Tuesday, February 16, 2016

10 Year Anniversary

Ten years ago today, I came up with the idea to start a blog to document the new vinyl that I was adding to my collection. I'd gotten into record collecting the previous year, and it completely consumed me. It was all that I could think about, and I would spend hours online searching eBay and checking messageboard posts, just to look at pictures of records. I figured that writing a blog about what I was buying would be a nice simple way to kill some time.

Over the years things exploded. This blog ended up being not only a way to burn some time on my obsession...it provided fuel to stoke those flames higher. Within a few years, I met dudes online that were doing the same kind of blogs, and it inspired me to step up my game. I had to take better photos, I had to write better, I needed to buy better records...and I needed to buy more of them, effectively doubling my post counts from 58 in 2008, to 116 in 2009. When I started the blog, $30 was crazy money for me to spend on a record...these days, $30 doesn't even make me pause to think about it. Shit got serious, and escalated quickly.

So here we are, ten years later, and first thing that I did this morning was bounce around on eBay and the discogs marketplace, wringing my hands over the decision of which record I should buy next. Ten years on and 1,242 posts later, and the obsession is still going strong.

For this ten year anniversary, I wanted to post something special. I spent weeks going over some big ticket possibilities that I wanted to chase down for this milestone. Some of them didn't work out, and in the end I figured that the Overkill 10 year anniversary live record, Wrecking Your Neck, would fit the theme perfectly.

Released in 1995, when vinyl was considered a dying format, this live album was only pressed on wax in Germany, so trying to track down a copy can be a bit of work. I found a few available on eBay, but none of them were in great condition. I'm sure that the minimalist packaging doesn't help, and the copies that I'd seen had plenty of ringwear. There was a copy on discogs, that was listed as "Like new. Collector's copy.", and while the price was a bit higher, I didn't mind spending the extra money to get the best.

My favorite part of this live record is that I'm really not that familiar with the majority of the songs on here. I know the first four Overkill albums, from Feel the Fire through The Years of Decay, like the back of my hand...but the few albums after that haven't seen a lot of action for me. With this live set full of songs from Horrorscope, I Hear Black, and W.F.O., this is a cool snapshot of Overkill ten years into their run...and twenty years later, it is awesome that they are still going strong. I wonder how many more years I can keep this blog going...

9 comments:

xtinox said...

boy, ten years! seems like an insane amount of time, a friggin' decade.
i take my hat off to this achievement. keep going!
lovely vinyl colour, by the way.

chris said...

Congratulations on the ten years! I'm surprised at making it to three years. Such a great achievement!

Mark-Sandwell said...

Excellent. Here's to another fifty more years of blogging hoping that the world hasn't crumbled to dust by then.

J@screamingforrecords said...

Ten years! Damn! Well done man and keep it up. Easily my favourite record blog just because of the variety of stuff you write about.

massivewaste said...

Congratulations. Keep on blogging. I always check your blog. Thanks!

bosso3rd said...

All the best Mike, keep on going - your blog is always a great read and it helped me to discover some music I wouldn't have chance of finding otherwise.

Unknown said...

Keep up the good work, always a fun read!

mcs said...

Good work on this milestone achievement!

This thing is still definitely one of the top 50 record blogs out there :o)

Anonymous said...

great idea Mike, to start blogging about records! All those Instagrammers who think they started it should read blogger.com sites at get a lesson in history! Respect for your ten years anniversary.