Opening the Fire & Ice account

I don't know when it happened exactly, but at some point in the past couple of years or so I (like most people when they get older) started to become resistant to new music. I guess I just feel like I have heard it all before. When you have been around as long as I have, most new stuff sounds just like something older. I always used to be open to new bands and I never wanted to lose touch. But it just happens. You get old & you just don't have time to keep up. I mean, I want to listen to new music, but I find it harder & harder to sift out the good stuff from the eighteen million bands out there.

Well, fortunately, I have other people who advise me from time to time. Mike is one such dude. He kept telling me to listen to some band called Fire & Ice, telling me they were good and made up of dudes who were in Iron Boots & Down To Nothing. I dunno why though, but for a long time I just ignored him. But then he himself caved in & started listening to The Descendents & Rot In Hell because I shoved pictures of their records down his throat so often. By that point I figured I owed him, so downloaded some Fire & Ice.

Well, wouldn't you know it, I felt like an idiot for not taking his advice sooner. Fire & Ice crank out some great tunes. Once I realised this, it wasn't long before I started looking for their records on eBay. And recently I opened my account with one version of each of their two 7"s...

The first is the Winter 2009 tour press of the first 7" 'Gods & Devils'. It's not numbered, but I think there are 100 of these things.

I also got the record release version of the second 7", 'Grim'. This one has a folded paper cover slipped over the top of the regular cover and is numbered out of 50.

The songs on these two 7"s have provided the soundtrack to my bike rides to & from work these past few weeks. The perfect sound to get my legs pumping harder & faster. That's probably the best compliment I can give any band these days, and it's also about as close to moshing I get.

Ceremony Covers 12" EP

I always thought Ceremony were just alright... well, until their 'Rohnert Park' LP came out last year. Then I thought they were next level incredible. They shifted their style to reflect a more traditional (aka old) hardcore punk sound. I thought this was a brave move for a band to make, given their previous sound. I even recommended that fellow old fart Lins87 check the album out as I figured he would be well into it, but I'm willing to bet he never did, the fool. Anyway, Ceremony are back with a new 12" EP of cover songs. To be honest, there's only one song that I was familiar with, and I'll bet that's one more than your average Ceremony fan, so I guess for a lot of kids this may as well be a new release.

Well, I have to say, there are no real surprises here. It kinda sounds like anyone who heard the last album would probably expect it to sound. I mean, here's a band who sound like an 80s hardcore punk band playing mainly covers of other 80s hardcore punk bands. If you liked the last album, you'll like this I am sure. And even better, this is a real treat for vinyl nuts, as it has a cool rose design screen printed on one side of the vinyl. Looks very nice, as you can see:

I believe these dudes have now left Bridge Nine for Matador Records. Not sure what to make of this, but if nothing else I'm not sure Matador have a history of making limited colour records, so it's probably bad news for us nerds.

The Rule Of Nines 7"

A month or so ago, it was announced via the xStuck In The Pastx blog that the pre-order was up for the Rule Of Nines 7". For once, I was excited enough to order right away, rather than wait a few months in some stupid attempt to save money (which never works, seeing as buying later invariably means paying more).

The Rule Of Nines was a band fronted by Jon Roa in the 90s for a short period which also featured a dude who had been in Forced Down & Pitchfork. I had read Roa's piece on the band on Double Cross earlier in the year and remembered the song to be pretty good. So I ordered the record. It turned up last week and I have listened to it about three times a day since. In short - I'm loving it.

Getting in quick meant that I was able to order both versions that were available. So first, here's the rare version, with a 'badlands' sleeve numbered out of only 25 copies:

And here's the regular version, of which there are only 100 copies:

Yup, there are only 125 copies of this thing pressed in total. I would say that if you like the mid 90s, music and records in general then I think you'll have three reasons to pick one of these up. Head on over to the Irish Voodoo Records store to grab one before they vanish. And if you're quick, it looks like you may still be able to get one with the badlands cover.

Oh yeah... and because I'm a helpful person I thought I would post up the video for one of the songs for you to check out:

Blacklisted 7" Rocky Balboa Sleeve

Some records you just want to own for the cover alone. Here's a shining example. The first Blacklisted 7" with Rocky cover.

As you can see, there were apparently 100 of these things made, but I have no idea whether this sleeve was made for a tour or some other special occasion. Anyone?

