Shark Attack

Another really good release from the early Bridge 9 catalogue. Actually it's a repress, since Blood In The Water originally came out on My War Records, which was some band member's label. This is the least common variant of the Bridge 9 versions, seeing that this is a 1st press on black vinyl out of 1500. As far as colours go, this was pressed on grey (150) and red vinyl (350). There was also a second press on black (out of 1000). The second press has black and white labels though, which is how you can distinguish between the two pressings.

Turning Point

Some time ago I made a post about the Turning Point LP and the lack of Turning Point records in my life. I also promised (myself) to rectify that as soon as possible, so here we are. While my main interest was in the Turning Point side, which is really good, the No Escape side turned out to be pretty good, too. Sadly there's only one more vinyl release of that band, No Escape that is. They also released a CD, but who really needs CDs? The other vinyl release is a split with Bonesaw on everybody's favourite German label Lost And Found. Now, the entry on Discogs claims that the No Escape songs were officially licensed by Temperance Records, but with L&F you never know. Be that as it may, this is a really good split by two really good bands. There's also a variant on clear gold vinyl.

Hardcore Pride

I've been listening a lot to Edgeland podcast these last few months. For anyone who hasn't checked it out, do it. Lots of very interesting and entertaining interviews. Listening to various episodes I also got reminded that I still needed to get (back) some (semi-)classic records. I did have Ten Yard Fight records a few years back, but I traded them away and never got around to picking them up again. Big mistake. I almost forgot how good this 7" was. Black vinyl on Equal Vision. This 7" was also released on colour by Equal Vision and on another colour by Big Wheel Recreation.

Say It

Dan O'Mahoney, take 2. Yesterday's post featured a Dan O'Mahoney band, so I thought let's keep going with that. This is the debut 7" for 411, also featuring Dan O'Mahoney on vocals. The music is kind of catchy (I'm thinking Dag Nasty and Embrace here) and the lyrics are well written. Not too many bands from the late '80s/early '90s come to mind that were that outspoken against homophobia. Good one. Nice marbled grey vinyl, too. There are three more colours for this release, i.e. if you count black.

Carry Nation

Some more crossing off of Workshed releases. This is a pretty good 7" and I'm really bummed out about the fact that Carry Nation didn't release any other material. I really like the music on this record, plus the lyrics are pretty good too. Grave Mistake is probably my favourite song. There's a version on clear vinyl out there too, but I'm fine with black.

Voicebox

A few weeks back I made a post saying I wanted to get more Workshed records because I'd been intrigued by a thread about that label on the Revcollectors board. I didn't know all the bands on the label, but after seeing some nice collection pictures I thought I'd check out some new old bands. The Voicebox 7" looks awesome. There are so many cool looking colours and transition colours, definitely a nice collectible item. After I'd listened to the 7" for the first time I wasn't quite sure what was supposed to be so special about this band. The singing in particular didn't strike a chord with me initially. But after giving it a couple more spins, I'm kind of digging the record. The overall groove of the two songs is pretty cool. There are still some parts I really don't like (why do hardcore bands want to sound like metal bands?), but all in all this is an okay record. Nothing I'm going to collect though.

Final Backward Glance

Almost a year after its release, I finally have a complete collection of Bane's final LP. That is for the moment. I've already heard rumors that there's going to be a tour pressing for the upcoming Euro tour. And who knows how many represses there are going to be. But I'm really happy for now. One year for a complete set is not too bad, considering how long it took me to complete a few other releases, on the other hand this year felt kind of very long and frustrating because more and more variants popped up. But with the help of a few fellow Bane heads I finally got the last missing pieces of this puzzle. Thanks again, Justin and Mike!

