Guided Tour Through 2024

I'm trying to decide if this past year was as turbulent as the previous one when it comes to my music habits. 2023 might have seen me rewiring my brain on what I listen to and accepting more different styles of music, but I think that 2024 might have seen me focus in a bit more on those sounds that were new to me. While I enjoyed a song or two from bands like The Smiths and The Cure in 2023, this past year had me really obsessing over certain albums from those bands and reaching out to discover more indie sounds. I wasn't really interested in what new bands were doing or what new records were being released... nope, I was too busy exploring older discoveries. Because I was trying new things, I didn't really spend a lot of time chasing records... I wasn't even sure if I wanted to buy records for those bands. Yeah, it was a weird time that I was still trying to figure out.

While I was still lost on what to do about record collecting, and being more distracted with books and reading, it lead to the lowest number of posts on this blog in 15 years. I still enjoy the time that I dedicate to this thing, I just found it difficult to make that time. While the year wasn't too exciting for collecting, there were still a few things that I'm really happy about picking up, so let's get into them here.

For most of the year, I put very little thought into chasing records. The year was bookended however with a couple moments of inspiration... first with a 90's hardcore obsession, and then getting the opportunity to go through someone's collection and buy some older records... and looking back at these few purchases kind of has me excited again. Reflecting on these eight purchases makes me want more of this.

1. Spiritual Cramp 'Mass Hysteria' record release - There was never any doubt that this was going to be the favorite record that I picked up this year. This was probably the only time all summer that I was bit by the collector bug. I saw this record release sleeve for the first Spiritual Cramp 7 inch and needed to own it no matter what the price was.

2. Social Distortion 'Mommy's Little Monster' 1st press - Maybe the most expensive record that I bought this past year. When I discovered this record eight years ago, I threw this 1st pressing on my wantlist, but realistically didn't think that I'd ever spend this kind of money for it. Man, sometimes it feels good to just do it.

3. Remission 'Pain Understood' test press - Buying this test press made me feel like a serious collector again... plus the record was from a time when I was at the height of my record collecting mania. Remission still sounds so good today, and I was stoked to get my hands on this test.

4. Voice Of Reason 'Parody' limited cover and blue vinyl - The thing about me is that I love obscure 90's hardcore bands. Wrap that shit up in a special cover and press it on colored vinyl, and I will eat it up all day.

5. Abuse Of Power 'When Then Becomes Now' tour cover - I was surprised to find this in the racks at Wanna Hear It Records. Abuse Of Power had fallen off my radar a bit, but buying this 7 inch with the limited tour cover was a great reminder of how much I like this band.

6. Cro-Mags 'The Age Of Quarrel' 1st press - An absolute hardcore classic. Honestly, finally buying this record just makes me want to buy more of this older shit that I should have in my collection.

7. T.S.O.L. self-titled EP - While I do wish that this was an earlier pressing, there is no doubt that buying this 12 inch has me appreciating early T.S.O.L. more. I've listened to this record so many times since I bought it, and it is just perfect.

8. Burst Of Silence 'Thicker Than Blood' on maroon - Burst Of Silence is another obscure 90's hardcore band that I fucking love. I didn't know that this was even available on colored vinyl for a long time, so I'm very happy to own this.

1. Bent Blue - So Much Seething

2. High Vis - Guided Tour

3. Spaced - This Is All We Ever Get

4. Wreckage - Self In All

5. Unified Action - This Is A War

6. Planet On A Chain - Culture Of Death

7. Statement of Pride - Rebirth

8. Berthold City - Where Did We Go Wrong?

As I've said, I struggled to find interest in new music for most of this past year. These "Best of" lists don't really mean anything anymore. There was a day when I was narrowing down my favorites from a list of 20+, but from this past year, I only have listened to 11 new hardcore records... so a Top 8 is basically just a list of the only new hardcore that was interesting to me. Still, those records at the top of my list can't be fucked with. Bent Blue continue to impress me, and the biggest surprise here was how much I enjoyed the new High Vis. Spaced was a nice surprise too, and if Marcus hadn't put them on my radar, I would have probably let them skip right by me... so I'm thankful for friends that still reach out and make recommendations.

