100th Post! UK Hardcore Test Pressings

I would like to point out that this here entry marks my 100th post. A landmark achievement. Also, my little cluster map tells me that this site has now had over 5000 views. Not bad considering I never really publicised it or really expected more than about three people (including me) to read it. So I'm pleased with the progress. Thanks to anyone who reads & comments!

Next a quick explanation... I haven't made a post on here for ages now. My last entry was over a week ago. This is the longest I have gone without posting anything since I started this thing, which is due (mainly) to having no free time at all recently. Work has been insane, and there were also things going on outside work. So now I'm trying to catch up with a whole range of things, this being one.

However, the other reason that this hasn't been updated is that I haven't actually acquired many new records recently. A few weeks ago I was expecting something like 18 parcels at the same time, and I seemed to get something in the mail every day for two weeks straight. But I haven't had anything for over a week now. This is largely due to the value of the UK currency falling against the dollar. For all of 2008 the UK pound has bought me nearly two US dollars, but in the last two months the rate has been sliding, and current sits at circa $1.5 to the £. This month the exchange rate reached the lowest rate I have ever known, around 1.43. This means, of course, that even though prices have stayed the same in dollars, records from the States have become 25% more expensive for me. I've hardly bid on anything on eBay this past month as a result. Previously records were dirt cheap. Now they feel expensive. The situation is not good. Suddenly it feels like I am being affected by the goddamn world economic crisis. And with UK interest rates likely to fall, the situation is only likely to get worse. Balls.

Anyway, enough whining. Today's entry is something I am stoked about. I picked up some test pressings of some old UK hardcore records. These bands were mainly active around the early to mid 90s. These records are special to me because some of these bands introduced me to hardcore. And some of them had people in that I knew and respected. There's more of a personal connection to these than most records.

First up, a test press of the ABOVE ALL 7" on Sure Hand records:

This band came from Southend. The best show I saw them play was around December '94 in Bradford at the 1in12 club. They supported Earth Crisis. This was when Earth Crisis only had two 7"s out, before their first LP dropped. Earth Crisis were the buzz band at the time. But Above All came on and completely blew Earth Crisis off the stage. They could have achieved great things if they hadn't signed to Roadrunner & turned into a metal band. This 7" represents their best output. An incredible record.

Next up, a test of the DEAD WRONG 7" on Armed With Anger Records:

Dead Wrong were, I would say, one of the earlier bands pushing the boundaries between hardcore, rock & emo. I guess they would have been on Dischord had they happened to reside in Washington DC (if you hear this you will know what I mean). When I went to university in September 1993 I met their guitarist Rob, who introduced me to several bands I would otherwise not have heard. He sold me a Rorschach 7" for £2. I will never forget that. Not long after I saw his band play & was blown away. Back then it was like nothing I had heard. Great dude, great band, great record.

Next is a test of the KITO 7" on Armed With Anger Records:

I saw this band the very first time I went to the 1in12 Club in Bradford for a two day hardcore festival. I think this was late 1993, or maybe 1994. I can't remember exactly. But Kito played and I thought they were great, although kinda scary. Something about the club and the band felt kinda dangerous, and I wasn't entirely comfortable being there.. although, at the same time, I didn't want to leave. Shows weren't predictable back then like they are these days. This record takes me back to that time & place. An interesting time in my life.

Next, a test press of the UNDERSTAND 7" on Armed With Anger Records:

These guys were so far ahead of their time. They always got compared to Quicksand or Fugazi, although I don't think either of those comparisons is really very accurate. But back then, if you weren't doing mosh metal or thrash punk then you were probably gonna get compared to Quicksand. Understand used to support all of the touring US bands of the era, such as Sick Of It All, Helmet, Into Another and CIV. They also toured the States and attracted the interest of Equal Vision Records, who put out a 7" circa 1995. They were shit hot, and (familiar story) got signed by a major label, alienated themselves from the hardcore scene, had an album come out which didn't do very well, then split up. A couple of years later a band called Hundred Reasons came along and did something not too dissimilar and sold hundreds of thousands of records, even though they sucked big time. I guess life isn't fair sometimes.

