20 Years Disconnecting

Today is the 20th anniversary of this blog. I started this thing on a whim when a friend of mine said that he was starting a blog about his journey getting into stand up comedy, and I felt the urge to document something here as well. I'd just started getting into record collecting the year before and it had become an obsession. I was constantly scouring eBay, and I was creating checklists for things like my short lived plan to collect all of the Bridge Nine pressings (truly a sign of my 2006 mindset LOL), and starting a "record nerd" blog to write about the things I was buying just seemed to make sense. Who knew that 20 years and 2,644 post later I'd still be doing this thing?

To say that this blog has become my personality would be an understatement. I'm not sure who I'd be right now without it. I love writing about this shit and documenting my musical obsessions, and sometimes I question if I'm buying records because I need to own them or if I'm just using it as an excuse to talk about it here. Either way, I still get a kick out of this thing and don't see myself stopping anytime soon.

When I noticed that I was coming up on 20 years here, I started to put some thought into what I should do to commemorate the event. I wanted a record to post today that was going to fit the 20 year anniversary theme and it seemed that something released in the year that I started this blog would be a good way to go. I started checking my 2006 playlist and discovered a couple of records that I'd never picked up over the past 20 years and figured that now was the time.

It took me a long time to really get into Sinking Ships. I had a brief obsession with them a few years ago, but still I've never really paid much attention to their album from 2006, Disconnecting. After giving the songs a couple of spins last month, I knew that I needed the record for this 20 year anniversary post.

It might have taken me a while to get there, but I am loving this album right now. So happy that I was prompted to give it my attention.

99 pressed on blue vinyl.

Iron Chic Ys

Iron Chic were a punk band that were huge for me around 2012/2013. Their albums were such a surprise... so catchy and so much fun... and it felt like I was listening to them constantly during those years that I first discovered them. They released a bunch of singles at the time as well, but for one reason or another I didn't put much effort into chasing them... part of that may have been because they did a few split 7 inches and I just wasn't interested in some band that I'd never heard of on the b-side, but in the case of the Ys EP it just wasn't easily available at the time.

The Ys 7 inch was released from a label in Australia, and I remember at the time that it was just a difficult one for me to get my hands on. It seemed like it was only available from overseas sellers, and I wasn't interested in paying the postage to get one so I threw it onto my Discogs want list and figured that at some point I'd be able to pick it up for a decent price. Fast forward 10 years, and I was finally able to grab a copy.

It's kind of nice that it took me this long to get my hands on this 7 inch as it is some new Iron Chic material that I hadn't heard until now. Two new songs and a cover of Dog Bite from Dead Kennedys... yeah, this sounds good in my ears.

Purple To Write Home About

2025 was a big year for me when it came to discovering some 90's bands that I really didn't think that I liked. While bands like Disembodied and Harvest were the two that took most of my attention, I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention that I was surprised to find myself spending a bit of time with Saves The Day and The Get Up Kids as well. I listened to both of those bands a bit in the late 90's, and I enjoyed their sophomore albums from 1999, but soon after that I didn't bother much with either band and they have largely been forgotten over the past 25 years.

After talking with my friend Alex last year about music, and hearing her talk about how much she loved Saves The Day and The Get Up Kids, I figured that I'd check out their first couple of records again. Admittedly, I didn't hold out much hope in revisiting these two bands again. I'd generally filed them under "bands that I never need to hear again", so I was shocked when I found that I really enjoyed checking them out again. After repeat listens I figured that maybe I wanted to get something into my 90's record collection for either of them.

The first album from The Get Up Kids is definitely my favorite from the band, but Something To Write Home About is a nice slice of emo from that time as well. I was having trouble deciding what I wanted to pick up from the band. I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the money that discogs sellers were asking for Four Minute Mile, and when I saw this purple vinyl version of their second album, it just felt like the right choice.

I wasn't going to get too wrapped up in my obsession for the band last summer, and I didn't need to commit to a first pressing... nah, this second pressing from 2009 on purple did the job nicely.

Dare O.C.S.E.

I didn't pay any attention to the band Dare until REV released their Against All Odds LP in 2021. I was excited for that album and started to look back to check out what they had released with Reaper a few years earlier. I still haven't fucked with the OC Straight Edge record though, and I'm sorry but I just haven't found the strength to even listen to the songs for something that was only released as a flexi... the self-titled Dare 7 inch though, yeah that was something that I could get down with.

So as REV was set to release the LP, I figured that I could swoop in and pick up the Dare 7 inch somewhere. I had no luck. Reaper was sold out of it, and surprisingly only did the one pressing... and I couldn't even find one available on Discogs. The market was dry and as time went on I kind of forgot about it. It had been a few years since I'd even thought to listen to those songs, but then as I was picking up a Despair 7 inch recently, I saw the seller had the Dare record available as well. Easy decision to drop it into the cart too.

I guess I'm not the only one that forgot about this band because this was relatively cheap to pick up.

300 pressed on the yellow and blue split.

Despair Bleeds Blue

Last year I found a new level of appreciation for a handful of 90's hardcore bands... with one of them being Despair. I didn't really pay much attention to them in the mid-90's because bands like Fastbreak, Floorpunch and Ten Yard Fight had taken over my world... but here we are 30 years later and Despair fills the hole in my 90's hardcore heart.

I'd picked up a couple of Despair records last year, and sure enough, after posting about them during my 90's Week series, I found this copy of As We Bleed on blue. It's taken me five months to finally get it posted here because my record backlog is a little out of control, but it feels good to give these songs a spin again today and talk about this band on the blog again.

Number 26 of 100 pressed on blue vinyl.

Lower G.I. Bleed

The 90's were rich with various styles of punk and hardcore... from the straight forward New Age Records stuff to the more emo and discordant Ebullition style... and I love all of it.

I loved Native Nod back in the 90's and like many bands of this style, time and time again they will pop on my radar and I won't be able to get enough of them. For the past three years, Native Nod just keeps coming back for me... a song will catch my ear and I'll be back to obsessing over their three record, nine song, output all over again.

I never bought the Zither 7 inch back in the day. Gern Blandsten had released the Native Nod discography CD around the same time as that last Native Nod 7 inch, and at the time the CD was all that I needed. 30 years later and I keep coming back to this band over and over, and I needed to correct errors of the past and finally get that 7 inch. I put that record on my Discogs want list, but for years it seemed like the only sellers that had it available were from overseas. It was odd... like why were there no US sellers with this at a reasonable price? Last year my call was finally answered and I was able to pick this up. Damn, this sound is so good and it will now most likely push me to listen to this 90's emo sound for the next couple of weeks at least.

Majority Rule

When I first discovered Rule Them All back in 2019, I immediately fell in love with that band. I listened to them consistently over the next couple of years, and sang their praise for each record I posted here. I remember being a bit disappointed at the time when I discovered that the band's 12 inch, An Alignment Of Polarity, was only pressed on black vinyl. I loved the band and wanted something to collect for that record, but I didn't think that I had much of a chance in finding the versions with the special covers, so I just took my common black vinyl and figured that was the end of the line.

Imagine my surprise when I was checking discogs last summer and found a seller with the special cover that pays tribute to the Life Of A Spectator record cover from Silent Majority. The price didn't seem too bad, but it didn't really matter... I was buying it regardless.

Number 13 of only 30 made, with the Daze logo stamped on the center label, so I'm extremely happy to have this in the collection.