Here & Now

I saw Insist at the last Mindset show in Germany and I really liked them. So when a buddy of mine asked me if I wanted a copy of their first 7" I gladly said yes. Turns out he got a friend of his pick up a few 7"s at a festival in England, so I ended up with rather limited variant. 150 copies on clear vinyl. Now, I thought I'd picked up a copy of their demo some time back. Turns out I didn't, which is something I have to change soon.

Leave No Doubt

I've been taking it kind of slow lately. Lots of work and grown-up stuff have kept me from doing fun stuff. I picked up my first and only copy of Mindset's Leave No Doubt at their last show in Europe. But seeing that it was only the most common repress, I wanted to sort of upgrade it if there was an opportunity. So here it is, 1st press on blue smoke out of 200 copies. Such a powerful record.

Time & Pressure

Finally snagged a copy of Mindset's Time & Pressure 7". Red vinyl works pretty well with the sleeve, however I feel that maroon would have been the better choice. First press out of 400 copies.

Suffering

About two years ago I traded away my copy of Betrayed's Suffering 7". I don't even remember the colour of the record, but a very good friend of mine needed that colour to complete his collection, so I gladly traded it to him. I always meant to replace the record with at least a black copy, but lo and behold, two years had gone by and I hadn't gotten around to it. Coincidentally, said friend decided to downsize his collection recently and I got this copy on blue vinyl (/200) from the person I had traded my original copy to.

Leave It All Behind

Another trip to Berlin, another visit to Bis Aufs Messer. High up on my shopping list was the new Praise record. I didn't pre-order it because I was too late for the rarest colour and I didn't want to pay the rather high shipping cost for a copy on another colour or even just black. So I had to wait and take my chances. In the end I was able to snag only a copy on black, but for listening purposes that's fine with me. The record is as good as I'd expected it to be. There could have been a few more songs on it, but that's really my only point of criticism. 

True Identity?

Last part of the trade with my man Paulo. I really liked the demo True Identity had released last year. So when it was announced that there would be a vinyl version of the demo I was pretty excited. I wasn't in a hurry to get a copy though, seeing that I already had the tape version I could listen to. Paulo and I worked out a deal, including the True ID demo 7", and I was more than happy with my end of the trade. Then, while the record was already in the mail, that whole story about Jim Hesketh being a sexual predator and rapist broke - and I was devastated.

Let me say this real quick here: I didn't say 'alleged' here intentionally. Nothing has been proven officially and I'm always in favour of the rule 'innocent until proven guilty'. It's an important rule, no doubt about it. But here's the thing with sexual violence towards women. In way too many cases women's accusations of men being sexual predators or rapists are dismissed by society and, even worse, the judicial system for bullshit reasons. This is a disgraceful thing to think about in 2016. However, if women in the hardcore scene in this day and age can't be sure that this is a safe space in such situations and have to doubt if they're being taken seriously when accusing someone of such actions, what good is this scene anyway? Having said that, from what I've read the support for the women coming forward with their stories has been great, and if this helps to create more awareness within the scene, then maybe something good came out of this after all.

I loved Champion and I had really high hopes for True Identity. But listening to Jim Hesketh singing about the importance of the decisions you make and about the importance of integrity felt like such a travesty to me after everything I'd read and heard. So I decided to do what I usually do at the end of a relationship gone sour: Get rid of everything that reminds of the person, or in this case band, that used to mean a lot to me. That may sound childish and immature, but that's how I deal with a situation like this. I've started to sell my Champion records and merch over the last few weeks. I don't condemn people who still listen to Champion, On, or True ID. I've actually had some good conversations with friends and people who bought Champion stuff from me about their reasons for despising Jim Hesketh, but still liking the bands he was involved in. This 7" here is no longer with me either. I remembered that one of the people buying Champion stuff from me was also looking for a copy of the True ID 7" on orange, so I just threw it in as a bonus.

Mindset

About a month ago Mindset played their final European shows and I was lucky enough to get to go to the show in Mannheim. This show had cast long shadows and my level of anticipation was pretty high, mainly because I was really looking forward to seeing Mindset again, although sadly for the last time. It was an all straight edge line up, which was very fitting for the occasion I guess. Reflect and Insist from the UK played alongside with German SXE bands Statement X and Domain. True Identity had to cancel their trip to Germany, which was the only bummer about this evening.
I didn't really know anything about the first two bands mentioned, but live they were pretty damn good. I think it was Reflect that opened with a Turning Point cover. More bands should do that. Statement X and Domain both feature buddies of mine, which added even more to my level of anticipation. Domain are a fairly new Youth Crew band from the south of Germany, and goddamn, they put on a great show. Their first song was a cover of Take A Stand by Youth Of Today and the place went nuts. Good for them. I was just listening back to their demo online and it doesn't hold up to their live show at all. I hope they will release something on vinyl at some point soon. I had seen Statement X before and I think I wrote about them on here at some point as well. I do like the band musically, but I'm still not sold on the singer's voice. But the rest of the audience seemed to like them just fine, which was very cool to see.
Then Mindset took the stage and they did not disappoint. Truly one of the best (SXE) bands of the last decade. Not only because of the lyrics and music, but also because they actually had something to say. There's stage banter, and then there's stage banter, if you know what I mean.