Purple = Brown

I was in a local record store (remember them?) last weekend and found the recent Youth Of Today 'Can't Close My Eyes' 12" in the rack. Since it was pretty cheap, I figured I would ask what colour it was on. I mean, when I got my copies from Revelation a couple of months ago, I was slightly disappointed to find that my 'purple' copy was kinda grey and bland looking. So I figured that I wanted one that was properly purple. Anyway, dude in the store got the record out for me, and it looked brown. So I figured I would pick it up anyway.

And here it is next to the other copy I already had. Quite a difference in colour here, wouldn't you agree?

I still kinda want one that is actually purple, but I don't want to go the extremes of buying 6 copies like Dobek did... although you have to admit, this picture does look kinda cool, right?

Descendents 'ALL' Blue

I haven't been able to add anything to my Descendents collection for a long time, as it seems that there have been very few of the coloured SST records on eBay in the past few months. But a couple of weeks ago I spotted one that I was very keen on, the 'ALL' LP on blue. I've seen this go for $150 in the past, so I was stoked to bag it for $38, which seemed like a very good price to me. I can only assume that the rest of the world was asleep.

One thing I have noticed about Descendents coloured vinyl is that the SST dudes seem to have taken the trouble to match the vinyl colour it to the cover art pretty well. I mean, 'ALL' comes on blue and also grey. 'Enjoy' comes on white a pink. 'Milo Goes To College' comes on grey. I like it when vinyl colour matches artwork. It just seems like someone spent time thinking about things, which I am into.

I see that Tim McMahon voted this his favourite Descendents record in a recentish Double Cross poll. So if you're the kind of person who trusts Tim's judgement more than mine (you idiot) then I would advise you get onto this album ASAP... although you may be waiting a while to pick up a blue vinyl copy for such a great price.

FP D1C Gold

Imagine the scene... you're sat at work one day when an email pops into your inbox asking you if you would be interested in buying some dude's spare Floorpunch 'Division One Champs' 7" on gold vinyl. What do you think you would you do?

Me, I replied within about two minutes to say "yup"... and after several weeks of negotiation and attempts to find rare Warzone records to trade, we eventually came to an agreement and I paid cash. Or virtual cash. You know... robot money.

If you know the story behind this record you'll appreciate how difficult this is to come by. Some refer to it as the chung king of the 90s. Most people who have one aren't going to let it go in a hurry. I think I've only ever had one chance at this before, about 5 years ago (for nearly half the price!). Cost is irrelevent though. I never thought I would own this, so I'm happy.

You're long gone, but I'll never quit.
Through thick and thin I'll stick with it.
Time goes on...

Mouthpiece LP ltd sleeve

Being a lifetime Revelation Records collector, i was disappointed a few weeks ago to see that there was a limited copy of the Mouthpiece discography LP available for This Is Hardcore. I read before the show that the LP was limited to 50 copies. It was pretty obvious that it would sell out so my chances of getting one were slim. Turns out I was wrong. My chances were zero. It sold out and nobody I knew that was going was able to get me one. I figured I would have to pay big bucks on ebay at some point. Fortunately I was wrong on that count too. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get one from a very nice chap who had about six of the things spare and wasn't asking for much at all. Brilliant!

So for anyone who hasn't seen it, this version is the second pressing on green with a limited cover numbered out of 50 copies. The cover shows simply a bearded GI Joe and a gold Rev logo. Looks great.

Cool that I didn't have to hit up ebay. Shame I wasn't so lucky with that DTN LP with a screened cover. Don't suppose anyone has one that they don't want?

Tremors 'Island Songs' 7"

Here's something that makes a real change these days - me picking up on a newish band early doors. Usually I'm about 4 years behind. Still, even though I'm always behind, at least I manage to keep in touch with the important stuff (unlike this poor fool).

Tremors are a newish UK band hailing from London town. I know nothing about them other than they have scouse scally Graham on vocals. Dude used to sing for a band called Dirty Money. You may have heard of them.

But back to the point - Tremors. I saw this band play a few months ago (not sure why exactly I went out of the house, must have been having an off day). It was a cold dark night and they didn't really grab me. I probably wanted a pizza to be honest. But despite me not being in the best of moods, I liked how the band had anger, energy & honesty. I figured that these short blasts would sound a lot better once I was familiar with them, so I knew I wanted to check out their record when it eventually dropped... which was a couple of weeks ago.

I was lucky enough to get one of the red vinyl copies numbered out of 100.

