Don't Collect Records, It Turns Into a Problem

So I've Been Buying Less

2012-01-16T21:45:00.024-05:00

But I've still got a huge back log of stuff to post.

So I picked up this copy of On's Control 7". This is the special record release cover out of 100.

On the back of the special cover it is numbered, mine being 19 and it also has the date of the show in big print.

Included with this came a flyer of the show, pretty cool way of remembering the show. It looked like a pretty good line up.

So when the pre orders for the latest Pulling Teeth records went up I think I missed the boat, by the time I got around to looking in to it, one of the pre order versions were already gone. I believe it was on a dark green vinyl. I was able to pick up the other pre order version, on black out of 250. So the pre order press, or first press as you will consisted of those two colors each out of 250 and were the only versions as a double LP. The second press was a much larger pressing on 1 LP I think released with Deathwish. Probably 1,000 or more.

This I picked up from A389 at the same time, this is the second press of Mother of Mercy's III. This is the more common version of the press out of 404. This record is too good.

So Magrudergrind has been a local D.C. act for a while known throughout the world for their incredible grind and power violence delivery. I've always been in to this band since I heard them a few years back, but I never was in to them enough to pick up one of their records. I've seen them live a few times and every time was great. Better band live than on record, for sure. So when I first heard this s/t release I knew I had to pick it up. Recorded at the great God City Studios with Kurt Ballou, this record just packs a great punch. I took a while to finally get this one, but it was worth it.

So I heard about this band Enough not too long ago playing some great youth crew inspired jams. I knew I had to get as much as of this band as I could, so good. So picked up three copies of their When You Don't Think You Can 7". Pink is out of 85, Clear/White out of 100 and Black out of 105. The band self-released this record and they did a great job.

So I also picked up this split from A389. This is Integri-teeth, which is Pulling Teeth with Dwid from Integrity on vocals and Pale Sphincter. I don't think I've listened to this one yet, but anything PT related I want.

Again from A389 I picked up this second press of Harms Way's No Gods No Masters. This copy is on Clear Yellow with Hot Pink Splatter. This one is out of 516. Surprisingly this matches the artwork.

Also from A389 I picked up a copy of Iron Age's The Way Is Narrow. This one put out by Painkiller and on clear is out of 520, second press.

This one I think I may have picked up from eBay? It's the most common version of True Color's self-titled. This one was put out by Not Just Words, on black and out of 525.

So this is the Record Release version of Alert' Find Your Way. I think the boys from the band put this up in their Big Cartel store after the show. I picked one up immediately.

This one is numbered 32 out of 50.

Rev Order

2011-12-28T21:12:00.019-05:00

So I picked up the recent represses of Youth of Today's Can't Close My Eyes from Revelation. There were two colors of vinyl repressed for this repress. This is the second pressing for Revelation. They decided to use the originally artwork for this repress, which they did not use for the originally pressing of this 12" on Revelation. This was a good move on their part going back to the original. So the first color was on red, out of 443. Cool, it matches the letters on the artwork, good pick. The other color was on purple marble out of 562 copies. Now not all of copies of this version were actually purple, some were more grey and some were more blue. For a full description of the different colors or even the earlier versions of this record check out dobek's post.

As well as the YOT records I also picked up a copy of Title Fight's LP. I wasn't sure about pre-ordering this record. I downloaded it when it came out and I defintly was interested. So I knew I wanted to get a copy of it and I wasn't too worried about having a super limited copy, I just wanted a copy of it for the time being. So I picked it up from Rev. The copy on black is out of 1,400.

This thing came out really nice. The gatefold sleeve is awesome, the inside is definitely the best part of it. The dust sleeve for the record is printed and is also really cool. Overall Side One Dummy did a fantastic job.

So with my Rev order I also got another copy of Ceremony's recent LP. This is the third press on black out of 1,000. I want to get more Ceremony vinyl, hopefully I can start a collection.

So also from Rev I decided to pick up another one of the classic Rev band's releases. This is the second pressing of Judge's What It Meant Discography collection. After not picking the best vinyl color for the first pressing, the went with just the standard black and it looks great. Much better. I think this is out of 500 from what I have written down, but the massive text file online with the Revelation discography doesn't have anything specific. Anyone know?

I also got another Youth of Today record. This is a copy of Break Down the Walls. I believe this is the version with the band photo on the label from the older press out of 550. Can anyone confirm this for me?

I picked up a copy of Strike Anywhere's latest LP on pink. I'm starting to get back in to this band after many years. The copy on pink is from the first press out of 700.

I picked up two copies of the self-titled 7" from Youth of Today that was also recently repressed. I already had a copy of this on red but I decided to get another. The copy on black I believe is out of 300. The red was the special Record Store Day press out of 1,350.

I took a picture of the two different copies on red I have, there is a little bit of a difference.

Holiday Post

2011-12-24T14:11:00.017-05:00

So I've got some down time while I watch Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin at his best. I figured I'd write a new post.

So I decided to pick up some more Underoath vinyl after liking the new record and picking up a copy of it. So I went to Zambooie and ordered some vinyl. First we have this 10" release. This one has remixes from the recent LP. I think it also has an etched B side. I can't remember what songs are on this one.

So here is another copy of the recent LP on clear out of 400. I think this is the most rare version of the LP.

So this one version is a picture disc and features a different version of the album art, I think they called this the deluxe or special edition. It is limited to 1,000 so I don't get why this version is supposed to be the special version if there's more copies, I guess it's the cover art?

So I picked up this copy of the Minor Threat s/t 12" I think off of eBay. This one has the blue cover with $4 on the back.

So I picked up this copy of The Effort's Iconoclasm I believe off a guy selling some other Effort vinyl. I can't remember who. This one is the 'Merica 2008 cover from their tour.

This one is numbered on the back out of 50. Oh and hey I've got #1, pretty cool. Are ten versions of this LP too many? Yeah probably.

So I pre-ordered the S.O.S. record from Reaper a while back. When the pre-orders went up it was said there would be three colors of the vinyl. So I got all three. Come to find out later there was a version on gold that was not a part of the pre-order. I got a copy on black out of 200, gold out of 350 and black/gold out of 450. So I missing clear out of 1,000, I'll get it eventually. This is a pretty solid record as well. S.O.S. features current members of Trapped Under Ice, Terror & Hatebreed and a former member of Agnostic Front and Madball.

So I also pre-ordered the Remission and Police and Thieves split from Amendment Records. Both of these bands are great and after getting Winds of Promise I had to get any and everything Remission. I got three colors of this one as well, teal out of 150, grey out of 350 and black out of 500.

I picked this copy of Far From Breaking's The Identity off of eBay. This copy on blue is from the third press out of 300. Of course this one was put out by the Youngblood Records.

So this one is a bit of a unique one. Amendment had some extra copies of the clear vinyl from the second press of Remission's LP but no covers, so they took some of the extra copies from the LP's European press on Assault Records and put them on the extra copies of clear. So thus we have this unique pressing out of 100.

So along with the special copy of Remission's LP I also got a copy of Count me Out's 110. The owner of Amendment was selling some of his own personal vinyl. The copy on black is out of 990.

Why isn't it cold yet?

2011-12-04T14:10:00.018-05:00

So Rich over at Speedowax let me know that he was putting out some more limited versions of the Splitting Headache double 7". This time he was going to do them on different color sleeves, red and pink. Up top is the copy with the red sleeve numbered out of 50. Below that is the pink cover also numbered out of 50.

Rich also included an extra pink sleeve that is number negative out of 5. I'm not sure what it completely means but I remember him saying it had to do with getting both the red cover and pink cover.

So one thing I was looking for on Record Store Day was the special AC/DC 7". They took the live recordings of "Shoot to Thrill" and "War Machine" for the upcoming River Plate DVD/Blu-Ray release and put them on the A and B side of this 7", just like an old school 45 rpm single. The recordings were part of three shows in Argentina back in 2009 using 32 HD Cameras. You know big budget style. As for the 7", Columbia pressed 5,000 of these, so it was not a problem getting one on eBay shortly after RSD.

So I'm not too sure where I got this one from but I'm assuming it was eBay. This was the last copy of The Effort's first 7" that I was missing. This is the most common version from the first press on Gold out of 200. There's too many versions of this record. I feel like it was trying to compete with the insane amount of versions of Have Heart's Demo.

So I won a three tape lot from a guy on eBay up in the Northwest. They were all demoes of local bands up there. I was really just looking to grab these two. This is Not Sorry's Demo from 2009 and Gone But Not Forgetten's Demo from 2008. I mainly wanted the Not Sorry Demo, but the GBNF was also another tape want for me. I feel like it's even harder to find copies of band's demo tapes than it is their rarer records. People just don't trade, sell or take care of tapes like they do records. The Not Sorry tape with the red insert is out of 50 and the GBNF tape is out of 300. The GBNF tape was one of the first React! releases. I think this still came out after Get the Most's Core Values on React!.

Here we have a record I just thought would be nice to have a copy of. This is Hatebreed's Under the Knife 7". I believe this was released before Satisfaction and the black vinyl is not rare at all, 6,000 copies. However it is from the well known Smorgasbord Records.

In continuing to get Iron Boots records I picked up my first copy of Weight of World. This copy on black put out by Boredom Kills Records is out of 900.

So I picked this one up with the previous Iron Boots record. This is a copy of Easy Green on you got it, Green. This was part of the second press from Grave Mistake Records out of 450.

I've been wanting this one for a while. This is a copy of New Found Glory's Tip of the Iceberg with a special pre-order sleeve/vinyl color. The sleeve is a rip of the Gorilla Biscuits s/t 7" if you didn't already know. The vinyl color I'm assuming was Banana Yellow for a reason. This is out of 500. They also made a Judge rip shirt, I wish I had that as well.

All Over the Spectrum of Hardcore and Metal

2011-10-31T21:01:00.025-04:00

So also part of my pick ups from Willem I got a copy of the Pulling Teeth and Shin to Shin split on purple. I'm not sure how many of these there are but I'm guessing it's a pretty limited version.

So I ordered a copy of the Cold World and Sean Price collaboration 12". They put out a song together called How the Gods Chill. The White Glove Group put this one out like a true DJ release. The A side has the Dirty, Radio and Instrumental version of the song. The side B has the same Dirty, Radio and Instrumental versions but this time it's the Remix of the song. They made this artwork very unique, they took a hint from one of the latest crazes right now, 3D. The cover is printed with the special 3D outlines and they included 3D glasses in the sleeve for your viewing pleasure. Though it's not really something I would ever do, it's defiantly a cool thing to do to make the release stand out. This one on red is out of 300. This was the pre-order version I believe.

So there was an exclusive record for Record Store Day this year at Celebrated Summer in Baltimore, MD. It's this lovely Pulling Teeth gem. Tony from Celebrated Summer put out this special release of the Funerary single before the recent Funerary LP came out. Tony had these special screen printer covers printed. I believe this is out of 50 copies. I'm pretty sure I got the last one at the store that day. I was super bummed to not be able to pick up the special Mindset cover for RSD at the store, but that and this were the main things I wanted.

I ordered this European press of the Remission LP from Amendment Records. This was put out by Assault Records, and this version is out of 363.

This release I would say is better than the Amendment records version. The cover is awesome and the insert is great. The Amendment version is awesome, but this one is just more my style.

It's kind of hard to tell that this is purple, but when you hold it up to light it's pretty obvious.

Here we have a record that I've loved for a long time and is probably one of the best metalcore records of the past decade. This is Every Time I Die's Hot Damn! I'm not really knowledgeable about this pressing. This was originally put out by Ferret Records, now I'm not sure who handled the vinyl when it first came out, and I'm guessing this press was not from when it came out. This was put out by Suburban Home Records and is out of 700. I can't believe this band is still going and still putting out some decent material that is still very reminiscent of this record form almost 10 years ago.

I believe these are more records I picked up at Celebrated Summer on Record Store Day. I picked up a few things, this is Youth of Today's Can't Close My Eyes. This was the first time Revelation put it out as a 12", it was originally released by Positive Force as a 7" and then as a 12" from Schism. This press was released in 97 I believe. The black vinyl is the most common from the press, and I have no idea how many there were pressed, maybe 1,000 or so? Oh yeah, Revelation just repressed this again but used the original artwork, which came out much nicer.

So here was one of the best parts of the Celebrated Summer haul, this is another copy of Zao's Where Blood in Fire Bring Rest. It was pressed on Broken Circles about a year or so ago, maybe two. I saw it was a color I didn't have so I wanted to get it instantly. When I got home, I realized that the black color was the most rare, out of 100. I got this for a steal and it was the most rare version.

I picked up this copy of Rotting Out's This is Just a Life a little while ago on eBay. I really don't know anything about this one. This was originally pressed by World Won't Listen Records, but this version doesn't say anything about the label. That would lead me to think that the band made these, or it's a bootleg. I was able to find out via Hows Your Edge, that this is out of 100. That's all I know.

True Colors Gems

2011-10-22T15:33:00.008-04:00

So I got a bunch of True Colors records a ways back from fellow blogger Willem. He was selling a bunch of stuff I couldn't pass up on. Plus he runs a pretty awesome blog.

So we begin with the basic black pressing of the Perspective 7". The two colors from the first pressing were black and white. They are both out of 300, so these are both common versions of the record, but still not easy to come by.

