Friday, May 08, 2009

We Don't Need Friends Like You

Rivalry Records has been very quiet for the past year or so. No news has come from them since the release of the last Verse LP back in June of 2008. Every once in a while, I'll check their home page and see if they have anything going on, and I was surprised a few weeks ago to see that the label was having a big 50% off sale on everything in their store, plus they had listed some rare items for sale. I was pretty happy to find they had the Go It Alone friends press of Histories up for sale. It's funny, Rivalry said that apparently they don't have many friends as they still had these copies lying around. Since this was limited to 105, I didn't hesitate to add it to my cart for $30 postage paid. I remember when this was released, and I was so jealous that Tyler got a copy of this friends press in his regular order. So yeah, I'm pretty excited to finally have a copy in my collection as well. Really cool record, with some of the more deep and insightful lyrics that you will ever find in hardcore.
Still not sure what is going on with Rivalry, especially now that it seems like they are cleaning out their inventory. They were one of the hottest hardcore labels around for a while, and it will be too bad if they've closed up shop.


PS. I love gatefold sleeves.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice score! I noticed they have a Betrayed "Substance"
LP on white which I have been looking for real bad, but no sleeve. Wish they had one more copy. Can't believe I slept on this album....

Tyler said...

This is awesome man, glad you got yourself a copy. I still miss Go It Alone, one of the best shows i've seen was when they played here a couple of years ago.

Kinda sucks that Rivalry seems to be winding down, i haven't really been paying attention but they are one of my favorite labels. Powered Records is awesome too, can't wait for that new True Colors LP.

mcs said...

I saw this band once. Maybe twice. I don't remember. I like their first LP. SOunds like Battery to me, which is a good thing. They made me feel old though. The singer looked like he was about 15 or something. Anyway, I never bought any of their stuff after the first LP. Dunno why. I just never liked Rivalry to be honest.

Mike said...

Man, Rivalry gave us Betrayed, The First Step, Soul Control, Verse, and even Allegiance. They had an incredible run of records for a while.

mcs said...

Yeah yeah, I'm not saying their bands sucked or anything. I really love the Betrayed and First Step LPs. Modern day classics. But what I never liked about Rivalry was that they used that european pressing plant that I hate. For some reason, that crappy vinyl actually puts me off buying records by labels that use it.