Infinite Purple

I've never really spent any time with the newer Deep Purple albums... and by "newer", I mean "the past thirty years"... however, when the band released Whoosh! last year, I decided to give it a shot. I'd been riding a Deep Purple wave through most of 2020, and was unexpectedly interested in checking out their newest release. I was surprised with how much I liked the album, and it eventually pushed me to check out some of the other Purple albums that were released after 1990.

One of the newer Deep Purple albums that caught my eye was their 2017 release, Infinite. That album cover is stunning. I love the concept incorporating the DP into the infinite symbol, plus the colors and cover artwork look great.

For a modern Deep Purple album, I really like Infinite. It is pointless to try and make comprisons to the classic Purple years, but when I want to listen to something a bit different from the band, newer albums like this really hit the spot. Ian Gillan was in his 70's when this album was recorded, and it puts a smile on my face to hear the guy still belting out fun rock songs like these.

Hallows AFI

Some people really love AFI, but I've always kind of been lukewarm on the band. I enjoy some of their stuff, but I've never really taken to them the way some people have. I tuned into them sporadically in the late 90's when tough guy shit started to take over the hardcore scene, but the band never hooked me the way that bands like Good Riddance and Bouncing Souls did at the time. I still have downloads for the early AFI stuff, and when I was going through my playlist for records that came out in the year 2000, I queued up their Art Of Drowning album, and surprisingly I was digging it. As I usually do when I'm listening to something that I'm enjoying at the time, I immediately started checking out vinyl options.

I seemed to remember at some point that Newbury Comics might have done some exclusive pressing for some AFI stuff, so my first move was to check out their online store. Surprisingly the 2019 Newbury pressing for The Art Of Drowning was already sold out, and listed on Discogs for stupid prices. Having missed out on taht one, I happened to notice a colored vinyl option for the All Hallows EP was available through Newbury Comics, and given the cheap price for the 10 inch, I figured "what the hell" and bought it.

While it was sold by Newbury Comics, I don't think it is one of their exclusive pressings. Either way, this is a cool little EP...with three original songs and a great Misfits cover. It is just long enough to keep me entertained, and not get bored with the style. Good stuff when I want to listen to something a little different.

2,000 Posts And Years Of Decay

Two thousand posts! It blows my mind to think that I've posted here 2,000 times. When I started this blog 15 years ago, it was just something to kill time and feed my record collecting obsession. I never had grand plans or goals, so to be sitting here typing out a milestone post like this and thinking about the hours and years that I've spent taking pictures and trying to come up with clever (and usually not so clever) things to say...it is kind of mind boggling. Time truly flies and I'm glad that I have this online document that tracks my years of collecting.

When I first noticed that I was approaching the 2,000 mark back at the end of November, I immediately started planning which record I should buy to celebrate the occasion. It was a tough choice, and since I'm never topping my 1,000th post, I decided to go with a record where the title would be a fun play on words for what I've put into this blog. The Years Of Decay.

I've been after the fourth Overkill album, The Years Of Decay, for years. Released in 1989, I didn't think that it would be too difficult to get my hands on a copy, but the task has proven to be tougher than I expected. Strangely, there are very few US sellers for this album, and if someone is selling it from the States, they have it listed at a ridiculous price or it is a cut out. After waiting a couple of years with this on my Discogs want list, I finally decided to focus on a Euro pressing where the prices were a bit lower and there were more options from sellers. Given how much I've wanted this record, and for how long I've been looking for one, it feels good to finally get my hands on one.

I ordered this record back in November, and it legit took two months to land in my mailbox. The postal service has been incredibly slow with the holidays, and I was starting to wonder if this was going to arrive in time. Fear that this record may not arrive pushed me to seek alternate records to fit the 2,000 post title, so I had ordered some back up records just in case The Years Of Decay fell through. Thankfully it finally got here, and was able to proceed as planned.

Four Year Circus

Good riddance Trump. We are done with your antics, hostility and arrogance. You managed to make every concern that I had when you first became president come true, so thanks for living up to my expectations. It is such a relief to not have to worry about what insane will come out of your mouth going forward, and if we are lucky, maybe today was the last time I had to argue with my dad on Facebook about supporting this fucker. While I don't belive that Biden will magically fix the systematic failures in America, the future is definitely brighter.

I was recently on Instagram and saw that someone posted a 25th anniversary pressing of the first Good Riddance album. The colored vinyl and silver foil for the band name on the cover looked amazing and I immediately started searching online for more info and where I could get my hands on one. I don't keep up with Fat Wreck releases and reissues so I was happy to find that they still had some in stock in their webstore, and I quickly grabbed one.

I'm not a big collector for Good Riddance records but there was a time when they were my favorite band, so I'm really happy to add this record to the collection. I don't really spend a lot of time with For God And Country these days, so this is a good reminder to listen to it more often.

