More Than A Feeling

As a general rule these days, I will often decide that I want to listen to something new and different, but I will go looking for OLD releases to satisfy this urge. I think this is partly because I have a lot of band names in my memory banks and I have a vague idea of what I think they may sound like, which is slightly easier than new band names, which mean very little to me. Plus I think it's enjoyable to go and listen to a band 20-30 years after I used to flick past their records in record shops. There's an element of me preferring to see if my tastes have changed, or to see whether I was wrong all those years ago, because a lot of the time I used to judge bands based on either the cover art for their records, or from my own perception of what they would sound like based on their name. There are some bands from back in the day that everyone else seems to like that I never bothered with due to name, cover art, record label or some other factor.

Anyway, earlier this year I became aware of an old band from the early 90s that I had actually never heard of before. I'm not sure what brought them to my attention initially, but when I learnt that the band contained two ex members of Dag Nasty (Peter Cortner & Roger Marbury) I was interested enough to give them a chance. Initially it didn't grab me too much, but I gave it a few chances and soon found myself going back to it, and it has ended up being one of my most played records of this year. And finally a cheap copy popped up for sale in the UK, I decided to buy it.

'More Than A Feeling' was released in 1993 by Selfless Records, which was an interesting label back in the early 90s. They did colour vinyl for most releases, and sometimes did different versions. So this LP, for example, was released on either clear vinyl or red vinyl, but the red vinyl copies come with a bonus 12" EP, which is quite a cool bonus item I think.

Like a lot of releases from this period, the songs suffer slightly from not the best mastering or sound quality, but once you get over that the songs themselves are really catchy, singalong type numbers. There's even an Abba cover which I find myself singing along to when it comes on, which says something.

End Of The Line

So here's a post that really does show how time is flying. There was a 'final' pressing of the No Tolerance 7" on Youngblood that came out in 2018. I decided to buy one because I used to really like the band and I wanted to keep the collection complete. So three and a half years later, here it is.

Technically this is a third pressing of this record. It comes in the sleeve with silver ink, which is the same as the second press, but it has plain red labels which simply have the name of the record ('No Remorse, No Tolerance) stamped on top.

So the crazy thing to think about here is the time since this came out. This record was initially released right at the end of 2011. So as I type this, this record is somehow now a month short of being ten years old. Yes, TEN. Yet at the same time, it still feels like a relatively recent record to me. Yet if I think back to other ten year time periods, it feels like they were way longer. I mean, talking about this record today is like talking about the Warzone 'LESC' 7" in 1997, but back then the Warzone 7" felt ancient, almost as if it was from a completely different century. It certainly did not feel relatively recent. So why does this No Tolerance 7" feel more recent today than Warzone did in 97? Is it just because I remember this one coming out, whereas the Warzone 7" was before my time? I'm not sure. Maybe.

Anyway, here's the updated collection photo:

The other funny thing about this band is that, whilst I really love the two 7"s, I had completely forgotten that they also put out a full length. For some reason it just didn't seem to grab me like the 7"s did. But I'm looking forward to giving it another go in the next couple of days. Perhaps it'll make more of an impact in 2021...

We Are Not Friends

So in my last post I mentioned about how I ordered one orange and one clear Krimewatch LP and Lockin' Out sent me two clear copies. Well, in the same order, I had also ordered a 'bone' (a.k.a. white) vinyl copy of the Fiddlehead 'Springtime And Blind' LP. I remember that the label put both the Krimewatch and Fiddlehead LPs up for preorder at the same time, so I ordered both, and felt pretty pleased with myself for being up to date. So here's the coloured vinyl copy of the first Fiddlehead LP that they sent me:

I don't want to sound too ungrateful for receiving this record, as I didn't previously own it and it's a good 7". But for fuck's sake...

