Friends Like Blue

I'm a sucker for detail and at some point a few months ago I became aware that there are two differnt versions of the Sick Of It All 7" on blue vinyl, each with different labels. I had one and wanted the other, and figured that in time I would find one for a good price. Last week I picked up a couple of Rev 7"s from a guy in the UK who was selling his collection, and he had a blue vinyl Sick Of It All 7" in there. So I decided to just buy it. I didn't even ask which one he had. But it turned out to be the one I needed.

So this blue vinyl pressing has the labels that were originally used on the 1997 repress of this record. The other blue vinyl copy that I already owned has the labels with the big Rev star logo on the label. I'm not exactly sure when each was pressed, but I am pretty sure that the one I already had is the earlier of the two as I bought it when the blue vinyl was first pressed, which I was startled to discover was actually nine years ago... in 2014.

I feel that the two records were possibly pressed at different pressing plants. This new blue copy that I just acquired feels a bit lighter, and the centre label feels a bit flatter than the other one. Hopefully in time I will get an answer to that. But for now I'm just gonna enjoy having scratched another want from the list, and added yet another copy of this 7" to my box.

Without Words

What I know about Stop And Think I could write on the back of a postage stamp. It was a band from Boston active around the start of the century. They recorded two different demos (released on tape) and that was it. A year or so later both demos were compiled onto a 12" record that was a joint release between two young labels of the day - Painkiller Records and Lockin' Out Records.

I remember seeing this for sale by a distro back when it came out and ignoring it. There were a bunch of copies and all were on black vinyl, which I figured at the time was boring. A little later I learnt that there were no colour vinyl copies, but that there was a version in a limited sleeve, which I managed to get back then. And then at some point in the last few years I decided that I kinda wanted the regular version. So when one showed up recently from a UK seller at a very fair price, I made a move.

This is such a great record. Some of the guys from this band went on to other great bands of the early 00s era, such as Righteous Jams, Step Forward, Mind Eraser etc. Such a shame this band didn't hang around a little longer, and leave us with another record or two, because they were absolutely one of the best Boston straight edge bands there were.

Three With Serenity

A few years ago I took a chance on a UK band called Fade. Well, I say 'a few years'... turns out it was actually 8 years ago, which I am struggling to compute. Anyway, still play their songs semi regularly. Back when I first heard them I picked up a copy of their first 7", 'One With Serenity' but at the time I missed out on the more limited colour, the clear vinyl.

There were only 75 copies on clear vinyl. After all this time I saw one pop up for sale recently and I figured I might as well grab it because it was cheap and it was in the UK.

Aside from a test press, which seems highly unlikely, I think I'm done on this one now.

Trait

Last year I was chatting to Igby at RevHQ about some nonsense or other, and he was listening to Ministry, and we got to talking about the Ministry catalogue. Now I need to state right up front that I am NOT a Ministry fan. I once bought a record of theirs back in about 1992, but I was never overly into it and sold it. Well anyway, I was then asked if I had ever listened to Pailhead, and the answer was a definite 'no'.

Well then a few months ago, a UK distro that I use from time to time suddenly got in a reissue of a Pailhead record. My mind instantly went back to that conversation with Igby, so I decided to check the band out, and to my surprise I really liked it. But I didn't want to buy some crappy looking repress, so I kept my eyes open, and then a couple of weeks ago I spotted an original pressing of the 'Trait' 12" EP on ebay for cheap. It was an auction, and I ended up being the only bidder. I've had a few bargains on eBay lately and it's stoking me that bargains are still possible. If you have patience, and a little time, then eBay is definitely where its at.

So for anyone that doesn't know, Pailhead was some side project where Ian MacKaye sang with a couple of the guys from Ministry, and unsurprisingly this sounds kinda like Ministry with Ian MacKaye singing. I avoided it for three decades just because the I just assumed that combination would not work. But I guess these days I'm just more interested in going back to old shit that I never tried rather than pick up some new band that probably sounds generic. And of course, it helped that it was cheap. Cheap buys rule.

