So I've Been Buying Less

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.

Back to the Mailbox

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.

Pre Orders Pre Orders Pre Orders

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

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.

Setlled

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.