Tied Down... Again

So here's a record that I saw in America recently and didn't buy - a purple vinyl 2020 repress of Nagative Approach's 'Tied Down' LP.

'But why would you say that you didn't buy it when clearly you did?' I hear you ask. Well, this was one of those occasions where I saw this for sale in a shop and decided not to buy it, and then realised a couple of days later that I was still thinking about it and therefore clearly did want it after all.

So after I got home and I still had it on my mind I checked on discogs and found a UK seller with a copy available, so I did what I clearly wanted to do a few days earlier and bought it.

The funny thing here is that I bought the green vinyl pressing of this back in 2020, and I just reread the post I made about it, and it is pretty much exactly the same story. Here is a quote from that post:

I was in Boston at the end of last year, and in Newbury Comics I had found a small stack of records I wanted to buy... but then, one by one, I put most of them back into the racks as I didn't really want to spend the money that day. One of them was a green vinyl repress of the 'Tied Down' LP by Negative Approach, and I put it back on the basis that it was a repress that I could probably live without... but then, as time has gone on, I have continually seen pictures of it popping up and found myself wishing that I had bought it after all.

So there we go... four and a half years later and I have seemingly learnt absolutely nothing.

Uncharted

So in early December last year I spent a few days in Florida, and as a late decision one day we decided to drive north and spend a couple of days in Gainesville. It was a place I knew next to nothing about, other than the University of Florida is based there, and it's the hometown of the band Less Than Jake. So of course, the two hour drive up to Gainesville was spent listening to Less Than Jake songs whilst we looked forward to exploring 'Gainesville Rock City'.

So here's the thing - back at the end of the 90s I was quite into Less Than Jake. It started when the label that released their first LP sent me a copy for free, and I decided to check it out and found it incredibly catchy... even though it was definitely not the usual thing that I would have listened to. So I then got into them, and I still have a bunch of their records, although I probably haven't added to my collection since the year 2000 when 'Borders & Boundaries' came out. But listening to those songs again in the car made me curious as to what the band were up to now, which ended up with me discovering that they had just put out a new record. So of course, given that they were once again the best band in the world to me on that particular day, I decided to order one.

This record is titled 'Uncharted' and it seems that it is neither one thing nor another. It has 7 songs, so feels like it's too short to be an LP, but a little too long to be a 12" EP. But hey, maybe these are just old fashioned concepts in 2025?

Also, given we are in 2025, we're playing by modern record pressing rules, meaning that there are (I think) 7 different vinyl colours of this record. The copy I ordered is known as 'electric blue glitter' and seems to be one of the the most limited colours out of 250 copies (there are two others, also out of 250 each, and then a bunch out of 500 or more). I mainly chose it as it sounded like the least offensive colour from the list.

As I mentioned, I haven't listened to anything new from this band since 2000, but these songs are good fun, and I've enjoyed this the past couple of weeks. Heck, I might even start trying to work my way backwards through the other records I have missed out on the past twenty years or so. We shall see.

Green Rage

A year and a half ago I was lucky enough to pick up a test press of the Rage Against The Machine 'People Of The Sun' 10". Even though it was nowhere near my list of top Revelation releases, picking up the test press made me more keen to pick up the colours that I had missed out on. But even though most Rev represses are pressed in quantities of 500 or more, a lot of them just don't seem to pop up for sale very often, and this release is one of them. It's kinda weird.

Well, as soon as I got back from holiday I got lucky, as one of the copies I was missing popped up for sale on eBay UK for a fair price. It was a 'buy it now' too, which made it very easy.

This green vinyl press is from 2016. There were 611 copies.

This means that I am now missing only two colours - the recent grey vinyl pressing (which in theory I can get easily) and the 2014 red vinyl pressing, which annoyed me so much back when it came out that I refused to acknowledge it existed. No doubt the red one is going to haunt me for a long time.

Wanna Hear Some 7"s

Following on from my last post, I was in Wanna Hear It Records and having just scooped a great bunch of cheap 12"s, I then made my way to the 7" section. I'd had a lot of luck in their 7" section on two previous visits, and even though I was keen to have a look, it was quite overwhelming as there are a lot of records to get through.

Well, spoiler alert... I did manage to find a bunch of 7"s. And in keepin with the theme of this US trip, I mainly ended up with a handful of cheap finds. I guess when I'm in a record store in the States I can never get over the novelty of being able to buy 7"s for $4 or so. So let's get on with it...

Down To Nothing / 50 Lions split 7" on grey. This is from the first pressing and is limited to 300 copies. I picked up two copies of this record last year in the same store. Maybe if I visit rhere enough times I will eventually end up with a complete collection?