The last vinyl variant I was missing was the white-blue swirl tour pressing. 200 of these exist. This was actually the hardest variant to track down. I first heard about this colour last August or so. Someone on vinylcollective.com posted a picture of this variant and nobody really knew where this was coming from since there was no mention of this in the official pressing info. What's more, it seemed to be a mistake since it came in a sleeve that had a sticker on it saying "yellow". Since there was a blue and a white version available at that time, it could have been that this was some sort of transition colour. After writing an e-mail to the label I learned that this colour was not mistake but the tour pressing. But again, it wasn't really that clear which tour this pressing was for. So the guessing and blind chasing continued. Fast forward to last December. Someone posted on Instagram that finally the tour variant would be available for the upcoming Bane shows. I really didn't want to wait until some flipper asshole was to sell this record on eBay or Discogs for way too much money, so I decided to contact another Bane enthusiast. I knew that he'd be going to a few shows, so I asked him if he could pick up a copy for me. He was nice enough to do that and that's how I finally got my hands on this record. I'm very thankful, Justin.

Crew shot (starting top left):

Bane - Don't Wait Up - Equal Vision - white/blue swirl - tour pressing /200
Bane - Don't Wait Up - Equal Vision - white - 2nd press /700
Bane - Don't Wait Up - Equal Vision - solid dark blue - 1st press /500
Bane - Don't Wait Up - Equal Vision - solid yellow - 1st press /500
Bane - Don't Wait Up - Equal Vision - clear dark blue - 2nd press /500
Bane - Don't Wait Up - Equal Vision - clear yellow - 2nd press /500

Bane - Don't Wait Up - End Hits - black - 2nd press /???
Bane - Don't Wait Up - End Hits - turquoise - 1st press /400
Bane - Don't Wait Up - End Hits - clear - 2nd press /500
Bane - Don't Wait Up - End Hits - orange - 1st press /500
Bane - Don't Wait Up - End Hits - purple - 1st press /300 (Green Hell exclusive colour)
Bane - Don't Wait Up - End Hits - test pressing /20

Cherry on top: There's also a tape version of the album available. This was made for the final Southeast Asian tour, available through Brnwrck Records. Someone put in a lot of effort into this tape. The lyric sheet looks so awesome. Thanks again, Mike, for getting one for me and the missus.

Up Front

I really liked the two Up Front records I bought in the last couple of months, so I decided to get the rest of Up Front's discography. If I decide to get all the records by a band, I like to do it in chronological order. That way I can see how a band progresses (or not). It doesn't always work out like that, e.g. if I come across a really nice bargain, but I try to stick to that ideal. So I decided the next Up Front record I ought to get should be the 1st 7", which was released in 1990. This is actually the 2nd press, which can be recognized by the grey and white cover. I really like the A-side, but the songs on the B-Side are rather on the weak side, so to speak.

Shall Be Cleansed

Burn wrote one of the best hardcore 7"s of all time. I guess that's a pretty well established fact. That's why I always thought it a little bit surprising that there was only little talk, if at all, about their other releases, especially about the 12" EP Cleanse, which came out in 2001. After listening to it a couple of times I think I know why that is… The record is not that good to be perfectly honest. Maybe the bar has been set too high by the first 7", but the six songs on this EP don't even come close to the songs on Shall Be Judged. To me it sounds like Burn tried to sound like someone else (Rage Against The Machine?), which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't work too well in my opinion. The songs also lack the power and urgency that made the original 7" so great. I've listened to the EP a few times so far and after the original shock the songs sort of grew on me a little bit, but it won't become a favourite of mine.

You're Only Champion Once...

A while back I posted that I'd like to get more alternative sleeves of records I really like. I wrote that when I got the Youth Of Today rip-off Champion made for the record release show of Count Our Numbers, so the logical consequence was that I wanted to get the other rip-off sleeve that Champion had: the Side By Side rip-off for Come Out Swinging on Platinum Records. There are 143 copies of this particular record, all on milky clear vinyl. This one comes with some black swirls, as you can see at the top. There's also a variant with the regular sleeve on clear vinyl, but these have actual labels and not just the blank white ones. Also included is a little note explaining that the inserts weren't ready for the tour this pressing was made for. However, if you sent a stamp to the address mentioned at the bottom, the band promised to send it to you. I'd really like to have an insert, but I doubt that the offer is still valid.

