Flame Still Burns

When I started this blog almost four years ago, I would have never imagined that it would have lasted this long. At the time, I was starting to get completely obsessed with record collecting, and so I started this up to help occupy my time with my new found love. Much to my surprise this little record collecting blog has attracted a fair bit of attention (over 25,000 hits on my stat counter to date). Years have passed and I have seen some other bloggers come and go, new friends have been made, and lots of money has been spent on new vinyl. At times, I've updated this blog once a week, and other times I've had enough new records coming in that I've had to update it every other day just to keep up. 2009 has been a huge year for me in regards to new vinyl, as my post count has already stomped previous years into the ground. So here we are with my 300th post. So for those of you that stop by and join me in this obsession, thanks. This flame will keep on burning strong, and I will continue to sing this song.

For my landmark 300th post, I knew that it had to be for a classic record. I recently acquired Youth of Today's We're Not In This Alone, and I figured that it was perfect for this post. I've been looking to pick up this record for years, but have continually passed it by for something more limited. When a poster on the Livewire messageboard listed some items with a set price, I finally took the leap and bought a copy. One of the best hardcore albums EVER. I originally owned this on cassette, that I bought in Boston around 1990, and then finally picked it up on CD when Revelation remastered the Youth of Today stuff back in 1997. I've never really looked to be a Youth of Today completist, but it always feels good to add one of their records to my collection.

Face Reality

Here is another new band that I decided to check out after someone posted about them on the REACT! messageboard. Hoods up and X'd up fists, what is there not to like about this one? You definitely know what to expect with this...straight ahead youth crew hardcore. No metal riffs. No emo. Damn right. This was pressed on Dead End Records, and when I checked their site today to try and find some pressing info, the site was pretty empty. Hell, the webstore doesn't even have any records in stock! Has the label closed up shop already? I'm glad I picked this up when I did.

Amor Y Guerra De Un Amigo

A few month ago, Carlos from Police & Thieves sent me a message, looking for my email address. Apparently he has been reading the blog (Hi Carlos!), and in addition to sharing some kind words, he also wanted to let me know that they had some record release pressings of the Amor Y Guerra 7 inch available on their myspace page. I knew that I wanted one, but having already put myself in the red for the month with other record purchases, I put off buying it.

Then last week, I got a message from Marcus on Facebook, asking for my address again. He was buying a record for himself, and since it was only $7.00, he figured that he would buy one for me as well. Wait a minute, wasn't that Police & Thieves record release going for $7.00? The package arrived in the mail this past week, and confirmed that was what Marcus had bought. Such a nice gesture. Thank you Marcus.

The colorful Aztec design on the record release cover looks fantastic. I'm a sucker for cover variations, and this one is just a lot of fun. Plus this one comes with a different lyric sheet, and although it isn't shown in the picture, it comes hand stamped with P&T on the back.

Limited to 75, mine is number 22. Damn, I'm going to have to get off my ass at some point and try to find the other Youngblood pressings that I slept on when the record was originally released. Such a great record.

On A Mission

I believe that I've mentioned in a previous post, I used to download a ton of music. Over the years I've amassed over 800 burned CDs in my music collection. It didn't bother me that the band would never get paid from my download of their album, because for the most part, the stuff I was downloading was music that I probably wasn't going to buy anyway. Typically this consisted only of Metal and Hip Hop, but occasionally I would download some hardcore bands to check them out and then just never get around to picking them up. Well, in the past 5 years or so, my thinking started to change. I noticed that I had really fallen back in love with Metal and I started actively searching out vinyl or CD to replace those burned copies. On the other hand, most of the Hip Hop that I had acquired had really gotten stale and boring to my ears, and I just started dumping some of it. I noticed the other day that I had some hardcore albums from the past few years that I still had on a CDR, and I needed to purchase them. I headed to REV.HQ and picked up CDs from Risky Business and Hour of the Wolf, but for Capital, I wanted it on vinyl.

Homefront is such an amazing album. I can't believe that it has taken me this long to finally pick up a copy (gold vinyl is limited to 332). I used to love Silent Majority, and since Capital has the same singer, the comparisons are obvious. Silent Majority songs have this fantastic story telling quality, and that carries over to Capital as well. With On A Mission, the singer tell us of heading out with some friends 17 years ago, and discovering the The Way It Is LP at some record store, and about how life changing it was. It will strike a familiar chord with many of us "older" guys, and it just captures the moment perfectly.

Revelation also had Capital's newest 7 inch, Blind Faith, so I picked up a copy of that as well (red vinyl is limited to 300). Man, this band continues to amaze me. Two new songs, plus a Dag Nasty cover.