Next, a test of the STALINGRAD 7" on Armed With Anger Records.I'm particularly stoked on this one, since the actual 7" that was released was a picture disc. So having a non-picture disc version is kinda cool.Here's a pic of the test next to the proper 7":

This band also played the first 1in12 festival that I went to. This was without doubt the scariest band I had ever seen in my life up to that point. Come to think of it, I have never seen a scarier band since. The singer (god knows why I'm referring to him as a singer, what he did could never be described as 'singing'!) spent half his time walking around the crowd screaming in people's faces. I'd never seen anything like that at the time. The dude had a shaved head and wore big Doc Martins and looked like he was trying to figure out which member of the audience he was going to kill first. I spent most of the time hoping that he didn't come anywhere near me. Fuck, I so wish I could go back in time & watch that show again. I'm intrigued as to whether, 14 years later with hundreds of shows under my belt, I would still be scared. Probably.

Finally, a test of the IRONSIDE 7" on Subjugation Records. The interesting thing about this one is that it comes with two different sleeves:

This is also the first test press I have ever seen that has the proper label on one side. I guess the point of this is to also check if the labels would come out as the label hoped.

I never actually saw this band. I think they played the festival I went to that I have mentioned twice already, but I missed them for some reason. In fact, I never got to see them play. But I remember picking up the 7" from a record shop in Leeds called Bad. I was amazed that this was a UK band. So good.

I was going to post up MP3s of these records so that anyone unfamiliar with these bands could check them out. But I don't have time. However, I will post them up later if people would be interested. Let me know via comments. If I get a sense that people would appreciate hearing these things then I will make the effort to post them up.

Darvocets 12"

I know absolutely nothing about this band whatsoever. I just bought this record because it is on Painkiller Records, and because the record itself looks cool. This band seem to have a UFO theme going on, hence the name of the record - "Authentic Music From Another Planet". Musically, the only band that this vaguely reminds me of is The Dead Kennedys.

The record has a crop circle pattern screened onto the second side:

Looks kinda cool huh?

Kid Kilowatt Test

I used to love Cave In. I still listen to them occasionally. But back in 2000-2001 I was WAY into them. And then Kid Kilowatt appeared on the scene - a kind of project band featuring half of the Cave In members. An album came out and I was stoked. But when I got it I was disappointed. I thought it was boring. I listened to it maybe twice and then gave up. A couple of years later I decided to give it another chance and (as often happens) learned to love it. My experience shows me that most of my favourite records are ones that I didn't get on the first few plays, but which grew on me over time. Same with Kid Kilowatt. Anyway, I picked up a test of their 7" on ebay for $20, which I thought was pretty reasonable. I like how Second Nature tests all have the logo on the label, it looks cool. Well, as cool as a record in a plain dust sleeve can look I suppose.

Blacklisted & So Be It

I finally got around to picking up a copy of the Blacklisted "...And The Beat Goes On" LP a few weeks ago. It was cheap on ebay. I can't remember why I didn't get this when it came out. I just missed it somehow. Even though I've had the songs for quite a while via the magic of modern technology, it's great to finally have the vinyl. I had to email the seller because after I paid two full months passed and I had received nothing. But today, finally, it showed up.

To make up for the delay, dude sent me a bonus 7" of a band called So Be It:

I'd never heard this band before, and I still haven't had time to listen to this yet. I like the cover though - a dude wearing a hood kicking another dude in the head, about to whack him with a chain. I hope it sounds as good as the cover suggests it might be. Maybe one day I'll get around to finding out...

