RECORD STORE DAY PART 3

And RSD part 3....Youth Of Todays last recorded output on a beautiful red vinyl. Now as far as red vinyl goes this is by far the best shade I have ever seen.

Pressing info on this one is 1300 units. Probably an easy find on Ebay somewhere down the line! This is one of the surprising Rev Recs FINAL presses that somehow is now a FINAL FINAL press!! Oh well it looks great....a modern love storyyyyyyyy!!!

RECORD STORE DAY PART 2

Part two of Record Store Day Revelation Records releases. Burn's self titled Ep that I already own on pink vinyl is now repressed on yellow. Another Rev pressing of 1000! There is a pale yellow version of this bad boy so for completists the search goes on!

Great band, exceptional drummer and excellent record!

RECORD STORE DAY PART 1

Ok looks like I've got the dubious honour of posting my record store day haul first among the brethren of vinyl collectors in the UK so here goes the first post of three. When O first saw that Revelation was re-releasing a batch of records for this annual event my first thought was "please do the Warzone ep with original cover and inserts", unfortunately this hasn't materialized but I have to say I'm happy with Revs choices even though two of them technically should not have been repressed since they had FINAL presses a few years back (this one included)! Anyway here is numero uno, Quicksands self titled ep on an amazing bright blue marbled wax. I always hark back to the very first time I saw the band back in 1990 at Fowlers yard in Durham and not really knowing what to expect and then being totally blown away by how good they were. Funnily enough I'm sure Quicksands debut tour was in the UK as they were testing the response of the UK audience before unleashing themselves stateside. I guess the word groundbreaking is quite apt for this band and I'm sure as hell that they influenced countless bands that followed. To see them grow from a band that played to about 30-40 people to what they finally ended up being was incredible. Top guys and a top band.


So as far as a world record store day release this was pressed in a batch of 1000 on blue with an alleged clear blue variant out there. I waited exactly 1 hour and 15 minutes in a line of what I can only call NERDS to get these release, was it worth it? Hell yes!!! Would I do it gain, definitely...oh and Cam I'm sorry you missed out mate, good luck on Ebay though I hope you find what you're after.

IT'S JUST A GUT INSTINCT

One of the 80's hardest bands, not from New York or Boston but from that other tough haven, Baltimore. Gut Instinct play like they look, hard as nails!!!! This ep was a reissue of their original that was issued way back in 1990 and was re-released in 2009 by A389 Recs out of Baltimore would you believe it! And I have to say A389 did a decent job of this.




As you can see this one is one of the 125 pre-order copies that came with this numbered 3 quarter sleeve. The vinyl is translucent purple which adds to the aesthetics of this release.



Vicious Circle Records has released a best-of compilation, featuring everything the band has released. Try and look it up, a very underated band.

MOUTHPIECE - CAN WE WIN EP, COLLECTION

Delving into the archives I stumbled upon this early 90's classic, the band that filled the void when Chain of Strength were outed as flakey edge breakers and poseurs supreme!! Now for all you readers that did not experience the heady hardcore days of the 80's the early to mid 90's proved to be a bit of a watershed of the original hardcore sound and was full of down tuned guitars, emoness (a word I may have just made up!) the world had never seen the scale of and probably never ever will again!!! For us Youth crew types it was a bleak bleak world that not even a second Biscuits UK tour or a even couple of Slapshot UK tours could save! Step forward the saviours of our scene... New Jerseys, Mouthpiece or affectionately know otherwise as "the Grease". Here we had a vibrant young band playing what we all grew up on and playing it well...damn they could easily have been a west coast late 80s youth crew band. We loved them, we bought the shirts (6 months from New Age Recs!), we bought the eps,we lapped every song and word up until....erm.... Floorpunch came along!!!!! Anyway what we have here are two distinct different versions of the same ep. The first is the light purple first press of the ep that was a press run of 500 copies, check it!
As you can see it's a strange clear light purple vinyl, looks pretty though!!!

So roll on the years to the summer of 2000 and the big news is that the grease are playing a few reunion shows. Unluckily for me I was devoid of cash so couldn't make it out for them. But luckily for me my friend did make it out and saw the Boston show that featured the likes of In My Eyes and others. For these shows New Age pressed some limited eps up and I believe they were issued with a couple of different covers. I ended up with the following limited clear yellow vinyl with collage cover.

The pressing number of this was out of 500 and I think they pretty much all sold out at those shows.

Increase the grease!!!!

EARTH AD, HOLY GRAIL!

