Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 2003 - Stand & Fight

This is it. The final post in the "Cheap 7 Inch Haul" series. 16 records over 13 posts that I knocked out daily just so that I could fit them all onto the blog in February. It was a pretty good run and a lot of fun. Like I said at the start of this run, crucial and expensive records are cool and all, but I still get a kick out of buying a record that someone isn't bragging about each week on Instagram. Hey, I'm not above an occasional IG dick measuring contest, but man, sometimes that shit gets stale... so here it is, the last record from my shopping spree.

Back in 2006, in the first month of this blog's existance, I posted about a Stand & Fight record. In that post, I mentioned that the only record that I needed to complete the collection was the Impact Demo 7 inch on red. Here we are, almost fifteen years to the day later, and the quest is finally complete.

This record isn't rare by any stretch, with 700 pressed on red vinyl, but it still took me forever to pull the trigger on this thing. Part of the problem has been that I could never remember if I needed the blue or red version, so I'd see one for sale, I wouldn't be sure if it was the color that I needed or not. Feels good to finally have this one complete.

This series has been so much fun, and I've had a great time revisiting a lot of these bands that I haven't thought about for years. The whole process has kind of triggered me to buy a bunch of other hardcore records. This might be the end for my series of cheap 7 inches, but I've got a bunch of other stuff like this in the blog backlog, so there is more to come soon.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 2002 - Close Call

Ten years ago I picked up a couple cheap Close Call 7 inches. I felt like I got a good deal back then, grabbing those records for $5 each. However, recently picking up the Someone Talked 7 inch for half of that amount makes me feel like I got ripped off on that inital purchase back in 2011.

Members of Close Call went on to bands like Righteous Jams, R'N'R, and Bane, so you know the band has some solid history with Massachusetts hardcore. Still, for one reason or another, the band seems to remain overlooked. I mean, they aren't going to blow you away as some long forgotten treasure from the early 2000's, but Close Call are still fucking solid.

Happy to add another record to the collection for a band that no one is going to care about. Best $2.50 I'll spend all year.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 2001 Far From Breaking

Far From Breaking is another one of those early 2000 bands that I rarely think about playing. The band released two 7 inches, and I have a good time with both of them, but for some reason this era of hardcore tends to get pushed aside when I'm looking for something to listen to. I really need to make an effort to go back and pull out of these records because stuff like this is a blast to revisit.

While I was filling my cart with cheap 7 inches from Discogs, I noticed this blue vinyl for the first Far From Breaking 7 inch, and quickly grabbed it. It's funny because I'm pretty sure that Doug was selling a bunch of this kind of stuff a few years ago, including a bunch of Far From Breaking records, but I was in a different musical headspace and I wasn't interested, so he ended up dumping it all at one of his local record store. Man, what I wouldn't give to go back and take a crack at some of those records now.

The Made My Choice record was released on Third Party, and it definitely fits that sound and style the label was doing in the mid to late 90's. Just young kids playing simple straight edge hardcore. I'm down with it.

The second Far From Breaking 7 inch was released on Youngblood and is a definite improvement. The band still plays that straight edge hardcore style, but the songs are tighter and better written.

I didn't actually order this record. The seller must have checked my collection on Discogs, as he mentioned that he noticed I didn't own the blue vinyl pressing for The Identity, and threw it in the order for free. Good deal!

I'm not really setting out to collect Far From Breaking records, but here we are.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 2000 - Tear It Up

When I did my "cheap 7 inch" haul from Armageddon Records back in 2019, I was reminded how great some of those thrashy hardcore bands were from the early 2000's. It was awesome to check out those bands again, and dig into some of the records that I'd failed to pick up back in the day. I still tend to overlook those bands when I'm listening to music today, but finding a cheap 7 inch for one of those bands is a great reminder of how much fun that style can be.

Tear It Up are one of the better bands that do the thrashy hardcore style. Between 2000 and 2003 the band released one album, and a bunch of EPs and splits. They released a lot of shit in that short period, and it is tempting to get sucked into the record collector void for them, as they have some really great looking covers and variants.

Classic cover for the first Tear It Up 7 inch, and it looks great with the transparent orange vinyl.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 1999 - Reinforce

When you play in the arena of cheap 7 inches, chances are you're one of the few people that still care about relatively unknown and obscure bands. I don't think that Reinforce were causing that many ripples back in the late 90's, but I would imagine that in 2021 there are probably only two guys that get excited about collecting this band.

I really liked this second 7 inch from Reinforce back when it was released. I never had any interest in the tough guy bands of the day, and so I was hooked from the start with the One Life Thug Free record title. The band definitely idolized 7 Seconds with everything from the positivity, the sound, and even the eye-black. They seemed to just really have fun playing hardcore, and I bet they were a blast to see live.