Here we have the Self-Titled 7" on white. Again this one had a pressing of white and black. The black is the most common out of 525 and the white is out of 315. The white is more rare, and this 7" in general is harder to find than Perspective. Now that we got the basic stuff out of the way let's move on to the limited stuff shall we?

Here we have the UK Tour/Record Release cover of the Self-Titled 7". This one is out of 110, odd number. Why not 100? This is a pretty awesome cover and still has some of the aspects of the regular sleeve. So I believe that means I have all of the versions of the self-titled 7" except the test.

Here we have the band's Get 'Em demo originally put out on tape. I have no idea how many of these there are. Can anyone help? I think this is the first batch of the tapes. I believe they were released by the band. This one has the white cover with the green insert. The second batch had a yellow cover with a white insert. This was also pressed on vinyl by I Drink Milk Records right before the band's last show not too long ago.

So I've saved the best for last. This is the Wide Awake rip off cover. These put together by Powered I believe as the last few copies of the 7" from the second press. The last press was on the white/red split color vinyl. I believe they made these covers on the last 30 copies of the record and put them up in their webstore for the first come, first served basis. So these sold out really fast from what I've heard. So I'm super happy to have this one.

They even paid tribute to the Schism Records logo on the back of the cover. This one is numbered 26 of 30. They used the artwork on the back on a lot of stuff for the band going forward, merch and what not. This also means I have all of the versions of this release except the test.

Updates more Often? Maybe?

2011-10-12T17:52:00.020-04:00

I picked up the other version of New Found Glory's Don't Let Her Pull You Down. This one on clear is out of 666. I think I got it from eBay.

So Reaper Records put out a special compilation for United Blood this year. This is it. I believe all of these songs were already released, but it's still a pretty cool compilation. The compilation has Terror, Naysayer, Down to Nothing, Death Threat, Take Offense & Maximum Penalty. It has a cool booklet in the cover as well. This guy was out of 250, and though made and sold for the fest, it was put up in the Reaper webstore not too long after the fest.

So I picked up a copy of the Hatebreed/Neglect split. I don't know how many there were of these. It was put out by Jasta's own label, Stillborn.

So I picked up another copy of the Frostbite 7" put out by Dead by 23. This one I believe is the pre order silkscreen cover out of 159. This record is a pretty cool one to collect I have to say. As much as Robby Redcheeks gets criticized for putting out so many versions of records, he did a great job of it.

So I ordered a copy of the Remission Winds of Promise from the band. The reason for going to the band? They've got the band color of course, clear. This one is out of 100. They also had a tape that the band put out themselves. This tape has the songs from the Winds of Promise 7" and the Police & Thieves split 7". I'm not sure how many of these there are.

So my fellow blogger Mike noticed that I was unable to get a copy of the Youth of Today Disengage 7" from Record Store Day, so he sent me an e-mail that he had picked up an extra copy and the guy he was gonna give it to fell through, so he sent it to me. Great situation. I was stoked to be able to get this as easy as I did, after not being able to initially get it. Thanks Mike.

So I picked this one up from Tre of Deathwish on eBay. This is the Final Show/Posi Numbers version of Time Flies s/t 7". The special cover was made for the two shows and is out of 200.

So I think I picked this up from Andy Norton, but not totally sure. This is the record release version of Mindset's Real Power. This probably my favorite version of this record, the cover, vinyl cover, stamp, layout are all awesome.

It's numbered on the back out of 78.

So I picked up a copy on black of the original pressing of Iron Boot's 2004 Demo. This one was put out by the now defunct Brain Grenade Records. This is out of 500. I have no idea where I got this one, maybe from eBay.

Back to the Mailbox

2011-10-06T19:18:00.021-04:00

Now that I finished what I got from the fest, it's time to get back to the normal mail stuff.

Here we have the second press of the reissue of Converge's Jane Doe from Deathwish. So I guess this would be the third press technically. This is another installment in what seems to be Deathwish's attempt to put out more presses on black of past releases. I have no idea what the numbers on this one is.

So I picked this up with one of my A389 orders I think. This is what I think is the second press of Backtrack's demo. I believe this is the mixed vinyl, but I'm not sure. More likely, it's probably a larger third press.

So I traded my extra copy of Stick Together's No More Games on white for a copy on orange. I received two copies on white with my pre order. At first I thought I got screwed out of the most rare color, but really the white is the most rare. Once I put up that I had two copies on white, I got an offer to trade for a copy on orange pretty quick. I knew at that point I could probably get a better deal for it, but I didn't feel like going through the hassle of finding a better trade or selling it. So I took the trade and here is the copy on orange.

So I don't remember where I got this from, maybe eBay? This is the self-released U.S. version on black out of 400 copies. I don't think this band is still active anymore.

I ordered this from A389. This is a live compilation from the A389 2010 Anniversary Show. These were originally sold at the 2011 show, but there were some left over. There are still some left in the A389 store. These 10"s are limited to 200.

I also picked up the second press of the recent Pulling Teeth LP, Funerary. I have no idea what these are limited to, but I'm guessing at least 1,000. This is a much more basic press, not as impressive as the first press gatefold and what not.

So I decided at some point that I wanted to get every copy of the first press of Mother of Mercy's III. So for pretty cheap I was able to pick up all four vinyls. This is a great record, I've got seven of them.

I won two React! rarities on eBay from Aram himself. Both were pretty reasonable too. Up top is the transition copy of Common Causes self titled. This one is pretty rare, only 28 stamped on the dust sleeve. Below that is in my opinion the better but just as awesome record, Praise's Growing.Changing.Healing transition. This one is also stamped on the dust sleeve in typical React! fashion and is out of 55. Two great scores.

I pre-ordered the Turnstile 7" from Reaper. Turnstile is a side project of Trapped Under Ice's drummer, on vocals. It's pretty similar in style to TUI but also cool in it's own right. Overall this is a pretty cool 7". Clear is Pre Order version out of 217 and the blue is out of 830.

So it was announced that there was going to be a repressing of Bad Brains' Pay to Cum for Record Store Day this year. I put that on my mental list to pick up. Before Record Store Day even happened it was posted that the Bad Brains would be selling them on their webstore, so I immediately took advantage of being able to be at Record Store Day from behind a computer, less lines and higher chance of getting what I want. I got all four versions of the re-release. Green and red are out of 250 and gold is out of 500. I have no idea what the black is out of, maybe 1,000?

I'd like to end this post with one of the most beautiful pictures on this blog. This was put on my mail slot of my apartment a while ago, we don't live here anymore, but this is a testament to how many packages I got. The mail guy had to give me my own scan point, so when people send me stuff with delivery confirmation I would be able to see that it was scanned at my front door and then left at the post office for me to pick up at my leisure. Talk about making it in the world, it's like your place or residence gets so much mail it needs it's own tracked location. I have no words.

This Is Hardcore, Part 2

2011-09-18T14:42:00.003-04:00

Here we have the fest edition of Disengage's 7". Back to Back put together some special screen-printed sleeves for the fest. There are 100 of these, and they are not numbered, but stamped on the back.

Hoodrack, the frontman of Stick Together and War Hungry was selling some of his personal collection. I recently got in to Rhythm to the Madness before I went to the fest and Hoodrack had several of their releases, so I picked up all of them. Here we have the LP the 7" and a promo tape. I can't find any pressing information on the tape. Anyone know?

So Bridge 9 was there and they had copies of the new Carry On reissure, which I knew was coming in the near future. So I was happy to snag a copy of it on white, this was the only color they had. I couldn't be happier about having a copy of this one without having to spend $40 or more for a copy from the first press. I also pre-ordered the other color, so I'll be looking in the mail for that one.

So I picked up some records from the other label staple at the fest, Deathwish. They screen printed some special covers of some of their big releases specifically for the fest. I picked up a copy of Blacklisted and Cold World's first LPs. They also pressed copies of the We're Unstoppable release, which I believe was originally released as a CD. The grey color was the label color, clear was Blacklisted's color. I'll have to get that one. Anyone know the pressing on any of these?

I picked up a pair of Mindsweats. I've wanted to have these after rave reviews online. This is the third incarnation of the sweats, and I have to say I lucked out because these match perfectly with my Mindset hoodie.

For Sound and Fury and This is Hardcore, Reaper Records and Tee Till Death did a collaboration shirt. This thing came out great. Since it's a classic Uniform Choice boot, it's too hard to pass up on. Take a look at the original here.

So Face Reality had A Straight Ahead rip for the fest, which was pretty popular. How can you go wrong?

So I couldn't resist this shirt. Back to Back did a Simpsons shirt, I don't think specifically for the fest though. This thing is just awesome. I usually never buy label shirts, but these two were hard to pass up on.

Twitter

2011-08-22T19:04:00.003-04:00

I set up a new twitter account for the blog. I'll post new blog posts with mentions of the bands and the labels in each post. I'll also be retweeting pre-orders for releases that I think you should know about or that I myself have pre-ordered. Check it out and follow if you'd like. @dontcollectblog.

This Is Hardcore, Part 1

2011-08-21T21:02:00.014-04:00

So I was able to go to This Is Hardcore this year. It was great to get to go back this year after missing out last year. The line up was pretty solid. I do have to say that I can no longer do a three or four day fest. It's just too much. I could do two days but anymore just seems like overkill. So I went to Thursday, Friday and Saturday this year. I skipped out on Sunday and missed Down to Nothing, which was the only band on that day that I wanted to see. I was just too out of it to go.

So I missed most of Face Reality's set on Thursday night. They had a pre-cover version of their new s/t 7" from Youngblood. These sold out pretty fast, by Friday I think. This version is out of 75, numbered and stamped on the back.

Sean Youngblood also had a tape with songs from the new releases coming out soon on the label. It has No Tolerance, Face Reality, Give, Police & Thieves, Sacred Love and Mob Mentality. It's limited to 100 copies. I think there were some of these left over, maybe it will be put up on the webstore soon.

This is a special version of Strife's My Fire Burns On. It was made for the fest and is numbered out of 50. New Age did a great job on this thing. The silk screened cover, artwork, layout and details are superb. The record labels are numbered too. Great touch. Strife set was also awesome.

So Stick Together was one of those bands this year that you could consider was a hype band. The local kids like them, no surprise and their merch goes for a lot on eBay. All the things you need for hype. To be honest this band is good, defiantly worth listening too. I hope if the hype dies down these guys still keep going. I know it features members of Bad Seed and War Hungry. They had the new second press of the 7" on clear. The first press sold out pretty quick, especially for 1,000 copies and the bands first 7". They sold a lot of demoes too I think. I'm not sure the pressing of the clear copy. They also had a discography up til now tape. It has the song from the Six Feet Under compilation, the 7", the demo, the live in Toronto tape and I think a cover of a band called Magnus maybe? Cool thing to have either way. Not sure how many of these their are either.

So Robby Redcheeks had a table with some of his stuff in the warehouse across the street from the venue. He had some Dead by 23 releases he was selling for cheap. I picked up this copy of Frostbite's 7". This is the version I believe from the Floorpunch "last show". I'm not sure how many of them there are. I think it's the fourth or fifth press.

So Strength for a Reason played the fest, which they normally do. I decided to pick up the other version of the split they did with Cold World. I got it for Cold World, not for Strength for a Reason. This is on white and I'm not sure the pressing. Cold World killed it at the fest. So good. They get better and better each time I see them. One of the best reactions as usual.

So Pulling Teeth had a copy of their Demo pressed as a flexi disc. These seem to be the new thing to do. I don't really get it. It's just like a flimsy record. It's different, which is cool, but I'd prefer an actual vinyl. This copy is clear and out of only 50. So this was a great pick up. I'm not sure if this was made for the fest or not. Pulling Teeth were great as usual. I was not sure about the latest LP but after their performance I can say it's great. There are so many guest vocals on the thing. Some great tracks on it, and they played them live.

So I think this was a limited copy of Praise's new 7". I'm not sure, but I bought it either way. The pre order was on Black White and Grey, so that was my reasoning to get it. I was happy React was there, but I wish they had made some limited versions of the records for the fest, like limited merch or covers or something. With the showcase, Aram has plenty else to worry about with the limited stuff he has for that in the works.

So I picked up a couple of things from the Six Feet Under table. Up top is the limited fest version of the recent reissue of the Cold World and War Hungry split. I think this is limited to 75, but I'm not sure. I also picked up a copy of the reissue without realizing I made the pre order for it. So I probably already have the one on white coming to me. Below that in the distro I picked up a copy of Not Afraid's 7" put out by Control Records. I've been wanting to get a copy of this and I slept on the pre order for this hard. The copy on black is out of 400. This 7" rules, picks right back up where True Colors left off, with a little bit of a change. I need to find one on green. I wish I picked up the Alert 7" they had, I think it was a special press for Sound and Fury and This Is Hardcore, but it looked just like the record release version, just different colors on the font. Oh well.

Why not be behind the times?

2011-08-01T16:58:00.016-04:00

Here we have the two other copies of DTN's latest 7" of the Australian Press. Black and red are both out of 200. I originally complained about the price and shipping for these. I spoke to the guy who runs the label and I was mistaken. He had these pressed in the U.S. and shipped to Australia. So do the math, shipping to and from Australia is enough for a handful of records, imagine 500. He told me he did it as a favor to the band and is not making anything on it. Considering these factors, it came out pretty well.

