X-Mas Time (For The Skins)

I don't collect a whole lot of bands, but I really enjoy the ones I actually do collect. Good Clean Fun is one of them. There are tons of colours and probably as many sleeves of their releases, so hunting down variants is a lot of fun, especially since their discography is not documented very well. I still stumble across some new variants I didn't know about before here and there. This record is a good example. I already had three different copies of the Good Clean Fun / Throwdown split, and I knew that there are test pressings for this release because I once saw one listed among a Throwdown collection, when I came across this version with green vinyl and this weird copied cover a few years ago. It's either out of 30 or 34. I've seen both numbers since then.
So anyway, I saw this variant on someone's howsyouredge? list and contacted the person. He was down for selling the record and I was glad to be able to add another Good Clean Fun record to my collection. This was when the other guy was on a trip at the time and shortly before I went on a trip, so I told him I'd contact him once I was back. Which I never did because I forgot about the whole thing for some reason I'll probably never be able to figure out. This was summer 2013. The whole matter completely slipped my mind until I did some cleaning up in my e-mail account at the end of summer 2014.  I found our correspondence, finally wrote him back and lo and behold, he still had the record and was still willing to sell it to me. Great! Better still, he had some other records I'd been looking for for quite some time, so I managed to cross off three records of my want list instead of just one. Awesome!

This Good Clean Fun release is kind of weird. First of all, Good Clean Fun and Throwdown don't exactly scream split release, but maybe the bands were really close and I'm just ignorant to this fact. Second, they each play one of their own songs and a cover. So far so normal, but the choices of cover songs is a little strange. Good Clean Fun actually play a cover of a cover. Plus the original became really famous only through yet another cover. Got it? Here's what happened. Iron Cross from Washington, D.C. wrote this song Crucified, which is also where the crucified skin motive comes from. Agnostic Front covered the song on their Liberty And Justice… LP and I'm under the impression that this version is arguably better known than the original. In the late 80's Crucial Youth decided to write some new lyrics for the song and released it as X-Mas Time (For The Skins) on their Crucial Yule 7". And that's the song GCF decided to cover for this release. Throwdown cover Jingle Bell Rock, which is even weirder if you ask me.

This is the rarest version I own. As you can see, the cover is not really a cover. It's two separate sheets of paper that were neither folded into a cover nor glued together. It's #14 either out of 30 or 34.

Black Sheep Squadron

Black Sheep Squadron is a highly underrated band from Syracuse. At least it's my impression that they fly a little bit under the radar of the hardcore public. Anyway, the first songs I ever heard by BSS were the ones on the Foreign Object LP and I was hooked immediately. Despite the name, which I think is a little weird, considering the history of the country I'm from. I am aware that this band name doesn't have anything to do with Nazism, still it has this weird ring to me. But I digress... Raw, angry, right in your face music - that's what you get from the Black Sheep Squadron. One of my favourite and most played LPs from the 2000s for sure.

I got most of the pressings of their only LP quite easily, including the test pressing, but the white pressing out of 100 had eluded me for too many years. I finally got it from a guy I also got some other goodies from. But i'm gonna delve into that story with another post. 

Here's a picture of the whole squad:

Black SS - Foreign Object - test pressing - /45
Black SS - Foreign Object - grey - /100
Black SS - Foreign Object - orange/green splatter - 2nd press - /1025
Black SS - Foreign Object - clear/pink splatter - /100
Black SS - Foreign Object - red - 700
Black SS - Foreign Object - white - /100

I also got another sweet record by Black SS from the same seller. This is a test press for the Black SS / How We Are split, released by Specimen 32 and Stop Whining Start Winning. Pretty neat that I got #20/20. I like both sides of the split, but I'm leaning towards the Black Sheep Squadron here. Actually, I thought I was done with this release once I got a test press, but as it turns out I'm apparently missing some versions of the record release sleeve and colour vinyl combinations. Oh well, the fun just never ends.

And This Is Where It Ends

Lately I found myself listening to a lot of Champion. Man, I miss that band. I used to listen to Promises Kept when it came out constantly. I still think it's a great LP but I've been more into their 7"s as of late. Left Your Mark may just be the best song Champion ever recorded. I've had a copy on orange vinyl for the longest time and I used to own a copy on mint green if I remember correctly, but I stupidly traded it away or probably even sold it a few years ago, which I now kind of regret. Anyway, I got to pick up two copies of this 7" on clear vinyl. The one on the right was released by Platinum Records back in 2001. Phyte Records put out the CD, but for some reason no American label was willing to put out the recordings on vinyl originally. Seems weird in hindsight seeing how big an impact Champion made in the early 2000s. There are 157 copies on clear vinyl of the Platinum version.
Two years after its original release, Bridge 9 decided to re-release Champions first 7". Probably because there was a high demand for this since Champion was already quite popular at that time. They also opted for clear vinyl, but as you can see it's not exactly the same colour. The OG press is more of a milky clear, whereas the repress is see-through clear. Bridge 9 pressed 700 7"s on clear vinyl making it the most common colour for this particular release. Can't wait to pick up some more Champion records.

