Leeds Hardcore

A month or so ago I took a trip up to Yorkshire for a couple of days to see a show and visit an old friend. We took a trip into Leeds on the first day, which is a city that I lived in for 13 years and always loved. I had a lot of great experiences and friends there, and it always attracted a lot of touring bands due to the strong hardcore and punk scene, with roots that stretched back many years. I moved away in 2006 and time has absolutely flown since, and I haven't been to Leeds too many times since I left, but every time I go back I enjoy walking around the so that I can see how the city has changed and reminisce about the years I spent living there.

I also know that there is a good record store there, as I visited it once a few years ago when I went to some show or other. Noiseisforheroes (seems to be written as one word) is a relatively small shop located in the centre of Leeds, a couple of minutes walk from the Town Hall on a street that for years I would walk down at least twice a day to go to university or work when I was young and poor. The shop has a good selection of used records, and the owner has a history in the hardcore punk scene, and its one of a very small handful of shops in the UK you can buy used hardcore records.

I spent a while flicking through most stuff in there and there were a few things I wanted, but in the end I just ended up buying things that I had a vague interest in due to them having a low price. These three were each £10 or less, which seems pretty good seeing as a new 7" is £10 these days, and most new LPs in the other record shops in the city were £25-30 each.

The first record I decided to buy was the Ecostrike 'A Truth We Still Believe' LP on Triple B Records. As a general rule I avoid anything on Triple B these days as the records and cover art are so ugly that I can't bare to look at them. But this clear orange vinyl copy of this record doesn't look overly offensive, and it was super cheap.

Triple B's pressing policy seems to be to make the uglier, splatter colours the rare copies, with the less offensive colours being the more common versions. This orange is the most common colour of the first pressing, out of 500 copies.

This record sounds like a forgotten Strife LP that recorded after 'One Truth'. It's good, although probably not so good that it will be on my playlist for years to come.

Next up I grabbed the second full length by End Of A Year, 'You Are Beneath Me' LP. This was released by Deathwish in 2010, and was the last record this band put out before changing their name to Self Defense Family. I bought this as I picked up another record of theirs last year and really enjoyed it.

The magenta vinyl was the most common colour of the first pressing, being out of 1000 copies. But for the price, I'm ok with that.

This is a really good album. It starts with a spoken word on how to best enjoy this record, which I really like. 'Grow your hair out' and 'Don't get married' are boxes that I have managed to tick, and as such I do enjoy the record.

And finally, I decided to pick up this white vinyl copy of the Some Kind Of Hate 'Undisputed' LP. This is from an era where Bridge Nine would press two colours of vinyl for most releases, with the more limited colour being out of 300 copies, and the more common colour being out of 700 copies.

I really liked this record when it first came out, but I'm not really sure that too many other people did at the time, and I'm sure even fewer people remember it or care about it in 2024. I still enojy it now and again, although there is definitely a slight nostalgia element in it, as I really enjoyed this era in hardcore. A time when things still seemed exciting.

Overall I kinda realised after I bought these that I mainly bought them because they were cheap. I probably wouldn't have bought any of these if they were for sale online and I had to pay postage (which would have made them more expensive). I guess this confirms two things. Firstly, that record shops are cool facilities and help encourage people to buy stuff 'in the moment' that they otherwise might not have bought. And secondly, that buying stuff is a kind of hobby in itself. A trip to a shop and buiyng something is a kind of passtime, and in a way shows that I just enjoy buying records as an activity in itself. So probably a good job that there aren't any record shops anywhere near where I live.

Slip Test

I got an email from Geoff a couple of weeks ago asking if I knew who the seller of a Quicksand test press was. I guess he asked because the record was located in the UK, and there aren't too many people over here who would be likely to have a Quicksand test press. Anyway, it was interesting because until he emailed I had no idea that this thing was for sale. I haven't been as on eBay as much recently. So I saw this record and figured I would watch it... and then, as has been the case a few times recently with records on eBay UK, I won it for a reasonable price.