New York Nightmare

Another record that I bought over 3 years ago that I have just recently received, and this one really shows how time is flying. Back in April 2018 I pre-ordered the debut full length by Krimewatch. I ordered an orange vinyl copy and a clear vinyl copy, and the fools at Lockin' Out sent me 2 clear copies. I got wind of this and managed to source an orange from somewhere else. And now, three and a half years later and I finally have the clear copy.

I have to say, the art on this release still looks great. The Krimewatch logo character on the front and this graffiti photo on the back. But what hit me about this is how time has moved on. At the point I ordered this, Krimewatch were the hot new band. There was definitely a lot of buzz about them. The LP came out and then all went silent. I'm not sure if they are still going or not. The last post on their instagram was almost a year ago. So we shall see I guess.

The funny thing is that when I first heard this band I wasn't overly impressed. I didn't get it. But in time I did get it and loved it. This band plays short blasts of raw hardcore punk, and in my mind this has all the essential ingredients. I mean, it's a good job I like it as I have now acquired 3 copies of this record.

As mentioned, I got sent two clear copies so have one going spare. Let me know if you're interested.

Kingpin II

There are certain records that everyone had in their collection back in the early 90s that they simultaneously knew nothing about. My take on this is that back at the start of the 90s, hardcore was a much smaller scene with fewer labels and bands, so people generally bought anything & everything that they could get their hands on. At least, that's my view from my geographical position in the UK. There were only a very small number of shops in the UK that would even sell US hardcore and straight edge records, so I think that when they got a new delivery in then everyone would just buy whatever came in, in the hope of being part of the first wave to discover whatever may have been the hot new band or record. See? Well anyway, I figure Kingpin was one of those bands. Everyone seemed to have the 7" in their collection back in the early 90s, but the band hadn't come over here on tour, didn't have any other releases, and weren't really on a big label. I'm not even sure they were that big in the States outside of the New England area.

Well, 25 years after the band broke up, Atomic Action Records released the band's second 7" for the first time. Recorded back in 1993, this thing finally saw the light of day on vinyl in 2018, and even though I ordered it right away, it has taken me 3 years to receive and listen to it.

There were 300 copies on white vinyl which were only for mailorder, and 300 copies on red. It seems I decided to only pick up only one of the two available. But I did also snag one of the tests that the label sold off too. Number 9/25.

I never heard these songs until recently, and I wil admit that I was super into this from about 5 seconds into the first song. I mean, I know that this was recorded in 1993, but it's one of the most 90s sounding records I have ever heard. And the modern mastering means that it sounds clean and loud. It also doesn't really sounds much like Kingpin, at least not to me. If anything, this sounds exactly like Temperance, which was another 90s band that I loved. Shame that this is either a 1993 or a 2018 release (depending on how you look at it), else it would definitely be in my 'best releases of the year' list this year.

Forever Bound

I think that I originally bought the Railhed 'Forever Bound' 7" simply because I was trying to collect the entire Inner Journey Records catalog. It all started with the Clutch 7" and inside it was an insert which mentioned all of the records and the limited versions that the label had available to trade, which helped me figure out what I was chasing. Railhed was the odd band out on the roster. They were the only non 'hardcore' band, and they also had a full length released by Jade Tree Records, which was probably not surprising when you consider that the vocalist of the band was Darren Walters (one of the two owners of Jade Tree). I'm not sure how it happened exactly, but I ended up buying two different colour vinyl copies of the from Darren Walters himself. Back in the early to mid 90s I would hand write letters to labels asking about colour vinyl pressings, and I probably just asked Darren if he had any coloured Railhed 7"s left. I'm pretty sure he sold them to me for $10 each, which I was pretty happy about at the time. Well anyway, here I am all these years later still collecting Inner Journey releases, and I managed to get a test press of the Railhed 7".

There are only 5 releases on Inner Journey Records, and 3 of the test pressings come in red paper sleeves. I really like this level of detail and consistency. This particular copy is slightly annoying though. It's not printed or folded straight, and the end of the 'D' gets cut off in the fold. You can see it in the photos.

