Mike V And The Rats

I spent a lot of time last year hanging out in my early 2000's playlists. For one reason or another, records from those years just never got a lot of attention from me. It was probably because those years were such a weird time for me musically, and I was probably downloading about 20 albums a week in a search for something that would grab me, and never really spending much time with any of it. I left a lot of those downloaded albums in the dust many years ago because a lot of the nu metal, hip hop, pop punk stuff didn't make a lasting impact... but when I go back to the hardcore records from that time, some of that shit sound exciting and new to me.

One of the records that caught me off guard recently was the Mike V And The Rats EP from 2002. I remember thinking this EP was okay back in the day, but I could probably count the number of times that I've listened to this over the past 20 years on one hand. I wasn't a skater, so Mike Vallely wasn't a big deal for me, and their Black Flag influence didn't move me too much at the time. Yet somehow, listening to this thing in 2023, I'm really having a good time with it. As a bonus, I just discovered the other day that Mike V And The Rats also released a 3 song CD in 2006, so I've been jamming those songs as well.

Since I only had this on CD originally, I figured that it was time to grab the vinyl. Why not? No one else seems too interested the band, and you can grab the 7 inch for cheap. Nice looking blue vinyl.

Kill The Messenger

Similar to The Suicide File, Kill The Messenger were another band from that late 90's/early 2000 period that I didn't appreciate at the time. I remember picking up the All The Angels Crash And Burn CD back in the day, mainly because it had the singer from Outspoken, but I don't remember it really leaving much of an impression on me. I think that I wanted something that was more in the vein of My Heart Still Beats, but Kill The Messenger was seemed to be more influenced by Black Flag or B'last... and because it wasn't more of that Outspoken sound, I kind of dismissed it.

I dusted off that Kill The Messenger CD last year when I was obsessing over a bunch of stuff from around 2000, and I was surprised with how fucking great it was. Man, I slept on some really great bands during this time.

Everyone's favorite format... the 10 inch! Oh well, at $6, at least it was cheap.

Early Moods

About ten years ago, my playlists were packed with newer doom bands. Stuff like Orchid, Blood Ceremony, Kadavar and Orange Goblin were in constant rotation at the time, and I was super excited to be discovering all of those newer doom greats. It feels like it has been quite a while since a newer doom band has caught my attention like that, but as we were getting ready to close out 2022, I was introduced to Early Moods.

There was someone on Instagram that had the self-titled Early Moods record listed in their Top 10 for 2022. I'd never heard of this band, but since we shared a number of records on our top metal list for the year, I figured that I'd quickly check them out. I jumped to their youtube video for Return To Salem's Gate and holy fuck... I was floored. This was some amazing Pentagram/Candlemass influenced doom. Honestly, I can't remember the last time a newer doom metal band had me this excited. I was so impressed that I had to make a last minute change to get them included in my year end recap post, even though I didn't have the vinyl yet.

Riding Easy had a "hand pour" colored vinyl option. I wasn't sure what that meant, but it turned out to be this splatter pattern. I've seen worse, and I actually kind of like that way that it looks catching my camera flash in these photos.

The Pain I Face

Around '92, I originally bought the cassette single for Unbroken's You Won't Be Back. I don't seem to have that cassette in my possession anymore, so I probably sold it off to Doug when I unloaded a bunch of my tapes years ago. When I was recently picking up a couple of records from a Discogs seller, I noticed that they had the colored vinyl for that Unbroken 7 inch, I figured it was a good time to finally get this back in my collection, and in a better format.

I'm certain that I've seen this 7 inch in a local record store through the years, but I've always let it pass me by for the stupid reason that these two songs weren't as good as what Unbroken would release in the years following this. Dumb. While it may not be at the same level as Ritual, these two songs are still some solid early 90's hardcore. It definitely fits in with the other classic two song 7 inches that were released in '92, like Worlds Collide, Snapcase, Blindfold, Ressurection and Four Walls Falling.

I'd never really looked to collect this Unbroken 7 inch, and then shortly after I picked up this copy, Marcus found a pink vinyl version when we were at Wanna Hear It together. Having this orange vinyl makes me want that pink version so much more, and I wish that I'd grabbed it before he did.

Engaged And Empowered

There was a time when I thought that I was familiar with the history of Redemption Records. However, after discovering a few Redemption titles recently that I was completely unaware of, I realized that I was only ever really down with those first four releases (Intent, Encounter, Four Walls Falling and Ressurection). After that initial run, I guess that I had stopped paying attention.

One of the records that I discovered in recent months was Redemption number 12, the Empowerment LP from Engage. Originally released in 1993, this album musically fits in with the melodic hardcore sound of the time... Engage were out of California, but totally sound like they were out of the Northeast corner of the US, so they sound like a perfect fit to what Redemption had been doing up to this point. Definitely worth checking out if you are into this kind of thing, and a really cool find for me 30 years down the line.

After I received this LP, I realized that I actually own one of the Engage 7 inches from '91. I bought it through Ebullition mailorder at the time, but it never left much of an impact on me... other than it having a weird song about being okay with it when your friend wants to kill themself ("suicide, I understand. suicide, I cherish."). I didn't know what to make of that song, so the record got filed away in a corner with a bunch of other records that I pushed aside at the time. I might have to revisit it and see if it holds up next to this LP.