I picked up the two other versions of the No Turning Back 7"s I have. Up top you've got the s/t one put out by Reflections Records. I think the Blue and Black split is out of 400. On the bottom we've got the Rise from the Ashes 7" put out by Not Just Words Records. The Orange version is out 270. I got both of these off eBay for pretty cheap, like three years after I had the others. Patience is a virtue.

Here we have the rarer version of Blue Monday's What's Done is Done on red. This was the press for Posi Numbers Fest 04. There's 100 of these out there, so a nice addition. I think I got this one from eBay.

I picked up my second copy of Alpha & Omega's 7". This one on clear is out of 400 from the second press.

I picked up four copies of Hatebreed's first LP Satisfaction is the Death of Desire put out by the once great Victory Records. So the one on the top and left side are obviously purple and yellow but the other two I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure one of them is green. and the other is maybe a dark purple. The pressing is a bit confusing and I have no idea what they are limited to other than the one on yellow out of 665 and supposedly the fifth press. Anyone know where I can get information on this? Like a Victory pressing list similar to the big Rev txt document online.

So I decided to pick up more copies of Blacklisted's first LP. I had a few copies of this in the past but I got rid of them. So this is me trying to pick them back up. The one in the middle on red was broken by my fiance, so forget that that one is there, no worries she compensated me for it. Anyway the purple marble on top was put out by Deathwish and is out of 200. The one on the bottom is clear purple put out by Reflections Records and out of 250.

I finally picked this one up. I love this record and I've been trying to get this one for a while. When Cruel Hand's Bridge 9 debut came out I didn't get on the pre order fast enough and missed out on the rarest copy on black. This thing is awesome from the music, layout, vinyl, everything. Black is out of 200.

Guess What? Youth Crew

2011-07-13T21:04:00.018-04:00

So I heard the Remission 7" put out by React and I knew I had to have more so I went over to the Amendment Records webstore and ordered a copy of their LP. This is from the second press on clear out of 237. This thing looks great. The LP isn't quite as good in my opinion as the 7" but it's still solid. Bummer I slept a bit on this band but so happy I still know about them. I also picked up the copy of the Chain of Strength tribute that I was missing. The green is out of 325.

So I heard that there was a second press of Not Sorry's first 7" and I had to pick it up. Pretty straight-forward. The clear is out of 400.

So I finally got my copy of Time & Pressure on black from the first press. After many mishaps and problems with orders I finally got it thanks to Aram and Alan at React's persistence.

So I can't remember where I got these, maybe eBay. This is two copies of Far From Breaking's Made My Choice put out by Third Party Records. The copy on blue is from the second press and out of 500. The yellow is from the third press out of 300. Seriously this is an underrated band. So solid.

So from an underrated band to a very recognized band, this is Floorpunch's infamous 7". I've wanted a copy of Division One Champs for a little while now. This is one of the most important records in hardcore. It's highly sought after. This as you would expect is probably the easiest version to get a hold of, this is the third press on black. It's out of 925. Funny story, I was just recently given a chance to make an offer on a copy on gold, which would be nice to have been able to do. However I can not afford to make that kind of an offer for one record only. One day hopefully I will be. When a record is so rare that there is a site dedicated to listing all of the owners of the copies of the record, you know it's worth picking up.

So I've been meaning to pick up a more uncommon Metallica record and this is what I got. This was a release put out by European label I believe, Music for Nations Records. There were some copies on color such as gold and red, this one is probably more common on black. I have no idea how many of these there are, but I'm guessing a lot. It's a cool item from old Metallica, it was released in 84 apparently.

So here are the second presses of Time & Pressure and the Praise 7". They are the same in pressing numbers. The black is out of 300 and the color is out of 200. The Mindset color was supposed to be mint, but obviously baby blue worked out instead. They changed the labels to be able to differentiate between the first and second press for the black copies. With this I also picked up a copy of the other Give 7" that was released about the same time as the React one. This one was put out by Deranged Records, and I'm not sure how many of there there are, maybe 500?

I picked up a rare version of Braindead's LP. This is the record release cover out of 100. This thing looks awesome, one of the best looking covers I've ever seen. It's screen printed and the design is simple but awesome. They even made a special insert for this. Even the back rules.

We will not go quietly in to the Night

2011-06-29T21:27:00.015-04:00

Independence Day rules and I fully plan on watching it tomorrow.

I picked these both up from eBay. Up top is a copy of the Minor Threat s/t release, both 7"s really. This one has a green cover and green vinyl. I'm not sure the pressing on this. I think it may be a German pressing? Someone want to shed some light for me?

Below that is a split release from This Will Destroy You and Lymbyc System. I got this for This Will Destroy You and I know nothing about Lymbyc System. This Will Destroy you is a great instrumental band I had enjoyed before but I had never heard this split. This did not disappoint. I really just picked this up out of intrigue and it was a good price.

So I picked up this copy of The Effort's From Our Mistakes. I know it's from the second press but I'm not sure what version it is. I have another on yellow so I'm guessing maybe the one on yellow is the pee color and this is the snot? Anyone want to help me out. Oh yeah, I got this one from eBay too.

This is the second press of the Pulling Teeth and Shin to Shin split. I have no idea what the pressing info on this one is and Dom keeps things pretty in the dark, so who knows.

So if I'm ever in a mall and there is a Hot Topic I usually give the vinyl section a shot. Sometimes it's worth the quick glance. One time I got a Cold World LP for $6. Anyway this time as well was a glance that was worth it. I knew I wanted to pick up a copy of Underoath's latest album. I've always been partial to this band. The last release was disappointing for me. This one was different, but overall pretty good. So I picked this up as soon as I saw it. I'm happy I did, this is a special Hot Topic version on Gold out of 600. So it's pretty rare and these are selling for a decent amount on eBay.

So I made a deal on eBay for these as part of some stuff I won the bidding on and some stuff the seller had that didn't sell. This is two copies of the Insted Live recording. These are the two versions I was missing on gold and blue. The main thing I wanted was their 7" We'll Make the Difference. So this was just bonus stuff to pick up. On the bottom is a copy of Masterpieces 7" on black.

Back from Vacation, Time for an Update

2011-06-19T11:15:00.008-04:00

So Deathwish decided to repress some of their successful releases all on Black. Up top is The Carrier's No Love Can Save Me which would be the second press. Below that is Blacklisted's The Beat Goes On which would also be a second press. They got a much heavier vinyl for this press than the earlier press which was pretty flimsy, so huge bonus. The bottom is Cold World's Dedicated to Babies... which would be a third press I believe. The Deathwish site has not been updated so I don't know what the pressing numbers are on these but I'd suspect their pretty high. Deathwish also did this black repress for Pulling Teeth's Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions and Converge's Jane Doe.

I got this one off of eBay. It's Focus on the Light on yellow. This is the Powered release out of 200. I'm starting to get a decent True Colors collection. That makes me happy.

This record is one I've been wanting to get a single copy of for a long time. I've loved this record for years now. I'll have to try and collect these now. This one is out of 440.

So I'm going to copy Mike. Here is The Euro tour version of ON's Double Vision. Like Mike said, this is nothing amazing, but given the back story it makes sense. Luckily the final version of this record came out great. At least that's what I'm telling myself so that I can justify having so many copies of it.

A Lot of React

2011-06-04T13:35:00.009-04:00

Here we have my React pre order from a while ago. This has to be the best pre order I've gotten from the label. All three records are awesome in every aspect. I was really excited about the Common Cause and Not Sorry records, and not as much for Remission. Remission actually has the best release from these three. Without a doubt this will be one of the best releases of the year. The Common Cause stuff is very similar to their earlier stuff, just a different taste this time around. The Not Sorry record is actually a little more different than I thought it'd be. I haven't given it enough listens to give it a good review, but at this point I think I still like the Demo the most. I'm jaded.

These are two copies of The First Step's Connection which I have no idea where I got from. I think from eBay. The red is pretty common with over 1,000 copies, but the white is out of 270. Both are from the first press. This band doesn't get enough credit.

These are the three other copies of the NFG single that I didn't have. These are not really that rare, I had the rarest. Nothing too exciting, just getting my hands on them.

This is the rarest version of the Pulling Teeth/Frightener split I think. It is out of 150 and is on clear with mixed splatter. I won this on the Bay also. Nice one to cross off the list.

I thought I'd end this post with a bunch of cool rarer stuff from one of the best labels.

So I wanted to expand my long list of React releases so I sent some offers to Aram for some rarities. This is what came as a result. First up is the record release version of Get the Most's LP released at React Showcase last year. This one is out of 133, a pretty odd number. The one below it is the special release as well from the showcase for Common Cause. This one is out of 100 and I was really looking forward to getting it because of the way the cover looks the gold vinyl looks awesome. Up top is Betrayed's 7" on black, I got two copies on white with my pre order. Underneath is Damages on black, I got the transition instead of the black copy with my pre order. Below is two copies of the GBNF demo, both rare copies. Red is out of 100 and white is out of 200. This 7" is great, I wish this band was an active band.

I'm Three Months Behind on this

2011-05-16T21:55:00.022-04:00

These are all things I got about three months ago, as the picture files on my computer tell me. I've forgotten how I even got some of them. This is sad.

Here we have a copy of Harms Way's first 7" I believe. This copy on black is out of 500 copies. I believe I picked this up at the Mother of Mercy record release show.

Here are two 7"s I got along with my Sacred Love 7" pre order from Youngblood. Since I guess it took a while for Sean to get the package to me he threw in some extras for my wait. First up is the first Youngblood release, TouchXDown. This was released with Malfunction Records together. It's not a bad 7" and they're from the D.C./Richmond area. So extra cool. The bottom one is Coptic Times' Temptation. Not really in to this one, but free stuff is cool, especially Youngblood releases.

This one I also picked up at the Mother of Mercy record release. There was a box of 7"s underneath Mother of Mercy's merch table, so I looked through them and found this one. When I asked I think it was Bob Wilson how much he wanted for it, he told me just to take it. I was like "What?". He said they were JoeHardcore's, the man behind everything Philly hardcore, and he was just trying to get rid of them. So I was happy to take it off of his hands. This is Time Flies' Cant Change the Past. Time Flies was a band from Virginia from not that long ago. Youth crew with some bite. The band was good and they were from VA so I have to like them.

So this is my Sacred Love pre-order, you know only three months after I got it and probably add another month or so from when they were actually released. Sean did a great job with these. The thing looks great from the artwork, layout, vinyl and labels. Everything looks great. I actually wish there was like a White/Grey mix for this one. That woulda looked cool.

This is Fired Up's When the Lights Go Out, the final press. I was equally and maybe mostly stoked about this when I made my order from Youngblood. This is a great record and band and for some stupid reason, against all logic, I liked collecting the versions of this record. This came out really cool, very simple but a good last press. These are numbered out of 110.

So I pre ordered the Stick Together 7" from Back to Back. This came out pretty cool looking, but what was silly and apparently happened to several people that ordered all three colors of vinyl, was that they got two copies on white. Which orignally meant that you didn't get the most rare on orange. So I was instantly bummed as this seems to happen to me way too much. I sent the label an e-mail and didn't hear anything. Slowly it became evident that the white was the rarest color and instead I was given a benefit of a mistake. Soon there after I got an offer to trade a white for an orange, and instead of thinking hey I'm losing on this trade, I didn't feel like trying to sell the white and then buy the orange. So this was an easy fix.

This is a special copy of The Effort's Wear Your Heart. This is a copy given out during their summer tour in 2007. I believe all of the copies given out during this tour were gold, out of 30 copies. This one was given apparently to the guy I bought it from off of eBay. This copy is on pink, which was used for the record release. This copy as the picture shows is pretty warped. This apparently was the only copy on pink that was warped, so The Effort gave this copy to this guy with it being a special 1 out of 1 copy. So though this isn't a playable record, according to the guy I bought it from, this is a very special version of the record. Pretty cool, they wrote on a ripped out page of the bible I think, pretty cool.

This is the European Tour Version of Common Cause's Statement of Purpose. I think I won this one on eBay as well. Nice addition to the collection. Numbered on the back out of 100.

I won this along with some other records I think from a guy on eBay. This Built to Last 7" was put out by Words of War Records. It's not a bad record and they go for pretty cheap.

Pre Orders Pre Orders Pre Orders

2011-04-10T17:23:00.020-04:00

Here we have the Iron Age LP The Sleeping Eye. This was pressed by Full Tilt Records, I think out of the U.K. This black wax is out of 400.

Here we have the Constant Struggle LP from the 09 Youngblood Showcase. This one is numbered out of 150. I got both of these with my Sacred Love pre-order.

So I got my Mindset Live LP. I was happy to see I got all three copies Gold out of 100 and White and Black out of 200 each. This came out really well. Everything looks great. I liked this even more because I was there, and even better I'm on the back cover.

That's me in the middle with the white hat on, the fist in the air and a windbreaker on. It was such a great set, maybe the best from Mindset, though there are a lot of good ones.

This is my pre-order for the latest Carrier LP from Deathwish. Deathwish did a good job with the One Year Later LP, but when I saw this I was floored, the art, the layout and the vinyl colors are all great. I thought it was pretty ironic I got this around Valentine's Day and the colors are pretty close to that Hallmark holiday. The thing is is that the music is not as good as the last LP or any other prior material. It's not bad and it's defiantly not anything to be upset about, it's just not as good.

