Bonds Of Trade-Ship

Trading seems to be a lost art these days. I was never that big of a trader because I rarely had money to buy spare records just to trade and I often had a hard time letting go of  the ones I’d bought for myself. Still, I managed to make a couple of cool trades over the years and got to meet, virtually and in real life, some great people. 

When I ordered the represses of Bane’s Boston, 6.58pm, I asked a couple of friends if they wanted copies too, so we could order together and save on shipping. One of them who was onboard happened to be selling a bunch of records right around the time when the records arrived and instead of him sending me the money, we managed to work out a record for record deal. I’ve long given up on collecting every variant of Have Heart 7”s, but whenever I can get my hands on a special version, e.g. some different cover art, I’ll gladly jump at the opportunity. 

This Insted rip-off sleeve of the What Counts 7” had been on my want list for 10+ years but somehow it always slipped through my fingers whenever one popped up. But finally I managed to close that gap in my collection. I never knew that this variant comes with a regular cover and the rip-off is just an additional sleeve. I really like the rip-off itself, but “bro-ship” is pretty cringe, if it’s not some sort of irony. I mean they once had a shirt that said “Have Heart masturbates after the first date”, so they’re not beneath making fun of themselves. 

3rd Press on Black w/ Bonds of Bro-Ship Cover on Think Fast /150

Score

Nowadays you can get pretty much every record you want sooner or later by scouring Discogs. It’s a great platform for music fans and collectors in particular. But it’s also responsible for prices skyrocketing, at least partly. So, what can you do if you want to find rare records that don’t cost an arm and a leg? For me, local listings, formerly known as eBay local listings, has been the best source to find older records at really good prices. 

Sometime in September I found a listing of a hardcore record collection that really made my eyes pop. It was not just a collection of records, there were all kinds of crazy rare records in there that made me drool all over my keyboard - and that was only because  of the records in the pictures, which as it turned out showed only a small of part of the collection that was up for sale. I contacted the seller and he sent me videos of the whole collection. I made a list of everything I was interested in, but I quickly realized that I had to make some cuts because even a conservative estimate was a low four figure number if I really wanted everything on my list. So I made some cuts, and then I made some more cuts, and then I had a list I was happy with. I sent the seller my list with offers and we came to an agreement. 

In between sending back and forth messages with the seller, I asked two good friends of mine if they knew the guy because they lived roughly in the same area. You know, just to make sure the seller was legit. Not only did they know him, they were really good friends with him and had bought a whole bunch of records from him from the same collection. By coincidence my wife and I had made plans to visit our friends later that month, so they suggested we visit their friend and pick up the records I wanted in person. Perfect. No shipping = more money for records. 

When we went to the seller’s house he couldn’t have been nicer. I got to dig through the remains of a collection he’d bought from some other collector and got to hold some incredible records. Really a collector’s dream come true. I picked up the records I wanted, plus some more stuff he hadn’t ’t shown in the videos. Meanwhile, our kids played together and my son even got a ride along on the riding mower. So pretty much a perfect day.

I’d picked up a copy of this Driftnet 7” some time prior, but since this one came with a different cover and I didn’t know the song titles by heart, I picked up a second copy just because the cover screamed 90s hardcore. I don’t actually need two copies of this record, so one copy has been earmarked as a present for a friend of mine in the nearby future. 

2nd Press w/ Limited Cover on Keep It Alive Records

Inside of the cover with the address of the label and the numbering. I don’t know how many copies this is out of. 

#37/???

Collecting Have Heart records is a daunting and expensive enterprise, especially the Demo 7”, which came out on a myriad of pressings. I came up with my own parameters as to which variants I want to collect and which not, and for the Demo and What Counts 7” it’s mostly different covers. I hadn’t added anything to the 7” collection in a long time, so crossing off this one felt really good. 

Sink With Cali III Cover /100

Finding rare Go It Alone records is Really hard. The really rare stuff pops up very seldom on Discogs, and if something pops up, the prices are usually rather high, so finding one in the wild was pretty cool. Go It Alone kept it simple with this release. No special covers, just a few select different colours (black, red and white; the latter was used for a bunch of different versions). The main difference between all the different white variants are the labels. As you can see, this is the variant made for the record release show. Question: is this a thing in other genres as well? Are there record release variants for rock’n’roll, soul or hip hop records? I’m genuinely interested. 

Record Release Edition #66/70

What’s better than finding one rare record by a band you collect? Right, two! This record I hadn’t noticed in the videos. I don’t know why, but I was all the more excited when I found it while browsing through the 7”s. I just love Vancouver Gold. I still need a record release cover. I doubt that I will ever find a test press of this and I’ve never seen one of those red transition copies Kyle Whitlow talks about on his blog, so maybe one more copy for me and I think I’m good. 

