Psychotic

Scowl has been one of the more interesting and better current bands. I really liked their debut LP, but I think Psychotic Dance Routine is even better. You still get some raging hardcore bangers, but the band really pushed their sound and I dig the indie/alternative vibes. As a matter of fact, I like those songs/parts more than the traditional hardcore songs/parts. The singer‘s vocals on those calmer parts is fantastic. 

I‘m not sure about the artwork, both on the sleeve and on the B-side of the record. But at least the vinyl works with the cover. Evil Greed exclusive out of 950 copies. 

What You Read Is What You Get

Closed another gap in my 2000s collection. The first two Verse LPs are as good as it gets when it comes to mid-2000s melodic hardcore. Actually, this is often a point of mildly heated argument between my wife and I, since she believes Rebuild is the best Verse LP, while I think From Anger And Rage is superior. This debate has been going on for a decade now and hopefully we‘ll have this debate for many decades to come.

This 7", aptly called Four Songs because, well, there are four songs on it, was released prior to the first LP and there are two songs that ended up on the LP and two songs that didn't. So this was something like a demo I guess and the band decided to re-record two songs for Rebuild. At least that's my guess. I like

This is the third and final press, again as advertised on the cover, which is a pretty weird move. I also hate it when there are blank labels. If this happens by mistake, fair enough, but this looks like they just slapped on red labels - which clashes with the vinyl color - and nobody bothered to put any artwork or info on them. Which means you have to check the matrix if you want to start with side A. Very annoying. To be fully transparent, I was aware that this was the case with this press, so to complain about this fact while knowingly buying a copy is kind of a dick move, BUT this was the cheapest copy I could get my hands on and generally I have a weak spot for pink vinyl. 

This press also comes with a different art work than the previous pressings and there are 300 copies on this particular color.

Jamming

I‘m aware that I have blogged mainly about hardcore and punk, but of course there are other genres that I‘m into as well. I’ve been listening to reggae since I was a teenager and that has never gone away. There‘s a lot of nostalgia involved obviously, but I still like the music and I find the lyrics much more interesting these days because I know more about the history of Jamaica and reggae itself. 

This is considered to be Bob Marley & The Wailers‘ magnus opus, and it‘s a really, really good record, but it‘s not my personal favourite in the band’s catalogue. 

This may be my favourite Bob Marley & The Wailers albums because it has a bunch of songs that I really love. Can‘t really go wrong with Kaya, Is This Love or Sun Is Shining. 

Is Survived By

Touché Amoré is one of those bands whose name always kind of turned me off from giving them a chance. It wasn‘t until I listened to one of my wife‘s mixtape (Yes, those still exist! As a matter of fact, if you‘re into mixtape trading, let me know!) a few years ago. It was Home Away From Here on Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me that made me want to listen to more of their output and some more years down the line here we are. Is Survived by is definitely a good listen. Touché Amoré didn‘t stray too much from their formula on their previous record, so if you like one, there‘s really no reason you shouldn‘t like the other one as well.

I like how the colored vinyl of this repress matches the artwork. That‘s how it should be done. It’s too bad my photography skills don’t do it the justice it deserves. 

Where Do Ripples Go?

Is melodic hardcore making a comeback? Maybe. Hopefully. In recent years there have been more and more bands playing hardcore in the vein of 2000s hardcore bands. Bent Blue is one of them. I hear some Dag Nasty and revolution summer influences, too. So if those are ingredients you like, you should give Bent Blue‘s Where Do Ripples Go? a listen. 

The coloured vinyl looks awesome in person, but is a little tricky to photograph. Purple in sea blue with screen-printed B-side out of 100 (Merchpit exclusive). 

All My Best Friends Are Skaheads

I feel like hardcore kids often have a hard time embracing fun, at least when it comes to their taste in music. Everything has to be serious all the time, which can be very exhausting. First wave ska is deemed kind of cool and The Specials from the 2 Tone era usually get a pass as well, but bands from the third wave ska revival in the 90s are often frowned upon. Then there‘s me. I like serious bands with a message, but I also like goofy and whacky stuff. Less Than Jake to me is the best skapunk band originating in the 90s and I can thoroughly enjoy their first five albums, but Hello Rockview is their masterpiece. So many hits and this album always puts a smile on my face whenever I listen to it. I really like the peach coloured vinyl and the comic book style booklet with lyrics and credits. 

Lookinglasself

When we drove to a show a couple of months ago, two friends and I went on a 90s deep dive. This was a lot of fun because we‘re all different ages decades-wise and each of us has a very different perception and relationship with the 90s. The hours flew by with interesting conversations just the way a good long drive to a show should be. 

One of the bands I rediscovered for myself was Snapcase. I already had a couple of their records and would listen to them from time to time, but I kind of forgot how much I liked the band. Incarnation is still such a hit. Obviously that realization was a good enough reason (read: excuse) to get more records to close some gaps in my collection. The label shows this was released by Victory Europe, which I thought was very interesting. I knew that labels back then had European offices, but I didn‘t realize that Victory had one so early on in their history. Then I did some more research, well, I looked at the Discogs entry for Victory Europe and it said that  this sublabel existed from 1990 till 1995 and was operated by We Bite Records. Talk about learning something new every day. 

Silver Lining

This is one of those ‘Damn, this makes me feel really old’ posts. Have Heart’s landmark LP The Things We Carry was released 17 years ago. I was still in my 20s when this came out and now I’m definitely not in my 20s anymore. What hasn’t changed is my love for this band and this LP. I’d still like to get a complete collection of the this album all through the first four pressings, but those record release and EOSJ variants are hard to come by. Not to mention tests pressings. 

I decided to quit on all subsequent pressings because there are just too many. Which is certainly impressive and great for the band and the label, but I never felt excited about all of these represses. 

The silver edition that Bridge 9 came up with to celebrate the label’s 25th anniversary is a little different though. This caught my attention for some reason and I felt like I should get a copy of this particular repress. As with all Have Heart represses of the LPs there are 1000 copies (13th press). 

Of course this opened up the can of worms of me debating with myself whether I should get ALL of the records that were treated to a silver edition or not. There are some records I love, some I don’t care for at all, and some in between. Time will tell. 

I also picked up a copy of Have Heart’s second LP Songs To Scream At The Sun. When this record came out in 2008 I wasn’t into it at all. I loved The Things We Carry and this was not the same. It wasn’t a millions miles from their first LP either, but back then the difference was big enough for me to not like this album. 15 years later this feels pretty damn stupid. The record grew on me over the years and if you catch me on the right day, I’d say that Pave Paradise is among the top 5 Have Heart songs. 

I remember pre-ordering the record from Bridge 9 and getting copies on blue, white and yellow. I also remember selling my white and yellow copies in the early 10s because I wasn’t into the album that much at the time. Nowadays of course I wish I’d kept them. Actually I wish I had even more copies than I had originally, but there’s always time to fix that. My consolation prize for now is this sweet silver edition that came out last year. I just checked the B9 discography page and it’s crazy that this record is currently also already on its 12th press and each repress is, as mentioned above, out of 1000. C-R-A-Z-Y!