New Life For Lies

I did a trade with someone a few months ago for a big item, and he threw in a test press for free, which was a nice gesture. It wasn't a record that I had heard, but given it was on Jade Tree Records, I figured it was worth a listen. I downloaded the songs and pretty soon found that it had worked it's way onto my daily playlist. So I then decided that I needed to buy a 'regular' version of the record, which took longer than I thought. But a copy came up for sale in the UK recently at a pretty cheap price, and when it mentioned that the cover was still in shrink I knew that this was the copy for I had been waiting for.

The record in question is titled 'New Life For Lies' and is by a band called Jones Very.

Jones Very was a three piece from Boston, MA and was active from 1989-1992, in which time they put out three full length records, of wqhich this was the final one released by Jade Tree Records. The most notable fact about the band is that it featured ex Articles Of Faith vocalist / guitarist Vic Bondi on vocals (and guitar). Musically I would say that this sounds pretty close to DC hardcore. It won't blow you away on the first listen, but it time this will sink into your brain and demand that you come back to it.

From the copeis for sale on discogs, this record seems to have been pressed on all manner of ugly and uninteresting colours of vinyl. My copy looks like a greyish brown, although when held to the light it looks a bit more exciting:

The test press that I was initially sent that inspired me to listen to this band in the first place is pretty staandard fare. It comes in a plain white paper sleeve and has nothing of interest about it really. I put it next to the regular sleeve as is usual practice.

I have a new theory around Jade Tree test pressings. Most that I have seen over the years come with a small sticker on the label which contains the band name, record title and catalog number. However, I have also recently seen some Jade Tree tests with no sticker. So my theory is that the ones without stickers are true tests, whereas the ones with stickers were used as promo copies and sent out to whoever. Obviously I cannot confirm this theory as yet, but in time I would like to get confirmation.

Anyway, the Jade Tree website that still exists has this nice quote about this record that I quite liked that and thought it a good way to close this post off.

In JONES VERY, Bondi is a multifaceted character weaving between the two with both dexterous restraint and unchecked passion, inadvertently creating one of the best records you’ve probably never heard.

Sound Economics

Just over a year ago I posted about the Forgive/Forget 7". The band was made up of Brian McTernan (Battery, Ashes, Miltown, Be Well), Sammy Siegler (Judge, YOT, etc) and Joshua English (Six Going On Seven) and existed for a very brief time in 1998. They recorded some songs that were never officially released, until someone decided to put out 3 songs as a 7" a couple of years back. I ended up getting sucked into buying all 3 versions of the record, but was too late for the test pressings that the label sold.

Well a couple of weeks ago a test press appeared for sale on discogs, and by a stroke of good fortune it was being sold by a UK seller, and also not too badly priced. Done deal.

The test press comes in a special cover, and also comes with a card inner sleeve which is numbered out of 19 copies.

It's rare that I can summon the energy to take group photos, but I figured that a complete collection of something was worth the time. Especially for a 7".

The Struggle

A couple of weeks back some dude on instagram was selling records. I asked for the list and saw a small number of things that I was half interested in. I might not have bothered with them if they were overseas, but given these things were in the UK, it somehow made them more attractive.

I own one copy of the first Warzone LP on Fist Records, which irritates me as it's a third press with the crappy 8 bit font on the back cover. I always hoped I'd get a first press but still haven't got around to it. But I also always liked the later Fist/Caroline press with the '2 girls' label. So I bought this one basically just for the labels.

There's a misprinted version of this label that lists 'Don't Forget The Struggle' and 'Don't Forget The Streets' as two different songs. I was kinda hoping this would be one of those but sadly not.

Approximately one day after buying a few bits from this dude's list, another copy of this record that I was looking for appeared for sale on discogs which was also in the UK at (rarely for discogs) a fair price. So I bought that one too.

This is the only colour of the Revelation pressing of this LP that I was missing, the 2nd press clear blue vinyl. I made a conscious decision to not buy any of the Rev reissues of this LP back when it came out, and then of course once 3 pressings and 4 colours had long sold out, I decided that I wanted to collect them. Sometimes I think I subconsciously make it hard for myself on purpose to give me something to do.

Kinda funny that I bought two copies of this record within 24 hours of each other. This is how it is at the moment. I find myself picking up whatever falls in front of me, rather than targetting things that I really want. But that's how hardcore record shopping has always been for me. It's about grabbing whatever's there that probably won't be there tomorrow.