I'd kind of forgotten about the band as they've been buried under twenty years of records since they were around, but picking up these $3 records was a nice reminder. One of the things that had me excited about buying a couple pressings of this old Reinforce 7 inch was how great the colored vinyl looked. That clear vinyl with the blue streak might be one of the best looking pieces of colored vinyl, and the blue marbled is pretty tight as well.

I wasn't a collector back in 1999, and was quite content with my regular black vinyl pressing, but these days I'm stoked on the colored vinyl for this 7 inch. Now if I could just get my hands on the "Melanie Jayne Chisholm" edition!

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 1998 - The Third Degree

The Third Degree were the band that kicked off this entire "cheap 7 inch" shopping spree. I've been listening to their Concrete Warriors album a lot recently, and even though I knew that it had never been pressed to vinyl, I still had to jump to the band's Discogs page just to double check and make sure I had my facts straight. Sigh...yeah, as I remembered, it was a CD only release.

While I was visiting the band's Discogs page, their first 7 inch caught my eye. I never bothered with this record back in the day, but in my desperation to buy some vinyl for The Third Degree, I decided that now was the time to check it out...and the $3 price tag certainly helped it's cause.

According to Discogs there were 220 pressed on blue vinyl, but the copy that I received was numbered out of 100. Not sure what the deal was, I reached out to Inspector Marcus to see if he knew any details. Of course he did. The scoop that he gave me was that the record was a split release between Indecision and Finn Records...his copy from Indecision wasn't numbered, so the assumption was that Finn numbered thiers. Good info, and I'm glad that the copy I picked up happened to be numbered.

While Marcus and I were talking about The Third Degree, their Switchblades & Urethane 7 inch came up. Again, I'd never heard it, so I asked for his opinion if I should bother checking it out...I found that the skull and crossbones cover to be a bit dumb, so I was a bit cautious on picking it up...Marcus came back with a smartass reply that there was one on Discogs for $5 and I should take the chance to find out. Fucker. 5 seconds later I was adding it to my cart.

Goddamn. This band's entire output is flawless. This two song 7 inch from 1999 is a perfect fit between the 1998 self titled 7 inch and the Concrete Warriors album from 2000.

Numbered out of 300, and The Third Degree are on target to be my favorite band that I'll listen to all year.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 1997 - Blank

I wasn't limiting myself to only Youth Crew revival bands in '97... no, I was also pretty big on Art Monk stuff like Seven Storey Mountain and Trans Megetti as well. While I preferred the more straight forward hardcore bands, stuff like this provided a nice alternative.

Blank kind of fell into that emo/Ebullition style that was big through the mid-90's. I had their Piotrville 7 inch from '94, and I really liked that record but never really bothered with anything beyond that. I think at one point I had a CD of theirs but it never hooked me and I ended up selling it... so it was a gamble grabbing this record from '97. Hell, it was cheap and I wanted to check out something that might be a bit different, so I threw caution (and four dollars) to the wind, and added this to the cart.

While this record isn't nearly as fun as Piotrville, I'm surprised by how much I like these songs. Solid stuff for sure.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 1997 - Bout Of The Century

My "Big 4" for hardcore in 1996 would be Ten Yard Fight, Fastbreak, Floorpunch and Bane. I can't understate how big those bands were for me at that time... and when TYF and Fastbreak teamed up for a split 7 inch in '97, I couldn't have been more excited for it. Even though I prefered CDs at the time, I still made sure to pick up this record. I can't remember where I bought the red vinyl, but it feels like I saw Ten Yard Fight play once a month at the time, I assume I grabbed the red vinyl at their merch table.

The songs on this split are all great. I remember around this time, some people were starting to talk about how disappointed they were that Fastbreak were changing their sound, so I didn't know what to expect when I picked this up back then. I was relieved when I finally heard the songs as these are still rooted in that old school youth crew style...turned out that change wouldn't show up until their next record...make no mistake though, Fastbreak never put out a bad record.

Since I absolutely love this record, it is ridiculous how long it has taken me to put together a halfway decent collection. When I filling my cart with cheap 7 inches from a Discogs seller and saw this green vinyl pressing available, I was happy to finally grab a copy for myself.

While this record is part of my "cheap 7 inch haul", this was still the most expensive one of the bunch... breaking the bank at $9... but it was still worth it to finally have all four colors.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 1994 - Strain

I bought two of the Strain 7 inches back in the mid-90's. The Driven and Cataract records were pretty good, but I didn't really appreciate them at the time and they got pushed aside rather quickly as I was focusing on other bands at the time. It's kind of surprising that I didn't pay much attention to them back then as Strain definitely sounds like they could be Undertow's baby brother...and I was a huge fan of Undertow.

I've definitely come to appreciate the band more over the past few years, but I still have a few records that haven't gotten around to listening to yet. As I was recently dropping cheap 7 inches in to my cart from a Discogs seller, I noticed this Strain record that I wasn't familiar with. It was on colored vinyl and the price was right, so I decided to take a chance.

