The Last Shall Be First

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.  

1st Press on Black on Indecision /300

Meantime

Just based on the number of posts this record was featured in recently, this might be a contender for Record Of The Year. Both Marcus and Mike posted about Living In The Meantime by Meantime and talked about it positively. References to Have Heart? Go It Alone? Champion? The mid 2000s? Count me in! I really like the vinyl color in combination with the cover as well. 

1st Press on Baby Blue on Indecision /350

Seasonal

Kill Holiday wrote one of my all-time favorite songs. Not just hardcore or punk songs, but songs in general. Period. I even got into their one and only LP in recent years. So when I saw that there was another record coming out, I knew I had to have it. Seasonal is a collection of material from the early days of the band and it doesn‘t disappoint. All in all it‘s a fun listen. Because I absolutely wanted to have this record, I even ordered directly from the label in the US, which is something I very rarely do these days. The label had posted this was going to be one-time only press out of 250 copies, so I figured I‘d better order pretty quickly. However, the record didn’t sell out immediately. Apparently fewer people are into Kill Holiday than I had thought. Then, Seasonal became available through distros in Europe (and still is). And on top of that Indecision announced a second pressing. So, my stupid FOMO made me spend a whole lot of money for nothing. I mean, not for nothing, but I could have saved a pretty penny by just being more patient. However, I‘m still glad about the actual record I got.

1st Press on Burgundy on Indecision /250

Buy In Bulk

I love when friends text me after finding a record collection for sale or an online seller that they want to order from, but since they're good friends, they look out for you, too. That's also how you spend even more money on records you hadn't necessarily planned on buying. 

I've been listening to a lot of Undertow these last few months after ignoring the band for a couple of years almost completely. That's how it goes sometimes. So when I had the chance to pick up a missing piece for cheap money and shipping, I jumped at it. The orange vinyl works pretty well with the cover. Well done, Indecision Records. 

Clear Orange on Indecision Records /345

I also picked up a copy of Dirty Money's No Escaping This. I got hyped on Dirty Money when High Vis covered the Dirty Money Intro off the demo. I knew the band existed when it was around but I don't think I ever listened to them back then, which clearly was a mistake, but hindsight is always 20/20. Unfortunately, there's no pressing info on Discogs for this variant. If anyone can help me out with this, I'd appreciate it. 

First Press (?) on Grey Vinyl /???

Can’t Get Enough

Doing all of these blog entries way after when I got most of these records can be a pain in the ass. I mean, no one could prove when I got which record, but I decided for myself that I want to be as chronological as possible. And now I’m kind of stuck with that decision. 

Undertow is a band I’ve really come to appreciate over the last few years. I knew of the band, but didn’t own any of their records so I didn’t really listen to them. Then one of my favourite German hardcore bands covered one of their songs and I knew I wanted to find out more about that band. Luckily, Undertow records are rather cheap go get, so when I saw two of their 7”s sold by the same seller at good prices, I knew I just had to buy them. 

Both of the 7"s are really good, but I like the songs on Control just a tad better. 

Collector's Choice 2017

So many good records made it into my collection this year again. I'm more than happy with what I managed to pick up in 2017. I didn't make a whole lot of progress with my want list, but I was able to cross off some items at least. Plus I picked up a few records that weren't on that list and some that I didn't even know of one year ago. That's what makes collecting fun though. The other element that makes collecting really fun is the people you get in touch with. Quite a few people have helped me in my efforts by pointing me to records, selling, trading or straight up giving me records for free. All of which I'm very grateful for. My favorite pick up is the test press for Bane's It All Comes Down To This LP, because it embodies everything I like about collecting: great music, incredibly rare, release by one of my favorite bands, and I was tipped of by fellow collector.

Here's to 2018, which will hopefully add more new good music and some old records to my collection and get me in touch with more people. Let's keep collecting fun.

XXX

Ralf

Posi Tour 2002

Count Me Out is such a good, yet somehow underrated band. I don't see that many people talk about this band or post pictures of their records, if you want to count that as an indicator. Then again, not many records, especially the rarer ones, show up for sale, so maybe it's a sort of quiet appreciation.  This record had been sitting in my Discogs cart forever, but I could never force myself to hit the "buy" button because the price was pretty high. I thought about contacting the seller, but for whatever reason I never did. Then one day the price was reduced by two-thirds, resulting in a very reasonable price, and I couldn't resist any longer. This particular variant was made for Posi Numbers and the ensuing tour in 2002. Cool Marilyn stamp and numbering. Of course there are 110 copies.

Demo Days

To mark 20 years since the Strife demo dropped and to celebrate its 20th year anniversary, Indecision Records decided to press the demo songs on vinyl for the first time. It only took me five more years to pick up a copy. The songs don't sound particularly well - who would have guessed when the songs are taken from a demo recorded in the early 90's - but I don't really care. You can still feel the energy in those songs, maybe even because they sound so raw. 660 copies on clear red vinyl.

Indecision Splits

One of the cool things about collecting records is trading and thus getting to know people from all over the world. I'm not sure if people not involved in 'the scene' get the concept of trading in this day and age. Specifically people working at the customs office come to mind. "What do you mean you don't have an invoice? Someone just sent you these?" are statements I've heard all too often. I really like being able to trust people I've never met. It somehow restores my faith in humanity to some degree. Of course it sucks if someone rips you off, but so far I've been lucky for the most part in that respect.
One of the great people I've met through trading is Paulo from Singapore. He is an avid collector himself and also runs a distro, called Dangerous Goods. There aren't any record stores close to where I live, so a few months ago I hit him up to see if he could help me out with a few Record Store Day releases I was looking for.
Indecision released a 2xLP with the split releases they have done so far. I have had only some of those splits, so it was a cool addition for me. The reason why I mainly wanted this release though is that there's a previously unreleased Bane song on it. Technically, it's just a cover, but I still wanted to have it on vinyl.

Fall From Grace

Second 7" by Ensign. 4339 copies on black vinyl, as can be seen here. There are a whole bunch of colour pressings as well. 100 copies come with a cool Side By Side rip-off sleeve. I like the first 7", I also like the second one.

The Suicide File

I've been after this LP for quite some time, but since the original records don't go for that cheap, I had to wait until Indecision decided to repress Twilight. Great music my a great band.

110

I got another copy of Count Me Out's 110 LP recently. This one comes on pee colour, for a lack of better colour description. There are - of course - 110 copies. Love this LP.

110

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Count Me Out is a very underappreciated band. Which incidentally works out for people like me, since you get their records at very good prices. From the same seller I bought the record release edition of the Permanent LP I also got this coloured copy of Count Me Out's 110 LP. 331 copies on solid yellow. If anyone has a copy on pee colour or the summer tour pressing (#110/black vinyl) they want to get rid off, you know where to find a taker.

Permanent

The Count Me Out collection is coming along nicely. I made a few nice additions these last few weeks that I'll post about shortly. Let's kick it off with the record release edition of the Permanent LP. As you can see red was the colour picked for this edition. There are 145 copies of this variant.

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.

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.

The Suicide File

Things Fall Apart was the final regular 7" release by The Suicide File, if you don't count the Live on WERS release. The grey vinyl looks pretty good together with the cover art. There are 550 on grey vinyl and another 550 copies on white vinyl.