New Age Catch Up

Another set of records that I picked up earlier in the year but never got around to putting up here. Today's post features a bunch of 7"s from New Age Records that I think I picked up in about April. At the time I'd pretty much given up on New Age, as I had missed out on a few of the limited 77 pressings, and it just felt as if I was so far behind that it would be impossible to catch up. But then the label posted that they had put a few extra 77 pressings up in their webstore, so I grabbed them and checked out fast.

The first 7" I was really stoked on, as I had heard great things about it and been listening to it for a couple of months. The Debut release from Restraining Order. I remember seeing a stack of these on a shelf at RevHQ when I visited last year, but the limited pressing was long sold out. So it was cool to grab one for 'new release' price.

I also grabbed a purple vinyl copy too. Purple was the more common color from the first press, but it looks great I think.

Next up, the 77 pressing for the debut 7" by The Dividing Line, 'Turn My Back On The World'.

The Dividing Line are a straight edge band from somewhere in New Jersey, and they vaguely remind me of Floorpunch, as both bands have a larger gentleman on vocal duty. They also apparently play weddings.

I've been really enjoying this 7" lately, and I hope the band release more music in the new year.

Next up, the Drug Control 'Clean Slate' 7". I picked up the 77 pressing, and also the red vinyl copy. Not sure why I picked up two of these but only one Dividing Line 7", but hey.

I liked this record way more than their first 7".

Once I had picked up the above three 77 pressings, I figured I was back in the New Age game and also picked up two other releases that I had completely missed out on. First up, the Cutting Through 'Empathy' 7" on gold vinyl / 200.

I had really enjoyed the previous 12" that New Age put out, although I wasn't as into this 7". Not sure why. It just didn't seem to stand out for any reason.

And finally, the Decline 'Own Your Words' 7" on gold /300.

This one really rips, and if I had actually picked it up when it came out then I'm sure it would have made my best of the year list.

Overall it's good to see a label that was huge when I was first getting into this stuff still going, and signing up some great young straight edge bands. Far better than relying on the releases from the past. And since this post New Age have put out some more cool records too, which I hope to get my hands on and feature next year at some point.

New Age Catch Up: Drug Control

New Age catch up Day 6, and it's yet another band with a name starting with the letter 'D'. This time it is a band called Drug Control. The band are (or were, as I think they broke up now) a straight edge band from San Diego. I already had the regular copies of their 7"s, but couldn't resist picking up cheap test presings for both.

The band's second 7" (and first on New Age) was put out back in 2016. The 'Stabbed' EP was a 7" I enjoyed back then, although was puzzled why the pressing didn't follow the same pattern as the rest of the releases, as there was no 77 pressing. Anyway, I picked up a test press with an alternate sleeve.

Interestingly, there is a test press of this one on discogs, and it has a completely different sleeve. I kinda like this one as it matches the rest of the series of New Age tests.

And here it is with the two colour copies of this 7" that I own, the green (/500) and the purple (/600):

I also bought a test press of the second 7" that the band put out via New Age, the 'Clear Sight' 7".

This 7" was a step up from the previous one, in my opinion, and had me looking forward to a full length. But sadly it was to be the band's last release as I am sure I read somewhere that they split up after this. Shame. This record did have a 77 pressing on white, as well as a nice looking red / black mix colour (/300).

Excluding the test presses, you can still buy all the other copies of these 7"s in the New Age webstore, including the 77 pressing of the 'Clear Sight' 7". Seriously, what are you waiting for?

New Age Catch Up: Cutting Through

Day 2 of my New Age Records 'catch up', based on a recent(ish) experience where I went to buy a 7" from their store and got sucked into buying a lot more.

Today's installment is the Cutting Through 'Empathy' 7". This one came out in 2018 during a point where it felt like New Age were putting up a new pre-order every other week, and I just lost track, so I missed this completely. I do have a vivid memory of seeing a stack of these for sale at RevHQ on the day that I visited back in August 2018, and I did manage to grab one (gold) copy of this 7" a few months later when I had a similar splurge in the New Age webstore, but I was missing the 77 pressing.