This record is fucking great. Definitely in that Undertow style that I'm familiar with from the two Heartfirst 7 inches. This yellow vinyl looks fantastic and it got me checking out other colored vinyl pressings for their stuff on Discogs...damn, I might need to start collecting this band.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 1994 - Serpico

Originally released under the band name Sleeper in 1991, this 7 inch ended up being reissued in '94 after they changed their name over to Serpico to avoid conflict with a UK band of the same name. I bought the original Sleeper record back in the early 90's, but when I saw this Serpico reissue on colored vinyl, I couldn't resist it.

I absolutely love the three songs on this record... for early 90's melodic punk, this record hits the spot... but for some reason I've never been able to connect with any of other stuff by Sleeper or Serpico. Their two albums on Equal Vision were okay, but nothing very exciting. A lot of potential, and being on EVR helped to get their name out there, but their stuff just never clicked. This first 7 inch is great though.

I really like the packaging for this 7 inch and think the white vinyl with the brown center labels and cover looks great. 500 pressed on this color.

There are a number of different versions for this record under the Sleeper name, but the copy I have on gold vinyl is probably all I'll need...you know, until I see happen to see one of the white or pink vinyl pressings for cheap.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 1993 - Flagman

Early 90's hardcore had a sound. Bands like Kingpin, Encounter and Temperance...even the Daybreak 7 inch from Up Front...when I hear those records it immediately transports me back to New England shows at the time. Just getting into hardcore at the time, and discovering all of these bands felt special to this kid. I'd grown up on arena concerts, metal mags from the local grocery store, and shopping for music at the mall. Traveling to Boston and discovering the hardcore scene...man, that shit felt more personal and real. They were special times for me for sure.

Flagman fit that early 90's style, but for some reason I find that I have never really spent much time with their records. I definitely remember them making some noise at the time, but for one reason or another, they were never a band that made much of an impact with me at the time. Hell, I never even heard their Restraint 7 inch until a few years ago.

Records like this seem to get buried by time and dust, and buying this green vinyl pressing has been a great reminder that I need to break out my Flagman records more often.

I picked up the purple vinyl pressing back in 2012... 20 years after it's initial release. Considering it only took me another 8 years to grab the green vinyl, it is impressive how quickly I move these days.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 1990 - Thepeoplescourt

I have a few Skene Records releases from the early 90's, and some of them are quite good. I'd never heard of The People's Court, but this 7 inch falls between Sticks And Stones and Green Day in the Skene catalog numbers so I figured that I'd take a chance on it.

The People's Court were a melodic punk band out of Florida and released this one 7 inch, listed as Thepeoplescourt on Discogs. The songs here are very much of the time, and while not mindblowing, it is still a cool little find...fun to throw on the turntable when you are spinning old Phleg Camp and Monsula records. Members went on to bands like Assuck and Culture for those interested in the history here.

The seller ended up giving me this record for free. While I had included it with my order, he wrote to me to let me know that he had trouble playing it due to some slight warping of the vinyl. He removed it from my invoice, but still tossed the record in for me. I had no issues spinning it on my turntable, so that worked out in my favor.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 1990 - Glee Club

Early on in 2020 I posted a bunch of 7 inches that I'd picked up for cheap during a shopping trip in Boston with Sandwell. I did a string of eight posts on the blog documenting that haul and it was a bit of fun adding those to the collection and writing about them here. I don't know why, but older records are just more exciting to buy...even when they are records that very few people probably still care about. When I was recently scrolling through some records that a seller had available on Discogs, and noticed they had a bunch of old hardcore 7 inches available for cheap, I got caught up in the excitement and started tossing things into the cart. At the end of the day I had ordered sixteen old 7 inches that were released between 1990 and 2003. I'm going to post these things chronologically based on when they were released, so let's kick things off with Glee Club from 1990.

I was basically introduced to the more underground side of hardcore with issue number nine of No Answers. That fanzine opened my eyes to all kinds of cool shit, and I specifically remember there being a review for a Glee Club 7 inch that sparked my interest in the band and made me want to check them out. Kent McClard did No Answers, and additionally ran a small distro at the time named By-Product Mailorder. When I noticed that the distro had the Farawaylands 7 inch, I quickly bought it. That record didn't sound anything like I thought it would, and was quite a bit more melodic than I was expecting, but still found it kind of cool.

When I was scrolling through the list of records available from a Discogs seller, I noticed that he had a 7 inch from Glee Club available. Turned out to be the Farawaylands 7 inch with a different cover. I hadn't listened to this band for years, but seeing this other cover threw me back to 1990, and I suddenly really wanted it. This record isn't anything special, but I do like to give it a spin now and then, and it was cool to discover this other cover 30+ years later...and check out that $3.25 postage paid price on the back cover...damn, those were the days.