Here is another pre-order, the Mother of Mercy latest LP. The most rare is the Seafoam Green, the one in the middle was supposed to be a Blue, Gray and Black mix I think, but it came out really similar to the White and Black Mix. So They stamped the sleeves of the Blue/Gray/Black so that you can tell the difference. This record rips just like the last one, it's hard to pick which one is better, III probably would overall win.

So when I pre ordered the Mindset LP I also picked up another copy of the Youth Crew 09 comp from Upside Down. This is the most common on black out of 300.

I picked these up from a React board poster. This is from the second press on Blue out of 1,270.

I also picked this one up with The First Step record. This is the Inside Out and Youth of Today split. It's a bootleg and has mostly Inside Out live songs, but also has one Youth of Today studio outtakes.

This one I also picked up from Upside Down, it's the demos from what became What We Know. This actually was put out by Bottle Up, white is out of 250. Clean looking record.

Here is the latest Outlast record. This overall is pretty good. The recording and music is great. The layout and design is not my favorite, but it's not that bad.

Hardcore Does Live

2011-03-27T21:14:00.017-04:00

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.

2011-03-23T19:55:00.001-04:00

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

2011-03-12T18:55:00.005-05:00

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

2011-03-10T22:20:00.003-05:00

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.

This Will be Updated More

2011-02-22T17:54:00.023-05:00

I've been slacking a lot recently and I just got around to trying to catch up. I'm trying to be more up-to-date with this blog. Currently I'm posting records I got sometimes two months ago. Expect some more updates soon.

So Time Flies was a band from Virginia in the late 90s. They shared members with Count me Out and Cloak/Dagger. This is the only LP they put out, on Indecision Records. I picked this up a few months back at Celebrated Summer in Towson, MD. The black is out of 1,105. I actually had never listened to this release before buying it. I had heard Can't Change the Past and was digging it so I thought this would be a good purchase. I was right, I'm listening to this for the first time and it rules, hard.

So way back when Bridge 9 put up there Black Friday sale, I decided to pick up some more New Found Glory records. I ordered these two copies of the latest LP and the second press of the Tip of the Iceberg 7". They sent me a copy of the first press on the White with splatter. I sent them an email and explained what happened. Matt in Mail Order offered to send me a picture disc to make up for it. I didn't understand this as I wanted the 2nd press, which I said in the e-mail and ordered originally. Not to mention picture discs are dumb. So after more than necessary communication, he said he would send me a copy on black. So here we are. I offered to send mine back for free, but he didn't want to do that. I'm guessing they're looking to get rid of these, as I know the NFG releases haven't sold as well as they planned.

Puffer of Alert put out his zine, which had been over-due for a while from what I remember. It's a pretty simple zine with interviews with three great bands, Stick Together (current hype), Face Reality (soon to be hyped) and Thought Crusade (are they still together?). Not sure if he still has copies, but this is worth picking up.

With my Black Friday Deathwish order, I picked up two copies of the latest Alpha & Omega LP, which rips. This thing looks amazing too to top it off. I didn't hear much about this band for a while and then all of sudden they put out this LP and it was worth the lack of attention. This honestly was one of the best releases of 2010. The bottom is on Green with Black swirl, a very dark green pretty much. The top copy is supposed to be on black, but it isn't.

This is the copy of Green/Black. It looks much more green when held up to light.

Here is the "Black" copy. It is green with a lot more black in it. Now this isn't as noticeable unless it's held up to the light, but if you just glance at it, you'd probably think it was black. To me this means I have two copies on Green with Black. Can anyone else elaborate more on this? Are all of the "Black" copies like this?

I picked up this React! rarity off of eBay. This is the special press of The First Step's Connection 7" originally pressed by Rivalry Records. For those that don't know, Aram pressed 88 of these and handed them out at the React! Showcase last year. This was not available anywhere else. I was lucky enough to be able to add this to the React! collection, which is getting pretty big at this point. I was a little bummed, this showed up in the mail with the top of the cover damaged and some creasing, which sucks even more because this is screen printed and any damage is more noticeable. It is what it is. This is more reason why I wish people would be more careful when packing records, and when you see someone who can do it right, you appreciate it that much more. By the way, this thing looks awesome, so clean and mean looking.

I picked up my third copy of Right Idea's Our World in my Deathwish Black Friday order. It's nice to have all three copies, and I didn't have to pay anything ridiculous for them.

Also with the Deathwish Black Friday order extravaganza, I thought I was due to pick up my first Minor Threat record. "What took you so long?" I know, I know. Either way this is the s/t release with the two 7"s on it. I have no idea what number press this it is, but I know it's the most recent.

I picked this up while I was in Lancaster, at the record store of the label that put it out, CI Records. This is August Burns Red's Messengers. This is one of those bands that I listened to years ago, and I still give them a listen from time to time. This record still does it for me. It's something that's hard to get rid of.

This is another guilty pleasure from back in the day, but even better. This is the legendary Zao album, Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest. This was the first release after the band essentially restarted, with all but one new member. This was essentially the start of what is considered the real Zao. This honestly may be one of the best metalcore releases ever. Now keep in mind this is more metal, with a strong Death Metal influence, but it owns on every level. When I found out Broken Circles was putting this out on vinyl, I wanted to pick up a copy for a long time. I never got around to it until I saw it at CI Records. I'm very happy I did. This copy on red is out 400. I hope to be able to pick up more copies of this one.

I picked this up at Celebrated Summer. I had heard a lot about Justice, and I figured as much as I liked True Colors, I should give Justice a try. For those that don't know, Justice and True Colors shared members. So after purchasing I gave it a listen, it's not really my thing. It's not bad, just not my style. Oh well. It's something cool to have.

I'll finish this post with the updated Down to Nothing stupidity. Merch has started to get more serious, and I'm starting to run out of records that are probable I'll ever get my hands on. I just realized I didn't put the demo tape in this one, oh well. If you've got a test press, I want it.

I'll Always be Catching Up

2011-01-17T19:10:00.019-05:00

So here we have my React! order, this is all three versions of the Give 7" and only two copies of the Betrayed 7", I ordered three but I got two copies of white. So I'll need to pick up a copy on black, as well as a copy of Time & Pressure on black I'm still missing for the same reason. All in all this came out pretty cool, just a bummer about the no black again.

So I bid on this on eBay and ended up loosing. This was put up by Patrick of Reaper I believe, a few days after it ended Patrick sent me a second chance offer, luck was on my side. So I quickly accepted the offer, and here it is. If you haven't figured it out this it the Test of All My Sons out of 20. There was also a rejected test press that I did not win, and went for less than this. So I'll try and email Patrick and see if I can pick that one up at some point.

Pretty cool Chung King rip for the cover, defiantly quality work by Reaper as usual. Big score.

So this was a plant error. I guess 6131 ordered the second press of Backtrack's 7" and the plant accidentally printed some of Swamp Thing's 7" with Backtrack's labels, using the Swamp Thing plates instead of Backtracks. It looks like that's what happened. This is out of only 40 and there's still more of them over in their store, so pick it up while you still can.

So I picked this one up from Willem over at Records With History and Future a while ago and I have to say, I can't be happier to have this one. Not only is it the first copy I have of the self-titled 7", but it's also maybe the rarest I think. This is the pre-order cover, numbered out of 100, and I got it for a great price I think.

So this one I picked up while in Litiz, PA doing training for my job. I went to CI Records as I was ansy to do something and I wanted to find a record store. Though the store is more on the metal side of hardcore, I was able to find this Far From Breaking 7". I wasn't totally sure about this one, I knew the band was youth crew style but I couldn't remember if I had ever heard the band. The fact that it was on Youngblood swayed me to get it. I was right, this is a great band, looking forward to picking up more of their wax.

This was another record I was bummed I didn't pre order. This Chain of Strength compilation came out really well. I picked these up at this show from Mindset.

This is the rarest version on clear and the most common on black, I still need to pick up the version on green one day.

I picked these both up from eBay and for relatively cheap, I'm not a big fan of Right Idea, just trying to get a more complete React set really. Pretty awesome how they look, as you would expect from the label. One thing I will say is that I would like to see Aram vary the pressing on releases, it seems like every release is getting pretty much the same run of color variations. Now that he's putting out even more records, it just becomes like too standard.

I was glad I got this, I picked it up from The Effort's big cartel store. This is the rarest copy of the second press from Seasick, only out of 60. Another pre order I slept on.

Setlled

2011-01-10T21:42:00.016-05:00

Along with the True Colors record from the last post, I picked up another rarity from Six Feet Under. This is the last copy of Adult Crash I was missing.

This is the Blue/White swirl transition out of 14. When I first took this out I thought I was ripped, it looks just like the blue version. I took the copy of blue and white both out and compared them to the transition. After a second look this defiantly looks like its more white than the blue version. It's pretty hard to tell but there is a lighter version to it, the transition is in the middle.

I think I picked up these two off of eBay. The grey is from the first press and the yellow with brown is from the second press, that's about all I can tell you. I've got all of the copies of these now.

In a recent order with Six Feet I decided to pick up a regular version of Mother of Mercy's LP. This is cream from the second press out of 100. I just pre-ordered the new LP from Bridge 9, man that label is pissing me off lately. Stupid packages to get the rarest vinyl, and they charged me like $16 for shipping. Seriously? Hopefully the new LP is as good as this one.

In a continuation of trying to have everything DTN, including compilations, I picked up two copies of the Past Present compilation. Not to mention it's a Rev compilation, it's hard to pass on them as silly as they may seem. Some good songs on this, some weird ones. DTN has a great Judge cover, they seem to be able to do them consistently well. Yellow is out of 335 and black out of 749.

Also part of my Six Feet Under order, and also a compilation, I got the American Hardcore Comp. I had been on the fence about getting this for a while. When pre-orders first went up I wanted to get them, but I decided financially and just out of how much I wanted it, I wasn't going to order them. Come a few months later when people were receiving them and posting them on the internet, it made me want one. This is the red/blue swirl, though you can't tell, it's pretty cool looking. Like everyone else has said, this came out really cool with the cover and the large booklet. This just was handled very well.

The main reason I made an order with Six Feet was I was getting in to Miles Away a little bit and Dave posted he was putting out the latest LP in the U.S. I took a look and found some cool looking rare colors, so I picked up the rarest. This is the Milky Grey Swirl out of 67.

This is another copy of Secrets of the World on clear. Pretty boring, from the first press out of 1,000, just one I had to pick up of course.

This is the Swamp Thing LP on maroon, pretty boring too, out of 500.

So as part of Black Friday several labels had sales, this begins that whole mess. I picked up this Cold World/Strength for a Reason split from Deathwish, on grey out of 300. Pretty basic, not the best split, but I of course needed to get it.

Transitioning

2010-12-13T19:17:00.013-05:00

So I lied in my last post, there were a few more arrivals before I moved. Here is a copy of Inside Out's No Spiritual Surrender. This is the final press, as indicated by the white bar on the top of the cover. I'm not sure how many copies there were of this however, if anyone knows please let me know.

I won three Frostbite 7"s from Tre of Deathwish on eBay a ways back. The top is on grey from the second press out of 225, made exclusively for Very Distro. The middle is on blue/white mix, almost baby blue. I don't know anything about this one, so if you've got some info please share. The bottom is a pre-release cover numbered out of 299. Dead by 23, from a collectors stand point was a very cool label, lots of different things going on to make things interesting, it feels like there was never a dull release.

So when I came home for Thanksgiving this is what had piled up in my room. If only everyday was like that one.

I won this on eBay from someone. I'm really in to this band now, so I'll have to track down all of the versions I can. This, the most common is out of 400.

I was happy to get my first copy of this, Keep It Clear's s/t. Again the black is the most common out by Not Just Words out of 480.

Here we have the last copy of the DTN/OTI split that I was missing. This as the cover says is the Euro Tour '06 cover. I believe the guy or one of the guys who ran Dead and Gone Records posted on the React board that he was getting rid of some of his personal collection along with some Dead and Gone rarities. I wanted to get a lot of different things, but this was the main thing. The guy seriously hooked me up with a great price. I have 14 copies of this record, 8 of which are black.

So Dave Sausage sent out an e-mail that he was looking to make some extra money for the label so he said for people to send him offers on rarities. I sent him an offer on this and another rarity I'll get to later.

This is the True Colors Consider It Done with the Sound and Fury cover. When I first heard about these on the internet I was mad that once again there was another True Colors record that was made limited again for the people like myself to have to get a copy of. What made me more upset about this one was that True Colors didn't even play Sound and Fury. I don't know if they ever have. How do you make a special version of a record for a fest that the band isn't playing? So that was a bit annoying. Either way I'm glad I have this one. This is by far the most limited, only 50 copies.

So I won these a while back on the Bay for what I thought was a pretty good deal. The clear is out of 150 and from the second press and the red is out of 200 and from the first. Both are the two rarest of the regular pressing (special sleeves, test presses and transitions aside). I hope these guys do an LP soon, they're due.

This is the European version of Not Sorry's Moving On on blue out of 96. Salad Days did a good job on this release. I think it's awesome when it's hard to distinguish which is the better version, the U.S. or the European. I'm still bummed I didn't do the big pre-order package they had for this.

I'm Moving

2010-12-01T18:22:00.013-05:00

So I'm in the middle of a move right now, so I haven't had a whole lot of time to update this or really get pictures and records together. Presently I don't even have my records with me, they're still back home. As I'm typing this, I'm in a hotel because I'm off training for my new job and the wireless internet cuts in and out. This is an example of the reason for why I haven't updated this. Since I've been getting a lot of stuff recently I thought it would be a good idea to get a head start before it just get's out of hand.

