I've Got That Attitude

Similar to deciding to collect different cover versions of Youth Of Today records I made the same decision for Bad Brains releases. Attitude was released by We Bite Records, so I might also add a dedicated We Bite section to the collection. The songs are the same as on the Roir tape but with different cover art, which I really like. It's kept nice and simple and a live picture of HR is always a good choice in my book. 

Obviously the labels and the the lyric sheet are different too. It's a nice change to get a lyric sheet with a Bad Brains record for once. Most of the Bad Brains records I own, including the recent represses, sadly came without one. I'm also a sucker for those old mailorder lists. They make for such an interesting time capsule. 

Turning Point

I always tell myself that luckily I don‘t play the repress game. However, I use the phrase “I‘m really glad I don‘t play the repress game, but..“ way too often. So maybe I should just accept the fact that I‘m just a sucker for represses like anyone else. 

The Turning Point 7“ is a certifiable classic at this point. Maybe more so for the cover than for the music, which would be an interesting debate. Originally this was released on Hi-Impact Records, but this reissue was done by Revelation Records and they did a really great job. My favourite part is the adaption of the Hi-Impact logo on the back cover, which you can see in the second picture.

Actually it was a post by Marcus over on Endless Quest that made me want to get a copy after all and I‘m glad I did! Though to be honest, I would have preferred a repress on clear green vinyl or even on plain old black, because orange is my least favourite colour, but those were long gone when I finally decided to get a copy. On the bright side, this is probably the closest I‘ll ever get to owning a Turning Point on gold… 

Die Bestie in Menschengestalt

Generally there are two ways people got into hardcore: either through metal or through punk. And if you got into hardcore through punk in Germany in the 80s or in the 90s, like me, chances are pretty high that you listened to  and fell in love with Die Ärzte at one point. Their early records pre-break up were usually pretty silly in hindsight, but after their reunion in the early 90s, they also had more serious songs. Die Bestie in Menschengestalt was released in 1993 and was their first LP after the reunion. One of the reasons why the band decided to get back together again was the political situation in the early 90s after the German reunification, which included a rise in right-wing ideology/neo-nazism and burning homes for refugees and asylum seekers. Those years are affectionately called the “baseball bat years“, so you can imagine what it was like. 30 years gone by and we’re back to that. As a consequence, many songs were a lot more serious and one of their biggest hits until today, Schrei nach Liebe, was also included on this album. It‘s such a major bummer that this album could have been released just this year and many lyrical topics would still be fitting. 

I knew Schrei nach Liebe because it got a lot of airplay on MTV back then, but I didn‘t listen to the full album until much later. My real entry point for the self-proclaimed best band in the world was their next record. 

Anyway, all of their records from the 90s were extremely hard to get for a very long time and if they became available, you had to pay at least an arm and a couple of toes to afford one. So I‘m really glad the band decided to repress that part of their catalogue. 

 

Supernova

Okay, so technically this is a 2022 release. BUT I received my pre-order copy only in January 2023. Plus this record deserves to be talked about more. Spark plays a modern version of youth crew. It‘s basically everything you love about youth crew but with more melodies. Think The First Step meets Mindset. I really dig the simple cover. Sometimes less is more. Also, the vinyl color is absolutely stunning. Such a great shade of blue. 100 copies  came on this color. 

I also went to the record release show at one of my favourite DIY spots in Germany. The line up was stacked and basically the crème de la crème of German hardcore bands played that bill, plus Chain Reaction from Belgium, who had released a split 7“ with Spark a few years ago. That was such a fantastic evening. I got to hang out with a ton of friends, every band delivered and it was just a great vibe all around. 

Sidenote: As you can see there was a special aftershow guest announced on the flyer. There’s also a hand holding a rose, which was a hint at who was going to perform. There‘s this guy called Edwin Rosen, who is a hardcore kid, but performs music that can be best described as a mix of new wave/post-punk/synthiepop. Not my kind of music, but he’s a nice guy and I respect him doing his own thing. He often reps band merch on stage and even xes up because he‘s straight edge. Now, some of his fan base, probably locals, must have caught wind of him performing at that particular venue that day, because there were a bunch of teenagers who were clearly not hardcore kids accompanied by there parents at the show. They had to see/endure six hardcore bands, which for any outsider must be weird as hell, before Edwin Rosen took the stage at some point after midnight. I admire their dedication and I hope they had a great evening. 

 

There was also a limited sleeve for the record release version of the record, cleverly numbered out of 30. 

M*A*S*H

During the hiatus of my blog I decided to pick up more records that are not hardcore/punk related. I want to broaden my musical horizon and instead of buying the same records over and over again, I want to have a more diverse collection. Having said that, I still have certain collections going, but overall I prioritise diversity over collecting. 

This song right here holds a special in my heart. M*A*S*H is my all-time favourite TV show and has probably shaped my moral views more than any work of art. I have watched the whole series at least a dozen times and it is my number one go-to TV show if I feel down. The TV show originated from a movie, which itself was an adaption of a book written by Richard Hooker. 

