Bargains Are A Collector‘s Best Friend

A few weeks ago I went to see Be Well at one of my favorite venues. Truth be told, I‘m not a big fan of Be Well. I tried to get into them a bunch of times, because with the personnel behind the band I feel like I should like the band, but nothing‘s clicked with me yet. I decided to go anyway because my wife is really into them and I also knew that a bunch of friends would be there. So basically I went to the show to be able to go on a roadtrip with my wife to see friends. There are definitely worse premises to attend a show. I didn‘t have a lot of expectations for the show itself, but I must say that Be Well were absolutely fantastic live and I‘m glad I did go to see them play. 

While we were driving to the venue a friend sent me pictures of records a friend was selling at the show. Actually he was selling the records for a friend who didn‘t want to bother with local listings or Discogs. I browsed through the records and found a few things that I liked.

A few days ago I posted about the Underdog Demos LP I‘d gotten not too long before I went to the show mentioned above and how much I liked the songs. As chance would have it, I saw the band‘s first and only LP The Vanishing Point in one of the bins and I didn‘t hesitate to grab it. I like this LP a lot as well and I regret even more having slept on the band for so long. 

1st Press on Black on Caroline

I‘ve been collecting Sick Of It All records for many years, but one record that has always eluded me so far was their first live LP Live In A World Full Of Hate. Maybe ‘eluded‘ isn‘t the correct word because the record is not that hard to get. But a) pictures discs sit pretty low on my want list in general and b) paying shipping for a ugly records doesn‘t make getting them more attractive. But when I saw it just sitting right in front of me and hearing the price, I just had to get it. It‘s not as good as Live In A Dive, but it‘s still a good live record. 

1st / Only Press as a Picture Disc on Lost And Found

My friend had sent me only pictures of the records his friends was selling, so seeing a bunch of demo tapes sitting in a separate box was a pleasant surprise. I‘m not a tape nerd per se, but some demo tapes I definitely want to own (I can hear Marcus sigh in disgust at this statement, haha). The Stop And Think Demo had been on my want list for years and finally I had the opportunity to grab one for a very, very decent price. This is the European version which was released on Bloody Sunday Records

European Version w/ Light Blue Cover on Bloody Sunday 

All in all it was a great evening. Friends, great live band and a few items crossed of my want list at bargain prices. Not much more you can ask for in one night. 

Sick Of It

I am patient boy, I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait. In this case I waited for about 17 years (goddamn...) to get this limited sleeve of Sick Of It All's 7" Death To Tyrants. SOIA released an album under the same name in 2006 and the 7" has two songs from said LP, plus an otherwise unreleased song (I think). This was the last SOIA LP that I actually liked (and at one point collected). The songs on this 7" are good, but it's not the best SOIA material in my opinion. I got this record purely for collecting purposes to be honest because I love the first SOIA 7" and I'm into rip-off covers, even though it's kind of weird that a band does a rip-off sleeve of one of their own records. 

The records with the Gilman Street rip-off cover are numbered out of 50. My copy is #30 as can be seen below. 

There are three versions of this record, clear and white with the regular sleeve and some of the white vinyl copies come with the limited sleeve. Here's a nice family picture. I don't know if test presses for this release exist. 

Sick Of It All

Long time, no see. I know that I stated a while back that I was going to take it slow, but even I didn't expect to take it that slow. I still have some backlog that needs to be blogged about. All in all, this stay-at-home-dad thing is the best thing ever, but I still have to learn how ration my me time.

Quality over quantity has been the motto for 2018 so far. I mainly managed to pick up a few records on my want list at the beginning of 2018. So while I haven't picked up that many (current) records, it's been a pretty good collecting year so far.

I hadn't made any progress with my Sick Of It All 7" collection in quite some time, so I'm really stoked that I finally managed to pick up a first press of SOIA's debut. It's in pretty good shape all in all and I paid a lot less than the going rate.

