Empowerment

Sometimes I buy records simply to support bands that I think are worthy of support without being 100% convinced of the music. Empowerment from Stuttgart falls under this category. I've seen them live a couple of times and all of the shows were a lot of fun. Great live band. Plus, this is a band that has something to say and actually mean it, which sadly is not a given anymore in the hardcore scene. Empowerment play NYHC (and nothing else!) better than most of the OG NYHC bands I know. Their attitude on the other hand is rather punk, especially compared with classic NYHC, which has a tendency towards conservatism, patriotism and a lot of other '-isms' I think have no place in hardcore/punk. I rarely hear of bands from that niche of hardcore or hardcore in general that outspoken against patriotism, anti-immigration initiatives, homophobia or the use of the word "retarded/behindert". I don't like their overly stated localism, which is also true for most hardcore bands, but there are still a lot of good reasons to support this band in my book. Now, as far as the music is concerned, there are some really good songs on this LP, but it isn't that great a LP. I know that a lot of people will probably disagree with this statement, since Empowerment are huge in Germany right now.

The artwork is pretty unique, since it features a wheel system which allows you to change the cover, right where the woman stands in the open door. There are four different pictures and four different text messages. Nice gimmick. Cobra Records didn't skimp on the cover.

In the next few weeks, Empowerment is going to do a split series with four other German bands. The first split 7" has already been released, and besides Empowerment it features Hamburg based band Krank. Musically speaking, these bands are on the opposite ends of the hardcore/punk spectrum. NYHC vs. classic punk sound. Good songs by both bands, although I favor Empowerment a little bit. Then again it's really hard to compare these bands since they play such different styles.

Good Clean Fun - Live In... 3D

I can't really remember when I picked up the last Good Clean Fun record before this one. This is mainly due to the fact that there aren't that many left I don't have. There are some absurdly rare ones like out of 4 and out of 1 and a few test pressings, but apart from that I have a pretty complete collection. That is, if no variants pop up that I wasn't aware of. Like this one. For many years I was under the impression that this LP came only on purple vinyl. Then I found out about a black version with blank labels. I got it from a fellow Good Clean Fun collector, which was very kind of him, seeing that these don't pop up all too often. He told me it wasn't a test pressing, but I'm still not sure on the issue. Black vinyl, blank labels, different insert than the other two ones. Maybe, maybe not. A few weeks back I stumbled over this variant, which also comes on black vinyl, but with the regular labels. The insert is the same one as for the purple vinyl one.

Now, about the release itself… I know there are many people who don't like live recordings. I on the other hand really like them. The best bands are the ones who play out their heart on stage, so why not try capturing that live energy? In the days of youtube, vimeo, younameit, live records may have become obsolete, but I truly believe they had their place in music recording history. Good Clean Fun lived off of their over the top positive approach on stage, and I think they did a great job of capturing a live Good Clean Fun show. This LP was recorded when they were at their peak imho, i.e. when they had only released their first two 7"s and their debut LP On The Streets…, which is by far their best material. In 2000, when this show in Springfield was recorded, they were touring extensively, an account of which you can find in the inlay that comes with this LP. It's a fun read for sure. 

Good Clean Fun not only appealed to me musically and lyrically, but as a collector, too. They always put in great effort to make the covers somehow special. Just think of the On The Streets… LP. This live LP comes in a 3D jacket including 3D glasses. If I have some time on my hands, I might make a separate entry just for my GCF collection.

Here are the three variants I have (so far). It's really hard to see, but the one in the middle is actually on purple vinyl. If you look very closely, you can see that this record is slightly lighter than the two black ones to the left and right. You can even make out some streaks/veins of the purple vinyl if you look very, very closely. Unfortunately, the colour doesn't photograph well, unless the record is being held up against the light.

Our Inner Wastelands

Today's post features a rather unknown band, I guess. Zerre from the middle of southern Germany play dark and brooding hardcore, as you might have guessed from the cover and the name of the LP. Don't be fooled by the first song on this record, this is just kind of an intro. I like everything about this release, despite the fact that I'm usually a rather positive person. We all have our dark moments and this is the perfect record for this occasion. Music, lyrics, artwork, layout, vinyl colours - it's all done beautifully. I love the red one with black swirls. Looks so sick. Apes Of Nikko is my favourite song so far. Rob Darken Must Die is also really good, but I liked the demo version better since it didn't have that slayerersque solo at the end. I can't stand Slayer or metal in general for that matter. 