To be honest, I‘ve never read the novel and I only watched the movie once, maybe twice, but I love the TV show. The title track, Suicide is Painless, was written for the movie, and an instrumental version of the song was used for the opening and end credits of the TV show. The song itself is quite melancholic, which shouldn‘t come as a surprise considering the title. Director Robert Altmann told the composer that the theme song had to be called Suicide is Painless and asked for the stupidest lyrics imaginable, which is a great task to set for anyone, haha. Robert Altmann tried to write the lyrics himself, but felt he couldn‘t write anything stupid enough. So he gave his 15-year-old son the task and he came up with the lyrics within 5 minutes according to legend. I‘m pretty sure the lyrics wouldn‘t fly nowadays, but to be honest, I don’t think they‘re THAT bad. I definitely have hardcore records with worse lyrics. Another fun fact, Robert Altmann was paid $70,000 for directing the movie, while his son made a million dollars for co-writing the song - at least that‘s what Mr Altmann claimed. Not a bad paycheck for 5 minutes of work. 

TV Party

Black Flag sort of fall into the same category as Dead Kennedys: there are plenty of copies of their records that are readily available and that's exactly why I always postponed getting the records I was still missing. Well, this has been rectified now. This is the last Black Flag 7" I really 'need'. There are so many different versions out there, but I like this cover version the best. Added bonus that the record/label match the cover so well. I'm sure Marcus doesn't approve though. 

Too Drunk To Bleed

Sadly I don't listen to Dead Kennedys as often as I should. But whenever I do, I realize how much I love the band. There's really no other band like them. The other thing I realize when I listen to them is that I still don't have all of their records. Especially my 7" collection is far from complete. It's one of those bands that you could easily fill the gaps by simply going to Discogs and looking for an affordable copy. But because Dead Kennedys records aren't that rare, I tend to postpone buying them because there are usually rare record that suck in my attention. But sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and get the records you really want. I have no idea what the pressing info on either of these two 7"s is to be honest. I'm just glad I finally have copies I can listen to. 

Of the two 7"s I like Too Drunk To Fuck a little better, but you can' really go wrong with early Dead Kennedys. 

XXX

Ok, this is cheating a little, because I got this record about a year ago. However, this is one of my favorite record covers of all time and I really felt like I should blog about this record. Oh yeah, the music on this sampler is also pretty damn good. The 12 panel poster is awesome as well. I mean, what could you not love about this record, right? Samplers in the early 80s were really something else. Too bad they aren't really a thing anymore. 

This is the UK press out of /2000 copies. I wish I had to pay only £3.99 as well... Extra shoutout to Heiner, who was most likely the original owner. 

Until I Wake Again

One of the more anticipated records for me was the I Recover LP. I fell in love with the band when I saw them play at a DIY space not too far from where I live. The two 7"s they have released so far were really good, not only musically and lyrically, but also visually they were top notch. It certainly helps when one band member runs a printing company. 

Things had been rather quiet for the band for a number of years, so hearing about them releasing new material was very exciting to me. Chris, singer for my band Fragment and CEO of Influences Zine/Label, got to listen to the record early to review it for his zine and was talking constantly about how good it was. I wasn't as privileged as him, but wouldn't have listened to the record in advance anyway, because I'm and old-fashioned idiot and prefer listening to records I'm really looking forward to on vinyl for the first time, even if that means I have to wait a little bit longer. And I Recover didn't disappoint. The songs are melodic and catchy. Daniel's voice sounds great and I really love the guitar work. It's a perfect DC Revolution Summer hardcore worship record. And not only does the record sound fantastic, it is also really pleasing to the eye (at least mine). Plus the haptic of sleeve and lyric sheet is really awesome. The only thing I could criticize is that there are only seven songs on Until I Wake Again. Then again, this leaves me hungry for more. 

When I got the record I didn't listen to anything else the whole weekend. I just flipped the record over and over and over again. And it's been on constant rotation since then. This is definitely in the top 3 for this year. 

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. 

Walk Together Rock Together

7 Seconds are an awesome band and incredibly important to me and my coming of age in hardcore. I often feel they don't get talked about enough when it comes to legendary 80s hardcore bands. Maybe because they didn't break up like most of their contemporaries. 

Be that as it may, Trust Records has re-released both The Crew and Walk Together Rock Together, which is definitely a good thing. I'm always in favor of keeping hardcore records in print, so hopefully younger hardcore kids have easy access to the classics and the bands can get the recognition they deserve. I usually don't play the repress game, but Trust Records has been doing such an incredible job with these re-releases, I just had to get a copy. The main selling point for me was the 20 page booklet that has a ton of flyers and pictures as well as interviews with the band and people from way back when. I was a little torn between picking up a copy with nice looking vinyl (this one) OR a copy on rather ugly splatter vinyl, which come with a bonus 7" though. I opted for A in this case, even though I really want one of those 7"s. Oh well...