All I can say is that this band rages. This is what I would call 'proper' hardcore punk. No posing, no bullshit. Just fast, angry hardcore that harks back to the early 80s. Probably not the kind of thing that kids who love B9 releases will love, although there is no doubt in my mind that people who celebrate the early Dischord catalogue will lap this up. If that sounds like you, and you still feel the need to keep up with current bands, then you could do a lot worse than check this record out.

This version here is the UK pressing put out by The Essence Records. However, there is also a US pressing coming out on Six Feet Under Records at some point in the near future. The US version will have different artwork to the UK version, so if you're one of these weirdy record collector types then you might want to consider buying one of each. This red vinyl version is now sold out, but it's still worth picking up as this UK pressing features an extra song that won't be on the US version. Pick one up in THE ESSENCE STORE.

End To End

The End To End 7" is probably most famous for being the OTHER record on Foundation Records. The one that isn't a Chain Of Strength record. I acquired a copy of this many moons ago, and never really thought it was anything special. It contains four songs, one of which is a live recording of an SSD cover which really should have been left off. One of the other three songs sounds like a Chain song, but the other two aren't so great in my opinion. Overall it partly suffers from the quality of the recording. Also, I never really understood the artwork on the front cover. What the hell is that all about?

This grey vinyl pressing was probably on my want list for about 15 years. No doubt some would find that hilarious.

This month's Integrity post

If a month went by without some kind of Integrity post on this blog then you would know that there was something wrong. I like to think that one of you would even take the trouble to call the police or coastguard. No need this month though. Things are doing fine.

This months additions to the integ mountain are both clear, which is reason enough to whack them together in one post.

Item 1 - the split 7" with Creepout. This is the A389 repress. Clear is the band color limited to 100 copies. I think I have four copies of this record now and I still haven't listened to the Creepout side.

Item 2 is a curiosity. Yet another copy of the 'To Die For' 10". I previously bored you with the BLUE vinyl and also the RED vinyl copies that formed the first and second pressings. This clear one is a special one off of 50 copies which kinda combines the two. The sleeve is the blue cover on one side and the red cover on the other.

Also comes with a different insert to the two previous versions which is simply a picture of Grizzly Adams:

Like a fool I bought mine on eBay without realising that the label have some for sale in their store. So I thought I would be generous and give you all the heads up as there are only 50 copies in existence. HERE YA GO

Screaming For Purple

I haven't bought many records for two months. Not really sure why. But all of a sudden it seems there are LOADS of records out there. New releases, newish releases, and people offering me stuff. And stuff on eBay that I can't resist having a go at... like this Uniform Choice LP:

I wish there was pressing info available for this record. I have seen different shades of this record, from a light lilac colour like this one, to a more deep purple verging on maroon. There is also a grey. But the more I look at variations, the more I wonder whether they are actually different pressings or whether (like the recent Youth Of Today 12" reissue on 'purple') it was all one pressing on the 'recycled' vinyl that usually ranges from grey to purple even though it's all one pressing and one 'colour'. I don't think that is the case with this LP, because I've not seen that 'colour' used on records that came out pre-late 90s, but it would be a convenient explanation for the colour variations. If only somebody actually knew!

THE (RE)LAUNCH OF ENDLESS QUEST RECORDS

Once upon a time, before I did this stupid blog, The Endless Quest was a record label.

Back in 2006 I released a 7" by UK band SEARCH AND DESTROY, and in 2007 I put out an LP by Boston, MA band 27. After that I spoke to three other people about future projects, which all eventually turned to nothing. Out of boredom I started writing this crap instead and other areas of life got busy. But I always hoped that I would one day be able to release another record. And now here we are in 2011 and I'm finally ready to have another go.

Almost a year ago a friend of mine (fellow blog nerd Doug) mentioned that he was in a band and sent me some demo recordings. I didn't expect much for some reason, but I gave the songs a listen and was blown away. The sound coming out of my speakers seemed to combine elements of various bands that I liked, and I found myself listening to the songs a lot. It then occurred to me that this would be the perfect opportunity to re-start Endless Quest Records. So I asked about releasing the demo on vinyl and the best part of a year later here we are.

The result of all of this is that I am now taking pre-orders for the debut recording by HOPE DEFEATED.

In January of 2010, five friends who had grown up in and around the Calgary hardcore scene realised that they were feeling let down by the monotony of "adult life". The anger they had felt growing up still burned bright, brought on by the daily frustrations of careers, families and domestic bullshit. They needed a release, and Hope Defeated was formed. A few months later the band hit the studio to deliver a message to themselves and the outside world.

