The Higher You Go...

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

Another day, another copy of the Reveal 7 inch. When I said that I was obsessed with collecting this record, and would purchase every cheap auction on eBay, I wasn't fucking around. This is serious business.

When Marcus gave me the heads up that Number 3 was available on eBay, I knew that it would be mine. Four dollars and the only bidder. You're goddamn right.

The funny part of this deal was that the seller lives about a half hour from me. I found it extremely odd that there was another dude from my home state that also had a copy of this record. I sent him a message through eBay, asking how he came across this copy, but unfortunately my question went unanswered.

Obligatory group shot, showing all the numbers that I own.

Strange that covers for number 3 and number 37 use the same color of yellow paper, while in the middle of them is a much brighter yellow for number 24.

CIAC Limited Band Pressing

Little known fact about me: I'm a big fan of React! Records. I know...I'm full of surprises.

When Caught In A Crowd posted up some copies of the limited "band only' pressing in their webstore, I jumped at the opportunity to grab one. Thankfully I didn't have to play the eBay game for this one. I love it when a band or label includes a little personal touch when packaging records. Right on.

130 pressed on clear with black smoke vinyl.

Forced Dying

Back in December when I was posting about the new Done Dying records that I'd received, I stopped by the Irish Voodoo site to get some info on pressing numbers and was surprised to see that a second pressing was available.

Of course I didn't hesitate to order a copy.

100 pressed on clear with black vinyl. It looks like a third pressing will be available soon, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for that.

While in the Irish Voodoo store, this Forced Down record caught my eye. Nothing really new here. The band found some lost copies of the Rise 7 inch in storage. They were without covers, so they worked with Irish Voodoo to help sell them. There were three different covers in all, but the one that interested me the most was the one with the Record Store Day sleeve.

Forced Down were around in the late 80's/early 90's. Still worth picking up vinyl from them almost 25 years later.

Numbered and limited to 50.

Buying My Freedom

Okay...look, this was released on Back To Back, so it's not like I was going to ignore it...but to be honest, with a name like Freedom, I really wanted to avoid this. The name just brings to mind Oi! and skinhead imagery...two things that I have no interest in. But it was on B2B, and it did mention they were "inspired by hardcore staples such as Agnostic Front and Straight Ahead". Damn...now I have to see what this is about.

I hopped over to the Back To Back webstore and see they have a Freedom song posted for you to check out. Oh damn. I'm glad that I was convinced to give this a listen, because this fucking rules. Fast and frantic with some solid mosh...total early 80's New York worship.

100 on red.

Great packaging, and I love the creative use for the song titles and Back To Back tag.

150 on white.

Black Is The New Orange

I was recently spinning some early 80's hardcore/punk, and Agent Orange came up on the playlist. I listened to it once, and enjoyed it so much, I set it up for a repeat listen. I couldn't get those songs out of my head, and found that I needed to revisit them daily. I was so obsessed that I started searching for an original Posh Boy Records pressing.

I believe that the first pressing for Living In Darkness had yellow Posh Boy labels. I'm not exactly known for my patience when it comes to record collecting, and when I didn't immediately find a copy with yellow labels, I figured that the second pressing, with silver labels, would have to do.

A few years ago, I was still stoked on vinyl reissues, and I grabbed the orange vinyl pressing that Drastic Plastic did for Living In Darkness. I was cool with it at the time, and figured that it was all that I needed. Nope. Don't get me wrong, I still love the look of the orange vinyl, but I'm glad to finally have a Posh Boy pressing.

REV Catch Up

The REV repress machine can be overwhelming. I refuse to get sucked into buying every record they press, but there are still a bunch that I feel the need to keep up with. I didn't immediately jump when some recent ones were posted, and then lost track of which ones I still needed. I hope I caught most of them with this latest order.

It's Youth Of Today, and although I didn't start buying YOT vinyl until REV started mass producing these reissues, I've vowed to not miss any of them. Someday, I'll work on a few pressings that I missed the first time around.