This is a test press for 'Slip', from the 2012 repress. What I was surprised about was that this was pressed at Erika. Seeing pictures of the 2012 press, with the green and yellow swirl vinyl, I had always assumed that it was pressed at the shitty plant that I hate. But no. Turns out that it was pressed at the best plant in the world.

I don't own a copy of the 2012 repress, so I pulled out my original 1993 pressing for this next photo.

The funny thing about this is that I didn't realise what I had bought until it showed up. For some reason, when Geoff sent me the link to this record, I thought it was a test press for the second LP, 'Manic Compression'. I thought that I had seen a 'Manic Compression' test with Erika labels at some point in the past, so when I saw the Erika labels my brain just made an assumption about what this was, even though the auction picture clearly showed the hand written 'Slip' on the sleeve. So there I was thinking that I had bought a 'Manic Compression' test, and then when it arrived and I took it out of the mailer I realised it was a different record. Whoops! I was initially disappointed, but I figure this is still a nice item to own, and as the price wasn't too bad I figure I'll hang on to it.

Lotsa Potential

A couple of years ago I picked up a bunch of stuff from Indecision Records on a trip to California. One of those records was a 12" by a new band called No Plan which was, at the time, a new project started by Eva from Power Alone / Gather. During the time I was there, Eva met with the drummer from Bent Blue about joining the band, and it very much felt like this was a band in its infancy. Given that everyone in the band seemed to be in other bands, I wasn't sure it would go anywhere, but in the time since it seems that they have played a few shows and become a proper band in their own right. I guess that's how things are in California - the community is relatively small and everybody knows each other, so it's no surprise that people are starting new bands all the time.

Anyway, No Plan's debut full length, 'Lotsa Potential', came out at the end of March this year on Indecision Records. I picked one up as I enjoyed the first EP and wanted to support Eva's latest project. Having spent a little time with her in 2022, she is a great artist and I really admire that she puts a lot of effort into things that she is passionate about.

There were two colours pressed - blue (200) and orange (300). To my eyes, the orange would probably be the better match to the cover art. But I chose the blue because it is rarer, and that's still my default way of thinking. It's tough to change the habit of a lifetime.

This band sounds nothing like any of the other bands that any of the people in this band have ever been in. So bands like Retaliate, Amendment 18, Power Alone, Ursula, Stay Gold... none of them sound anything like No Plan. This record is a punk / pop punk band, with early Lookout! Records bands being cited for reference. I can see that. But this band definitely has a bit more bite that the early Lookout! bands. Overall this is a great punk record, which I struggle to play and not sing along to. Definitely one of the biggest growers of the year so far.

Culture Of Death

Another of this year's new releases that I've been listening to these past couple of weeks is the latest album by Planet On A Chain. 'Culture Of Death' came out at the beginning of April this year, which came as a bit of a surprise as their previous album ('Boxed In') was only released 14 months prior, in February 2023. I'm not sure anyone saw this one coming so quickly after the last one.

This 'black, magenta & yellow swirl' vinyl is the RevHQ Exclusive and is limited to 330 copies. Even though I usually hate swirl vinyl, for some reason I don't find this one too bad.

There were also two other colours - clear yellow (exclusive to Armageddon records in the US and Devarishi Records in Germany) and which is actually the rarest colour (218 copies). The common colour is 'violet' (635 copies), which is still available.

At first I wasn't overly fussed by this record. Truth be told, it felt way too early to have another POAC record, and I felt that I wanted to listen to something else instead for a while before launching back into this band. However, the past couple of weeks I have been looking for some hardcore, and this has provided what I needed. Is it as good as the last record? Well, at first I would have said no, but now I'm not so sure. It's a good record for sure, and the one thing that's for sure is that its in the same ballpark. Yup, despite what the crazy font and artwork may suggest, nothing has changed, and this is a great 'no frills' fast hardcore record.

What Do We Do Now?

