The Only Answer

By picking up only a couple records from The Answer each year, I've guaranteed myself a lifelong pursuit.

I picked up my seventh piece of vinyl from The Answer a couple months ago, and at five bucks, it was a nice price as well. I hope the trend for cheap vinyl from this band continues, as I still have a long way to go on this collection.

The Answer is a fucking straight edge band. Man, I've always had a soft spot for bands that put that straight edge label right in your face.

The purple vinyl isn't much to look at, until you put it up to the light. Limited to 200 for this color.

Another Answer

Back in 2010, Doug posted on his blog that he owned 22 copies of the three records from The Answer. As I mentioned in my Circle Jerks post, I love crazy over the top goals, so I knew that I had to make a run at this one.

I haven't been too focused or determined in building my collection for The Answer...it's just one of those things that I slowly chip away at. Sure I regret some eBay losses because I didn't bid high enough, but I've resigned myself to the fact that this collection will be a marathon and not a sprint.

I've been trying to avoid eBay recently, and keep my record spending under control, but curiousity got the best of me when Six Feet Under recently put up a ton of records on eBay. SFU listed a bunch of records from Matt Pike of Some Kind Of Hate, and once I saw a few records from The Answer in there, I knew that I would be placing bids before the auctions ended.

The only one that I walk away with, however, was this copy of You Had Your Chance on grey vinyl. Limited to 1,000. Six down, sixteen more to go.

The Golden Answer

The early 2000's were a strange time for me musically. While I still loved Hardcore, I was desperately searching for new musical styles. I was listening to a lot of Hip Hop, some healthy doses of Slipknot and Limp Bizkit, as well as some swing bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Access to free music via Napster and then WinMX and Soulseek, kicked off a kind of musical experimentation, and I was willing to try just about anything. Looking back now, I wasted a lot of time on music that I was interested in mainly because it was free and available. I downloaded hundreds of CDs that I could give a shit about today, and most of them ended up in the trash as the years ticked by. Add in the fact that I was only buying CD's at the time, and it is no surprise that I missed out on some great Hardcore bands of the time like The Answer.

I finally caught up to The Answer around 2009, picking up their second 7 inch on Aram's pre-REACT! label, Anchor Records. At this point, I can't remember what prompted me to check out the band, or even where I got the record. All I can say for sure is that it has been a slow growing appreciation of this band since that time. After picking up the 7 inch collection pack a couple years ago, and reading that Doug had 22 pieces of vinyl for the band...I was itching to jump into the game. I'm barely out of the starting gate at this point, but picking up the gold vinyl pressing from the Excursion 7 inch, only fuels the record collector in me. I need more.

500 on gold vinyl with the gold foil stamped cover. Such a nice look...and at 99 cents on ebay, it was a nice price.

You Had Your Chance

Tre from Deathwish Inc has been putting up a few records on eBay each week. I don't think there is one Deathwish release that I enjoy, but regardless of this, the man has been selling some great hardcore records to thin out his collection. He's been listing things alphabetically, and I've picked up a few things from him over the past couple of months. Lets start with the record that I won from the A's back at the beginning of September.

My first win from Tre was a test pressing of the You Had Your Chance 7 inch from The Answer. I don't own many test pressings, but when I get the chance to pick one up for cheap, I'm grateful. Considering that this was being sold from a well known name in the hardcore scene, and the 7 inch was released on Aram's pre-REACT! record label, Anchor, I expected the price for this test press to fall a little out of my price range. Seriously, $16 for a test press is more than a reasonable price for me.

I don't know much about the history of Anchor Records...why it faded away, or why Aram decided to start up REACT! instead of reviving Anchor years later...I really have no idea. I also don't know why this particular record was rejected as the test press. Judging from the matrix, it looks like there may have been an issue with the b side of the record, but when I play this rejected press next to the one that got released, I don't really notice any difference. I've never really had a good ear for this kind of thing, so maybe it was a different mix or something. Cool win, and I've got a couple other records from Tre that I'll be putting up in the coming weeks.

A Collection Of Answers

So after four months of single digit post numbers, I was looking forward to blogging like an addict, and getting some long overdue posts up in July. The month got off to a slow start with the July 4th holiday, and then my computer got hit hard with a virus. It shut my computer down for a week and I ended up having to clean everything off and rebuild. I'm going to have to work overtime if I want respectable post numbers this month.

Recently, Dave Larson from Excursion Records posted on the REACT! messageboard that he had 10 copies of the Seven Inch Collection package that he had made up for the Rain Fest this year. There were 100 of these made, and it contains all three 7 inches from The Answer.

Number 28 of 100.

The records were packaged beautifully, but were completely stitched closed. The only way to find out which records were included was to cut the top stitch.

I know some people that would leave it stitched up, but I couldn't resist. I needed to know what pressings I received.

The 7 inch collection came with a check list to document how many of each pressing were included in the package and which ones you received.

The first 7 inch, released on Excursion Records, and limited to 26 on red vinyl with the red foil cover for this package. I've never heard this 7 inch, so I was excited to check it out.

You Had Your Chance 7 inch, released on Anchor Records, and limited to 100 on gold for this collection.

16 copies of the blue vinyl with the regular cover were included for the Getting Even 7 inch that was pressed on Endwell Records.

Getting An Answer

I don't really know too much about The Answer, other than the fact that Aram released their first 7 inch on his old label, Anchor Records. I was cruisin' around on eBay a few weeks back, and stumbled upon their second 7 inch, Getting Even, that was released on Endwell Records. It was the Summer Tour 2005 pressing, hand numbered 38 of 200. I threw a low bid on it, and was happy to pick it up for only $2.00. Good deal...good record.