After Words

The more time that passes, the more I feel myself drawn towards older DC stuff, and in particular the slightly later Revolution Summer style bands. I remember back in 1993 or so I ended up selling some dude's collection for him, and he had a lot of this kind of stuff, and I sold it all. Heck, I was discovering stuff like Chain of Strength, Judge, Mean Season and Outspoken, and the DC bands sounded weak and dull by comparison. These days, however, and I'm actively trying to seek it out.

About three weeks ago I had never heard of this record or band. I saw it for sale in the UK from a trusted seller and I noticed it was released by Sammich Records, so I was immediately interested.

The band is called After Words and it turns out that they were from Atlanta, GA and existed between 1987 and 1989. This self titled LP came out in 1989, and musically this reminds me a bit of Rites of Spring and One Last Wish. The band also that they were influenced by Hüsker Dü and Squirrel Bait. It turns out that this LP was their only release, which is a bit of a shame as this is a really great record. But overall I'm happy that I found this all these years after it came out.

Everything Went Purple

With unannounced and unexpected colour vinyl pressings of the 'Nervous Breakdown' 7" and the 'TV Party' 7" appearing in 2025, it was only a mater of time until one of the Black FLag 12"s would also receive the colour repress treatment. So here we are, with a weird purple / black vinyl mix pressing of the 'Everything Went Black' 2x12".

This was a crazy one. A couple of weeks ago someone sent me a post by someone on instagram of a pinkish/purple/black mix copy of this record. It immediately felt like it would take forever to find one. But in a lucky and bizarre turn of events, by the end of the day I had placed an order for a copy, which arrived two days later.

The photo I saw on instagram was pretty cool looking, but this particular copy is slightly disappointing, as the amount of purple within the black is minimal. Ideally I will eventually find another copy of this for sale with more colour in it. But for now, I'm just glad I managed to get one of these at all.

Nervous Breakdown 2025

Earlier this year I posted 4 newly pressed different coloured copies of Black FLag's 'TV Party' 7". Despite these clearly being new records pressed in 2025, as I type this near the end of the year, these were never really widely available or publicised, which I think is due to them all being sold sealed and not being marked as colour vinyl in any way. Well anyway, the same thing also happened with the 'Nervous Breakdown' 7"... some colour vinyl copies were made, and have not been officially listed anywhere. I had a bit of help from other collectors and have (so far) ended up with 4 copies, although two of them are practically the same.

I bought two brown copies, and in real life they look a little different, although in photos it is difficult to tell.

Here are the four lined up next to each other:

Someone else I know also has a bright orange copy, which looks really cool. I'm assuming that they are all part fo the same pressing. I emailed SST Records to ask abot it but got no reply. They don't seem to bother replying to anyone on such matters so it seems. So we will probably never really know any detail about these. But take my word for it - these things are out there right now. They are all shipped sealed and so most stores or distros probably don't even now they have them. There may be other colours other than these (and the orange I mentioned), and if you know anything then please drop a comment.

Strong Gold

There are some bands that I have known of for thirty years or more and know absolutely nothing about. Back in the early 90s I used to buy records that were on the same record label as other records that I liked. So I bought a Stronghold 7" simply because it was on Doghouse Records. And even though I haven't listened to it for a long time, I semi recently found out that it existed on gold vinyl so felt compelled to buy it.

To me this is some pretty typical early 90s 7". Chugging heavy hardcore, sometimes slow and sometimes fast. Think ballpark Slugfest, but with a less powerful vocal. I always liked this when i was young and thought it was cool when I would find records like this that it felt like nobody in the world had ever heard of.

I have owned a red vinyl copy of this forever, but had no idea yellow existed. But judging from discogs, it feels like the red is rarer.

I'm not sure how many people would still care about this record in 2025. Not many I would guess. And sure, part of my love for this one is kinda based on nostalgia, but that said, I genuinely think this is a good record and a great example of low budget, rural early 90s hardcore.

'Coustic

A couple of years ago I picked up a couple of Samiam records, and this kinda reminded me that I used to like this band a lot in the early 90s. But you know how it goes sometimes with bands that go on forever... at some point you lose interest and lose touch. And then sometimes you might reconnect years later. So I decided to keep my eyes out for more Samiam records. And a few weeks back I stumbled on a 7" for sale in the UK.

The 'Coustic 7" was released by a UK label (Unleess You Try Records) in 2016. It is so titled because it contains two acoustic songs, both from the 2011 'Trips' LP (which I have never heard).

