Psychotic

Scowl has been one of the more interesting and better current bands. I really liked their debut LP, but I think Psychotic Dance Routine is even better. You still get some raging hardcore bangers, but the band really pushed their sound and I dig the indie/alternative vibes. As a matter of fact, I like those songs/parts more than the traditional hardcore songs/parts. The singer‘s vocals on those calmer parts is fantastic. 

I‘m not sure about the artwork, both on the sleeve and on the B-side of the record. But at least the vinyl works with the cover. Evil Greed exclusive out of 950 copies. 

What You Read Is What You Get

Closed another gap in my 2000s collection. The first two Verse LPs are as good as it gets when it comes to mid-2000s melodic hardcore. Actually, this is often a point of mildly heated argument between my wife and I, since she believes Rebuild is the best Verse LP, while I think From Anger And Rage is superior. This debate has been going on for a decade now and hopefully we‘ll have this debate for many decades to come.

This 7", aptly called Four Songs because, well, there are four songs on it, was released prior to the first LP and there are two songs that ended up on the LP and two songs that didn't. So this was something like a demo I guess and the band decided to re-record two songs for Rebuild. At least that's my guess. I like

This is the third and final press, again as advertised on the cover, which is a pretty weird move. I also hate it when there are blank labels. If this happens by mistake, fair enough, but this looks like they just slapped on red labels - which clashes with the vinyl color - and nobody bothered to put any artwork or info on them. Which means you have to check the matrix if you want to start with side A. Very annoying. To be fully transparent, I was aware that this was the case with this press, so to complain about this fact while knowingly buying a copy is kind of a dick move, BUT this was the cheapest copy I could get my hands on and generally I have a weak spot for pink vinyl. 

This press also comes with a different art work than the previous pressings and there are 300 copies on this particular color.

Jamming

I‘m aware that I have blogged mainly about hardcore and punk, but of course there are other genres that I‘m into as well. I’ve been listening to reggae since I was a teenager and that has never gone away. There‘s a lot of nostalgia involved obviously, but I still like the music and I find the lyrics much more interesting these days because I know more about the history of Jamaica and reggae itself. 

This is considered to be Bob Marley & The Wailers‘ magnus opus, and it‘s a really, really good record, but it‘s not my personal favourite in the band’s catalogue. 

This may be my favourite Bob Marley & The Wailers albums because it has a bunch of songs that I really love. Can‘t really go wrong with Kaya, Is This Love or Sun Is Shining. 

Is Survived By

Touché Amoré is one of those bands whose name always kind of turned me off from giving them a chance. It wasn‘t until I listened to one of my wife‘s mixtape (Yes, those still exist! As a matter of fact, if you‘re into mixtape trading, let me know!) a few years ago. It was Home Away From Here on Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me that made me want to listen to more of their output and some more years down the line here we are. Is Survived by is definitely a good listen. Touché Amoré didn‘t stray too much from their formula on their previous record, so if you like one, there‘s really no reason you shouldn‘t like the other one as well.

I like how the colored vinyl of this repress matches the artwork. That‘s how it should be done. It’s too bad my photography skills don’t do it the justice it deserves. 

Where Do Ripples Go?

Is melodic hardcore making a comeback? Maybe. Hopefully. In recent years there have been more and more bands playing hardcore in the vein of 2000s hardcore bands. Bent Blue is one of them. I hear some Dag Nasty and revolution summer influences, too. So if those are ingredients you like, you should give Bent Blue‘s Where Do Ripples Go? a listen. 

The coloured vinyl looks awesome in person, but is a little tricky to photograph. Purple in sea blue with screen-printed B-side out of 100 (Merchpit exclusive). 

All My Best Friends Are Skaheads

I feel like hardcore kids often have a hard time embracing fun, at least when it comes to their taste in music. Everything has to be serious all the time, which can be very exhausting. First wave ska is deemed kind of cool and The Specials from the 2 Tone era usually get a pass as well, but bands from the third wave ska revival in the 90s are often frowned upon. Then there‘s me. I like serious bands with a message, but I also like goofy and whacky stuff. Less Than Jake to me is the best skapunk band originating in the 90s and I can thoroughly enjoy their first five albums, but Hello Rockview is their masterpiece. So many hits and this album always puts a smile on my face whenever I listen to it. I really like the peach coloured vinyl and the comic book style booklet with lyrics and credits. 