Black Flag Damaged - Red

My mission to collect all the colour vinyl pressings of Black Flag LPs continues. Although they are not first pressings, they are cooler than first pressings in my opinion. I used to have a couple about 15 years ago which I subsequently sold, and now regret. Anyway, today I add this one to the pile:

"Damaged" LP on red vinyl. I also have this on solid purple. Interestingly, each record has different colour labels, so one must be an earlier press than the other. I wonder which is earliest & which rarest? I figure red must be rarer, solely on the basis that I have only seen the red one once before, whereas I have seen the purple one a few times. Oh yeah, and I have also seen it on clear purple too. Is it possible that yet more versions exist? Does anyone know?

Also, I've just added a "Black Flag" label to this post and all previous Black Flag posts. Click the label (below) and it will show you all the coloured Flag records I have picked up in the past few months without you having to trawl back through all the crap in this blog to find them. Cool huh? I should probably try to add more labels too, although I'm not sure how many other "themes" there are running through this thing. Hmmm...

Retard Alert!

Yet another parcel of records, and yet another reason to be pissed off. I bought a couple of 7"s from an eBay seller, both of which were pretty cheap.

First, the Time Flies 7" on Malfunction, with limited 'Captain Harlock' sleeve. I already have this, but my sleeve has gone a bit dicky, so this is a replacement copy. A bargain at $3.99. A great 7" too.

The second 7" is a test press of the Up Front 7" on New Age records. The record is stamped, both on the labels and the dust sleeve:

What pissed me off about this is that some fucking retard saw fit to stamp the dust sleeve with huge logo for some shit record label. This test has no cover, and comes in a plain white stamped dust sleeve. So, in this instance, the dust sleeve IS the cover. It is stamped, to can't be swapped for another. So why the fuck would anyone decide to stamp a stupid pig logo on here?

I'm still not sure what to do with this. Send it back & ask for a refund? What do you think?

Bad Brains

This probably sounds crazy, but until the American Hardcore movie came out I never liked Bad Brains. This is because I tried to get into them years ago, but got given the wrong record. To me, reggae is pretty much the worst form of music there is. I hate it. So years and years ago, when a friend taped me some Bad Brains, I was appalled by the reggae sounds I then found myself listening to. I have no idea what record or what songs were on that tape, but the majority seemed to be reggae, so I decided on the spot that I didn't like Bad Brains and left it there. But after watching the Bad Brains clips in the American Hardcore movie, I changed my mind. The songs and the atmosphere at the shows blew me away, so I decided to give them another chance. I downloaded the record with the iconic cover, and then didn't stop listening to it for about three weeks. This week I finally picked up a vinyl copy, which I found pretty cheap on eBay. Shame the seller turned out to be yet another retard without a clue how to pack records for the mail. The corners got bent up & I am pissed off.

I think the world is ready for a parody band called BAD BRIANS. Anyone out there called Brian - feel free to take this idea & run with it.

Integrity Closure

Integrity are one of my all time favourite bands. I've been listening to this band for 16 years now. They remain one of a small handful of bands that I don't seem to be able to tire of. Unfortunately, though, I can't claim that they have a flawless output. There were a couple of records made under the name Integrity 2000, which most people think are pretty poor. But in my opinion, the worst Integrity record is the one that most people either haven't heard or have forgotten about - "Closure"...

I checked the Victory webstore to see how they describe the album. I laughed at what I found:

As it is true with all of their other releases, this marks a new progression in their lyrical evolution and songwriting. This album is by far Integrity's darkest vision of the world to date.

It made me laugh because it seems so goddamn dishonest. I mean, as if this is their darkest vision of the world! As if this record showcases any kind of evolution! Come on! This album is a mish mash of sounds and can't make up its mind what it wants to be. There's a couple of industrial noise tracks, a weird rock song, an ambient song with whispered vocals, and a couple of "hardcore" songs (although the mix is bad on these, the guitars sound weak, and even Dwid's vocals sound kinda strained and lacking). Overall this record is just plain bad, and probably best forgotten. As much as I love this band, listening to this album all the way through is almost impossible.

However, despite this, I still decided to buy myself a second copy of this record recently. Hence this post. The weird thing about this record is that Victory never actually released it on vinyl. Instead, it somehow got licensed to an Australian label. Why? Who the hell knows.

