Guns Up!

Guns Up! have been around for a while now, but I had never heard them. 1917 Records put up pre-orders for their new LP 'Outlive', so I figured that it was a good time to check them out. Outlive captures some pretty good hardcore. Guns Up! have a familiar sound, but I can't put my finger on who it is...maybe early Terror, I'm not sure. In any case, I like it. Pre-orders received the white with blue splatter colored vinyl, limited to 304 pressed. The colored vinyl coordinates with the album cover and looks very nice. My record arrived a little warped, but it didn't affect the sound when I listened to it.

Boston vs Connecticut

I hang my head in shame over the state of my Ten Yard Fight collection. Ten Yard Fight were one of my favorite bands from the mid-90's. They were from Boston and I would drive to see them play in New England numerous times. I knew LaCroix from his days singing for Circus Puppies. Why have I been so uncommitted to completing this collection? I don't really know why, but I have continuously passed by TYF records on eBay since starting my record collection over a year ago.

Here is the clear vinyl pressing of the Ten Yard Fight vs. Fastbreak seven inch. I'm not sure how many of this color were pressed. Picked it up on eBay for $6.05. The price was so good that I couldn't pass it up.

The Alice Cooper Drama Show

Why is it that each time I win Alice Cooper records on eBay, I run into some kind of problem. As I noted a few posts ago, the Love It To Death album that I got had some nasty water damage that I wasn't expecting. This time around, my eBay experience ends with drama. So I saw an Alice Cooper record lot up for auction, and won with a low bid of $9.99...Billion Dollar Babies, Killer, and The Alice Cooper Show. The albums looked like they were in fantastic shape, which can be difficult to find for albums from the early 70's, and they included all the original inserts. Early Alice records had the best packaging...Billion Dollar Babies had the billion dollar bill insert, and Killer had the 1972 fold-out calendar.

A few weeks went by, and I haven't received my records. I'm getting nervous, so I send a message to the seller to check on the shipment. A few days go by with no response, so I shot off another message to the seller. Again, no response. A week goes by and my package finally arrives. The records are in great shape, and the Killer album has a white promo label, which is a bonus, but I notice that the guy didn't send the records out until three days after my last message. Two messages that went with no reply, and about a month before delivery. Unnecessary, so I leave neutral feedback stating that the records were in great shape but the service sucked. That was enough to finally get the guy to respond.

Enjoy the records, thanks for the neutral. This is not Walmart, I work out of state and am gone at least 3 weeks out of a month. Thanks for your "understanding"

I will have to really think of appropriate feedback (I seriously doubt I will be leaving a positive or neutral) for you since you decided to make me look like a poor seller in spite of our overall good reputation without contacting me first...

eBay states that you are to contact your seller prior to leaving feedback if there is a problem, if you had bothered, you would have known we have a newborn also and my girlfriend is disabled so you try watching a baby and running to the post office in a wheelchair while the head of the house is busting his ass in another state to make it all work

Good day Sir

oldetoycollector (the slow shipper)

Give me a friggin break. I didn't give negative feedback, it was neutral. The feedback that I left was to let other buyers know that the guy sells quality items, just sends stuff slower than shit. Don't come at me with stories about newborns and disabled girlfriend that you send to the post office while you are out of town. Take some responsibility for not being a great seller sometimes, and don't be a douche about it.

Japanese Pressing

My first Japanese pressing. I've wanted one since I started collecting Iron Maiden vinyl. Something about Japanese pressings with that OBI strip that seems so collectible. I had actually been holding out for a Japanese pressing of Killers, but I saw this copy of 'Live!!! + One' on eBay and placed a winning bid of $19.32. The seller was from the States, which made it more enticing since that meant I wasn't paying for shipping from Japan. I received the record and the quality of this thing is amazing. It was released 26 years ago in 1980, and yet it is still in mint condition.

First Step, Second Press

Here we have the second pressing of The First Step on blue/black swirl vinyl, limited to 215. The color mix on this record looks exactly like the Go It Alone/Blue Monday split 7 inch that Rivalry Records put out. One of the best record labels around right now.

