Top Of The Pops 2017

My blog hasn't seen much action the last few weeks. The reason behind that is that I recently joined the club of hardcore dads and the little man has taken up most of the time, as any first-time parents will probably testify to. Anyway, we have found sort of a rhythm and the days leave some more free time again. I still have some records lying around that I picked up in the last few weeks and I'll make sure to catch up with the backlog in the nearby future.

But for now, it's that time of the year again. I can't believe another has gone by already. It feels like I just typed the year's end post for 2016. Crazy. 2017 has been a year with more ups and downs than the years before. I've seen close friends and family experience serious illnesses, death has been around my circle of friends way too much, and there have been some personal issues that close friends and also I had to deal with. Then again, 2017 saw many new friends, some friends and I started a band project, my wife and I went to a bunch of awesome shows, we got to hang out with friends from all over Germany and the world, and a very important friendship was rekindled. Plus, my wife gave birth to our first kid, so all in all 2017 has been a good year I'd say. Let's see what 2018 has to offer.

As I said before, I still have some records lying around that I haven't posted about, so the post count should be a little higher than it is, but it still would have been lower than in the years before. I took it slow in late spring/summer, kind of like last year, but I didn't finish as strongly as in past years. Oh, well.
One projection I can make for 2018 is that the first half of the year is going to see few pick ups and posts on here because I'm going to be a stay-at-home dad for half a year, which means I get to spend some real quality time with my son, but it also means that money will be tighter and buying records on a regular basis won't be in the cards.

2017 has seen some great releases in my opinion. I have noticed a tendency to buy more releases by old bands I already know and like. However, staying up-to-date with newer bands feels more and more like work. That's probably the old man in m talking. I often tell him to shut up, but it's getting harder. Luckily, I have friends who are a fair bit younger than myself and they keep me somewhat in the loop. Still, looking back on the records I bought this year and seeing which bands made my Top 10 this year, there is definitely an imbalance. Anyway, here are my Top 10 for 2017. No particular order.


Record Of The Year

Spirits - Unrest


7" Of The Year

Abuse Of Power - When Then Becomes Now


Demo Of The Year

Split between Open Your Eyes and Stand Point. They're also the only two demo tapes I picked up this year if I remember correctly. Maybe I should include tapes into my blog activities to keep track of that... Both tapes are okay, but there have definitely been years that were way better as far as demo tapes go. I know that you can listen to demos online, but that's not really caught on with me.


Honorable Mention

Free - Ex Tenebris

I still haven't picked up a copy because I missed out on the pre-order and the 7" sells for like 8+€ in  regular distros, so I couldn't bring myself to order a copy yet. 

Bridge 9 - The First 10 Years Box

Beautifully done with lots of details from what I have seen at first glance. I got my copy only this week and haven't really had any chance to sit down and spend some time with it. 

You Can Stay Here

Iron Chic have done it again: They delivered an awesome record. It must be really tough for bands to keep going after one of the members has died, but I guess it can also be therapeutic. You Can't Stay Here is a little darker, understandably, but still catchy in its own way. I don't like it as much as their previous records, but this one could very well be a grower. The artwork is really cool and the gold foil on the cover is a very nice (and expensive) touch. 2000 copies on gold vinyl.

Demo '08

Iron Chic has become one of my favourite bands these last years and slowly but steadily I've managed to pick up most of their records. One release that had eluded me for a long time though was their demo. It's highly sought after and usually goes for an amount of money I wasn't willing to shell out. Luckily YoYo Records decided to repress the demo for the last tour. I couldn't make it to any of the shows, but a buddy of mine was kind enough to pick up a copy for me.

Ys

Latest release by Iron Chic. Two new songs and a Dead Kennedys cover. Not my favourite Iron Chic material, but still really good.

Iron Chic

Another piece in the Iron Chic puzzle. Love this band, but I haven't been very good at buying all of their releases as quickly as I wanted to. Good split all in all. This is the most common variant on plain black vinyl. 700 copies.

It Was A Very Good Year

2014 was a really good year as far as records go. There were some really great records released this year and I also managed to pick up a lot of really cool records that had been on my want list for quite some time. I tried to come up with a Top 5 for 2014 releases and 2014 collectibles. It worked fine for the releases, but I couldn't slim down the collectibles to just five. Anyway, here goes.

