Wonderfully Weird World

While browsing the soul section in the record store, I came across this Best of Sam Cooke record. Usually I’m not the biggest fan of best of compilations, but since most of those song had originally been released only as 7”s because this was before the album era, I’m perfectly alright with getting this record. This is the kind of music I like listening to while working in my home office, so albums are definitely a much more preferable listening experience than having to stand up after every song. 

I would have bought this record regardless, but what it made even more appealing was the fact that it is a South Korean pressing. Actually it’s a repress from 1981, done 19 years after the original release of this best of compilation in 1962. How it ended up in record store in a small town in Germany, I have no idea. There’s so much weirdness going on here, and I like it. 

What I love about these old records are the short infos you get on the back cover. Such a nice time capsule and throw back to a time when people didn’t have all the information in the world at their finger tips. I also really like the fact you get a signature of the two producers underneath. Thanks, Hugo and Luigi, I think you did a fine job. 

All Over America

After listening extensively to the Beatles catalogue extensively the last couple of years, I figured diving into the solo careers of the four Beatles after the band’s breakup might be a fun activity. I have to admit that I am partial to checking out Paul McCartney and George Harrison first because the two friends of mine I’m talking about the Beatles all the time like their solo work the best. I didn’t really seek out any records, but the last time I went to the local record store, I saw this Wings album sitting on a shelf and grabbed it right away. 

Now, you might say “Wait a minute, didn’t you just recently buy a 3xLP and complained that there was too much music on it? And now you go and buy another 3xLP and a live record for that matter, too? What kind of idiot are you?” Well, yeah, I did do both of those things, and I’ll just let you be the judge of my level of idiocy.

The songs on Wings Over America were recorded at different concerts in 1976 during the American leg of the Wings Over The World tour, which had started the year prior. In addition to Wings songs, the band also played some solo stuff by Paul McCartney and a bunch of Beatles songs, which must have been such a trip for the audience. All in all there are 29 songs which amount to just under two hours of music. Like I said, 3xLPs can be quite taxing, but this one works for me really well, basically because you can also treat each record as an individual live album and I don’t really feel the need to listen all three records to get the full album experience, if that makes sense. 

3xLP on Black on Apple [Circle on Back Cover / Sturdy Cardboard Inner Sleeves]

I really like the artwork on the inside of the gatefold sleeve. Cool pop art of the band that looks pretty awesome.

There’s also this huge poster included. It’s actually a two-sided poster, but I just picked my favorite side to show here. 

Allroy Saves

I love the Descendents. I mean, who doesn‘t, but still it needs to be said from time to time. I also happen to really like the All songs on those Punk-O-Rama compilations, which were huge for me when I got into punk and hardcore. Much more than any classic hardcore compilation. Weirdly enough I never really dove into the All catalogue beyond that. However, after finally watching the Descendents/All documentary, I decided to change that. As it happpened, the local record store had a copy of All’s third full length, Allroy Saves, which was originally released in 1990, for sale for a really good price. 

Most of the songs are pretty good, which is kinda obvious considering the band members and how the band came to be, although some songs also have some rather weird parts. The vocals aren’t that far from Milo’s either. So, the ingredients are technically all there, but there are no real hits on this album, at least to my ears. 

1st Press on Black on Cruz /???

Instrumental

Another piece of the Fugazi repress jigsaw puzzle. The songs on Instrument are all over the place, musically speaking, from laid-back instrumental tracks like Afterthought to actual punk-ish songs such as Little Debbie. But I enjoy listening to the whole record very much. 

Side note: I still haven’t seen the documentary, which is something I need to change soon. For real this time.

2024 Repress on Burgundy Marble on Dischord /???

Desertion

The self-titled Spite House debut LP was one of my favorite records in 2022. Their follow up record, Desertion, could have easily made my 2025 top 10, but as mentioned in my 2025 summary post, getting current records is not that easy anymore. Spite House play this great mix of emo and post hardcore with deeply personal lyrics. They were also great when I saw them live last year, even though the singer’s voice was very hoarse as I saw them only at the very end of their tour. My wife had seen them a couple of weeks before and she said had been even better then. I may still be partial towards the first record, but that’s probably because I’ve spent so much time with it. Desertion is an awesome record as well, but I feel like there’s still potential for it to grow even more on me. 

1st Press on Metallic Mercury Blend on Pure Noise /1200

In With The New, Out With The Old

The new year starts smiliarly to how the last one ended: more colored Fugazi represses. Not the most impressive way to kick off the new year for this blog, but on the other hand, it doesn’t get much better either. At this rate I might finish this little side quest pretty soon hopefully. 

2023 Repress on Clear Green on Dischord /???

2023 Repress on Silver Metallic on Dischord /???

2025

It’s the end of the year as we know it and I feel fine. Personally it’s been a pretty good year, musically it was an alright year I guess. I just listened to the year’s end episode of Axe To Grind and their top picks of the year, but I had a really hard time coming up with an actual top 10. The records (and demos) shown in the picture below pretty represent all the 2025 releases I picked up this year, minus a handful. A lot of releases discussed on A2G didn’t really click with me or I didn’t bother to check out because I wasn’t really into the previous releases by the bands mentioned, so overall 2025 has been a real down year for me as far as new hardcore music is concerned. 