Next up, I grabbed two different Fired Up 'Doomed To Repeat' 7" test pressings. The rejected test press comes in a cool sleeve, whereas the accepted test comes in white paper sleeve only. It's also really interesting to see that they each have different labels. The rejected test is dated 13 November 2008, and the accepted test is dated 6th January 2009, so at some point in between United Record Pressing changed the design of their test press labels.

The Fired Up test pressings were the most expensive records I bought, at $15 each, which I still thought was a very good price for two tests.

Next up this hot pink vinyl copy of the Kid Kilowatt 7". This band featured Steve Brodsky and Adam McGrath from Cave In. They put out one 7" and one LP back in 2001-03. I love both and this could be a fun 7" to collect as thre are about five different colours out there.

Next, a copy of the Mission Impossible 'Killing Me Softly' 7" on 'lavendar' vinyl. This was released by Workshed Records and, like a couple of the other releases on the same label, the colour ranges widely between dark purple and light pink. I already had two of these, but instantly knew that this one was different to those.

This is a pic of my three copies, with the new one in the middle.

Next up is a clear vinyl copy of the Paint It Black 'Amnesia' 7". This is now my fourth copy of this record. I have nothing more to say on this one.

Sinking Ships 'Meridian' 7" on green. This is a second press copy and is the most common colour there is, although somehow I didn't have one before. There are so many copies of this record and I don't have any of the rare ones. Ah well, maybe in another 20 years or so...

Unity 7" on clear vinyl. This is a later pressing that I ignored for years, but last year made a decision to try to pick up all of the colours, figuring that they would be cheap. I think that I now only have one more that I need.

And finally, talk about an anti climax, but this is another copy of the 'Anger Management' compilation on blue vinyl. This was released by Martyr Records in 2003, and has some cool bands from that era such as My Luck, Holding On, Close Call and (my favourite) Diehard Youth.

The funny thing about these 7"s is that I have literally only just realised that none of these 7"s are new records to me. I already own at least one copy of each of these things. I'm not really sure what the conclusion is other than I am clearly happy to just buy the same records over and over. At the age I'm at, I probably should have grown out of this by now.

Anyway, that's that - the end of the US record store December pickups. Normal service can now resume on here.

Wanna Hear Some 12"s

After the trip to Big Dig Recoreds in the morning, we grabbed lunch in Cambridge and then had a look at transport options to take us to the next store, Wanna Hear It Records. I had been to this shop on the last two trips and it always gave up some gems, so I was keen to get back there for a thirsd visit if we could get there. Its a few miles out so not easy without a car, but from our position in Cambridge we worked out that we could get a bus. I am not a fan of buses generally and have no idea how they work (i.e. where to get on, how to pay, where to get off) but google maps made this look easy. So we found the bus stop, waited about five minutes and then boarded a bus to Watertown. Turned out that google maps tells you exactly where to get on and off, so we made it there with no issue, and best of all the cost of the bus was covered by teh travel card that we had bought for the trains. Much better than the other option of two Uber trips for a total of $50 or so.

We got to Wanna Hear It and I ended up chatting with the owner, Joey, for a while about all kinds of stuff, including Cyber Trucks, Trump and Japanese record stores. And then I figured I had better get on with digging through his shop, as time was marching on...

Wanna Hear It really is a great store. It ticks all the boxes, carrying a huge stock of new releases and used records. There are rare items on the wall and also boxes of super cheap records on the floor under the racks. Last year I found a couple of cheap items in the sale section, so I was keen to dive straight back in. It did not disappoint, as I found 4 LPs in the $3.99 bin...

First up I found this screen printed cover version of the Bitter Branches 'This Is Meant To Hurt You' 12". I bought a yellow vinyl copy when this came out and later managed to get a test press but for $3.99 I was gladly going to add another copy to my collection.

This one is numbered 42/300 on the back cover:

Next up, I found the second album by Break Away, 'Cross My Heart', which was put out by React! Records in 2017. I had fully given up on React! at this point, and I only got around to listening to this band's first LP from 2015 in 2018, which I also found in a bargain bin.

Anyway, as soon as I played this I was floored. The intro is so hard. A really great hardcore record, and a great investment of $3.19.

My next find was the Chain Reaction 'Figurehead' 12" EP on purple vinyl. This band is a euro all star band of sorts, and they had completely passed me by to this point. This came out in 2020, and was pressed by Control Records in Euroland and Atomic Action! in the States.

This is also a great, powerful hardcore record. You can tell that these dudes have been around a bit and been in other bands as the quality of the songs is very high. I'm really glad that this was in the bargain bin else I probably would never have heard it.

And the final cheap 12" I rescued from the box is this grey vinyl copy of 'Power Of Bliss' by a band called Bliss. I vaguely remember seeing a few people post about this back in 2019/20 when it dropped. I remember thinking that the cover looked kinda cool. SO I figured I'd risk three bucks on it.

