25 To Get Ready

Collecting is a weird game soetimes. You get it in your head that you collect a certain band and you then convince yourself that you have to buy everything that comes out to keep your collection 'complete'... even if you feel it's not overly necessary to buy it. And that's what happened here. Dr. Strange Records reissued the second Gameface LP 'Three To Get Ready' to mark its 25th anniversary (it was originally released in 1995 according to Discogs... although I could have sworn it was 1996). Anyway, I already have about 5 different copies of this record already, and figured I didn't really need a reissue. But then that other part of my brain kicked in, telling me I needed ot keep my Gameface collection as complete as possible. So I bought both colour copies.

Limited to 100 copies, the 'tri colour' version looks alright I think... even though I generally don't like records that look like this. The second colour is a very dark green and is also limited to only 100.

I also picked up a test press to keep my Gameface test press collection as complete as possible. It was a very fair price.

Inside each of the LPs came one of these flyers inside. I thought it was an interesting photo and worthy of posting. Hopefully you agree.

Pillsbury Hardcore

A couple of years ago a new label appeared on the scene called Black Claw Records. Run by a guy who was in a few bands in the 80s & 90s (Pillsbury Hardcore, PHC, End To End, Process), the label was kicking off by pressing a compilation LP of Pillsbury Hardcore songs. The band was around in the mid 80s and I had never heard them before. All I knew was that they had a 7" out that someone I know always talks about. The record was being pressed at a decent pressing plant and on a nice looking pink vinyl, so I decided to grab one.

The record is titled 'Ghosts of Straight Edge Past' and contains 13 songs. Ten of these songs were originally released as two 7"s and the other three were on a compilation. They were all recorded at the same time in the same studio, which is I think the reason they got compiled into this one LP. But this is not a complete discography of everything they ever recorded.

This is like a lot of 80s hardcore records. It sounds very raw and very basic which is what defined hardcore back then. And given the price of the 7"s these days, I think this acts as a good way to own a hard copy of these songs.

I happen to know that the guy who runs the label got some help and advice from Fred (who runs It's Alive Records). As well as advice on how to put together a record, it seems the advice also extended to 'make sure you stuff the sleeve full of extra inserts' because that's exactly what you get here. The replica 7" sleeves are a really nice touch.

Well in theory that should have been the end of this post. But a little under two months after the above record was released, the label announced that they were going to sell a 'mystery record'. Given the Pillsbury Hardcore record looked like a great package from the photos that I had seen on instagram, I was curious. I'm not usually a fan of these type of things where you blind buy something, as usually it turns out to be something you wouldn't have bought if you'd have known what you were going to get. But in this case I figured that the label had made a good start and I'd trust them with a few more dollars. So I ordered the mystery record... which turned out that the mystery record was just another copy of the Pillsbury Hardcore record, but with a limited 'Kill Everyone Now' cover and different labels.

This thing does look pretty cool, and I was quite lucky to get one as they sold out really fast. But I'm not convinced I would have bought it had I known what was going to get.

Overall this is a great way to own a record by an old band. A high quality package for sure. The pink vinyl is long sold out but there are some green and yellow copies available from the label at a good price (link at the top of this post).

More Lockin' Out Exclusives

At some point last year I ordered something from Lockin' Out Records. As ever, whilst in the store I checked out what else was available and decided to pick up some colour vinyl 7"s to somehow 'make the order worthwhile'. Yeah, that familiar excuse. I didn't really know anything about these bands and records, but just decided to grab them because they were on colour vinyl and still available... which definitely isn't the case anymore.

First up is a 7" titled 'Monkey's Paw' by a band called Big Contest. I don't know much about this band at all, but it has Ned Russin (Title Fight, Gliterrer) playing bass. This I would definitely refer to as 'no frills' hardcore.

Next is the 'Magic With A Smile' 7" by Illusion. All I know about this band is that it has the drummer from Fury on vocals and the first song on here features Riley Gale (RIP) and sounds huge. It turns out that this was released back in 2018, which is an age ago now, and given that nothing else has been released since I am assuming this band is now done. Shame. This is great.

And finally, the 'Condemned' 7" by Skourge who hail from Houston, Texas. This is probably my favourite of the three. This one was released in 2019 and absolutely slays. I think the band played London this summer but obviously I didn't go because I am lazy and most venues are too far for me to get to. Still, the fact that they played suggests that they still exist, which makes me optimistically think that maybe they will release more music at some point.

