2025: The Unquiet Year

So as much as I was dreading 2025, it was actually a pretty good year for me. On a personal note, I ticked off some big projects that had been on the 'to do' list for two to three years. Early in the year I bought a new car (after owning my last one for 17 years!), then had some long overdue and expensive roof repairs carried out, and enjoyed climbing onto the scaffold to do a spot of painting myself. In summer I went to California to do the San Diego to San Francisco drive that I had wanted to do for a few years, and met up with some good friends on the trip. After we got home, we had a new patio laid in the back garden, which ended up being a pretty major project, and then the year closed out with trips to Barcelona, Malaga and Texas. I was constantly busy, and unsurprisingly it turned out to be quite an expensive year(!), and for this reason I intentionally slowed down on my record buying habit for most of the second half of the year.

I also went to three really cool and important live shows. In May I went to see Jonah Onelinedrawing play in a small venue about 5 miles from my house, which was a perfect and beautiful show, and led me to obsess over his music for a few weeks afterwards. Then in late June I went to the Big Frank Harrison memorial show in Orange County, California and I got to see Farside play for the first time in my life and, despite them only playing 5 songs, it was an amazing and memorable experience. I felt so lucky to be there, and it made me so happy to have found such a great scene. And then in September I drove up to Leeds to see Cave In play 'Jupiter' in its entirety to celebrate its 25th anniversary, which was every bit as incredible as I had hoped.

I also continued to do 100 push ups a day, which I have managed to carry on for 2.5 years. I only mention it here as I have done so the past two years.

Anyway, on with the lists...

MY FAVOURITE 2025 RELEASES

Without a doubt, 2025 was a great year for new releases. In fact, there were so many (mainly in the second half of the year) that I literally could not keep up. I generally like to only listen to something once I have the vinyl, and for various reasons it seems difficult for me to buy records quickly these days. So I have broken my list into different sections. First up, a photo of my favourite new releases for which I did manage to buy a physical copy:

Shown in the photo are:

Diaz Brothers 'The World Is Yours' LP
Higher Power 'There's Love In This World If You Want It' LP
Onelinedrawing 'Alien Wondering' LP
Propagandhi 'At Peace' LP
Restraining Order 'Future Fortune' LP
Scowl 'Are We All Angels?' LP
Turnstile 'Never Enough' LP
Ursula 'I Don't Like Anything' LP

I have nothing to say about these that I haven't already said in the posts (linked above). But I loe them all.

Next up, there were actually four new releases that I did listen to even though not getting the vinyl yet. Despite what I said earlier, now and again (but very rarely) I will check out a record before getting the vinyl, either because I am too excited to wait, or because I want to decide whether it is really worth investing money in to get a copy to file away on a shelf and never look at. I listened to these four quite a bit, and will hopefully pick up vinyl copies at some point very soon.

The above records are:

By A Thread 'Mirrored Life' LP - This band seems to crank out a record roughly every 12 years, so it's a rare event. I just could not wait to listen to this.
Miltown 'Tales Of Never Letting Go' - I loved this band in the late 90s, and somehow their unreleased LP appeared out of nowhere with no warning this year. An amazing surprise.
Speedway 'A Life's Refrain' - I just had to check this out because there was such a buzz about it, and deservedly so.
Suzzallo 'The Quiet Year' LP - I had to check this to see if it would be something I might like. Without doubt, it is one of the most beautiful records I have ever heard, and it absolutely broke my heart.

If I absolutely had to pick a favourite record for the year it would come down to a choice between Turnstile and Suzzallo. I didn't think 'Never Enough' was that good when I first got it, but I have found that I keep going back to it and it just does not get old. It's also cool to see the band still continue to grow in popularity, and I back them 100%. The Suzzallo record is a totally different type of record, and I really wish it didn't exist, but it is a truly beautiful work of art and I rarely get this invested in a record emotionally these days. It is truly special and needs to be heard, but you need to understand the backstory to fully appreciate it.

2025 RELEASES I DIDN'T GET AROUND TO CHECKING OUT YET

So here's an image of the 2025 releases that I didn't get around to buying or checking out yet, despite wanting to. Most of these came out in the second half of the year, at which point I was doing my best to conserve money. But also, as Ralf mentioned, buying new releases these days can be difficult. Often there are preorders with lots of different colour options, and what I have learnt is that often the mock up pictures of the records turn out to be nothing like the finished product. You order the one that looks the best from a mock up, and it turns out to look nothing like you expected when it arrives. So what I generally do now is wait until I have seen photos of the actual records, and decide which colour I want then, and half the time that means that the one I end up wanting has sold out. Some records are so ugly that picking the nicest looking one means more than ever before, and sometimes it takes a while. Anyway, I will get these eventually. It's just a question of time.

The image shows the covers of these records:

Casket Lottery 'Feel The Teeth' LP
Deadguy 'Near Death Travel Services' LP (Relapse Records)
Drain 'Is Your Friend' LP (Epitaph Records)
Mirrorless 'S/T' 12" (Equal Vision Records)
Planet On A Chain 'Ritual Routine' LP (Revelation Records)
Soulblind 'Red Sky Mourning' LP (Closed Casket Activities)
Spaced 'No Escape' 12" (Pure Noise Records)

I haven't listened to any of these at all, but I figured I would leave this here as a reference point for my record shopping in the next few weeks. I will do my best to pick these up as early as possible in 2026.

MY FAVOURITE PICKUPS

When it comes to picking up cool or rare items, there aren't too many that I could throw up on here this year for various reasons, but I did manage to pick up and post a few cool items. As ever, I dug out my favourites for a photo:

The photos shows these:

Bent Blue 'So Much Seething' LP Test press - a gift from Dave at Indecision, and I just love the front cover art.
Ceremony 'In The Spirit World Now' LP on clear vinyl - I was totally obsessed by this at the start of the year, and was happy to pick up the nicest (and rarest) colour.
Dag Nasty 'Field Day' LP Test press - Nico grabbed this for me and hand delievered it. I used to hate this record but have grown to really like it as I have got older.
Soundgarden 'Ultramega OK' LP on blue vinyl - this band was last year's obsession, but some of their records are now really hard to find. I was stoked to add this one to my collection, especially as it is in perfect shape.
Living Memories Test Presses of both 12"s - one of my favourite current bands, and I was happy to be able to grab these tests.
Power Alone 'Rather Be Alone' LP Test Press - I love this record and was happy to be able to buy a test press, and even more stoked to have the singer, Eva, fix the creased sleeve with some custom artwork.
Nirvana 'Sliver' 7" first press - I don't collect Nirvana records, but this 7" is the exception. Picking up copies of this was a focus in 2023 and 2024, but it took longer to find a good condition first press at a good price.
97A 'Better Off Dead' 7" on red vinyl - I was so stoked to get this after having it on the want list for well over two decades.

OTHER STUFF I LISTENED TO A LOT

I almost didn't include this section this year, but when I glanced back through the blog history it turns out that I have included this bit every year since 2013 (despite me thinking I'd added it about three years ago). So anyway, tradition dictates I list this stuff, which is records that I spent a bit of time with despite them not being released in 2025.