So I was pretty stoked to see the 77 pressing for sale, and I grabbed one quicksmart.

Unlike every other 77 pressing that the label have released, this one is actually numbered on the additional paper sleeve that wraps around the regular sleeve:

This time around the 77 pressing is pressed on the more common colour for this release, being the 'blue' vinyl (/300).

There was also a test press up for sale, which was going for too good a price to say resist. It has some really neat & tidy writing on the label as you can see:

I have to say it, but I am really into this band. There's something here which is more interesting than most. The singer was in Fired Up, the guitarist was in Get The Most and Blue Monday, and to me the song writing is definitely more mature than the average hardcore band. The songs slowly build rather than blast out, and definitely feel slightly more melodic. So good.

A bit of a theme for the week, here's a pic of all 3 copies together. The test, the 77 pressing, and the gold vinyl (/200) version.

New Age Catch Up: Cross Control

Almost exactly a year ago, a friend of mine in DC wanted to send me a 7" that she had been given, that she thought I would appreciate. The only problem was that she didn't have anything to mail it in. So she asked my advice. I came up with a genius idea that, if she was cool with it, I would buy a 7" that I had my eye on and have it delivered to her house. She could then open the mailer, insert the 7" she had, and then forward both 7"s on to me. Sounds both clever and simple, right?

Well of couse, the plan backfired. I'm not sure exactly which 7" it was that I had wanted to buy to have shipped to her, but I know that it was being sold by New Age Records. So once she agreed to my plan, I went to the label's webstore to pick up one 7", and ended up checking out on 15 seven inches. Well, it wasn't my fault that they'd sneakily just listed a bunch of test presses for sale at really good prices!

So here begins the story that will take me the rest of the week to tell, because I'm going to break it into several posts, rather than try to do it all in one post. I'm gonna cover them in alphabetical order, just because that's the kind of guy I am. Organised.

So day 1 features the debut release by Cross Control, a band I know nothing about other than they are from LA and their 7" is a banger.

First up I grabbed the 77 pressing. As usual, New Age made 77 copies with the old logo labels.

The pressing info says that there are 200 copies on green vinyl. I'm never really sure if these numbers include or exclude the 77 pressing. So either there are 277 green, with 77 of them making up the 77 pressing and 200 coming with regular labels, else there are 200 green total, with 77 and 123. But probably one of these.

The more common colour is clear, out of 500 copies.

The record is titled 'Outrage Culture', named after the a term that describes the modern era in which we live. I lifted this defintion from the urban dictionary:

When people play the victim card and bend over backwards to be as offended as possible when they really aren't. Using hissy fits, political correctness, character assassination, and a false sense of moral authority, the outrager hopes to gain power and public recognition for their brave act of justice as well as a sense of control over their meaningless existence. Often accompanied by demands for financial compensation for their "pain and suffering".

No wonder these dudes sound so pissed. I'll bet that LA has more than its fair share of these kind of modern humans.

I also picked up a test press. At the time I'd only played these songs about twice, but I figured I should grab one now while the price was right in case this turned out to be my favourite 7" of all time.

In the spirit of these posts, even though I have just posted photos of these 7"s, I thought I'd take another of them all lined up together.

New Age Catch Up: The Dividing Line

New Age Records catch up day 5, and the third band in a row with a name starting with a 'D' (excluding the word 'The'), The Dividing Line. The band are from NJ and immediately make me think of Floorpunch, mainly because they come from NJ and their singer is on the larger side. Plus they play pretty hard sounding straight edge hardcore. Definitely one of my favourite current hardcore bands, and I'm pretty excited for the upcoming LP.