The Misfits Earth AD, possibly one of the greatest hardcore records ever recorded? I think so....Everyone knows how rare this is on colour vinyl and in true Glenn Danzig fashion 1000 were pressed on 4 separate colour pressings. The rundown of this is 100 on clear green, 500 on clear yellow, 200 on clear and 200 on clear purple. The one on show here is one of the 100 on clear, and even though it has a purple tint, it is still classed as a clear version!!! Another main difference with this version is the lighter purple sleeve as is shown against the more regular darker sleeve below:


Funnily enough most of these pressing are streaked due to the fact Danzig would drop colour pellets into each mix whilst visiting the record plant to witness his work being made into vinyl!!!! The Clear green tends to have black streaks, the clear yellow has red and orange streaks, the clear purple has blue and red this clear variant also has blue and red streaks. The clear pressing also comes in an actual clear (without the purple tint) vinyl and also with blue and red streaks. God help any Misfits completists!!!

Again this version is classed as clear and this picture below definitely shows that in more detail.


It's an understatement to say how rare this record is and when you do the Lins tried and tested age calculation, then you'll know that of the 200 pressing back in 83, all of 28 yes 28 years ago I doubt that number still exist, then by my calculation we have one hens teeth of a rare record here. This is why I love vinyl and collecting records so much, you just cannot recreate the aesthetics on any digital format. Mommy can I go out and kill tonight................!!!!

A DOSE OF SOCIAL UNREST

A brand new Social Unrest ep.....wtf, I didn't even know this was out but I have to admit to feeling a bit of trepidation when I spun this record for the first time in Beatdown Records, Newcastle. Sometimes old bands come up royally with the goods but the majority release records that are in a totally different league to past endeavors and somewhat sour past glories. Anyway I was very pleasantly surprised with this 3 song ep and how fresh it sounds.It has a very distinct californian sound but is catchy as hell and makes you want to listen to the songs over and over. The sleeve has a sticker on it that proclaims that this is the best Social Unrest release since the classic Rat In a Maze Lp and I wouldn't disagree and hopefully we'll get a full length sometime soon. The ep comes on a sickly (and I mean looks like a mixture of pink and vomit) pink wax.

SUPERTOUCH , A BRAND NEW SLAB OF WAX.....

Brand new Supertouch ep and their first release in 20 years!!! Not sure if I like this record the first time I heard it but it's grown on me. Maybe it's the vocal effect that put me off,but it has a different vibe to their last release. I was gutted recently as they played a one off London show but due to the effects of a two week bout of man flu I had to cry it off. I guess my memories of their previous UK tour in the 90's will have to suffice!

I pre ordered this from Reaper Records sometime in December and Finally got my record today (Feb 10th), a full week and a half after a friend got his but who also ordered about a month after me!!! Not quite sure how that one worked out! I still don't really know what to make of the cover, quite a random pic of a lady swimming, maybe she "lost her way", I dunno!
It always used to be a bit of a bug bear how peeps would diss Supertouch for their progressive sound but would then proclaim their love for some shit indie band that was hip at the time. Maybe it was the fact that they progressed from their classic WNYU sound to the Lp and it was too much to handle. Personally I always loved Supertouch and I'm definitely giving this record a chance. Pressing info to follow.

EVERYTHING SUCKS COLLECTION

Everything Sucks Lp originally released in 1996 and the "comeback" lp after a long hiatus of releases. I know when I first got the cd I was full of trepidation thinking to myself that like the title this could be the "suckiest" record ever. Luckily I need mot worry because it turned out to be an absolute classic. Brilliant catchy tunes from start to finish with that bigger polished sound doing the band justice. Back to the pressing info...countless copies came on black back in 96. Fast fwd to 2010 and Epitaph decide a repress of another 1500 records is due and here we have 2 of the 500 clear and clear blue, only missing one of the 500 on white. Now roll on their first gig in the UK since 96....April 25th, London.....I cannot wait!
NB* White is now in my possession!!! yay!

ANNIHILATION TIME

Anyone with a keen love of all things Black Flag, Bl'ast lapped this band up in no time at all. Their first record was pure flag/Bl'ast worship and then they dumped their original singer and got a new guy in who looked like he should be fronting Crass or some other anarcho crust band!!! They even up their musicianship and incorporated some Thin Lizzy hooks into the mix and et voila here we have this record. I've been lucky to see and share this stage with this band on many occasions and not once have they let me down...always awesome. Great record, but I'll have to look up the numbers pressed as I have no idea!

BOSTON CREW PART 2

If my memory serves me right this was the very last release on X Claim records and number 6 in the line. Absolutely a must have record on whatever format of raging Boston HARDcore! Seriously some of the best drumming ever on a hc release, in fact it seems like the drummer plays constant rolls and fills...incredible. Not sure how many were pressed but I can't imagine it being that many.

BOSTON CREW PART 1

Had this for a while now and in my eyes another Boston Hardcore classic. Apparently there are two pressings of this here record with the main difference being the size of the letters on the labels!!! Fast and hectic, this record blazes, but unfortunately suffers due to the really thin productioN. The cover art is another classic Pushead drawing....has he ever done a bad piece of art I ask myself!

