Once In A While

Every once in a while I will hit up the local record store. Their focus is definitely not on what I usually listen to, but they do have a second hand punk/hardcore section that consists mainly of rather obscure stuff. But sometimes there‘s a record in there that tickles my interest. When I saw this Downcast LP I was very intrigued and since it was priced at 10€, there was really no good reason to not buy the record. Leaving behind an LP at this price in 2024 would be a crime, punishable under rule 23B of the Hardcore and Punk Collectors’ Code. 

Not only is the music really good, the cover and the booklet are so well done too. I wish more bands/labels would put that much effort into those things. 

Random

A few months ago I hit up a record store close to where I live together with a good friend of mine who came to visit with his family for a few days. I go to that record store every so often, but more often than not I walk out empty handed because the selection doesn‘t usually cater to my taste. But sometimes I do find something, as was the case when I went there with said friend. 

I‘d never heard of Surface before, but judging by the cover I guessed 90s hardcore and after giving it a spin in the record store I was proven right and just grabbed the thing. The music was decent enough, I really like the metallic ink used on the cover and, well, it was dirt cheap. 

Black Vinyl on March Through Records 

Like I said, sometimes there are some good and/or interesting hardcore and punk records available at that store. Together with the Surface 7“ I also picked up this Struggle 7“ that just sat in one of the racks. I‘d meant to buy this record anyway, so not having to pay shipping for once was a welcome pace of change. 

Black Vinyl on Ebullition Records

Shop local

I really like browsing eBay local listings. I feel like this is the last place where you can actually still find a bargain every once in a while, so I spend much more time browsing there than on regular eBay. A few months ago I was doing exactly that and came across a seller selling a bunch of interesting 7“s from the 90s. Apparently the seller was getting rid of the remains of his record collection and a lot of things were already gone, but I also found a couple of things I thought were interesting. He didn’t want a ton of money either, which is always fine by me. Best of all, the seller lives only 10 minutes away from where I live, so I was able to pick up the records on my way to picking up our son from daycare. 

I wasn‘t familiar with Spitboy before I was browsing the records of said seller, but the covers triggered my interest and I did some research, which made me interested even more. All-female hardcore bands are sadly still a rarity, and were even rarer back then. Musically this is not 100% my taste, but the lyrics are very interesting and provide an interesting look into feminist politics in hardcore in the early 90s. 

Downcast

I had this record on my imaginary want list for quite some time, but since it is pretty easy to obtain I always went for other records that are rarer and harder to come by. When I came across a copy at this record store in Boston though I thought it was finally time to buy a copy. This is part of a later pressing since the zine the record originally came with comes only as insert and not in the original zine format. This is a pretty good example of how times have changed. Each of the 3,000 copies of the zine came with a copy of this record. I can't think of any records let alone zines that come in quantities like this nowadays.