Tomorrow Never Comes

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from some record shop telling me that they were having a weekend sale. I have only bought one thing from this shop before and of course ended up on some bullshit mailing list. Well, I figured I'd check out their sale, and after scrolling through about three pages of junk, I found one item that half tempted me - the latest Rancid LP, 'Tmorrow Never Comes'.

I used to love Rancid back in the day, but the last record of theirs that I bought was the self titled LP that came out in the year 2000. I really liked that record back then, but I gave up on them after that, and haven't really thought too much about them since. But in recent months I'd seen a few people post their new LP and say that it was their best in a long time. So it was on my radar and my curiosity was peaked. I checked around online and saw that the price that this was selling at was really good, and I made the decision to pick up a copy.

This one comes on 'eco mix' vinyl, which basically means the colours are random. Mine comes on this pretty cool looking dark green marble colour, which I think looks better than most of the standard colours of this one that I have seen.

Listening to this for the last couple of weeks and it's as if I've just jumpred back in time 23 years or so. This sounds just like the Rancid I remember, and fortunately there aren't any ska or reggae songs on here. Just a solid punk record. Definitely an enjoyable summer record, not that the weather the last few weeks feels remotely summerlike.

Home Truths

A couple of months ago Mike posted about the debut release from The Living Memories and, quite rarely for him, didn't give it a particularly favourable write up. To quote his post:

'I imagine that this is what two older hardcore dudes that are super into The Smiths and wanted to do something similar would sound like.'

This sentence peaked my interest so I rushed to their bandcamp to check it out, where I realised within about 20 seconds was that this was going to be something that I'd be into.

Given Mike wasn't overly excited by the record, I offered him a chance to recoup his money by selling it to me, and then he faxed it right on over to me.

This seems to have been pressed by the band themselves and isn't exactly easy to get hold of. It looks like the only place you can buy it is dire tly from their bandcamp page, and there is still the choice of two colours of vinyl. The clear is the more limited colour, out of 100 copies and looks great.

The band features two dudes who were previously in from The First Step, but don't let that fool you, as this band sounds nothing like The First Step whatsoever. But if you're into crap like The Smiths, Ride, and other stuff like that then this is the record for you. My only complaint is that there are only 6 songs on here, and its over in 20 minutes. After listening to this one twice a day for the last month or so, I can safely say that this is one of the best things that I have heard this year. And with these songs now being over 18 months old, I'm really hoping that they will bring out something new in the near future.

Stop The World

What do you do if you've been waiting patiently for your favourite band to release a new record for over 20 years and they've delivered nothing? Well, if you're a regular schmo like me, you probably don't do anything other than listen to different bands instead. But some people are different...

Welcome to 'Stop The World' by NOT. Quite possibly the only record I have ever bought by a band put together to sound exactly like another band. Or rather, the first record by a band happy to openly admit that they are ripping someone else off... because that's exactly the point.

Basically, this band and record is an attempt to create the new ALL record. You know, ALL - the band that is The Descendents with a different singer. The first clue is that the band name is in capitals, and also and the cover art is very similar to any of the ALL records. These are pretty obvious clues.

But aside from the visible similarities on display, the music itself is also incredibly close to sounding just like ALL. It's actually very impressive. I read about this, went to bandcamp feeling sceptical about it, and then after about ten seconds thought that I was listening to the new ALL album. Listen yourself and you will see what I mean very quickly.

I have to say, after my initial scepticism, I am left thinking that this is one of the coolest ideas ever. Clearly now the answer to the question 'what do you do if you've been waiting patiently for your favourite band to rekease a new record for over 20 years and they've delivered nothing?' is that you just say 'fuck it' and make it for them.

Oh yeah, this is the second pressing of this record on blue vinyl. I narrowly missed out on the purple first press, but I'm ok with it as this one probably looks better anyway. You can still get this one pretty easily, although I don't think it will be around for too much longer as people are starting to catch on to this.