The picture below is from the First Step set in Providence when they played at the Insted reunion show. Yeah, that's me on top of the crowd. Paul and I drove down to see the show at the Living Room. The club had moved and we had some problems trying to find it...turned out it was just down the street from their old location. The two of us used to always drive to the Living Room when they were in the old building. One of my first punk/hardcore shows was at the Living Room to see DRI. We saw a lot of great hardcore and metal bands there. I remember driving down to see Overkill, and rains had flooded the club so the show was cancelled, but Bobby "Blitz" was hanging out in the parking lot and we got his autograph. That was a big deal at the time! Great memories from seeing Murphy's Law play there with Low Meato, and catching the Circle Jerks "final" tour, getting thrown out for stage diving during Gang Green...damn, those were fun times...three hour drives home popping No-Doz and drinking Jolt Cola to stay awake. Anyway, Paul and I found the new location and hung out for a while in the parking lot. Sweet Pete showed up and we hung out for a while talking to him and Karl from Earth Crisis. Good time just chillin'. The show was amazing, seeing Mental, Desperate Measures, The First Step, and finally Insted. Great time.

Wish You Were Here

Champion were amazing. They were my favorite straight edge band from the past few years...possibly my favorite band since In My Eyes broke up. Something about them was special to me. In a way they kind of got me hooked on collecting vinyl. I remember seeing Champion in Worcester for their East Coast tour when Promises Kept was released on vinyl. I bought the record at the show...blue vinyl with hand stamped labels. It had been a long time since I had bought vinyl at a show, and the feeling of getting that record was that I had something special...a piece of hardcore history. Soon after that show, Bridge Nine sent out the pre-orders and my Champion collection had begun.

Champion had their last show on May 27th, 2006. As much as I wished that I could be there, flying out to Seattle for it was not going to happen. For the show they had 400 copies of Promises Kept pressed on yellow vinyl. Thankfully, Bridge Nine held a few copies of the record and put them up for sale the week after the show. I ordered a copy for myself and one for Rob. Because of the flurry of activity that the webstore experienced as people rushed to get their order in, I got an error when I tried to check out. I tried to submit the order again and it said it was a duplicate order. I got the confirmation email from B9 so I thought that everything was okay, but as the days passed I got more nervous that my order didn't go through. I sent the mailorder guys an email, and sure enough, they hadn't received my order. A huge thanks to Matt and Jena at Bridge Nine for finding the last couple of copies and getting the order filled.

Alone in a crowd, but we're still standing strong

With X'd up fists and sing alongs

Times like these are what we live for

These days are more than we'd ever hoped for

We're still here, and we'll never forget the words we fuckin' said

Time flies by, and the promises made will stay with us through our lives

We're not finished yet, that's right

They tried to break the best of us

But still our hearts are true to promises kept

6/6/6

Okay, we are going to break a few rules with this post. This post is about an old record that I have in the collection, and this blog is supposed to be strictly about new additions to my collection. However, seeing that today is 6/6/06, I'm feeling compelled to do a Slayer entry, and break a few rules. I was also going to include the new single that Slayer released today for Cult, but for some reason I can't seem to upload anymore images, so fuck it.

Here we have the very first Slayer album that I bought, Hell Awaits. I remember buying this off of Jason Violette in High School. He had a few albums that he no longer wanted, if I remember correctly he didn't want to own it because of the satanic imagery. He was looking to unload this Slayer album, Impaler 'Rise of the Mutants', and I think Pile Driver 'Metal Inquisition'. I had never listened to these bands before, but I was starting to get interested in Speed Metal so I took the chance...plus I think he sold them to me for a few bucks a piece. I got home and Paul and I put on Hell Awaits. We get through the creepy intro to the song Hell Awaits and then the song kicks into high gear. Wow...that is the fastest shit we have ever heard. We can't help but laugh at how ridiculous it sounds. We finish off the album, joking about how over the top it is, and I head out to take care of my paper route. While I'm delivering newspapers, I can't get the song 'Kill Again' out of my head. So incredibly fast, yet the melody on that chorus was so catchy it was going over and over in my head. I get back to the house and have to listen to it again and again, falling in love with the speed and aggression (not to mention the shock value of the lyrics and satanic imagery). This is the turning point of having Metallica and Slayer take over as my favorite bands, pushing aside Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.