Here we have the Summer Tour 2006 version of Bracewar's s/t 7". This is my seventh copy of this record. Other than the really rare ones, I'm only missing the red record release cover. Almost there. This summer tour version is numbered out of 100.

This is the '08 Euro Tour press of The First Step's Connection 7". This was the rarer color of the second press, with 270 copies. The first press also had a red so the labels on this one were changed to white to differentiate.

When Dave of Six Feet Under put out an distro update stating he got in copies of Bracewar's latest 7", I jumped at the opportunity, as I knew this may be the only time I'd be able to get both copies at once at a reasonable price. Clear is out of 300 and black is out of 700.

This is the Pulling Teeth and Frightener split. I believe this is the rarest color, white with splatter, 350 copies.

Here is a copy of Pulling Teeth's Vicious Skin on green with haze. This is from the first press, no idea the pressing info on this release.

When I made the order from SFU for the Bracewar 7"s I also decided to pick up another copy of Common Cause's The Power to Change on what I thought was going to be clear, that's what the listing in the webstore said. This arrived, apparently there is a second press out of 300 on blue. So I got a copy of the record, which is cool, it just means there's another one I still need to get.

So that covers everything I got right before I moved up to PA about 2.5 weeks ago. Hopefully I'll get time to post about the massive amount of stuff I had waiting for me when I went home for Thanksgiving.

Youngblood Showcase Pt. 2

2010-11-06T19:54:00.014-04:00

This is Blue Monday's first 7" I believe. The earlier material is by far the best from this band. This and the second 7" I recommend to anyone out there.

This is Mainstrike's s/t 7" put out by Crucial Response. Mainstrike was a band from the Netherlands and is one of the several noted youth crew bands to come out of Europe in the past twenty years or so. Good stuff.

This is the Steel Nation 7" put out by A389. This band has gotten worse since this release, but this and some of the other earlier material are pretty good.

I picked this up along with the Where It Ends zine from Deathwish. This is the 3rd press of Dedicated to Babies... I still need to get a copy on White from the 2nd press. It's amazing how popular this band still is despite not touring at all really. Great band regardless.

I was happy to finally get a copy of the Lights Out LP from Sean Youngblood. I heard one of their songs on the Revelation Generations compilation. I immediately was intrigued, dug a little further and was defiantly in to it. I would describe them as a dirty style of hardcore, taking it's attitude from punk but still a pretty hard band.

This is the record release version of Iron Age's Constant Struggle, limited to 195 copies. I got to see this band finally and I'm kind of indifferent about it. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. Apparently that's the way it is usually from what I've been told.

This was the big release for the Showcase, Sacred Love's 12" EP. I haven't listened to this yet, but it looks pretty cool. The screen printed cover came out really well and the artwork is cool. These are numbered out of 100 and there were plenty left so I'm sure Sean will be putting them in the webstore soon.

Youngblood Showcase Pt. 1

2010-10-25T20:16:00.023-04:00

I got two more zines. On the left is Where It Ends #2. I believe this is a New England zine. This issue features interviews with Jim of Champion/ON, Ned of Title Fight/Bad Seed/Disengage, Uriah of Dead End Path, members of Strife and others. Overall it's pretty good. I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty lame that it's in one of these plastic covers that I used to put papers in for school. Otherwise it's pretty cool. On the right is Thinking Cap #4, not sure what happened to #3. This one has Phil of Sacred Love featured. Not a bad issue, all of these are pretty cool simple pieces. I would like to see a full size zine from these guys at some point.

This is Rotting Out's latest 7". This is the second press out of 100. This is my first copy. This band is a bit different now that they have a different singer. I hope the next release brings it full circle so I can get back in to the band.

Here is Stay Cold from the first press. Another nice eBay pick up.

Here is the rarest Swamp Thing 7". This is from Sound and Fury '08.

Numbered out of 75.

Here we have 3 tapes. This is where we start the pick ups from Youngblood Showcase. Up top is the Noose demo. This Chicago band was just added to the React! family. They were pretty good at Youngblood, thus making me want to buy the tape. Below that is the Stick Together demo put out by Back to Back, the red is out of 400. At the bottom are my friends, the Warbound demo. There drummer just broke his hand so they are not able to play shows for a little while but they'll be picking things up soon.

I was told to pick this 7" up form a friend. Fields of Fire's The Kids Can't be Bought. I've also heard this is pretty bad so I'll have to listen to it soon.

This is Pulling Teeth's Witches Sabbath Vol. 2. It features Symptom of the Universe by Black Sabbath.

No Tolerance played Youngblood and I had been meaning to pick up their 7", so this worked out. Great band. Members of The Rival Mob and I think Step Forward, maybe some others too. New 7" on Youngblood at some point.

What Else, More Records

2010-10-09T19:59:00.015-04:00

I made a hefty order from Victory when they put up the pre orders for the new Comeback Kid record. When I got a big heavy package in the mail I knew what it was. So I picked up the three colors of the new record Symptoms + Cures. Clear with black smoke out of 100, white with black smoke out of 300 and dark blue out of 600. The vinyl and artwork matches very well. Overall not a bad job with that. I actually like the artwork on this one, better than Broadcasting. The clear with black smoke is pretty cool looking too. The music however I'm not too sure about, I feel like they tried a lot of new things on this record, and though I think I remember hearing that the band said it would be similar to the older material, I don't hear it at all. I might have to say this is the worst album, but I've only given it a listen like three times. With the new record Victory put out a second press of Wake the Dead, which was pretty much the best part of the package. Wake the Dead is a great record and I would defiantly buy three more copies of it in a heartbeat. Again they had the clear with black smoke out of 100, red out of 300 and white out of 600. Not bad record colors, the red and clear smoke look the best though. I also picked up the other copy of Broadcasting I was missing, "Khaki" out of 1,058. Much more of a olive green mix but whatever. I believe this means I have all the colors now. I SERIOUSLY need to get some copies of Turn It Around.

I got a copy of Common Cause - The Power to Change off of eBay. This is the pre order press out of 180. Powered did a great job with this release. The artwork and layout are top notch. I took pictures of the tri-fold insert to show you what I mean. More labels need to put this much effort in to their releases. It makes you feel like you got something that had time and effort put in to it. It's a bummer this label is done pretty much, I should've been more on top of this label when they were active and exchange rates also weren't as bad.

Here we have another transition from the 3 song Down to Nothing self titled. I'm not sure what the actual color name is for this and I've heard different versions, like red white and blue mix and purple/black mix. either way this is the transition from that batch of the press. This doesn't seem a whole lot different from the regular version of the press, maybe some different color streaks. Here is a bunch of copies of this transition. I won this from Tre of Deathwish on eBay. If anyone wants to get me one of the five test presses of this one let me know.

This is my first copy of Gone But Not Forgotten's Demo. This was originally put out on tape I think and then React! pressed it on vinyl. This is probably the simplest looking release from React! that I've seen. The usual goodies are in it but just very simple black screen printed cover and layout. I wasn't in to this band a lot originally, but it's pretty good actually, I'm still not totally sold on the vocals. Really I just wanted to add this to the React! collection and when I went to buy a couple of lottery tickets for the recent React! lottery I figured I'd pick up some things I wanted while I was in the store. This and a Common Cause shirt were what I ended up with.

I was able to get the Mindset 2KGR8 tape. This was sold while I believe the band was on tour. It has two songs from Real Power on it and one song that eventually was on Time & Pressure. I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm guessing they're probably demo recordings.

I picked this up at a Hot Topic, sometimes they have vinyl on clearance for great prices. This is The Fall of Troy's Phantom on the Horizon. This was essentially something that was done a while back in secret and wasn't actually released until about the time their last album came out. The band is no more, but this record was pretty good. It's probably the most different thing that they did. The clear was a special Hot Topic press, out of 1,000.

ON

2010-10-03T19:27:00.006-04:00

Nick over at Alternate 1995 posted that he was looking to sell some stuff to get something big for his Misfits collection. So I made him an offer for two ON records I was missing. Here they are. The one on the bottom is from ON's first show/record release. The green flier on the right is from that same show. The other copy was for the West Coast Tour in the Summer of '08. As you can see, both are on transparent green.

Both are stamped and numbered out of 75. Very happy to have both of these. This 7" is really good.

About the same time I got my order for the second pressing of Double Vision. This is the the American press on React!/Reaper. 400 were on clear and 600 on black. This is the first version on clear, but the first press had a black pressing as well. Apparently to tell the difference, their is a "33 rpm" on the labels on the second press. Aram also included the React! 2010 cardboard mailer for me to, nice addition.

2010-09-25T18:38:00.027-04:00

This is some friends of mine's band, Troops of Tomorrow. This is the pre-release tape for their upcoming 7", The World Won't Listen. Good up-in-coming D.C. band. They play a mix of street punk and hardcore. It's a pretty good recording I have to say and though street punk isn't really my thing, it's a solid release. I believe the 7" release show is on Wednesday in Baltimore with Rotting Out and Soul Search. Give 'em a listen here.

So I had to open an eBay case to get this record. Didn't get it in the mail for like 3 weeks, opened a case and it was at my door in two days. Funny. This is the record release of the latest Down to Nothing 7" All My Sons. I was unable to go to the show in Richmond, which was a bummer because I'm sure it was a banger.

This was done pretty well, one of the better special cover releases I've seen. Clean design, simple, stamped, numbered and it even has different labels on the 7" than the regular release.

In yet another installment of Down to Nothing, this is the On Thin Ice split from Grave Mistake Records. This is one of the rarer red ones, which apparently is out of 50 or so. The 1st press was supposed to be pink, which it is, but some came out darker than others, and completely red in this case. Here's a comparison of some of them for you.

Alex as usual completely hooked me up, got me some added goodies for the collection. I also asked Alex to put two zines in the package for me.

I'm starting to get in to zines. I feel like they need to come back in popularity. The left one is put out from a guy in Toronto I believe, or somewhere in Canada. Apparently all of these interviews are from like over two years ago and he just didn't get around to putting this out until more recently. Pretty solid material, nothing amazing with presentation, pretty standard. Worth checking out. The one on the right is great, Just Say Yo!. Pulling Teeth, Trapped Under Ice, Not Sorry and Police and Thieves are all in this one. Great artwork, quality print and good content. This and The Effort are the two best zines I've seen. If anyone knows of any good zines I should check out please comment on here.

This is I think is two copies of the Fireworks 7" from the second press, not totally sure. I saw this band a little over a week ago for the first time and they were pretty good. Dudes seem in it for the right reasons. Oh yea, there's a Kid Dynamite cover on here and they have some Misfits cover demos on the internet somewhere. These guys sound a lot like New Found Glory, to the point to where people think it actually is them.

I picked this up at a yard sale a few weeks back. The cover is a little beat up as the picture shows, and when I bought it I looked at the vinyl and it looked pretty good. Now that I've looked at it in better light, not so much. O well, I probably should've haggled the guy. I'll try and clean this one. I haven't cleaned a record in a while, so let's see if I remember how.

I won these both on eBay for pretty cheap for what I think they would go for. Both are second presses and out of 250. Apparently these came out when Bridge 9 also put out the Time Slips Away CD, thus the reason for the labels. The copy of Count Our Numbers is supposed to be purple, but apparently some came out blue, and this looks like one of them. Supposedly this may mean its more like out of 60 or 70. I would need one on purple to compare.

In another eBay pick up I got Juggernaut on red, the most rare of the regular pressing.

I made an order from Heart in Hand records to get the two Mass vs Cali compilations. I also picked up two copies of Control's A Step Apart, Life to Live Records' first release. Control was a D.C. youth crew band a few years ago. The band is still together and I think still has all the same members but is now Broken Bodies, which is a harder band, similar to Carry On I'd say. I'm glad I was able to get this.

After a long wait, I finally got this one in the mail. I honestly just didn't believe it was here. This is the UK Tour copy of Splitting Headache, out of 30. I think Rick from Speedowax still has a copy of this somewhere between Europe and the states, that's just chilling somewhere. The first time he sent this to me It took like almost two months I think to come back to his house. So he sent me a different copy, and that I think is the one that's lost now. He then sent me a third copy, I think his own copy? Odd, it got to my house in like a few days. All the waiting for it to take only like 6 days to get here the third time around. Either way thanks to Rich, and when I get the other one I'll send it back to you Rick.

This is an Australian pressing of All My Sons from Dead Souls Records. I think this is the preorder color out of 100, but when I ordered this it was the only copy available. Seemed strange to me to do just a pressing of 100 only, but whatever I made the order, and not for cheap I might add. So after I got this I checked back to their store for the pressing info. There are two more colors available now, great. So now I have to pay like $50 after shipping to get the two of them. Is Australia currency that much stronger than the dollar or am I just getting ripped off?

Weekend Posts are a Must

2010-09-18T16:51:00.017-04:00

Here is the new Hands Tied 7" from Livewire Records. The red is out of 300, gold out of 200. Apparently this is an active band again. Not sure how long that will last, but this 7" is pretty good.

This is a copy of the Bracewar Juggernaut LP on clear out of 650.

I got this in a trade. It's the Swamp Thing In Shame LP United Blood version.

Numbered out of 30, pretty limited I have to say. The cover is pretty cool, nice old school tattoo design.

