Meantime

I hadn't heard of Meantime until I saw Marcus post about this record a couple of months ago. I don't really follow what Indecision Records is releasing, so I wasn't surprised to find that this came out a couple of years ago and that it had passed me by undetected, but once Marcus dropped comparisons to Go It Alone and Champion, I sat up and took notice.

That isn't to say that Meantime exactly sound like either of those bands, but their sound does bring me back to those mid-2000 hardcore days. Man, those were special times for me with so many good bands, so Living In The Meantime clicked with me immediately and I had to rush over to Indecision to pick up a copy.

150 pressed on this splatter pattern vinyl, and while I'm not really looking to collect multiple copies of this, it would be really nice if one of those record release versions managed to become available to pick up at some point.

Spite And Desertion

I took a chance on the first Spite House record back in 2022, and while I didn't really listen to it a whole lot at the time, it was a really solid album that reminded me of some of the melodic post-punk stuff of the early 90's. I've come to really appreciate that record over the past couple of years, but I was still a bit hesitant when I discovered that they had a new album on the way this year. I'm aware that skepticism is my default reaction, especially when it comes to new music from band that play this kind of style... like, okay your band was good enough to pull off one record, but surely you will fuck up the next attempt and go too soft and melodic... but most of the time bands prove me wrong, and I'm happy that is the case with the new Spite House album, Desertion.

While it took me some time to ease into the self-titled Spite House album, with Desertion, I was immediately hooked. I'm not sure if the songs are better here, or if it was my state of mind, but right from the start I was into it. I'm kind of at a loss as how to describe this... on the one hand they remind me of that 90's melodic style that bands like Garden Variety were doing, but I also hear some Title Fight here... I don't know but it is really good.

Violet a-side and blue b-side with glitter colored vinyl. Limited to 150.

Tales Of Never Letting Go

When I first got into hardcore and started going to shows in Boston, there was a band named Only Living Witness that would often be on the bill and I saw them a number of times in 1991 and 1992. I bought their Complex Man 7 inch at a show, and enjoyed it, but my taste was rapidly changing at the time and before too long OLW was "too metal" for me. I lost track of the band after that, and completely missed when they broke up and the singer, Jonah Jenkins, started up a new band with Miltown.

Miltown didn't even cross my radar until Marcus mentioned them to me in 2016. The band had released a 7 inch in 1996 and a split with Cast Iron Hike in 1997, and I there I was 20 years after their release hunting them down and obsessing over the new found discovery. Now almost ten years after I first heard those Miltown records, I guess there was more to discover.

Back at the end of 1997, Miltown went into the studio and recorded an album, but then shortly after that, they broke up. I guess they weren't interested enough at the time to get the songs released, so the tapes just sat on a shelf. Thankfully someone recently had the thought to finally release this to the public almost 30 years later. When Marcus sent me a message to let me know that preorders were up for the long lost Miltown album, I was excited to quickly get one into my cart and check out.

It's crazy that things like this can sit around for years just collecting dust. Tales Of Never Letting Go is so good that I can't believe that it took this long to get released. The perfect melodic post-hardcore groove that I can't get enough of from that mid to late 90's era.

297 pressed on glacier blue colored vinyl.

Killing Someone Else's Train

One of my favorite discoveries these past couple of years has been The Cure. The whiplash of having zero interest in the band to having them at the top of my listening stats for two years in a row has been shocking. I've kept my experience with the band pretty narrow, only really listening to Disintegration (1989), Wish (1992) and their latest, Songs Of A Lost World (2024)... and occasionally dipping in to check out Pornography (1982)... but I really love those albums. At one point I was content to just listen to the albums through streaming services like Spotify, but more and more I feel the need to own the physical media and to have original UK pressings in my collection. I picked up the Pictures Of You single last year, and here I am fucking about with more singles from The Cure instead of actually chasing down the albums.

Last month I was checking out one of the Spotify playlists that included some bands that I wasn't too familiar with like Pixies, Basement and Joy Division. Normally I wouldn't stick with a playlist full of songs that I didn't know, but I was in the mood to just chill and read my book, so I took a chance and hit play. After a few songs, Jumping Someone Else's Train started to play, and I was like "oh cool a song from The Cure that I've never heard" and I was excited to give it a listen. I was surprised to find that the song was familiar, forgetting that Miltown covered the song on their split with Cast Iron Hike... but hearing the original version for the first time blew me away. I fucking loved it and immediately set to tracking down which album the song was on.

Turns out that Jumping Someone Else's Train was one of the early singles from The Cure and wasn't on a regular studio album... although it did appear on the US frankenstein version of The Cure's first record, Boys Don't Cry, where the label took a handful of songs from the actual first album, Three Imaginary Boys, and mashed them together with some various singles from that time, including this song. With that useless fact in mind, I kind of wanted the original UK single. The price for this was a bit high, but I was so obessed that it didn't matter... I just had to have it.