Most importantly though, there are some really nice people in this band. Help some good dudes out and give their record a listen. Preferably after buying it.

A Whole Punch Of Records

Okay, that was admittedly a poor wordplay, but whatever. I'd been really looking forward to the new Punch LP. They didn't invent the wheel new with their third LP, but if you like this band, this is probably a good thing. Angry, pissed fastcore. As usual the lyrics fluctuate between deeply personal and highly political. I love it.

As I said, I was really looking forward to this release, so when I heard about the upcoming pre-order, I kept my eyes open for day x. When the pre-order was up, I tried to put in my order, but either the deathwish webshop didn't work properly or I was too stupid to put in an order, which I wouldn't rule out, but in any case I missed out on the rarest colour. Bummer. Fucking flippers offer it on discogs for way too much money.
I got the clear yellow one, which is apparently out of 3311, and some nice looking yellow-green swirl that I cannot find any pressing info for. The pressing info is a little confusing to be honestly. You could order a coke bottle green version and seeing that this was limited to 1 per customer, I figure this is the rarest version. However, the pressing info page on Deathwish says the rarest colour is transparent gold with opaque light blue. The second rarest colour is supposed to be some white/blue mix according to the official pressing info, but I got this green/yellow swirl mix that you can see in the picture on the right, but again, I can't find any proper pressing info. In the webstore, this is listed as gold/blue mix though. So I'm a little at a loss here. Anyway, time will tell what different variants are out there.

While ordering the latest Punch LP, I also got a repress of their Nothing Lasts EP on black 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.

FC Five

Man, I love me some FC Five. I caught them live twice and both shows were so much fun. One of those shows were my very first Bane show, so there's an added nostalgia bonus too, the other time was at a tiny DIY venue. They had such a positive energy when on stage. Good times.

Sadly, FC Five didn't do a whole lot of vinyl releases. Or at least I haven't seen any. The only record on vinyl I know of is their 2007 LP Super Bloom. A buddy of my girlfriend who I sadly only know through Instagram posted a picture of all the copies he had of this LP. He thought he had all three different versions of this record, but it turns out he had two copies on blue and none on black. So he offered me the record. We worked out a nice little trade and that's how I finally got some FC Five on vinyl. It's not my favourite record by FC Five, but I still like it a lot.

If anyone knows of any other releases of this band on vinyl, hit me up. I'd love to get Memories and Come To The End on vinyl in particular. Also, let me know if you have Super Bloom on black. I'd like to help out my buddy.

Stabbed In The Face

Carry On is one of those bands that falls into the category modern classic. And rightly so. Their masterpiece is undoubtedly their one and only LP A Life Less Plagued, but they also released a bunch of good 7"s prior to that. The first one - Stabbed In The Face - is quite different from their later material, mainly due to big line-up changes after that, but it's also good. This is the first press on blue vinyl, with some nice white swirling going on here. The records are all marked in gold pen out of 171.

Count Our Numbers

Lately I've been more attracted by different cover art rather than different vinyl colours for some reason.  I'd always liked Champion and I have some fond memories of the band, but they were never a band I considered collectable. Seeing that Champion have a whole bunch of good looking rip-off covers this has changed somehow. The one I wanted to pick up was the Youth Of Today rip-off, but after I'd won this record on ebay I couldn't resist asking the seller if she had any other records from that period. She said yes and that's how I ended up with one of the 'regular' versions of the Count Our Numbers EP on baby blue vinyl. The YOT rip-off was done for the record release show and is out of 116, as you can see. I have number #66. The baby blue version is a first press out of 250. Expect to see some more Champion records in the future. And more interesting cover versions of course.

Catching Up 08/2014

I picked up a couple current records and represses a couple of  weeks back but only get to post about them today.

First off I got a repress of No Warning's 2nd album Suffer Survive. I really liked their first record, which I only picked recently, so I thought I'd give their second LP a shot too. There are some really good songs on it, but overall I prefer the first LP. Six Feet Under repressed this record on four versions. This is the least rare one on black vinyl out of 800. 

I was quite astonished when I found out that Shook Ones had released a new LP since I though they'd broken up some time ago. Turns out I'd been living under a rock and The Unquotable A.M.H. already came out in 2009. Now I'm not sure if this variant was released back then or if this is a repress. The mailorder lists it as a 2014 release, discogs.com tells me that there is a grey version that came out in 2009, the label website tells me this variant doesn't exist. First world record collector's problems... Anyway, good jams by a good band. Now I only need the summer to come back.

