Lightning In A Pentagram

I had high hopes for getting back on track with blog posts in March, and then my computer died... so yeah... three posts for last month. Maybe I'll get my shit together in April. Let's get back to it with my first new release for 2025.

I was excited to learn that Pentagram were releasing a new album this year. It has been nine years since their last album, Curious Volume, and while I haven't bothered to listen to that record since it came out, I still found myself excited for something new from the band. The main reason for my excitement was that the band now included Tony Reed on guitar. A few years back I was obsessed with what he was doing with Mos Generator and Stone Axe, so I was very interested to see what he would do with Pentagram. I was looking forward to it so much, that I excitedly preordered the "ultra limited" version of the album from overseas.

This version of Lightning In A Bottle, looks amazing and I think it was worth the price that I paid to get one. Limited to 100 for this color.

After receiving this record and spinning it occasionally over the past few weeks, I'm not sure exactly where it is going to land for me. I've just spent so much time with the first couple of Pentagram records, and they are so perfect... so it makes me wonder how often I'll actually reach for a new record from the band. No doubt this is good stuff... Tony Reed brings a spark to the band that may have been missing with the last record, and Bobby Liebling sounds like Bobby Liebling... but time will tell how often I'll revisit it in a few years.

...The Rest Were Dead

Nothing compares to discovering old bands that I'd previously ignored or wasn't into at the time. While I loved a lot of different styles of hardcore and punk in the 90's, once bands started to become more metallic and chaotic, I usually stopped paying attention. I kind of liked the first Disembodied CD EP, Existance In Suicide when it was released, but by the time I'd picked up their Confession 7 inch the following year, I decided that they weren't for me and then spent the next 25+ years ignoring the band.

At the start of this year, someone that I follow on Instagram posted a live clip of Disembodied. It had been so long since I'd given the band any thought, but seeing them absolutely lose their shit while playing live suddenly had me interested to check them out again. I selected If God Only Knew The Rest Were Dead on Spotify because it looked like the earliest Disembodied record that was available for streaming, and I queued it up to listen.

With my first listen, I thought it was just okay... nothing really special... but by the third time through it, the song Gone got my attention, and once it was done I immediately went back and listened to that song 3 or 4 times in a row. By that point, I was hooked on how raw and real it sounded and I started to obsess over this record.

Around the time that I was really starting to dig this record, I ended up on a call to catch up with Marcus. Conversation obviously centered around record collecting... our unexplainable strange attraction to it and what we had been buying recently... and of course we started talking about this Dismbodied 10 inch. Here was a record that I'd only just discovered from a band that I had zero interest in two weeks prior, there was one colored vinyl copy available on Discogs, and I was prepared swallow the high price tag that it was listed for. I was desperate for this record, and I wondered if Marcus would be the voice of reason and could talk me down off the ledge before I did something stupid. Oh, he just bought a copy last year? Well fuck, there was no way that I was going to be able to resist now.

Corrective Measure

A few weeks back, Municipal Waste came through town, and shockingly I actually got out of the house to see the band play. The plan was to meet my friend Rob in the city where we would grab dinner before the two of went to the show... so I kind of forced myself to commit by making plans with someone. I mean, I like Municipal Waste but I was having a hard time feeling too excited for the show, however as soon as the first band started playing, my mood suddenly changed and it felt really nice to be out seeing bands play live.

The first band to play that night was Corrective Measure. This is a Maine hardcore band that I'd never heard of, and had low expectations for, but as soon as they started playing I was immediately hooked. I don't what it was... maybe it was because I've spent so much time this year listening to stuff like The Cure... but seeing a straight forward hardcore band made me kind of nostalgic for that sound. I loved what I heard, and planned on visiting their merch table at the end of the night to pick up a couple of records. Another Maine punk band, Covered In Bees, played next and were a lot of fun, and then Municipal Waste stole the show and played an amazing set that was so fun and full of energy. It was just a good night for live music and made me realize that I need to do this more often (will I? probably not.)