Shown in alphabetical order are:

- Glassjaw 'Don Fury Sessions' - never listened to this band before, but this is incredible.
- Government Issue 'Crash' - I bought a few GI records, and listened to this one most, but the whole catalog is great.
- Heiress 'Nowhere Nearer' - this is so incredibly poweeful that I just kept going back to it.
- Journeyman 'Newidolson' - released by Redemption Records in 1993, and I only just found out this exists this year. Awesome 90s post hardcore featuring members of Release.
- Metallica 'Hardwired... To Self Destruct' - the next step in me working my way through the Metallica catalog over a 35 year timeline. I still haven't got to either 'Load' or 'Reload' yet though.
- Mil-Spec 'Marathon' LP - only a couple of years late to this one once a reasonably priced colour copy appeared.
- No Use For A Name 'Leche Con Carne' - Never heard this before and I get the feeling this may be their most popular record. I can see why.
- Soulside 'A Brief Moment In The Sun' - probably my favourite record by them, an absolutely great record, especially the song 'Tambourine'.

AND FINALLY...

I still have a bit of a backlog of records to post from the last few weeks, so January will probably be a busy month on here. But I want to keep this blog going in 2026 so hopefully I will start as I mean to go on and have a productive January.

I have a couple of plans in the pipeline for 2026, both in terms of records and general life activity. So hopefully 2026 will be as good to me as 2025 was.

As ever, thanks to those who carry on reading, commenting, and sending emails. Music brings people together like nothing else, even if like me you spend 99% of your time enjoying it alone. Happy 2026!

Goodbye 2024

I probably say this every year, but 2024 felt like the quickest year of my life. It feels like it was only a few weeks ago that it was starting, and now here we are already at the end. Crazy.

It feels like I spent a lot of time this year working. And whilst it is certainly true that I worked a lot of hours this year, I also did some other fun stuff. In Feb I went to Bristol, which is a great UK city I had never been to before, then in April we popped over to the States for 5 days to pick up records and visit a couple of awesome people and a couple of new states. In July we had a couple of weeks in the sun in the South of France, and then at the back end of the year we nipped over to Berlin (Germany) for a few days in October, then Lisbon (Portugal) for a long weekend in November. To end the year we popped back over to the States for a couple of weeks in December, taking in Nashville, Florida and Boston. All were enjoyable in different ways, and after years of having a phobia of flying I am now at a point where I am regularly thinking 'when can I next go on a plane?'.

I also continued to do 100 push ups a day for the entirety of 2024. This means that I have done at least 36,500 push ups in 2024. I had to stop for four days back in early April as I had back pain, but I made sure to catch up the deficit by doing 500 in one day once I felt better. I'm not sure anyone really cares about this, but I'm proud of keeping this going for so long.

In terms of music, I'm still not using any streaming services but continuing to download files as my primary means of playing songs. iTunes tells me that I added 127 'albums' (some of which are actually just 7"s) in 2024, which averages one every 2.8 days, which is nuts. I have bought and listened to a lot of music this year, so there is a lot for me to dissect with this post.

Even though I didn't actually buy too many records this year, I welcomed a lot of records into my house, mainly because I received the majority of records I bought in 2023 this year (yeah, don't ask). I came back from the States in April with over 200 records, and went into blogging overdrive. 2024 marked the 17th year of my doing this blog, and somehow it became the year with the most posts I have ever made. And yet I stil have a backlog, mainly as I picked up a few things earlier this month in the States that I haven't had time to get to yet. As I have said before, there is simply too much music and not enough time...

MY FAVOURITE 2024 RELEASES

When I came to write this post, I thought that I had only picked up a couple of new releases this year. Turns out there were a few more than a couple, and I had enough to make a list and take a nice photo:

I haven't tried to limit this to a 'top 10' or put these into any kind of order. I just picked my favourites. From the top left (and moving to the right), are the following:

Eyeteeth / Burial Rot Split LP - beautiful packing for an ugly as hell record from these two evil UK bands.
Fast Blood 'Sunny Blunts' LP - great UK poppy punk record with a great female vocal. Top 3 this year if I was ranking them.
Planet On A Chain 'Culture Of Death' LP - a great hardcore record with a fun cover.
Spaced 'This Is All We Ever Get' - possibly my favourite 'hardcore' record this year, the second song is so good!
No Plan 'Lotsa Potential' LP - Eva from Power Alone's pop punk band, this is a great sound.
J Mascis 'What Do We Do Now?' LP - a great new solo LP from the Dinosaur Jr frontman with the usual cute cover art.
Major Pain 'Intent' LP - great debut LP from this young Orange County hardcore band.
Jade Dust 'Grey Skies' 12" - the best current DC hardcore band... even thoguht they are from Oregon.
Chat Pile 'Cool World' LP - a great LP cover and a very dark and strange sounding record. Difficult to pigeonhole, but brilliant.
Stand Still 'Steps Ascending' LP - thanks to Nico for drawing this to my attention. A great Long Island band reminiscent of Capital, Movielife and even Saves The Day.
Karate 'Make It Fit' LP - I haven't listened to this band for a while, but Ralf and Mike put them back on my radar and I am grateful they did. I love this new LP so much.
High Vis 'Guided Tour' LP - this one was definitely a bit of a disappointment after the last one, but I have still ended up playing it every day since I got it, and I feel it still has a lot of play left it it.

SUB POP 7" MANIA

At the end of last year I did as I always do and posted a pic of my favourite pickups of the year, and a friend sent me a message to say that he was particularly impressed by the Nirvana 'Sliver' 7"s I had bought, and that this drove him to decide to pick up more old Sub Pop 7"s in 2024. After a couple of weeks I asked him how it was going, and then I also decided that this would also be a fun activity for me to get involved in too. There were a few Sub Pop 7"s that I have always wanted and never really got around to picking up, so I figured I'd prioritise them in 2024. Before I knew it, I had bought about 30 Sub Pop 7"s. Unlike a lot of records I collect, it turns out that majority of the early Sub Pop 7"s are really cheap these days, and readily available in the UK. Sub Pop 7"s then became a mini obsession, and I spent a lot of time researching the old Sub Pop catalogue (thanks to John Pette's discography), and scouring discogs and eBay. In the end I picked up 64 Sub Pop 7"s in the year, which forms a nice 8x8 square (although I had to overlap them slightly to get them in a photo):

A lot of these records I had never heard of before, and some I had seen a lot of the years but ignored. But actually buying these things was a great way for me to hear some new music or get reacquainted with older bands from the distant past. My favourites were 7"s by Dickless, The Reverend Horton Heat, Gas Huffer, Sister Double Happiness, Rein Sanction, Hole, Creep and Codeine. All really great bands that I'm so glad I gave a chance to, albeit 25-30 years too late, and all of which I have already (or will) explore further.

There are still a few more Sub Pop 7"s that I didn't manage to find, and then there are also a bunch of early Sub Pop LPs that I also decided I would like, so this mission will run on into 2025 for sure. Watch this space.