1st Press w/ Train Tracks Cover #33/70

To stick with the theme of the last post: here’s one more variant of a Youth of Today record on We Bite Records. 

German/European Press on We Bite /???

I know that I dedicated this blog to posting about my record collection, as in vinyl records. BUT this was to cool a pick up not to write about it. I’ve been collecting Count Me Out for a bunch of years now and I’m quite happy with the collection I have. But I’ve never had a demo of theirs, so when I saw this sitting in a box with a bunch of other demos, I had to get it. 

This demo tape is very confusing to be honest. It’s not listed on Discogs. Well, there is a demo tape which was released in 1997 listed on Discogs, but it’s not this one. This comes with a Milo rip-off cover and is labelled “What The Fuck! 97”. 

The label says that the same songs are on both sides. Cool, no rewinding! The cassette itself is numbered #62/75. 

This is the inside of the cover and as you can see Jason Mazola is not the original singer. I’d heard this before but never knew for sure, but this confirms it. I hope the RIP after Jimmy‘s name only refers to him being in the band and not that he actually passed away. You can also see this is apparently a limited edition out of 15. I have #2.  

To make things completely confused, the spine reads Count Me Out Demo #2/75. 

Overall, me looking for records on local listenings couldn‘t have turned out better. Well, maybe if I‘d pulled the trigger on some of the heavy hitters that were available, but I‘m really happy with my record haul. 

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!

Top Of The Pick Ups 2016

2016 has been another good year as far as record collecting goes. And even though I cut down massively on buying records for a good three months, I managed to buy a decent amount of records and pick up some really cool collectibles throughout 2016. These records comprise the Top 10 Pick Ups 2016. They're pretty much only records by my all-time favorite band and range from "Whoa, this is an incredible record. I didn't think I'd ever own over a copy of this." over "Huh, I didn't even know this variant existed, but I'm sure glad I stumbled upon it." and "I really like that cover." to "This record means a lot to me because it was a gift by a very generous person.". Especially the last category still makes hardcore and record collecting so much fun.

Thanks to everyone who pointed me towards a record, sold records to and  traded records with me, or even gave me a record as a present. Thanks to everyone who has been following my blog this year and has engaged me in conversation of some sort. It's been a lot of fun.

XXX

Ralf

Calvin X Hobbes

This is one of my favourite rip off covers out there, because, well, it's a Calvin & Hobbes rip off. Love all the little details going on here as well. The quality of the print is a little disappointing though. You only notice it when you actually hold the cover in your hands. Other than that, it's pretty cool. It's also my favourite sleeve for any Have Heart 7". 40 copies were made for Have Heart's winter tour back in 2004/05.

Oh Well

A few weeks ago I announced that I had a heart flush, which I though was very clever word play because I'd just score five special sleeves for Have Heart 7"s. I posted about the first three and then forgot to post the remaining two. When Have Heart played Posi Numbers 2005, they made 200 copies (!) with a special cover of their demo 7". Have Heart were huge, and so was Posi Numbers apparently. I can't imagine a band doing 200 7"s for just one festival nowadays.

Have Heart Goes To Posi Numbers

One more special Have Heart cover. This one was made for the Posi Numbers festival 2005. Red vinyl out of 125 copies. All sleeves were numbered on the back flap of the cover. My copy is #22/125. The pressing plant had made an error since the vinyl was supposed to be blue. The mistake was rectified later and the blue vinyl was used with regular sleeves. Again, the lighting is really bad. They yellow is much more vibrant in real life.

Have Heart Goes To Sink With Cali

I don't know if any of the guy in Have Heart are records nerds, but they made damn sure to keep collectors on their toes. There are so many different covers for tours, festivals or no apparent reason at all. This is the special sleeve for Sink With Cali III, which features Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.125 copies, all on black vinyl. Poor lighting job on my part. The cover is much more yellow in reality. Might have to take a new picture.

Heart Flush

I'm not the biggest poker fan in the world, but the reference is kind of fitting as you will see. I don't want to get into the abyss that is collecting Have Heart 7" variants, so I'm not going for all the colours and sleeve variants out there. Getting some different covers though is a different story. I managed to track down quite a few of the Have Heart 7"s I wanted in a short period of time and slowly but steadily they're arriving on my doorstep. A buddy of mine has started to sell off his awesome collection(s) recently and while I was too late for the rarest items in his collection, I managed to get some puzzle pieces. Demo on black vinyl with Summer Tour 2005 cover out of 150 copies.

On a different note (no pun intended), I just love personal notes that come with records/shirts/zines. I like to do the same because it gives a trade/sale a personal touch. Handwritten notes may seem like an anachronism, but so are records and zines, right? It's so much fun going through those notes after a few years and think back to that deal.