Mindset's final legacy is Nothing Less, a 7" released a short while before they came over to Europe. Just as good as everything else they had released before. The pre-order had sold out quickly, which I had missed out on of course, but they had two different variants with them on tour. There was a dark red/brownish variant and the coke bottle clear one you can see here. I bought the latter since I thought it looked nicer. Afterwards I learned that the brown one was more limited, out of 305, whereas the coke bottle clear one is out of 500. Should have bought another one of the brownish ones in hindsight. I did go home with a bunch of these, but all of them were for people who couldn't go to the show. Oh well.

I also picked up a copy of Leave No Doubt on yellow vinyl (2nd press /750), because why not? At 10 bucks a pop I just couldn't say no.

And just for fun, here's a link to a video of the show shot by Hate5Six. I think it's a pretty good indicator for a show being awesome when members of the band - who are not the singer - stagedive at some point during the set.

Mindset - Final German Show @ JUZ Mannheim 02/13/2016

Peace

Helping out friends, or people in general for that matter, is something I really like doing. A few weeks ago Burn played a one-off show in London, well at least back then it was still thought of as a one-off show in Europe... To mark the occasion they had a special pressing of their debut 7" made for the London show. I asked a few people if I should try to pick up a copy for them if possible. I could have saved myself the question since the answer was rather obvious. Nerds will be nerds, right?
One of those 7"s has already reached its destination. In return I got this Peace 7" as a small trade I did with my buddy Tom. I'd asked him if he had any spare copies of records he'd recommend to me. I'd wanted to check out Peace for a long time, so when he said I definitely should give this 7" a listen and he did indeed have a spare copy of this, we had our deal.
Now some people might think this was a rather stupid trade because rare Burn or Rev vinyl is worth much more than a generic copy of this 7", and from a pure financial point of view, this may be correct. However, this is not what trading, especially with friends, should be about. And I didn't get disappointed. This 7" is really, really good. Hopefully there will be more releases by Peace soon.

True Love

Whoever said that hardcore was dead is a fucking moron. I've discovered so many new good bands in the last few months, it's ridiculous. And somehow a lot of them seem to be on React! Records. My latest find is True Love and their EP New Young Gods. It sucks that ordering in the US is so expensive right now and somehow a lot of distros over here seem to get only records on black vinyl any more. Or I'm just too late. Anyway, this is  a pretty damn good record. Hopefully they come over here soon or release some new material. 500 copies on black. I'd love to get a copy on pink vinyl.

Growing.Changing.Healing

More good stuff by my latest new favourite band. Unfortunately I struck out again and only got a copy on black from the 2nd press batch (/300), judging by the labels. Oh well. That cover is kind of an eyesore, and I seem to remember why I never gave that band a chance, haha. But it goes to show you shouldn't judge a record by its cover. The music more than makes up for it. I really hope they will come back to Europe soon. I'll definitely try to catch more shows with them if that ever happens.

Lights Went Out

A few weeks back I went to see Praise. The show and the whole evening was pretty awesome. Lots of good bands, lots of good people. I was really bummed that I didn't get one of the tour presses that evening, so I had to settle with ordering a copy from a distro. The record is everything I expected it to be. One of the best records in 2014 and in the last couple of years in general.
This is the most generic version on black vinyl out of 425. I'm actually thinking about starting a collection, though I'm not 100% sure on that yet.

Praise

Last weekend I went to one of my favourite venues to attend what turned out to be an awesome show with Statement X, Dogchains, Mindset and Praise. I knew the first three bands, but I only listened to Praise briefly when a buddy of mine played a few of their songs to me a few weeks ago. It was really good on record, but live they just blew me away. One of the best sets I've seen in years, including Dag Nasty and Minor Threat cover songs. Such a fun set and a fun evening.
I said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm not a big fan of 7"s with just two songs on them. However, every once in a while I'm willing to make an exception. Praise's Two Songs is definitely worth making an exception. I picked up this copy on grey vinyl (out of 300) at the show, but unfortunately they had sold out of the tour presses of their LP. Major bummer. Can't wait to get their other releases as soon as possible.