Shopping For A Test

It‘s a very rare occassion for me to add anything to my Good Clean Fun collection because as far as I‘m aware, I‘m only missing misprints and test presses. I‘m not sure what people think about Good Clean Fun in 2026, but those misprints and test presses don‘t show up as much as I‘d like. When a record store in the US put up two promotional copies for the Shopping For A Crew 7“ for sale on Discogs, I had a casual glance and put them in my shopping basket, even though I had no real intentions of buying either one, because I already own a bunch of tests and a promo copy. It was more a ‘just in case‘ scenario. 

But a few weeks ago  I was bored one weekend when I was staying up late and I decided to read the descriptions of those records more in detail because they were priced lightly differently. Usually that has something to do with the condition, but you never know. The seller had written that one of the promotional copies comes without the lyrics written on the inside of the cover. So I went to check out my copy and lo and behold, it did have the lyrics printed on the inside. All of a sudden, there was a new version I‘d had no idea existed and I knew I had to get it. 

Side by side of the two copies. My old copy on the right, the new one on the left. The paper pretty much looks the same in real life. The old promotional copy says /30, but I‘m not sure if that refers only to the version with the printed lyrics or all promotional copies combined. 

Here‘s a fun snapshot of all the tests and promotional copies of this 7“ I‘ve acquired over the years, because why not?

In Reverse

Thanks to fellow record enthusiast and blogger Nico, I learned about the new Drink Deep record. In Reverse is another EP, but this one comes on 12” format. Whereas the demo and the first 7” reminded me heavily of Minor Threat, they departed from that style a little bit with their second 7”. In Reverse reminds me more of Dag Nasty and Revolution Summer and I’m all here for it. Let’s see where the musical journey takes this band. The cover are is simple and has a nice 80s indie touch. I opted for the more common version on purple, because it works better with the cover in my opinion. One of my favorite release this year so far. 

1st Press on Purple on Thirty Something /200

Live At CBGB’s

The last of the 7“s and the last of the records I bought from my friend. I haven‘t bought a Youth Of Today record in some time and I‘m glad I added one I didn‘t own a copy of yet, in fact had never even listened to before. It‘s always fun to dive into new old records. Low budget live recordings of hardcore bands have a very unique charm to them. The quality usually isn’t that good, not necessarily the case here, but they transport the energy of hardcore show pretty well. They also speak to the resourcefulness of hardcore kids at a time when not every recording of a band was widely available and not every show was filmed to be maybe enjoyed after the fact. 

1st Press on Solid Yellow on Reality Records #11/123

Since this is the final post of this little series, here’s a nice group shot. Thanks again to my friend André, who cut me a really good deal on the whole lot. It was a fun time browsing your collection, talking hardcore and life, and just having a great time. 

The Absolute

I’ve been a big fan of Spirit Crusher since I caught them at one of their early shows. The Absolute is one of my top 3 German hardcore records of all time and if I occasionally still stage dive at a hardcore show, it’s either to Bane songs or to one of the songs on this 7”. I’ve had a pre-oder copy and a release show copy of The Absolute since the record came out and I was quite happy with that, but I’d toyed with the idea of actually collecting this 7” for a while. So when I had the chance to add two copies at once, I jumped at it. 

This is the regular version of the first press. It’s listed as ‘red’ on Discogs, but it does look like orange to me.

1st Press on Orange (listes as ‘Red’ on Discogs) on The Essence /???

The other variant comes on a different color and with a stamp showing the logo of the record label, The Essence. I’ve seen the sticker on many different colors, but it’s a nice touch that they color-coordinated this one with the color of the record. 

1st Press on Clear Blue on The Essence w/ Stamped Sleeve /???

I Recover

A couple of years ago, I Recover released their one and only album (so far), and I was all over that record. I still spin it on a regular basis and a couple of songs are on constant rotation in some of my playlists. I’d been a fan of theirs since I got my hands on the 7” they had released prior to the LP, but I’d missed out on their s.t. debut 7”. Again, it’s one of those records I probably could have gotten pretty easily, but I never did. Musically, the 7” is alright, but the band did get better with each release in my opinion. What has been great from the get go is the artwork and the love and detail that went into the sleeves. Flaps, fold-outs, the quality and texture of the cardboard, it all adds to the great packaging each release offers. 

