Swiz

Lately, I've been listening to a lot of bands that have credited Swiz as their influences, so why not go straight to the source? First up is the first 7" Swiz released. The music, and especially the voice sounds, a lot like early Dag Nasty, which is not that big a surprise considering that Swiz singer Shawn Brown was the original singer for Dag Nasty. Great DC hardcore from the late '80s, although a little rawer and faster than Dag Nasty or the first wave of Emocore bands from that era. Other than on clear green this record was also pressed on blue and gold vinyl as far as colours go. Originally this also came with a short comic book, which you can see in the lower left corner.

I also got the 2nd 7" Swiz released. It's still good, but not as powerful as the first 7" in my opinion. Just the regular version for this one. There's also a variant on blue vinyl.

The Suicide Conspiracy

I really like split releases. Just like compilations they're a great way to get to know new bands for cheap money. Yes, I'm aware that we have the year 2015 and that band camp et al. have made it really easy to access new bands, but that's not really for me. Mind you, I'm not against new technology, not by a long shot. If anything I use the internet too much...
I've known The Hope Conspiracy for quite some time, mainly through my girlfriend, but up until recently I'd never actually listened to The Suicide File. Bill Conway, host to the only podcast I listen to on a regular basis, Edgeland, has been going on and on about how The Suicide File is one of his favourite bands ever. So, thanks to the massive podcast propaganda of Bill I finally gave the band a chance, and boy, I'm really glad I did. I like the Hope Conspiracy song on this split a lot, but it doesn't even come close to the The Suicide File side. I know that you'll probably never get read this, but thanks Bill for getting me hooked on The Suicide File. First press on red vinyl out of 1200.

Btw. in case you have never listened to the Edgeland podcast, do yourself a favour and change that asap. Mr Conway does great interviews with people who are still straight edge or used to be straight edge. Very entertaining.

Turning Point

Another embarrassing gap in my collection has been closed. Not only did I have no copy of Turning Point's LP Before The Dawn, I didn't have any Turning Point record at all prior to this one. It made me really happy that I managed to get this 2nd press copy (white labels / red hand print) for a very reasonable price. I love the cover art and the lyric sheet. Not quite as good as the 7" cover, but very close. The sleeve and the record are in awesome shape, considering this LP is 25 years old. It even came still in the original shrink wrap. Great copy all in all. Now all I need is a copy of the 7", the split and the discography...

Lion Of Judah

A band I'd always wanted to check out, but never got around to do so was Lion Of Judah. That is until recently. I found this copy of Soul Power Plus 4 for really, really cheap on discogs from a seller in Germany so I finally got a record by this D.C. band. Really good music and you can definitely hear by what other D.C. outfits they were influenced. This compilation was pressed by German based label Demolution for a tour in 2006.  Comes with a nice silkscreened cover. You can see the tour stamp on the lyric sheet in the bottom left corner. Limited to 100 on black vinyl.

Unbroken Circa '15

I'm not the most organized person on this planet, really, really not, but the anal record collector in me makes me keep a very tidy list of all the records I have, want, have in the mail etc. Still, occasionally I manage to buy records I already own and don't really want another copy of. And it wasn't that long ago  either I got this very record, after checking my blog. Oh well. I guess I have something to trade now, or throw in in a trade as a bonus since I don't really feel the need to own more than one copy of this. This is the 2003 repress on clear vinyl of Unbroken's Circa '77 7", which originally came out in 1995.

Seven Inch 7"

Another really good band from the '00 years that somehow has gone under my radar for too long. I remember really liking the Go It Alone LPs when they came out, but for some reason I didn't listen to them all that much over the last few years. That changed when I made said mix tape for my girlfriend. Listening to the GIA records I already had made me want to get the rest of their releases too. So here we go. Here's the Seven Inch Single on black vinyl. 400 of these exist. There are also 100 on clear vinyl with a different cover.

We'll Make The Difference

Filled another gap in my collection. I've had the two Insted LPs for a few years, but it took me quite some time to get a copy of their only 7". Pretty generic for that time, but on the other side, if you like one band from that era, you pretty much like all of them. Feel Their Pain is a great song though. I also really like the inserts that come with releases from that time in hardcore. This is the third press of this 7", which doesn't have the live picture on the front cover. No idea how many of these are in existence.

Blue Monday

Recently I made my girlfriend a mix tape. I always like to come up with a motto of some sort, and since we both sort of came up in the hardcore scene in the '00 years, I decided to pick only songs from that era, which also gave me the chance to rediscover a lot of bands I hadn't listened to in a long time. One of those bands was Blue Monday. I only knew them through the split 7" they did with Go It Alone and I have to admit I never really listened to their side all that much. However, I decided to give it a spin and man, they're really good. Plus they have some pretty good lyrics. So, not only did I decide to pick one of their songs for the tape, I also decided I needed their other releases. Here's one of the two 7"s they released, What's Done Is Done. I have no clue about the pressing info as far as numbers go, but apparently there's this clear version and a black version out there. I definitely need to pick up their LP and the other 7" some time soon. 