MY FAVOURITE PICKUPS

In terms of rarities, I don't really feel that I picked up many big hitters in 2024. But I definitely managed to find some nice items, a few of which had been on my want list for many years. Here's a photo of my favourites:

Starting at the top left are:

Annihilation Time 1st LP Test presses - 2 are pictured, but I actually bought 3 different tests of the same record. Love this record and these tests all look really nice.
Understand Test Press - a really important record for me personally, I was stoked to be able to grab a test press from the label.
Gas Huffer LPs and Test Press - I forgot how much fun this band is, and picked up two albums I had never heard before, then found a test press of one.
Quicksand 'Slip' test press - ok, so this is a test press of some 2012 repress, but it'sstill a nice one to have.
Uniform Choice 'Screaming For Change' LP 1st press - this one had been on the want list for many years, and I finally found one with a poster and sticker.
Mouthpiece discography LP with Natefest sleeve - this was the last version of this record I was missing for a complete collection.
Lights Out 'Overload' LP Test press - a great test press of a great LP, I really like the special cover on this one.
Soundgarden 'Superunknown' LP clear vinyl - my favourite record of the year, and I was very happy to find an affordable vinyl copy.
Disembodied 10" on Purple - I think this had been on my want list since it came out, so it was good to finally find one all these years later.
Swiz 'With Dave' 7" Test press - this is the 3rd Swiz 7" test press in my collection, I felt very lucky indeed to find this.
Blood For Blood / Hudson Falcons Split 7" on clear vinyl - another one that had been on my want list since the late 90s, I was very happy to finally get this and see that it does actually exist.
Bad Religion 'Atomic Garden' 7" on orange vinyl - this one is stupidly rare. I'm not really a Bad Religion collector, but I've wanted this for a few years after missing one about 5 years ago.

We Are The End

I think the format of this post is slightly flawed, as I spent a lot of time listening to Olivia Rodrigo this year, yet somehow didn't find a way to get her in any of the above categories. Oh well...

As ever, thanks to those who carry on reading this guff, and hopefully 2025 will be a good one for us all...

Hang On... 2023 Is Done Already?

So 2023 is done, and the main question I am left with is... where the hell did it go? I think 2023 passed by faster than any other year of my life. I know that time seems to pass quicker as you get older, but even so, 2023 came and went with unprecedented speed. I think it was mainly due to having started a new job right at the end of 2022, and having numerous projects and their associated deadlines all year long, which ultimately meant that I was busy with work constantly, working on one thing after another with seeminlgy not enough time to do anything properly. A lot of evenings and weekends were worked and I am hoping that next year will not be quite so busy due to some of the changes that I have put in place.

As a result of working so hard, it felt that outside of work I didn't achieve too much. I managed 4 trips that involved flying on planes, which were all fun in different ways. One of the highlights of the year was when Mike & Meesh came to stay for a few days, which gave me a good excuse to take a couple of days off of work, and also served as a great reminder as of some of the cool people that I have met through collecting recods. Other than that, however, the year was fairly quiet and uneventful. The only other things I can think to mention is that, partly because I was too busy to get to the gym very often, I started doing 100 push ups a day at some point in late April (exact date unknown) and I managed to continue that for the rest of the year, which means that I have done at least 24,500 push ups this year. Oh yeah, and I also managed to go the whole year without a hair cut, which did not start out as intentional and then at some point became a goal in itself.

Turning my attention to the year in music, my iTunes tells me that I added a total of 96 records to my library this year, which averages 1.8 per week, or one every 3.8 days. To me this seems like a crazy high number. How the hell did I have enough time to listen to that many new records multiple times? On reflection I think that the answewr is work. I worked the majority of the year at home, and for most of the day when I am at home I have music playing. I can easily listen to 5 albums in a day that way. But I sometimes wonder how these numbers would seem to the 18 year old me who, on average, probably got a new record every 3 weeks or so. Crazy I am sure.

MY FAVOURITE 2023 RELEASES

As per the last few years, in trying to figure out my favourite releases from the year I have split it into two sections - those that I have the vinyl for, and those for which the vinyl has not yet been received. The downside of this approach, however, is that I end up with two sections and two images, which upon reflection doesn't quite seem quite right, but it is what it is.

These are my favourite records that I picked up on vinyl. It was only after taking the photo that I realised how many UK releases made the list this year. Possibly more than any other year.

Pictured above (from top left, moving across then down) and in no particular order of how much I like them, the records are:

Brain Tourniquet 'An Expression In Pain' LP - Infest / Neanderthal / Crossed Out style hardcore from Washington, DC. This record contains 9 songs that are over in 10 minutes and then one more song that is ten minutes in itself. I got tihs relatively early in the year and imediately knew it would be on this list.

Wound Man 'Human Outline' LP - A Boston hardcore band featuring DFJ which is also firmly in the Infest / Crossed Out vein. I got this at the same time as the Brain Tourniquet LP and still struggle to decide which I prefer.

Unified Action 12" EP - great debut by a UK band with Lins87 on vocals, featuring an Infest cover and a rip off of the Citizens Arrest logo.

Low Coast 'Existing The Dream' LP - Jeff Caudill's latest band that plays some laid back indie rock with his distinct vocal over the top.

Rancid 'Tomorrow Never Comes' LP - I hadn't listened to Rancid since their self-titled LP from 2000, but I bought this as it was on sale and it proved to be a great reminder as to how much I used to love this band and how catchy their songs can be.

Eyeteeth 'Straight Edge Violence' 7" - the only 7" in the list, and this is another record from a new UK band. Ten songs in ten minutes on a 7" with Godzilla on the cover. What's not to love?

Parallel Worlds 'In The Comet's Path' LP - a new name and new sound for a decade old UK band, this record has a cool cover and is a perfect example of hardcore rock 'n' roll.

Prey 'Unsafe' LP - another new UK band, I picked this up on a whim as it was on sale, and immediately loved it. Sixteen vicious hardcore songs done and dusted in 17 minutes, this was the soundtrack for scraping the metal handrail outside my front door.

Not 'Stop The World' LP - a US band with a British singer, this is an blatant attempt at ripping off ALL, and they absolutely pull it off with top marks. Super catchy stuff and some great lyrics, the Summer singalong record of the year.

Metallica '72 Seasons' LP - their first album since 2016, and after one play I was immediately hooked. On balance this is probably my favourite record of the year, although ask me next week and I might give a different answer.

Next up is my shortlist of other records that came out this year that I listened to via the medium of digital magic and that I don't have the vinyl for... yet. I like to document these here as they came out this year and I did spend a lot of time listening to them. These were my favourites:

Shown above are these suckas:

Calling Hours 'Say Less' EP - Popeye from Farside's new band. I saw them live and thought they were pretty dull, but before I had heard this record and knew the songs. After several plays I can safely say that the songs on here are brilliant. The soundtrack for my Florida drives this year.

Drain 'Living Proof' LP - the second album by Drain with some fun cover art, and it's a great follow up to 'California Cursed'. This band is absolutely on fire at this point. Shame about the pointless Descendents cover though and not putting it as the last song.

Liars Academy 'Ghosts' LP - a fantastic comeback record by this Baltimore band (their first since 2004). There is one absolutely incredible song on here, but also (like the Drain LP) this also features a pointless Black Sabbath cover ('Changes') also positioned as the second to last song.