So pretty much the same deal as the other 7"s that I've written about this week. When in the New Age store, I couldn't believe that I had the chance to grab a test press of this 7", so I grabbed it immediately. It has similar bad handwriting on the label, but it's in a bright green so is barely noticeable.

So of course, once I had added the test to the cart, and I also had the 77 pressing from, I figured I should probably also pick up the other colour that I didn't have. The clear vinyl is the more common colour /300.

So again, I've ended up with an almost complete collection of this 7". I'm missing the white vinyl with regular labels, but I don't really see the point of adding that one too.

New Age Catch Up: Lifetime

Day 7 of the New Age Records catch up, and we've finally moved away from the third and fourth letters of the alphabet.

As well as the test pressings of the more recent releases, there was also randomly a test press of the first Lifetime 7" for sale. And just like the other tests, it was up for a really great price - less than half of the cheapest price that one has sold on discogs. SO of course, I had to grab one. It's not the most exciting of tests as it comes in nothing more than a white paper sleeve.

New Age Records number 9 was released way back in 1991. I've always referred to this as the self-titled 7" because it has nothing but the band's name on the front cover, but it seems that other people refer to it as 'Dwell' (which is the name of the first song) as that's how it's listed on discogs. People are weird I guess.

With hindsight, this is not Lifetime's best work. It may even be their worst work, as they were one of those rare bands that actually get better with time. But I always liked their early material, because it was the first I heard of them, way back when I bought records purely because of the record label they were on. I was always disappointed that this one was never pressed on colour vinyl, so I'm happy to have grabbed this test press to have some kind of 'special' version.

One final thought that made me feel old. This 7" came out in 1991, and the band's final (reunion) LP came out in 2006. That's 15 years of Lifetime releasing records. I'm writing this in 2021, which is 15 years since Lifetime's last LP. So at this point in time, Lifetime have been out of the game for as long as they were in it. Seems crazy huh?

New Age Catch Up: Decline

Day 4 of my New Age Records 'catch up', and today is the second band in the series with a name that starts with a 'D', namely Decline.

The band is made up of dudes that have been involved in hardcore for 25 years or so, but who have somehow been in bands that I have never heard (Haunted Life, Expired Youth, Noose and New Heart). But the important thing is this band, which plays some straight up straight edge hardcore that kicks off with a great bass intro... like all the best hardcore records do.

The 'Own Your Words' 7" originally came out in 2018 the 77 pressing sold out super quick, but luckily for me some copies must have been held back and listed at a later date.

This time around the 77 pressing comes on the more limited colour of vinyl, being blue (/200).

And again, there was also a test press for sale for a very reasonable price:

Adding these two copies to the regular gold copy (/300) that I already had leaves me with a nice little collection.

Over two years since this was released, is the band still going? I hope so. Would be great to get a follow up at some point.

New Age Catch Up: Dear Furious

Day 3 of my New Age Records 'catch up', and today's 7" is the debut (and to date the only) release by Dear Furious. The band is made up of two members of the band Amendment 18 (Mike Hartsfield & Isaac Golub) whose last LP was titled 'Dear Furious', so no prizes for guessing where they got their name. The band also features dudes from other Californian bands Throwdown, Adamantium and Mean Season. Sound-wise, this band sounds pretty similar to the last A18 LP, which is not a bad thing, not least because A18 was one of those bands who actually got better with each release.

This 7" actually came out a long time ago now in hardcore terms, way back in 2017. Yet somehow there are still copies of the 77 pressing available in the label's webstore as I type this. I guess not many people care, which is kinda sad.

And, as with the other NA releases, there was also a test press available for a great price.

What was particularly satisfying about this one was that I had watched and been outbid one one of these on eBay, but it had no cover with it, and it sold for more than this one cost. So a double win.