More Empowerment To You

This is the second part of the split series Empowerment is doing. This time they teamed up with their recent tour buddies AYS. Both bands play one of their own songs, plus a cover song of a band from their region, which is the whole concept behind this split series. I don't care too much for the new Empowerment song to be honest, mainly because of the guest vocals. Kind of ruins it for me. The cover is well done, but musically it's just not my cup of tea. The same goes for AYS. I think I saw them live once when they opened for some band I actually wanted to see and I vaguely recall wishing their set to be over quickly. I got the same feeling when I listened to their side of this split 7" for the first time. They just don't strike a chord with me.

I hope the next split will be better again seeing that I did like the first 7". Clear vinyl out of 262.



I ordered another record from the label's distro section. Damage Control were a band from Oslo, Norway and were around during the mid and late '00 years. If you're into bands like Champion, Go It Alone, Carry On and the like, you should give them a listen. I really like this 7" and I'll definitely pick up their other releases in the nearby future. This is the least rare version on black vinyl out 1,860.

The Power Of Positive Thinking

If you're really into a hardcore band, you will sooner or later stumble across the bands your favourite band has been influenced by. Thank you lists, cover songs, rip-off art for shirts or records, you name it. Now, I love Good Clean Fun, so I was bound to stumble across Cruical Youth at some point. Come to think of it, I think GCF did everything on the list I just came up with.
Anyway, I got Crucial Youth's Posi-Machine LP a few years ago and now I picked up their 2nd LP The Power Of Positive Thinking. Actually it's more a compilation since most of the songs were previously released on the Posi-Machine LP with a couple of live songs strewn in on the B-side, but all in all it's nothing new. It even comes with the same comic/lyrics booklet (except for the cover art). Now, I didn't check on this fact before, but I would have bought the record anyway most likely, because I really dig the artwork too. This is something I greatly admire about this band. They really put in great effort with the artwork and the booklet that comes with both LPs.
Crucial Youth were this over the top posi-core band, and from what I read they caught a lot of shit for what they were doing, because many straight edge kids thought they were dragging the good name of straight edge through the mud and I think that the members were also accused of not being edge at all if I remember correctly. I don't know about that, but I think this is a good parody one way or the other. Hardcore and straight edge kids often take themselves and their music too seriously, so I think a nice dose of humour is sometimes needed as some sort of reality check.

The first 1,500 copies came with the booklet, so there are at least 1,500 copies. There's also a limited version with blank labels and numbered out of 100.



I bought the All Twisted 7" from the same seller. Both songs, All Twisted and Do Something, are also featured on CIV's first LP, but I still had the need to pick this up. I really like the early CIV material. There's some sticker residue on the cover, but nothing I can't live with.

Last but not least, I also picked up Four Walls Falling's European Release. The title is a little weird and I have no idea why it was picked. All three songs were later also featured on their 2nd LP Food For Worms, so maybe this was a special pre-release only available in Europe? Just conjecture here. I love Culture Shock a great deal, and I think it's highly underrated, so I knew I had to get some more Four Walls Falling releases at some point. I think these songs are still really good, but not as great as the ones on the first LP. The lyrics are still outstanding and really set this band apart from many other bands from that era. Will pick up their other releases at some point in the future.

At Both Ends

At Both Ends was a great fanzine done by Stephen Fallis. He made 10 issues all in all, and documented a good part of the first decade of the 21st century. I haven't read every issue so far, but the ones I could get my hands on were all excellent reads. For the last and final issue(s) Steve really outdid himself. First of all the zine is a double issue, i.e. issue #9 and #10 are combined in one big zine. You can read the zine from the front and the back, which is a neat idea. The quality of the zine, i.e. journalistic approach, layout, paper and so on are much more magazine than fanzine, and Steve definitely has raised the bar for all the zines out there. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it.
As if that weren't enough already, Steve also decided to put out a double 7" along with the zine. You get two songs each by Bane, Grade, Unrestrained and Between Earth And Sky. Can't hardly beat that package. My main interest in the vinyl here obviously were the Bane songs. Non-Negotiable was later featured on their final LP Don't Wait Up, the other one is a re-recorded version of Struck Down By Me, which was originally released on It All Comes Down To This.
No one knows how many different colours are out there. Stephen and Justin from Unrestrained once tried to document all the different colour combinations, but there's no actual record of what is out there. Also, the numbers vary from colour to colour, so some colours are much more common than others.  This Bane 7" comes on clear red vinyl and it is the eighth version I have of this record. I also have dark green, light grey, dark grey, baby blue, purple, dark purple and orange. I know of three or four more colours and I guess there are quite many transition variants in between the light and dark records. Beyond that, I have no idea. Keeps collecting interesting though. If you have anything I don't have, hit me up.

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.