1. Grand Magus - Sunraven

2. Midnight - Hellish Expectations

3. Satan - Songs In Crimson

4. Bat - Under The Crooked Claw

5. The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World

6. Fu Manchu - The Return Of Tomorrow

7. Whores - War.

8. IDLES - TANGK

Okay, I know that this list is a mess. I've always had an obvious line between my hardcore and metal "Best Of" lists, but I had not idea how to manage those bands that didn't fit into those two catagories. In a moment of panic, I just made a "hardcore" and a "not hardcore" list... and then I was left trying to figure out how to rank The Cure alongside Satan. It is fucking messy and I hate it. But beside my obvious problems in strict buckets in which to compare bands, there was so great stuff from this past year... you know, once I actually started paying attention. Once again Grand Magus, Midnight and Satan take the top of my list, as they do every year that they release an album, but that Fu Manchu record was surprisingly good as well... plus shit like Orange Goblin and The Obsessed that didn't make the cut here are also excellent. Still albums from The Cure, IDLES and the Whores record just floored me when I heard them, so I needed to include them here.

Lastly, we get to the shit that I've been excited to talk about... music that I was obsessed with this past year that wasn't released in 2024. Okay, the Spiritual Cramp record was released at the very end of 2023, so loosely it could be considered a new release, but damn, I didn't care about this band when they released their first 7 inch on REACT Records back in 2017, so I was really surprised to find how much I loved this band with their new album. For The Cure, I really listened to Disintegration and Wish a lot at the start of the year, and it was a lot of fun to dig into these records and discover the band. Another band that could have multiple records on this list is Modest Mouse. Holy shit, I obsessed over this band and even took a 2 hour drive by myself to see them play live in New Hampshire over the summer. I loved them that much. The Moon & Antarctica, The Lonesome Crowded West, and Good News were all records from Modest Mouse that saw a lot of action on my daily playlists. Speaking of unexpected obsessions, we need to talk about Karate. The Bed Is In The Ocean was my summer soundtrack. I don't know what it was, but that record was exactly what I needed when I heard it. Title Fight were another band that I have never liked, but this year the band gave me exactly what I needed to hear. Gulch and High Vis were just extensions of the appreciation that I found with those bands last year. A Perfect Circle fit for when I was in a mood for something different, and Entombed hit the spot for when I wanted something heavy. Man, it was such a great year discovering older bands that I'd missed the first time around. The interesting thing is that of these 9, I only own 4 of these on vinyl, so I obviously still have work to do.

So that is my 2024. It wasn't really exciting or busy on this blog, but as we move into a new year, I feel that fire starting to come back. I'm not saying that I'll get back to regular double digit posts in a month again, but I'm excited by what I can still plunder from Tim's collection over the coming months... plus writing up this end of the year post has me thinking about hardcore again, and I'm looking forward to seeing where that takes me. Music has proven to be an unpredictable journey, so let's see what dumb shit I can get up to here in 2025.

Where Did We Go Wrong

One more 2024 release before we hit the nightmare blog post that tries to summarize the entire year.

Like some of the other new releases this year, I initially wasn't too excited about rushing out to pick up the new Berthold City. I was stuck listening to other new finds at the time, so I wasn't fussed about listening to it immediately... plus the vinyl from War Records tends to look like ass, so if they all look terrible then there is no need to be worry about getting the most limited version. Still, as we started to approach the end of the year, and I started thinking about lists and rankings, I knew that Berthold City was going to be in there with the top hardcore records, so I figured that I'd better get my hands on a copy.

Where Did We Go Wrong falls right in line with the last Berthold City record... just well done straight forward hardcore. The style seems rare these days, unless I'm just not paying close enough attention, but when a band does it this good, you know that it will be getting a lot of playing time from me (you know, when I'm not too obsessed over bands like The Cure and Karate).