MISSING IN ACTION

MIA (Missing In Action) were a hardcore punk band from Las Vegas forming in 1981 out of the ashes of The Swells and heavily influenced by the fledgling California Hardcore scene. This 37 song double Lp discography was released by Alternative Tentacles in 2001 and captures the 1981 - 85 time frame of this band.



Beautiful clear orange vinyl with orange swirls make this a visually great looking piece of wax, with the first 1000 coming on this colour. Sadly vocalist Mike Conley died in an accident in 2008. MIA are definitely one of those unheralded bands from the initial Hc phase that kids need to discover and check out.

CHANNEL 3 - CH3 LP

The best Channel 3 Lp since Fear of Life in my humble opinion. Dr Strange records released this in 2002 but if you didn't already know you'd probably think it was a collection of lost tracks from the early 80's. Clear red wax, and a numbered silkscreened cover, alas without an insert which is a bit of a let down. I got numero 430 out of 800!!

THIS IS ALSO.....BOSTON!

Boston HARDcore, it doesn't come better than this classic second release by SSD on Xclaim records, featuring the song Glue that has most likely been covered about a billion times since it was first penned by monsieur Al Barile! Little know fact is that the cover featuring a trash-strewn city street and drawn by the legendary Pushead incorporates his girlfriends name that is spelled out in the trash!!! I still haven't been able to work out her name though! Answers on a postcard.....

DANZIG - RAISE THE HORNS

Lp number 9 for the evil Elvis and boy is this a good one. In my humble opinion probably the album that should have followed Danzig 4 and a record that boasts some banging tunes (Hammer of the Gods, Black Candy). I pre ordered this about 3 weeks ago and it came right on time, unfortunately the first batch of pre orders are minus a lyric sheet due to an error at the printers so rather than delay the release the record label decided to send the vinyl out first with lyric sheets to follow sometime soon. Two pre order pressings were available with 1000 on clear red and 1000 on black. I have heard of a small amount that are transitional pressings that are clear red with black streaks, but not sure how evident the streaking is. Seriously if you liked the first 4 Danzig Lps then get on this record, its that good.

MOURNING NOISE - SELF TITLED EP

Released in 1982 and featuring Steve Zing of Samhain fame and Bobby Steele (Misfits) doing some erm.. "special effects" between songs! This was a one time pressing of 1000 all on black and after having been scouring the world for the past 4 years looking for one I finally have the sucker. I guess if you hadn't heard Mourning Noise before you'd probably think that the songs were lost or unused Misfits tunes consigned to the annuls of history! Funnily enough this band hail from Lodi New Jersey exactly the same location as the devilocked ones! So I guess the had ample opportunities to perfect their Misfits sound to the max! Hey they even thank Danzig on the thanks list! Check it! Great record by a great and highly underrated band.

STATIC.....STATIC, THIS IS A STATIC AGE!

The Static Age history:
On August 1977 The Misfits released their debut single "Cough/Cool" on Blank Records, a label operated by singer Glenn Danzig. Several months later Mercury Records issued a Pere Ubu record on their own Blank Records imprint, unaware that Danzig held a trademark on the name. They offered him thirty hours of studio time in exchange for the rights to the Blank Records name, which he accepted. In January and February 1978 the Misfits, then consisting of Danzig, guitarist Franché Coma, bassist Jerry Only, and drummer Mr. Jim, recorded seventeen songs at C.I. Recordings in New York City with engineer and producer Dave Achelis. Because of the time constraints they recorded the songs live in the studio with only a few takes each and very few overdubs. They mixed fourteen of them with Achelis for their proposed first album, to be titled Static Age. Finally released in 97 by good old Caroline Records, and this here variant although none to rare seems to be increase about 20% per year of its original cost price.l Now to get the other two colours!

Here's the pressing info for Static Age
3500 black vinyl copies.
2000 red vinyl copies.
1000 yellow/orange vinyl copies.
500 purple vinyl copies.

AND....THIS IS BOSTON!

Second installment of the In My Eyes - Nothing to Hide Lp series! This time it's a first press of 500 on white. Which leaves me with only a Clear first press to hunt down. I love the aesthetics of this record with the crisp clean layout and gold sleeve. Hotdiggity!

THIS IS BOSTON

Revelation numero 80. In My Eyes - Nothing To Hide Lp was the bands second Lp and showed the maturity expected. Still busting out revival youth crew but doing it better than most this band kicked serious ass. Also check out how fucking good looking the dudes are,it makes me sick that a hardcore band can look like Topman models!! That gripe aside this record is awesome and reminds me of my trip to Boston back in 98 especially the intro to welcome to Boston! So yeah only 300 were pressed on blue and were only available to Euro tour punters. Anyone remember the London show with the Cro-mags and without Sweet Pete???