I can't quite make my mind up on this one. It swings from melodic to harder songs, but the vocal is the bit I'm not sure about.

So that was the last of the bargain bin records, but I also found a couple of other LPs I was interested in in the full price used section. The first one I grabbed was this copy of the third and final Voorhees LP, 'Crystal Lakes Legacy' which came out in 2001. I'm not entirely sure why I never bothered with this LP until now, but I was pretty excited to find it for $10.

I love the cover of this record. Seems crazy to think that this came out on a US label and there was no UK or European pressing. Thinking back, by 2001 things were in a weird place in hardcore, and even though Voorhees were still going, they probably seemed like an old band at that point. Plus probably a few older people had moved on to other things. Heck, I was working in a bar and (finally) getting into The Smiths at that time, so everything was getting weird. Anyway, even though I doubt anyone would rank this as their favourite Voorhees record, its actually a really good LP, and I'm kinda annoyed at myself for not getting around to it years back.

The final 12" I found was this blue vinyl copy of the Waste Management 'Tried And True' LP. This is another modern Boston hardcore record, released in 2018 by Painkiller Records, with the blue vinyl being the limited version.

This sounds very similar to a lot of other Boston hardcore records from the last 10-15 years and (unsurprisingly) has DFJ on drums and other dudes who were in Mind Eraser, Boston Strangler, Prisoner Abuse, Stop And Think, etc.

There was a rare No Tolerance record on the wall that I kinda wanted, but I just didn't really want to spend the money. I was firmly locked into my 'cheap records only' mission it seemed on this trip, and was struggling to wrap my head around how it was possible to buy so many awesome records for so little money, to the point where paying big money for super rare items seemed like a completely different game. So instead I decided to invest some time trying to unearth some cheap 7"s...

(To be continued)

The Big Dig

Continuing my posts from my visits to record stores in the States in December last year, and even though I went to a couple of other stores in Florida, I didn't end up buying anything. But as is the case most years, we had a day in Boston at the end of the trip, and so I took the opportunity to visit a couple of record stores.

The day we had was a nice, bright day, but was absolutely freezing. In the morning we caught the train to Cambridge to check out Big Dig Records.

One of the owners of the shop is Chris Minicucci, owner of Painkiller Records, so I was kinda hoping that there may be a few 'sold out' Painkiller releases in the racks. The store carried a lot of different genres of music, but had a healthy hardcore/punk section and it was good fun flipping through, wondering what I was going to find.

The first thing I found was the Boston Strangler demo 12". I was never overly fussed about this when it came out. It came out after the two LPs and at the time felt like a bit of a cash grab. The fact that the second LP was a bit of a let down, plus lack of a colour vinyl option meant that I never bothered with this. But here I was in Boston with this in my hand for $10. I basically had to buy it.

The next thing I found was this gold vinyl copy of the Think I Care 'Singles Collection' 12". I remember when this came out and I was surprised that it sold out quite quickly given that I had always assumed nobody ever really liked this band that much. But its a nice looking record, and the price was pretty good too at $15.

After this I then moved onto the 7" section. I immediately found another Boston hardcore classic I was missing. This is the first of three 7"s by Close Call, a Boston band who were around in the late 90s / early 00s, and which had Chris Minicucci in as well as Nick who was also drumming in Bane. This actually sounds very similar to Bane too if that interests you. I have their other two 7"s, but never got around to picking this one up for some reason.

The dude on the counter was keen to point out to me that one of the owners of the store was in this band and pictured on the back of the record. I was like 'oh, ok', but of course, I already knew. I mean, come on... give me some credit. As if I'd be buying this in 2024 with no clue what it was, haha.

Next up I found two super cheap R'N'R records. I picked up a couple of R'N'R 7"s last year which were pretty cheap, and I just love buying multiple copies of records that nobody else really gives a fuck about anymore, so these two copies of the split with Fit For Abuse for $4 each were right up my street.

I bought the red vinyl copy of this back when it came out and then a few years later ended up with a red vinyl test press, so it was cool to pick up these and complete the set.

So i took the above records to the counter and the dude was like 'oh, you're into Boston hardcore. I have another box of 7"s that you may be interested in'. Sadly, this box wasn't packed full of original Last Rights 7"s or In My Eyes demo 7"s with Lil Wayne covers, but instead it was records that were $8 or more. I found three items in there that I felt obliged to take away...

The first find was this white vinyl copy of the Dump Truck demo. I've had this in digital format for years, and even though this is a later pressing, I figured I should probably have one in my collection. Such a great demo, especially the first song 'Suckerpunched'. One of the absolute best things to come out in that 2003/4 Lockin' Out period.

