and, wouldn't you know it, I immediately loved it. It sounds slightly dated these days, although I would say that a part of that is probably the recording itself rather than the songs. But once I started ilstening to them I started looking for records, and got two of them fairly recently...

The first one I got is a grey vinyl pressing (which dates back to 2009 I think) of the 'Take It Back' 12". The opening song on here is without doubt one of the strongest opening songs on any Dischord release, and if you have never heard it then you should rectify that right now. Back in 1994 when I had a copy of this record in my hands it was one of the original first press burgundy vinyl copies, which unsurprisingly now sell for a lot more than the one I let go nearly thirty years ago. So I'm happy enough with this grey vinyl repress. Plus, this colour seems more appropriate a colour anyway.

The second record I picked up is the band's first release from 1985, 'Food For Thought'. This one was originally released on a small DC label called R&B Records, with later pressings then put out by Dischord. Again, I picked up a grey(ish) vinyl repress which also dates back to 2009.

This record sounds a little rougher than 'Take It Back', but there's a lot of medlody here. The older I get, the more I love this 80s melodic hardcore sound. It's probably partly nostalgia, as this sound takes me back to old skateboard videos from the end of the 80s where most of the music was rough sounding melodic punk by bands nobody had ever heard of. But clearly I love this sound now a lot more than I did in 1994. And eventually I will get around to checking out more late 80s / early 90s Dischord bands I am sure.