Earlier this year there was a new J. Mascis solo LP released. Just in case anyone reading this is unaware, J is the singer (and guitarist) in Dinosaur Jr, which is a band that I have been a fan of for a long, long time. When I heard that there was a new album coming, the first since 2018, I knew I wanted a copy. The only problem was that I know that Sub Pop use a different pressing plant for their European pressings, and the vinyl is not as good as the US pressings. So I needed to find a way to get a US copy. So I added the US colour vinyl version to my discogs want list and then every single day I was getting the discogs email about stuff I eanted for sale, with a long list of copies of this record for sale. After a few days it felt like spam. So I had to just buy a copy so I could remove it from the want list and stop the daily spam.

Most people know that J Mascis is obsessed with the colour purple. A bit like Prince I guess. So most of the Dinorsaur Jr or previous J Mascis records come on some kind of purple vinyl. This one is no exception... even though blue would have been a much better choice.

Just like previous solo records, this is some pretty laid back, melodic indie rock. This stuff ain't really the soundtrack for the gym, but for the days when I am at home working, stuff like this is perfect.

After checking discogs, it turns out that there are a couple of other colours of this one, which I am kinda tempted by. I probably shouldn't though. I need to try to avoid 2024 collecting. Before I know it I'll get sucked into owning ten copies.

Frigid Stars

A lot of my listening this year has been bands from the late 80s or early 90s who had records out on Sub Pop. I set myself a goal to collect the first 200 Sub Pop releases (many of which I already had) and so far it has been an exciting journey, discovering lots of records and bands that I had effectively ignored for decades. As part of this journey I added records to my discogs want list and started listening to songs on youtube for the records that seemed harder to find, and that's how I ended up stumbling across Codeine.

Well, that's not quite true. I was vaguely aware of Codeine because they have a song called 'Cave In', which was covered by the band Cave In, and is the source of the band's name. Given how much I love Cave In (the band) and enjoyed their cover of 'Cave In' (the song), I figured Codeine worth chcking out. So I downloaded the 'Frigid Stars' LP and within a couple of days it became an obsession, with my listening to nothing else for about 3 weeks.

When it came to buying a copy, I was faced with the choice of an original pressing on black vinyl for £80, or a colour vinyl repress for £15. I went with the repress option. If the original press had been on colour, I probably would have shelled out the money. But spending big on black vinyl european pressing with a slightly worn sleeve just didn't make sense to me. I guess I'm finally starting to understand the appeal of the concept of represses after all. And let's be honest, the colour of vinyl for this seems pretty well suited to the artwork.

The word associated with this band's style seems to be 'slowcore'. Whilst I'm not sure I have ever heard that term used previously, it seems kinda apt. The sound is kind of slow yet brooding, and both soft and quiet as well as being heavy and loud. Yup, that sounds like a total clusterfuck description, but I have no other reference points. Turn down the lights, whack this on and lay there. It's somehow incredibly calming, despite being noisy.

Even though this record is now 30 years old, having been originally released in 1993, this is without doubt my second favourite record of the year so far. Who needs new releases when there is an almost infinite supply of old stuff that I have never heard before? Fortunately there are more records in the Codeine catalogue that I can look forward to investigating in the future. But for now I'm happy to keep playing this one on an almost daily basis.

More Rev 7"s

Another lazy post where I put up a picture of some 7"s I picked up, which I have next to nothing to say about as none of them are new releases. I'm still trying to maintain a complete (as possible) Rev collection, so these records are really just a part of that.

Shown in the picture are:

Bold 's/t' 7" - Grey vinyl (2024 press /700)
Big Laugh 'Manic Revision' - 'Red' (more like dark orange) vinyl (/???)
Inside Out 7" - turquoise vinyl (2023 press /???)
Slipknot - blue vinyl (2024 press /545)
Tørsö 'Home Wrecked' - Green vinyl (3rd press /603)
Urban Sprawl 'Concrete Jungle' - Purple vinyl (2nd press /609)

Oh Olivia!