The first press is numbered /1000. I got #770. When I got the record, of course I examined it closely. As you can see someone scribbled 'My Life' over the number with a blue pen. I didn't know what to make of it, so I decided to consult the almighty  RevCollectors message board and sure enough I got a satisfying answer: apparently there are quite a few copies who came with some sort of scribbling in blue ink. So it seems to be a legit thing. Pretty cool. Would be interesting what other phrases / words were written on the inside of sleeves.

Hardcore 1990: East Meets West

3rd and last record I got for free with the Verse LP. I already have a copy of this compilation, which is pretty good, so I'm giving one copy to a friend. Work on my karma a little bit.

Last Act Of Defiance

The other record I traded for in the record store was the latest Sick Of It All LP. I love Sick Of It All. They were one of the gateway bands for me when I got into punk and hardcore and I still love their early material. Every time I see them live, they just seem to get better with age and it's always so much fun. Having said that, I feel like they're losing their touch when it comes to writing new songs. Other people might disagree, but for me the decline started with Death To Tyrants. It still had a bunch of good songs, but it didn't grab me at all. Based On A True Story is kind of the same for me. Considering I don't really like these LPs I still have a lot of variants of said two LPs. As much as I love Sick Of It All, based on the two previous LPs I wasn't in a rush to check out their latest record, which came out three years ago. And sadly I must say I don't feel like I missed out on anything the last three years. One copy will suit me just fine. Standard black copy on Century Media.

30 Years

Sick Of It All is one of my earliest and still biggest loves in hardcore. They've been going strong for an incredible 30 years as of this year and it doesn't look like they're going to stop anytime soon. To celebrate that anniversary, they released a cool photo book which includes a 10". The rarest variant on clear vinyl was limited to only 100 copies and sold out faster than you can say Alleyway Crew. There's also a version on red, but I learned about that only after I picked up this copy on black at one of the record stores my buddy and I hit in Stuttgart. The book is done really well with cool pictures, which cover the entire band history, and stories about the people in the band and the band by other musicians from the hardcore scene. I wish there were more stories and also a little bit of a band history or stories by the members themselves, because it would have been a pretty interesting read to be sure. Maybe they're saving that for the 40 year book. Who knows? The 10" is pretty good as well, although I think their latest material is not as good as their first 7" or the first few LPs. Be that as it may, I'm still glad I picked this up. 

4th Press Is A Charm

The 4th press of the SOIA's 7" on Revelation comes with two different sleeves. One is blank on the inside, the other one has a Rev catalogue and a trade list printed on the inside. Apparently the printed one is the rarer one, so I'm quite I happy I got the chance to pick this up at a reasonable price.

Close up of the sleeve / printed catalogue. A bit on the wrinkly side, but considering the age of the record and the quality of the paper, I'm okay with it.

Sick Of It All X Conne Island

Sick Of It All is one of the oldest hardcore bands, maybe the band that continuously has been together the longest in hardcore period. No hiatus, no break-ups, just 30 years of going strong. I was actually lucky enough to see them play live a few weeks ago and they were incredibly good as always. Probably the only band I truly enjoy in bigger venues. They just know how to put on a great show. They've been touring in Europe and Germany excessively over the past decades and one of the venues they have played on a regular basis is Conne Island in Leipzig, which is incidentally one of the longest running diy hardcore/punk venues in Germany.

To mark 30 years of Sick Of It All, 25 years of Conne Island and a very close relationship between band and venue a special edition of SOIA's s.t. 7" was pressed. 330 copies on gold vinyl. The back cover and the inside of the sleeve as well as the lyric sheet come with a new design, mainly showing pictures of Sick Of It All shows at Conne Island over the years. I think the packaging came out really great. The records are all hand numbered and come with a stamp. There are four different stamps altogether, all of which show characters from Batman. I have #192, which comes with a Robin stamp. Not all variants were sold to the public, so getting a complete set will be tricky. I'm pretty sure some people will try nonetheless. For me, one copy is enough.

To be honest, I wasn't even at the show, but that's why you can turn to each other for help, right? Good looking out, Mike.

