Stars And Stripes Of Corruption

I've been all over the map with my record collecting this year. I haven't been able to focus on a single target and I keep jumping to whatever stupid thing has attracted my attention at the moment. Lately I've been obsessing over Japanese singles, and as much fun as it has been to chase down a bunch of these things, at the end of the day it seems a bit frivolous. Recently, I got tired of just dicking around, and I wanted to get serious. It was time to make a move and fill a big hole in the collection.

I've always been a big fan of Dead Kennedys, and given the political shit show in the White House right now, I find that I'm reaching for the DK stuff more than usual. I tend to be a positive and upbeat person, but lately I've been on edge. I'm done trying to have any meaningful discourse at this point, and believe me, I've tried...right now I'm of the mindset that if you support Trump, you can fuck off. I'm tired of trying to see the gray, and at this point things are black or white...right or wrong...and at the end of the day, I just want to throw up the middle finger and listen to punk.

I forget just how great Frankenchrist is and tend to overlook it for Plastic Surgery Disasters and Fresh Fruit, but this album holds up with the best of them...plus it has one of my favorite DK songs ever with Stars And Stripes Of Corruption.

But what can just one of us do?
Against all that money and power
Trying to crush us into roaches?
We don't destroy society in a day
Until we change ourselves first
From the inside out
We can start by not lying so much
And treating other people like dirt
It's easy not to base our lives
On how much we can scam
And you know
It feels good to lift that monkey off our backs

That song left such an impression on me as a kid, and why I can't understand why people are comfortable being ignorant, selfish pieces of shit these days.

Even though I find the Giger "Penis Landscape" poster to be unpleasant to look at, I still needed a copy of Frankenchrist with it. Funny enough, this copy of the poster has some old tape residue on the back, which indicates that someone liked it enough to hang it on their wall.

I'm very happy to add this classic album to the collection.

I'll Never Grow Up

A few years ago I watched the We Are Twisted F***ing Sister documentary, and it opened my eyes to a couple of early Twisted Sister 7 inch singles that I never knew existed. This band was a huge influence on me as a kid, and to first discover these early records some 35 years down the line, well, I was shocked. I was pretty stoked to quickly grab a copy of their second 7 inch, Bad Boys, but I knew that getting my hands on the first record was going to be more of a challenge.

The first Twisted Sister 7 inch, I'll Never Grow Up, Now! b/w Under The Blade was self-released by the band back in 1979. Since the band released their first album in '82, and I didn't hear Twisted Sister until Stay Hungry was released in 1984, it blows my mind that the band released their first 7 inch at the close of the 70's.

The first press of the first 7 inch carries a pretty high price tag. It doesn't run as high as the Motley Crue or Def Leppard 7 inches, but generally sellers list the Twisted Sister record a bit outside of what I want to pay. It turns out that there was a reissue later in '79 that added the "Twisted Sister A Registered Trademark" text to the record label, and I found a seller that was willing to let it go for a price that was well within what I wanted to pay. Easy decision to pick up this piece of history.

Age Of Apocalypse

A while back, the band Mindforce posted in their Instagram stories to promote a new record by some band named Age Of Apocalypse. I'd never heard of them, but I'm a big fan of Mindforce so that was good enough for me.

Age Of Apocalypse has a sound that I really struggle to define. Is it metal? Is it hardcore? The vocals are not what you'd expect, but somehow they really remind me of some 90's hardcore band, but I can't really put my finger on who it is. I'm not really sure how much I like this record, but I keep getting drawn back to it to give it another spin. This is definitely a different kind of record, and a good choice if you want something that isn't more of the same.

No doubt, the vinyl is fucking ugly. The mock up over at Fuzz Records looked much better than the actual colored vinyl. 150 pressed on this pink/green/black starburst color.