This is now the 3rd Inner Journey test that I own, which I am pretty happy about. The other two are the Lament and Release 7"s. That leaves me needing the Clutch and Sub Zero tests for a full set. Both are tough finds, but realistically I don't think I will ever get a Clutch 7" test, so this is likely to be another collection that I never actually complete.

I really like this Railhed 7". Definitely an underrated 90s gem, and contains their best song in my opinion. Looks great too, especially the pink copy I have with black swirls. I still to this day have no idea if they all look like this or whether any were pure pink. I don't think I have ever seen another now that I think about it.

I also got sent another clear vinyl copy with this test press, which I don't really need. If anyone wants it, get in touch.

Pornography Part 3

Here's another one that I bought when it came out, but which I have only just recently received. Originally released for RSD in 2017, Damnation A.D. covered the whole 'Pornography' LP by The Cure and Organized Crime Records put it out on vinyl. I never really planned to collect multiple copies of it, but that's often the case, but after the initial release of 800 blue vinyl copies the label made 200 white copies available, so I felt I should pick one up. And then after that they put up a few test pressings for sale, and of course I couldn't pass one up.

I think that psychologically it is a smart move for a label to release things in reverse order of rarity. If they'd all have launched at the same time I doubt I'd have bothered with the blue one. But there I was, sucked into trying to get one on RSD as it seemed hard to find. So I have ended up with three when probably one would have been ok. But now I have them I will probably keep them. I guess it helps that they all look nice and have different art work.

Inflatable Dream

Another longstanding want crossed off the list is this rare Cave In 7". It was probably only about 8-10 years ago that I found out that this thing existed, and at the time it felt like it would be impossible to find. In the end it wasn't too bad. A friend picked this up almost 4 years ago, but for various reasons I have only just received it.Technology played a huge part in acquiring this one, and I think if I could go back in time and tell myself how I would get this I would blow my own mind. A friend of mine was visiting LA and went into Amoeba Records, and took a photo of some records that were on the wall, and sent it to me, asking if I needed anything. I got the photo on my phone when I was on the train home from work. I drew around this record and sent it back. Five minutes later I got a message to confirm that my friend had bought it for me. I mean, I know that this technology isn't new, but given I spent a big portion of my life without it, it still amazes me at times. I mean, there I was on my way home from work and askimg a human who was over 5,000 miles away to pick up a 7" for me in real time.

This is a test press for a Cave In 7" that was never actually released properly. The 'sleeve' is made of flower pressed paper, and on the front it states that it is an 'edition of 25'. It was put together by Hydrahead Records and given the catalogue number HH49, which actually ended up being assigned to another Cave In 7" - the 'Lift Off / Lost In The Air' 7". This contains two songs - 'Mr. Co-Dexterity' and 'Inflatable Dream', both of which were later released on the 'Anomalies Vol. 1' EP.

So this is the second unreleased Cave In 7" that exists in test press form. The other one also comes in a flower pressed paper sleeve, and is a split with Kid Kilowatt (another Steve Brodsky band). I count myself very lucky to have these things.

Sit On My Face

Earlier this year I picked up a cheap Dwarves 7" and wrote here '...this seems to be one of the band's least expensive records to buy, and there are a few different colours out there, so I feel a strong tempation to pick up more'. And here we are seven months later and I grabbed another one, this time on red vinyl.

It's interesting to consider at what point you're collecting a record. A few months ago I just happened to have two copies of this thing. And now I have three, and would definitely like ot pick up more. But I'm not sure at what point I decided that this was a 7" that I wanted to collect. Was it at the point I bought a second copy, or the third? I'm not actually sure. But what I do know is that there are 3 other colours out there that I need to now track down - purple, blue and white. I'm not sure how easy they are to find, but I think it could take a while.

