Light Up Ahead

A couple of weeks ago I was in a record shop over here in the UK, which is a pretty rare event. Rarer still for a UK shop, this place also had a used section. I've bought from them online a couple of times, but there wasn't much there on the day that I was in the shop. I did however find a great record for a great price that I've had on my discogs wantlist for a few years.

Restless Youth were a Dutch band active around 2004-06 ish. This was in an era when a few mainland european bands attracted the attention of US labels (others being Justice and Dead Stop). Restless Youth had a 7" released by Painkiller Records in the States, and the same record was also put out as a CD by Dead And Gone Records over here in the UK. I have that 7" but I never got around to picking up this LP, probably partly because it was black vinyl only, so was never a priority.

Interestingly, this LP has a gatefols sleeve. This was a period when pretty much every record came in a gatefold sleeve, which it turns out is because back then, the european plant could make gatefold sleeves for super cheap (someone told me this a couple of years ago).

This is such a great record. Like a lot of records from the early 00s, it holds up really well, and sadly seems to have been completely forgotten about. But if you see this for sale you should definitely grab it.

Sliver III

Last year I finally got around to picking up a copy of the Nirvana 'Sliver' 7" after wanting one for years... and then it became an obsession and I ended up with 4 different copies. But that's just about scratching the surface of all of the different verions that are out there, so I knew that this one was going to roll on for a whike longer.

Anyway, I reached out to a friend to ask some questions about the record, and he replied with a link to a copy for sale at a good price that was for sale in Italy. I imagine that some people are still wary of ordering from Italy, but I decided to take the chance. Fortunately it paid off and this rad aqua blue version of the record turned up in the post.

This is a later pressing because (just like the other copies I have) it comes in a glossy, glued sleeve. The colour of the vinyl is super nice, being a clearish blue with some whisps of white and purple. It definitely goes well with the cover art.

There are way more colours of this 7" out there that I don't have, so this collection is likely to run on for quite some time. But what this has done is ignited a renewed interest in Sub Pop 7"s generally. I have a few Sub Pop releases in my collection, but have decided this year to try to pick up a bunch of the earlier 7"s that I was never interested in previously. Stay tuned for more small records with big holes in 2024.

The Two

Back in 1997 Revelation released a 12" by a band called Bluebird. When it came out I had no clue who they were, and unlike most Rev bands of the time, it felt that there was no real promotion or information about them either. The record came out and I think that it's fair to say that it was pretty much ignored, and quickly forgotten about. To this day their 12" remains one of the weirdest choices for a Rev release, and even at the time when the label was clearly branching out into different sounds, it made little sense to anyone. I always thought that the record was ok, although I struggled with the opening song which meanders along for over ten minutes. But if you just push past the first song, the other 5 are actually pretty good, and reminiscent of the kind of stuff that Dischord was putting out at the time.

Well, some 25 years or so after Rev released that weird 12", I became aware that the band released other stuff (who knew?) and I decided to check it out one day when I was feeling particularly bored and adventurous. I started out with their first full length, 'The Two', and instantly thought it was a good listen. It then worked its way onto my daily playlist, and was a perfect record to listen to whilst working. So i decided to buy a vinyl copy.

This record was released in the year 2000 by Dim Mak Records (a label owned by superstar DJ Steve Aoki before he was a famous cake thrower), and I have no idea how many copies were made on green vinyl, but it's the only colour that exists (other than black which we all know doesn't count).

Kinda funny how long it has taken me to get around to giving this band a chance, but it's nice to get into a band whose records I can pick up for next to nothing. There will be more no doubt...

Recipe For Hate

I recently saw a pic on instagram of a couple of coloured vinyl copies of Bad Religion's seventh album, 'Recipe For Hate'. Turns out that it was a 30th anniversary pressing. I originally bought the record back when it first came out in the Summer of 1993. At the time I was excited for a new Bad Religion LP, but it was an instant let down, so much so that I sold it at some point thinking I never needed to listen to it again. However, in my pop punk phase two years ago I gave it another chance, and I found myself enjoying it. So when I clapped eyes on this red with black smoke colour pressing, I figured it would be a good time to add this record back into my collection.