I traded my copy of The Rival Mob HC4HC SFU showcase version for the Swamp Thing LP and this Mindset 7". This is the Winter 2009 Tour cover, limited to 110 copies. I was very happy about this trade. I think I got the better end of the deal, but that depends on who you are I suppose.

I've been meaning to get a copy of The First Step's Open Hearts and Clear Minds. This is one of the best records in the past 10 years I'd say. This thing is just so incredibly raw, fast and refreshing. This is clear out of 400.

This is another Down to Nothing record I probably didn't need to get. This is Grey/Red mix and Blue/Yellow split. I think it's out of 225. I'm kinda lost on the pressing on this record. Hopefully Rich of Speedowax will hook it up.

I finally got a copy of Focus on the Light, the Powered pressing. Hopefully more to come. This is out of 510.

I picked up a few Effort records on eBay. This is the record release version of Iconoclasm with the special screen printed sleeve.

Numbered on the back out of 50.

Here we have the pre-order version with a special screen printed sleeve as well. This one is numbered on the front out of 75. I've been meaning to get some more versions of this LP. This is the best output by the band without a doubt.

This is the pre-order version of From Our Mistakes, with a numbered cover out of 100. This I believe means I have all of the first press.

Here we have three copies of the first Fired Up 7" that I picked up from Kyle Whitlow of Rivalry Records. From top to bottom this is Purple on 300 from the 3rd press, Black out of 400 from the 1st and Blue out of 250 from the first. I think the only one I'm missing is the regular version, not tour version, on clear.

Well I'm almost caught up, a few more to go.

Keeping It Going

2010-09-10T20:08:00.012-04:00

Here is Pulling Teeth's Witches Sabbath IV. Its got a cover of The Ramones' Teenage Lobotomy. Just happy to have one of these.

I got another version of the Swamp Thing 7". This is on black out of 300.

This is The Effort's From Our Mistakes on clear. It's the cloud variant I believe out of 200.

This is US Tour version of Perspective. Numbered out of 75. Only missing the Wide Awake cover and a black one.

I picked up the copy of It's All Our Blood I was missing. The red was the React! exclusive color. Nice to have them all now.

This is Insted Live at CBGB put out by Livewire. Clear is out of 300. Another cheap pick up from Celebrated Summer.

This is the last copy of Martyr Immortal I was missing, and also the most rare out of 150.

I made an order from the Half the Battle guys. I picked up the three colors of the LP and four copies of the Youth Crew 10 compilation. The singer apparently lives in Arlington, so I think he drove it to my house or something, there wasn't a postage label on it or anything. I can see why people like what Seb is doing at JAD, the packaging for this LP is quality.

There's More

2010-09-06T19:14:00.020-04:00

I've had a lot of down time this weekend so I thought I'd knock some more of this out. The next few are pick ups from my trip to Celebrated Summer while I was in Baltimore for the Mindset/Get the Most/ON show.

This is Iron Boot's Easy Green. I believe this is the first press on black out of 500.

Numbered on the back, Alex over at Grave Mistake does a great job with his releases, everything looks great.
Here is the 7" single from Rage's Guerrilla Radio, something I couldn't pass up on.

This is something that simply just caught my eye and seemed decent. Nice cover/vinyl match. From what I heard this is pretty standard style youth crew. The cover does it justice. Out of 900.

This is something I've been looking to pick up but never got around to. Virgin Witch's s/t. Dom from Pulling Teeth plays guitar and bass on this. It's pretty similar to Pulling Teeth, I'd say its a bit more evil and metal. Good stuff, and I mean just look at this thing.

Here is what I think is the record release version of the Sacred Love 7". I guess the Baltimore show was the record release show for this, not sure. Either way, Ev did a good job on the art as usual.

Numbered out of 50. Not totally in to this band, but I figured it would be cool to pick up. If you're interested in trading for it let me know.

Here we have two copies of the Disengage 7" that I picked up in two places, both at shows. Disengage opened the show in Baltimore and it was pretty impressive, I knew I was interested in the band, but they sold me after that. If you don't already know, this features members of Cold World, Title Fight and Bad Seed. You should check 'em out.

More to come...

About a Week Later

2010-09-04T19:14:00.014-04:00

Strap yourself in. There's a lot of stuff in this one.

Here we have my pre order for the Jane Doe reissue from Deathwish. Everything looks very cool and as long as the wait was, I think its safe to say it was worth it. On the left is the big booklet that comes with each copy. The thing is pretty true to the original style of the release, just taken a step further. I was surprised at how simple and straight-forward most of this was. I thought with as much hype as this reissue got naturally, there would be some more baggage per se. Here we have the two most common versions, as it seems I didn't luck out on getting a rarer one. White is out of 2,000 and red out of 1,305. Pretty nuts that they put out 5,000 copies of these, but I guess that makes sense. The reason why I lined up the records the way I did is that the sides of the labels for this double release are J.A.N.E. So as lame as I am I had to lay them out to spell it.

Here we have the fourth press of The Things We Carry. I've wanted to get a copy of this for a little while now, and since I didn't want to pay like $40 for a copy, this worked out for me. I was a little disappointed with how this turned out. Would've been nice to be a gatefold, apparently the third press wasn't either.

Here we have another pre order from Six Feet Under. First is the second press of the Kingston 7", defiantly better colors of vinyl this time around, I'm happy. Also I ordered three copies of The Rival Mob 7", though I got two copies of purple, I'm guessing that the black just sold out that fast. No worries I think I'll be able to trade/sell my extra on purple, as this is already sold out and Dave ordered a second press. 1,500 records gone that fast, impressive. This band is defiantly getting a lot of attention. I'll get to an example of that later.

Here we have another record that I probably didn't really need, but I figured why not. This is a plain version of Down to Nothing's Splitting Headache. By plain I mean, there's no special stamps, like all the other ones I own. This is blank and supposedly out of 225. Not sure, no idea what the full pressing info is on this one.

So I ended up getting an extra copy of ON record that I already had, by accident. So I ended up making a trade with it pretty quick. Here is what I got in return, this is a copy of Go It Alone's Histories with the European tour stamp on it. Pretty nice accidental opportunity. I traded this with clichejon, and the funny thing about this is that it was supposed to go to Seb of Just Another Day Records, from Mark of GIA, but I suppose Seb never got this. He wrote a note on the dust sleeve.

Another funny thing about this trade was that Jon included a copy of De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, which just made my package. I actually just got it out and put it on the turntable, that's how stoked I am about it. Not to mention there was this like stupid dance DJ LP that was all marked all over it to use as a mailer, because well that's all its good for. Apparently it was meant to be an international exchange mailer. As it started with L.O.James and then went to Jon in the UK, and now to me. The reason why this is even funnier is that James lives in the D.C. area, as do I. So really it just came back to pretty much the same place it started. Anyway, I'll send this out with whoever I next send a record out of the country to.

Here we have my Common Cause pre order from React! This has got to be the best looking React release yet.

The cover is just awesome with the glossy gold accent all over it and as usual the fold out insert is stellar.

The mailer is awesome, I actually want a shirt with this design. I NEED a copy of this on gold from the showcase. So if you got one please get at me. Aram just out-does himself all the time.

This is a copy of the 7" of the same record that I just so happened to get at the same time by chance. As you can see this version is also very cool with the silver accent, but the React version is the winner.

Here is two copies of Police & Thieves' Amor y Guerra from Youngblood. The top copy on green is out of 300, the bottom copy is the Youngblood 08 Showcase version stamped and numbered out of 150. Two nice pick ups around my area, one at a show and the other at a record store.

That's all I can fit in the labels for one post, so you'll just have to wait for the rest. There's plenty more to go.

Almost Been a Month...

2010-08-24T19:45:00.010-04:00

and there's plenty of things for me to post about. I'm not even sure I can fit them in to one post so I'll try to put as much in this one for now and try and catch up hopefully in a week or so.

I won two Pulling Teeth records on eBay from the same dude. Both I got for a pretty good deal, and were crucial additions to the collection. Up top is a copy of Martyr Immortal on red with blue splatter, out of 350 copies. As you would expect, this thing looks sick, and this was my first copy of the record that came with the big poster, will be hanging up in the room. On the bottom is a copy of Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions on green with a whole lot of splatter. This is the other copy of the pre-order that I didn't take advantage of. Happy I finally have this. This now means I have every version of PD/PI other than the test, which is cool. I've got the copy of Martyr Immortal that I'm missing on the way, once I get that and have a reason to take out all the records, I'll take an updated collection pic.

This is my Cruel Hand Lock & Key pre-order. In order to get the white version I believe u had to get the "package" which had a shirt, poster and screen print. Wasn't too happy that I had to do it, but it wasn't much more for what you got, if I remember correctly. I'm guessing this means the white version is the most rare? The artwork and layout are pretty good, overall not bad. As you can see I framed the screened print, which I will be hanging up soon. I don't understand why they had a screen print and a poster of the same artwork in the same package, seems redundant. As far as the record goes, Prying Eyes is defiantly better, this is still a Cruel Hand, but not as good as I would like it. I think these guys are gonna be going on tour with Backtrack soon, so that will rule.

This is the new split from Pulling Teeth and Shin to Shin. Shin to Shin has Dwid from Integrity in it, go figure Pulling Teeth puts out a split with them. Haven't listened to the Shin to Shin side, but the Pulling Teeth song is good, I'd say it's a mix of the past two LPs. As Dom usually does, cool layout design and vinyl. The man puts out some amazing looking stuff. I believe the yellow version is from the record release show that I attended in Baltimore with Ceremony and Magrudergrind. Ceremony and Pulling Teeth were awesome as you would think, and Magrudergrind, well let's just say I really need to buy their latest LP.

Here we have another addition to the now infamous DTN collection. This is a copy of the On Thin Ice split with the 05 Euro tour cover.

Cool cover and defiantly worth picking up if you get the opportunity, which by the way for me has been hard to come by.

Of course numbered out of 100.

Here we have an order I made from GIVE. This is the second press of their self-title LP and a copy of the soon to be released 7" on React!. The 7" was left over from Sound and Fury, where the band made some quick covers for the record, since the real ones had not been finished. Overall a pretty cool DIY looking record. Two pink records, awesome. To make it even cooler, the singer John added a cool note in with the package to make it much more personal. I'm starting to get more of these in packages, which makes opening them that much better.

Here's a look at the back of the LP on the back, this thing just plainly looks awesome. I believe Ev of Mindset did the layout for this bad boy, man does great work.

So that's all for now, because I'm just too lazy to post the rest. Should have another post up soon hopefully, I'm falling behind, but I'm okay with that.

Does anyone comment anymore on this blog?

2010-07-26T20:50:00.015-04:00

I wasn't so sure about this record when I preordered. This is the latest The Effort LP from Panic Records. After I heard the Demo Sessions 7" I was a little hesitant to buy any more The Effort releases. Demo Sessions wasn't bad it just wasn't as good as past releases, and with the member changes it could be a bad sign. Well this is a good LP and I'm glad I preorderd it.

This just delivers what you would hope from this band, pure and honest melodic hardcore with meaning. That's about it, I feel like this band just will be something special for me. A lot of people can't get in to it, but I think its really refreshing. Tony's lyrics are as usual a driving force of the band and I feel like the guy has a great niche, but doesn't repeat himself.

As for the look of the record, it's pretty good. Good cover, layout, vinyl color, etc. The one thing I don't get is the insert, it's too small. I like big full size inserts even if it doesn't fold out. Why have a small folding insert when u have more room to make a simple full size insert? Having a small folding insert just comes off like a CD insert, which is just stupid. The poster up top is nice. O yea and one song has a recording from a Sarah Palin speech.

This is the copy of the bonus 7" that came with SFU's Consider It Done pre-order, only this is with a cover for the last show that Dave never made it to. Glad I was able to get this without being there and not having to pay lots to get it.

Here is another press of the Iconoclasm LP from Seasick Records. Pretty simple re-press. I missed out on getting a black copy, idiot. Vinyl looks good tho. It's funny cuz the matrix has the Words of War etchings on it, interesting.

So I traded a very nice gentleman in Belgium my extra copy of Focus on the Light with the US tour cover for his extra copy of Rush of Hope with the record release cover. Great trade, a win-win. This has a Uniform Choice rip off cover, so I decided to put them side to side to compare.

I believe I won this on eBay from Zak at Words of War. This is the copy of the s/t The Carrier 7" with the Ken Stewart cover art prototype cover. Pretty cool and #'d out of 30. Zak also seriously hooked it up with a Built to Last and Masterpiece 7" and an On My Side and At Half-Mast LP. Seriously awesome dude, I hope he puts out some new stuff sometime.

I've been meaning to complete my Get the Most 7" collection. I picked up all three of these pretty easily and in one offer. I've got all of the versions of the 7"s as far as I know, just missing the tests and a few versions of the new LP. Still on the hunt...

So I wanted to order one of the last show shirts from the True Colors website and to make the postage worth it I also picked up a copy of Rush of Hope Powered press. Pretty basic on blue. Anyone know the pressing info?

Soon I'll be posting some stuff I don't have collections of, don't worry I'll give you something to be in to.

A Show and some Label Orders

2010-07-05T21:14:00.022-04:00

I forgot to post about this with the copies of the True Colors demo. This is a tape release of Envision from Novia Scotia. I'm pretty sure it's the discography. It's a pretty cool looking tape, I Drink Milk puts out the best looking tapes that I've seen.