I will admit that when Lockin' Out was a newish label back in the early 00's, putting out Mental and Righteous Jams, there is no way that I would have ever guessed that it would still be going all these years later. It's kinda cool that it still pops out a record or two every year, and they're pretty much always well worth checking out.

Skullcrack

As I have probably mentioned a couple of times in the last few months, I spent a few days in California earlier this year. On my second day I ended up taking a trip to Erika Records (a pressing plant) to collect some records with Dave from Indecision Records. I had no idea what was going on, but when we got back and I helped unload the car I realised that we had picked up the new LP from Skullcrack. At that point I had never heard them before, but having just help unload a few hundred of their LPs, I figured I should check them out. They play a style of fast metalic hardcore that is often refered to as thrash or crossover, and I think that both their name and the artwork on their records gives a big clue as to what they deliver.

Well, needless to say that I quickly decided to pick up all of the three Skullcrack records that Indecision have put out to date.

Shown in the order they were released we have the debut full length 'Turn To Dust' on purple vinyl (200 copies, released in 2019), the 'Bring Back The Guillotine' four song 12" EP (200 copies made in total) and finally the second LP 'Addicted To The Underground' on blue (100 copies, released this year).

One thing that has been puzzling me is why this band isn't more popular. The style they play I can imagine would appeal to a lot of people, and I think that they have a good name and great artwork (which is clearly giving more than a nod to Pushead). All of the elements are there, but so far it seems that they haven't really got out there too much. But this is some good stuff right here that I can imagine a lot of people would like if they heard it. For now though I'm just happy that they haven't blown up else I wouldn't have been able to buy their records so easily... which makes a nice change in 2022.

Nardcore

A couple of months ago I posted about a compilation called 'Nardcore For Life' that INdecision Records released, and I ended the post with the words - it has totally made me want to check out more of these Nardcore comps. I'm sure there are a few of them about. Feels like this could be another new collection that I try to complete. Not long after I made that post I spotted a very cheap copy of a different Nardcore comp in a UK distro, and I couldn't pass it up.

This compilation is called 'Nardcore' and was originally released waaaaay back in 1984 by Mystic Records. This copy is a recent represss put out by It's Alive Records. As with all of the records that It's Alive has put out over the past couple of years, this one came in a plastic sleeve sealed with a sticker.

I stupidly sliced through the sticker (after which I realsed that there was a simpler way to open it) so that I could get to the record inside. This version is pressed on blue vinyl, which is out of 500 copies.

Unsurprisingly, with this having been released in 1984, the bands on it are all (in 2022) pretty old bands. Ill Repute, R.K.L.,Stalag 13, Agression, Dr. Know and more. All classic nardcore bands. And as ever, It'a Alive Records have gone way overboard with extras. Posters, stickers, flyers... so much stuff that I cannot even begin to fathom how much it must have cost.

I'm not as into this one as I was the more modern Nardcore comp, but this is still a great record and makes me want to check out more by these older Oxnard bands.

The Waiting Game

I've chased a lot of rare records over the years, and some of the hardest to find seem to be things from the 90s that nobody cares about anymore. I don't know why this is the case, but perhaps it's because the kind of people that have some of these things have moved on to other things and their records are just sitting gathering dust. And maybe if they sell them, they take the easy option and dump them at a local store. I mean, I have no idea, but it always seems to be records from the early to mid 90s that end up becoming super elusive.

I don't know exactly when I added this Bloodline 7" to my wants list, but I'm gonna say that it was probably 20 years ago. Maybe a little more. I had the black vinyl version in my collection since the mid 90s, but I have no idea where or how I found out that there were some copies available on red vinyl. Obviously I needed to get one, but it literally never showed up for sale. But eventually one popped up on discogs for $10 and that was it. The hunt was finally over.

One thing that made this so hard to find is that everyone thinks that they have one. This is one of those records that was pressed on thin, cheap vinyl so that if you have a black vinyl copy and hold it up to the light, it kinda looks like a super dark clear red. So when I would see one for sale I would ask the seller, and every single time it would be a black copy that some fool was convinced was red.

