Buy In Bulk II

I managed to fill some more holes in my collection curtesy of the same seller I got the last two 7“s from. I was always a big fan of those Soul Control 7“s, but for some reason I never picked up a copy of Involution. This record is such a flashback to the mid-2000s. The music can definitely be pinpointed to that era, but there‘s always been some element of weirdness about Soul Control‘s music, which I just love. The color scheme of the vinyl and the swirl itself is very much off the time as well. And of course Rivalry Records was one of the premier record labels back then. 

1st Press on Red / Orange Swirl on Rivalry Records /200

This particular record had been on my want list pretty much since it came out. I don‘t actually remember which Blacklisted record I heard first. Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God or No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me since they only came out a year apart, but I do remember being completely in awe by what I heard on either record. No One… still takes the top spot for me in the Blacklisted catalogue, but Heavier… is a very close second. I had a copy of the European pressing on Reflections Records on blue vinyl I got when the record was released, but as soon as I saw a picture of this variant, I wanted to have this one. It looks simply amazing in my opinion. It‘s not a particularly rare record, but for reason this variant was hard to find in Europe, at least for a reasonable price. 

My friend who had tipped me off to this collection actually collects Blacklisted and had already bought this record from the seller, but since he knew I really liked this colorway and he didn‘t have the blue variant I had either, we did a quick trade. Mike, you‘re the best!

1st Press on Blue w/ Black Haze on Deathwish Records /1500

Score - The Sequel

So, a few months ago I made a rather big record score. There were a bunch of records I had to leave behind at the time, because, well, you know, money and so on, so I was more than happy that some of the records I didn’t buy initially were still available a couple of weeks later. Not all of the, but I’m still very happy with the second haul as well. 

I managed to pick up the record release edition of Go It Alone’s Histories LP and I’m equally as happy that I managed to pick up a copy that was made for Sound And Fury Fest. Hard to fathom nowadays that a band, even a well established one, would make 100+ copies of a record just for one festival. 

Sound And Fury Edition #18/110

I picked up this 7” because it was a gap in my New Age collection, but it is anything but a gap filler. Good 90s hardcore that ended up on New Age for a reason. 

1st Press on Opaque Green w/ Blue Labels on New Age Records /150

I also picked up this limited variant of the s.t. Reserve 34 7”. When I first heard this record eight years ago, I immediately fell in love and all those years later, it still holds up. If anything, I like this 7” even more these days. 

Red Vinyl w/ Limited Sleeve on Moo Cow Records #25/101 

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. 

From Anger And Rage

Another case of "I'll trade that now, no problem. I can pick up another copy soon." Only took me a few years. Oh well. I love this record. And I love this specific colour scheme. The copy I used to have was a little prettier than this one, but I'm happy with this one. From Anger And Rage still holds up really well after all these years. Verse live when this record came out was always on point as well. I remember a great show in one of my favourite locations. Pre-order variant on red/yellow swirl out of 270 copies.

Making History

Of course I couldn't resist going through the other records the seller of the Danger's LP had up for sale on Discogs. And sure enough I found a record I'd had my eye on for a long time. The record release edition of Go It Alone's Histories LP. No special cover, no special vinyl colour. All you get is a stamp on the label. This is #67/70.

Soul Control

I have a bunch of Soul Control 7"s, all of which I like a good deal. But for some reason the s.t. 7" hasn't really grabbed me yet. Standard first press on clear green out 720.

The Only Blood Between Us

The Only Blood Between Us is Go It Alone's debut LP and for me it certainly has stood the test of time. The mid 2000's really were a great time in hardcore. So many awesome records were released around 2005. Hard to believe it's been 10 years. The tri-colour variant was pressed for Posi Numbers Fest 2005, and there are 210 copies in total. Love that colourway and the whole look of the cover and insert. Go It Alone really did a good job with this LP, and for that matter all of their releases.

The Damage Done

Lately I've been listening to a lot of bands from the early to mid 2000s. One of the best labels from that time was Rivalry Records. So many good records came out on that label. The guy who ran the label, Kyle Whitlow, was a record collector himself and you could see that in all the releases on his label. A few years back he sold a large part of his collection and created an awesome blog documenting his collection. Not only do you get to see a mind-boggling collection, you get also a lot of interesting background information on releases and bands. It is now of my favourite blogs out there, so make sure you check out Seeking The Simple if you haven't already done so. While reading the blog I came across this band The Damage Done, which was Kyle's own band. He put out the final release of his band on his own label, which only seems the logical thing to do. He must have started Rivalry Records shortly before his band's final release came out since this release is Rivalry #03. I picked up this 2nd press copy for dirt cheap (notice the punch holes in the cover and the dust sleeve) simply because I wanted to check out the music. Good enough music but nothing that gets me overly excited. There are 600 copies on solid orange.

Seven Inch 7"

Another really good band from the '00 years that somehow has gone under my radar for too long. I remember really liking the Go It Alone LPs when they came out, but for some reason I didn't listen to them all that much over the last few years. That changed when I made said mix tape for my girlfriend. Listening to the GIA records I already had made me want to get the rest of their releases too. So here we go. Here's the Seven Inch Single on black vinyl. 400 of these exist. There are also 100 on clear vinyl with a different cover.