Third Press Rust

When I picked up the new As Friends Rust 7 inch last month and posted about it here, I talked a bit of shit about how ridiculous record pressings are these days. Within a month of it's release, the Up From The Muck record was already in it's third pressing with six different colored vinyl options. I mentioned that I was happy to be out of that bullshit game, and I was satisfied with the one copy that I bought. I'm fucking dumb.

Man, I didn't expect to like these two new As Friends Rust songs this much. I cannot get enough of them, and I'm itching for more from the band. When I was recently in the REVHQ store to pick up the new Sick Of It All book, I noticed they had the third press of this new record in their store, with an alternate cover, and I must have had some kind of aneurysm or something because suddenly the idea of buying this pressing seemed like the best idea ever.

The third pressing was on random/recycled vinyl, and the photo posted at REVHQ was this great looking purple color...so of course I was less than impressed when my dull dark grey colored vinyl arrived.

Two copies isn't a collection, but I don't really want to buy anymore of this record...especially when dipshit sellers are listing them on Discogs with a $30 price tag...but what am I doing with two copies of this? Still, it is one of my favorite 7 inches this year.

Purple Whoosh

I've listened to a lot of Deep Purple this year...partly because of my obsession with all things Coverdale...also I've really started to appreciate the three Mark I albums with Rod Evans on vocals...then there has been my fascination with the Deep Purple Japanese singles...and finally, the band had a new album due to be released this year.

I haven't been interested in a new Deep Purple album since...well, basically I've never been interested in a new Purple release. Yeah, I guess I bought the Rapture Of The Deep CD back in 2005, but it didn't really get a lot of interest from me, and even though they had only released two studio albums since them, I've ignored both of them. For some reason, 2020 was different, and when it was announced that Deep Purple had a new record on the way, I went into it with some excitement and an open mind.

The band released a couple of video singles from the new album, Whoosh, and while they weren't bad, they initially didn't move me. Still, I had such high hopes for the album that I kept going back to those songs, and with repeat listens I found that I was starting to really enjoy them...and the song Man Alive especially started to hook me. Soon enough, I found myself placing an order for the album.

Similar to my reaction to the first couple of singles, initially I was underwhelmed with the album. Deep Purple in 2020 doesn't have the same spark that they had back in the early to mid 70's, and it is ridiculous to expect them to...so as I'm bouncing from Fireball and Stormbringer to these new songs, it is a bit of a tough transition. After a few spins, however, I started to settle into the new album, and the more I became familiar with the new songs, the more I enjoy them.

Pre-ware

It has been a long time since I've posted about Beware...hell, it has been more than a few years since I've even given this band more than a passing thought. It is funny how some bands fade over the years, especially considering how much I loved this Beware record when it dropped in 2012.

At the time this 7 inch was released, there was a pre-release version which consists of some cheap, photocopied cover that is hand numbered on the back. I'm honestly not sure that I knew this existed back then. I do know that when Marcus posted about this pressing back in 2017, I quickly added it to my Discogs Want List. Three years later, mission accomplished.

There isn't much to say about this pressing as it isn't too exciting to look at. Still, not counting any test pressings, it is nice to complete the collection for this 7 inch.

Whose Turn?

Over the summer, Youngblood records had a contest for the chance to win a copy of the Line Of Sight record that was long sold out. All you had to do, was listen to the label's discography over on Spotify, take a screenshot of your listening history as proof, and email it over to Sean Youngblood. Sounded like a good time, so I jumped in on it. It was a blast revisiting some of the older Youngblood catalog that I hadn't given a spin for a while, and it reminded how great a lot of these records were. One of the bands that really jumped out at me was Our Turn. I've always really liked them, but for one reason or another, I've never owned either of their records. I've been in the mood to buy some hardcore records, so when I found a cheap copy of the first Our Turn 7 inch on Discogs, I grabbed it.

While the first Our Turn record wasn't on Youngblood, it was included on the CD pressing of Catch Your Breath that Youngblood did. These songs are a blast...just rippin' straight edge hardcore that makes me think of shit like Rancor and Floorpunch. Awesome.