Hot Bodi Gram

I got into Soulside in 2018. I first heard the band back in 1993 or 1994 when I sold some dude's record collection, and I listened to a bunch of the records that he had, a lot of which were Dischord releases that I didn't appreciate at the time. Looking back, I was 18 or 19, just discovering straight edge hardcore, and I was mainly interested in faster or harder stuff... although that isn't quite true as I got into a lot of varied stuff back then.

ANyway, I wasn't into Soulside when I gave them a chance in the early 90s, but I tried again in 2018 and I got into it. I would have thought that if I had done the same about 5 years sooner then no doubt I could have picked up their records for cheap. But the way things are these days, everything is expensive, so it's taken a while to grab their 3rd LP, 'Hot Bodi Gram'.

This was released by Dischord back in 1989, with all copies pressed on black vinyl. There may well have been more than one pressing, but I have no idea, and if this is the case then there seems to be no difference between them.

I have been wanting to pick up this record for the last few years, but couldn't find one for a good price. And then eventually, a couple of weeks ago, I found a copy on ebay UK which was listed as an auction starting at £0.99. So I watched it for a few days and bid in the last few seconds, and won it for just over £7 (plus postage). There aren't too many bargains to be had these days, but I've had a few recently on eBay, which I assume is because 90%+ of record enthusiasts now use discogs pretty much exclusively. Lazy sods.

I still need two more Soulside LPs, and I have no doubt that I will eventually get them for a good price. Eventually.

The One Thing That Still Holds True

This is the last post in my series of Revelation Records test pressings that I picked up from an ex Rev employee, and I think I saved the best until last...

Back in 1996 Rev reissued both of the Chain Of Strength 7"s on a 12" with an extra song, and used the same catalog number as the original 'True Till Death' 7" - Rev10. I'm not sure why they didn't give it a new catalog number, but nevermind. Anyway, even thought 'The One Thing That Still Holds True' was effectively just a reissue, I remember being pretty damn excited for it. And here I am twenty seven years later getting just as excited all over again for the test press.

Like the rest of the records in this batch, this record came in a white paper sleeve, so I pulled out one of my regular copies to make the photos more interesting. But a friend of mine has located a spare sleeve for me, so in time this copy will have something to sit in.

So here's an interesting fact on this record - the Rev pressing info states that there are 4 copies of this test press. However, this is only half true. Having been to the Rev vault, I found out that there were two different test presses of this one made. The first was dated 11 Jan 1996, and the second is dated 01 April 1996. The first test press was rejected, but I have no idea why. The second test press has 'RE-1' added to the matrix (as do all of the regular copies of this record. Well anyway, I'm not sure which of the test pressings are out of 4 copies, but it is likely that there are 4 of each, as a lot of the test pressings from that time period were made in batches of 4.

My test press is one of the original rejected test pressings, which of course means that I'd also like to track down one of the 'RE-1' approved copies one day, although this is probably unlikely. Never satisfied.

Set Your Goals

This post is the penultimate in my series of test pressings I picked up recently from an ex Revekation Records employee. Today's post is Rev 41, the CIV 'Set Your Goals' LP.

This one came to me in a plain white paper sleeve. But by some stroke of good fortune, I had a spare sleeve on my shelf (that I'm not sure where it came from). Fun fact - the original first press copies of this record had a glossy sleeve, whereas later represses have a non glossy sleeve. The spare sleeve I had happened to be a glossy one, which means that this record now lives in a first press sleeve, which makes me happy.

This is an original test press from 1996. Only 4 copies exist. In recent years there was another test press, which is identifiable because it has newer Rainbo labels.

I have so many fond memories that relate to this record. I saw the band on tour back in the mid 90s, but I honestly don't recall whether it was before or after this record was released. But it was a great show. WHat now seems crazy is that when this record came out, it was only about 4 years since Gorilla Biscuits had split, yet nack then it felt to me that GB was from a totally different era. And now here we are, over 25 years since this LP was released, and I somehow still think of this as a semi recent record, whereas I consider 'Start Today' an old record. In reality both are, like me, old as fuck. Anyway, I still feel that at this point I'd rather see CIV play live than GB, although I'd probably rank 'Start Today' higher than 'Set Your Goals'. Kinda makes no sense right?