Mean Season 'Go To Hell' 12" - another comeback record (their first since 1994!), and I feel that the new songs on here are absolutely fantastic. Sadly, however, this record is let down because they filled it out with 3 cover songs and a couple of re-recorded old songs, meaning I turn it off halfway through when I play it. But damn, those new songs are good.

Planet On A Chain 'Boxed In' LP - a really impressive fast hardcore album on Revelation which both looks and sounds the part. It took a few goes, but when it clicked it clicked in a big way.

Power Alone 'Nothingness' EP - a new four song EP by Power Alone, but sadly this was released only on digital and cassette formats. Hopefully at some point a vinyl version will appear, because these songs deserve it.

LATE TO THE PARTY

I started adding this section to this summary a few years ago to document the stuff that I listened to a lot this year but that was not released this year. Most of the stuff here I listened to online or downloaded and then got addicted to. Some of it I subsequently tracked down vinyl copies of, and some I didn't, which means I'm also breaking this section into two parts, as above.

First up are the things for which I ended up buying vinyl copies:

Shown in the photo are:

Soul Blind 'Feel It All Around' LP - this came out right at the end of 2022, and I think I listened to it on 01 Jan this year, and loved it immediately. It sounds like a lot Sub Pop grunge release from 1991, which 30 years later sounds really quite fresh.

Scream 'Fumble' LP - I had never heard this record before and decided to buy the latest colour vinyl repress, and I have to say, this record is incredible. My favourite Scream record. Such a different sound to their earlier records.

Hammered Hulls 'Careening' LP - another 2022 release that I didn't get around to until this year. I was waiting for a colour vinyl pressing, and when it came I played the shit out of it.

Iron Monkey '9-13' LP - I was reminded of Iron Monkey this year having not listeend to them in years, and picked up this 2017 record featuring a different singer, which is surprisingly good. I loved this band in 1997/8 and this was a good reminder as to why. Sludgecore.

The Living Memories 'Home Truths' - I read about this one on Mike's blog and thought it sounded interesting. He didn't seem to like it, but I did, and this worked in my favour when he hand deliverd it to my house. This sounds similar to The Smiths but is played by two guys from The First Step.

Rhythm Collision 'Now' & 'Clobberer' LPs - I ended up hearing Rhythm Collision when a song came on youtube after something else that I listened to, and immediately knew it was up my street. I was then lucky enough to find someone in the UK looking to offload a bunch of their records. This band took up a fair amount of my time this summer across these two records.

End Of A Tear 'Sincerely' LP - a Revelation release that I had never heard before as it was a CD only release, but I checked it out digitally and liked what I heard, and then found a vinyl copy (put out by a different label) for sale in the UK. No doubt this is an overlooked / unknown gem in the Rev catalogue.

Samiam 'You Are Freaking Me Out' 7" box set - I ended up reconnecting with Samiam this year after a a few years absence, and heard this 1997 record this year for the first time, which ended up with me buying a stupid 4x7" box set version of it.

I also enjoyed 4 other records a lot that I downloaded and (as yet) do not own vinyl copies of. These are:

New Found Glory 'Sticks And Stones' LP - I had never listened to this band at all because I thought their name was stupid, but I checked them out this year after Rev released a record by them, and I ended up getting slightly addicted to this record. Sadly I couldn't buy a vinyl copy as they all cost hundreds of dollars in 2023.

Downer 'S/T' LP - an old record (from the year 2000) that for some reason got pressed onto vinyl this year on an interesting label (Black Claw Records). I have a 7" by this band in my collection that I got in about 1995 that I had no memory of, so I checked this record online and within about ten seconds knew I needed this record in my life.

Bush 'Razorblade Suitcase' LP - a big surprise for me, I gave this record a chance when someone sent me a test press of it for free, and I ended up loving it. It sounds more like Nirvana than Nirvana, which is odd for a band that were from the UK. Still, at this point in my life, I am really into this sound again.

Deftones 'White Pony' LP - I saw this band play once and walked out after 2 songs, as I was only there to see the support band, Will Haven. I've been meaning to check this band out the last couple of years, thinking that I might be into them these days, and I finally got around to it at the back end of this year. This record seems to be regarded as their best, and I have to admit, it's pretty good.

MY FAVOURITE PICKUPS

It didn't feel like I picked up anything mindblowing this year, but scrolling back through my posts and I did add some really nice items to my collection. Nearly all of my favourites are test pressings, and I did manage to pick up a few nice ones. It was cool dragging them out again to take this photo.

Shown above are:

Chain Of Strength 'The One Thing That Still Holds True' 12" Test press
Kiss It Goodbye 'She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not' LP Test press
Civ 'Set Your Goals' LP Test press
One King Down 'Bloodlust Revenge' 12" Test press

All of the above (along with a couple of others) came from the collection of an ex Revelation Records employee, and this was without doubt the best deal of the year. And nicely hand delivered by my partner in crime to reduce postage risks.

Farside 'The Monroe Doctrine' LP Test press - a very welcome addition to my Farside collection, although this is probably my least favourite Farside record.

No Escape / Turning Point 7" Test press - I got this direct from Tim Singer (of No Escape) and was stoked that it came with some proofs of the cover art, making this particular copy unique.

Nirvana 'Sliver / Dive' 7" - I had wanted a copy of this for a few years now, and finally got around to getting a copy in 2023. And then I picked up 3 more copies of it. I think it's fair to say that collecting this 7" has now become a mild obsession.

ALMOST DONE

Every year my target for this blog is 120 posts (an average of 10 per month) and despite being super busy with work, I managed to beat the target this year. I actually managed to pick up a lot of records this year from within the UK, whilst simultaneously buying stuff from the States which is still sat in the States. Hopefully I can obtain those records in 2024. There are some cool records waiting to come in and I'm excited for them.

As ever, thanks to the people who continue to read this. I'm not entirely sure why I keep doing this, but it's like a lot of things in my life... I just keep doing the same things week in, week out and time carries on passing. In two month's time I will have been writing this thing for sixteen years, which seems absolutely insane as it represents a third of my life. Sometimes I think about stopping, but I then just carry on. And I have a batch of records sat around upstairs from my recent trip to the States, so no doubt I will continue this into 2024, and hopefully you'll all be there to listen to me waffle on.

Happy new year!

2022 Is Dead

So that's a wrap on 2022. And what an interesting year it was. Over here in the UK we enjoyed 3 different Prime Ministers (with one being the shortest serving and shittest of all time) and 'The Queen Is Dead' finally became more than a song. It was a weird year for me personally as I only spent the last two weeks of the year working - the rest of the year I was unemployed. But at no point was I bored as I had a lot of things to keep me busy. I sold a friend's record collection (well, most of it), went on 3 holidays overseas, visited 2 record pressing plants, watched 4 Spiderman films and painted 2 garden walls. With all this going on the year absolutely flew by and made me wonder how I ever had time to have a job in the past.