From the same seller I also got a copy of the repress of Come Out Swinging on Bridge 9. There are 300 on green vinyl in total. However, the green vinyl comes in a lot of shades of green. There's a dark green variant, which seems to be more common than the rather minty green one you can see here. I had one of these a few years ago, but traded it away. Really glad I got one of the mint green ones back. They do look pretty nice.




I actually do know that I picked up a first press on clear a few months ago, but the green one above and this clear one came as a package deal on eBay, and for the price I paid I was okay with getting another copy on clear. Never hurts to have a couple of records to trade.
 

002

I've been reading The Endless Quest blog for a long time. Btw congrats on going strong for seven years, mcs. One band that has popped up a lot is Coalesce. They're a band from the '90s, a period in hardcore I really like, so I thought I'd give them a shot. Well, there's '90s hardcore and then there's '90s hardcore I guess. Or to make it short,  this is not really my cup of tea. Should have read The Endless Quest more carefully I guess. Looking at some entries again, they were often compared and associated with Converge. Now I know that Converge is beloved by many, many people in the hardcore scene. I tried to get into them several times and even went to shows they played, but this kind of hardcore just doesn't do anything for me. The same sadly goes for Coalesce.

Outspoken

Final release by this vegan straight edge band from California. This is what the (early) '90s will always sound like to me. I really love that style. Pretty good lyrics too. I wasn't around that time, but I guess not too many bands were that outspoken (get it?) about homophobia back then, just to name one example. Has there been any sort of early '90s revival lately? Would love for one to happen. I think I even still have some baggy pants some where in the closet...

Swiz

Lately, I've been listening to a lot of bands that have credited Swiz as their influences, so why not go straight to the source? First up is the first 7" Swiz released. The music, and especially the voice sounds, a lot like early Dag Nasty, which is not that big a surprise considering that Swiz singer Shawn Brown was the original singer for Dag Nasty. Great DC hardcore from the late '80s, although a little rawer and faster than Dag Nasty or the first wave of Emocore bands from that era. Other than on clear green this record was also pressed on blue and gold vinyl as far as colours go. Originally this also came with a short comic book, which you can see in the lower left corner.

I also got the 2nd 7" Swiz released. It's still good, but not as powerful as the first 7" in my opinion. Just the regular version for this one. There's also a variant on blue vinyl.

The Suicide Conspiracy

I really like split releases. Just like compilations they're a great way to get to know new bands for cheap money. Yes, I'm aware that we have the year 2015 and that band camp et al. have made it really easy to access new bands, but that's not really for me. Mind you, I'm not against new technology, not by a long shot. If anything I use the internet too much...
I've known The Hope Conspiracy for quite some time, mainly through my girlfriend, but up until recently I'd never actually listened to The Suicide File. Bill Conway, host to the only podcast I listen to on a regular basis, Edgeland, has been going on and on about how The Suicide File is one of his favourite bands ever. So, thanks to the massive podcast propaganda of Bill I finally gave the band a chance, and boy, I'm really glad I did. I like the Hope Conspiracy song on this split a lot, but it doesn't even come close to the The Suicide File side. I know that you'll probably never get read this, but thanks Bill for getting me hooked on The Suicide File. First press on red vinyl out of 1200.

Btw. in case you have never listened to the Edgeland podcast, do yourself a favour and change that asap. Mr Conway does great interviews with people who are still straight edge or used to be straight edge. Very entertaining.

Turning Point

Another embarrassing gap in my collection has been closed. Not only did I have no copy of Turning Point's LP Before The Dawn, I didn't have any Turning Point record at all prior to this one. It made me really happy that I managed to get this 2nd press copy (white labels / red hand print) for a very reasonable price. I love the cover art and the lyric sheet. Not quite as good as the 7" cover, but very close. The sleeve and the record are in awesome shape, considering this LP is 25 years old. It even came still in the original shrink wrap. Great copy all in all. Now all I need is a copy of the 7", the split and the discography...