The advantage of finding out late about a band’s release is that you don’t have to wait as long for the next one, so I was pretty happy to learn that Chopping Block have a new record. Nowhere To Run hasn’t grabbed me quite the same way from the get go Seattle’s Hardcore did, but it’s still a really good record.
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| 1st Press on Black on Indecision /300 |
Another classic crossed off my want list. The Gift was the final album by the Jam and unbeknownst to me until today peaked at number 1 in the UK, which is quite remarkable. The first single off the album and my favorite song on this LP, Town Called Malice, also reached number one of the single charts. Again, quite remarkable. The whole album flows really nicely and I’ve been enjoying spinning this record quite a bit these last few weeks.
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| I don’t really know what pressing this as the pressing info on Discogs is rather confusing. |
There‘s not that much new music that is appealing to me at the moment and the current records I‘ve pre-ordered still haven‘t arrived, so this feels like a good time to fill some gaps in the classics department. Candy Apple Grey by Hüsker Dü might be a far cry from the band’s early hardcore days, and yes, it was released on a major label, but it also gave birth to Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely, which is a song for the ages.
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| 2009 Repress on Black on Warner/Rhino(180g) /??? |
Lately, I’ve been rediscovering Down To Nothing and their records have seen a lot of time on my record player. The Splitting Headache 7” is still my favorite release of theirs, but I enjoy most of their catalogue, especially their earlier stuff.
I’ve had a rather ugly press of The Most on orange/purple split since the late 2000s and I’ve always wanted to get a nicer looking copy. There’s a particular version of the first pressing I’ve had my eyes on in forever and finally a copy came for sale for a fair price. Unfortunately, the seller had listed the record incorrectly and I didn’t receive the version I’d wanted. Still, this fifth press actually looks pretty good and definitely looks a lot better than the version I already owned, so I’m ok with getting the wrong record for once.
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| 5th Press on Turquoise on Revelation /700 |
Last record from my recent haul at the local record store. One of the rules I’ve come up for myself is that whenever there’s a record on Dischord from the 80s available at a reasonable price, just buy it. Is every Dischord release from the 80s great? No. Is every 80s Dischord release necessary? Probably not. Can you really go wrong? No. Are all of them enjoyable on some level? You bet. In short, you’re better off buying Dischord releases from the 80s.
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| 1st Press on Black on Dischord |
There's just something about browsing the racks in a record store and buying records right there compared to ordering records online. I'd meant to check out The Ruts for a long time, but never got around to it and by pure coincidence I'd put their first LP, The Crack, on the want list section in my Excel spreadsheet documenting my collection just a couple of days before I actually found a copy. Record and sleeve are in very good condition considering their age. Sadly, the lyric sheet is missing, but the price was too good to pass up on it.
I really like this record. Gives me a lot of The Clash vibes because there are so many different music styles combined on this record. The cover art is also pretty cool.
Despite my best efforts and even checking the matrix numbers, I didn't manage to find out which pressing this is exactly, because the Discogs entry is a little confusing. But it must be some early pressing, see below.
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| Early Press from 1979 (?) |
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.
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.
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| 3xLP on Black on Apple [Circle on Back Cover / Sturdy Cardboard Inner Sleeves] |
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.
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| 1st Press on Black on Cruz /??? |
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.
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| 2024 Repress on Burgundy Marble on Dischord /??? |
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.
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| 1st Press on Metallic Mercury Blend on Pure Noise /1200 |
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.
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| 2023 Repress on Clear Green on Dischord /??? |
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| 2023 Repress on Silver Metallic on Dischord /??? |
