True Blue

The pricing was insanely high to ship overseas to the States, but when pre-orders went up for the new True Colors LP, Rush Of Hope, there was no way that I was going to pass it up. My first order directly from Powered and I was not disappointed. Man, the packaging on this LP is top notch. Everything from the album cover with the beautiful gatefold sleeve, to the printed dust sleeve with the pre-order stamp...even the special issue of the Powered Records fanzine...this thing looks fantastic. But how does it sound?

It took me about 2 weeks to finally drop the needle into the grooves on this one. The delay was mostly due to lack of time, because when I first hear an album, I want to really absorb myself into it. I really prefer to either lock myself away in my Music Room, or give it a first listen in the car, on the way to work. The other reason for the delay was out of fear. Sometimes when I get a new record from a band that I love, I'm really hesitant to give it that first listen. I get worried that somehow it will leave me disappointed. Well, no worries here. This album is amazing from start to finish as True Colors continue to rise to the top of the current Straight Edge Hardcore scene.

While placing my pre-order, I noticed that Powered also had a "special version" of the Rhythm Of Madness LP. I'm not sure why they made this special version, but it was limited to 50, so I decided to pick one up.


Pretty cool alternate sleeve. Mine is number 8 of 50.

I also picked up a copy of the Common Cause LP on clear vinyl (limited to 220). Another amazing, straight forward hardcore band on Powered. Man, I love this album.

Lost In A Crowd

Al Barkley posted on the Livewire messageboard that he was looking to sell a few records at set prices. Seems as though he got himself in pretty deep with credit card debt, and was looking to get out of that situation. Al ran Contrast Records, and in addition to the first Verse record, he re-released the Alone In A Crowd 7 inch a few years back. I only had the AIAC songs on a split CD with New York's Inside Out that was released on the sketchy Lost & Found label. I figured that this was a good a time as any to finally pick this up on vinyl. Man, it doesn't get much better than the one two punch of Is Anybody There and Commitment. Classic.

The original reason for me buying records from Al, was to pick up a copy of Said & Done's 7 inch released on Suburban Voice back in 1991. Said & Done, not to be confused with Said and Done from The Netherlands, were a great hardcore band out of Boston, and I saw them play a few times with other early 90's BHC greats like Eye For An Eye, Kingpin, and Third Degree. Anyway, I thought that I had this record on black vinyl, so I bought the purple vinyl pressing from Al. Turns out that I already had this on purple vinyl, so now I've got two.

After buying these records, I found that Al has a great website at albarkley.com, which has some great pressing info on some classic records. Check it out.

We Will Destroy

The 90's pretty much sucked when it came to Metal music. Early on, it's spirit got crushed by the likes of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and then Nu-Metal put another nail in the coffin. Hey, who am I to talk? Through the 90's I had lost all interest in Metal, and was only listening to hardcore and punk, I discovered Straight Edge and by the end of 1991 I was X'ing up and looking forward to the next show for stagedives and singalongs. This was as "real" as music got, and as far as I was concerned, Metal was dead. Sometime around 2004, my mind opened back up to this genre of music and it was a lot of fun "rediscovering" all those old Metal records from my youth. In addition to the nostalgia trip of revisiting all those early 80's Metal records, my eyes were opened up to a lot of really cool bands that are putting out some truly ripping Metal in the present day. Dekapitator released one of my favorite thrash albums of 2007, and I was floored to find that they also released another album back in 1999. I had never heard their first album, but I found it on eBay for $17.00, and decided to take a chance and pick it up. We Will Destroy...You Will Obey is amazing, and I can't believe that such a great album was released during one of Metal's darkest times. The album was released on some independent record label that I've never heard of before, Blackmetal.com Records, and was limited to 1,000 pressed on vinyl, so I consider myself lucky to have picked up this gem.

Questionable Idea

I got my Right Idea pre-order a week or so ago, and the first thing that I thought was "Wow, Bottled Up have completely lost it, because these look like shit.". The cover for the record looks like some cheap photocopy job of the original React layout. The lyric sheet looks like some old school cut and paste job, where pieces of the lyrics were slapped on to a piece of paper and then photocopied. Plus the record labels themselves appeared to be the original labels from the React pressing, replacing the React logo with the one from Bottled Up, and X'ing out all other references to the React name. I was thoroughly confused and dismayed.