There are some more releases from this year that I’m really interested in, but buying current records has become a real hassle. Many mailorders have switched to pre-orders for current releases and those are often ‘sold out’ super fast and if you’re lucky to get a copy, a lot of time passes before you actually get them. So there’s a bunch of 2025 releases I haven’t listened to and don’t own a copy of, so they don’t count for this list. 

I realise this sounds pretty negative, but a) not every year can be a great year, and b) the releases from this year I did buy I really enjoyed, and c) it gave me the chance to dig into some old bands. So, I’ll just chalk this up as ‘quality over quantity’. My favorite album this year is Never Enough by Turnstile. I listened to this record a ton in my office and my Spotify 2025 Wrapped List also tells me that I listened to this album a lot while not at home. 

Prison Of Hope - Question Your Privileges
Spiritual Cramp - Rude
Meantime - Living In The Meantime
Speedway - A Life’s Refrain
Turnstile - Never Enough
Between Owls - Vacation
Lead Spirit - s.t.
Drink Deep - Burning House
Start Today - s.t. 
Glow - Demo
True Fraud - Demo
Combat X Rock - Demo

I didn’t pick up any real heavy hitters this year, but I’m really happy with the collectibles I got. The reasons why I picked those records range from finishing collections to starting new ones, from rather cheap records to rather expensive ones, from buys to trades and even gifts. Sometimes it’s not about the record itself, but what it represents. That’s the fun of buying and collecting records. It’s very personal and a great haptic chronicle of your life. Special thanks to Marcus for hooking me up with an insert for the YOT 7”. 

Bad Brains - I Against I on Clear
Bad Brains - Rock For Light on Clear Gold
Bane - Boston, 6.58pm - Tour Press
Big Kids - Hoop Dreams on Pink and Red Marble
Bane - Don’t Wait Up - Purple Confetti w/ Lights
The Beatles - Blue Album on Clear Blue 
The Beatles - Beatles For Sale on Red - Japanese Pressing
Have Heart - What Counts - Bonds of Bro-Ship Sleeve
Youth Of Today - Can’t Close My Eyes - 4th Pressing on Positive Force
Bane - Dublin, 11.58pm - Test Press
FC Five - Memories (CD)

The records shown below are the records I played the most in 2025, besides the ones shown in the two previous pictures. There are some records I missed in 2024 for the reasons mentioned above, there are some records I did discover in 2024 and I just continued listening to them this year because they rule. There are some older bands in the mix I just discovered for myself, there are some old bands I already enjoyed in the past and simply got more of their records, and there are bands I used to listen to a lot, yet somehow they’d fallen out of the rotation, but in 2025 I suddenly couldn’t get enough of them again. 

Chopping Block - Seattle’s Hardcore
Broken Head - The Morning Ends
Prim - Move Too Slow
Reach The Sky - So Far From Home
Fugazi - Repeater
Less Than Jake - Borders and Boundaries
Diana Ross & The Supremes - Best of
Iron Chic - Not Like This
Walter Schreifels - An Open Letter To The Scene
Wugazi - 13 Chambers

To end this post, here are some fun facts from my Spotify Wrapped. Taylor Swift made two lists of mine: most listened to artists and top 5 songs. Kids by MGMT is number 5 on my top 5 songs. Who The Hell Is Wild Side? by Wild Side is number 2 on my list of most listened to albums, and I completely forgot how much I enjoyed this album at one point this year. And last but not least, my musical age, according to Spotify, is 76. 

Thanks everyone for checking out my blog. 2025 is done, here’s to 2026.

XXX

Ralf

Limitierte Sonderauflage

When I was about to pay for the records I wrote about in my two previous posts, I caught a glimpse of a Beatles record I still have on my want list behind the guy at the check out counter. It was the Beatles’ Blue Album, which is their greatest hits from 1967-1970. That compilation, together with the red one, which sums up their early years, was my introduction to the Beatles when I was a kid. My parents only had the 2xCD, but once I listened to them, they more or less moved to my room. I was really happy when I picked up the Red Album earlier this year, so getting the blue one in the same record store was pretty cool. 

What I hadn’t seen was the sticker on the cover which says “NEU - Limitierte Sonderauflage: blaue LP’s [sic]”, which translates to “NEW - Limited Edition Blue LPs”. I would have been perfectly happy with regular black copies, matching the Red Album I picked up earlier this year. But I’m definitely not saying no to colored vinyl perfectly matching the artwork. The only issue that needs solving now is that the Red Album I own is not on colored vinyl, which means I really want to pick up a red vinyl copy as soon as possible to have the two albums match. 