Babylon Straight Edge

Dogchains was a one of my favorite local bands and I can‘t believe they broke up almost 10 years ago. I didn‘t make it to their last show because I‘d just become a dad, which also means I missed out on the limited versions they put out for their last show(s). This rip-off of Bad Brains’ Quickness LP is pretty cool, because the usual move would have been to go with the artwork of one of the first three albums, and also, they pretty much nailed the clothes and the poses. As far as I remember they had two different variants, but I can‘t recall what the other one was and my five minute research didn‘t provide any answers. The orange vinyl is the same color as for the regular first press, so my guess is that they still had some of those in a box or so and decided to sell them with a different cover. I didn‘t find any info on how many copies were made with this sleeve, but it couldn‘t have been many. 

Last Show Version on Clear Orange on Straight And Alert /???

Weezer Denied

As of the last post, I‘m done talking about all the LPs I got from my friend, all of which would have made a nice haul on its own, but I also got a bunch of 7“s from him. I used to confuse Tides Denied with another German band of a similar name, which is why I missed out on them for quite a long time. But all of that changed when a good friend of mine put on a local show with them and right there and then it clicked. I‘ve shared the stage with them, we went on tour together and I‘m still always very happy when I run into any of the guys. When I saw this great rip-off cover of Weezer‘s blue album for their second 7“, Find Your Place, I just had to get it. The record colour works so well with the alternate artwork, too. 

1st Press on Blue Turquoise on Backbite  w/ Pre-Order Cover /30

Just Another Record

Another gap filler that found its way into my collection. Whenever I put on Holding On‘s second LP, Question What You Live For, I really enjoy listening to it. Problem is, I don‘t put it on often enough. After getting Holding On‘s demo on vinyl last year, I finally managed to get my hands on their first LP, Just Another Day. 15 songs in a little bit more than 20 minutes. Yes, please! 

1st Press on Black on Havoc /1200

Double Allegiance

When browsing my buddy’s pictures on Instagram after he’d decided to sell his collection, I saw his pictures of the two Allegiances albums and I thought it’d be fun to listen to Allegiance again because I hadn’t done so in a long time. So I went to my record shelf and wanted to dig out their first LP because my first instinct to reach for albums first most of the times these days. I didn’t find it though and after checking my record list there was no doubt that I didn’t own any Allegiance albums (anymore). I could have sworn I owned at least the first one on vinyl, but either I misplaced it or, which is more likely, I traded it away, thinking I could replace it easily along the way, and then forgot about it. Well, at least the replacing part finally came true, even though I actually don’t know how many years later. Listening to Allegiance brings back a lot of memories surrounding the mid-2000s. Not just about the band and their records, but of that whole time in general. Makes me kinda nostalgic. Looking back, there are so many great records that were released in the 2003-2008 era and Overlooked is one of them in my book. 

1st Press on Yellow w/ Red Splatter on Rivalry/603

The second and final album by Allegiance, Desperation, was released in 2007 and the disbandened some time after. I don‘t remember exactly because I think they went rather quietly and didn’t have a big send-off like Champion or Have Heart. I remember listening to this album, probably on some burned CD on a way to a show. It’s also a very good record, but I prefer the first album. 

1st Press on Gold Metallic on Rivalry /600

It’s A Cold World

Cold World is a band I‘ve always been aware of, but I‘ve only listened to them occassionally. A couple of months ago I had a discussion with a friend and he kept talking about how great Cold World is. So, when I saw a copy of How The Gods Chill sit on my other buddy’s shelf, it was really a no brainer to add it to my pile, so I could finally check out the band properly. I‘ve really been enjoying this album the last couple of weeks. It‘s like a harder version of Blacklisted, but with more hip hop and metal influences at the same time. The clear vinyl goes really well with the artwork and I love that shade of blue as well. I‘m really glad I got this record. 