2014 Releases

Dangers has been a favourite band of mine ever since I heard them for the first time. I haven't been floored by a band both lyrically and musically like that for a long time. They're also a great live band and all of the shows I've been to were great fun. 5 O'Clock Shadows At The Edge Of The Western World is not as good as their previous releases imho, which doesn't mean that much cause compared to most other bands it's still very, very good. The song of the same name however is so awesome. My #5.
Our Inner Wastelands is the first full length release by local band Zerre. Their singer is a good friend of mine, plus I know most of the other members as well, and I'm so stoked about what they accomplished with this LP. Plus it looks so good. The red variant is probably the best looking record I got this year. My #4.
I've been a fanboy of Barren ever since I heard their demo. It had been rather quiet around this band for quite some time, but this year they finally managed to release their first full length LP Anachronism. Great politically minded 90s hardcore. Awesome live band, too. Plus we share a craving for the same vegan baked good, which is definitely a big plus. XStreuseltalerYouthX. My #3.
Sweet Jesus are the surprise band of the year for me. I'd never heard of them before, despite the fact that Pat Flynn of Have Heart fame is the singer for this band. When I got their their first 7" Box, I put it on the record player and I was blown away. I had to flip this record over and over and over and over. So, so good. Their upcoming LP just might show up in my Top 5 2015. We'll see. My #2.
It's been a hard debate between me, myself and I, but in the end there could be only one release at the top of this list. Bane is my favourite band ever, just in case somebody wasn't aware of this fact (despite the 15 posts about this band in little more than a year). They decided to call it quits next year, which sucks, but they released a new LP this year, which rules. Don't Wait Up is such a good LP. I was a little afraid they might release a record that could leave a bad aftertaste, urging people to say "They should have quit a few years ago…", but this LP is so much better than I'd ever hoped for. Perfect record to end this amazing journey of this band. My #1 2014.

2014 Collectibles

I managed to pick up a lot of cool records this year, some of which had been on my want list for quite some time. Narrowing it down to just five records was impossible, so I stretched the list just a tad. There are still a few records that could have easily been in this picture, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Some of these records I got for cheap, some I had to pay a pretty penny for, some I got for free or as presents. For various reasons these records are my collectibles of the year. There's no ranking here since all these records give me joy for very different reasons. 

Greatest hardcore record of all time. Prove me otherwise.

Favourite release by my favourite band. Collection complete.

Out of the blue. Rarest release by my favourite band besides test pressings.

Birthday present by the greatest girlfriend on this planet.

There are always more variants out there than you think. Keep looking.

Record I probably listened to the most 2014. One of the wildest and hottest shows this year.

Out of the blue part II. There are still some great people involved in hardcore.

Sometimes you gotta give more. Sometimes you gotta give everything.

Not in this picture but in the one above, you can see a test pressing of Bane's final LP on End Hits Records. This one is definitely one of my pick-ups 2014 as well, but I didn't feel the need to picture it twice.

Thanks everyone for reading my blog and commenting. Keeps record collecting a lot of fun.

XXX

More Iron Chic

Another release by my latest new favourite band Iron Chic. This is a split 7" with a band called Pacer. Never heard of the latter and probably won't in the future either. Not really my cup of tea. The Iron Chic songs are good, but not awesome. But of course it'd be a little bit too much to ask to have outstanding hits on every single release. Nevertheless I'm glad I finally have a copy of this. First press on white vinyl out of 400.

Head Over Heels

So, a good friend of mine and I were djing together a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I actually play the records I buy, sometimes even for other people. Now I'm not saying I'm any good at it, but getting to listen to exactly the music you want to listen to for a whole evening and getting free food and drinks on top of that sounds like a good deal to me. Anyway, said buddy put on this one song that immediately got me hooked, so I had to ask him what band this song was by and that's how I fell in love with Iron Chic.
Not only did I fall in love with this band though, but my girlfriend did, too. Now the good thing about having a girlfriend who is into the same music as oneself and thinks about music the same way you do is that you don't have to explain about buying and spending way too much money (only in the eyes of others of course) on records. On the contrary, me and the missus teamed up and got as many Iron Chic releases as possible for now. Sounds like an awesome girlfriend? You're right about that. Since I apparently live under an enormous rock, not all releases were still available, so it looks like I'll have to hit up ebay or discogs at some point in the nearby future. Expect to see more Iron Chic posts soon.
For once I seem to be extremely lucky since the band is going on tour in Europe in a couple of weeks, which I'm really stoked about. Enough time to learn the lyrics to sing along. Shouldn't be too hard considering that Iron Chic is being played 95% of the time in the apartment these days.


Going clockwise:

Spooky Action tape on Bridge 9 records - white - /250
Not Like This LP - European press on YoYo Records - black (180g vinyl) - 3rd press out of ???
(Cosmic) Future 7" on YoYo Records - clear vinyl - 3rd press out of ???
The Constant One LP on Bridge 9 - baby blue vinyl - 2nd press out of 1000
Spooky Action 7" on YoYo Records - clear vinyl - 1st press out of 400

Not too interesting from a collector's point of view. But as I said I had lived under a rock for too long, which means that all the releases have gone through multiple pressings by now, so I'm not even thinking about trying to go down that road...