This copy I have just bought claims to be a one off. I bought this on eBay. The auction claimed: THE GREEN COLOR IS A FREAK OF THE PRESSING PROCESS AND IS THE ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND IN EXISTENCE. Not sure I believe that. But at $32, it hardly matters.

I originally picked up a vinyl copy of this from a trade with a dude who used to work at Victory. Back when this came out, in 2001, you couldn't actually buy it. Trading it from the Victory dude seemed to be the only way to pick one up. The copy I acquired in that trade is on a clear blue vinyl. During the trade the dude told me that this colour was limited to 15 copies, and that there were only 60 copies in total on colour vinyl. Again, I am not sure I believe this. But the fact remains that picking a vinyl copy of this record up at all is not easy, so I'm stoked to have two different versions, even if it is total garbage.

Hydrahead Revisited

What seems funny nowaways is that I used to buy Hydrahead Records by sending dollars through the post, which I would have to buy from a bank and send in an envelope. Even funnier is that I used to call up Aaron Turner on the phone and ask him to put records aside for me until my cash arrived. Seems crazy that it was possible to call Aaron Turner up. I guess he's too much of a global superstar these days to talk on phones or touch records. He pays fools to do that shit for him these days. And rightly so. I wish I didn't have to talk on phones. What a waste of time. But anyway, in 1996 I somehow stumbled across Hydrahead (which was a new label at that point), I liked what they were putting out, and bought pretty much all colours of all records they released. Although, that said, I did miss a few through being too slow. Luckily though I have managed to plug four of those gaps in one day with the latest parcel...

First is a Converge / Brutal Truth split 7", which was the second 7" in the Black Sabbath cover series. I have two colours of this one already, but this is the first press with limited cover numbered out of 100:

Next is the Cave In "Creative Eclipses" 7". This was their 2nd 7" on Hydrahead, and the one where the wheels fell off. In other words, Cave In changed their sound completely and became some kind of rock band. Not that this is a bad thing. I actually prefer their rock opus, "Jupiter" to their previous metal records. But this 7" was interesting when it came out because it was such a shock to the system. Nobody expected them to actually start SINGING!

This came out in about 1999, and it has taken me since then to finally get hold of one of the clear vinyl versions numbered out of 118. I picked one up on ebay last year, but frustratingly it wasn't numbered. So I'm happy to finally cross this fucker off the want list.

Next, another of the Black Sabbath 7" series. This time, the split between Cave In and Botch, on solid yellow vinyl.

I have this on red/yellow split vinyl, but clearly one is not enough so I need another one to stick in a box and never look at or play. On reflection, this is probably the best of the Sabbath tribute 7"s. The Botch song especially is incredible.

Finally, the sixth and last installment in the Black Sabbath covers series, the Neurosis / Soilent Green split on messy pink vinyl. I couldn't care less for the Neurosis song, but the Soilent Green side is a cntender for best Sabbath cover in the series:

I'm guessing that to most Black Sabbath fans, the idea of Converge, Cave In & Soilent Green covering their songs sounds horrendous. However, I disagree completely. What most of these bands do is take the Sabbath songs and make them heavier, but without straying to far from the original versions. I would even seriously say that some of these versions are actually better than the originals. And yes, I am a big Sabbath fan. In fact, I'm going to do you a favour and give you a chance to judge for yourselves. I've uploaded all the Sabbath covers, so that you can download them and form your own opinion. These songs are all ripped from my records, but you wouldn't know that, because the quality is so fucking good. You'd be excused for thinking that these songs were from the CD that Hydrahead never got around to releasing. Here ya go:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/koj8nf

Now, what I'm interested in is what people think is the best Sabbath cover in this series. I'm so interested, in fact, that I'm going to run my first ever poll. You have until midday on Hallows Eve to vote. I'm voting for Botch. Come on!