Next up I grabbed this 7" by The Flex. This came out in about 2015 and I bought one from the label at the time, but it ended up going missing in the mail and I never got it. So it was good to finally pick one up all these years later for a very fair price.

And finally, I picked up yet another copy of the Build & Destroy demo 7". This is in my opinion one of the best hardcore records of the 2010s, and its such a shame that they only ever released two 7"s worth of material. There is a lot of variation in the colour of these 7"s, and I knew that this copy was different to the two that I already had, so I couldn't resist it.

Here's a shot with all three of my copies of this record. The new one is the one in the middle. Technically the only colour of this 7" that was pressed was purple, but as you can see, 'purple' comes in many shades.

Overall a nice little haul, and not overly expensive either. I don't think anything here is particularly mindblowing, but it felt kinda cool to pick up some of these records in Boston on a freezing winter's day, and once again I managed to find things that were already on my discogs want list at much lower prices than I could have bought them through the mail. Definitely a fun time.

Steelworker Records

Following on from my last post which was about my trip to Third Man Records in Nashville, this post is on the US next record store that I bought from, which was Steelworker Records in Tampa, Florida. We had the best part of two days in Tampa, and I found a couple of stores to check out, and this one was a lot of fun as it was packed with records and the prices were really good.

The store mainly sells metal, but also had a few hardcore records and similar stuff mixed in. I ended up flipping through pretty much every rack in the shop, and found a few things that seemed attractive because the prices were really low. I ended up buying five records and in total it cost me about $35. I kinda realised at the time that I probably would not have bought any of these if the prices were $15 or more, but each of these was around $6, and for that price I just couldn't resist taking them home.

First thing I came across was the second 97A LP, 'Society's Running On Empty'. I got a copy of this back when it came out on wite vinyl, which was the rarer colour, and at no point in my life did I ever consider buying a second copy. But when it was in my hand, all I could think about was how nice the orange vinyl looked and that I just may as well grab it.

Next up was an LP called 'Out Freakage' by a band called Drive. I used to own this about thirty years ago but sold it at a point where I was getting rid of anything that wasn't straight edge hardcore. This record was released by First Strike Records in the UK (most famous for releasing a Chain Of Strength 7"). Drive were around in the early 90s and played pop punk style music, and I have to say that in 2025 this sounds better than ever. There was no colour vinyl pressed, although it does seem that there was a version that came with a 7" too, so this is the cheaper version.

Next up is an LP by a band called DUH. Again, I used to own this thirty years or so ago. I vaguely remembered a couple of songs, and I mainly decided to pick this up based on my own nostalgic memories of it. I hadn't seen or thought of this for decades, but when I saw it my brain was like 'oh cool, I remember this!' so I decided to buy it back again.

In the past I owned this as it had a connection to a band called Steelpole Bathtub, who I had heard of as members did a record with Jello Biafra (Tumor Circus), but I was never massivly excited by it. The band are described on discogs as 'a San Francisco-based alternative and noise rock supergroup'. It's definitely the kind of dirty , noisy sounding stuff that seemed more common in the early 90s. The highlight is a song on here called 'Hot Day For The Ice Cream Man'.

Next is a record that was released by Nemesis Records by a band called Hunger Farm. I actually had this one on my discogs want list for a few years since Mike spoke so positively about it a few years back. So buying it for super cheap and not having to pay for postage was a double win.

The back cover photo is slightly odd. It looks a bit like a photo of Napoleon Dynamite sucking someone off.

The last record I picked up was a 7". I was super happy to find this. I could probably have done a post just on this 7", so I'll try to keep it short. Basically, I own this on green vinyl and many years ago I bought a 'purple' vinyl copy from the label, only when it arrived it was black. Over the years I came to realise that the copies in this black and white sleeve were all on purple vinyl, except for some reason my copy wasn't. I even started thinking that maybe it was super dark purple, so dark that the human eye could not see it. But no, seeing one in real life for the first time, it's a nice dark, clear purple. So I finally managed to get one getting on for thirty years after I sent off cash in an envelope to Initial Records for one.

If you've never heard this then I can say that its a very early 90s sounding record. Kinda heavy but with a lot of groove, and the recording isn't great as the drums sound very flat. But without doubt, this is the typical early 90s hardcore that I love, and it was cool to find this bargain bin 7" in mint condition for cheap.

So there we go, a fun trip to a rural record store in Florida. I really enjoyed this shop, and the guy who ran it was really smart. He told me he was adding 200 records a day to his inventory, and generally priced stuff at 30% less than the mediam price on discogs. It was nice to find someone who was interested in selling records, and not trying to extract every last penny of value from every item. Sure, a lot of the stock wasn't really my thing, but this was a really fun place to explore, and I would without a doubt head back if I was ever in Tampa again.