Back from Vacation, Time for an Update

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.

Hardcore Does Live

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So Much to Post About

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.

Victory's Non-Victorious Vinyl

So I read on Between the Buried and Me's myspace blog that Victory had released Alaska on vinyl. I thought to myself, finally. So I quickly went over to the Victory site to see what they had to offer, like any other record collector does. So I saw that Victory had the classic album in White with a limited pressing of 200. I knew that if I didn't get a copy while I had the chance, I'd kick myself, so I placed an order. While at the Victory webstore I also realized that maybe I should pick up another copy of the latest Comeback Kid record that I do not have. So I looked again for the rarest and found the Black and Copper almost swirl like vinyl, which is also limited with only 212 copies. So all in all not a bad pick-up. I wish Victory as a label didn't suck, that would make me feel better about purchasing vinyl from them. On top of all that the packaging for the records just leaves so much to be desired. I mean like the covers are just pathetic and there's nothing special about any of the packaging. I guess I should expect it however.