The Age Of Quarrel

Another hardcore classic that I bought on CD back in the late 80's, but never have picked up the vinyl until I was pillaging Tim's old collection.

Cro-Mags were one of my first introductions to hardcore, and The Age Of Quarrel, alongside Agnostic Front's Liberty and Justice and Sick Of It All's Blood Sweat and No Tears, probably makes up my Big 3 for that time period. I was still very much a metalhead in the late 80's when I stumbled upon these records, and had no idea what hardcore music was. It had an intensity and realness that I'd never seen in music before, and it made all the metal bands that I'd been listening to start to feel a bit silly. Discovering hardcore was life changing.

I can't believe that it has taken me this long to finally add this classic record to the collection, but sometimes I feel like I spend most of my time focused on buying records that are in my ears at that immediate moment... and while there is no doubt that The Age Of Quarrel is a crucial hardcore record, I've just heard it so many times, that I don't spend a lot of time listening to it these days... and therefore I've never really put a lot of effort into buying a copy. However, seeing this copy in Tim's collection had me stoked to finally get my hands on one.

Mommy's Little Monster

There were over 30 records on Jeff's initial list of records from Tim's collection that I was interested in. Thankfully, Jeff has been understanding, knowing that I can't afford to buy everything off that list at once, and he has been letting me pick away at it and pick up a few records every couple of weeks. Still, 30 records was a lot of records to hold, and shortly after making that initial list, I started making cuts. There were some that I would like to have, but realistically, I didn't care enough about (Murphy's Law on green vinyl and Step On It on black), or just seemed too expensive for me at the time (Bad Religion's Back To The Known and The Smiths Hatful of Hollow with a printing error on the sleeve)... so I cut them from my list.

One of the records that I considered cutting from my list was Social Distortion's Mommy's Little Monster.

Of all the records still left on my holdlist with Jeff, Mommy's Little Monster was the most expensive. Social Distortion was another band that I never heard back in my early days of punk. I'd heard some of their more rockabilly stuff over the years, and was never interested in listening to more from them... but about eight years ago, I finally checked them out properly and listened to their first couple of 7 inches and then the band's first album, Mommy's Little Monster. Now that was the real shit... this was punk... and I obsessed over those songs for a while, but given the pricetag they carry, I never picked one up. So, seeing a copy availble from Tim's collection was tempting, but did I really want to pay that much money for one?

While I was tempted to save the money, in the end that just seemed like a boring and safe option. I haven't had many instances this year of recklessness and stupidity, and it felt really good to do just that and buy this album.

First press from 1983 with the gatefold sleeve.

According to Discogs (and if we can't trust online information, what can we trust?) "most first pressings came in black, however an unknown amount were pressed in translucent purple." When Jeff told me that this pressing was purple when you hold it up to the light, it made me want it even more, and at that point, I knew that I was going to buy this no matter the price.

She Loves Me Not

While I'm a huge fan of No Escape, Deadguy and Bitter Branches, the one Tim Singer band that I've never paid much attention to has been Kiss It Goodbye. Back when the that album was released in 1997, I was all about the youth crew revival stuff and the Kiss It Goodbye record was too chaotic sounding to leave much of an impression on me. It was okay, but not something that I was interested in listening to very often. Looking at my listening history, I can see that I've listened to She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not exactly twice in the last 15 years. So yeah, while I'm familiar with the songs, I've never spent a lot of time with this album.

So while I still own my original CD from 1997, I'd never bothered with the vinyl for the Kiss It Goodbye album. When I saw that Rev was reissuing the record, and more importantly doing a special cover that was limited to only 50, I figured that it was time to finally buy the vinyl and really spend some time with the record.

This is a good record. I like all the other Tim Singer bands more, but I'm glad that I picked this up. I really like the look of this limited cover, and the stamped and numbered record label is a nice touch. Number 41 of 50.

Science, Not Fiction

It has been a while since we've seen a new record from Orange Goblin, with the excellent The Wolf Bites Back released back in 2018. Even with the covid pandemic, six years seems like a lost of lost time, so when Science, Not Fiction was released this year, I found myself asking if I really needed it.

