Unity

Record Store Day turns me off more and more every year. I know that there are some good sides to this event, but honestly, if people bought records on a regular basis all year long the way they do it on RSD, there'd be no need for this day. But my feeling tells me that most people who actually buy all these special releases, mainly of mainstream music, only buy records on this day and think of it more as Record Flipping Day. The number of releases for RSD that interest me has been in decline each year as well. This year there were two records that I was interested in, but not so much that I actually went after them. I picked this up from one of the two mailorders/stores I order regularly from online since there's no record store around where I live. This was a few weeks after RSD, so I guess the interest in general was not too high after all.
For the record itself, I like to think of the Unity 7"as a test run for what became Uniform Choice's first LP. You can hear that the music is basically the same (plus you also get a spoken word track) and Pat Dubar's voice is also quite recognizable, but the vocals are not nearly as good as on Screaming For Change. Don't get me wrong, the 7" is quite good, also from a lyrical point of view, but for me the voice leaves something to be desired. Might have to check out the LP seeing that they rerecorded the vocals of the 7" tracks for those recordings. RSD release on clear green vinyl out 550. There's also a clear variant out there, also out of 550.

Fugazi

In one of my last postings in 2014 I stated that I'd just bought my first Fugazi release on vinyl and I sort of made the New Year's resolution that I wanted to pick up more Fugazi records in the future. Well, it took me only roughly six months to follow through on that one… New Year's resolutions can suck it. Current repress of Fugazi's s.t. debut.

Autumn Music

The weather where I live has been looking way more like autumn than spring these last few days, so here's the soundtrack to that: some fine Indie/Emo-core by Elliott. First off is the 2nd LP by Elliott - False Cathedrals. This is the most recent repress on Rev on red vinyl. 510 copies.

While at it, I also got this compilation of their early 7"s. I know I said quite often that I like buying records on their original format, but this is the kind of music I usually listen to when I sit on the sofa reading a book and I don't want to stand up every few minutes to press play again or flip sides. 2nd press on grey vinyl out of 500.

Spirits Get A Grip

Okay, I admit it: I've become a Spirits fanboy. Not really that big a surprise if you've read the last couple of entries on here. This split 7" with Get A Grip is their third release in what, less than a year? Quite productive. Actually, the songs on this split are the first official recordings by this band. At least that's what I read on Screaming For Records. You can definitely hear that the band was still searching for its sound. Probably the weakest release so far, but then again, weak is relative. The songs are still pretty good all in all. The Get A Grip side is pretty good as well. Short and fast hardcore songs. Good one.
There are two variants for this split, honey coloured vinyl, out of 125, and and skittles coloured vinyl, also out of 125.

More Spirit(s)

After constantly listening to the Spirits LP and 7" I bought a few weeks back at one of their shows, I decided to get a couple of more variants.
First is the clear version out of 54. This is the second rarest variant there is. I missed out on the pre-order, which comes on green with black splatter (/49), but hopefully I'll manage to pick up this one as well at one point in the future.

Coin Toss also pressed 199 7"s on this smokey clear vinyl. The 'smokey' vinyl apparently allows for a looooot of different shades. I feel absolutely no need to go after transition colours.

Last, but not least, there are also 200 copies on plain black vinyl.

There's plenty more variants out there, according to the pressing info on the Coin Toss Records website: 33 copies come with the record release cover, 19 7"s have the pre-order cover,  then there are 2 clear ones with black splatter and 1 copy on teal with black splatter…

Moose Blood meets Departures

Moose Blood released one of my favourite LPs of the last few months. I only bought it this year, otherwise it would have definitely made my TOP 2014 list. The split with Departures was released before the LP came out, but I haven't had a chance yet to check it out. The Moose Blood side is every part as good as the LP. Really good stuff. Departures are a little faster and a little louder. Not bad at all, but I like the Moose Blood songs better. This is a split release between No Idea And Fist In The Air Records. The split you can see here is part of the No Idea pressing. There are 500 copies on this opaque green colour, which works really well with the floral motive on the labels and the artwork. Good one.

The Side You Cannot See

A few weeks back I wrote an entry about 411's 7" Say It. Seeing that I really liked that 7", it was kind of a given that I wanted to pick up more of their material.
Last year Workshed Records released a 411 discography, which is a cool way to check out a band. I usually like to buy releases on the format they were originally released on, but the nice things about discographies is that you also get rare compilation tracks and otherwise rare songs, and that's a nice bonus. Plus, sometimes you get liner notes or information about the band's history, which is sadly not the case for this discography, but whatever. Still worth picking up. The Side You Cannot See comes on two colours, white and orange.

