Celebrated Summer Score

So I was up in Towson, MD visiting some friends and I heard about this place called Celebrated Summer. It's in the back of this comic shop, and its this little room maybe like 12 feet by 10 feet and its full of stuff. So I spent about an hour and a half going through this guys collection of vinyl. I could have easily spent over $200, but I resisted, mostly due to funds. The shop is run by this really awesome dude, Tony, who is in a band called Deep Sleep. Dude had a fantastic store, I'd say the best one I've ever been to. Tons of OOP and hard stuff to find. So the following is what I picked up.

First is the Go It Alone - Histories 7". I believe this is the first press limited to 875. This came out to promote the LP.

Next up is the Harms Way - Imprisoned 7" put out by Organized Crime. This is the most limited version, with 167 copies. This was probably the best deal for what I paid for.

This is the Prayer for Cleansing - The Tragedy 7" on blue with white splatter. I believe its the 2nd press limited to 380 copies. Very cool looking and the packaging is top notch. This is my second copy of this. Members of this band went on to form Between the Buried and Me.

I had been wanting to get a copy of this, so it was a no brainer. This is the Fired Up - When the Lights Go Out 7" on red 2nd press limited to 300 copies. I wish I coulda picked up the new 7" also put out on Youngblood. Will have to look for that in the future.

I saw the Mindset - Real Power 7" and went through each copy to make sure Tony didn't have a copy I didn't have. I found this one on White from the 1st press limited to 300 copies. Pretty nice score, especially since this is a band from Baltimore, I would have thought that this would have been snatched up already.

This in my mind was the best part of the purchase. Floorpunch - Twin Killing I believe limited to 1,700, but awesome and not easy to find none-the-less. This is the Division One Champs 7" and Goal Line Stand 7" released together on Equal Vision.

All in all, this was a really good pick-up, and hard to resist despite the fact that financially I probably shouldn't have bought anything, but whatever, I'm not in Towson often. I even had to turn down some nice Champion records, a dude had just dropped off some of his collection that day. What makes it even more easy to stomach is that I got all of these for $40 all together, yeah that's a really good deal. So if you're in the Baltimore area, head over to Celebrated Summer, it's totally worth your time.

First Test Press

I posted my DTN collection on the D.C.H.C. board and Alex from Grave Mistake Records asked if I collected test presses. I said of course, and yes I'd be interested in picking one up from you. So once I could afford to do so I sent Alex an e-mail and it was in the mail the next day. So here it is ladies and gentlemen, my first test press:

I'm extremely happy with it. Alex did a really cool touch by putting a plastic clear sleeve with the artwork in black as the cover for it. It came out really cool. It kinda reminds me of the plastic pieces that teachers put on overheads when I was in school back in the day.

It is numbered #15 of 24.

Once again someone contacted me about trading for my Alert tour press. Dudes must really be into them. I like the band and all, and I was happy to pick up the tour press, but there are other records I want more. So I traded away my second copy of the summer tour press to get two Get the Most 7"s.

The copy of Common Goals is from the first press, limited to 300 copies. If you look closely you can see some black streaks on the vinyl, left over from the other 700 copies on black. Makes me think there might be some transition press versions floating around.

The other 7" is my first copy of Moment in Time on black limited to 1,220 copies. Nothing special but the insert is pretty cool.

The record didn't come with a dust sleeve, I'm not sure if this is the way Crucial Response put the record out, or if it was a previous owner who took the dust sleeve out. Either way I'm a little annoyed. It makes no sense to me to not have a record in a dust sleeve.

Support the Locals

So I picked up some releases at two shows in the past few weeks. First was the Troops of Tomorrow Demo from this show:

Troops opened the show, this was the first show they had the tapes. Here it is:

A decent tape and layout, not to mention a good release. If your into street punk give it a listen: http://www.myspace.com/troopsoftomorrowdc
The other night I went to this show:

I had previously won a record off a friend who lives at the house the show was at, the Corpse Fortress. So I just said I'd pick it up from him at the next show at his house. Here it is:

It's one of the pre-order versions of the latest Pulling Teeth record, limited to 333 copies. There was another pre-order version on green splatter also limited to 333, making it 666 all together, nice. I thought I'd take a picture of the hologram to give you an idea of what its like if you don't own this record.


Now I've got a decent collection of PT records, still got plenty more to get my hands on.

I just realized I got both of these from Garybird, he does vocals in Troops of Tomorrow. Maybe I should sell something to him next time.

It's About Time

So I've been listening to Get the Most a lot for the past like 4 months at least I wanna say, so I've been after their vinyl during this process and I finally got my hands on some. I won all 3 copies of the Common Goals 7" on eBay and ended up paying less for them from eBay then I probably would have paid for them had I ordered them from Crucial Response. With a bad exchange rate and shipping costs, ordering records from Europe has not been an easy thing for me to do, despite my desire. So this was a nice convenience. I think this may be my favorite 7" they have put out. All of them are solid. This is actually the second press from Crucial, all 3 colors, the most rare being the blue.