UK hardcore seems to be thriving right now, with Violent Reaction and The Flex spearheading this revivial. Like Violent Reaction The Flex play hardcore in the vein of early Boston Hardcore mixing in a little NYHC. Et voilà, you have the formula for good records. Not new, but who needs new when it's just good music? Split release by Milk Run and Video Disease. There's also a variant on red vinyl out there, but personally I think black works better here, because it'd be too much red otherwise.

UK hardcore takeover #2. Violent Reaction released their 2nd EP. Two 7"s, one LP and a US tour within two years is not bad for a newcomer band from Europe. It might just be that they hit the nerve of time or are just that good. You decide. The music is a little more punk than hardcore, but just a tad. Dead End was recorded with Violent Reaction being a full band unlike the two previous releases. This is the Painkiller release on black vinyl out or 800. Quality control released this in the UK.

Another reissue of an early American hardcore classic: Verbal Abuse's debut Just An American Band. Raw, savage, primal hardcore. Nothing else to say here really. You need this. Beer City rereleased this on clear red vinyl. Maybe there are other variants out there, but I haven't found any pressing information on this one. 

The Cobra Bites... Again

Some more pick ups from Cobra Records. Finally, I got the last variants of Pessimistic Line's LP Overcome in. Kind of funny that I had all the rare versions before the more common ones. 

Crew Shot

Pessimistic Lines - Overcome - Cobra Records - orange /100
Pessimistic Lines - Overcome - Cobra Records - clear/blue splatter /300
Pessimistic Lines - Overcome - Cobra Records - orange with pre-order sleeve /50
Pessimistic Lines - Overcome - Cobra Records - orange with record release sleeve -/50

I got turned onto Death Is Not Glamorous kind of late. Too late to catch them live, but they're pretty good on vinyl too, so at least I have that. Cobra Records released three versions of Spring Forward. This is the least rare version on black vinyl out of 500. Great music in the vein of Lifetime and the like. Great music for the summer, too. All I need now is for the summer to come back. 

The Cobra Bites

One of my favourite German record labels is Cobra Records. The label has been putting out quality releases for years, mainly focusing on German and European bands. Plus the Cobra tries to keep down the prices for the records, which can't be taken for granted in 2014 anymore.

I've been waiting for new material by Barren ever since I first listened to their demo tape, which came out in 2012. Barren put you in a time machine and bring you back to the depths of 90s hardcore. Vegan Edge Mosh at its fucking best. Seriously, this is plain awesome. As can be expected from a band playing this style of hardcore, the texts are highly political but far from cliché. It's rather they talk about old issues, but give it a new modern spin offering something new. Don't judge this record by its cover. It looks modern, but it'll take you back to your youth (if your old enough). Hopefully you kept some of those baggy pants and XL shirts...
As I understand it, the band asked for a black vinyl only release, which is fine by me, seeing that it works really well with the cover and layout overall. There's supposedly another version of this, put out by a Russian label called Hidden Rainbows, but I have no idea if there are any differences between the two labels' versions. Anyway, this will definitely end up ranking highly on my 2014 list. The only hair in the soup for me is that there are only eight songs on this LP, three of which were already released on the demo, albeit in slightly different versions. Would have liked it if there had been a couple of more songs. Still, this record is really, really good. Can't wait to see them live again, because they're killing it on a stage, too.

Daniel of Cobra Records went through great pains to put out a compilation. Now, I love compilations, because they're a great way of checking out new bands. I only knew like three bands that were advertised once the line-up was finalized, which I like to see as an opportunity rather than thinking I'm out of the loop here. Obviously there are only SXE bands featured on this compilation. Only European ones to be precise. I really dig this idea. I have listened to it a few times by now and there is not a single bad song on it. A lot of different styles, but that's what makes it so interesting. I really like the overall concept of this as well as the artwork. The booklet is done very nicely too.
This comes on white vinyl with black/greyish marble and is out of 100. There are two other versions out there, one on black vinyl with white marble out of 100 and one on white vinyl out of 300. Your chance to check out a lot of (new) bands and support a label definitely worth supporting.

P.S. I didn't take a picture of the back cover on purpose cause I didn't want to spoil the surprise for you if you find out who the sexy legs on the front cover belong to.

