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)