I wouldn't have guessed it, but this blue vinyl looks great. Nice match to the blue lettering from the cover.

Chain Of Strength falls into the same category as Youth Of Today. I've ignored vinyl for this band for too long...never again. One of the best bands ever.

In My Eyes is one of the few bands that I have a complete collection for, so it's not like I'm going to let any new pressings slip me by. I'm still not a fan of the new labels for this album, but hey, if you want the original labels, buy the original pressing.

While picking up these new pressings, I figured that it was time to finally grab the green vinyl for the new Down To Nothing album. I was nervous that I was going to open this and find it was on blue vinyl.

There, I'm now caught up...oh fuck...what do you mean REV just repressed more of their classic catalog? Damn.

Little Effort Made Towards A Test Press

I never really made much of an effort to collect the Efforts Made 7 inch. I picked up a copy when the record was released back in 2006, and while I enjoyed it, I never set out to collect more of them.

When I saw a copy of the test pressing on eBay, I knew that interest in this little known band was going to be low. While I wasn't out to really collect the band's vinyl, I figured that if I could grab the test press for cheap, I'd take it. Yeah, the three other bidders for this didn't want to invest much either, but I came out on top for ten dollars and some change.

Jeff, who runs Bottled Up and Start Today Fanzine has an amazing Misfits collection, so it is no surprise that his label produced this great looking rip off cover for this test press.

Test press count for 2014 is at five.

Violence To Fade

I was first introduced to Keith when he was playing bass for Alert. He is a hell of a nice guy, and when I would show up to shows by myself, he was always a friendly face that was quick to come up and talk for a bit. Once Alert dissolved, I was happy that he jumped right into another band, this time singing for Violence To Fade. They played a show in Maine a few months ago, and opened their set with the intro to the song Black Sabbath. It may have been one of the best intros I've ever seen a band do.

If I learned anything from the January Record A Day challenge on Instagram, it was that I'm not alone in my dislike of splatter colored vinyl. Seems the general rule of thumb is that all collectors hate it...so why do labels still press this shit. 150 pressed on gross splatter vinyl.

Violence To Fade is a bit more raw when compared to the Youth Crew style of Keith's last band, Alert. They have a more of a rough New York Hardcore kind of sound. I can dig it.

200 on green vinyl.

I can't seem to place an order with Life To Live, and have it arrive in one piece. First, I got a badly warped piece of vinyl for Losin' it, then I had a package that was nearly destroyed from water damage...this time around, I only received the pink vinyl from my three record pre-order package. Thankfully Dan, was quick to admit his error, and shipped out the missing vinyl within the next week. Whew...crisis averted.

300 pressed on pink.

Clusterfuck Of Used Records

Back at the Cruel Hand show last month, in addition to the Clear 7 inch that I bought, I took the opportunity to go through a box of used records. Of course, there were a few in there that I wanted.

The first one that I pulled out of the pile was Painkiller number one...The A-Team 'Clusterfuck'. I've had the 'A Is For Asshole' album for a while, but never really looked into what else The A-Team had released outside of that. Holding the first press on orange vinyl in my hands, I figured that now was as good a time as any to finally grab something else by them. Good stuff.

Limited to 321.

Next one to be pulled from the box of records was the Soulside 7 inch. I love this band, and I've been digging a bunch of this kind of Dischord stuff recently. I bought the Trigger LP back in the early 90's, but after buying their discography CD, I never bothered with any more of their vinyl. When I saw this 7 inch, I knew it was time to fill this hole in my record collection.

Finally, I grabbed the R'N'R 7 inch. Their follow up LP fell a little flat for me, but the two songs on this EP are amazing. First press on Cadmium Sick Records. I'm glad to finally have a copy of this.

Exhumed / Iron Reagan

Okay...okay...I admit it. I was way off base when I wrote about the Iron Reagan LP last year. It failed to excite me when I first heard it, and kind of wrote it off with a yawn.