I'm not sure what the deal is with the pressing for this. Discogs says that there is a "regular" cover, a metro cover and a tour cover. Is this one the regular cover, or is it the tour cover? I'm inclined to think that this is the regular cover, but it is numbered on the back out of 50, and someone on Discogs mentioned that they picked it up from the band on tour, so I just don't know. I guess I'll need to buy them all to figure out the mystery.

It's funny...a year or so ago, my friend Doug checked in with me to see if I was interested in buying any of his record collection. He had a bunch of 2000-era hardcore that he was looking to dump, and he offered me first pass at it. I briefly glanced at it, but at the time I really wasn't to interested in buying a bunch of old hardcore records, so I told him "thanks, but no thanks" and let him bring the whole lot to his local record store. I remember that he had a bunch of different pressings of the Our Turn records, and now I'm kicking myself for not grabbing them when I had the chance.

Everything Orange

Somehow, I completely missed that Undertow released this final 7 inch back in '99. Maybe it was because I was only buying CDs at the time, or maybe I was just out of the loop on the band at the time, but I didn't even know this thing existed until recently. I'm an idiot.

I picked up the Everything discography CD back in '04, and I had the Anti Matter and Land Of Greed comps, so I knew the songs, but still, Undertow is one of my favorite bands from the 90's, so it is a bit embarrassing that it took me until now to finally pick up this record.

There have been times this year when I have been spinning nothing but 90's hardcore, and you can bet that Undertow is getting plenty of spins. One of the best from that era.

Goddamn. I love the look of a good transparent colored vinyl. 345 pressed on orange.

Twenty Years Too Late

The youth crew revival of the late 90's were some of my favorite years in the hardcore scene. There were so many great bands and I was having the time of my life at shows singing along and stagediving. If I was also collecting records at that time, it would have made things much easier down the road...instead, I was late to the game and now I try to catch up on what I missed when the mood strikes me.

I was recently killing some time in the Discogs Marketplace, when I recognized the name of a seller. Charlie Flexon played in bands like Count Me Out and Time Flies, and I've always wanted to grow my meager collection for both of those bands, so when I saw his name, I decided to check out what he had available. When I saw that he had the maroon pressing for the On Our Way album, I suddenly needed to get this thing into my collection. This record is so damn good, but before I laid down the $55 that Charlie was asking for it, I decided to quickly check if any other sellers had it available. Nice try dude. You almost had me. Saved almost $40 when I found another seller dumping their copy for a fraction of the price.

335 pressed on maroon vinyl, and I should have had this in my collection long ago. Happy to finally own a copy now.

More NWOBHM

Early last year, I was obsessing pretty hard on the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, and along the way I downloaded the songs from the first More album, Warhead. As I was picking up some Deep Purple singles this year, I noticed that a US seller had a copy of the Warhead album for sale with a price tag under $10, so I took the opportunity to add it to the collection.

More is a solid NWOBHM band that jumped immediately to a major label with Atlantic Records. They feature the original Iron Maiden singer, Paul Mario Day, and I imagine that expectations were high for this band...so I find it strange that I only heard them last year. That may have something to do with More sounding a bit more like a heavy 70's rock band, and not really having that dirty, pounding punk vibe that bands like Iron Maiden, Raven and Tygers Of Pan Tang had in the early 80's. Still this is a really good record, and with each spin, I find myself enjoying it more and more. This was the only More record to feature Day on vocals, so I've been a bit hesitant to dig into the band's follow up, Blood & Thunder from 1982, but seeing how Martin Popoff rated that record as a solid 10 in his Headbanger's Guide to 900 NWOBHM Records, I might have to get to that soon.

I basically bought this pressing blind, so I was very happy to discover that this was the UK press, and includes that song Lord Of Twilight, which didn't show up on the US press.