THE YEAR'S RECORD HAUL

The year in music was an interesting one for me. I'm pretty sure that I added more records to my collection in 2022 than in any other year of my life. I mean, I haven't counted every year, but I cannot recall a year where I could possibly have acquired as many as in 2022. Things kicked off in January with me visiting a friend and driving away with his whole collection of 700 records. I sold the majority for him but ended up keeping nearly 50 of them for myself, which sent me on a nostalgic trip back to the early 90s. For about the first 3 months of the year I was listening exclusively to pop punk bands from the late 80s or early 90s, and I loved it. Anything remotely hardcore just didn't do it for me during that time, and things only changed when I took a short trip to the California in April. I stayed with Dave from Indecision Records and hung out at RevHQ for a few days, and this got me listening to a lot of new hardcore. I ended up coming home with over 30 Indecision releases from the past 4 years or so that I had missed or ignored, and I discovered some great bands and music as a result. I also decided on this trip to try to pick up more new records and be a little less picky about which versions I bought. All in all I ended up bringing home around 60 records from that trip. I also received a couple of parcels from my good friend in the States filled with stuff I bought last year, and then at the end of the year I went back to the States and came back with 95 more records. I think it all stemmed from not having a job and viewing buying records as a passtime and source of entertainment. Sure it was fun, but not the best move to make my savings last.

Given that I probably won't ever have a year like this again, I decided to take a couple of photos of all the records I acquired over the past twelve months. This was pretty easy to do as I haven't filed them away in the collection yet. If I had done that then there is no way on earth I would have been able to pull them out for these photos. This first photo gathers together all of the 7" records I picked up this year, except for the Dischord 200 boxset that I still haven't opened yet for some reason.

In case you're wondering, There are 160 7"s pictured above. The next photo shows all of the 12" records I acquired. There are 226 of these bloody things here, which fill 3.5 cubes that I thought would take about 4 years to fill.

There were also 4 x 10" records that I picked up but didn't see the point of including. So in total that's 390 records that I welcomed into my house, which anyone can work out averages out at more than one per day... which is insane and made me wonder - what the hell am I doing? It's almost as if my name is Mike and it's 2012 all over again.

So yeah... with the large number of records I added to my collection and all the extra time I had available, I listened to a hell of a lot of music in 2022, which made putting together this post a lot more fun (and work) than most other years.

THE YEAR IN BLOGGING

The combination of no job and lots of records coming in meant that I managed to keep this blog pretty active. In fact, this year has ended with my highest post count since I started back in 2008. Here's a graph that serves as proof (and definitely isn't here just because I was looking for an excuse to do a graph):

Every year my target is 120 posts (10 per month) and I easily surpassed that in 2022. Even after banging out 151 posts, I have ended the year with a huge backlog of records I haven't had the time to post about or properly listen to yet, especially as 95 of them only entered the house two weeks ago. Ah well. At least that means that I have some material in reserve for 2023.

MY FAVOURITE 2022 RELEASES

For once I felt ike I bought quite a few new releases this year. I pulled out my favourites and laid them out for this photo... although the photo is so boring that I probably could have just used stock images of the covers rather than pull records off the shelf and lay them out on the bed.

Pictured above (from top left, moving across then down) and in no particular order are:

High Vis 'Blending' LP
Ignite 'S/T LP
Bitter Branches 'Your Neighbors Are Failures' LP
Skullcrack 'Addicted To The Underground' LP
Be Well 'Hello Sun' 12"
Beach Rats 'Rat Beat' LP
Praise 'All In A Dream' LP
Sumerlands 'Dreamkiller' LP
Speedway 'Paradise' 7"
The Flex 'Chewing Gum For The Ears' LP
Cave In 'Heavy Pendulum' LP
Sweat 'Gotta Give It Up' LP

I've not attempted to put them into any kind of order of preference, because past history shows that the order generally changes over time (I mean, in 2010 I had the Get The Most LP at number 2 and I probably listened to it once since then, but the records I had it ahead of still get semi regular play). Obviously the future is uncertain, but I think that the ones that will get most play in future years are likely to be the Cave In and Ignite albums - two bands that I have loved for 25+ years and still listen to regularly. Does that make those two the best? I'm not sure. But time will tell.

Also, an honourable mention to a record I have been listening to a lot for the past 3 months or so but don't have the vinyl for: Silent Drive 'Fairhaven' LP.

I downloaded this out of curiosity as their last record was 18 years ago and at first I didn't like it, but within days I was addicted and listening to it twice a day. Without doubt one of the best records of the year for me, and hopefully I will bag a physical copy next year.

OTHER (NON 2022) RECORDS I ENJOYED A LOT

I started adding this section to this summary a few years ago to record things I listened to a lot that weren't released in the year, or that I didn't buy a physical copy of. This section could also be aptly titled 'late to the party'. Usually this section is full of stuff I downloaded on a whim and quickly fell in love with, but this year I got so many records that I didn't really need to go searching for much else. So this photo shows more of the great records I discovered and played a lot this year that came out prior to 2022:

Shown in the photo are these (or records that represent these):

NOFX 1st 5 LPs
Lagwagon 'Trashed' LP
Sweet Baby 'It's A Girl' LP
Pegboy 'Earwig' & 'Chacha Da More' LPs
Senseless Things 1st 3 LPs
School Drugs 'Modern Medicine' LP
Lungfish - all
Power Alone 'Rather Be Alone' LP
The Mr. T Experience LPs
Mega City Four 'Who Cares Wins' LP
Retaliate 'IV' LP
Fiddlehead 'Between The Richness' LP

I also enjoyed 4 other records a lot that I downloaded and (as yet) do not own the vinyl for. These are:

Nomeansno LPs ('Wrong' & 'Dance Of The Headless Bourgeoisie') - I never fancied listening to this band in the past, but this year it came on youtube after something else and I was instantly hooked. Shame the records are so damn expensive these days.

Soulblind 'Greatest Hits Vol.1' - a new band who sound like they are fresh out of the 1991 grunge scene. I am excited to check out their new album.

Teenage Fanclub 'Bandwagonesque' LP - another one that my friends used to listen to when I was about 16 and I thougth was weak. I was wrong.

My iTunes tells me that I added 150 records this year which is an average of nearly 3 per week. I guess that really does show how much time I spent listening to music. But the one sad thing about this is that it feels that music makes less of an impact these days than it used to. When I was younger I would probably spend more time with each record, and some I would play over and over and over and learn every word and every note. That rarely happens these days. I listen to something a few times and then, if I really like it, I probably play it for a few weeks at best before I'm bored of it and moving on to something else. I'm not sure why this is the case, but I kinda miss the days of experiencing real lasting love for a record for months on end. The most I seem to get out of something that I really love these days is about 3 weeks. Is this just me?

MY FAVOURITE PICKUPS

It's always fun for me to go back through my posts and feel excited at all the cool, rare items I picked up, but this year I didn't actually pick up too many big items. It was mainly a year of picking up lots of new music rather than collecting rare 'pieces' for the sake of the collection. That said, I did still manage to get hold of some really great items that I am super happy to now own. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of them are test pressings as that is firmly where my interest lies these days.

The items shown above are as follows:

Farside 'Rochambeau' LP Test press - the result of a trade that took about 2 years to get around to. One of my all time favourite records.

