Roadtrip for The First Step

Originally, we had planned to take our annual roadtrip up to northern Maine and spend the weekend four-wheeling through the mountains. Once I found out that The First Step was playing their last show at the beginning of September, the plans were changed. Rob, Paul and I piled into my car and took the eight and a half hour drive down to Pennsylvania for the weekend. We had a blast the whole weekend...shenanigans in the car, stopping at Sheetz for free sandwiches and a PB&J smoothie, walking around Harrisburg, hanging out by the river, and taking a trip to the movies to see Death Race. What a great time. The highlight of it all, of course, was the show.

We walked into the club and were greeted by Aram. So nice to catch up with him. The first couple of bands that played didn't do much for me...the only name I can remember was Warpriest. Hostage Calm and Mindset played great sets. I was hoping to pick up some vinyl from each band, but all they had was CD's, so I walked away from their merch tables empty handed. I went down to the front of the stage halfway through Mindset's set, for the Youth of Today cover, and then proceeded to have the guitarist jump straight into me. I caught him with no problem, but as you can see from the picture above, I wasn't aware that he had a serious case of "swamp ass". Get The Most were a lot of fun and played Straight on View by Unity...I felt like a dork when I wanted to sing along but couldn't remember the words. The First Step were amazing. They must have played damn near every song they wrote, and the crowd was right up front for the entire show. The set was full of sweet dives and sing alongs. What a great, positive atmosphere...no bullshit. The show was at Championship Records, so between the store and the merch tables, I walked out with a nice haul of vinyl.

I picked up the final Damage Control 7 inch. I can't remember which merch table I bought this one from. This is good melodic straight edge hardcore, and the packaging on this record is outstanding. Nice 12 page booklet that is a fitting end to this band. Great layout of pictures and a summary tribute to the band from Stephen from The First Step.

Man, I love Dead Stop. They play an angry, fast style of hardcore that is just straight out of the early 80's. This is the third pressing of their self titled 7 inch on Six Feet Under Records. Red vinyl. I have no idea how many were pressed for this color, or even if Six Feet Under was the label to originally release this.

I've always considered Cornerstone to be the band that really kicked off the Youth Crew revival in the mid-90's. I can't think of anyone else that was really doing this style when I picked up their demo in 1994. At the time I was buying too many shitty records from Ebullition, and this was a nice change of pace. Beating the Masses was released in 1995 on Lost and Found out of Europe. I can't remember when Under Estimated Records released this on vinyl with this awesome gatefold packaging. I was glad to finally grab this on vinyl from Championship.

Sean Youngblood was late to the show, but I was happy to see him finally arrive with some vinyl to sell. One of the things I bought from him was Worn Thin's Long Road Ahead record. This is the pressing from the Youngblood Showcase back in May. Black vinyl with white labels...hand stamped and numbered 47 out of 75.

Another record that I was happy to find at Championship was the Black SS album. I must have downloaded this a year ago, so it was about time that I finally bought a copy. Man, this is a fun record. Kind of a punked up early Boston Hardcore sound, and the singer really reminds me of Kill Your Idols. This is the second pressing on Reaper Records...limited to 1000 on "yellow with blue puke vinyl".

Never Hold Back

Here I am again, making a post for another record that I got some time ago, but held off on posting it because I was hoping to add more of their records to my collection. Rancor were a band from the late 90's Youth Crew revival. I've never really considered them a very well known band from that era, but their vinyl is hard to come across on eBay. I saw them one time. They played a show in Boston with Floorpunch, Fastbreak, and Ten Yard Fight. It was just as all those bands were starting to take off...I think that I had picked up the Floorpunch demo just weeks before the show. Man, everything was so exciting at that time.

This is Rancor's second 7 inch, Never Hold Back, released on Youngblood Records back in 1998. I loved the band's first record, but it was years after their second 7 inch released that I even found out that this record existed. Thank you Internet. Anyway, this one was pressed on black vinyl, and is limited to 580 pressed.

