Punch

I managed to acquire two more Punch 7"s for the collection. First up is a 'misprint' sleeve of the fifth pressing for their first 7" Eyeless. Apparently they had some left over vinyl, but no more sleeves, so they simply printed front and back cover on one cardboard. There are only 10 of these as you can see.




From the same seller I also got the tour version of their second 7", Nothing Lasts. This one comes on clear vinyl and is out of 100.

…But Alive

...But Alive are probably the greatest punk band that ever came from Germany. The music is not groundbreaking by any means, although they managed to piss off a lot of punks by dabbling with hip hop, haha. I really like those parts, although they're not that good. The lyrics however are awesome. So much better than what your average punk band will ever deliver. The topics they deal with are highly political, and sadly, most of these songs are still relevant to today's politics. It almost seems that nothing has changed in the last 20 or so years.
This is …But Alive's final LP Hallo Endorphin, which is a lot more popish than their previous ones. The songs are less ska influenced and there no adventures in hip hop territory. While writing this I'm listening to the band that was formed out of the ruins of …But Alive, and listening to Kettcar's first record, you can clearly see that Kettcar basically began long before the band was actually formed. Having said that, I really like the pop music of Kettcar as well. Good indy pop, and the lyrics are still awesome.

Wherebirdsmeettodie / Dearest

I really like collecting records, but I think it's even more important to support young and local bands to keep hardcore alive in the present and for the future, so whenever I get the chance to do that, I'll just do that. Plus, in this case I get to support one of my favourite small labels, which is run by some awesome people, the Koep. Dearest is a local band that play emo-influenced screamo, or the other way around. I had the chance to play a show with them once and they are really great guys. Wherebirdsmeettodie play music in the same vein. This is not really my favourite style of hardcore, but every so often I like to listen to a little screamo.
There are 300 copies of this split 7", all on black vinyl.

Hands Tied

When I did some record shopping last weekend, I kind of broke my own rules. That's what rules are for, but still. Actually I broke them several times. I picked up yet another two song 7", but hey, Hands Tied only have two 7"s, totalling up to the amount of six songs all in all. Seeing that I like the first 7", I kind of had no other choice... There's a version on gold vinyl out of 200, but as far as the red one goes, I have no idea about the pressing info. 

Sinking Ships

At the Mindset / Praise show last weekend someone had a box with used records with him, so I took the opportunity and grabbed a few other things. I had a copy of Sinking Ship's Meridian 7" exactly like this a few years back, but I traded it away. I actually had the intention to pick up another copy right away. But for some reason that never happened, despite the fact that I really like this band and this release. Really glad I had the chance to get this one back finally, and at a bargain price too. 2nd press on sea foam green out of 1000.

Praise

Last weekend I went to one of my favourite venues to attend what turned out to be an awesome show with Statement X, Dogchains, Mindset and Praise. I knew the first three bands, but I only listened to Praise briefly when a buddy of mine played a few of their songs to me a few weeks ago. It was really good on record, but live they just blew me away. One of the best sets I've seen in years, including Dag Nasty and Minor Threat cover songs. Such a fun set and a fun evening.
I said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm not a big fan of 7"s with just two songs on them. However, every once in a while I'm willing to make an exception. Praise's Two Songs is definitely worth making an exception. I picked up this copy on grey vinyl (out of 300) at the show, but unfortunately they had sold out of the tour presses of their LP. Major bummer. Can't wait to get their other releases as soon as possible.

Vancouver Gold

Sometimes it doesn't have to be the most rare record to make a record a cool record. This here is the most common colour of the first pressing of Go It Alone's first 7". However, it comes on gold vinyl, which I think is pretty cool seeing that the release is called Vancouver Gold. That doesn't mean that the other variants aren't cool (or that I don't want those as well), but sometimes it's the little things that make me happy the most. 700 of these exist as far as I know, but there's a whole bunch of colours and sleeves out there for this release.

Charles Bronson / Quill

I don't listen to a whole lot of fastcore, but there are certain bands from that genre that I really enjoy. The one I like best (by far) is Charles Bronson. Somehow they manage to add a certain twist to that kind of music. Plus I really dig the lyrics and the way they use all of these Charles Bronson samples. I used to have their  discography on vinyl, which was a bootleg as I learned later. I'm not a big fan of bootlegs, so I try to avoid buying them in the first place whenever I can or getting rid of them when I have bought one by mistake. A good friend of mine really wanted that LP, so I gladly gave it to him. I'm pretty sure he gets more out of it than I did. However, that meant I had to pick up the original records at some point.
This is the split 7" that Charles Bronson and Quill, from Japan, released on the Japanese label Nat back in 1996. This is the regular version on black vinyl. There's also a sleeve showing Twiggy and there are some copies on clear vinyl. Quill aren't bad, but they're nowhere near as good as Charles Bronson.

Not that I'm pursuing that goal, but I once saw a picture of a complete (I think) Charles Bronson collection, which was a beautiful sight to behold.

A Place In The Sun

Happy (belated) new year, everyone! I got high hopes for 2015 and this blog.

I thought I'd managed to finish all records I got last year, but between the holidays I kind of forgot about one 7". Oh, well. YDI released their debut 7" A Place In The Sun back in 1983 and that's exactly what the nine songs sound like - Reagan era, simplistic, raw, brutal in your face hardcore.
This is not an OG pressing. TKO rereleased this record last year and I was more than happy to get this 7" without paying that much money. It's really good, but not hundreds-of-dollars-worth good.