1st Press on Clear on Deathwish /720

The Quest

Considering the fact how much I like youth crew music, I have a very weak collection when it comes to European bands of that ilk. Mainstrike is probably one of the 90s European hardcore bands in general and definitely of the bands that helped establish European youth crew to begin with. A Quest For Answers is the band’s debut LP, offering 12 songs of youth crew influenced hardcore, but not necessarily with typical youth crew lyrics. Definitely an important record for European hardcore. 

1st Press on Black on Crucial Response /???

Chung King?

Humans are incredibly interesting individuals. Some people consider a record trash and don’t want it released at all, others are willing to pay huge amounts of money for that exact record. Some of those people who really want to have said record are apparently also willing to bootleg the record, or at least are willing to help along the way to create the bootleg, so more people can enjoy the record that was never meant to be enjoyed in the first place. It’s really fascinating. 

Then there’s me, who would never spend the kind of money on a Chung King that seems to be the going rate these days, because objectively it is a shitload of money, but I might be tempted to spend a lot of money on other records and not bat an eyelash. I’m not a big fan of bootlegs in general either, but some bootlegs are pretty cool and are maybe even more interesting than the original record because there’s a interesting back story, which then makes them desirable after all.

The Chung King album has been re-released officially by Revelation Records, both as part of the Judge discography and the actual re-release of the Chung King record, so the actual recordings became widely available to the masses, making any further bootlegs obsolete. But at one point, it did make sense to bootleg such a rare record. 

The 10” bootleg of the (in)famous Chung King album, originally released in the 90s, has become kind of a collectible in itself, commanding three figures in some cases, which is kinda ironic. Kinda supporting the point I made about humans being complex beings. My buddy was pretty surprised when I told him about that, but great guy that he is, he didn’t take advantage of that and he made me a really good price.

Close up of the insert, part 1. This shines some light on the bootleg itself. I don’t know how well kept the secret is who bootlegged this record and whose number was whited out, but I have no clue who’s responsible for it.

Close up of the insert, part 2, with the original back cover and label art. 

13 Years In The Making

About 13 Years ago I traded away my copy of the Internal Affairs LP. I must admit that I didn‘t think all that much about Internal Affairs in the years since and I‘m not sure how many times I listened to them in the past 10 years. Still, when I saw this record amongst my buddy‘s collection, I kinda wanted to get it. He and I came up around the same time in the hardcore scene and we have a similar taste. So, on the one hand, there were a lot of the same records we both own, on the other hand it was a very nice walk down memory lane and I saw a bunch of records from the early and mid 2000s that I don’t own (anymore). 

The s.t. album is such a fun listen after all these years, even though I didn’t quite remember the vocals being so high. Listening to this record is a great throwback to the mid 2000s.

In case anyone was wondering, I traded my copy to Marcus and after all these years I can say with certainty that only positive things have come from that one trade. 

1st Press on Black w/Record Release Cover on Malfunction /300

Disco Boots

There was a time when I bought pretty much everything released by Grave Mistake records. One of those records was the Iron Boots Demo 7“, even though Grave Mistake only took over pressing the band‘s demo with the third pressing. I really liked that demo, but for some reason I never picked up any of the band‘s other records. When I spotted the Discogrpahy among my friend‘s collection I saw no reason not to buy it. In 2026 a 12“ discography with all the band‘s material seems much more appealing than getting the individual releases. It‘s funny how these things can change, because up until a few years ago I was a staunch defender of buying releases only in their original format. This is a fun listen and even though there are 20 songs on this 12“, the record doesn‘t get boring or feels long. 

1st Press on Orange on Grave Mistake & Triple B /225

Cast The First Stone

Let‘s stick with the 90s. Ensign have never been a huge band for me, but I do like their catalogue as far as I‘m familiar with it. Cast The First Stone is their second LP. It‘s a good album, but overall I prefer their debut The Direction Of Things To Come which is overall more straight forward hardcore.

1st Press on Black on Nitro /???