Here is a photo to show the two different covers. I'm weirdly happy to own both of these.

Killers World Tour '81

I love Iron Maiden bootlegs. The thought of owning these raw and unedited live recordings is exciting and it gives me a charge when I add one to the collection. Truth be told though, once I buy it and give it the initial spin, it gets filed on the shelf and it is quite possible that I'll only pull it out for a listen once every ten years...if at all. It seems that I enjoy the concept of owning live bootlegs more than actually listening to them. This leads me to the problem that I experienced when I picked up the latest Maiden bootleg that was released by Heavy Metal Heroes.

I love the Heavy Metal Heroes bootleg releases. The covers look great and the packaging is top notch, so it is a thrill to grab them when I see them. When I saw that Hells Headbangers distro recently had an Iron Maiden live bootleg from the 1981 Killers tour, I didn't hesitate to add it to my cart. These things tend to sell for $60 and up on eBay, so when I can grab them from Hells Headbangers for half that price, I consider myself to be damn lucky.

This live recording from Berlin sounds great, and it is really cool to hear these songs live with DiAnno on vocals. The only problem is that I have this exact same fucking recording on a bootleg that I picked up five years ago. The packaging is obviously different, but I guess that it speaks volumes on how little I pay attention to what I'm actually buying for Maiden bootlegs. "Oh cool cover. I'll buy it."

If I'd known that I already owned the bootleg vinyl for this recording then I most likely wouldn't have bothered with this release...but now that I have it, I'm not sure if I want to let it go and flip it on eBay.

Metallica Vinyl Club #2

The vinyl subscription club for Metallica took some time to get rolling. Plagued with delays and miscommunication, what was supposed to be a series of four 7 inch records that were to be delivered throughout 2020, turned into a clusterfuck as I received my first record at the end of November. With record number two hitting my mailbox recently, I'm hopeful that it is a sign that the Covid and holiday delays are behind us, and they can start cranking out the rest of the series.

The first 7 inch in the series gave us a couple of live songs from '87, and with the Motherload record we jump ahead for two live tracks from '96.

The story here is that MTV ran some contest, and the winner had Metallica show up in their hometown, hang out and play a small show for him and his friends at a local bar. Sad But True and Whiplash are captured here. It is a bit strange that this was recorded while Metallica were on the Load tour (hence the name "Motherload") but this record doesn't include any songs from that record. It would have been cool to include Ain't My Bitch or King Nothing here...but maybe Metallica were just playing older hits at this small show for the contest winner. Still, it would have been nice to hear at least one song that really placed this in '96.

Record two in the series and numbered. Too bad that Metallica couldn't have organized it so that subscribers received the same number for each release.

Once again, the packaging for this 7 inch is top quality. Nice heavy cardstock cover with a nice picture dust sleeve, and this one comes with a sheet of stickers. Solid.

Blue Discipline

At some point last year, I found myself in the Painkiller webstore looking to buy the Rated X record. While I was in there, I noticed that the label also had a record available from a band named Heavy Discipline. I'd never heard of this band before, but since they had the same name as an old GBH song, I figured that I'd check them out. After being disappointed that Painkiller was already sold out of the Rated X colored vinyl pressing, and that Heavy Discipline didn't sound anything like GBH, I left the store empty handed.

I didn't think about Heavy Discipline until Marcus posted about the record a few months later. He seemed into it so I figured that I'd give it a second chance. These guys definitely fall into that early Boston hardcore sound, and I'm glad that I received the push to check them out again. Honestly, I'm surprised I let this one pass me by the first time around...I mean, if someone had clued me into the fact that this is the same singer from Hounds Of Hate, I would have been all over it from the start.

I was surprised to find that Painkiller still had the blue vinyl available when I went back to the store, and I didn't hesitate to grab one this time around.

To The Metal!

About five years ago, I really got into power metal. Stuff like Sabaton, Blind Guardian, Hammerfall, and of course Gamma Ray. Man, at the time, I ate that shit up. I couldn't get enough and I even had my sights set on expensive first pressings for some of those heavy hitters. I did end up throwing some good money at a couple early Sabaton first pressings, but never really made the moves that I anticipated making for Gamma Ray. When I noticed that there were some 2020 colored vinyl reissues for their records, I shrugged my shoulders and figured that was much easier to swallow than $100 first pressings...especially since I don't spin this stuff nearly as much as I used to.

To The Metal is the 10th studio album from Gamma Ray, and when I first started to get into the band, it was one of my favorites from the band. There was even a DVD video that was released for the making of the album, and I remember getting such a kick out of those behind the scenes details. This is good shit for when I'm in the mood for some fun, uplifting metal.

This 2020 reissue is well done...including a couple of bonus tracks and the colored vinyl looks fantastic.

Numbered out of 1,500 pressed.