Life Under The Gun

I‘ve been a fan of Militarie Gun since I heard All Roads Lead To The Gun. “Stuck In A Spin“ was one of my favourite songs in 2021 and it is still my favourite song of theirs. While it was love at first listen when I heard the 12“ back then, this LP had to grow on me a little bit. It‘s much poppier than their previous releases and I‘m always a little hesitant when bands go that route. But I‘ve been listening to the record constantly over the last two months or so and it‘s become better with each spin. It flows really nicely and is just an all around enjoyable listen. I like the artwork as well and the vinyl is just beautiful. As is customary these days, there were a million versions of this record right from start, a trend I‘m not a big fan of. This is green with blue splatter, “limited“ to 1000 copies. 

Our Time

I've been playing guitar in a band called Fragment for about two years now. Everybody in the band is younger than I am by a lot. Which is sometimes a little weird, because I am the band dad by default. Technically I could be the father of our singer, so there is some truth to that. However, it also has its perks because the others have their finger on the pulse of what's going on in hardcore and I don't have to do that much research on my own. One of the records our singer has been raving about since it came out was Our Time by Wreckage. I think he proclaimed it Record of the Year back in January. I'm not sure I want to make that pick yet, but it is a really, really good record. It's just the right mix of faster hardcore and moshy parts. The vocals are spot on for me and I dig the lyrics as well. The cover is so good, too. Well, the name of the label and the catalogue number are a little misplaced, but the picture itself and the color scheme are A+. The A-Side are actual new songs, the B-Side has demo songs and a re-recorded song.

There are 300 copies on black, 100 copies on clear blue and 100 copies on clear orange. I would have loved to get a copy on colored vinyl - both colors are still available from the label by the way - but shipping to Europe has become so expensive these days and record prices have climbed to heights never seen before, so I often make do with what is available over here. 

Vancouver Clear

Go It Alone is a hard band to collect. Sure, the regular versions, of which there are plenty, are fairly easy to get, but as soon as things get a little bit rarer, those records are very hard to come by. People still seem to really like the band and don‘t want to let go off their stuff. Which is a good thing per se, but a little annoying from a collector‘s point of view. This is a first press copy on clear. 100 copies come with the regular cover (my copy is numbered #91/100 on the A-side label), 50 on clear come with the record release cover. 

Go It Alone have a really good catalogue of music they released, but besides that they were also a band that put in a great deal of effort with the covers and artwork of their releases, which is something I really appreciate. Just look at that awesome threefold cover and the incredible pictures. 

I'm Not In This Alone

I‘M BACK! I‘d been thinking about restarting this blog for quite a while. Five years is a long time to take a break and it feels even longer to be honest. To say a lot has happened in those five years would be an understatement... 

The main reason why I stopped doing this blog was that I had become a dad in 2017, and between learning how to be responsible for another human being and being super busy at a new job, which then got even more stressful because of the pandemic, there was just no time to keep the blog running the way I wanted to. 

Lately however, I‘ve been feeling like I need another creative outlet. I‘m aware that doing a blog is not exactly the most creative thing to do in the world. I also have no idea if people are still into reading blogs, especially about niche topics like collecting hardcore and punk records. Having said that, I like the writing aspect of doing a blog and of course I get to chronicle my musical journey once again. So even if no one else reads this blog, it will be a nice thing I'm doing for myself.

Among the many things that happened during the last five years were two moves within the last three years, but now we‘re settled in permanently - at least I hope so - and after setting up my office/record room, I‘ve been listening to records again a lot more. Our son is now at an age where he doesn’t require attention all the time, which allows my wife and myself to pursue more hobbies of our own again. 

The collecting aspect might have changed for me a little bit, but my love for records and hardcore/punk never went away. Listening, sorting/filing, buying, or just searching for records - I simply like to interact with records in all kinds of ways, so restarting this blog seemed like the next logical step. 

Not blogging about the records I bought in the last five years obviously presents me with quite a backlog, but I‘m not going to post all of the records I bought since I stopped writing here. Couldn‘t if I wanted to to be honest. I can track the purchases of the last couple of months, so this will be my starting point. 

When I stopped doing my blog in 2018, I wasn‘t the biggest Youth Of Today fan. I always liked the message, the style and the music, but Ray Cappo‘s voice was always hard to get into for me. Well, things change with time and I‘m now fully on board with YOT. I even started collecting different versions. While I‘d love to get an original copy of Break Down The Walls on that amazing shade of blue, I‘m also realist enough to realize that this particular record is way out of my price range. But collecting the different covers of YOT releases has been a lot of fun. This might be my favourite version of We‘re Not In This Alone. I really like the blue and yellow sleeve. Plus, I like the layout on the back cover better than the Caroline version that has the same artwork, albeit in a different color.