Agression

Once again I found myself sucked into buying a record on It's Alive Records because the pacckaging looked top notch. The record is titled 'SSL' and it is by a band called Agression. I will admit that I picked this up just based on the label that released it and the front cover. I didn't really know or research anything about the band.

I'm not even sure what this record is to be honest. I say that because it's not a studio album. It's some kind of compilation. The label doesn't seem to have any kind of website or online store, so there's no 'official' description of what this is. DIscogs simply says 'Demo/Live/Studio Recordings'. Still, whatever it is, it comes on a 'hot' pink vinyl with a hand written b-side label. It looks good.

The paper inner sleeve is printed and numbered out of 300 copies.

As usual with most It's Alive releases, there are plenty of extras packed in here in the form of posters, flyers, stickers, etc. A really impressive package.

It turns out that I have probably been living in a vacuum for most of my life having not heard of Agression before. They were a band for many years and started very early, and are considered one of the earliest 'skate rock' bands. They play kinda 'classic' sounding west coast early 80s punk. Their debut LP was released by BYO back in 1983 and a 6th album was released in 2006. A couple of the early LPs have pretty iconic front covers too. So I'm looking at this record as a gateway to finding out more about this band.

Lost My Ways

So I mentioned in my last post about keeping my Supertouch collection complete, which brings me seemlessly to my next post... a Supertouch 7".

The 'Lost My Way' 7" was released ten years ago now, in 2011. WHen it came out I picked up both colour vinyl options that were available (blue and green). And then at some point not too long after, they sold two black vinyl copies in different limited covers, each out of 50 copies and only sold with some kind of shirt that made them really expensive. So I didn't buy either, and then spent the next decade trying to track them down. They limited covers were related to a couple of sites that were quite popular at the time. The first was the 'Double Cross' version, and the second the Vinly Noize version. The Double Cross version I managed to pick up in 2013, but the Vinly Noize one has taken quite a few years to land... which is slightly ironic given that I actually ended up writing for Vinyl Noize for a while.

As the picture shows, this one has a cover that is unique to this version, and it comes in a brown paper dust sleeve which is hand numbered out of 50. It's also numbered in the bottom left corner of the back cover.

This was the last version that I needed to complete my collection. So of course, this meant that I was legally obliged to get all of them out for a photo. Given I have 7 different versions, I wasn't sure of the best way to lay them out, but it kinda worked out ok.

Shown in the photo are:
Test press /15, Blue vinyl /208
Green vinyl /803, United Blood 2011 Stamp /20, Generation Records RSD 2012 cover /70
Double Cross cover /50, Vinyl Noize cover /50

I think that technically there is one that I don't have, which is a black vinyl in regular cover. But I'm not going to buy one of those. Of the 7 copies I have, 5 of them are on black, which is way more black than anyone needs in their life. Plus, one version is just a black vinyl in regular cover with a stamp on the front, so it's practically the same thing.

Consolation Prize Test

The great thing about hardcore is how many bands come and go and leave like one great record. We all have those records that we love and that they know most other people either haven't heard, have forgotten about, or just aren't interested in, and we all spend time now and again trying to persuade other people to give these records a chance. Pretty much every record that exists seems to be someone's favourite for one reason or another, so I just find it fascinating that something can be loved by one person and flicked past in a $2 used bin by someone else.

I picked up a 7" on Lockin' Out about three years ago by a band called Consolation Prize. I know nothing about the band whatsoever. I mainly just bought it because it was on colour vinyl on Lockin' Out Records, but it turned out to be a great find. The band sounds so much like Supertouch from 'The Earth Is Flat' that it's impossible for me to think anything other than this was completely intentional, but that's fine by me. This could easily pass as an unreleased Supertouch record, or songs that were cut from the LP due to length restrictions.

Anyway, I managed to grab a test press for this record, because you know how it is - I gotta keep my Supertouch collection complete.