War Dogs

I've had this one for a few months, holding off on posting it, with the expectation that I would be getting another record from Night of the Vinyl Dead. There was a time when I was really hot to buy a bunch of releases from this label specializing in putting out some classic Metal albums that never got the vinyl treatment. You can't order directly from the label, and it seems like you can only find them in the Nuclear Blast Germany webstore where they rape overseas orders on shipping charges. I tracked down a few that I really wanted on eBay, and ended up paying quite a bit for them, but these pressings are pretty limited and sell out quickly, so I didn't mind paying extra. In the end though, it got to be too much of a hassle searching through eBay, and then hoping to place the winning bid, so I just stopped looking. They still have a bunch of releases that I hope to add to my collection, but for now I'm chasing my next obsessions.

So here is Saxon's Dogs of War album. Pressed on a nice "sandy" colored vinyl to match the album cover, this pressing also comes with a bonus set of stickers which is pretty cool and unique. While this is a far cry from Saxon's glory days of the early 80's, this album, released in 1995, isn't too bad...although, truth be told, I probably wouldn't own this if it hadn't been released on Night of the Vinyl Dead and pressed in such a limited amount. Hand numbered 87, out of 333 pressed.

Inspired To Have Group Sex

In the back of my mind I have always wanted to collect the Circle Jerks first album, Group Sex, on vinyl. It is an absolute classic...so much fun and just full of attitude. Frontier Records is still pressing it on vinyl, and on lots of different colors. I've wanted to start adding them to the collection, but I just kept putting off...buying other things, feeling safe that they would just always be there for me. After reading Lins87's posts on Black Flag vinyl, I was inspired to finally pick up an old school punk classic. I knew that one of the local record stores had a copy of Group Sex, and so yesterday I skipped out of work and picked it up. I have no idea how many Frontier is pressing for each color, but I ended up with yellow vinyl. At some point, I'll have to head over to their site and pick up a few more colors.

Screaming For More Vinyl

I got my Have Heart order from Bridge Nine a while ago. When I got the package, my wife had written a funny little note on the outside of the box. Jokes on her though...there is no such thing as too many records. Who's laughing now?!?! Seriously though, money is TIGHT right now, and each month I start it off by saying that I'm going to cut back and not buy as many records as I have been. By the end of the month, I'm surprised to find that I've dropped over a $100 again on new shit. The collector's motto : "Buy it now, or spend three times as much later on eBay.".

Let me start by saying that the cover for Songs to Scream at the Sun is the worst. I'm all for trying to not just have another generic hardcore album cover, but this idea sucks. Reminds me of some lame Blink 182 shit. The album on the inside however, that is a thing of beauty. While not even coming close to the brilliance that was The Things We Carry, the new album is still pretty impressive. You can tell from Pat's lyrics that his mind was on some serious personal shit. Maybe that's why it isn't grabbing me like their last album. It has taken a few listens to start to sink in, and some of the songs are really strong, but time will tell if this really grabs me.

There was some pressing plant mess with the blue vinyl, and the label found themselves with more than they had intended. They ended up shipping a bunch back, and getting 1,000 on white vinyl. This caused a bit of a delay in shipping, but I'm happy to have all three colors. Yellow vinyl is limited to 500.

Along with the album, I also got a couple of 7 inches from Bridge Nine. I'm really not sure what the point is of these records, as they have two songs that you can find on the LP. Other than just being something additional to collect, and having a much better cover than the album, this kind of record is kind of pointless. 500 pressed on black, 1,000 pressed on yellow.

Happy Birthday From A Friend

Speechless. I was completely surprised when Rob delivered two records to my desk at work for my birthday. Grateful. Friends don't come much better than this. I had spent the weekend out record shopping and had thought about buying Waste 'Em All by Municipal Waste, and Maiden's new "Best Of" album on vinyl, but I ended up putting both of them back on the shelf. Then there I was on Monday morning with a birthday surprise....it's like he was reading my mind. Thankful. We met at work over 10 years ago, and I am so thankful to have found such a friendship. I have very few close friends, and if he wasn't around, I know that I would really miss that outlet to just act like a complete retard. It has been a long 10 years, from Magic the Gathering tournaments to Unreal Tournament...from mountain biking to snowboarding...from ICP concerts to Xbox nights...from Celtics games to weekend roadtrips. None of this would have happened without him. Man, those have been the best of times, and here is to many more. Thanks for everything friend.