Farside 'Scrap' LP Test press. I was surprised to find this one on eBay and knew from the second I saw it that I would win it. I love this band so much.

Judge 'Bringin' It Down' LP Test press - I still cannot fucking believe that I own this.

Down By Law 'Blue' LP Test press - I love the first 4 DBL albums, and this one is probably my favourite. I couldn't not buy this when I saw it for sale.

Shift 'Pathos' 12" Test press - another trade, and this one completed the holy trinity of Shift 12" test pressings for me.

Gameface 'Cupcakes' 7" Test press - I probably overpaid for thsi one, but it was worth it as this was a big hole in my Gameface test press collection.

Bloodline 'The Waiting Game' 7" Red vinyl - this one had been on my want list for 20 years+ and is incredibly hard to find. I was stoked to finally get one, and for only $10 too.

Inch 7" Red vinyl - this one had me so happy. I never knew it existed on colour vinyl despite owning it for close to 30 years.

THE FINAL WORD

As ever, thanks to the people who continue to read this, and especially to those who comment. I started this thing to engage with other like minded people and share information and stories, so it's nice when other people chip in. If you read and don't comment then I'd like to encourage you to do so in future. I love getting comments, but it happens much less frequently these days. Come on people!

I'm not sure 2023 will bring, but I'm pretty sure it will bring fewer records into my house. I'm aiming for a smaller yet higher quality haul for next year. I already have my sights on a couple of items that have me excited and I just hope that they come off.

See you all next year!

So That Was 2021?

So 2021 was a bit of a weird year. For the most part it was completely uneventful. We started the year in lockdown and as a result I think I did absolutely nothing for the first 5 months or so. I then started going back into the office at work for a day or two each week, but still didn't actually do anything other than work. Before I knew it, Summer had gone and we were heading toward the end of the year without having been anywhere or done anything at all. I managed to squeeze in a trip to Los Angeles in late November / early December. But aside from that, 2021 was probably the most boring, repetitive, uneventful year of my entire life. Good riddance to it.

The year in record collecting was slightly more interesting, although looking back, it was one of the quietest in recent years in terms of both new releases and cool pickups. I did manage to pick up a couple of nice items on my trip but ran out of time to feature them.

MY FAVOURITE RELEASES OF 2021

Almost every year I come to write some kind of summary of the year, and every year it takes much longer than I expected. Anyway, for what it's worth, here's are my top 9 releases from 2021. In previous years I have mainly done lists of things that I picked up on vinyl, but this year I decided to make the list about my favourite releases, whether I managed to pick up vinyl copies of them or not, mainly because it didn't feel right to miss out a couple just because I didn't pick up the round plastic version.

I was going to do a top 10, but instead decided to do a top 9 as it makes for an easier, square image. My choices are not really in any kind of order. Shown above are:

Iceburn 'Asclepius' LP - If someone would have told me that there would be a new Iceburn record this year, and that I would both buy it and love it, I would have thought they were joking. For me, this is the stand out best records of the year. My only disappointment is that I told several people how good this is and I don't think any of them even bothered listening to it.

Dinosaur Jr 'Sweep It Into Space' LP - a new Dinosaur Jr. record is never a disappointment, and this one wasn't either.

Turnstile 'Glow On' LP - the first time I heard this I almost turned it off after 2 songs, so awful did it seem. But it ended up being amazing. I'm so bummed that I missed out on getting a vinyl copy, and I can't imagine I will find one anytime soon as the second hand prices are nuts for any version. Ah, gotta love modern record collecting and discogs!

Dare 'Against All Odds' LP - a great new straight edge hardcore album from the latest Rev band. It goes hard out of the blocks and also has cool cover art and some nice vinyl colours too.

Freewill 'All This Time' LP - the follow up to their debut which was recorded back in 1988. They now sound like they'd be more at home on Fat Wreck circa 1994, but I'm really into it.

Descendents '9th & Walnut' LP - a new Descendents LP which is actually old music with new vocals. As ever with a Descendents record, it delivered, but it did not need to exist on so many different colours of vinyl for fuck's sake.

27 'A Billion Searchlights' LP - a band that I used to be totally obsessed with, they released their first full length since 2010 and I love it. The songs, the artwork, the vinyl colours are all amazing.

Quicksand 'Distant Populations' LP - this was a funny one for me. I started off finding it dull, then I started to get into it and played it 3 times a day, then I got bored of it again. ALl of this happened in a two week period. I played it again today and it's still good. I didn't buy a vinyl copy as all of the colour options were ugly splatters, although the pink vinyl looks nice... but costs way too much thanks to modern record collectors.

Scowl 'How Flowers Grow' LP - a new female fronted hardcore band which is so damn good. This is their debut full length, but sadly, it seems that they totally underestimated how popular this would be. It came out in late November and was impossible to get hold of on vinyl. I spent a lot of time trying to find one to no avail.

MY FAVOURITE PICKUPS OF 2021

After scrolling back through the posts for the year, it was a slightly quieter year for picking up cool stuff this year I think. But I still managed to add some nice items to the collection. My favourites were these:

Shown in the photo are:

Bold 'Speak Out' LP Green vinyl test press
Cave In 'Mr. Co-Dexterity / Inflatable Dream' 7" Test press
Harvest 'Living With A God Complex' LP on grey vinyl
Integrity 'Humanity Is The Devil' LP liquid filled version
Integrity 'To Die For' LP liquid filled version
Dag Nasty '85-86' 4x7" box set test press
Tad 'Lycanthrope' 7" on yellow vinyl
Warzone 'Lower East Side Crew' 7" numbered label

STUFF I LISTENED TO A LOT IN 2021

I've done this list the last few years as I find it interesting to make a record of other music that I have spent a lot of time listening to. It's fun for me to look back on if nothing else. But other than the year's new releases, I have listened to all manor of stuff this year. These are the ones I spent the most time with..

Sinking 'Only Echoes' - I got a flyer for this record at the start of the year, and something about it caught my eye, so I checked it out... and loved it. It took me right back to the 90s and reminds me of bands like Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate. I have a vinyl copy hopefully incoming in 2022.

Bad Religion 'Back To The Known' EP - For some reason I realised at the start of the year that I had never actually heard this record, so I downloaded it and really enjoyed it. I gave up on Bad Religion a long time ago, so it was kinda cool to find a 'new' BR record from when they were good.

Swervedriver 'Raise' LP - I realised that I had been listening to only 4 Swervedriver songs for 30 years, so decided to check out their first album, and loved it. I'd love to find a vinyl copy at some point.

Christiansen 'Stylish Nihilist' - Around May time I decided to download the albums on Revelation Records that I had never heard as they were released on CD only. Some were terrible, but some I really enjoyed. This Christainsen album was my favourite, and I played in incessently for a few weeks. Such an unappreciated gem. I asked Rev about putting out a vinyl copy, but they don't think there would be enough interest to break even.

Gracer 'Voices Travel' - another Rev CD only release, this one reminded me a lot of Elliott. A really great record by a band that released only one record and were somehow on Rev, and that nobody has ever heard of or heard. A truly under appreciated gem.