Last year I went on a quest around the Walmarts of Florida looking for Metallica Records. In total I must have been into over 10 different Walmart stores. We went to so many that we even learnt the layout and could walk straight to the record section in seconds, as the store layouts were all pretty much the same. But one thing I noticed pretty quickly was that every store had several copies of a record by Olivia Rodrigo. I couldn't help but notice it due to the cover, and I just started to get annoyed that it was in every store, whilst the Metallica recods were few and far between. Well, at the time I had literally no idea who Olivia Rodrigo was, but then in one hotel one evening we had the TV on and Jimmy Fallon mentioned that he had Olivia as his guest that night. Suddenly it felt like Olivia Rodrigo was absolutely everywhere.

Well, a month or so after I got home I decided to check out what her music sounded like, and instantly found it kinda catchy. I downloaded the second album, 'GUTS', and pretty soon it became a daily play for me. Without a doubt, 'Bad Idea Right?' is a super catchy song and there was one evening back in February where I listened to it about 5 times in a row. So when I ended up back in the States in April for a few days, and we were near a Walmart, I figured I'd go back and grab a copy. Day one, Walmart number one, and there was a copy available.

As with all records in the current day and age, this was pressed on loads of different colours, but I wanted the Walmart version simply because I quite like the Walmart exclusive stickers. But also because if I ever decide to sell, it should fetch a good price in the UK as we don't have Walmart over here.

Once I had bought this one, I figured I may as well also then buy the first album, 'SOUR'... except, all of a sudden, it was nowhere to be found. Over the next couple of days we popped into about 3 more Walmarts, and unlike the previous trip in December, this record was suddenly impossible to find. What the hell was going on?

Well, a couple more days later and we wento to another Walmart with Geoff & Jenn to also walk away empty handed. Then, later in the day, we used the Walmart online stock checker to find a Walmart that had the record. Mission complete.

Coincidentally, the day I bought this record was actually Record Store Day. Kinda funny that the only shop that sold records that I went into on RSD was a Walmart. In the end it was an interesting shop, as they were also selling a Misfits shirt, a magazine about turkey hunting, and all kinds of other fascinating junk.

After I got home I got around to listening to 'SOUR' and it also quickly hit my daily playlist. I think that on balance it's not as good as 'GUTS', but there are still a lot of great songs on there. Good For You is incredibly catchy and could be her best song to date.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Fade Tests

How time flies. Somehow it was almost 9 years ago that I went to see BURN play a big show in London (the one where someone sold a purple vinyl pressing of their first 7"). This show was where I first saw and heard the band Higher Power, and I also picked up a 7" by a band I had never heard of called Fade. I took a chance on a new release and it was great. Then over the years since I have continued to pick up various copies of the three different Fade 7"s, to the point where I have quite a few. I still listen to the band from time to time and enjoy their 90s influenced post hardcore vibe.

Well, a few weeks ago I got an email from discogs showing that there was a test press for sale for the third 7". There's beena copy on discogs for some time, but I felt that the price was too high. So when another one got listed at half the price, and which was being sold by someone I know, I got on the case. In the end we did a deal outside of discogs and I got the records a couple of days later.

When I mentioned I was interested, dude said he had another Fade test press and asked if I was interested. Of course I was. This is a test for the 'One With Serenity' 7" and is visually a little less interesting.

And as if that wasn't enough, he also had a copy of the final show sleeve version of the demo 7". I already have one of these, but the price was so low that it was almost free, so I grabbed that as well. When it came it had two copies of the 7" inside, which is clearly a mistake.

I figured that I would sell (or give) the above record to someone who may want it. So if you're interested, please get in touch. I just want it to go to a good home.

From Hunk To Chunk

So Ray Cappo wrote a book that got published a couple of months ago. 'From Punk To Monk' probably talks about how he started as a straight edge kid in NYC and then ended up as a Krishna devotee in NYC. I saw 'probably' because Ray Cappo has never really been someone who has interested me much. Sure, I love Youth Of Today, Shelter, Better Than A Thousand but the man himself has never really appealed to me. I have stood next to him a couple of times and not had any interest in trying to talk to him. So I did not buy the book and have no plans to buy the book. But when Rev pressed a limited version of the best Shelter record to accompany the launch of the book, I was in.