Flesh And Blood And Records

I was stuck in a Whitesnake obsession for most of 2020. There was a lot of depressing shit going on and Coverdale and the band provided the levity that I needed to not lose my fucking mind. While my interest in the band tends to focus on everything up to Slide It In, I did find myself giving some of later stuff a chance. It isn't nearly as good as the earlier stuff, but surprisingly, I don't find it to be terrible either. I had downloaded their latest album from 2019, Flesh & Blood, but I'd never really been hot enough on the record to pick it up myself.

As we were getting closer to Christmas, my mom asked if there were any records that she could buy me for a gift. While this used to be an easy question to answer, it isn't so simple these days. It's not like I can go, "yeah, I'd really like the silver label Megaforce Records pressing of the first Anthrax album." I can't just point her to Discogs or eBay because that would probably cause her head to explode, so I played it safe, and sent her a link to Amazon for this Whitesnake album.

While this record isn't going to blow your mind, and it can be cringeworthy with song titles like Shut Up & Kiss Me and Hey You (You Make Me Rock), I'm not too serious about it and I can still get down and have a good time with this album. I'm glad that I didn't have to buy it, but I'm still happy to have it in the collection.

Tape Heads

I really have no use for cassette tapes these days. As a kid, cassettes were huge for me until CDs came along, and I still get a kick out of flipping through the box of old tapes that I still have, but buying new tapes doesn't make any sense to me.

When React Records released the For My Brothers tape from Ancient Heads back in 2013, I ignored it. Ugh...fucking tapes...I grabbed a download of the songs and that was good enough for me. A few years after its release, I really looked at the cover photo for this cassette... holy shit... that is me in the black No Tolerance t-shirt... goddamn, now I'm going to have to own a copy!

I finally got around to grabbing a cheap copy off Discogs last summer, but since it is a tape, I kind of tossed it in a corner and forgot about it. When I recently uncovered it from a pile of records recently, I figured that it was time to post it up on the blog. Shame that these songs only saw a cassette release as they may be the best Ancient Head songs.

Paint By Numbers

Triple B must know my weakness for alternate covers. I try to avoid buying multiple copies of records, but reissues with artwork variations are sometimes too tempting to resist.

I really liked the One Step Closer 12 inch from last year. I've seen them play live a few times, and each time, they left me feeling excited about hardcore. Now that I think about it, One Step Closer is probably the band that I've seen live more than any other over the past few years... it wasn't planned, but they just happened to be on the bill for the few hardcore shows I made it out to.

For the fourth pressing, Triple B changed the cover to a paint-by-numbers variation. I think it is a cool and different...although since I've seen this One Step Closer cover, I guess that Chubby and the Gang did the same kind of thing with their recent reissue. Not sure who had the idea first.

I love the colorway for this pressing. 200 pressed for this tri-stripe color.

I already had the original blue cover, and the tan variant, so I obviously needed this latest cover as well. Looking forward to the new album later this year!

To Whatever Alternate Cover

While I don't many moves to collect multiple colored vinyl pressings these days, I do seem to be a sucker for pressings that use an alternate cover.

I absolutely love the Magnitude album that Triple B released back in 2019. It really draws from the 90's straight edge hardcore sound, and I can't get enough of that shit. I already owned a first pressing of the To Whatever Fateful End record, and I thought that it would be enough for me...but when Triple B dropped the third press this year, swapping out the blue cover with green, goddamn, they certainly had my attention. While I wasn't originally a fan of the front cover art because I thought it looked too "metalcore", I've really grown to love it, and the new green coloring looks fucking great. I managed to go a couple of months of repeatedly adding it to my cart and then deleting it before I finally just said "fuck it" and I bought the damn thing.

500 pressed on the green and white colored vinyl with the green cover.

Second Vantage Point Pressing

Back when I was picking up that Speedway 7 inch from Triple B, I couldn't resist the urge to pick up a couple newer pressings for some of the label's other releases. I really try to limit my involvement in the game of buying multiple pressings, but sometimes I can't resist.

The Vantage Point EP that Triple B released at the end of 2019 was one of my favorite 7 inches that year. Four songs in just over eight minutes, and it just rips with hardcore aggression. This band makes me excited for hardcore.

Having already picked up the first press on red vinyl, plus the record release pressing, I felt like I might as well pick up the latest press...it is Triple B, so of course it is on splatter vinyl. 500 pressed.

Where Snipers Come From

I spent the majority of my hardcore years kind of ambivalent about Naked Raygun. I thought a couple of their songs were good, but I would lose interest if I tried to spin a full album. It wasn't until I was in my 40's that it finally clicked. Naked Raygun didn't fit the standard blueprint for hardcore punk music as I knew it. They were doing their own thing, and unfortunately it took me way too long to finally understand it.

I spent a lot of time during the last couple months of 2020 listening to Naked Raygun. I'm not sure what it was exactly. Trump lost the election, and even though his fanatic fanbase is still a concern, it still felt a rock had been lifted off my chest and I could breathe again. It felt like it was time to celebrate...and the Naked Raygun albums just fit that mood perfectly. I listened to them daily...over and over again.

As much as I love Naked Raygun, Throb Throb was the only record that I actually owned from them. As I was going through my obsession over their albums, I found a copy of Understand available for a good price on Discogs and quickly added it to my cart. One of my favorites from the band.