Back in the early 90s it felt that this band was kinda popular. They were from St. Paul, Minnesota and I am unaware of any other bands ever coming from there. But somehow they had a full length on Nemesis Records and a 12" EP on Doghouse Records, both of which were popular labels back in the day. Here in 2022 and I can find no information about the band online. I actually still listen to their full length now and then as I think it still holds up. They play slow but heavy hardcore, a little bit like This World Rejected, Despair or Zero Tolerance. Forgotten by most but still enjoyed by me... like seemingly a lot of stuff from the 90s.

Concrete Altar

Another Rev release from last year that I haven't really spent much time with until recently is the 'Concrete Jungle' 7" by Urban Sprawl. The band are based in San Francisco and one of the members also plays in Tørsö. This 7" came out at the same time as the second Tørsö 7" on Rev in early 2021.

I'm not really a big fan of the front cover art. I guess I'm too narrow minded, but it doesn't really look like the cover of a hardcore record to me. One thing that is kinda cool though is that it's printed on metallic gold card. It looks kinda fancy when you see the back:

Of course, with this being a Rev release, I was duty bound to buy all available copies. of which there were three. As far as modern vinyl colours go, these ones don't look too bad.

Shown in the pictures are all three of the first press copies - Green vinyl (305), orange vinyl (305), and red vinyl (205) which was exclusive to indie stores. As at today, the orange vinyl is still available at RevHQ, which probably means that a second press isn't likely to surface for a while if nothing else.

I've struggled to make my mind up on this one. Generally I have felt pretty unexcited by it. But when I played it just before putting this post together, I knew all of the songs and it felt familiar and sounded pretty damn good. Overall I think it's a pretty good hardcore EP but let down by the cover that makes me want to just flip on past it.

Blending

Without a doubt one of my favourite records of this year is the second full length by UK band High Vis. 'Blending' came out not quite two months ago, and it has been impossible to ignore. I initially picked up on this band when all they had out was a 7", and then picked up their debut LP two years ago, and at the time they were pretty much unknown outside of the UK. But in the last few weeks that has definitely changed significantly. This record is literally everywhere right now.

So like a lot of new records these days, this came out on a few different vinyl colours, with the most limited being swirly colours that I didn't really want to own. I saw a friend post a picture of a grey one and thought it looked great, so made moves to try to pick one up. Rather than order one online I went out of my way to pick one up at Rough Trade records, but even though this colour was exclusive to them, they had none in the shop. Then a couple of days later I went to order one online but it was sold out. Goddamn it. By some stroke of luck, my friend ended up with a spare copy and was kind enough to sell me one for what he paid for it. So I did end up with the one I wanted all along. 'Marble smoke' (aka grey) vinyl is exclusive to Rough Trade and there were 300 copies.

I never really thought High Vis to be a 'hardcore' band. The singer at least definitely comes from a hardcore background, but from the word go they were going for a very different sound. They have continued to play a lot of hardcore shows and played with hardcore bands, so they seem to be considered 'hardcore' in some sense. But there is a lot less anger in this record than in the previous ones, so I can see this really crossing over to an indie crowd (if such thing exists in this day and age). To me this sounds more like an indie band from Manchester from 1990 than a hardcore band, yet the hardcore kids all still love it. Who'd have thought it?

What I am really curious about is exactly how this record has got out there quite so much. I have seen almost everyone I follow on instagram posting pictures of this record, including Americans in their 50s. Quite how so many old and out of touch foreigners have picked up on this band I have no idea, but it clearly shows that the band has now achieved a truly global reach. This is probably the best band in the UK right now, and it's great that the world now finally knows it.

Owe You Nothing

I really enjoyed the debut 7" release by The Dividing Line a couple of years ago. It was a band I had never heard before, and I bought it because it was a straight edge band on New Age. In a few ways it reminded me of Floorpunch. So when the band's full length went up for order, I was all over it. I think this was last year, although for various reasons I only got it this year and I put off posting about it because I wanted to give it another chance.

This thing was pressed on 4 different colours of vinyl. I decided that I would be more than happy with one copy, and picked up the 77 pressing. The claer red vinyl looks ok, but the label is weirdly small. I'm not sure why the label came out so small, but it seems that whatever the problem was, they still haven't realised or figured out a way to fix it.