This limited blue with black splatter vinyl pressing comes in a foldover sleeve with a different back cover, which is hand numbered out of 210 copies. I ended up with the last one, which is a pretty cool number to have I think.

There was also a new pressing on white vinyl, out of 550 copies. I figured I may as well grab one of those too to keep the collection complete.

I now somehow have 8 copies of this record in my collection. And the worst thing is that I'm not even sure if this represents a complete collection or not. I think I could be missing either one or two test pressings. I'm not sure.

411

So I bought a record from someone on discogs and, as is the rule, I had a look to see what else the seller was offering. There wasn't much, but a 411 7" caught my eye. I never actually 'collected' the 411 7", in that I only have one copy, which I probably bought in about 1993 or so, but when I saw a 'pink' copy for sale I figured it was worth exploring. I was sure that there was no pink copy of this record, but given there was a discogs entry for it then I figured it must exist after all.

When it turned up I felt slightly cheated, as it looked pretty damn red to me.. However, given that I didn't already have the red vinyl, I figured I would keep it and not raise it as an issue with the seller.

Holding it up to the light, you could potentially make a case that this is actually pink. But I am pretty sure that if you placed this one next to a red vinyl copy, you would not be able to tell the difference.

Of course, picking up a second copy of this 7" after being happy with one copy for about 30 years means that I'll probably now decide I need the other colours too. Such is the way the game is played.

One (Ugly Ass) Wrench

Last year I saw a post from Fat Wreck announcing a colour vinyl repressing of Avail's fifth LP, 'One Wrench'. For some reason this LP totally passed me by, and it is the only Avail record that I do not own. So I figured this colour vinyl pressing was the perfect time to add this record to my collection and placed an order.

Sadly, at no point did I consider that 'colour vinyl' might mean 'the ugliest record ever made', but I guess that's how things are in the world of record collecting these days - the uglier the record, the more people seem to lap it up.

It's kinda tough for me to try to get into a 'new' Avail record in 2024. As much as I love their early records, this one doesn't quite feel that it has the same energy to me. But it certainly doesn't help that I want this thing out of my house ASAP.

Eternal Torture

One of my favourite records of last year was the full length LP by Brain Tourniquet, a 'powerviolence' band from Washington, D.C. which features Connor from loads of bands (Protester, Red Death, etc.). A couple of weeks ago and I found out that they had a new split 7" that had just come out and that there were copies of the limited colour vinyl copies for sale at a UK distro, which makes things nice and easy. I couldn't decide on which colour to pick up as they are both as rare as each other, with 200 copies of each colour pressed, so I bought one of each thinking I could keep the one that looks nicest and sell the other. Except, of course, I'm clearly never going to sell either.

The record is a split with a band called Deliriant Nerve, who are a gridncore band, also from Washington D.C.

The colours for this record are either a solid pink or a clear green. Both look nice, and even though I do love pink vinyl, I think I prefer the clear green. But not, that does not mean I am going to sell the pink one I'm afraid.

Brain Tourniquet continue down the same path as before. There are ten songs on here, but it's all over in about 6 minutes. The Delirient Nerve side has 6 songs, which are on average slightly longer, but the side is also over in around 5 minutes. So if you like your songs hard and fast then this is the record for you.

And when I was adding these to the cart, I noticed that there was also a second pressinf of the '...An Expression Of Pain' LP on blue vinyl. This was pretty much my favourite record that came out in 2023, so tough to resist adding it to the order.

And as if buying one repress wasn't enough, I also got sucked into buying a second press of the debut Brain Tourniquet 7" on Painkiller Records on red vinyl.

I'm not so into the Delirient Nerve side of the split, but Brain Tourniquet are without doubt one of my favourite bands right now. I was about to say that I want more, and then I realised that there is a second 7" that they put out that I somehow completely missed, so at least I have something else I can chase.