This colour is one of the 100 preorder copies that were all on random colours of vinyl, referred to as 'tie dye'. Having looked at some photos on discogs of other copies, this is one of the visually less interesting copies. But it's still a nice one to have. There are about seven other colours of this record, but zero copies for sale on discogs. So not an easy find in 2025.

This still makes me want to listen to more of the Samiam records I have missed, but getting records may well prove challenging.

More Rev Gaps Filled

In May this year I picked up two copies of the first Sick Of It All 7", and in celebration of my 2000th post on here, I pulled out all of my copies to take a group photo. I took the time to lay out 24 copies of the record, take some pics, and then put them all away again. And then, after I posted the pic on here, I looked at it and realised that I had missed out on one version at some point. After the initial sense of confusion and panic passed, I got on the internet and found a copy quite qucikly. So here we are, the 'bone' version (from 2021) with regular labels.

This one caused a bit of confusion when it came out. Back in 2021 there were 100 copies issued with the SOIA book and only available from Coretex Records. These copies had the Koller brothers picture labels and they were referred to as 'ivory'. There were then 500 copies announced right after on 'bone' vinyl. Basically, the two colours are the same, but the labels are what differentiate them.

Anyway, after getting this copy I simply cannot be bothered to lay out all of the other copies again. Maybe I'll do that again when I pick up another few copies. Probably for post number 2500.

Another Rev 7" that I was missing was the most recent pressing of the Quicksand 7". This version is 'transluscent orange vinyl' from 2024 (926 copies made). It was pressed at the UK plant, which is noticeable as it has small labels.

Back in 2002, Rev pressed 300 copies on 'yellow' vinyl which was supposed to be the 'final pressing' of this record. This new pressing looks slightly similar, although if you place the two copies side by side the difference is obvious - the labels. The latest version has the zeotrope label on the flipside.

And finally, I grabbed the latest pressing of the Crippled Youth 7". This is the 2024 pressing on 'neon pink' vinyl (550 copies). The last pressing of this one (on silver vinyl) was pressed at the UK plant, whereas this one was pressed in California at Erika. I have to say, this colour is really great in real life.

There was also a neon green version of this pressed back in 2018, and the two look pretty cool side by side:

A Beautiful Feeling

Another It's Alive Records release that I picked up recently, and this is a great example of buying a record because of the record label rather than the band. Everything that the label puts out is gold, and the quality of the packaging is second to none.

This is a reissue of the first RKL 7" 'It's A Beautiful Feeling'. This record was originally released by Superseven Records in 1984. Looking at discogs, there were lots of different versions of this thing pressed through the 1980s, several of which were on colour vinyl, and these days most sell for a reasonable amount.

Fred pressed up 500 of these on yellow vinyl in 2021, and then another 500 on purple a couple of years later. I missed the yellow, but am happy to have the purple looks great.

I actually have a spare of this if anyone is interested. Get in touch if you are.

I was never really into this band, although I did see them play once (in Leeds, UK) in about 1994. I wasn't that into them but just went along because they were touring their latest LP, which was on Epitaph, and I figured they were worth checking out. My only memory is seeing the singer projectile vomitting from the stage right at the end. Thank fuck I wasn't stood anywhere near him.

Big Laughs

Last year I posted about the Big Laugh 'Manic Revision' 7" that Revelation put out (reissued). I picked up way too many copies. Rev pressed this on three colours of vinyl - black, 'blue and red marble' (basically grey) and orange. But then there were a small number of red copies too. And I managed to get a copy that was almost yellow. And then this year at RevHQ I managed to find another quirky copy, with this one being on green vinyl.

Officially this does not exist, but I am assuming that it was just some transition type copy, although this theory doesn't really make sense as green comes from yellow and blue being mixed, and there were no yellow or blue of this record. Anyway, regardless of how this may have come to be, it exists... even though officially it doesn't.

As I mentioned, the Revelation pressing of this was actually a reissue. The record was originally released by a label called 11PM Records back in 2002. They pressed it on 3 different colours of vinyl, and I picked up one of these a couple of months ago with a little help from a friend.

This blue vinyl copy is a second press copy out of 200 copies. It goes pretty well with the front cover. I actually think the blue cover looks better than the red that Rev used, although it's nice that Rev changed it.

This band has a new record this year which I didn't get around to picking up, but which I have listened to online and its a real banger, switching up their sound so that they almost sound like Deadguy. I'm hoping to get one of those at some point.