Judgement Day

I was finally able to get my hands on one of those dark yellow copies of Burn's Shall Be Judged 7" that came out for RSD 2011. There were 1090 made with mainly two main variants, dark yellow and light yellow, as you can see in the pictures, but who knows how many slightly different shades there really are. I'm definitely satisfied with the two yellow copies I have. No need for transition colours or slightly different shades of yellow for me. I still 'need' a first press and third on black, but I won't loose any sleep over this one. Probably.

Here's what I have so far (starting top left).

Burn - …Shall Be Judged - Revelation - 2nd press on black /????

Burn - …Shall Be Judged - Revelation - 1st press pink /1000

Burn - …Shall Be Judged - Revelation - 4th press on black /300

Burn - …Shall Be Judged - Revelation - 4th press on light yellow /1090 total

Burn - …Shall Be Judged - Revelation - 5th press on blue /487

Burn - …Shall Be Judged - Revelation - 4th press on dark yellow /1090 total

Same old story. I didn't want to pick up just one record from the guy selling the Burn 7", so I also bought the Brotherhood LP Words Run… As Thick As Blood. I wanted to get a copy of this for a long time, so it was just as well. This 2nd press version comes on nice pink vinyl with some black smudges/streaks. There are 375 copies of this particular variant.

Ten Years After

Re-issues have the sad side-effect that you realize how much time has passed since the original release. I can't believe it's been ten years that Have Heart released the What Counts EP, and already five years that they broke up for that matter. Triple B Records honoured the ten year anniversary of this 7" with a rerelease on a one-sided 12". Seems a little bit like a waste of material to put six songs on a 12", but whatever. What I like most about this release is the little text that Pat Flynn wrote about the 'mistakes' they made with the original release and their rather naive outlook back then. I always liked the honesty and integrity aspect about Have Heart a lot. I wouldn't mind a reunion tour in this case though, haha.

There is a total of 4,000 (!) copies of this, which says a lot about the influence Have Heart still have today. There are 500 on yellow-white marble, which you can see here, 1,500 on white and 2,000 on clear orange. Triple B and Have Heart have put in a lot of effort to make this package look awesome and they truly did a great job. I also like what Sam Triple B wrote as a comment on (ebay) flippers on the Triple B webshop. Fuck those people.

Courtesy to Triple B's policy for all foreign orders to order at least two records, I also picked up Barge's No Gain 7". Quite different from what Have Heart do, but good different. If you like Infest and early Boston Hardcore, you should give this 7" a listen or two. 

Don't Wait Up aka The Neverending Story

Just coming back from some travelling/roadtripping to see my favourite band. If you ever have the chance to go to a show in Budapest, do it. I've never seen a crazier audience. That show was wild! Even if there are no shows, you should go there and check out the city. It's beautiful there.

In the meantime I got quite a few records and it will take some time to catch up with the backlog. Hopefully not too long because the second part of travelling this summer is going to come up soon.

A couple of weeks ago I got my pre-order for the final Bane record from Equal Vision/MerchNow, but they'd forgotten to pack the copy on blue vinyl. After writing a few e-mails back and forth I was assured that they were going to send out the record right away. I was a little skeptical because this variant wasn't listed in the webshop any longer aka sold out. In hindsight there was no reason to be worried since this time I got exactly what I'd ordered. Plus the gatefold sleeve wasn't warped either. I also really dig this colour and everything that is going on with it here: different shades of blue and some nice white veins.

In case you were wondering about the title for this post, well, just when you think you're done with all the variants, a new one pops up and you have no clue as how to find it and get it.

Fluff pick ups

I went to Fluff Fest last weekend and picked up a few records, or more precisely variants of records I already have. Bane apparently decided to drive collectors crazy since this is the 9th variant of their final LP, with the 10th variant already out there. I haven't given in yet, but I don't know how long I'll keep buying these things. Probably forever. Can't lie here, haha. I'm really stoked for the band though. Can't wait to see Bane a couple of times on their on-going European tour very soon. From a collector's point of view I'd have loved it if they had done a special cover for this (or any other) tour or maybe a record release show cover. Those are always fun to collect. 

A few months ago I received a wrong record, but I knew right away that I could most likely trade it to a buddy of mine. He went to Fluff Fest, too, so that's where we swapped records. I got the record release edition of Pessimistic Lines' LP Overcome, he got Bane's Holding This Moment on gold. This LP comes on orange vinyl, like the pre-order version, but it has this sweet Sex Pistols rip-off cover that pokes fun at another Stuttgart hardcore band called Empowerment. 50 of these exist. Thanks again, Hagen.