But at the end of the night I went over to the merch table and was disappointed to see that the Corrective Measure dudes had already packed up and left. The next morning, I checked Discogs and found a seller that had the Refuse Records pressing on red availabe for a good price, so I quickly bought it. As it turned out, the seller was from the next town over from me so I had it in hand the following day.

110 pressed on red.

Flood Of Subs

Another record that was available from Tim's old collection, but one that I wasn't sure that I really wanted to bother with was the Flood Of Lies record from UK Subs. I was late getting into the UK Subs, and even then I've only bothered with their first two records from '79 and '80. Did I really want to bother with their 5th record... because realistically, can a punk band maintain a level of quality for that long? I put the record on the list of possible options, but I really wanted to listen to it before buying.

I pulled up the Flood Of Lies album on Spotify and after one listen, I thought that I might be telling Jeff that I was going to pass on this one. Nothing here really stuck with me. However, I did really like the cover art on this record, so before I made too hasty a judgement, I figured that I'd better listen to it a few more times to see if it would grow on me. I'm glad that I did, because with repeat listens this got better and better.

Obviously this record is no Another Kind Of Blues, or even Brand New Age, but Flood Of Lies is still a fun album. Guess I'm going to have to go back and check out other early UK Subs records.

When I was checking out Flood Of Lies on Spotify, I noticed that there were a few bonus songs included there. While it took a few listens to start to appreciate the album, the song Another Typical City Living In Another Typical Daydream immediately hooked me. I checked on Discogs to see where the song was from and discovered it was on a single the band released in 1983. Since I had the Flood Of Lies record, I had an urge to add the single to the collection as well.

Thankfully there was a US seller with the 12 inch available at a fair price and I immediately snatched it up.

Locals Only

While looking through Tim's collection, there were a few records available that, while not something that I would have sought out to purchase, had me thinking that I might as well buy them just because they were there.

I didn't hear Agression until around 2017, and I wish that I could remember what it was that put them on my radar at that time. I must have seen some online post or something at the time, and thought that it was time to finally check it out, so I downloaded the songs for Don't Be Mistaken. It is a cool record of good straight forward hardcore skater vibes, but I haven't spent much time with it since that initial download.

Seeing it in Tim's collection had me revisit it to see if should pick it up, and after a couple of spins, the answer was yes.

Restraining Order FYA

While I'm no longer buying every colored vinyl version for records that I like, I still have a hard time resisting a special cover. When I saw that Triple B was listing some leftover merch from the FYA Fest, I jumped to their webstore to see what was up.

While I was hoping to get the Gridiron album, that had quickly sold out, so instead I jumped on the latest Restraining Order record. I'm not sure what is happening with the cover, as the album is Locked In Time, while the FYA cover shows "Lost In Time". I don't know if that was intentional and I missed the meaning with the different title, but whatever, I'm still happy to own this limited version.

To be honest, this second LP from Restraining Order didn't excite me like their first, but this is still a good hardcore record. Buying this version has me listening to it on a regular basis recently, and appreciating it more these days.

Very happy to receive a low number for this one... 2 out of 50.

Quick Redness

Sometimes I get stuck with an older band. I'll discover them and fall in love with one record, and that will be all that I want to listen to from them. Either it is because I'll find that one record to be so perfect and I won't want to ruin that feeling by checking out anything else from them, or I will have heard something negative about their later records and I'll just avoid them blindly. With Bad Brains, for the longest time all I cared about was Rock For Light and in recent years, I've come to really appreciate I Against I... but still I figured that was as far as I'd go with my Bad Brains journey.

Last year, I picked up the Punk Note pressing of I Against I and it looked so good that I wanted to collect more from this Bad Brains reissue series. The one for Quickness looked so good, that I started thinking that maybe I should finally give it a chance... and when Ralf mentioned in his post for this record that the version here for Don't Blow Bubbles was an instrumental, that made it more attractive because I am not a homophobe and I'm not gonna fuck with that song.

Waiting until 2025 to give Quickness a chance may have been a bad idea. While not as great as Rock For Light or I Against I, this is still a pretty fucking rad record.