Initally I found one for sale from a US seller on Discogs, and I fired off a message to ask for him to confirm that the center label matched what was pictured for his listing. I wasn't even asking for a photo... just a simple confirmation that what he was selling matched what was shown. I got no response, so fuck that guy, and I ordered them from a UK seller on eBay instead.

As I was picking up the Jumping single, I noticed that the seller also had a single available for Killing An Arab. I'd never heard of this song either, so I checked a live version that was available on Spotify and I fucking loved it. That song was so rad that I said fuck it and threw more money to the seller to pick up both of those 7 inch singles.

Killing An Arab was the first single from The Cure, released back in 1978. Apparently there were 5,000 pressed for Small Wonders Records initially, and then two months later it was reissued on the new Fiction Records label. Kind of cool to own an original here... and in great condition.

Maybe I'll get around to picking up a Cure full length album for the collection in 2026.

Gruesome Echoes

I've loved Gruesome since hearing their first record, Savage Land, back in 2015. They came together to pay tribute to the late Chuck Schuldiner and the band Death, and they have stayed true to that mission with each record sounding like a long lost Death recording session. I loved those first three Death albums, so I'm here for what Gruesome has been doing.

It's been seven years since the last Gruesome record, Twisted Prayers, and I kind of expected that the band was done. I was surprised to see that the band had a new record on the way this year, and I wasn't sure if I was going to really want to spend a lot of time with it. Sure, Twisted Prayers was good, but I've only listened to it a handful of times since its release, so was I really going to bother with a new album?

It took me a couple of months to get around to checking out the new Gruesome record, Silent Echoes, but when I did, the timing was perfect because it was exactly what I needed at the time. There have been a few times this year when I just want to listen to something angry and ugly, and this was one of those times. It hit perfectly and I've already listened to this more than their last album.

Since picking up a couple of Relapse records this year on clear vinyl, I'm kind of hooked on it. These are limited to 100 and only available to friends and family of the band an label, but I've been lucky to grab the few Relapse releases that I've been interested in straight off Discogs for a decent price.

Ignite Anniversary

The first time that I heard Ignite was when I picked up the Scarred For Life CD back in 1994. The CD contained the songs from the first Ignite record, plus a few bonus tracks, but I had no idea that the 7 inch even existed at the time... even though I was buying lots of vinyl at that time... so I was content with the CD. It wasn't until MANY years later that I even realized that the Where They Talk 7 inch was a thing, and by that point the colored vinyl carried a price tag that was a bit out of range for what I'd pay. When I was picking up the Carry Nation records from REV, I noticed that they had this Ignite reissue and figured that I'd grab it as well.

This 12 inch pressing of Where They Talk was released for the 30th anniversary, and includes all five songs from the orginal session (only three appeared on the 7 inch). This early record was before Zoli joined the band for the classic Call On My Brothers, and has Randy Johnson on vocals. I remember initially being a big hesitant on Randy's vocal style here, as he aims for a more melodic approach, but I quickly grew to really like how these songs sound. I kind of forgot all about this recording after getting heavily into Call On My Brothers and Past Our Means, but this anniversary release is a great reminder of just how great this first version of Ignite was.

Nice packaging with the newly designed cover, colored vinyl and insert. As with most anniversary editions, I wish there was more info here on the band's history... how they came together and why they separated with Randy... but overall this looks really nice. 300 pressed on turquoise colored vinyl for the REVHQ store.

Live Nation

I have so many new releases that I need to get posted up here before the year closes out, and here I am mucking about with a new reissue. I may have actually let this one slip me by, but when I saw Marcus post about it this summer, I found myself influenced into picking it up.

In June of this year, there was a memorial show for Big Frank Harrison that featured a ton of great older bands, and it would have been great if I had the forethought to plan a trip out to Cali to check it out... but I seem to be out of the loop with hardcore most of the time, and didn't fully realize what was going on until Marcus over from the UK that weekend for the show. In any case, as Big Frank was a member of Carry Nation, the band decided to reissue their one 7 inch to help raise some additional money for Frank's daughter. This alone made it a worthwhile purchase, but what really sold me was how great the record looked.

The gold vinyl and the new cover design looked so good that I needed to buy this.

The nice thing about this 7 inch is that there aren't 10 different pressings to collect. You just get the original black and clear vinyl pressings from 1989, and then the newest reissue. Got to like it when record collecting doesn't get stupid and just keeps things simple.

Confession time. I've never owned, or been too interested in the No Control At The Country Club live 7 inch that Nemesis put out in 1990. I don't know... one live song each from four bands never really appealed to me as a music consumer (hey, at least the East Meets West live comp had the unreleased Carry Nation song Temple Walls)... and while maybe I should track one down at some point to appear as a real record collector, I've just never made it a priority. For the Big Frank memorial show, the band decided to press all five songs from their Country Club set to wax, and that was something that I could get behind more than the original live comp.

This is a cool recording to have. The drums sound a bit annoying at the start of Grave Mistake, but overall, it is a good reminder of how good the band was, and hearing the song Thinking Of You for the first time here just makes me wish that we got more from Carry Nation.