People Of The Sun

Another Revelation test press that I got from an ex Rev employee, and this one is Rev 56, which is the 'People Of The Sun' 10" by Rage Against The Machine. This one was released in 1997, and when it came out I thought it was a slightly weird release. At the time, RATM were a huge band and even though Rev was possibly at it's peak in terms of sales and distribution, RATM were clearly too big for the label. God only knows how this one ever actually came to be.

This EP was released as a 6 song record, which is interesting as the major label release on CD had only 3 songs. At the time it came out I couldn't care less about it, as at that point I had decided that RATM was garbage. I bought a copy when it was released just because it was on Rev, but I don't think I listened to it even once. WHat is even stranger is that as the years have rolled on, this has been repressed several times on different colours of vinyl. To me this really does feel like a 'time and place' type record, and not really one that should have been kept in print. I'm not sure I can really explain why, but that's how I feel about it.

Well anyway, even though I am not the biggest fan of this record, I still jumped at the chance to grab this test press. As with a few other releases from the same period, there were only 4 test pressings made, so this is a nice one to have for sure. Also, it barely shows in the photo, but this one has a slight whisp of white in it on each side, which looks kinda cool in real life.

Sadly I hadn't kept up on buying all the colours of this one over the years. But I'm definitely wanting to grab the copies I missed after picking up this test. So here's the 2022 clear vinyl repress:

There's also now a grey vinyl pressing from this year that I need to pick up. But interestingly, both the clear and grey were pressed at a different pressing plant to the earlier pressings, and there is (you guessed it) another test press from this plant. So plenty to keep collectors going.

I still need the red vinyl from 2014 (with '2014' stemped on the label) and the green vinyl version. If by any chance anyone can help I'd be very grateful.

She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not

Next in my series of Revelation test pressings that I picked up from an ex Rev employee is Rev 58, which is an absolute monster of a record. The debut release from Kiss It Goodbye, 'She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not' first surfaced in 1997, and certainly took me by surprise, because it was a new band with the singer from Deadguy... although when it came out, the Deadguy LP still felt relatively new, so I was slightly confused.

What I do remember about this record was being stoked that this band, which to me sounded like Deadguy due to the distinct vocals, was on Rev rather than Victory. It just felt like an indication that Rev was the number one label and had the power to grab the hot new bands before people even knew they existed.

According to the Rev pressing info, there are only 4 copies of this test press in existence, so I feel pretty lucky to have bagged this one. Sadly it didn't come with anything other than a white paper sleeve, so if by some coincidence anyone happens to have an empty sleeve laying about then get at me.

Liquid Glass

Next up on my series of Revelation test pressings that I picked up from a former Rev employee is Rev 52, which is the second full length by Whirlpool, 'Liquid Glass'.

Originally released back in 1996, Whirlpool was a band fronted by Rodney Sellars, best known for playing guitar in both Sensefield and Reason To Believe. Back when this came out, Sensefield were a pretty big deal, so I'm not entirely sure why Rodney felt the need to do a second band, although I'm sure I read at some point over the years that he was at a creative peak, writing a lot of material, not all of which seemed quite right for Sensefield. So Whirlpool was formed, and also included someone from Mean Season, as well as the drummer from Sensefield.

I remember this one coming out, and I remember at the time thinking that it was a much stronger record than their debut LP. But as much as I did enjoy this record at the time, it hasn't really proved to be one that I go back to very often.

As the picture shows, I actually picked up two test pressings for this record. The first test press (on the left) is a two sided record, but for whatever reason the A side was rejected. This has actually happened with a few Rev records, and generally what happens is that a new test is made only for the defective side. So the second test press (on the right) is a one sided record, and contains a recut of the A side of this LP.

Fun fact - any record that was remade has the same matrix but for the addition of 'RE' (presumably meaning 'recut'). Sometimes just the defective side was recut as a new test, sometimes both sides. But it's quite fun to go through the Rev records and check out the matrix on either side. If you spot the 'RE' it means that there are at least 2 test pressings made for that particular record. Which also means more to collect, of course.

Meditavolutions

My next batch of posts are some Revelation Records test pressings that I picked up recently from an ex Rev employee (the same guy who I got the Equal Vision test pressings from that I posted earlier this month). Each of these test pressings are from the 95/96 era, as that was when this person worked there, and for the Rev fanatic like me this represents a great era of Rev releases.