Live At Sound And Fury

Have Heart. Live. Three of their best songs. Inside Out cover song. More than enough reasons to get this record. I actually traded for it, which is something I really enjoy, but don't get to do as often as I'd like to. The cool thing about this trade was that I traded with someone from Singapore and in addition to the 7" I wanted, he threw in a couple of releases by bands from South East Asia, which I most likely would have never heard of otherwise.




As mentioned above, I got a couple of extras that weren't part of the trade itself. I got tapes by Overthrown and Losing End, and this split between Random Violence and Value Lasts from the Philippines. Both bands on this split are female fronted, which is pretty awesome.

The Things We Carry

Record collectors usually frown a little bit on black vinyl since a) black is not really a colour and b) black is usually the most common variant. As always, there are exceptions, of course… The Things We Carry has seen a lot of different pressings so far. The first pressing amounted to 1000 in total, but it is split up in two different colours and three different sleeves, accounting to four different variants for the first press alone. All subsequent pressings were out of 1000 each. And then there's the 4th pressing. The 4th pressing you could purchase from Bridge 9 or from distros around the globe was clear red. However, Bridge 9 also pressed 100 records on black vinyl since they had found some gatefold jackets that had been used for the first two pressings. These 100 copies were sent out randomly, so people were in for a big surprise when they got their order. Seeing that this is the 3rd most limited variant of Have Heart's debut LP, it has become quite the collectible, despite the fact that it's just on black.

Have Heart?

I love Have Heart. They're one of the bands from the first decade of the 21st century that will go down as a classic hardcore band. Not only are the music and the lyrics awesome, but they're also a fun band to collect. That means if your borderline OCD and/or have loads of money. There are like 50 versions of the demo alone. For detailed info check this awesome homepage. Done with true passion.
Now, I really like record collecting and I really like Have Heart, but there's no way I'd ever think of aiming for a complete collection. That's why I decided to just collect the different covers for the 7"s. Having said that, we're still talking about a shitload of records.
Recently I had the chance to buy a few special covers for the demo 7". The first one is the cover the band did for their summer tour 2005. There are 150 of these on black vinyl. The second one was done for Posi Numbers Fest the same year. There are 200 of these on coke bottle clear vinyl.































In case you're wondering about the missing pictures, the scumbag I bought the two records from ripped me off badly. I'm a very patient guy, but after three and a half months of waiting and no contact for three months I'm pretty sure I'll never get those records from the seller. It really bums me out that people who are apparently into hardcore would do this to fellow hardcore kids. It's not so much about the records really, but more about the whole behaviour. I've been lucky so far and haven't been ripped off that often, but whenever it happens, it really bums me out. So, if you happen to read this, Maxym Koval from Ukraine (aka onethruth on Deadformat), fuck yourself you piece of shit.

Ten Years After

Re-issues have the sad side-effect that you realize how much time has passed since the original release. I can't believe it's been ten years that Have Heart released the What Counts EP, and already five years that they broke up for that matter. Triple B Records honoured the ten year anniversary of this 7" with a rerelease on a one-sided 12". Seems a little bit like a waste of material to put six songs on a 12", but whatever. What I like most about this release is the little text that Pat Flynn wrote about the 'mistakes' they made with the original release and their rather naive outlook back then. I always liked the honesty and integrity aspect about Have Heart a lot. I wouldn't mind a reunion tour in this case though, haha.

There is a total of 4,000 (!) copies of this, which says a lot about the influence Have Heart still have today. There are 500 on yellow-white marble, which you can see here, 1,500 on white and 2,000 on clear orange. Triple B and Have Heart have put in a lot of effort to make this package look awesome and they truly did a great job. I also like what Sam Triple B wrote as a comment on (ebay) flippers on the Triple B webshop. Fuck those people.

Courtesy to Triple B's policy for all foreign orders to order at least two records, I also picked up Barge's No Gain 7". Quite different from what Have Heart do, but good different. If you like Infest and early Boston Hardcore, you should give this 7" a listen or two. 

Catching Up With Today

Richmond's very own Down To Nothing have released a new LP on Revelation. I really liked all the early stuff that DTN released and I still love the Splitting Headache 7". The LPs just never could live up to that in my opinion. Save It For The Birds is still the best of the lot. Not that the LPs are bad records by any means. It's just that they never were as good as the early releases. Life On The James follows that trend. There was also a first press clear green edition, but I believe this is one of the second press copies on clear green vinyl mainly because I bought it kind of late.