Cop Out Post - A Bunch of 7"s

OK, so I haven't updated this thing much this year. This wasn't exactly intentional. It was mainly due to not being able to take photos due to light issues, partly due to the fact that I have been living in a building site for most of the year. Records built up and I tried one more than one occasion to take photos, to no avail. So I gave up. But with the year end almost here, I realised that I don't want this thing to die quite yet. So I thought I would catch up by cheating and posting all of the 7"s that I didn't get around to posting all in one go. As ever, the lighting was less than ideal, but I did the best I could.

First up, a couple of UK hardcore 7"s. I think I bought these back in about April or so. The first is a band called 'Big Cheese', and comes on a cheesy yellow colour vinyl:

This band seem to be doing pretty well building a name. This record is pretty good, although I didn't end up playing it as much as I expected to.

The second UK band is called Rapture. I picked this up because they got signed to Youngblood.

It seemed that there was a bit of a trend recently for bands to have female singers. Every label had one. Not sure if this trend is still going, but hey.

I'll do the rest of the 7"s in alphabetical order.

Depending on how you catalogue your records, numbers either come at the start or the end. Personally, I prefer my numbers at the start. So I'm starting with a couple of copies of this 27 7". This came out on Mind Over Matter Records. There were quite a few different versions, but I grabbed the only two left.

I hadn't listened to this band in quite a while, and these two songs helped pull me back in. I hope they continue to make more music in the future.

Next, the Burn 'Mountain' 7". This was pressed for a Euro tour. After the tour was over, the leftovers were sold online, along with a super limited red vinyl version that wasn't sold on tour. There weren't many available and they sold out super fast.

The red is numbered out of 150 copies, although I'm pretty sure that only about 50 of them were sold online.

I also picked up a black vinyl version. The main difference, other than the vinyl colour, is that the cover doesn't contain the song titles.

Next, the Crippled Youth reissue. This came with a huge thick booklet. The green and red were the standard versions. The green sold out super fast.

Then there was a neon green pressing for a couple of Bold shows. I was lucky and a friend picked one up for me.

Next, another 7" by The Damage Done. I won this on ebay, and was the only bidder. I think I got it for about $3. It's a tour press with a cool Turning Point rip off cover, numbered out of 88.

I also picked up this Drug Control 'Stabbed' 7" on red vinyl. It was pressed by Straight & Alert Records. It was also released by New Age Records. I have no idea which came first.

Next is this dark grey copy of the Even Score 7". I bought this because my copy is light grey and I thought it would be cool to have two different colour variants. The only issue is that my other copy is not in my house right now so I can't show the two at the same time.

I also picked up this blue vinyl Eye For An Eye 7". I have a red one which I've had since probably '93 or so, and this year someone sent me this for free. Cool huh?

I've never been a fan of bootlegs at all, and never buy them. But this year someone sold a few copies of the gold vinyl pressing of this GB 'Live At The Safari Club' on eBay, and as they were brand new and looked very shiny, I couldn't resist grabbing one.

One of my favourite pickups of the year for sure, a test press for the Release 'No Longer' 7" on Inner Journey Records. Not much to look at, but a nice once to have for sure.

And another Rain On The Parade 7". I'm not a fan of black vinyl unless it's to complete a collection. Which this pretty much does, although I can't prove it as my other copies are on holiday at the moment.

And while we're on the subject of Rain On The Parade, I also got the test press of the 'Fired Up' 7" on Youngblood.

I grabbed this 7" from a band called Safe And Sound on New Age. Like a fool I didn't listen to the band before adding it to my cart in a carefree manner. I can't imagine listening to this a second time.

A couple of years ago I decided it would be cool to collect different versions of the first Snapcase 7". Only problem is that they rarely come up for sale these days. But at some point this year I whipped this lime green one from eBay for a pretty low price. I was stoked.

Finally, a white vinyl copy of the Suicide File / R'n'R split. I remember when this came out there was some kind of controversy. I can't remember what it was exactly. But probably that whoever released it took a load of money and didn't send any records out.

I can only apologise for this being one of the worst / most boring posts of all time. Too many records and not enough time.