As much as I enjoyed the 7", this record fell a little flat for me. I don't really know why, but it just didn't quite deliver. I've tried a few times, and I will try again. AFter all, life is all about expectation. Whenever you expect something to be great, it rarely is.

Here's Where You Should Try To Be

If you read this blog on a regular or semi regular basis, you will know that I am a big fan of Gameface and also singer Jeff Caudill's solo work. Earlier this year it was announced that two of his early solo releases were being put out on vinyl for the first time. That was all I needed to know that I wanted one. When the orders opened I bought one right away.

The record is a double LP titled 'Here's Where You Should Try To Be'. It's quite a cool release, and well thought out. The title is a combination of two previous CD only releases; 'Here's What You Should Do' (released in 2005) and 'Try To Be Here' (released in 2008).

There were 200 copies on clear vinyl and 300 on black. I figured that one copy of this one would be fine, so I opted for the habit of a lifetime and grabbed the coloured version.

When I placed my order I also made sure to grab one of the test presses that was available. A few minutes after I placed my order I got an email from the guy who does the label telling me that he had only put up two test presses for sale. So I count myself lucky to have been able to grab one.

As the photo shows, the test press comes with a cover that was hand drawn by Jeff himself. What I like about this is that it's a hand drawn version of the regular cover. It's a black card cover drawn in silver ink, and looks great.

Also, one point of note here is that this record was pressed at Third Man Pressing, which is the pressing plant owned by Jack White's Third Man Records. I usually like to monitor where things are pressed these days, and I don't think I own another record pressed there. And unsurprisingly, these records look and feel like the usual high quality US vinyl. These days I'm happy to get anything other than stuff pressed at the Euro plant as it seems increasingly rare.

Anyway, I hadn't heard either of these two albums before, so this was a great release for me. Two new albums for the price of one, so to speak. But given this is a reissue of two old albums, it probably can't count in a list of best releases of the year (which it is almost time to start thinking about again, somehow). Or can it?

Digh Down

Here's a great example of a record that is perfect for collectors but still pretty much completely pointless. This is a lathe cut, square 7" which contains one song from a band called Digh Down.

There's an interesting backstory behind this record. The band is made up of Ron Brotherhood on vocals, Dave Larson (owner of Excursion Records) on bass, and a couple of dudes from Undertow. Apparently the band was originally supposed to record a 12" for Indecision Records way back in the early 90s, but for some unknown reason it never happened.

The band recorded one song for a compilation that was released by Excursion Records called 'Universal Choking Sign'. That compilation came out in 1994 and featured a bunch of mainly north west bands including Undertow, Sparkmarker, Strain Brand New Unit amongst others. This then ended up being Digh Down's only ever recorded output.

This lathe cut 7" features that one song from the comp packaged in a sleeve showing photos of the band. Given I already have the comp, there was absolutely no need to buy this, right? Kinda funny to me though that if you have never heard this song before, it would be cheaper to buy the compilation LP than to buy this one song 7". Well, if you live in Germany that is, as there seem to be no US sellers of the comp for some reason.

White Trash

At the start of this year I was selling the collection of a friend of mine and decided to keep some NOFX LPs for myself. There were 4 LPs that I kept, which were the first 5 albums that they released with the exception of the 4th one. This then felt like a gap that I should fill, so I kept my eye on eBay and discogs hoping I would get one. I did watch one on eBay but it sold for more than I wanted to pay. I kinda hoped that I would grab an old black vinyl copy for cheap but getting anything that is remotely 'old' for a good price seems increasingly difficult. So when I saw that there was a 30th anniversary pressing coming out, I figured that maybe I could just pick one of those instead. It was cheaper to buy a new colour pressing than an old black one. So I just went with that option. But I wanted to make sure I got a colour that looked acceptable and not one of the more modern looking splatter options.

This version seems to be known as 'magenta', even though to me it just looks pink. And to me this looks and feels like it was pressed at a good old fashioned US plant, although some of the colours look like they come from a low quality european establishment. WHich is weird because I would have thought that if Epitaph were using a euro plant, that they would supply the european countries with the stuff from there, and supply the US with the stuff from the US. But it almost feels like they have done the opposite. Although it is possible I have it wrong about what was pressed where I suppose.