I also grabbed a copy of the The Fact Remains LP by Focused Minds. When I buy current records I mainly follow the descriptions of the distro (which are usually copied and pasted from the labels, I know), but I never listen to records online beforehand. I'm kind of old-fashioned that way. The main reason is that I really like being surprised. Positively that is of course. This is not always the case obviously the case but if it happens, it's such an awesome feeling. Well, this is one of those LPs where this is not the case.
The description said something about 'drawing influences' from the past but 'putting a contemporary spin on the youth crew sound'. I haven't checked out any current youth crew bands lately so I thought I'd give it a shot. It's a good enough record and I might listen to it a couple of more times, but so far it's not that special. Generic youth crew sound, which is always ok in my book, but it doesn't get me overly excited either. 1st press out of 600 on black vinyl.

Speaking of contemporary youth crew records, I picked up Test of Time's self-released first 7" as well. I had read some good things about this band and seeing that they were recently bumped up by joining the B9 roster I thought I ought to give them a listen. Sadly the record doesn't do anything for me. There's not one song that really got stuck in my head. Maybe I'll give them a second chance and buy the 7" released by B9. This copy could be on grey /70 or cranberry /180. Don't really know. If you do, let me know. Gotta keep things in order here. Record collecting is serious business after all.

I really like split 7"s because they're a sweet way of checking out new bands for cheap. However, there's no wrong in putting two well established bands on one slab of vinyl. Shook Ones and Death Is Not Glamorous hardly need an introduction. Or at least I hope they don't. If you're not familiar with their back catalogue, you should change that quickly. I'm a little prejudiced towards Death Is Not Glamorous as they're easily one of my favourite Euorpean bands in the last couple of years and I still listen to their records on a regular basis. Good to get a couple of new songs by both bands, but the DING side wins in my book. Clear red /750.

I know, I know, this is not really catching up with new records. Re-presses don't really count. One of too many versions of Have Heart's debut LP that I already own. 8th pressing on white vinyl. And there's already a new one version out there. I wonder when I'll decide to call it quits on this record before it becomes way too ridiculous.

When it comes to represses, there are basically two way of how you can do it in my opinion. One, you
stick to the original as closely as possible when it comes to format, cover, lyric sheet, inlays etc and change as little as you have to. Two, you put in a lot of effort and create something new that is just so over the top it'll make your head spin. Radio Raheem opted for the 2nd way when they decided to re-release The Abused's Loud and Clear 7" and they did a bang-up job. This should be the standard of how reissues of classic records should be done.

Originally released in 1983, this classic NYHC 7" has been made available again for the first time in 30 years. That is if you don't count the 90s Lost and Found release, and who really cares about them. You get the songs from the Loud and Clear 7" plus the 1982 demo and a couple of unreleased live tracks. 21 songs all in all. The sleeve is a pseudo-gatefold of sorts with a flap in which you can put the record and everything that comes with it. You get a really cool booklet with a few texts and loads of pictures and flyers from back in the day. 24 pages all in full colour. Radio Raheem did truly a great job here. You also get a sticker sheet with replicas of OG stickers from the 1980s. Stickers are always cool, so why not throw some in here? I don't know what to say about the music except it's a classic record for good reasons. The music still holds up well today. I don't know if the songs are remixed since I've never heard the original 7", but who really cares.

If you don't want to spend a small fortune on this record, this is the way to go. If you want to spend that much money on the original 7", you should pick up the re-release nonetheless because this is a nice looking record and quite honestly, you probably just spent at least $700 on a 7" so you should be able to splash out $18 more for this LP.

Believe The Hype

Sometimes people are as stupid as stupid can be. Take me for instance. I used to ignore hyped bands simply because they were hyped, only to realize a few years later that the hype had been more than justified. Best example: Have Heart. I remember getting a copy of The Things We Carry some time after it was released in 2006 and kind of liking it, but I couldn't really get into it simply because they were the next big thing at that time. I fear I'd have shrugged at many a classic band and made some smug remarks if I had been born a few years earlier.
Fast forward to 2013: I love Have Heart. The demo already had some good songs on it. The same goes for the What Counts EP. The songs are still kind of rough and a little simplistic maybe, but they're already foreshadowing the things to come. But The Things We Carry is what it's all about. Everything about this record is great. Music, lyrics, artwork, packaging - you name it. One of the best and most powerful records of the 00s. I'm pretty sure that hardcore kids in 20 years will talk about this record in the same vein as people talk about let's say Start Today nowadays.
Coming back to me being stupid. So I missed out on an awesome band for too long. That's one of the drawbacks of behaving like a close-minded idiot. Another one is that you have to pay a lot more for records when you jump on the bandwagon a couple of years too late. At least I have this 1st press out of 260 copies covered now. And at a moderate price, too, thanks to my new favourite website discogs. This record is going through its 8th pressing at the moment, which is an insane amount for this day and age, but it just shows how huge and important this band was and still is.

I guess sometimes it can be a good thing to believe the hype.