The '2010 Demo' 7" contains four songs that bring together the best elements of mid 90s and early 00s hardcore. These guys have lived through both eras and come out fighting with a fresh sound that is difficult to pigeonhole. Throw the vocal rage of Striking Distance & 108 over the chugging groove of bands like Snapcase & Burn, mix in a strong straight edge influence, and wave goodbye to your dreams that everything is going to be ok.

"I never meant for anyone to ever care. This is mine on my own the badge I wear"

PRESSING INFO
- 50 'blog nerds' edition (Red vinyl, hand numbered with stamped labels in a very special sleeve, specifically intended for readers of my & Doug's blog)
- 100 White vinyl
- 155 Black vinyl

Please note - this is not being announced anywhere else yet because I want to give the people who have supported my & Doug's blogs the first opportunity to get the special version. Once the 50 blog nerd copies are gone, I will start selling this elsewhere.

To order, go to my online store:

ENDLESS QUEST RECORDS ONLINE STORE

Oh yeah, also I thought I would run a TEST PRESS CONTEST - anyone who orders three copies or more will be entered into a draw to win a test press (which comes in a hand made cover of 15 copies).

I'm expecting that pre-orders will start shipping the first week in September.

Also, please note that I still have a few copies of my previous releases available, which I have listed for sale at a reduced price. Please take a chance and check 'em out.

Labels / distros / stores - please get in touch if you would be interested in helping distribute this record.

Time Is Now / 25

Bargains on eBay seem increasingly rare these days. But sometimes you can pick one up as a result of a seller making some basic listing errors.

Let's just say, for example, that you were selling a marble red vinyl copy of the late 90s straight edge compilation 'The Time Is Now' 7". You'd probably be pretty keen to mention somewhere in the auction that this particular version is numbered out of only 25 copies, right? I mean, completely failing to mention this at all would be a pretty basic error, don't you think? It could only be worse if you also somehow also failed to take a photo of the numbered dust sleeve which clearly shows the #/25 written in thick marker pen. I mean, you'd be completely missing the main selling point of the record. Pretty much the only other mistake you could make would be to not show the vinyl at all in main listing photo and instead opt to show only the (crappy) photocopied sleeve. Thinking about it, I reckon that if you made these mistakes then you're really not going to do a very good job of making the record seem as attractive as it really is, and you're probably going to lose a lot of potential bids. On the positive side, however, you're pretty damn likely to make someone's day as you leave the door wide open for a person who knows exactly what this thing is to win it for a really low price. Someone like, for example, me.

I guess this whole disaster could only be worse if you then saw someone else sell their copy of the same record about two weeks later for about three times as much just because they took an extra photo and mentioned that there are only 25 of these things out there.

Outface 'Friendly Green' LP Pink Marble

Here's another one for the Crisis (technically part of Revelation) Records collection - a weird pinky marble type colour variant of the OUTFACE 'Friendly Green' LP. I've owned this album for many years (not even sure when I first picked it up - probably about 1994) and never seen it on this colour before. My longstanding copy is on clear red vinyl. Once again, it makes me wonder how many variants of records are out there that I do not even know about.

This band featured some dude called Derrick Green on vocals who took over the shouting duties from Max Cavalera when he left Sepultura. On guitar was a dude called Charlie who later went on to play in CIV.

I never really liked this album much. It always sounded kinda confused to me, like the band didn't know what they wanted to sound like. There are moments of hardcore, reggae, ska and funk. The vocals came off sounding like a weird mix of Bad Brains, Into Another and Faith No More. I guess it always sounded too eclectic to make an impression on a young me and I filed it away and forgot about it.

After seeing this record for sale on eBay, I recently went back and checked it out again. Funnily enough, I've been enjoying this the past couple of weeks. It has a nice chilled out vibe which makes it perfect for my bike rides home from work in the sunny evenings. Sixteen years later, I finally get it.

Tarpit 'Checkmate' Test

Back at work after a week off and there was only one piece of mail sat waiting for me... this test press of the Tarpit 'Checkmate EP' on Collapse Records.

A few short years ago someone sent me a 7" by this band. I never asked for it, I just got it thrown in with some other record I bought. I loved it & went on to pick up more of their records, including their LP, which I freakin' love. However, this is one band that I know nothing about. Literally nothing. Were people into them? What happened to them? I'm intrigued. Maybe if Bob could give me some info, that would be great.