How Soon Is Now

My collection for The Smiths consisted only of their two compilations, Hatful Of Hollow and Louder Than Bombs. While I was happy to pick up those two comps, it kind of triggered me to enterain the thought of collecting singles for The Smiths... and I feel like that could be a dangerous road to start down. Still, when the opportunity landed in my lap to pick up a couple of singles, I didn't hesitate to grab them.

My friend Jeff had another batch of records from Tim's collection earlier this year, and my interest was piqued when he said there were a couple of singles from The Smiths in there. He immediately tried to discourage me from the 12 inch single of William, It Was Really Nothing by telling me that it was probably too expensive for my taste. Don't fucking challenge me like that because it will just make me want to prove you wrong.

The German pressing for the William single was on colored vinyl, and apparently it carries a price tag a little higher than the other versions. If I was on the hunt myself for the single, I would have gone for the original UK press, but with the colored vinyl option staring me in the face... I couldn't resist paying the extra money for it.

For the Shoplifters Of The World Unite single I ended up with the UK press, but looking at the colored vinyl German press on Discogs now... damn, it would be nice to have either the pink or the green one to compliment my William single. Fuck. I can't start thinking like this.

Man, I love the six songs on these two singles so much. It's funny how a few years ago I would have told you that I hated The Smiths, and now after writing the post, I know that this is going to be the only thing that I'll be listening to for the rest of the day.

Purity

It has been a while since I dipped into more of the records that I've picked up from Tim's collection. It took some time for Jeff to prep the next batch of records he was selling from the collection, and then I put stuff on hold with him and didn't rush to pay for it and pick it up... but I've got a little stack here now, so let's start to chip away at them.

I really love New Model Army. When I listen to them, I feel like they are all I want to listen to... but then I'll get distracted and for some reason I don't get back to them for months and months. I really only listen to the first few NMA records, but recently I've been feeling the urge to pick up the next one in line, their 1990 album Impurity. As a bonus push to get me to check out that album, I ended up getting the Purity 12 inch single handed to me earlier this year.

This record came from Tim's collection and since Jeff introduced New Model Army to me back in the early 90's, he felt that I should take this piece of vinyl at no cost and just handed it to me.

The single contains the song Purity from the album, plus two songs, Curse and No Sense, that were exclusive to the b side here. I've been having a lot of fun with these songs, and the Impurity album is proving to be great as well. Going to need the vinyl for that one soon as well. Shame that Tim's collection didn't have one available. Guess I'll have to do some work to find a copy myself.

Stiff State Of Summer

There is something about obnoxious snotty punk that just feels perfect for summer. Yeah, warm weather and an "I don't give a fuck" attitude just go great together.

I discovered Stiff Richards last year with their GFC 7 inch and very quickly I decided that I needed more than those two song. I decided to check out their State Of Mind album and it instantly became part of the soundtrack to Summer 2025. It was just so fun.

I tried in vain to pick up a copy of the record, but because the band is from Australia (with labels from Australia and Europe releasing it) it didn't seem to be easily available from a seller in the US. I decided to wait for something to come up here in the States, and then forgot all about it.

A couple of months ago, as the temps were rising and summer was on the horizon, a Stiff Richards song popped up on my Spotify radio and it reminded me how much fun they are. I immediately put the State Of Mind album back into my daily playlists and listened to it a lot. I checked Discogs and was happy to find a copy available in the US and quickly added it to my cart.

Second Oversight

You know I'm a sucker for 90's hardcore right? And the more obscure the better. Like I should probably be out chasing Unbroken's Life Love Regret on blue vinyl, or something else that is equally important and crucial, but instead I'm over here grinning like a nut because I was able to pick up a record from 1992 that I imagine maybe a total of three people care about in 2026.

A few years ago I stumbled upon the band Oversight. They were a hardcore band from the Syracuse/upstate New York area in the early 90's, and I ended up discovering them as I was checking out what other bands Shane Durgee from Framework may have been involved with. I tracked him back to Oversight on Discogs and I was able to quickly pick up their 7 inch, After This Day, on grey vinyl. At the time, I noticed that there were a few other colored vinyl options for this record as well, but I wasn't sure if I really wanted to try and collect them all. Well, here we are a few years later and I was excited to find a blue vinyl version available and quickly snapped it up... so yeah, I guess I'm doing this.

Blue vinyl was limited to 100.

I still need that Justice Coming 7 inch from Framework, but until something becomes available, I guess that I'll just focus on my Oversight collection.

Sweet NWOBHM Danger

When I was buying a couple of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal records from a UK seller, I figured that I might as well add to the order to try and make it worth the overseas shipping fees.

I already own the one crucial Angel Witch album, the self titled from 1980, but the band has a few early singles that I've always wanted to collect as well.

The first Angel Witch single was for Sweet Danger, and was on EMI before the band got picked up by Bronze. The 12 inch has two songs that didn't appear on the album and are exclusive to the single... Hades Paradise and Flight Nineteen were originally on the band's earlier demos, so it is nice that they got an official release on the b-side here because the songs are so good.

With the paper sleeve it is going to be difficult to find one in great shape 45+ years down the line, and this one definitely has some wear and tear, this copy looks better in person than the pictures. While this single isn't something that I've ever set out to chase, I'm very happy to have this in the collection now.

Seven Inches Of Splendour

Jameson Raid were a New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band out of Birmingham in the late 70's / early 80's. They released two 7 inches during their career and shortly after my friend Jeff put the band on my radar back in 2021, I obsessed about them for six months and I grabbed one of their records. Man, I love this shit... young bands that just love what they are doing. They probably made a bit of noise in the scene at the time, but they never got major label recognition and therefore tend to get forgotten as the years tick by... so finding stuff like this gives me such a charge of discovery.

Like I'd mentioned, the band only released two 7 inches back in the day (and I'm not sure that I care to bother checking out their newer stuff from 2014/2015) and having one of their records already, I was itching to pick up the other and complete the collection.

There were two pressings of the Seven Days Of Splendour 7 inch... the first with a white cover and the second with a black cover. While I would have liked to grab a copy of the white cover, once I had the oppotunity in front of me to grab the second press I couldn't let it pass me by and I jumped on it.

Head On Into NWOBHM

I haven't done a good job of keeping up with collecting New Wave Of British Heavy Metal records. I had been steadily picking up pieces but saw it come to a grinding halt in recent years. Picking up the Gaskin record from Tim's collection earlier this year was a good reminder that I needed to get back to it. I don't spend the time obsessing over the NWOBHM like I used to, but there are still a number of classic records that I still need to get into my collection.

Recently I'd taken a roadtrip with my friend Jeff to catch a show over in New Hampshire, and since Jeff is also a big NWOBHM fan I set it up so that we would be listening to a lot of it while we were on the road. One of the albums that we listened to was Samson's Head On. Samson were one of those cornerstone NWOBHM bands in the early 80's, and had Bruce Dickinson on vocals for a couple of records before he joined Iron Maiden... and after listening to the songs with Jeff in the car, mentioning that I still didn't own the vinyl for the Head On album, I knew that I needed to make filling that hole in my collection a priority.

It's kind of wild that it has taken me this long to pick up a Samson album. This is such a NWOBHM classic.