Record Store Damnation

Bouncing back to my haul from Wanna Hear It Records that I posted about here last month... there was one record that I picked up that proved to be a bit more trouble than I had expected. It took a couple of weeks to get things straightened out, so here we go.

As a collector of AC/DC records, over the past couple of years I've discovered a couple of cover variants with the For Those About To Rock design. Of course, I already own the regular pressing with the the copper cover and black print, but I've recently found that the pressing out of Spain had the colors inverted so it was copper print on a black cover. Very cool. I want one. Then shortly after finding out about the Spain press, I came to realize that the Let's Get It Up single in the US came with that same cannon design, except it was on a red cover. Yes! I want them all! When I was at Wanna Hear It, I was mostly focused on hardcore records, but as I was killing time and waiting for Marcus to finish up, I quickly flipped throught the rock singles, and there was the red cover. Without hesitating, I quickly added it to my pile before checking out.

A couple of weeks later, I was going through all of my records from that day, and something caught my eye. The picture sleeve cover was for the Let's Get It Up single, but the actual record itself was for Rock 'N' Roll Damnation. Fuck. I was going to have to fix this situation.

Thankfully, the Let's Get It Up 7 inch, without the cover, is pretty common and cheap on Discogs, so I quickly bought one to stick in the picture sleeve. The Rock 'N' Roll Damnation 7 inch never came with a picture sleeve, so I didn't have to worry about that one. Problem solved.

Clear Your Way

There was a time around 2014/2015 where I found myself losing some excitement over hardcore. The newer records at the time just weren't holding my attention, and I was more interested in what what was happening in rock and metal. Early in 2017, that tide began to shift back to hardcore's favor when I discovered a string of new bands on Triple B, including Free At Last.

That Embrace You record from Free At Last was so great and such a fantastic surprise. Shortly after discovering that record, I found that the band had also released a 7 inch a few years earlier. I found the Dog Years Records webstore and placed an order for the Pave Your Way EP, but I'm assuming that the label had collapsed by that point as I never received my order. Honestly, I was ordering so much shit at the time that I didn't even realize that I never received my record until probably eight months had passed. It sucked, but it was only one record, and I just wrote it off as a loss. Four years later, I finally made a move to pick up that 7 inch though Discogs.

The six songs on Pave Your Way aren't as great as what I found on the Embrace You LP, but this is still a fun 7 inch. It is a good listen when you are in the mood for some good straight forward hardcore, and why wouldn't you always be in the mood for that?

Intent Redemption

Intent were a hardcore band out of Texas in the early 90's, and while I absolutely loved their Drift 12 inch back in the day, it took me until 2013 to finally discover the band's 7 inch from 1990. Here we are, ten years later, and I figured that I might as well own another copy of it.

Initially, I didn't think too much of this 7 inch, but I've really come to appreciate it over the years since I bought my first copy. There is just something about early 90's hardcore that hits me, and I never seem to get tired of it.

I believe that this version on Redemption Records is only available on black vinyl, while the blue colored vinyl saw a release under the Punchline Records label with a different cover. For the longest time, I didn't think that I needed this black pressing, but as Redemption Records number one, I kind of needed it just for its historical significance. Plus, I needed that Empty cover version.

I figured that I might as well get a photo of both versions for this post.

Mega Bussin'

Last year, I was very surprised to discover that House Of Suffering had released a second 7 inch back in '92. Somehow, that record completely flew under my radar and it was a shock to stumble upon it 30 years after it's release. After picking up that Wired / Youth 7 inch, I started to dig around on Discogs to see if there was anything else that I was missing... and that's when I found the Bus Volume 2 complilation.

This Bus comp features four bands from the Southern California area in the early 90's. For me, this focal point of this 7 inch is the House Of Suffering song, which is similar to what the band did with Wired / Youth. The band just know how to groove. The other cool thing on this comp is the song from Beatless, which is just a Kevin Murphy one-man project. The song here is Kill Me, which obviously shows up on Farside's Rigged album two years later. It is kind of neat to find this early recording of the song.

White vinyl and numbered on the center label out of 580.

Time // Wounds

I absolutely loved Mos Generator when I first discovered them in 2014 with Electric Mountain Majesty. For years I was obsessed with that band and I picked up a number of very collectible records from the band... of which, I still get occasional messages on Discogs about, asking if I could please sell (never going to happen). While I was initially blown away with Mos Generator's heavy rock sound when I discovered them, the band have since been pushing their sound and incorporating some different influences to their style. Change makes me nervous, but with each album Mos Generator have proven that they still deliver the goods.

With the release of Time // Wounds in 2022, Mos Generator posted a number of messages on social media, thanking thier fans for sticking with them on "an album that steps way beyond the boundaries of our usual foundations". I was starting to wonder if this was the record that the band was going to get too proggy and maybe lose me. I didn't rush out to give any of the advance singles a listen, and was thinking that I may let this album pass me by... and then I saw a comment from Tony Reed (singer/guitarist) about the song Getting Good At Revenge where he describes the influences as starting with a No Means No intro riff before diving into a Black Flag My War-era sound for a bit. Okay, I needed to listen to that immediately. Damn. While this style is limited to that one song, it still convinced me to buy the album.

Much of what is pressed into these wax grooves still maintains that original Mos Generator identity. No doubt they are still rooted in heavy rock, but there are layers and a bit more complexity here, and I'm here for all of it. I can't believe almost let this one pass me by. First pressing limited to only 200 on the band's own Music Abuse label.