Lookinglasself

When we drove to a show a couple of months ago, two friends and I went on a 90s deep dive. This was a lot of fun because we‘re all different ages decades-wise and each of us has a very different perception and relationship with the 90s. The hours flew by with interesting conversations just the way a good long drive to a show should be. 

One of the bands I rediscovered for myself was Snapcase. I already had a couple of their records and would listen to them from time to time, but I kind of forgot how much I liked the band. Incarnation is still such a hit. Obviously that realization was a good enough reason (read: excuse) to get more records to close some gaps in my collection. The label shows this was released by Victory Europe, which I thought was very interesting. I knew that labels back then had European offices, but I didn‘t realize that Victory had one so early on in their history. Then I did some more research, well, I looked at the Discogs entry for Victory Europe and it said that  this sublabel existed from 1990 till 1995 and was operated by We Bite Records. Talk about learning something new every day. 

Silver Lining

This is one of those ‘Damn, this makes me feel really old’ posts. Have Heart’s landmark LP The Things We Carry was released 17 years ago. I was still in my 20s when this came out and now I’m definitely not in my 20s anymore. What hasn’t changed is my love for this band and this LP. I’d still like to get a complete collection of the this album all through the first four pressings, but those record release and EOSJ variants are hard to come by. Not to mention tests pressings. 

I decided to quit on all subsequent pressings because there are just too many. Which is certainly impressive and great for the band and the label, but I never felt excited about all of these represses. 

The silver edition that Bridge 9 came up with to celebrate the label’s 25th anniversary is a little different though. This caught my attention for some reason and I felt like I should get a copy of this particular repress. As with all Have Heart represses of the LPs there are 1000 copies (13th press). 

Of course this opened up the can of worms of me debating with myself whether I should get ALL of the records that were treated to a silver edition or not. There are some records I love, some I don’t care for at all, and some in between. Time will tell. 

I also picked up a copy of Have Heart’s second LP Songs To Scream At The Sun. When this record came out in 2008 I wasn’t into it at all. I loved The Things We Carry and this was not the same. It wasn’t a millions miles from their first LP either, but back then the difference was big enough for me to not like this album. 15 years later this feels pretty damn stupid. The record grew on me over the years and if you catch me on the right day, I’d say that Pave Paradise is among the top 5 Have Heart songs. 

I remember pre-ordering the record from Bridge 9 and getting copies on blue, white and yellow. I also remember selling my white and yellow copies in the early 10s because I wasn’t into the album that much at the time. Nowadays of course I wish I’d kept them. Actually I wish I had even more copies than I had originally, but there’s always time to fix that. My consolation prize for now is this sweet silver edition that came out last year. I just checked the B9 discography page and it’s crazy that this record is currently also already on its 12th press and each repress is, as mentioned above, out of 1000. C-R-A-Z-Y!

We’re Still Not In This Alone

Another puzzle piece of what apparently has become my Youth Of Today collection. It’s funny how that happens sometimes. This is the 1997 repress done by Revelation Records. The cover art is not as good as the OG artwork or the We Bite version (still the best!), but it is still MUCH better than the Funhouse version. 

Here Until The End

Recently, I was lucky enough to hang out with two good friends, both of whom live far away from me. As the evening grew older, of course we got to talk about the best releases in 2023 so far. One of my friends brought up Here Until The End by Burning Strong. I was kind of dismissive at this suggestion, but decided to listen to it once I got home. I knew I had the record at home, but hadn’t spun it that often for some reason. So when I was back home, I put the LP on and listened to it. And then again. And then again. And again. It‘s pretty much everything I want from a hardcore record, so why I was dismissive of the record initially I can‘t fathom. The only thing I can still criticise is the vinyl colour. Army green is probably my least favorite color, even behind orange. There are 300 copies on this colorway. I‘d rather have one of the other versions, but with shipping costs out of control, I have to take what I can get these days. 

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.