2013

I can't remember how I got this one. It may have been from Hellfish, either way it's Swamp Thing's Self-titled 7" on black. There's 300 of these and overall this is a pretty solid 7" from the band, the artwork and layout are good as well. 6131 did a good job with these.

 So this one I also have no idea how I got, maybe from a label? Six Feet Under? Anyway it's War Hungry's Return to Earth from 1917 Records, which is no longer an active label. There are a bunch of different colors and versions of this release, but the black is the most common out of 560. I believe this was the most recent release before they just release their LP, which was a pretty good release as well.

 I'm pretty positive that this is a mispress of Down to Nothing's Splitting Headache from Speedowax Records. I got this one from Rich from the label. This one is supposedly pretty rare out of only three. I don't know too much else about this one, like why it is a mispress or anything like that.

 So this is the repress of the Cold World and War Hungry split from Six Feet Under Records. This came out great. It was a good idea to keep the layout and design completely the same just change the pictures and make everything color. Black is out of 456 and white is out of 526.

I believe I got these from 6131. Starting on left is two copies of Bad Seed's Self Titled. Purple is out of 400 and yellow is out of 100 copies. Both are from the third press. On the right is a copy of the Bad Seed and War Hungry split on black out of 300.

I believe I also got these from Hellfish. This is two copies of Backtrack's Deal with the Devil. The copy on red is out of 200 and the copy on white is out of 400 I believe. If anyone could confirm this for me that would be cool. Both are from the second press.

This was the last version of Fired Up's When the Lights Go Out that I was missing. This is from the first press on clear out of 200. I think the only thing I'm missing is transitions and a test, but I'm not sure when I'd get around to getting copies of them.

This is my pre-order from Alert's Find Your Way. This was put out by Six Feet Under Records. It came out looking pretty good and it's a good 7" too. Bummer this band just recently called it quits, but it happens. Cool dudes as well. Purple is out of 105, 317 on Dark Clear Purple and 625 on Black.

So this was a pre-order package from React! First up we have three colors of Rearranged's Self-Titled. I believe this band is from Europe or maybe Russia? Not completely sure, its a great release either way. 200 on white, 300 on blue and 500 on black. On the bottom left is the second press of Give's Heaven is Waiting. This band is pretty cool and defiantly playing their own style in current hardcore. Black is out of 300 and white is out of 200. On the bottom right is the limited second press of Noose's It's Your Time on grey. For a second press this one is very rare, only 150 copies.

Holidays Post

 So a ways back A389 announced that it had put up the Japanese pressing of the last Pulling Teeth LP put out by WDSounds, who I know nothing about. The pressing is pretty much the exact same as the A389 version except this this piece of paper on the cover. I have no idea how many of these there are? It also came with the Flexi of the band's original demo. This one is on black out of 100. I'm still not in to the Flexis, but I like this demo.

 So I saw online somewhere that Beware had put up some copies of their demo tape a ways back. This is numbered #30 out of 100. I have to say when this demo tape was floating around on the internet I wasn't completely in to it, it wasn't bad but I had mild interest. Now that their 7" has come out and they've blown up, I mean the second press is already sold out of the 7", I'm really happy I did pick this up. That 7" is awesome by the way. It will definitely be one of the best of the year.

 I'm not sure where I got this from, maybe another label in their distro? This is a pretty good 7" and I believe this band just broke up. They were a big deal at Sound and Fury last year if I remember correctly. This one on red is out of 300.

 I was happy to finally get a copy of this from Control Records. This is the vinyl pressing of Bad Seed's second demo. This band ruled and so did the demo. Black is out of 400.

 I know I got this one from A389, so I'm assuming that I got the others above from the same place. These were some old copies that happened to be found by Dom I think. This was a great band and this version on gold is pretty rare, but I'm not sure what the exact numbers are.

Here is my pre-order from the Praise Two Songs 7". This came out really clean. I like the layout and artwork. I wish that the grey vinyl color was tan however. I think a tan or clear would have gone well. White is out of 200, grey is out of 300 and black is out of 400. These are two great songs too.

From React! I also picked up a copy of Police & Thieves Amor Y Guerra LP put out by Salad Days Records.

This is another copy of Splitting Headache that I picked up from Rich of Speedowax Records. Rich messaged me a ways back saying he had printed up some limited orange covers that he was looking to give to some people, so naturally I said I was interested.

As you can see these are numbered out of 10 and has my name on it. Pretty cool.

So I pre-ordered the Ceremony Covers release and I also picked up a few other things. Up top is the fourth press on grey of the Project X 7" and the third press on grey of Ceremony's Scared People. On the bottom is Ceremony's Still Nothing Moves You, fourth press on yellow, Pianos Become the Teeth's Old Pride fourth press on gold/maroon and Strike Anywhere's Iron Front second press on green.

The Ceremony Covers release came out great, they are one sided etched 12"s.

Down by 23

So a ways back I got an e-mail from a great collector overseas that I had bought some rare Down to Nothing records from before. He was looking to sell the rest of his DTN collection. There were three 7"s he had that I still needed. So after a bunch of e-mails back and forth with logistics we worked out a deal, and they were on their way.

So the first of three was this test press of the self-titled three song release. So apparently Robby Redcheeks made his test presses very limited, only five of these exist.

So this one has a pretty cool transparent yellow sleeve of the original artwork. The usual quality you'd expect from Dead by 23. One the back you can also see a great Revelation Records rip off logo.

Here are the other two of the three 7"s. These are both copies of the six song self titled 7". The 6 song 7" was ditched for some reason, I'm not sure why, recording? song selection? who knows. Either way it gave a great opportunity to put out a super rare release, all together only 55 copies, including tests. So on the left is this release on pink vinyl out of only 16. Then on the right is the test press out of five again. This seems to be a trend. Robby made another cool sleeve for this one, with some little differences but good ones. It even says on the front that mine is number four of five.

All together these are some of the best DTN records I have. They're incredibly rare and hard to find, and also some of the best material from this band. Not to mention Dead by 23 did a great job with them. They also complete my collection of both releases. Now I'm sure furhtur down the road I will try and get my hands on some more versions of the three song release transitions.

Why isn't it cold yet?

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.

Why not be behind the times?

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.

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.

I'll Always be Catching Up

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.