Memoirs Of Cynicism

Time. Where on earth does it go? A few weks ago I was perusing a list of records for sale at a UK distro, and there was a record listed by a band called New Day Rising. Now, I used to listen to a Canadian band in the late 90s with the same name, so I was immediately curious to see whether it was the same band. Turns out that it was. So I used the power of the internet to then discover that they released a record back in 1997 that I had absolutely no idea existed. Say what? Is it possible that something came out in the 90s and I missed it? Nuts. But here we are over 25 years later and that record has for some reason been pressed onto vinyl for the first time.

So yeah, 'Memoirs Of Cynicism' came out on CD only in 1997, which I can confirm was definitely a time when CDs were taking over. Well, except with me, who always ignored them. So even if there was a point where I became aware that this had come out back then (which I do not remember at all if it did happen), then I would have chosen to not buy it because... well, because it was a CD.

There were 200 copies on this red & black swirl and a slightly more limited 100 copies on orange. And whilst I don't usually like swirly vinyl colours, this one (which was clearly pressed somewhere good) looks pretty cool and goes nicely with the cover art.

Well anyway, this got pressed to vinyl and remixed by James Plotkin for its 25th anniversary. I used to like the band back in the day when they had stuff put out by MooCow Records, so I figured it eas worth picking up. Interestingly, even though this is an old record, it sounds like a completely different band to the one playing on the other records that also came out in 1997. They other stuff is kind of heavy 'emocore', whereas this one is just out and out 'metalcore'. It sounds a lot like the stuff that was coming out of Florida in the late 90s. And whilst I probably wouldn't have rushed out to buy this if I had known the sound was very different, I have still been playing this a fair bit lately. Ah, the 90s.

Blue Room Sessions

Getting a bargain is always satisfying, and once again eBay delivered. I grabbed this blue vinyl copy of Dinosaur Jr's 'Blue Room Sessions' 7" for a really good price. Once again, this record was listed as an auction, and I got it for less than the lowest price that it has ever sold for on discogs, which was pretty satisfying as this had been on my want list since it came out back in 2018.

The name of the record ('Blue Room Sessions') is because these songs were recorded at the Blue Room, which is a live venue within Third Man Records HQ in Nashville, TN. The blue vinyl is the limited version, although I have no idea how many were pressed on blue. But the majority are black.

This is one of those records that is collectible but kinda pointless, as it contains two songs which are the first two songs on the 'Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not' LP, which came out two years before this 7". OK, you're getting two slightly different recordings of these songs, but still... it's not exactly an essential purchase unless you are a diehard Dinosaur Jr fan. Or if you can score it for cheap on eBay.

Consume Me

Another Revelation release from last year that I've taken a while to get around to posting. The debut full length from Big Laugh, 'Consume Me'. This record came out at pretty much the same time as the Planet On A Chain 'Boxed In' LP. I think if this had come out at a different time then I would have spent more time with it, but at the time it was overshadowed by the POAC LP. A year or so later, however, and I have given it more attention and I'm really digging it.

This split black and white vinyl is the RevHQ exclusive colour limited to 300 copies and is probably my favourite colour of the three that were pressed. There were two other colours of this one, both of which I also bought. Black & green vinyl is the retail store exclusive (300) and 'coke bottle clear' (which bears no resemblance to an actualy coke bottle in my opinion) out of 600 copies. All three colours are still easily available as I type this, which suggests that this record has not proved a huge hit.

Big Laugh are a tough band to describe as they fuse elements of lots of different bands. But that's what makes it interesting. I guess it's a shame that they don't seem to have caught on with too many people quite yet. Could be to do with the fact that they are from Milwaukee and don't seem to have toured much. And could also be the fact that their record came out at the same time as that Planet On A Chain LP, which had better cover (and so would have most likely attracted more people to give it a go). I don't know, I'm guessing really. But that's how things go sometimes - a band puts out a great record and people kinda miss it.