I can't really blame my lack of interest in a new Orange Goblin record on the years since their last album. This blog is a documentation of my listening habits, and it is easy to see that I've been disconnected from new releases, and generally just wanting new shit in my ears. This kind of attitude has blinded me a bit and I didn't really give Science, Not Fiction a fair shake when I first heard it over the summer. I thought it was okay, but really I just wanted to listen to The Cure and Karate, so therefore I wasn't too fussed about buying the record. Closing in on the end of the year, and having my love of new music sparked by bands like The Obsessed, Fu Manchu and Grand Magus, I decided to revisit it and with this right mindset, suddenly, I'm loving it.

Orange Goblin play that rough kind of stoner metal, and from album to album you know what to expect from them. Nothing really different here, but this is just giving me what I want right now.

Clear colored vinyl, and the record has a bonus track that surprisingly isn't available through streaming. If you want to hear, you've got to get the physical format.

70's Birthday

Nothing too exciting here. I enjoy some Uriah Heep if I'm diving deep into the 70's, but even then I tend to stick with their earlier albums like Look At Yourself and Demons And Wizards. Jeff has been pushing the band's 5th album, and the second one they released in 1972, and trying to get me to check out The Magician's Birthday... and when he saw a copy of it in Tim's collection, he pulled it out and insisted that I take it.

The Magician's Birthday is a good 70's rock record, and as a big Heep fan himself, I can understand why Jeff would push this record. It falls in line nicely with the Demons And Wizards record that the band released earlier that year.

Solid addition to my 70's vinyl collection, and it was free, which is always a nice bonus.

Young, Fast Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs were a band born from the tradition of early 80's Boston hardcore bands that really just wanted to rock. Following in the footsteps of Gang Green, SSD and DYS, I'm assuming that The FU's had their eye on bigger things, so they changed their name to Straw Dogs and injected more metal into their sound... I mean come on, look at that cover art for the EP and tell me that this band didn't want to tap into the metal market.

Somehow, up until last week, I'd never heard Straw Dogs. Seeing the band's first EP from 1986 in Tim's old collection, was enough for me to finally check them out. As soon as the first song, Trigger Finger, kicked in, I was sending a message off to Jeff, telling him to set it aside for me. While I've enjoyed what I've heard from The FU's, dare I say that I like these songs from Straw Dogs a lot more? I don't know, this kind of crossover style really works for me and I'm having a lot of fun listening to this record... even the cover of Queen's Tie Your Mother Down (a lot of metal bands were doing weird covers like this at the time) and the rerecording of Young, Fast Iranians... it all makes for a great 19 minute EP.

Jeff literally received hundreds of records from Tim's collection, and he has been cleaning each one prior to selling them, so I've been getting updates on what is available in waves. As I was getting ready to post this Straw Dogs EP, Jeff sent me a list of other records that were going to be coming up for sale and I noticed that the band's We Are Not Amused LP was in the collection. After spending so much time with this EP this past week, I'm obviously going to need to get that album at some point as well.

Tim Sounds Of Liberty

Another band that I never bothered checking out as I was discovering punk and hardcore bands throughout the last half of the 80's was T.S.O.L. As I was sitting here typing up this post, and listening to this self titled EP from 1981, I was curious as to why this band escaped me at that time. I did a quick check of their discography and saw the cover for their 1987 album, Hit And Run, and oh fuck yes... that would have been exactly why I stayed away from this band back then. I saw that cover and never bothered to check out their early stuff because why the fuck would I when your hair is teased and two feet high off your head in 1987. Hard pass.

Shhhh... don't tell anyone, but I am kind of enjoying Hit And Run while I'm listening to it for the first time today.

To this day, I'm still not super familiar with T.S.O.L., but this 12 inch should be mandatory listening for anyone into hardcore. This is so good and I feel bad that 18 year old Mike missed out on this back in the day. Aggression and attitude filled punk... five songs in seven and a half minutes, that is just so perfect that I find myself listening to it a couple of times each day..