I picked up a few things from the SFU distro at this show.

This is the latest Harms Way 7". Pretty awesome artwork and the vinyl ain't bad either.

I picked up my first copy of this split, took me a while.

I've been meaning to get a copy of this after hearing these guys at ATWR. Pretty awesome band from Chicago I believe. Check em out if you haven't.

This is the SFU showcase version of the new Rival Mob 7". Pretty cool release and luckily I got a copy. This band is currently high on the hype meter.

Here we have the copy of the Floorpunch discography I was missing.

This is my Ceremony pre-order. Since there was a error in my order and I got it late, they decided to give me the rarest color, red. I had no idea my order was even late, so cool. The 7" is the 2nd press. This is a different record, but I still like it.

Here we have the 7" pre-release of the new Cruel Hand LP. I'm really starting to get tired of these 7" pre-releases, this might be my last one.

This is an order from Reaper. The latest Down to Nothing 7" 2nd press and 2nd press of the TUI LP.

I got my big React! pre-order.

Since the Damages 7" was delayed, Aram threw in some rarities for everyone who pre-ordered it. I got a transition of the Damages 7". I would have liked to have gotten a different rarity, as I'm not in to Damages much, but it's still a cool appreciation thing on Aram's part. Hopefully someone will want this and I can trade/sell it.

I was really impressed with the Get the Most LP. Everything came out really well. The insert is just awesome and the cover/vinyl are really clean and straight-forward.

It's Been Awhile

2010-06-23T18:25:00.024-04:00

So I went to this show almost two weeks ago. It was a good time and I picked up a record that I had planned on getting.

This is Backtrack's Deal with the Devil. Backtrack play a style of NYHC that I can get in to. Less hard and more roots hardcore. This band pulls off the aggressiveness of NYHC but still sounds like a band from the 80s.

With True Colors calling it quits there were tons of releases put out around the last show. This is the Consider it Done 7" put out in Europe by Control Records. The white is the mailorder version, and limited to 100. After all of the auctions that just happened on eBay to raise funds, I think Control will be having some cool things coming out.

I picked this up from Mike Riley at a Mindset/Praise/Rations show about a month ago. It's a copy of the Adult Crash with a stamp for A389's 5 year anniversary. Not really sure what the pressing is on this but I know when I was at Celebrated Summer in Towson, Tony was trying to get me to buy this.

So I got my pre-order in for Six Feet Under's release of the Consider It Done 7". I got all 4 colors and of course the bonus 7". The gatefold cover came out really well and this release is just awesome. The layout, insert/poster, vinyl colors the all are great.

I seem to have been getting my hands on a bunch of the copies of Double Vision from Powered. It's ironic because I didn't pre-order this record because at the time I couldn't afford this and the React! ones. It seems to have worked in my favor. This is the most common version that I picked up from the band.

Here we have just a great idea, Iron Man and AC/DC together on a double LP. This just seems like a perfect idea, and it came out really cool. Usually the bigger labels put out crap vinyl but this came out real well, heavy vinyl and awesome layout.

Here we have another True Colors 7". This is I Drink Milk's reissue of the original demo, but this time on vinyl instead of tape. This also came out really well, also a label on the rise.

This is the Floorpunch Discography. This came out kinda wierd. The vinyl colors just don't make sense really. The gatefold sleeve is awesome and the tri-fold insert is pretty good. It's got tons of writing from some people around for a while but it feels kinda long. It felt like reading a book instead of an album insert. I also got two copies on gold instead of all three colors. I'm driving up to Philly for the SFU showcase this Saturday, and I think Floorpunch is playing this entire release, should be nutz.

I picked up a few more records from Dave Brown, a very awesome dude. First is a copy of Adult Crash limited to four copies. This is the transition from the black to the light blue. Pretty awesome pick up I have to say.

Here is the record release version of Bracewar's s/t 7". Pretty awesome record and it came with a tarot card, cool touch.

This is the United Blood version of Adult Crash. Pretty straight forward. Now all I'm missing of this record is the other transition.

EBAY

2010-05-26T18:17:00.026-04:00

So I've just been getting stuff off of eBay recently, lots of rare stuff and some just great deals too.

First up we have a copy of Stay Cold on white. Limited to 1,000.

This is a copy of Strife's Grey on white out of 1,017. I've been meaning to get Strife vinyl.

This is a copy of the Listen to Your Friends single put out as a promotion for the latest LP. On clear limited to 500.

This is a copy of the Listen to Your Friends single put out on Epitaph, 1,334 of these.

This came with the other two NFG records, Not Without a Fight on Orange, Epitaph press, 700 Copies.

This I thought was a copy of the same thing put as a 10" from Revelation, instead it's Epic's single release. Still cool.

This is the rarest copy of the Cold World - Dedicated LP on clear out of 330.

I picked this up at the D.C. Record Fair this past weekend. It's a DJ single of Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby and Play that Funky Music. Yeah, and I got it for 50 cents.

This is a copy of the Not Sorry Moving On 7" from Salad Day Records, the European press. I got this from the band's bigcartel store. Wish I could have the other versions of this press.

This was a great eBay score for the price. It's a copy of the s/t Down to Nothing 7" on red transition, numbered out of 30. Here is a comparison of the transition on the left and the regular version on the right.

Not a big difference but check out this photo as a reference for the different kinds of transitions.

Next we have my winnings from the Six Feet Under Records eBay extravaganza a few weeks ago. Originally I think I only won three of these but to my surprise the next day I had several second chance offers which was awesome. All in all I definitely spent too much, but it was defiantly worth it too.

First is a copy of the Adult Crash Compilation/Book on White, out of 150.

I also picked up the Test Press, out of 35, which is a lot of copies for a test.

This is a copy of the last press of the Cold World/War Hungry Press on grey.

Numbered out of 105. I had a chance to get this at This Is Hardcore, but like an idiot I passed up on it and had to pay more for it in the end.

This is a copy of the split with the War Hungry European Tour sleeve.

Numbered on the back. I now have every version of this split other than the test, and seeing as how much it went for in these auctions, I don't think I'll be getting it anytime soon.

Here is a copy of TC Focus on the Light on Tri-Color. I've now got every version of this one too except for the test. I think it's more likely I'll get the test for this however. This band is definitely going to be like Biggie in 2Pac, meaning that now that they're dead they'll get more recognition. Looking at pictures and video from the last show this past weekend makes me wish I had seen them more. Here's a picture from the last show.

It doesn't get much better than that.

This was the biggest thing I wanted and it originally went for more than I wanted to pay, so good thing for second chances. This is the test press for the Hem Hem 7". I probably spent way too much on this since it's a joke release and not anything memorable, but hey this might be the only time I could've ever gotten it. Oh wait that's right I could've gotten this at This Is Hardcore too, but at that point in my record collecting I had no idea what a good offer would be. I'm kinda bummed about the cover, same thing as the regular version.

Some Serious Scores

2010-05-05T19:24:00.026-04:00

So the past week or so I've picked up a decent amount of records, but some pretty awesome stuff has made it that much better. First I'll start with what has been a bit of a long time coming.

So a guy on the React! board posted his On Thin Ice collection and mentioned that he'd be willing to part with his Down to Nothing split Test Press from Dead & Gone Records. So I sent him a private message and a price was agreed and shortly payment was sent. Within a few days the dude shipped the record from Austria, and the waiting game started. I thought it might take about 2 or 3 weeks to get to me. It took about 2.5 months to finally get to my doorstep. Several messages were sent about it not yet getting to my house and he kept reassuring that he sent it and offered to send me the scanned receipt. So I knew the guy had to have sent it, and he had good feedback on the React! board. So I just figured I'd wait a little longer, after 2 months my patience begins to thin. So when this finally got to me I was more than relieved. It's limited to 8 copies. Here's a picture of the back:

The first reason why this post is awesome is because there are two tests, Graham over in the U.K. who I've dealt with on past DTN deals sent me this one.

This is the Test Press of the Splitting Headache release. It is limited to 2 copies, so pretty awesome that I have one. Here's a close up of the labels.

Inside the sleeve Rich wrote this message.

Basically explaining how the color of the vinyl came back from the plant and that there apparently is another version out there numbered out of 3...damnit. Anyway Rich seemed like he just wanted this to stay off eBay, no worries Rich. Also this came with plastic inner sleeves but I don't like those and put the two 7"s in paper sleeves, don't worry I kept the original plastic sleeves too.

In yet another addition to the DTN collection I picked up a copy of the 3 song demo, this one is the record release, numbered out of 30.

I picked up my first copy of the 6 song demo from the same guy. Dave sent me an e-mail after he heard from Alex of Grave Mistake Records that I'd probably be interested in some of his records that he was looking to get rid of. Thanks Dave and Alex. This is the clear copy out of 34. Pretty cool looking record. The color of the vinyl doesn't seem like a straight forward clear, it almost looks like a really light colored coke bottle clear.

Here we have the last DTN release. This is the demo tape from 2002 that I also picked up from Graham. Nice to finally have this, I think there are other tapes out there from DTN but I don't know much about them. I think there's a hand drawn cover maybe from a different year and I think a colored cover version of this. If anyone's got details let me know.

ON just recently set up a bigcartel store, so I stopped over and picked up a copy of the LP from Powered. This is on white and limited to 200. Nice to be able to pick this up especially after all of the problems with the pre-orders with this from Powered. Luckily I didn't partake in the pre-order.

Here we have a great pick up. The React! Records Showcase box set. Aram posted these in the store one night and I believe the 20 copies left from the showcase sold out in like 2 minutes. I was happy to be able to jump on the opportunity as I sat at my computer and hit refresh every second.

These are numbered on the back out of 94 and have a 3-side screen print on the box.

As usually Aram loaded this up with quality. You've got a copy of both Mindset releases, GBNF, Praise and Damages all on black and all stamped on the dust sleeve. Each release comes with what it usually would, the download code, sticker and the full page essays. You put all of those essays together and the list of names in hardcore who have contributed are pretty impressive. Also included was a booklet with all of the lyrics from the records and some special notes from Aram. Very cool addition. Overall an incredibly awesome thing to have.

In another React! release, I got a copy of the Praise 7" pressed for the Showcase also, out of 100. Andy put some of these up in Praise's new bigcartel store. Very nice.

I got my first The First Step record, oddly redundant. This is from the second press out of 885. Nothing special but a good start I think. More to come I'm sure.

Here we have another copy of the Swamp Thing 7". This is on gold, so I can now differentiate between the tan and gold copy. Limited to 112.

So my buddy Bobby Egger had a show about a week ago for one of his label's bands, ANS. He had his distro out in full force to help raise money for a few releases he has in the works, including his first LP. So I knew I needed to at least pick something up from him. I picked up a copy of the Iron Boots demo from Grave Mistake, 3rd press out of 500; Iron Age Constant Struggle 3rd press on clear out of 300 and Pulling Teeth Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions on Coke Bottle Clear with regular cover out of 900. Nothing too special, but all solid pick ups from a solid distro. Keep an eye out on Headcount Records.

Down to Nothing Update

2010-04-25T13:55:00.003-04:00

Collect 'Em All

2010-04-23T20:53:00.005-04:00

A lot of this blog consists of me continuing to get some of the same records I already own, but different variations of that same record. I'm not sure why I do this or what is my motivation behind it. I guess its almost like a way of showing how much you like a record by getting as many copies as possible. It could also just be for bragging rights, sometimes I feel like it's the latter of the two. Maybe it's just a simple novelty thing? Sometimes I realize it gets out of hand, but moments later I get excited again about it. It's odd how these things work.

Well after that intro, after a while of not really getting anything new from this band, I got two records. Cold World has been a band that just stands out to me, maybe its from seeing them in Philly a few times, or just that the band is so well liked, yet they don't play that much. Cold World to me plays a type of hardcore that is just a no-brainer. A lot of hardcore kids like hip hop and it makes me wonder how a band like this hadn't come out that actually could pull it off well. Probably because it's not easy.

This is the third and lost copy of the No Omega Compilation LP that I did not have. For anyone that doesn't know this puts all of the first 7"s on one release, and I think an extra song. To me this is the best Cold World. This LP just sort of encompasses all of it. This one is out of 104 copies.

Also keeping with my preferred Cold World releases, this is the self-titled 7" on blue. I feel like that for the most part the hype that surrounded this band has died down a bit, which is awesome because it makes for great deals on stuff I normally would've passed on. I believe this one is out of 200.

Here we have The Effort's From Our Mistakes 7" on green from the 1st press, 175 copies. Compare it to the other post I had from the first press here

I decided to place an order at React! for a few things I didn't have. I picked up the Carry On re-release of It's All Our Blood put out a while ago, I had picked up a copy on white from Sean Youngblood and I thought I had pre-ordered this and the red copy from React, but I found out later that I did not. Maybe I'll get a copy on red somewhere down the road.

I picked up a copy of The Effort #2 fanzine. This really impressed me, sometimes I feel like the quality of a zine just doesn't impress me most of the time. This thing is incredibly well done. Huge interviews, lots of topics and just tons of rad stuff. I'm looking forward to sitting down and actually reading it. I was also supposed to pick up a copy of Mindset's Time & Pressure on black, but Aram sent me it on red. Aram did however give me the other screen-printed mailer used for the Mindset 7", so that was a nice bonus.

So now I have duplicates of red and white. Aram wants me to fund his label apparently. No worries I can pick up a copy on black at a show I'm sure.