Figuring that there must be some explanation for such a shoddy layout, I immediately sent an email off to Jeff at Bottled Up to see what had happened. He explained that the look was intentional and was meant to have the look of a bootleg of the original React Records press.

Once I found out that the look was intentional, I was relieved and thought that it was a pretty clever idea. The more I sit on it, the more I wonder if maybe the bootleg layout should have just been used for the pre-order pressing on black vinyl, and the rest of the pressing would have been better suited to a cleaner layout because, really, this looks like shit.

Also with my Right Idea order, I picked up the white vinyl pressing of The First Step's What We Know Sessions 7 inch. I only ordered 2 copies of the record when it was released, but being the total geek that I am, I needed the white vinyl as well....limited to 250 pressed.

Won't Turn My Back

Back in May, after I watched a couple of records that I wanted sell for over $300, I was feeling a little dismayed at the thought of never being able to add them to my collection. I was told that those prices were higher than normal, and that I shouldn't give up hope. Here we are a couple months later, and while this Brotherhood 7 inch is a different pressing than the one I had originally been watching, I was still very excited to pick up this classic Hardcore record...and at what I would consider to be a reasonable price. After asking around, it looks as though my copy is missing the insert/lyric sheet, which was a major disappointment. So if anyone has the lyric sheet that they can scan and send to me, I'd really appreciate it.

Justice For All

This post is pretty much centered around Justice. Ever since I picked up the bands Escapades LP from Youngblood back in 2007, I've had a difficult time getting into this band. The album started to grow on me, but after a few listens I kind of shelved it. Live and Learn was released last year, but I never had any interest in checking it out. After really getting into the band Loud and Clear, I decided to revisit the earlier Justice stuff. The only thing I had from them was the Elephant Skin LP that I picked up at the Planet Mental record release show, so I checked the band's myspace page to try and find some of their older songs. This was where I stumbled upon A Quiet Pain from the Live and Learn 12 inch. Wow...I was really impressed with this song. So impressed that I had to revisit Escapades, and to my surprise, I couldn't stop listening to it. That was the push I needed. I had to get the band's last 12 inch. I found that Six Feet Under Records had the gold vinyl pressing (limited to 300) in their webstore, and didn't hesitate to order it. It took a while, but I've finally become a fan of this band.

After Justice broke up, the band members stuck together, got a new singer, and created Rhythm to the Madness. The band has a sound similar to Best Wishes era Cro-Mags, as opposed to the Supertouch direction that Justice went to. I was first drawn to their Weltchmerz LP because of the great looking cover art. I checked out one of their songs...liked it, so I grabbed that from Six Feet Under as well.

The last Justice connection for this post is the Loud and Clear LP. Six Feet Under only had a few left of the black vinyl pressing in the webstore, so I grabbed this one before it was gone. 383 pressed.

I also ordered the True Colors CD, Focus on the Light. Six Feet Under sent me the black vinyl pressing instead. Not sure what happened, but I needed this pressing for the collection anyway, so I kept it. 355 pressed.

Learn To Take Care Of Your Records

This is the third part in my Rhode Island series of posts, with Verbal Assault beating Neutral Nation, 2 - 1. As I mentioned in my first Verbal Assault post, I've been itching to get some of their stuff on vinyl. Tiny Giants on colored vinyl was a good start, but I was very happy to pick up a copy of the Learn LP. I have no idea on how much this typically goes for, but $15 seems like a steal to me. Once again, I was surprised by how little value place in taking care of their records. The album cover is in great shape, but the vinyl itself was covered in greasy fingerprints. Jesus Christ, did you let your 5 year old kid play with this thing? Fingers should only touch the center label or the outer edge...it's common sense. In addition to the large amounts of DNA left on the vinyl, this arrived with no dust sleeve. What the hell are people thinking? How does one lose a dust sleeve? You take the album out, play it, and then put it back in the sleeve. Come on people, I know that it is a big responsibility but you've got to take care of this shit! Thankfully I had some record cleaner, and after a wash, the vinyl was looking nice and minty. Now I just need to place an order with bagsunlimited for some more dust sleeves. Don't worry, your Verbal Assault records will be safe in my hands.