Hardcore Does Live

I won this copy of Lights Out's LP on eBay. The copies of white were stamped with the Lights Out stamp on the labels and were out of 202. This was the second and last press of the record according to the Youngblood site. This band was great and this LP came out really awesome too, the artwork, the layout and everything are awesome.

I went over to Reaper's webstore to order the third press of the latest Down to Nothing release. I also wanted to pick up a copy of No Values debut 7", which I had delayed picking up. So the third press of DTN is nice. The cover has a different color font and the vinyl is no longer on black, which is nice. Not to mention we got new and arguably better labels, so that is all good. The third press is out of 500. The No Values 7" looks great and matches the music. No Values I believe have members of Bracewar and maybe some other Richmond bands as well. They play more of a traditional fast paced hardcore punk, very much in a Richmond punk style. The red is out of 389.

When I went to pre order the Stick Together 7" from Back to Back, I also thought it would be good to get the United Youth demo. United Youth, it's pretty obvious what they'd sound like. These kids are young, like 15-16 I think. So it's awesome that they are playing in a band and they respect the history of hardcore, and aren't just playing what is really popular right now. That being said this is a rough demo. They show a lot of potential and I hope they put out some more stuff or maybe down the road they join other bands. This could be something really cool to have years from now. The tape is out of 100. By the way I didn't post my Stick Together 7"s because I didn't get a copy on Orange, instead two on White. I'm starting to really get annoyed with labels sending me two copies of the same color. I think about 80% of the time it's because the label made a mistake. I sent Back to Back an email but I haven't heard anything back for over a month now. I might try again sometime soon.

Keeping with the tape and the pre-order trend, this is the Police & Thieves tape put out by Youngblood. I picked this up when I was ordering the Sacred Love 7" and Final Fired Up press. I think this was maybe originally release by the band because I remember seeing them at a show or two before Youngblood announced they would be putting it out. This is called the Blizzard Sessions, when last winter there was a ton of snow in D.C. P & T decided to record some songs. This is some good stuff and it's good representation of things to come hopefully. I'm looking forward to their split with Remission.

I picked up another copy of Wake the Dead from the 1st original press. This one on green is out of 887.

So there's a great story about this one. Back in November Laura put up a list of records on the D.C. board, she was trying to part with them and she'd be taking offers. So I sent her an offer for this, True Colors Focus on the Light record release cover out of 130. She wrote me back saying that unfortunately she was getting better offers from people in Belgium and in Europe. With the bad conversion rate to the USD and shipping, I would have to offer double what I was offering, at a normally fair price. So at one point I even offered more than I thought it was worth, but it wasn't good enough in comparison to others. A little later that night she said she had spoken to my friend Ryan and that he had convinced her that I needed to have this record. I was instantly surprised.

She offered to bring me the record when she was in America a few months later. I even explained that I would no longer be living near D.C. but she said we could still meet up and work it out. So I sent her the money and waited until February when she was in the U.S. She ended up being at the Mother of Mercy record release show here in Philly and she had the record with her. I was amazed that not only did she have it and she was there, but that she even wrapped it and had my name on it. Laura brought it on the plane with her as one of her carry-ons. That's dedication.

To me this is what is so cool about hardcore, someone would take the time out to personally deliver me a record that I want simply because of a friend of a friend. I feel like this wouldn't happen in almost any other community. A big thank you go out to Laura and Ryan.

So I also picked this up at that same show, this is Mother of Mercy's latest LP IV: Symptoms of Existence with the record release "shirt". I say shirt because that's literally what it is. Normally it would be a special sleeve or a whole different cover. Instead this is what seems like a shirt that was cut and re-sewn to fit the size of the record. Very cool touch.

On the back is the date of the release show. Cool touch. I'm not sure how many of these there were. Let me know if you know.

The first step is admiting you have a problem.

I have realized the title of this post, as I have been spending way too much time and money on records lately. I've had too much down time at work, and well I couldn't find anything else to do.

This is a copy of The Effort's Iconoclasm. This has the special Newsletter Edition Sleeve, hand numbered out of 50. I've been trying to expand my collection of Iconoclasm, in my opinion it's the best material the band has released. The LP flows from beginning to end and each song all could be considered some of their better stuff. The problem with this one is that there are so many versions of it. Not to mention now that Seasick Records put out a second press, it's out of hand. It was already over-whelming with just Words of War Records.