Our Impact Will Be Felt

There are mainly two reasons why I bought this tribute sampler. First of all, I really like Sick Of It All and I feel it is somehow justified that they're being paid the tribute they deserve. Secondly, my favourite band Bane is one of the bands contributing a cover. It'd have been awesome if they had played their version of We Stand Alone live at some point. This sampler was originally released as CD only, but after 8 years Think Fast finally put it out on vinyl too. 500 copies on clear green vinyl.

Scratch The Surface

Finally I got the last variant of one of my favourite records ever. I was able to score a copy on black of Scratch The Surface a few months ago, now I can cross of red vinyl too. I'm saying that because I don't know if I want to start going after the version EastWest Records put out in Germany when the record came out in 1994.
Scratch The Surface was one of the first hardcore records I listened to on a regular basis and it gets me still pumped after all these years. Maybe it's because of the nostalgia factor, but I think this is their best LP. So many good songs on this record.

Here are all the variants I have. The black, clear and red versions are original pressings on Equal Vision, the orange one is a reissue on Music On Vinyl that came out earlier this year. I have no idea about the numbers for the Equal Vision pressings since there is no info provided by the label and there's also nothing mentioned on discogs.

Scratch The Surface

Another record to cross off of my want list. This record is now 20 years old and it still floors me every time I listen to it. Last one I still need is a copy on clear red.

Catching Up 04/14

More keeping up-to-date with recent releases and re-reissues. Scratch The Surface was one of the first hardcore records I ever listened to and it's one of the few records I can (still) listen to in one go. So many good songs on that record including many live classics. I was very pleased to read that there would be a re-issue of this classic SOIA record to honour the 20 year anniversary of its original release. It rightly deserves it. Even if you already have one of the original records, you should still buy it since this re-issue comes with "Straight Ahead" as a bonus song. The whole package is pretty well done. 180g vinyl and a nice colour that matches the artwork really nicely. You probably don't have to hurry since there are 1,500 copies of this, but you shouldn't wait too long either.

I also picked up the latest release by one of my favourite bands from Germany right now: Jungbluth. They did a split with Callow, who I didn't know before. Okay band, but nothing that gets me overly excited. Jungbluth clearly wins this, although I have to admit that I might be a little biased here… I might be what you call a fanboy. Anyway, if you're into dark and heavy hardcore with a political attitude, you should definitely check out this band. So, so good.

Holy shit. This might be one of my favourite records this year already. Doesn't matter that the songs were originally recorded in 1980. Yes, I'm talking about the S.O.A. demo that was recently released on vinyl by Dischord. 80s hardcore at its best with Henry Rollins' trademark vocals. All killer, no filler. Makes me want to shave my head so badly, haha.

Built To Last

So, another big want crossed off of my list. Coloured Sick Of It All vinyl is kind of hard to come by, especially the records that came out on Equal Vision and Fat Wreck. Probably because there are some crazy Fat Wreck collectors out there and also because the numbers pressed on coloured vinyl are usually somewhat low for a band of this caliber. Built To Last comes on this sweet looking blue marble. Only 300 were copies of this exist and they don't pop up too often. So when I recently saw that someone on a messageboard offered this for a fair price, I knew this was the time to finally get it. A lot of people don't like the 'later' SOIA albums, i.e. everything after Scratch The Surface or even after Blood, Sweat And No Tears already, but I can enjoy almost all of their records. Built To Last is no exception here. Good Lookin' Out, Built To Last and Us vs. Them are probably my favourite songs on this LP. Besides, they make great live songs. One more down, many to go.

Relentless

Man, I love Sick Of It All. They've been delivering awesome hardcore for such a long time. Yes, the recent records pale in comparison with their early releases, I'll admit that, but it's still good hardcore. Solid tunes on this 7", too. 550 copies were pressed on white/maroon vinyl. There are also 300 of these pressed on white vinyl and 100 on black vinyl with blank pinkish/purple labels. The latter ones were sold at a Posi Numbers Festival, I believe. Most likely in 2003 when this 7" was released on Bridge 9. There are also ridiculously limited versions out of 12 (clear red/white split) and out of 4 (clear with the dragon motive). Good luck with these.