Miles Away

My wife has turned me onto quite a few bands these last few years, Miles Away from Australia is one of them. She's been really looking forward to their upcoming LP and since she doesn't have all the band's releases, I thought it'd be nice to make the waiting time a little bit more enjoyable by getting an old record. Memory Embraced came out in 2010 and was self-released by the band. Quite unusual for a band that has had records on labels like Bridge 9 or Six Feet Under on their resume by then, but it's also cool since the DIY spirit still shows. There's only one colour for this 7" as far as I could find out.

Big Kids

Hoop Dreams by Big Kids is one of the the records I probably listened to the most over the last few years. I'd never listened to any of their 7"s/splits though, so I when I came across a really, really cheap copy of Don't Be A Baby, their one and only 7", I didn't think twice. The 7" is not as good as their debut LP, but still pretty good. I got lucky with this copy because a) the purple/black split looks pretty awesome and b) this is the rarest variant. There are only 126 copies of this particular colour. Pretty sure the seller didn't know this considering the price I paid. Great score all around.

Carry On

About a year ago I managed to get (back) a copy of A Life Less Plagued on orange vinyl. It's taken me about a year to track down a copy on clear vinyl for a good price. Finding a copy is not that hard, but people selling it for a reasonable price is. But it was well worth the wait. First pressing is complete now. I'm not going to delve into finding that personalized cover that exists since that was only for friends of the band. Chances of picking up a test pressing of this LP are also pretty, pretty slim. To begin with, there are only 8 of them. Presumably all the band members have/had one, Bridge 9 has probably kept one, and I know of three other people who have one. And no one of them would let go off their copy. I know I wouldn't, either, haha. So, I think I'm all set here.

Spirits

Last week my wife wrote me a message saying she found this new band that is pretty good and should be right up my alley and we had to go to the show that they were going to play close by. Since my wife has pretty good taste in music and knows what I like, there wasn't much to argue about. The show was in an old textile factory, which is really hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for. I'd been there before when the promoter put on a show for some friends' band, so I knew where I had to go: drive along the old dirt road with no signs, park in the front of this old building and climb up a few flights of stairs - et voilà: a diy hardcore venue. Some young kids are trying to get some shows going in that small town in the middle of nowhere, which is always cool to see and worthy of support.
There were maybe 40 people there, which is not bad for that town on a Thursday night. Spirits were the only band to play that show, which I've never seen at a hardcore show before, but there's always a first time I guess. I hadn't listened to them before, but my wife had told me that they sound like Count Me Out, Carry On and Go It Alone. Well, if you've been following my blog, you'll have noticed that I really, really like these bands.
Long set short, Spirits fucking killed it. Great music that really reminded me of the early 2000s. They also played a Minor Threat and a Battery (!!!) cover. Actually they played three covers, but I didn't recognize the third song… Anyways, if you like any of the aforementioned bands, you should definitely check out Spirits. Another great SXE band from Boston. My wife and I are definitely going to at least one more show on this tour, because Spirits are just that good. They're also probably the most fun band to watch in the sense that they're really having fun on stage and enjoy what they're doing. Plus they're like the nicest people out there, especially their guitarist Charles.
This is the tour variant of the LP that came out like three (?) weeks ago. I'm not sured if the people who pre-ordered this record have already got their copies, but that didn't stop Spirits to have a tour version with them. There are two hundred copies of these. Neither cover nor lyric sheet, which is a big minus, especially the no lyric sheet part, but you get some nice 3D glasses so you can check out the 3D labels, which is kind of cool. The glasses are stamped (Spirits European Tour)  and numbered (my copy is #61/200). You can also use them to look at the 7" (see below).

For a band that has existed only for a few months, Spirits have been quite productive. This is their first release, the s.t. 7"., which came out earlier this year on Coin Toss Records. This is the tour variant on this weird swirly clear/dark grey/haze colour. It looks cool, but is hard to photograph. The cover comes in 3D optic as well. They're also about to release a split 7" on Speedowax Records. Yeah, pretty productive indeed. After listening to these two records at home, I caved in and ordered a few other versions of the 7". And I'll most likely get the other variants of the LP as well in the nearby future. Oh, and the pre-order for the split is supposed to go online in the next couple of days.

Destination Japan Or Better Days

Modern Life Is War also had a special tour version for their tour in Japan back in 2006. This one comes on clear gold vinyl, matching the colour of the sleeve and the OBI strip very nicely. On the back of the OBI strip you can see the actual tour dates. I have no idea what the rest says since I don't speak Japanese. Pretty cool variant if you ask me. This is technically speaking the 5th press of this 7" and there are 150 copies in existence.