This 'red with black smoke' version is apparently an exclusive for european indie stores. It does seem like an appropriate colour to me, as it is a good match to the artwork... when held up to the light.

It's funny, because I really did think this was a half arsed effort back when it came out. But these days I like it a lot. It's a good singalong record, and although it's not quite as 'punk' as their earlier records, it does have some great moments. I'm glad to have it back in the collection 30 years after I sold it, but goddamn it makes me feel old as hell.

Failed States

This is the third and final pick up from the Newburu Comics exclusives section, where I bought three records that were on sale for great prices.

This final record is the 6th album by Propagandhi, 'Failed States', which was first released in 2012. This was in some ways a straneg buy for me, because my relationship with Propagandhi is in itself a bit weird. I bought their first album, 'How To Clean Everything' back when it first came out in 1993. I quite liked it at the time, but for whatever reason I never listened to anything else... so when I saw this record on pink vinyl for $15 or so, I figured it was a good opportunity to check them out again for the first time in 30 years.

My first observation was that the front and back covers are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The front cover looks like an interesting piece of art, whereas the back cover is one of the worst that I have ever seen. It looks more like something that would be on the front cover of the latest Triple B release.

When you've been out of touch with a band for years it is not easy to figure out which are their best or most popular records, but I get a feeling that this one is not regarded as one of Proagandhi's best. But I have found it an interesting listen. This definitely sounds like a hardcore record and band, and not the political pop punk band that they sounded like in 1993. Definitely an interesting record and makes me want to listen to more of their output... although I feel I should probably check them out in chronological order from this point.

Bloodmoon

Here's another record that I bought from Newbury Comics because it was on sale at a great price, and because I seemingly can't resist records that are in my hands.

I haven't bought a Converge record for a long time. It's not quite the same band that I started listening to in 1996, and I lost interest in them years ago. But I had read with interest how their latest record, 'Bloodmoon I', featured Steve Brodsky. Plus it also looked kinda impressive on an aesthetic level. So when it was in my hands for $17, I figured it was worth a chance.

The Newbury Comics exclusive pressing comes on a pretty horrible looking swirly mess colour of black, red and light blue vinyl.

So this record turned out to be a lot more interesting than I was expecting. First up, this is not strictly a Converge record. Instead, this is a collaboration between Converge and Chelsea Wolfe, but it also features Steve Brodsky, and his part is a lot more significant than I had initially thought, to the point where this pretty much just sounds like a Cave In record. Musically its a lot less fast and chaotic as Converge usually sound, but sounds like some of the mellower Cave In moments. I've listened to this pretty much every day through January, as it is a prefect record to pop on in the background when I'm working.

Overall a great record that I would not have bothered with if it wasn't cheap. Just a shame the record itself looks so damn ugly.

Abandon All Life

So I ended up having an extra day in the States last month because my flight got cancelled the day before we were due to fly home. This meant that we had an extra day in Boston. So we wandered around for a couple of hours, and at some point ended up in Newbury Comics. One of the things that is great about most US stores is the used section, but Newbury Comics doesn't have one of those. It only sells new records. But one thing that is interesting is that they get a lot of exclusives, where labels press colours just for Newbury Comics... so many, in fact, that there was a whole section of the shop just for Newbury Comics exclusives. I decided to have a quick flick thruogh, which probably took me fifteen minutes as there were literally hundreds of records, and I found three records that were so cheap I was pretty much forced to take them home.

Nails is a band that I don't think about too often, but when something jogs my memory and I listen to them I am flawed. The band is (was?) so incredibly relentless and savage that it still blows my mind. So seeing this grey vinyl copy of their second LP, 'Abandon All Life', for $12 was something that I couldn't turn down.

Shockingly, this record came out over ten years ago, in 2013. I downloaded it when it came out but didn't actually end up buying a vinyl copy as the only option was black vinyl. Then a couple of years ago it got repressed on a few different colours. I'm less fussed about which colour I have given all colour copies are represses, so this is absolutely fine and a great bargain buy.

So it seems that Nails broke up back in 2020 (which I had no idea about until today), but then there was an instgram post a few weeks ago announcing a new album will be coming out in 2024. So that's something to look forward to this year then. Can't wait. Bring it on.