1978 Pressing on Blue on Apple /???

Armagideon Times

The Clash might be the purest punk band there ever was, just because they did whatever they wanted to musically and didn’t really care about sticking to a certain template. So if you subscribe to the idea that punk means absolute freedom, then The Clash might be the ultimate punk band. If you associate a certain sound with punk, then The Clash might not be for you. In my book London Calling is easily one of the greatest punk records of all time. 

The follow up LP, Sandinista, released in 1980, is a really hard listen though. Not that the songs aren’t good (ok, some of them really aren’t), there’s just too much music here. Dear bands, if you think about releasing a double LP, you might want to keep thinking. If you consider releasing a triple LP, please don’t. Just don’t. I’m sure there are people who appreciate so much material for one release, but others, like myself, are just overwhelmed. It doesn’t really flow as a release and at one point sooner than later, I just lose interest. The Armagideon Times No. 3 is not an actual zine, the first two ‘issues’ of which were published by a friend of the band and features contributions by band members, but it’s a pretty cool lyric sheet. 

De La Soul… Is Dead

For years I went to the local record store on a semi-regular basis and whenever I went there, I never really expected to find anything. I don’t know what happened, but for the last two years I pretty much always picked up some record or two and nowadays I always wonder what record I might find when I go there. It’s been a fun time. 

De La Soul put out a stone cold classic with 3 Feet High And Rising. They followed it up with De La Soul…Is Dead, which is also a good record but doesn’t reach the musical heights of their debut LP. Not to mention the cover art, which is just plain awful. 

Question Your Privileges

Prison Of Hope follow up their excellent 7” from last year with an equally good 12”. The band really itches my 90s hardcore itch without getting too hard and crossing over into tough guy territory. The six songs on Question Your Privileges are perfect for that. The Chokehold rip-off cover is a nice touch for the collectors and of course self-referential, seeing that the band took its name from a Chokehold album. I really hope they stick to their rhythm and release something new in 2026 again. 

1st Press on Orange/White Swirl on Drastic Actions /100 (Label Info) or /95 (Discogs)
1st Press on Blue w/ Chokehold Rip-Off Sleeve on Drastic Actions /45

Drink Deep

Drink Deep from Berlin are back with a new 7” after a demo and a 7” on Refuse Records, released in 2022 and 2023 respectively. I’ve been a big fan of their DC influenced sound since I first heard them and the don’t disappoint on this release either. The only disappointment is that there aren’t more songs on Burning House, but the four songs are so good.

1st Press on Black on Control /170

Rock For Gold

After completing the I Against I challenge I’d set for myself sometime earlier this year, I was looking for a new fun Bad Brains related collection. Rock For Light is the classic first full length by Bad Brains. Compared to I Against I, it probably has the better individual songs, but viewed as an album, it doesn’t flow as well in my opinion. Gun to my head, I’d pick I Against I 9/10 as the record I want to listen to. That’s not a knock at all to Rock For Light, it just speaks to the incredible level the Bad Brains reached as a hardcore band. 

This album was rereleased by Caroline Records in the early 90s. The color they chose was sort of obvious, but sometimes the easy solution is the best one. The thing that annoys me about the copy I picked up is that it doesn’t have neither of the stickers shown in the pictures of this variant on Discogs because it came without the shrink wrap and the stickers weren’t cut out and kept with the record. One is in Rastafari colors and says this record was remixed and remastered by Rick Ocasek and comes with three bonus songs compared to the original one. The other one is a hype sticker saying ‘Limited Edition Colored Vinyl’. I might need to upgrade this version at one point if I ever find a copy with one or even both stickers. 

1991 Repress on Caroline on Gold / Clear Yellow /???

CBGB Circa ‘77

Most hardcore kids I know dream of travelling back in time to attend of the famed Sunday matinees at CBGBs. And I am one of them. However, it would be equally as cool to travel back even further in time to see bands like Blondie or the Ramones play there in the mid to late 70s. Since neither scenario is going to happen, live recordings from those shows will have to do. Seeing The Ramones live at CBGBs in 1977 sure would have been cool, right?

I don’t really pay attention to Record Store Day anymore, just like Marcus, but when I see a record I like after the event, I’ll gladly pick it up. Is this a vital addition to the collection? Probably not. Is it a fun addition that makes you wonder what it would have been like to be at that particular show? Absolutely. 

RSD 2025 Press on Clear Red on Sire /???

Seattle‘s Hardcore

Another new band I’d been oblivious to but that itches my youth crew with a modern twist itch really well is Chopping Block from, well, Seattle. The songs on Seattle’s Hardcore, which was released in 2024, are a nice reminder of the music from 20 years ago. The promo text on the Rev website compares Chopping Block to Desperate Measures, Lights Out and The First Step. Not bad references at all in my book. I would definitely be onboard with a 2000s revival, even though it feels to talk about a revival of a time you lived through. Good thing for me, Chopping Block are about to release a new record in 2026. 

1st Press on Black on Brain Floss /250