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.

Pummel For A King

I'm not sure what it is about the Pummel 7 inch, but it is one of the few newer records that I feel compelled to collect. It is a solid hardcore record from a band out of Boston, the label didn't get stupid with a bunch of different color vinyl options, plus the band has broken up, so I know that this one 7 inch will cover their entire output... essential traits if I want to bother attempting to collect everything for a record.

Picking up the Joey's World cover for the Pummel 7 inch last summer was the tipping point. Prior to that I was content with the two copies that I owned... one on blue and one on white... but with the special cover added to the collection, suddenly I wanted them all. Luckily as I was adding to the collection in Discogs, I saw there was a seller that had the record release version with the lion cover, and I was able to spend more money.

I remember when Pummel played their record release show. Covid was really starting to kick in, and while I really wanted to go to the show, the thought of the two and half hour drive down to Massachusetts and south of Boston was enough to turn me off and keep me home. How the fuck was that six years ago? Oh well, got that record release cover eventually.

Full Speed Ahead

This post is gonna make you feel like we have traveled back in time. Welcome to 2012, when this blog was popping off with almost 200 posts for the year and it was loaded with records like this Rain On The Parade 7 inch. In fact, I picked up seven ROTP records that year, so it feels funny to think that we are here 14 years later and I'm like "yeah, it's time to finish that Full Speed Ahead collection".

I remember at the time having a bit of a difficult time tracking down Full Speed Ahead with the yellow cover. Fast foward to last summer and when I was picking up the Lights Out 7 inch on yellow, I noticed that the seller had this ROTP record available as well, and I didn't hesitate to add it to the cart.

When I was bouncing around on the internet looking at Rain On The Parade historical pricing, I found that this exact record sold on eBay back in 2016 for $21. Cool to see that some prices have stayed relatively flat over the years as I picked this up for only a few dollars more.

Grabbed a picture of the full set with this cover variation... although thinking about it now, it feels like I should have just pulled out all ten different versions that I have of this, and included them all in a family photo.