Right Idea 12"

After placing an order on 26 June, my package finally turned up today. That's 4 months of waiting. When I checked my paypal receipt, I was actually surprised that it was only 4 months. It feels like longer. I guess 4 months is quite a long time, but I have waited far longer in the past, so it's no big deal. But yeah, after seeing everyone else in internetland get theirs last week, I am stoked that mine finally turned up. Pretty much from the moment I opened the package I was glad I placed an order for this.

The first thing I saw when I opened the box was a card stiffener with the React! logo screened on top, which is a really cool idea and looks nice. I'll definitely be keeping this:

Next, a printed story / apology about the delays in getting these orders sent out. It's nice that these guys actually feel the need to apologise for holding onto people's money for months. It reads like they didn't intend for this to happen and are genuinely sorry. I generally hate the concept of pre-orders because I am convinced that some labels have in the past used pre-order money to finance records, taking cash six to nine months before the records were done, and not apologising to the people they suckered. So this sentiment is appreciated.

The cover of the record itself rules. I like what React! Records are about. It's about no-nonsense straight edge hardcore, using typical sxe style aesthetics and designs, so that you can look at the records and pretty much know what you're going to get before you drop the needle. This 12" reminds me of something that would have come out on Wishingwell in 1988:

The record also has a big Wishingwell / Revelation style fold out lyric sheet, as well as a couple of stickers, and a sheet from React! records on the merits of praising and being nice to people.

As for the vinyl... well, there are three colours made, and (like any self-respecting idiot with more money than sense) I bought all of them:

There were 200 on blue, 300 on white, & 500 on black. All with labels that look exactly like the first Ressurection 7"... haha!

So what does it sound like? Well, firstly... as if that fucking matters! This record looks so good that what it sounds like is irrelevant. Except for the fact that it sounds pretty much as you would expect it to... which is a fucking good straight edge hardcore record! The cool thing about this band is the overwhelming positivity they seem to have. This harks back to a time when straight edge was all about being positive and trying to change things for the better. The lyrics have that theme running throughout, and it's nice to see this kind of attitude being pushed rather than the negativity that a lot of bands seem to advertise these days with their "life is shit" approach.

Overall, Right Idea and React! Records are trying to make straight edge something to be proud of again, and I can get behind that 100%.

To order this, go here (and hurry up because it's on the verge of selling out... like you probably did about 4 years ago, haha!):

http://www.myspace.com/itstimetoreact

Seaweed Spanaway LP

I've been listening to Seaweed for 16 years now. I remember buying the "Weak" LP and being excited before I even dropped the needle. I just bought it because the cover looked good. I wasn't let down. Seaweed have never let me down. Such a good band. One of my favourites. I've been listening to them again recently because the band Sinking Ships did a Seaweed cover on a 7" not so long ago. Anyway, I just picked up the "Spanaway" LP on green vinyl:

I got this LP on black vinyl when it came out back in about 1995. It's on Hollywood Records, which is some major label subsidiary. They signed Seaweed and Into Another at about the same time. I guess this was supposed to be the record that broke Seaweed and pushed them to the next level. Oh well. This is 13 years ago, and until only about 4 months ago I had no idea that this album even existed on anything other than black vinyl. I read some throwaway comment somewhere on the internet about the Spanaway record on green vinyl. I couldn't believe it. So I added it to my want list and then, a couple of weeks back, it popped up on eBay, at which point I knew it was mine no matter what it cost. In the end it only cost $39, which I thought wasn't bad. But in a bizarre & ironic twist, the green vinyl turns out to be some licensed UK pressing, so it must have been pretty common over here when it came out. Typical.