By the end of year, I could not get enough of the Iron Man album, and when listening to my 2013 Playlist on my iPod, it would jump right from Iron Man to Iron Reagan, and soon I was hooked each time the Iron Reagan album would kick off with that "1..2..3..4...*riff*". By the end of the year, Iron Reagan had almost worked themselves into my Top 10.

When I heard that Iron Reagan were doing a split with Exhumed, I didn't hesitate to order from Tank Crimes.

Iron Reagan deliver once again. Excellent crossover thrash. Exhumed on the other hand were new to me, and were a pleasant surprise. Pretty cool grinding and growling Metal. Four songs from them, with two of them being covers from Minor Threat and Negative Approach. Very cool.

I love the look of this record. The front cover is Metal as fuck, and the red/black/white tri colored vinyl just completes the package.. 300 pressed.

Clear Heads

Dan drums for Strung Along and lives a few miles up the road from me. I've sold him some of my old cassettes, and an Only Living Witness t-shirt in the past. When he was looking to sell off his copy of the This Is Hardcore pressing of the Clear 7 inch, he came to me first.

We agreed on a price back in June, but it wasn't until January that we were able to finally get together for the exchange. Seven months. It was ridiculous that it took so long, but I can be a terrible procrastinator, and I never carry cash, so time and time again I failed to make any concrete plans. Since we were both going to be at the Cruel Hand show, it was finally time for us to seal the deal.

Dan is hell of a guy, and when I meet him at the show, he took the agreed upon price for the record and cut it in half. There is no way I should have been able to get this record for such a great price, but the dude is cool like that. Thanks, man.

Cruel Hand Tour Press 2014

It seems like I rarely get out for shows these days. Time and money tend to be an obstacle each time. Those are legitimate excuses, right? It can't be that I'm getting old and lazy, and would rather just stay in. With Cruel Hand playing literally five minutes from my house, I figured that it would be pretty pathetic if I didn't get out for that show.

Once I got there, my first stop was the merch table. They had a tour press of their new record, Born Into Debt, and I quickly grabbed a copy.

It isn't what I'd expect from Cruel Hand, but I'm digging the cover.

Things got a little out of hand for Rude Awakening's set. I was standing back while they were playing, and I could see things on the dance floor getting more and more intense...I kept waiting for something to boil over, and sure enough it did. Soon there was a mass of people throwing punches, and the crowd took the fight into the parking lot. I'm sure it didn't end well for whoever was on the receiving end of it all. Whether it was deserved or not, I can't stand testosterone fueled shit like that.

Thankfully, relative order was restored for Cruel Hand's set. Man, they were fun to watch...one of the best times I've had watching them play.

It was cool to have Chris and Nate come over after their set to hang out and talk. Such great dudes.

Cruel Hand also had some promo "Heat" matchbooks at their merch table. I love cool little things like this, and since they were free, I grabbed a couple.

Green With Envy

I don't think I'm easily influenced, I think I just recognize a good suggestion when I hear it.

Last month, Marcus dropped me a line to let me know that there was a green vinyl Envy 7 inch on eBay. Whoa, there was a name I hadn't thought about in a while. I want to say that I picked up this 7 inch on black vinyl at a big fest in New Bedford back in '95 or so. I probably bought it because of the sick Youth Crew jump that at singer was pulling off on the front cover...very Cappo-esque. I don't really remember listening to the record all that much, as sometimes it was difficult to get me to pay attention if it wasn't on CD. Anyway, Marcus mentioned that they were hard to come by on green vinyl, so if I was interested, I should go for it. It was terrible timing, as it was just before Christmas, and I was feeling broke. Still, I threw it in my Watch List, curious as to where the auction may go.

What? You think I can walk away from a $3 Straight Edge record? Come on. You know me better than that. Nobody else was interested, so I grabbed it. I think I'm liking this more today than I did 19 years ago. Great steal. Thanks for the tip, Marcus.