A colour vinyl test press is always a nice thing to find. It's just a shame that there isn't a sleeve for it to sit in. I think United started issuing tests on colour for records that were going to be pressed on colour. I assume it was a way of testing not only that the record sounded correct, but also that the colour was what the customer wanted too.

Living With 2 God Complexes

Back in 2015 I picked up an orange vinyl copy of the Harvest 'Living With A God Complex' LP. I'd wanted one ever since the record was released back was 1997, and I really don't know why it took so long to find one, but hey, that's how the game plays out sometimes I guess. Anyway, I also hoped that one day I would also track down one of the more limited grey vinyl copies, and finally that day has arrived.

They grey vinyl is actually what the plants used to call 'scrap', being made up of lots of leftover colours that all got blended together. There are traces of other colours in there. It looks pretty rad.

Just in case you were wondering where the title of this post came from, here you are:

There are two other releases that I own released by the same label (Trustkill) that came on grey vinyl with hand numbered labels. One is a Harvest 7", the other is an Endeavor LP. I thought it would be fun to dig them out for a group photo. If nothing else, it shows how the grey for this LP isn't really grey like the others.

There is one more Harvest 7" on Trustkill that comes on grey vinyl with a hand numbered label. Given the amount of time that it has taken to get the LP, I'm probably scheduled to track it down in about 2038.

Tides Of Tomorrow

It's been a while since I added anything to my Cave In test press collection, so I'm stoked on this one. This is a test press for the 'Tides Of Tomorrow' EP. However, specifically, this is a test press for the picture disc version. I already have a test press for the regular version of the record, but at some point I found out that there was also a different test press for the picture disc. Just like the other test press for this record, it comes in a white paper sleeve with a Cave In sticker on and it's hand numbered out of 23 copies.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was a white vinyl record with no labels. The main thing that shows that this is a faux picture disc is the black rim around the outside edge. Admittedly, without labels, this isn't the most visually interesting record in my collection. But it was necessary to fill in a missing hole in the Cave In test press collection.

I'm not a fan of picture discs generally. In fact, I'm not aware of anyone who is. But I decided to take a photo of this against the 'regular' picture disc that I own of this one, and I think the photo is really cool.

I also decided to take a photo of the two different picture discs next to each other. Regular test press with Erika labels numer 1/23, and the picture disc test number 3/23. Pretty cool that there were 23 of each version.

Land Of The Free

A few years ago I thought it would be fun to try to collect multiple copies of the first Snapcase 7". I had two copies for years, then picked up another about three years ago. This copy I have just picked up is my 4th copy. I'm pretty sure that this latest version is a second pressing. You can tell because the sleeve is glossy and the lettering is in a pinkish colour.

I actually owned this version before many years ago. I bought it in 1996, but either sold or traded it away a couple of years later. Seems kinda weird to be reacquiring a record I used to own over 20 years after letting it go.

When I decided to make an effort to collect these it was partly because there are quite a few different colours and I thought it would be fun. But admittedly, it's been slow progress. They don't actually seem to come up for sale very often. But also, there are a few colours of this that are ridiculously rare and hard to find, which means I'm probably not going to get very far with this one. So maybe I've reached the end of the line with this one already.

The Most

Ten years ago, in 2011, Revelation made some screen printed covers for some left over copies of the Down To Nothing 'The Most' LP. It was only announced on Twitter (which is in my mind THE most pointless of all social media things), and there were only 33 copies made. Unsurprisingly, it sold out in minutes. I knew it was going to be tough to find, but I never really thought it would take a decade. Damn.

In reality, it 'only' took me 6 years to find this. A friend sold it to me 4 years ago, but for various reasons I have only just received it now, 4 years later. I am a patient boy... I wait, I wait, I wait.

Even though there were only 33 copies, there were two slight variations of this one. Numbers 1-13 were on colour vinyl (orange / purple split), and numbers 14-33 were on black. I'm actually happy to have a black one as I don't have any other version of this one on black. At least, I don't think I do.