Each came with this fold out insert on thick paper, which is rather cool, almost like a poster. I'll be seeing these guys two times in the next few weeks, should be pretty awesome. Hopefully the GTM collection will continue to grow.

Impatience leads to Irony

So I've been waiting a while for some packages to come in the mail, and I'm still waiting for some. That being said I was up at the University of Delaware this past weekend visiting my friend and I knew a stop at the local indie record store was a must, especially since I was so deprived of some new vinyl. So we took a trip to Rainbow and I picked up my favorite Metallica album, ...And Justice for All. It's the remastered fancy version, double LP. I didn't take a picture of it because it's pretty boring, it's on black, and it does happen to come with an insert, but not worth a picture still. So anyway on top of that I get home and the next day I get 3 packages. Ironic?

Up first was a package from the U.K. blogger sensation, Marcus of The Endless Quest... fame. Marcus saw the post I had of my Down to Nothing collection and let me know that he had an extra copy of the On Thin Ice split Release Cover from Dead and Gone Records. Of course I wanted it. So after a couple of e-mails he was a mate and sent it to me, stateside. If you're reading this Marcus, you pack your records very well, you should be proud of the job you do. It's nice to see that someone else cares enough about records to take the time out to package them well.

The record itself was also in awesome condition. Mine is numbered 4 of 50. Thanks again Marcus. Anyone else out there who's got some dtn records they wanna part with let me know.

In another addition to the collection, I scored this copy of the Hem Hem 7" on eBay. I've been after a copy of this for a while but never wanted to pay as much as what they were going for. I got this for $8.76, including shipping, so I think the wait was worth it for the deal. This is a joke 7" the band put out on Six Feet Under, and it sold out pretty fast, being limited to 270 copies. I'll gladly upload this for anyone who wants it, due to it being hard to find and being OOP.

The last package was the longly waited pre-order for the ON LP from React!. This was a relief to finally have. It was worth the wait completely. I got the standard black version and the React! exclusive white. I'm a little bummed to see that I didn't get the Blue version which is even more limited, but I did pre-order very very late in the game. I should be hitting up Aram at some point to see if I can get a copy, once I can afford it. I wanted to buy the Reaper Records color and Powered Records pressing, but once again not enough dough, eventually.....

With the ON pre-order I also picked up the 2nd press of the Mindset 7" which I will also be hitting Aram up for more copies of once I can afford it, this addiction is starting to make me a very poor person. Evan mentioned to me that they are in the process of writing and soon recording their LP, so that should be dope. I remember seeing Mindset a while ago when they played with The Effort and Hostage Calm on their tour, and I wasn't really sure what to think of them, but they weren't bad. They've really grown on me since I've seen them a few times now and listened to the 7" several times. If you haven't seen them before, I suggest you do it, they're great. They're playing A Time We'll Remember Fest and Youngblood Showcase soon.

Van Damage

I have been waiting for about a week now for something to come in the mail and every day I come home from work and I'm let down every time. So to make me feel better about my frustration, I decided to post about something I've had for a little while now.

So my buddy got me into this band a while ago when I was first learning about REAL hardcore bands. And this band always stood out, among with others. Van Damage was a band from central PA that broke up shortly before I started to get into them. I saw the pressing of the LP they put out and I instantly ordered both copies of it from Surprise Attack Records, which it was actually on sale for like $6 an LP I think, score. This LP just makes me want to be in PA. Dan Mills, singer of Cold World is included in the list of group vocals. Both the LP and the 7" were both released by PA labels also. I won the tour version of the LP on eBay like a year ago and the dude never shipped it to me and never responded to my messages. Jerk.


I then got my hands on the two versions of the s/t 7", which is included in the LP already. This was put out by Grattitude Records.

I really like the lay out and colored vinyl on these releases, there is a general theme that comes off, just obnoxiousness. I really love the LP the most, despite it being pressed on Pirate Press.


The singer for Van Damage now is the singer for Steel Nation, another great PA band you should check out if you haven't. They've released a 7" on A389 and a split with Crucified on Double or Nothing. They just put pre-orders up for the new LP on Double or Nothing. The two songs off of it sound great. Looks like I've got another pre-order in my future.

Trade and Alert

I traded my Alert tour press for The Carrier - No Love Can Save Me Sound & Fury '09 cover, on purple. Mine's numbered #5 of 51.

I'm kinda disappointed with the cover. The This Is Hardcore cover was much better.

I mentioned to my buddy Ryan about trading my Alert tour press and he said he had one in his distro. So the next show I asked him to bring his distro so I could buy one, I also bought the other two copies he had, making him have no more Alert records in his distro. So I got another copy of the tour press limited to 20 and then I also picked up the clear and black versions each limited to 200. Now I just need the Red Pre-Order. Anyone wanna trade?