Anyway, I always had it in my head that this is the best NOFX record. I somehow knew the song 'Something Sticking In My Eye'. I guess I must have heard it or seen the video in the 90s. But I'm not so sure that this is the best one of the five. The joke version of the song 'straight edge' is ok a couple of times, but once you've heard it it just feels like it breaks up the flow of the record. Anyway, none of this really matters too much. I'm happy enough to have filled another collection hole... and a collection that I would not have been able to predict this time last year.

Daylight Savings Time

I was never really a huge Turning Point fan. By far my favourite of their releases was the split 7" they did with No Escape, by which time I'm pretty sure that they had ditched the X. But musically, later Turning Point is where my interest lies. So naturally I absolutely love the Godspeed 'Swimmer's Ear' EP, which was a post Turnnig Point band from 1993. The Godspeed EP is one of those records that people either love, or they have never heard. Nobody who has listened to it dislikes it, and if such a person exists I have never met them. Anyway, I last posted about this record back in 2015 when I managed to score an original test press, which I was very happy about at the time. Fast forward a few years and I have also managed to obtain a test press of the repress, which came out to little fanfare in 2017.

It seems pretty rare for tests to come on colour vinyl, but it always makes a nice change when one does. Other than the red vinyl though, there is nothing else with this. No cover or insert or anything.

I got the red vinyl repress out to compare colours, but it turns out that the test is exactly the same colour. Not surprising in a way, but still worth checking.

Interestingly, it turns out that there are two tests for this repress, an approved and a rejected. This one here is the approved version, but te rejected one also comes on red vinyl. Here's to hoping that I can find one of those too at some point.

Bombs Overhead

I've posted a lot this year so far, partly due to having a lot of time on my hands, and partly due to picking up more new records than any other year in my life (probably). But it does feel to me that the majority of my posts have either been releases from either Indecision Records or Revelation (nothing new there). So here's another one for the series...

Until I picked up the record at Indecision HQ, I had never heard of Tap And Die before. Quite how I managed to miss them I'm not sure, because if I had read a brief description of it then I would have ordered it right away. The band has Steven Andrew Miller on guitar (from Unbroken, Kill Holiday etc.) and Oscar Paz on vocals, who was in a band in the 90s that I used to love called Impel. That was enough information for me to figure it must be worth owning and buy it.

The band released an album called 'Bombs Overhead' in 2019. I'm not sure how much attention it got, but I hadn't heard of it until this year, so I am assuming not too much. There were 500 copies pressed, all on clear red vinyl.

The band also has someone from Heroin in it and someone from Narrows & Godcollider (another Indecision band). In my opinion, Tap And Die sounds nothing like any of the other bands that I have mentioned in this post to date. If I had to try to describe their sound (which I don't), I would say that musically they mix Swiz with Black Flag... and that really is about the best I can do. But damn, this record is a real ripper, and definitely one of the highlights of the Indecision catalogue that I discovered this year.

Free LSD

So a new OFF! album just came out, which was a surprise to me as I had no idea that the band still existed. Their last record came out back in 2014 and I honestly barely played it. After three albums that kinda sounded the same, I just started to find it a little boring, and in the last 8 years I have probably played one of their records once. Sure, back in 2010 they were super cool, but after 4 years it felt like the novelty had worn off. So why on earth did I find myself getting excited when a new album was announced earlier this year? I guess because it had been a while and I felt that maybe a new OFF! record in 2022 would sound as exciting as that first one did twelve years ago.

The record is called 'Free LSD' and, like most records in 2022, it was pressed on quite a few different colours. The most limited ones sold at out preorder stage, but I had no interest in those are they were crappy swirly things. There were also some more 'plain' colours (purple for indie stores, clear orange and the most common is clear blue). And even though I thought that the clear blue looked pretty cool, I took a chance and bought a sealed one on 'peacock green' (aka 'green') because it was a bit more limited. When I opened it up I was stoked because it looks pretty fucking awesome. This is a Rough Trade exclusive, although it's not clear how many copies exist. Their website says there are 300, whereas the sticker on the shrinkwrap says there are 400.

So it seems that in the last eight years OFF! have forgotten what they are supposed to sound like, to the point where this record sounds pretty nothing like their old records at all. This is probably to do with there being a new drummer and bassist in the band. I've been playing this every day for the last couple of weeks, and I still can't make my mind up on it. Even though I was kinda bored of their sound back in 2014, I'm not sure if I am happy that they now sound completely different. Ok, so Keith's vocals are still the same, but the music is darker and slower. It's actually quite interesting and I don't dislike it, but I think the main issue for me is that with 20 songs that go on for nearly 40 minutes, it jsut feels a little too long to keep my attention.