Japan Singles Like Never Before

A little while back I happened to pick up a couple of Japanese singles for Deep Purple. I mean I've been obsessing over Japanese records for a bit this year, but grabbing those two 7 inches really fueled me to get more. They looked so damn cool. I wanted to build a collection of them and set out to see what I could pick up from US sellers.

One of the cooler records that I was able to pick up was the single for Never Before. This is such a great and underrated Deep Purple song. I was kind of surprised to discover that this song was actually a single...especially coming from the Machine Head album, which had it's fair share of hits. I'm also a fan of that cover photo...just a shaggy bunch of young and loud brits for their time.

The b-side is the amazing When A Blind Man Cries, which didn't make the original pressing of Machine Head.

The next single that I added to the collection was the live version of Black Night, that appeared on the 24 Carat Purple compilation, and based on the cover photo from the single, it was obviously cut from the classic Made In Japan album. I wish they had used a different photo than the album, but it is still a good look.

I managed to find one more Deep Purple single from a US seller, and this time it was for the song Burn. This was the song that initially gave me an appreciation for David Coverdale, which completely surprised me, since I'd grown up with a passionate hatred for Whitesnake. This shit though, this got down to fucking business. An absolute killer of a song. Again, I wish that the single cover was different than the album, but at least the Japanese characters for the title "Burn" looks cool.

2020 May Hurt A Bit

My tastes have been all over the map this year, and I've found myself bouncing from one obsession to the next on a weekly basis. There was a pretty decent stretch earlier in the summer when I could not get enough mid-90's hardcore. In there with Strife and Snapcase, I was also pulling out the Fixation On A Coworker album from Deadguy. I'd forgotten how great that record was. When I heard that the singer had a new band and they were releasing something in 2020, I was eager to see what Bitter Branches would deliver.

I was pretty excited for this Bitter Branches record. When the band posted that if you were one of the first 150 people to donate $5 or more for the bandcamp download of This May Hurt A Bit, you would get an exclusive offer for a limited pressing of the record. I hate paying for downloads, but I still jumped on it so that I wouldn't miss out on a chance for that limited pressing. Now I feel like a chump because the special screen printed cover ended up being limited to 300, and not 150, plus this thing is still available in the Atomic Action store. I guess I didn't need to jump in and throw money at that download offer. Fuck...if I wanted the more limited pressing, I apparently could have held out for the REVHQ exclusive color that was limited to 100.

Whatever. Either way, this silk screen cover and layout looks great..and the songs here are really cool as well. Comparisons to Deadguy and Kiss It Goodbye are inevitable as Tim Singer's voice is instantly recognizable and distinct.

Number 24 out of 300.

Annica

I've been losing interest in Record Store Day releases for a few years now. I remember a time when I would study the list of upcoming RSD releases, queue up in line the day of, and easily drop over $100 on them. The last couple of years have definitely seen me relax, and with a few rare exceptions, I generally don't really care about those RSD records and I just use the day to hit a few used record stores in town. With the covid-19 pandemic delaying Record Store Day from April, and eventually seeing a phased release over a few weeks, I had basically checked out on the entire event. Only so many people were allowed in the store at a time to allow social distancing, and the whole process of showing up, putting your name on a list and then waiting in your car to be called seemed like a huge pain in the ass so I just skipped the whole thing. It is sad really. Even though I wasn't too bothered with the RSD list of releases, I did miss getting out there and digging through the bins for a day.

There were a couple of RSD releases that I had my eye on this year, but the one that I really needed to own was the latest Dio picture disc single. I've set the precedent by picking up the three previous Record Store Day singles for Dio, so I needed to continue the tradition with the fourth in the set with Annica.

Annica was a bonus song from the Magica sessions that originally only showed up on the Japanese release. It's cool to have it show up as a single, I guess, but as an instrumental, it wasn't really necessary...and with the b-side containing an 18 minute track of Ronnie James Dio reading the story of Magica basically means that I'm going to listen to this once and put on the shelf and never touch it again...but hey, it looks good.