Top Of The Pick Ups 2016

2016 has been another good year as far as record collecting goes. And even though I cut down massively on buying records for a good three months, I managed to buy a decent amount of records and pick up some really cool collectibles throughout 2016. These records comprise the Top 10 Pick Ups 2016. They're pretty much only records by my all-time favorite band and range from "Whoa, this is an incredible record. I didn't think I'd ever own over a copy of this." over "Huh, I didn't even know this variant existed, but I'm sure glad I stumbled upon it." and "I really like that cover." to "This record means a lot to me because it was a gift by a very generous person.". Especially the last category still makes hardcore and record collecting so much fun.

Thanks to everyone who pointed me towards a record, sold records to and  traded records with me, or even gave me a record as a present. Thanks to everyone who has been following my blog this year and has engaged me in conversation of some sort. It's been a lot of fun.

XXX

Ralf

Top Of The Pops 2016

2016 has been another really good year for new music. People always tell me that there are fewer and fewer new bands and records that get them excited, but in my opinion that's just a lame excuse for being lazy and just another way of saying "everything was better way back when". I get the sentiment of having the feeling one has heard that breakdown or that riff before, but maybe those aren't exactly the same and people simply have to keep an open mind. There are some old bands that had great releases in 2016 and there are some new bands that got me really excited with their records or demos. I can't wait for 2017 to come and bring me more good new music.

Record Of The Year 2016

Dangers - The Bend In The Break

7" Of The Year

Spirit Crusher - The Absolute

Demo Of The Year

Tie between Free and Lowest Priority

Discovery Of The Year

Rvivr and Erica Freas

Best Split 7"(s), Band With The Most Output and Most Loveable Band

Spirits

Honorable Mention (because it was played to me only once and I don't own the record)

Fury - Paramount

The Bend In The Break

I saved the best for last. I was waiting for this record to happen for a really long time and as with every Dangers release, this LP had to grow on me. There were always songs on every record that immediately got me me, but the LPs as a whole always took a while to fully convince me. Great songs and the overall packaging is done really well. Thick booklet with the lyrics and some great pics by Al, the singer. Love the artwork, too. This is my pick for Record of the Year. Best for last. It proves right again.

Kiss With Spit

It's been a long time since Dangers released an LP. So when I heard that 2016 was the year the new full length was going to drop I was more than stoked. The band also released a new 7", supposedly as some kind of teaser. Well, it wasn't much of a teaser since the order for the 7" went up together with the one for the LP. Maybe something had gone wrong at the pressing plant, as is the case so often. I don't really care since I'm just happy to have new songs by one of my favourite bands. Kiss With Spit is also on the new LP, the other two songs are exclusive to this 7". Love the artwork, too.

Lexicon Mist

One of the releases I was really looking forward to this year was the new Red Hare 7". I really enjoyed the 12" they released in 2013. The songs are good, but there are only two new ones on this 7", plus a Lungfish cover. Bit of a bummer.

Turn It Around

I haven't followed Comeback Kid much after their first two LPs, but those two have stood the test of time for me. I always wanted to pick up a copy of them, but I'd filed them in the "Oh, well, there are so many pressings, you can pick up a copy whenever you want."-category. Which of course I never did. When my then girlfriend and now wife and I moved in together, she brought her records with her and she had a copy of Turn It Around. I finally had a copy to listen to, but it was only a picture disc. And picture discs don't really count. So I still wanted to pick up another copy. The best looking copy by far is the blood splatter version you can see here. There's a variant with and without labels. I didn't really care about which one I'd get, so when I saw this copy sitting on Discogs for a very reasonable price, I finally bought a copy. I love it when the vinyl colour matches the artwork, and this record is a prime example for why. It looks even better in person.

Marrón

I love the LP Marrón put out last year. When I saw that Take It Back Records had a sale going on I just wanted to check out what they had up in their store. Among other things they had a test press up for sale. 10€ can be considered a steal, right? Nice rip-off cover, too. I love it when labels or bands put in some extra effort to make tests more special.

My Love My Test

When I started rebuilding my Modern Life Is War collecting last year, I had certain records in mind that I definitely wanted to have (again). There were other records where I thought, well it'd be awesome to have them, but we'll see. Tests definitely fell into the latter category. When I scored the test for the 7" earlier this year, I was more than happy. Picking up another test was not on my agenda, but when an opportunity presents itself, sometimes you have to go for it. I found it for a really good price as well. Happy Festivus to me.