This is another copy of On's Vital Times, this time on black, out of 600. I need to get more copies of this record. It is just too good.

Here we have another copy of Swamp Thing's 7" on tan I think. Kind of hard to distinguish between tan and gold, under different light it can go either way.

I love Bracewar's first 7" and after I heard the LP I wasn't really impressed at all. About two weeks ago I was giving it another listen, and there are several tracks that are pretty good. So I thought maybe a purchase was necessary, and to my luck and fairly easily, I got the Sound and Fury version out of 100.

I decided to pick up another Wishingwell release, this is Insted's Bonds of Friendship. Probably one of the best covers I've seen, mixes the like 50s and youthcrew look really well.

So Much to Post About

2010-04-06T09:32:00.008-04:00

The past couple of weeks I've been getting a lot of stuff in and it's been just piling up so this is the culmination of that. I'll start with what was probably the most notable thing that happened in the past few weeks, Mindset's record release.

This was probably one of the best shows I have been to, including the after show. Lots of great bands and friends. Check out the videos from the show if you haven't here. It would only make sense that I start this blog with Time & Pressure.

On the left is the yellow record release press of the new 7" limited to 100 copies. Next to that is the white out of 200 and then the red out of 400. The record release show was on a Sunday and the next day I received my pre-order from React!, how fitting. At the record release I picked up a copy of the white vinyl because I was under the impression that I had missed the opportunity to get a copy of it for the pre-order, the things went so fast and I was at work. To my surprise when I opened the package there was a red copy and a white copy, so I now have two copies on white. Anyone interested in picking it up let me know. At the record release, pretty much anyone who bought the 7" also got the Sacred Love demo and Thinking Cap #1. Also like an idiot I picked up the poster at the show that came in my pre-order so I now have two of those too for anyone who is interested.

True Colors had a special press of Focus on the Light from Six Feet Under for the tour. At first I saw this thing and was like they just glue a piece of paper to the one I already had, the one that came with the Rush of Hope pre-order. So I was instantly turned off and appalled that they would try and make me buy another copy. So after the first show, before the second show I was playing on my phone and saw Mike's post about the record and then I wanted it. Luckily for me the True Colors guys stuck around for the second show and I asked Packo if he could pull out a copy for me, which he generously did. Close call.

Here's a good picture of some friends and I during True Colors set at the show.

Also at the show I picked up two LPs from someone who I think just brought some stuff they were looking to get rid of.

On top is Blue Monday's Rewritten on purple, on the bottom is Comeback Kid's Wake the Dead on blue. Neither one is that rare or special, but both were definitely good pick ups for the price, $6 each.

Also at the show I picked up a copy of Boiling Over's Trash City on Green, second press. I've been meaning to pick this up and just never got around to it til now.

Bummer this band just played their last show, I would've liked to hear more.

One of the first things I picked up over a week ago was Forfeit's Visions with the Summer Tour sleeve. Limited to 100 Copies, mine's #100, pretty cool.

So big surprise, I pre-ordered the new Down to Nothing 7". So here are the two versions that were available for pre-order.

I believe the black and white cover is the limited version I think out of 300. No idea the pressing on the regular versions. Both on black, the packaging is not bad and overall clean, but I'm not that impressed to be honest. I was however impressed by the music, a few things I'm not a fan of but overall I was definitely feeling it. An updated collection picture is on its way.

Next I picked up two Common Cause releases.

The copy of Statement of Purpose on blue is out of 300. The Power to Change LP is the European tour version with the DJ sleeve, limited to 250 copies. I started feeling this band after Aram sent out the e-mails with the download to the React pressing of Statement of Purpose.

Here's another Down to Nothing pick up.

This is the Revelation compilation, Generations. Not only does this have an unreleased DTN song, but it has an incredibly impressive list of bands on it. These are the two versions that were released both limited to 550 copies.

After winning a couple things on eBay from a guy he gave me a second chance offer on this and I didn't pass up on it.

This is the Summer Tour version of Fired Up's When the Lights go, numbered out of 150. Glad to add this to the collection.

Another addition to a different collection is I finally got a copy of Get the Most's Core Values.

This is the most common color limited to 300 copies, I'm just happy to finally have a copy. These things don't go for cheap.

Next was another record that I was happy to finally get a copy of, add to the collection, and usually goes for a good amount.

This is ON's original release, Vital Times. This record seriously owns, so happy to have it. When I saw my man Marc over at Uncontrollable Substance post about getting a copy as an extra in a package, I immediately sent him an offer. In like two days it was in my hands, Marc is awesome and can pack a record.

In once again another addition to a collection I picked up two more copies of The Carrier's s/t 7".

The bottom is the version from Sound and Fury 08, numbered out of 75. The top one is just from the second press, limited to 102 copies. I got an offer from a guy to pick this up from him like two months ago and like an idiot I didn't check his trader feedback until after I sent my money. So with that being said I didn't expect my record to show up after seeing that I shouldn't have trusted him. So I sent him an e-mail after a few weeks saying I didn't expect him to send me the record. He said that he had and that he had another copy and would send it to me again along with some others to make up for the time, I was like "sure". So maybe two weeks later I get a package in the mail and sure enough there is The Carrier 7", to my surprise. He also threw in the two other colors form the 2nd press and an Answer 7". The dude totally made up for it and then some. However I already had the two other Carrier 7"s, dude definitely still went out of his way.

I also picked up two tapes. First is my man Bobby Egger's old band Full Nelson's promo tape for their 7".

These guys need to get back together to play a show, their 7" was solid.

Just the other day I got my copy of A Helping Hand Compilation.

This was an awesome compilation put together for Keith from Alert. Keith lost a lot of his personal belongings not to mention a house in a fire. All of the proceeds for this are going to Keith. So if you've got $3 and want a great compilation of current bands, head over here and pick one up for a good cause. Keith is an awesome dude and deserves any help he can get. This is the Pre-Order cover, numbered out of 30 copies. I'm going to pick up the regular version sometime soon. Please help Keith out.

So that's all for this massive post, and maybe my biggest one yet. I've got more stuff already to put up. It never ends.

Nothing Special

2010-03-25T19:10:00.008-04:00

I've got so many things either on their way or pre-ordered that I'm starting to lose track of things I paid for. Now I see why people include a section of "In the mail" on their collection lists. I might have to start doing this. I got a pre-order sooner than I thought. I got a package from Panic Records with four copies of the new Effort 7". I had previously posted about this release, as a tape that they had on tour. This is the official release i guess you could say of the demos for the new LP.

I ordered these as soon as they went up about a month ago so this has to be one of the quicker pre-orders I've placed. I have to say that these 7"s look boring. The artwork is cool and I actually like it by itself but paired with the vinyl cover, it's not interesting at all. Maybe if the cover had colors it would work out but it doesn't. As far as the music goes, I'm also a little disappointed. Compared to the first 7", the LP and From Our Mistakes, this is just not as good. The tracks have some cool parts but there is a definite difference in the material. Maybe it has to do with the like three new members? Either way its not as good. I picked up a few things from someone on eBay. First up is the Braindead LP.

This was a pretty good Philly band that never really got too recognized. This version is from their Spring tour last year, with a numbered cover. The LP is pretty good, well recorded and the layout is also very cool. I got this for pretty cheap, so nice score.

The main thing I wanted to pick up was this copy of Adult Crash, because DTN is on it. It's also a pretty cool zine, though apparently this person didn't want me to have it.

The last thing I picked up was another copy of the Trapped Under Ice LP, this being the Reaper Pre-Order color. I got all three of these for pretty cheap, which makes me happy about this package.

Keep the Collections Going

2010-03-15T21:28:00.007-04:00

I finally got something I was really looking forward to. Rich from Speedowax Records posted on the React! board that he was going to sell the Splitting Headache double 7" directly from himself, so that people like myself no longer needed to spend ridiculous prices for copies of the release. So I jumped on the opportunity to pick up two more copies that I didn't have that Rich was offering. When I sent him a private message on the board about getting them from him once I had some more money in the bank account, rich immediately wanted to help me continue my DTN collection and offered to give me every version that he could get that I didn't have. Of course I agreed and sent him the payment as soon as I could. After a little delay and getting all of the versions together to be sent, I finally got the package. What's better than getting 6 Down to Nothing records that you don't have in one package? Not much.

There are several versions of this release pretty much all identified by the stamps on the sleeves and labels. Pictured is the DTN rules stamp, Speedowax.com stamp, KruptKids stamp, Pre-order stamp, Mail Order stamp and the 2008 UK tour sleeve. The first four mentioned are all numbered and limited to 125 copies. The mail order is out of 25 and the tour press is out of 100. I've seen an earlier UK tour version, anyone know if this is the same thing? Or if there is anything people think I might be missing other than the obvious test then please let me know.

Next up I got another version of the Perspective 7". This is the Powered Pre-Order version. Seems that I'm getting a lot of Powered vinyl these days, especially with the Pre-Order stamp. Nothing too special about this, just happy to cross it off the list.

I got another Carrier 7" to add to the collection, this is the No Love Can Save me on Purple/Green split color, 300 copies. Pretty straight-forward, just haven't been able to get a copy of this til now.

Bringing in Spring

2010-03-06T20:19:00.002-05:00

It's such a nice day out that I decided to stay in and get around to updating my blog. The first is an eBay win, On Double Vision on Blue. I was happy to pick up the rarest color finally, with only 150 copies it's not something I can just pick up at my local record store.

So I was up in Pennsylvania visiting the lady and she had mentioned there was a store that would interest me in her town, Pass & Stow. So we finally got the chance to go there last weekend and I saw this and knew it was about time i picked it up.

Even if it's the like 5th pressing or something, still something I needed a copy of. Not much needs to be said about this, just something important to have in the collection. Paolo from the React board was selling a copy of the Get the Most tour 7" combo, so I gladly took it off his hands.

This has both Moment in Time and Common Goals together with a cover made for their 2009 Fall Tour, which i don't think even came to the east coast, so I couldn't pick it up in person. The back of the cover is numbered to make nerds just nerd out more.

I picked a few things up from another gentlemen on the react board that seems to be a big verse fan, Matthew Jordan, good dude. All of them are records from overseas, so it was nice to be able to get them finally. First is True Colors Perspective record release cover.

Once again numbered for the nerds, also has this really cool comic on the back but I have no idea what it says. Anyone out there know?

Another True Colors record, Rush of Hope with the Powered Pre-Order Stamp. Happy to have a copy of this.

Also from Powered and also already mentioned in this post, I got Double Vision with the Powered stamp.

Nice to have some pre-orders that I didn't participate in and a copy from a release show that I couldn't attend. The internet is a wonderful thing. Maybe when I have $150 to waste I place an order with Powered finally.

Richmond, This City

2010-02-23T21:07:00.008-05:00

So it's just by chance that all three things from this post are of bands from Richmond, not to mention the last post had Swamp Thing, also from Richmond. You'd be a fool if you didn't recognize the bands that have been coming out of Richmond. First up I decided to pick up a few more copies of the Bracewar s/t, our the demo as it's also known. First up is the 7" with the Sound and Fury Stamp, hand numbered.

Nothing too special, the normal pressing on black just with the Sound and Fury Stamp on the inside of the sleeve.

I also got a copy of the original demo, which had two songs that made it's way on to the 7". I think I was happier to get this than the 7", as I feel that this is a bit more special and just cooler overall. It is better simply because it has the intro. Not sure how limited this, but I'm sure it can't be more than a couple hundred.

Last is the first Down to Nothing LP, Save it for the Birds on a color that is not incredibly easy to find, green. I've seen this go for a decent amount several times and it just seems that I always get outbid or miss out on my chance to get a copy. This thing is limited to 100 copies, the same as the record release.

So there are a few older Richmond releases that still are just as awesome as they were years ago.

Great Offers are Hard to Pass Up

2010-02-18T22:13:00.007-05:00

So I haven't been actively pursing the Swamp Thing 7", but when presented with an offer I haven't turned it down. A guy was trying to get rid of his copy on grey and said he wouldn't expect much for it, so I made a simple offer and just like that I have the rarest color, limited to 93. It's these situations that make me feel happy about finding things when you least expect it, easier than you thought you could.

The dude was also looking to get rid of some more stuff, so he sent me a list and I picked out two more things. Next was a 7" I was very happy to finally have a copy of, War Pigs - No Hope, No Faith, No Point. I've been meaning to get a copy of this ever since I first heard about this band, but I never got around to it. Bummer this band has called it quits, I thought they played a great combination of southern rock and hardcore.

Lastly I picked up the Steel Nation/Crucified Split that Double or Nothing had previously put out as a 7", but they decided to put out on tape along with some of their other releases for This Is Hardcore and Great American Hardcore fest I believe. These were pretty limited, mine's numbered 18/25.

Snowed In Again

2010-02-06T19:32:00.006-05:00

So there's over a foot of snow outside and with that, it means I have tons of time around the house to get stuff done. So an update only made sense.

I picked up another copy of the Perspective 7" on eBay. Pretty straight-forward, white vinyl limited to 300. It looks much more like a light grey, but white works too.

So I got a chance to see these guys at A Time We'll Remember and they grabbed my attention, but it took an actual listen of their 7" to purchase it. This 7" is fantastic, one of the best releases of 09. I still need to pick up the red version, soon hopefully. They sent me a note that they'd be releasing a new 7" in 2010. Should be good. Check these guys out.