After I heard very late to the party that Blink's Enema of the State was put on vinyl by Mightier Than Sword Records, I knew I had to get a copy. So I went to the webstore and was able to pick up this copy on Yellow from the second press out of 500. I found out about this being pressed by chance, surfing up eBay. I was happy I did. These things are going for a good penny on eBay and there are several different versions, so that only adds to the collectors inability to hold back. No worries for me though, I don't see myself paying what other people are willing to for other copies of this one. This label also re-released Cro-Mags The Age of Quarrel, which caused a lot of attention. How this label is getting the rights to put these out is beyond me, but it's cool none-the-less.

This is the last copy of Juggernaut that I didn't have. This is on white out of 252. I've got a decent collection going now of this band. I'm missing pretty much only the really rare stuff, so for the most part I'd say it's done. This is another collection that happened by coincidence. I was originally only interested in the s/t 7", but I actually gave the other material another listen and gave my bias a break. I picked up copies of the latest 7", demo tape and this LP all for pretty easy and cheap, so that's what I mean by coincidence, I wasn't trying too hard to expand.

This was a big score for me. I've been wanting to get a copy of this for a few years, and they always go on eBay for like $40 or more. I was lucky to be able to snag this one for less. This was the first album that I can look back on and triggered me completely going after more alternative or unconventional I suppose you could say, music. I picked this up on CD like about seven years ago, when I thought the coolest thing was ordering CDs off of Amazon. I've come far.

Anyway for those that don't know, this is Underoath's They're Only Chasing Safety. This was what you could say was their biggest record as far as "breaking" them per se. To me this was the best this band was and ever will be, and I'm sure a lot of people agree with me, but there are bias fans of every album they've put out. This could be described as screamo or post-hardcore, more on what people would consider to be not hardcore related at all. This album just is monumental for me, I'm sure that most people can point back to one album that just kick started a lot of who they are today, this would be it for me.

So the white vinyl is out of 500. The whole pressing of this was pretty limited, like 1,000 or 2,000, thus why these go for a good penny. This album sold over 500,000 copies on CD, and their following album debuted at #2 on Billboard. So the fact that only like 1,500 of these were pressed, on like four different colors, it's all pretty rare.

Back to hardcore. This is a copy of Uniform Choice's Demo 2x7". This is what I think is the second press, split release with Cargo and Headhunter Records. No idea how many this is limited to. If you know, please help. The original press was put out by Nemesis Records I believe.

Here we have another copy of What's Done is Done. This is on clear out of 300. This is my second copy and my third, on red is in the mail currently.

I picked up these two copies of the Youth Crew 09 comp from Chris, bassist of Mindset. The top is on orange out of 100 and the bottom is a transition from the black to the orange out of 40 or 50. Now I know that I paid too much for these, but hey that's my own ignorance, not Chris' fault. Either way it went to a good cause, to get Chris a plane ticket to go on the Praise Cali tour a little bit ago.

There's Nothing Blue about Saturday

Here we have two Blue Monday records I picked up I think off of eBay. On the left is a copy of War Wounds put out by For the Core Records. I think this is the pre order cover out of 50? My other copy on blue doesn't look like this at all. If anyone knows what version this is let me know.

The record on the right is a copy on black of What's Done is Done. With 1,200 copies of this it's not a treasure. This one was put out by Stab and Kill records. I believe both of these were the earlier material from the band, pre-Bridge 9. I prefer these recordings over the LP. What's Done is Done just straight rips. I'm looking to continue this collection and get as many as I can.

Smelly Record Store

So I was running some errands around my area and I happened to notice a record store in a shopping center down the road a little bit from my apartment. I stopped in to see what it was all about. I walk in and the entire place is packed with stuff, a good sign. Now the best way I could describe this store would be if you took a record store from 1991 and put it in 2011. They had mostly CDs along with used VHS tapes. Really? How was this place in business? They even had the local smelly guy that made me come close to vomiting probably 10 times every time he passed me. After going to some punk and hardcore shows you understand that sometimes people don't shower often and smell, this was a whole different level that should only be reserved as punishment.

Whatever, I went to the vinyl row and started going through all of the bins and I ended up with these two, Michael Jackson's Thriller and Van Halen's 5150. Both are great to add to the collection and in good shape. The more monumental album is obviously Thriller, but hey you can't beat a Van Halen record either.