So I'm kicking off with Rev 49, which is the 4th album by Iceburn, titled 'Meditavolutions'. This came in a plain white paper sleeve, but somehow I had a spare sleeve for this record on my shelf, which I have no idea where it came from nor how long I have had it. But now has a sleeve.

This was released in 1996, and is the first release by which the band went under the name 'The Iceburn Collective' rather than simply 'Iceburn'. When this originally came out I was distinctly unimpressed with it. It's a little more jazz influenced than their presvious records, and quite long (it goes on for over an hour). But these days I quite enjoy playing stuff like this on days when I am working from home. I kinda need things that are a little slower and gentler whilst knee deep in the spreadsheets.

The Rev pressing info states that there were only 4 test pressings made of this record, so I'm pretty stoked to have got this one. One lives in the Rev vault, one sits on my shelf, and there are 2 more out there somewhere. So good luck if you're looking for one (which I doubt many people are!).

Clobberer!

A couple of months ago I ended up buying a Rhythm Collision LP after hearing it on youtube some 30 years after it came out. The record was pretty cheap, looked nice, and sounded great. It's been a great find for me this year, and it made a nice change to find a 'new' band whose records are not too expensive. Well anyway, the person who sold it to me sent me a message asking if I was interested in any other Rhythm Collision Records. Well yes, of course I was!

'Clobberer!' was the band's 3rd LP and came out in 1995 on Dr. Strange Records on a couple of different colours of vinyl. This green marble colour that I got looks so rad in person. This is from an era when labels used proper pressing plants. This looks so much nicer in real life, but sadly he photo couldn't quite do it justice. It's a shame that I can't say the same about the cover.

I've been playing this one a fair bit the last couple of weeks. There are some super catchy songs on here. This kinda stuff is always great for summer weather... although I'm not sure there's too much of that left this year the way it's been here recently. Anyway, I also picked up another couple of Rhythm Collision records from the same person, and I'll whack them up here when I finally get around to listening to them. Hopefully before the summer is out.

Ghosts In My Mirror

Back in 2016 I had some bad luck with a missing parcel. Inside was something like 98 records which ended up being lost forever. I moved on from it a long time ago, but now and again I am reminded about it because I manage to pick up another record that was in there. Today's post is another example.

I have always loved Swiz. I remember buying a gold vinyl copy of their first 7" from an ad in a copy of Maximum Rock N Roll zine simlpy because someone had told me how good Swiz were and how hard their records were to come by. So I just bought it blind, so to speak. But damnit, that person was right, and after that I went on a mission to track all of their records down. And then many years later I started trying to collect multiple copies of each.

I've owned a first pressing of their debut 12" release since about 1994. At the time I had no idea that there was more than one version out there, and then when I did find out that there were two pressings, I was stoked that I had a first press and not a second. But as the years rolled on, I realised that I also wanted a second press, because I actually think that the red cover looks better. Right?

Built To Last

The final in my series of 4 posts on some Equal Vision Records test pressings that I got from an ex Rev employee recently. This one is EVR 36, which is the 4th full length from Sick Of It All, 'Built To Last'. Originally released in 1997, this was their second one put out by a major label (EastWest), and the second time that Equal Vision stepped in to make sure it got pressed on vinyl for the hardcore community.

Back when this one came out I was super excited for it, as it was the follow up to what I still think is probably the band's best record, 'Scratch The Surface'. Right off the bat this one looked the part, with a the grill of a badass looking truck on the front cover. However, at the time I just remember feeling a little disappointed by it. As a general rule, I seem to get into every other SOIA record, so following 'Scratch The Surface' was never going to be easy, and I think that in the time between the two records, a LOT had happened in the world of hardcore. Also, in 1997 when this came out, SOIA started to feel like an old band It had been 10 years since their debut 7" had come out), although ten years seems like nothing as I type this over 25 years later. Still, regarldess of my memory of it, I obviously played this one a fair bit as I know the songs, and there are some bangers on here. I will admit though, I have no idea where people rank this one generally amongst the many SOIA albums that now exist. Is it up there as one of their best, or do people generally regard it as a forgettable one? Answers in the comments if you will.