Dinosaur Jr

One of the first bands I got into was Dinosaur Jr. The sole reason was that they had a song on an old sk8 video (a Santa Cruz speed wheels video called "Speed Freaks"). The final section went to Mike Vallely, who skated to "Freak Scene" by Dinosaur Jr. At the time I didn't know who the band was. This was in the days when sk8 vids didn't tell you what music they featured. Or rather, they just listed the bands, without any reference to what band was featured in what section. So it was by chance that I found out the band was Dinosaur Jr. After that my friend bought the album and I taped it. Over the next three years they released another couple of albums and became one of my favourite bands. Then I discovered straight edge and started listening to Judge and Chain and for some reason decided that anything wasn't hardcore wasn't cool and somehow made my hardcore record collection look weak. So I sold all my Sub Pop records and similar stuff, including all of my Dinosaur Jr vinyl. What a prize tit.

About three years ago I started buying them all back again. And I've managed to pick up a few things that I never had before, including this copy of "You're Living All Over Me" on purple vinyl that arrived in today's mail:

My main Dinosaur Jr want now is the Sub Pop 7" on purple vinyl (NOT Pink). Anyone?

Ten Years Plus

Bane. I love this band and I love these guys. It all started on 7 October 2000. I went to see them play in some shithole town in the north of England called Bradford. They played on a bill with about 10 other bands, none of whom I can name today. As usual with shows at the 1in12 Club, things were poorly organised and the show overran by a couple of hours. Bane didn't come on until about 1am or something stupid, but which time a lot of people had left to catch trains home. Afterwards I got tricked into putting Bane up at my house, because the promoters didn't have any room at their houses because the other 20 bands had taken all the space. So I had to sleep 6 Americans and a German in my one bedroom flat, along with my friend Mark who was staying over. During the night there was an incident when Mark decided to wake up Tre and demand his cushions back, although Tre has no memory of this today. All Tre remembers is my talk about breakdancing lessons. Anyway, the point is that from that day on I stayed in touch with the dudes in the band and I count them as friends. And the fact that they're my friends means that I have a stronger desire to collect their records than I do for most other bands.

Having said that, however, they released a 7" two years ago that I only just got around to picking up. I have no excuse for this slackness... well, except that the 7" was never actually available for public sale. It was sold at the 10 year anniversary show in December 2006, which (obviously) I didn't go to. Except, in a way, it wasn't sold at the show at all, because the 7" wasn't ready in time for the show, so instead kids got given a CD and then had to later use a redemption code to order the 7" from Equal Vision direct. Something like that.

First up I need to talk about the songs themselves. As strange as it sounds, I actually ended up listening to this record. It makes a nice change to play one for a change. The first song sounds like something from the first album. I don't even know what the crack is with this song, when it was written and recorded. Man, I feel like an amateur here. The second song, a Bjork cover, is one of the best songs I have ever heard in my life. I have listened to this song about fifteen times in a row tonight. How the fuck did I never hear this before? Shit me.

This, unfortunately, brings me onto one of the flaws of this record - the sound quality of the vinyl, which is not good. There is a lot of hiss and crackle on this record, which I'm surprised about. I have to wonder if EVR decided not to bother with a test press. I can't imagine why else the quality would be lacking. Strange.

Generally though, this 7" is well packaged, although it suffers from the obvious flaw of being pressed on euro vinyl and has 'Pirates Press' stamped into the matrix, which irritates me. But the cool thing is that, whilst I got both colours of this record, I could blag that I have four, since each 7" is a different colour on each side, as shown here:

The inside of the sleeve:

And a special thank you note:

However, even though I am happy to finally have this 7" in my collection, I'm still bummed. Why? Well, for a start, the sleeves are supposed to be numbered, although mine aren't, as you can see:

This means that, me being an idiot, I will not be happy until I have also tracked down a numbered version. But then I'm probably only going to be happy if I get a numbered version of each colour. But also, the inside sleeve makes mention of a CD, which I don't have. So I need that too, to feel like I have the complete package. I guess I'm never happy.

Finally... I would just like to send a big thank you to Pete for sorting me out with this.

THANKS PETE!

On a separate (but related) note, does anyone have any Bane test pressings? I only have a test press of the split 7" with Adamantium. I need tests of all the other records. If anyone can help, please get in touch!