What Can I Say?

There are some records that I can't help buying again and again. Dag Nasty's 'Can I Say' LP is one of them. This was the first Dag record I bought and heard and remains my favourite of all of their records. So when Dischord repressed it on a clear green vinyl in a green coloured sleeve, it was inevitable that I would send some money their way.

The slightly annoying thing about this copy is that it came with some sticker on the shrinkwrap that is not from the label that won't come off. I started trying to peel it off and it started to rip. So the choice seems to be to leave it in place or to remove the shrinkwrap... neither of which seem particularly appealing.

Dag Nasty is one of those bands that I have been slowly picking up their records since forever, to the point where I have quite a few now. I never really set out to collect their records, but in time I have amassed a fairly decent haul. Quite how many times I will continue to buy the same records over and over I am unsure of, but one thing is certain... this really needs to be pressed on purple at some point.

Rev LP Catch Up

Hot on the heels of the last post (a bunch of Rev 7"s that I didn't have anything to say about), I decided to similarly bundle together a bunch of Rev color LPs that I picked up this year. Some of them were represses that came out in 2021, and others are slightly older ones that I had missed out on. I found myself at RevHQ earlier this year and had the opportunity to pick up some records for a cheap price, and in that environment and with that opportunity I felt that I wanted to fill some holes. So here goes...

Show above are:
Beyond 'No Longer At Ease' - grey vinyl (2016 press) & green vinyl (2021 press)
Beyond 'Dew It! / Live at WNYU' - blue vinyl (2015 press)
Civ 'Set Your Goals' - red vinyl (2018 press)
Damnation A.D. 'Kingdom Of Lost Souls' - blue vinyl (2015 press)
Down To Nothing 'Unbreakable' - blue vinyl (2015 press)
Judge 'Bringin It Down' - clear green vinyl (2021 press)
Primal Rite 'Dirge Of Escapism' - red vinyl
Rival Mob 'Mob Justice LP' - picture disc (2021 press)

And no, that's not all of them. I had to break these into two photos just because it seemed easier to manage that way. So here are some more:

In this photo we have:
Sensefield 'S/T' - orange vinyl (2016 press)
Sensefield 'Killed For Less' - blue vinyl (2016 press)
Sensefield 'Building' - green vinyl (2016 press)
Shades Apart 'Save It' - orange vinyl (2016 press)
Shades Apart 'Save It' - blue vinyl (2016 press)
Shai Hulud 'That Within Blood Ill-Tempered' - gold vinyl (2016 press)
Shai Hulud 'A Profound Hatred Of Man' - purple vinyl (2015 press)
V/A 'Generations' - grey vinyl (2016 press)
V/A 'NYCHC The Way It Is' - red vinyl (2022 press)

A few of these were from 2015 & 2016, which was a time when I had decided to stop buying the Rev represses. But in time I got back to a point where I just feel that I want them. I'm now firmly back at a point where I want to try to build as complete a Revelation colour vinyl collection as possible. Besides, all of these are on acceptable looking vinyl colours, and not those damn splattery swirly euro vinyl colours.

There are still a few that I am missing that are now sold out and don't seem to come up for sale. A few years ago it felt like most Rev represses were pretty much worhtless, but that's definitely not the case now. Some of them just don't seem to sell at all, or they get listed at stupid discogs prices. So sadly the rest of the holes aren't likely to be filled for quite some time.

PS I still need more comments on my last post. If you're reading this and didn't have a guess then get to it!

Rev 7" Catch Up (2021 Edition)

So I decided to do a lazy post here with a bunch of Rev 7"s I got a couple of months ago. All of these were pressed and sold in 2021 and I got them a while ago, but I have delayed posting them as I have pretty much nothing to say.

Fun fact - 2 of these records were pressed in the US and 6 were pressed in the UK. So let's play a game...

Guess which two were pressed in the US. Leave your answer as a comment. If I get at least 10 comments (which seems unlikely), then I wil come up with a prize, and whoever is first to get the right answer will win the prize. Oh yeah, and it almost goes without saying, but the prize will be a record.

Good luck!