Dangers

One of the joys of collecting hardcore records is that you get to know some really great people. I always try to keep an eye out for records people I know want or might want. And some people look out for my record collecting needs. A few weeks ago Marcus of The Endless Quest blog hit me up on Facebook and asked if I'd seen this test press for a Dangers record on eBay. I hadn't, so when I checked the listing I was more than surprised to find out that this was sitting at a lowly $30 Buy It Now.  I would have paid a whole lot more, but finding this at that price was a nice surprise indeed. Thanks, Marcus. Good looking out.

The Sicknes Of Eden

I'd meant to pick up this LP for a long time, but the time I wanted to order it finally, it was sold out at all of the mailorders I usually order from. Getting a copy from Discogs was not an option for me, because the going price for a copy right now is a little too high for my taste. So I was more than happy when a buddy of mine was selling a few records at very fair prices and The Sickness Of Eden was among them. No fancy coloured version, but at least this is a copy of the Australian pressing. 120 copies on black vinyl which come with a different sleeve than the European pressing.

City Keys

City Keys is a new band from Sweden and features current and ex members of bands such as Iron and Anchor. Sounds a little bit like Anchor as well in my opinion. I'd wanted to pre-order the 7" but since shipping was unreasonably high coming from a label from Germany, I asked a buddy of mine to pick up a copy for me at one of their shows, which sadly were all too far away from me. He did, well actually he got me two copies. Good to have good friends. 100 Copies on white. 100 copies on black.

Spirit X Crusher

Spirit Crusher dropped a really good 7" a few weeks ago. To celebrate the 7" there was a release show at one of my favourite venues in Germany. The line up was stacked with 7 bands total, six from Germany plus Frame Of Mind from the UK. It turned out to be a really cool show. My buddies and I were there a little early, so we decided to go out and grab some food. Dominik, singer for Spirit Crusher, was still folding and hand-numbering the extra gimmicks for the release show edition when we left. He told me not to worry, because it'd still take some time until he was done. When came back there was one copy left. Lucky me. And him, for that matter. Great 7", great packaging and a great band.

Calvin X Hobbes

This is one of my favourite rip off covers out there, because, well, it's a Calvin & Hobbes rip off. Love all the little details going on here as well. The quality of the print is a little disappointing though. You only notice it when you actually hold the cover in your hands. Other than that, it's pretty cool. It's also my favourite sleeve for any Have Heart 7". 40 copies were made for Have Heart's winter tour back in 2004/05.

Oh Well

A few weeks ago I announced that I had a heart flush, which I though was very clever word play because I'd just score five special sleeves for Have Heart 7"s. I posted about the first three and then forgot to post the remaining two. When Have Heart played Posi Numbers 2005, they made 200 copies (!) with a special cover of their demo 7". Have Heart were huge, and so was Posi Numbers apparently. I can't imagine a band doing 200 7"s for just one festival nowadays.

Shelter

Last pick up from the 2nd hand shop in Stuttgart. I've had two later shelter records in my collection for a very long time. I bought them when I just bought records according to descriptions and statements like "member X used to be in band Y" and so on, but I didn't really know anything about the band. Had I known that Shelter was a Krishna band, I probably wouldn't have bought them. Religion and hardcore just don't go together for me. I know that other people see that differently, and I can respect that. I also know that people always look for the greater meaning of everything in life. It's part of human nature, it's why religion and philosophy were created by mankind. If people can get something positive out of religion for their personal lives, more power to them. But to me all religions are nonsense - even if I agree with some of the tenets of the major religions that I'm familiar with - and the negative aspects of organized religion outweigh the positive aspects by far. Krishna is no exception for me. How Krishna became so huge within the hardcore scene still boggles my mind.
When I went through my records a few months ago to thin out the collection a little bit, I decided to give the Shelter records a spin. Turns out, apart from the religious aspect, When 20 Summer Pass and The Purpose, The Passion aren't really good records musically either, so I decided to get rid off them. I got to talking to a few friends about the topic and they told me I should try to keep an open mind and give the early records a chance. My buddies aren't devotees or anything like that, but they told me that they still can enjoy the music. Fair enough. Although I think it's very difficult to separate music and message of a song, especially in a genre like hardcore. I saw this first press of Shelter's first LP sitting in a bin in the 2nd hand record store for only 12€, so I decided to go for it and check it out. Some songs are pretty good as far as the music is concerned, and I think that some things he sings about certainly make sense, but the religious background, the preachy aspect in the lyric sheet, and Cappo's vocals (as usually) are hard to stomach for me.