A Need To Keep Trying

I can't stay on track. I try to focus on collecting vinyl for one band, but a week later I've got my eye on something different. Commitment issues. I've been wanting to work on my Fastbreak collection for a while now, and back in July I finally picked up a black vinyl copy of the Don't Stop Trying 7 inch with the green lettering on the cover. I didn't give up on them after than and stuck with it, winning the gold vinyl pressing on eBay back in August. I love the colored vinyl on this pressing. I've read that this could be the second press and limited to 100. Sounds good to me, and seemed like a steal at $6.00. Seriously, I love Fastbreak...everything from the Youth Pride demo, up through the Whenever You're Ready LP on Revelation. The band was so good and was one of the few that managed to successfully transition from straight up Youth Crew hardcore to a more poppy/melodic style. Well it has been 3 months since I've bought this, and I have stopped looking for Fastbreak vinyl on eBay, so I guess that I've moved on to the next bright and shiny object that has caught my eye. I hope that I can get my focus back to this band soon because they deserve it.

Deluxe and Limited Pressings

Nick Mango recently contacted me about a new feature that he was working on called hoverboard. Hoverboard is basically a messageboard for blogs on his limitedpressing.com site. He was looking to feature some blogs that he personally reads all the time or are popular, and he wanted to know if I would be interested in having The One Thing That Still Holds True participate. I thought that it sounded like a cool idea, and he is doing some cool new things with limitedpressing.com, so I figured what the hell, and jumped aboard. The funny thing is that Nick mentioned that so far the only people that he had contributing were Straight Edge dudes, like myself, Marcus from Endless Quest, and Justin from Stuck In The Past, and he was hoping to get some possible non-edge guys in there as well. So with that, and a hacking cough from Sweet Leaf, I'll bring a decidedly non-edge post with Black Sabbath's Master Of Reality.

I finally picked up the deluxe vinyl pressing of Sabbath's classic Master Of Reality. As far as I know, only the first three Black Sabbath albums are being released in this double LP deluxe format, so if that is the case, this is the last one that I needed. The pricing on these records have been pretty erratic. The self titled first album was $20, Paranoid was $30, and finally Master Of Reality was $25. Strange. It's not like the Paranoid album contains any extra packaging than the first Sabbath album. Either way, Master Of Reality is a monster of a record, and with the bonus outtakes and alternate versions included on this pressing, this is a must for the Sabbath completist.

I know that I've previously stated that Paranoid was my favorite Sabbath album, but from looking at my complete vinyl collection, I would have to say that Masters Of Reality is the clear winner.

Step On It

Sometimes I'm pretty slow. I hear of great new bands, but I put off checking them out until I'm forced to do so...and then I end up wishing that I hadn't waited so long. I remember hearing about Step Forward a couple of years ago. Boston Straight Edge featuring DFJ from Mental. Yet each time I would see their 10 Song EP for sale in one of the online distros, I continually passed it by...until it was sold out. I downloaded these tracks on Soulseek about a year ago, and even then, I still didn't really listen to them. When I saw that the band was playing the Edge Day show this year with Have Heart, I figured that it was about time that I start to listen to this. Damn. This is so good, and I listened to it repeatedly prior to the show. I was hoping that the band would have the 7 inch for sale, but no luck, as it appears to be out of print. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I started searching eBay. I was happy to win a copy for only $11. 418 were pressed on black for the first press on Painkiller Records, and then they did a second press of 350, also on black vinyl. I have no idea which pressing this on is, nor do I think that it really matters.

Devoid Of Faith

Most people with any knowledge of Hardcore history, have probably already heard all of the early Dischord catalog. Not me. For some reason, up until recently, my collection went from Minor Threat straight into the Revolution Summer bands like Embrace, Fugazi, and Soul Side. I completely missed the early harD.C.ore years. Over the past year, I've really started digging in to the Dischord early years and finding those classic bands that I've been missing out on. The newest discovery for me is the Faith/Void split LP. Dischord recently reissued this on colored vinyl, so I figured that it was a good time to check it out. Great stuff, and I can see why a band like In My Eyes would cover their song What's Wrong With Me. Classic.

Remission Impossible

The React Records messageboard has introduced me to some cool new hardcore bands. It is a great place for an old guy like myself to keep in touch with what is going on, and which new bands are blowing up. One of the more recent finds was Remission from Chile. The band name was obviously lifted from the One Step Ahead 7 inch of the same name, because the band really has that kind of melodic style nailed down. If you don't know who One Step Ahead are, they totally coped the Verbal Assault sound in the early 90's...so you can say that Remission have a sound similar to both of those bands. Seriously, if you told me that this was originally released in 1991, I would believe it. Great stuff. Pick this up from Amendment Records. Purple vinyl is limited to 100 pressed.

A True Perspective

Man, I have been really pressed for time lately. The days and weeks fly by, and it has been difficult finding time to spend at the computer each night. In addition to the time, money has been pretty tight as well. Other than some pretty big pre-orders that I couldn't resist, I've been trying to keep my record shopping on a short leash. I'm not sure how successful I've really been, but it feels like it has been a long fucking time since I've won anything on eBay. The steady stream of new vinyl passing through my mailbox has slowed to a slight trickle. So tonight, I broke away from the TV, while my wife is slowly falling asleep on the couch, to post on the True Colors 7 inch that I picked up on eBay a while back. I couldn't believe that the pre-order pressing of the Perspective record only went for around $7.00, but I was happy to be the winner on it. Number 4 of 200 pressed on white vinyl with the Powered Records pre-order stamp. True Colors are so damn good.