On The Might Of Princes 'Where You Are And Where You Want To Be' - the third Revelation CD only release that I really enjoyed listening to. This one came out back in 2001 so it took me 20 years to check it out. Reminds me in places of early Piebald.

Slipknot 1st LP - not much to be said here. After enjoying System Of A Down last year, I decided to check out the first Slipknot album, and I have loved it, especially when I needed an extra push in the gym.

Gray Matter 'Take It Back' - I once sold some dude's collection back in about 1994/95, and in there was a first press copy of this record on maroon vinyl. I didn't really like it back then so I sold it. But this year I decided to try it again and I couldn't get enough of it. If only I hadn't sold that damn record!

Six Going On Seven 'Heartbreak's Got Backbeat' LP - I loved this band's first album when it came out in 1997, and I bought this one when it came out in 1999. But for some reason I didn't take to it and shelved it. This year I tried it out again and really enjoyed it. I played it every day whilst driving around L.A. at the end of the year too, to the point where Anna was getting sick of it. Ha!

AND FINALLY...

Another year in the books, and as is the case every year, I wonder how much longer I will keep this going. Sometimes I enjoy doing this, and sometimes it feels like a chore. But no doubt if you're reading this then you're still getting something out of it too, which is pretty cool. So now it's onwards and upwards to 2022, a.k.a. 2020 2....

2020: The End of a Fucked Up Year

2020 has been one of the strangest years of my lifetime. The world pretty much closed down due to Corona Virus, and as a result I have spent the last 9 months of the year at home, only straying more than 2 miles from my house about 5 times. However, I'm not going to complain about it one bit, because compared to a lot of people I feel quite lucky. I was able to work from home all year and receive full pay, and due to not being able to go anywhere or do anything I also saved a decent amount of money. But the effects of this virus will live on for years to come, I am sure, although I don't think that anyone can predict what the long term effects will be at this point. Also, smack bang in the middle of the virus came the Black Lives Matter protests, which will also no doubt have a huge global impact on future life, and which led to a whole bunch of record auctions and raffles. And right in the middle of it all was Donald Trump, embarrassing himself and shocking the rest of the world with his ignorance, selfishness and stupidity on an almost daily basis. I think that probably every American that I know breathed big a sigh of relief when Trump ended up losing the election, although from what I can tell he probably still thinks he won. And then right at the end of the year (at 11pm today) the UK will have completed Brexit and formerly left the European Union which, just like the other things I have mentioned, will no doubt also have a huge impact on daily life for a lot of people in the UK for quite some time. Right now the biggest question I have is whether it will have any impact on postage prices or import charges from mainland Europe. If it affects me buying records, it's serious.

Moving on to the important stuff, i.e. records, and it was a funny year for those too. I spent a fair portion of the year buying cheap stuff from within the UK. It was kinda cool being at home to open the door to the postman, and I found some nice bargains and took advantage where I could. I got into a rhythm of buying cheap records and getting pretty stoked on them too. I also made sure to listen to a reasonable number of new releases for a change, and I managed to pick up a few hot items from my wants list along the way.

MY FAVOURITE RELEASES OF 2020

My mind seems to have played a trick on me, because when I sat down to write this I genuinely felt like I listened to more new releases this year than I did in the last few. I think that this was because there were a couple of occassions where I wasn't feeling too fussed about a particular record, but then made a conscious decision to buy it because I felt that I should buy more new releases. For example, the Coriky LP only came on black vinyl and wasn't much to look at, but I figured I should buy one anyway, and I really enjoyed it. So there I was thinking that this was a big year of new releases, but when I looked back at my 'end of 2019' post from 12 months ago, it seems that I did actually listen to more new releases last year. But the other main difference this year was that I managed to get the vinyl in my hands for the year's new releases, whereas last year I listened to more via downloads and picked the vinyl later on.

Anyway, for what it's worth, here's are the 2020 releases that I spent the most time listening to:

Shown above are:
Coriky 'S/T' LP (Dischord Records)
Shades Apart 'Eternal Echo' LP (Hellminded Records)
Be Well 'The Weight And The Cost' (Equal Vision Records)
Heavy Discipline 'S/T' LP (Painkiller Records)
Rated X 'United Front' LP (Painkiller Records)
Bitter Branches 'This May Hurt A Bit' 12" (Atomic Action Records)
Don't Sleep 'Turn The Tide' LP (Mission Two Entertainment)
Change 'Closer Still' LP (React! Records)
Every Scar Has A Story 10" (Equal Vision Records)
Drain 'California Cursed' LP (Revelation Records)

I'm not going to attempt to put these in order of preference, partly because it's too difficult to choose. But if I had to choose one favourite then I would probably have to go with the Be Well LP. I imagine that this is the one that will get the most future play, based mainly on the lyrics.

The one thing that stands out from this list is that I clearly seem to mainly listen to either old bands, or new bands made up of old dudes. There can't be too many younger kids listening to some of the above records, as the average age of the people in these bands is probably about 45. Does the average 20 year old hardcore kid care about Ian Mackaye's new band, or that the singer from Deadguy has a new band? I'm guessing not.

Also, I'd like to give honourable mentions to these 2020 releases, which I also listened to quite a bit, but didn't include in my top 10 above:

Big Cheese 'Punishment Park' LP - I liked this a lot but just didn't get around to buying the vinyl

Higher Power '27 Miles Underwater' LP - I was big into this one at the start of the year, but I found myself getting tired of it quite quickly. It didn't have the longevity for some reason.

Chubby And The Gang 'Speed Kills' LP - Seventies style punk from a young British band, this one proved to be a lot of fun, and it's good to see them getting global recognition as a result.

Winds Of Promise 'Cut.Heal.Scar' LP - I got it too late in the year to really give it a good go, but after a couple of listens it sounds just like I was expecting.

Mil-Spec 'Worls House' LP - I have listened to this a few times in the last week or two, but don't have the vinyl yet. Gets better with each listen.

Casket Lottery 'Short Songs For End Times' LP - technically a 2020 release, but the vinyl got delayed so it will feel more like a 2021 release.

MY FAVOURITE PICKUPS OF 2020

As ever, the year afforded me a few opportunities to pick up some cool records and brag about them to the 5 people who still read this blog. My favourites were these:

Shown in the photo are:

Walleye 'Familiar, Forgotten' LP - test press
Dwarves 'Blood, Guts & Pussy' LP - pink vinyl
Movielife 'Forty Hour Train Back to Penn' LP - test press
Integrity 'The Blackest Curse' LP - test press
Black Flag Jealous Again' 12" - clear vinyl
Down To Nothing 'Live On The James' LP - test press
Bold 'S/T' 7" - orange / pink mix vinyl
Black Flag 'Six Pack' 7" - clear blue vinyl
Swiz 'Rejects' 7" - test press
A bunch of Wreckage Records test presses (represented by the Neglect 7" in this pic)

STUFF I LISTENED TO A LOT IN 2020

I've done this list the last few years as I find it interesting to make a record of other music that I have spent a lot of time listening to. It's interesting for me to look back on if nothing else. But other than the records shown above, I have listened to all manor of crap this year.