Still Waiting Up

So, apparently this is turning into a never-ending story. I'm really happy for the guys in Bane that their final LP has been received so warmly. People seem to be more than stoked about this release, that's why Equal Vision and End Hits just keep pressing more and more records.
What you can see here are the two colours of the 2nd pressing on Equal Vision. One is clear blue, the other one is clear yellow and both are out of 500. If you look very closely, you may see that the clear yellow one shows some greenish/blueish swirls. But you have to look very closely as they didn't photograph that well. The two records beneath are #10 and #11 of this record for me, and yet I'm still missing one variant at this moment. Plus, I've heard talk of a special pressing on End Hits for the upcoming Euro tour. I guess that means I'll be waiting up some more.

Headfirst

A few weeks ago, someone opened a thread about Workshed Records on Revcollectors and all of a sudden, well maybe not that much of a sudden, I saw all kinds of pictures of Workshed releases on Instagram. This made me check my collection and to my dismay I found that I only had one release, the Hard Stance 7". Granted, Workshed didn't release a whole of records, but still. So while I was buying a few other records from this seller on discogs, I also got a copy of Headfirst's LP The Enemy for cheap. Not a bad choice at all. I really like that rock influenced, more groovy style of this record. No idea how many were pressed on black. There's also a version on white vinyl, but no pressing info is known for that colour either.

True Love

Whoever said that hardcore was dead is a fucking moron. I've discovered so many new good bands in the last few months, it's ridiculous. And somehow a lot of them seem to be on React! Records. My latest find is True Love and their EP New Young Gods. It sucks that ordering in the US is so expensive right now and somehow a lot of distros over here seem to get only records on black vinyl any more. Or I'm just too late. Anyway, this is  a pretty damn good record. Hopefully they come over here soon or release some new material. 500 copies on black. I'd love to get a copy on pink vinyl.

Electric Flower Circus

Late as usual, but here I am, ready to jump on the Give bandwagon. I got the Give singles compilation a few weeks back and what I heard I really liked. So picking up the LP that was released last year was a no brainer. Good music and I really dig the cover art, too. There's another sleeve variant out there on Moon Flower Records, which also looks pretty sweet. Maybe I'll pick this one up too along the way.

Growing.Changing.Healing

More good stuff by my latest new favourite band. Unfortunately I struck out again and only got a copy on black from the 2nd press batch (/300), judging by the labels. Oh well. That cover is kind of an eyesore, and I seem to remember why I never gave that band a chance, haha. But it goes to show you shouldn't judge a record by its cover. The music more than makes up for it. I really hope they will come back to Europe soon. I'll definitely try to catch more shows with them if that ever happens.

Lights Went Out

A few weeks back I went to see Praise. The show and the whole evening was pretty awesome. Lots of good bands, lots of good people. I was really bummed that I didn't get one of the tour presses that evening, so I had to settle with ordering a copy from a distro. The record is everything I expected it to be. One of the best records in 2014 and in the last couple of years in general.
This is the most generic version on black vinyl out of 425. I'm actually thinking about starting a collection, though I'm not 100% sure on that yet.

Moose Blood

If I'd known about this record a few weeks back, it would have made my Top 10 2014 list for sure. There had been some talk about this band on a message board I frequently use, but the band name hadn't been that alluring to me for some reason, so I never really gave much thought to this band. Stupid reason in hindsight. My girlfriend egged me on to buy this LP and I finally gave in. And I surely didn't regret doing that. I also learned that one of the songs on the LP is on a mix tape my girlfriend made me a while ago.
This record is a great homage to 90's emo, but somehow Moose Blood manage to give it their own little twist. Great, great music. I've heard rumors about them coming to mainland Europe for a tour later this year, and I keep my fingers crossed the rumor will come true. There are already three pressings out there. Not bad for a record that came out just a few months ago. I believe this is the transparent light blue / opaque black version out of 700 from the first pressing.

Some Kind Of Hate

You can hardly go wrong with the early Bridge9 catalogue. They've released a lot of records in the recent future that are not for me, but the early stuff is really good overall. Some Kind Of Hate played New York inspired hardcore. Nothing revolutionary as far as the music goes, but pretty good for what it is. There are 300 copies of their s.t. 7" that come with the big centre hole, all of which are numbered. This is #108 as you can see.

Tooth&Nail

Chugga chugga mosh chugga chugga mosh. Sprinkle in some lyrics that deal with either SXE, veganism or politics and you got yourself a 90's hardcore band. Chokehold were one of the best from this genre in my opinion. This variant of their final release, Tooth&Nail, comes on orange vinyl. 650 copies were made.

Unbroken - Ritual

It's always kind of sad when people you know through record collecting sell off (parts of) their collection or break up certain collections. On the other hand, it's always a good opportunity to pick up some goodies, especially when you get dibs on looking at the records for sale. That's how I recently got my hands on a copy of Unbroken's first LP, Unbroken, among others. Not quite as good as Life.Love.Regret, but still an awesome album. Unknown quantity was pressed on black vinyl by New Age Records.