Destination Death Or Better Days

Probably my favourite MLIW song. They have so many good ones, but this one is probably #1 for me. I really like the story behind this 7" too. Hardcore kids from the middle of nowhere start a hardcore band, record a bunch of songs, release their own 7" and start touring on only this record. What part of this isn't great?

There are a lot of different variants of this 7" out there. I recently saw a picture on Instagram that included 17 variants. Welp. This is the European Tour version. It comes on clear green and you can see the stamp on the dust sleeve. This is #46/325.

Witness

A few weeks ago I wrote about a trip to a Modern Life Is War show and how the anticipation of seeing them again and the show itself had rekindled my love for this band, or to be precise my wish to start a collection again. So here goes. This blue/black marble record is part of the first press. There are 250 copies on this colour. There are a lot more different colours to be collected from the first press and the following presses, but it's a start.
On a different note, it's been ten years that Witness came out and Deathwish has decided to re-release this masterpiece of an LP. I'm really looking forward to seeing the whole re-issue package. It should turn out pretty awesome.

Promises Kept

I'm a sucker for blood red vinyl with black swirls. It's one of the best colours for a record out there. Great colour scheme used for a great LP. Promises Kep is one of the most important LPs from the early 2000s and has definitely stood the test of time. Hard to believe this came out more than 10 years ago already. Seems just like yesterday. This colour was part of the first press and is out of 300.

Count Me In

Lately I've been finding myself listening to a lot of bands that were around in the late '90s and early 2000s. One of the best bands from that era to me was Count Me Out, although I feel that people don't really appreciate that band. Not the worst thing from a collector's point of view, since that means you can get their records for rather fair prices. If you ask me today which album I like better, I have to go with Permanent. Today, that is. Tomorrow it might be 110. It always depends on what LP I've been listening to recently. But today, it is obviously Permanent. There are 349 copies on clear vinyl, which looks pretty awesome with the cover art.

Trading Records For Memories

A few weeks back my wife and I decided to sell a few doubles. Now, as some people may have noticed I don't have anything against collecting variants, but having two exact same copies of the same record is kind of pointless. Since my wife and I have a very similar taste in music, we had a few things that could go. Plus you get a little extra money for new records.
Friends had dibs, of course, and a good trading buddy of mine wanted one particular record to fill a hole in one of his collections. I was more than happy to help him out since we traded a few times before and he'd helped me out with some of my own collections and has always been very generous. My buddy asked me if I'd be interested in trading the record for a Bane shirt that was too small for him now. I'd been looking for this shirt for quite some time, so I was more than happy about the whole trade. He then asked if we could expand the trade a little bit and I said sure. So he went through my record list and found a few other things he wanted to fill some more gaps in other collections.
To make things a little easier, we agreed to finalize the trade via telephone. The call turned into a an hour and half long conversation about this trade, trading in general, records and current hardcore bands worth checking out. It's always so much fun trading with people, but nothing beats trading with this particular buddy of mine. Tom, if you happen to read this, you're the best! Hopefully we'll see each other again at some show soon!

Open Hearts And Clear Minds had been on my want list for quite some time, but this record doesn't pop up nearly as often as you'd think, regardless of the variant. Well, people know what's good apparently. I didn't care about the colour or sleeve, I just wanted to have a copy, any copy, so I was more than stoked that he had doubles of this 7". There are 300 copies on this cow skin coloured vinyl. I once read that this particular colour/pattern was done because the band has a strong vegetarian message. Pretty cool. 

A few weeks ago I got my first Title Fight record and I really liked that it. My buddy was looking to get rid of his Title Fight records because he never really got into them, so when he offered me a couple of 7"s, I said yeah. Plus, I'd wanted to see what all the hype about Touché Amoré was about for some time, so this split came at the right time. Both bands aren't going to become my new favourite bands, but the music is quite good and I wouldn't mind checking them out live. Title Fight / Touché Amoré split on solid pink out of 2000. 

I also got this copy of Title Fight's Flood Of '72, which contains the song of the same name and an acoustic version of the song on the b-side. 667 copies on black vinyl. 

As I said, my buddy has always been very generous when we traded before, and again, he threw in a bonus 7" this time. Max Rebo Kids was a band from Germany from the early 2000s. Definitely worth checking out. Now, I already had a copy of this, but that's not really the point here. I also got a nice little note explaining why he sent me this record in particular. Thanks again, man.