System Of A Down 'Toxicity' LP - I'm not sure what made me listen to this, but I probably listened to this more than anything else this year. I have a vivid memory of playng this whilst excavating a drain in my back garden that I am sure will last a lifetime.

Metallica 'Death Magnetic' LP - I never listened to this before this year, and it rules. And it became the soundtrack for me painting my fence, haha.

Pantera 'Cowboys From Hell' LP - I used ot have this on CD a long time ago & rediscovered it this year. The soundtrack to evening workouts this year in the gym (aka loft).

76% Uncertain 'Nothing But Love Songs' LP - I've had this on vinyl for a long time but rediscovered it after downloading the songs this year. Sounds just like the first Descendents LP if you're interested.

The Cry 'Beautiful Reasons' LP - Originally released on cassette only in 1990, this vinyl reissue made a lof of old skatebaorders very happy.

Smile 'Maquee' LP - an old San Diego band that sound a lot like Helmet in places. I need the colour vinyl in my life ASAP!

Ex Youth 'Oakland Intervention' 7" - A raging hardcore 7" from a couple of years old with the guitarist of Ceremony on vocals. I feel I'm gonna need to buy additional copies of this one.

The Bombpops 'Fear Of Missing Out' LP - I was tricked into listening to this band simply because the singer is so hot, but I stayed with it because it's catchy as hell.

Crossed Keys 'Saviors' 12" EP - this would have been in my favourite releases for the year, had it not come out at the backend of 2019. A great melodic band from Philly, I hope they deliver more in 2021.

AND FINALLY...

If there's anyone still out there reading this, you may have noticed that I managed to put more effort into this blog this year than I have for quite some time. I posted more this year than the previous two years combined, and somehow 2020 has ended up being the joint second highest number of posts I have made in all the years since I started this thing. I think it's partly to do with the lack of anything else to do this year, plus the fact that I was at home most of the time, so there were more opportunities to take photos. But it all made easier by the whole process of taking photos becoming less time consuming. Previously I used to have to take 10 or more photos of each record to get a good one. These days I take one or maybe two of each. It saves so much time and it makes this thing just less of a task generally. So after years of thinking that I am on the verge of giving this thing up, I'm back at a point where I feel I can comfortably continue. And of course, I'm still collecting records, which helps ensure there's always stuff for me to talk about.

See y'all in 2021...

It's the end of a fucked up year... there's another one coming... OH SHIT!

2019 Wrap Up

I didn't do any kind of 'end of year' post in 2018, and twelve months on I kinda regret it. The only real point of this thing these days is to serve as some kind of documentation of what I buy, and without the year-end wrap up it isn't easy to look back on a year in one handy post. So I made myself do one this year mainly so I can look back in the future.

This was a weird year for me and records. It felt like I bought fewer new releases than any other year. It also felt like I added fewer records to my collection than any other year. Both of these are partly due to the way I have been buying records the past few years. I seem to have fallen into a habit of buying records and having them shipped to a friend in the states, and then getting them shipped over months later, which means that I generally receive the physical copies of new releases months (or years!) after the release date. As a result, the timeline of this blog is all over the place. It seems like a long time since I used to receive new releases a few days after they came out and blog about them a couple of days later. So in some ways, my year-end look back has become less meaningful as the years have passed.

Regardless of the delay in receiving new releases, this year was generally a pretty good year. On the personal front, I took two large chunks of time out of work, and also had 4 holidays, meaning that I worked for 9 months of the year had a total of 3 months off.

Our house renovation also got finished, allowing me to fulfill a lifetime dream and get my very own record room... which was definitely one of the highlights of the year.

One of my 4 holidays was to NYC back in March so that I could see Into Another play again. The band were great, and I brought home circa 75 records, which gave me something to blog about for a while. But other than that trip and the records I received, I probably only received about 10 packages in the rest of the year. So this blog was pretty quiet for long periods of time.

Anyway, enough chit chat. Time to get on with the show...

MY FAVOURITE RELEASES OF 2019

When pulling together this list, I actually surprised myself, as I listened to more new releases in 2019 than I initially thought. But due to the way I buy records (as mentioned above), I don't actually have many of them on vinyl. In previous years, I have been pretty strict on only listening to records once I have the vinyl, but this year I changed that approach and just listened to stuff whether i had the vinyl or not, as I was pretty hungry for some new music. So I decided to do a list of my favourite new releases in two parts...

PART 1 - STUFF I HAVE THE VINYL FOR:

(Or, in text format)

01. Magic Circle 'Departed Souls' LP (20 Buck Spin)
02. Cave In 'Final Transmission' LP (Hydrahead Records)
03. Morrissey 'California Son' LP
04. Stages In Faith LP (Quality Control HQ Records)
05. Tied Down 7" (Refuse Records / Sakari Empire)
06. Tørsö 7" (Revelation Records)
07. Dividing Line 7" (New Age Records)

PART 2 - STUFF I DON'T YET HAVE THE VINYL FOR:

01. Wild Side 'Who The Hell Is Wild Side?' LP (Triple B Records)
02. Payday 'Second To None' LP (Quality Control HQ Records)
03. Antagonize 'Slip Death' 12" (Triple B Records)
04. Orville Peck 'Pony' LP (Sub Pop Records)
05. Hammered Hulls 'S/T' 7" (Dischord Records)
06. Fury 'Failed Entertainment' LP (Run For Cover Records)
07. Angel Du$t 'Pretty Buff' LP (Roadrunner Records)

Overall I've kinda cheated by doing two lists. It seemed easy to figure out which records were Number 1 on each list, although I'm not sure I could decide which of the two number 1s is my favourite. As for the rest of the entries, I could probably change the order on a weekly basis. In fact, as I look at it now it looks wrong, as I played Orville Peck way more than Payday. I guess this list more represents where I am with these things this week.

BEST PICKUPS

I picked up a lot of great and rare records this year. I also spent more on records this year than in any other year in my life. I guess there were a lot of opportunities that I couldn't say no to. Hopefully my bank account will be able to chill a bit in 2020. Anyway, it was difficult to pick a top 5 or top 10, so I just picked a bunch of records that I was super happy to add to my collection. There was a very clear number 1 in this list though...

STUFF I LISTENED TO A LOT IN 2019

This list could also be called 'stuff I don't have on vinyl but will probably get around to buying at some point in the future'.

Other than the stuff highlighted above, this list represents some of the stuff that I have spent time listening to that's old and that I only just got around to listening to in 2019 (and not bought on vinyl for various reasons) is:

Bad Brains 'Rise' & 'Quickness' LPs
Black Sabbath 'Mob Rules' LP
Drain 'Time Enough At Last' demo
Jar 'Daylight' LP
Zozobra 'Bird Of Prey' LP
Saves The Day '9' LP
Shook Ones 'Body Feel' LP

AND FINALLY...

I seriously have no idea how many people still read this thing, although I'm guessing not too many. I'm mainly doing this for myself these days, but I very much appreciate anyone who does still read this. It is nice to get comments and interact with people, albeit less than I used to. But if you are still reading this in 2019 (or 2020!), I thank you!

Now, onward to 2020...