This is the 4th pressing with the silver Posh Boy labels. Another one that was in excellent shape from Tim's old collection, and still had the plastic wrap on the cover (which I promptly removed).

The Day The Country Died

While Youth Of Today and Agnostic Front were surprises in Tim's collection, finding a record from Subhumans was not. Being a bit older and into punk years before I even knew this style of music existed, this was the kind of stuff that I expected to find amongst his records.

Subhumans were an early 80's UK punk band, and somehow I managed to miss them as I was discovering stuff like GBH and The Exploited later that decade. I do remember buying a CD from The Subhumans at one point in the late 80's, but it was the band from Canada and not the UK one. I wasn't terribly interested in that CD, and it turned me off from checking out the proper UK Subhumans until sometime around 2000 when I was downloading a bunch of albums from Napster etc Even then, I was consuming so much new music because it was free, that I really didn't give The Day The Country Died a proper listen.

I've given this album more of a chance in recent years, but I don't think that I really gave it the appreciation that it deserves until I saw that the record was available from Tim's collection. I'm having a lot of fun listening to this right now. I imagine 18 year old Mike discovering it alongside Troops of Tomorrow and City Baby Attacked By Rats and loving it.

This is the 1990 reissue. I kind of wish it was at least one of the 1983 pressings, but that's okay. I'll still take this.

Liberty And Justice For Records

Keeping things in that classic hardcore lane, another record that I recently picked up from Tim's old collection was Agnostic Front's Liberty and Justice For... album. This was another one that I didn't expect from him. The first two AF albums... okay, maybe I could see that, but this one was a surprise find.

Liberty and Justice For... has been on my wantlist for a long time. Like so many albums from this time, I originally bought it on CD or cassette, and while my intention has always been to get the vinyl onto my shelves, for this one, it hasn't happened for one reason or another. Each time I'd check the Discogs prices, I'd cringe a bit and think the price was a bit too high. Seeing this one from Tim's collection, still in the shrinkwrap, price wasn't a concern... I just needed to have it.

While this was a crucial album for me in my senior year of high school... when I was just starting to discover hardcore... it isn't a record that I return to very often in recent years. Giving this copy a spin has had me appreciating it a bit more right now. I mean, this is where AF and I part ways (okay, One Voice isn't bad, but I rarely think to listen to it), but this album still holds up.

Take A Stand

My friend Jeff recently came into possession of someone's record collection. It is a long story with a tragic ending that I won't get into here, but at the end of the day, Tim isn't with us any longer... and well, someone had to get his records. I didn't really know Tim that well, but our paths crossed a few times in the early 90's because of Jeff as our mutual friend, and I knew that he was a big lover of music... in fact he made me a couple of mixtapes back then, full of early punk bands that I'd never heard of before. Man, I wish that I'd kept those just as a reference point as to what he was trying to turn me on to at the time (the only band that I remember was on there was Christ On Parade)... but Tim was a few years older than I was and therefore had first hand experience with some of that early 80's punk stuff. Either way, when Jeff told me that he was getting Tim's record collection, I immediately called for first refusal on anything that he wasn't interested... and knowing that Jeff isn't a fan of punk, I was hoping for some good shit. Jeff wasn't going to be giving this stuff away, but a sizable discount made some of this much more affordable compared to trying to scoop it from Discogs.

One of the records that surprised me when Jeff started showing me some what he'd received from Tim's collection was the Break Down The Walls album from Youth Of Today. I knew that Tim was into early punk, but I had no idea that he would have some hardcore stuff like this. Seeing how I owned four REV reissues for this record, I was kind of excited to finally get my hands on the original REV pressing. I know that we aren't talking Wishingwell here, but the blue and yellow labels just look so good to me.

I don't really collect REV or Youth Of Today records, and I never really set out to own this one (although I imagine that it wouldn't have been too hard to acquire over the years), but it feels good to finally have this on my shelf. Knowing that Tim kept his records in top shape made this an easy purchase.

Grand Sunraven

As we get ready to move into December and start closing in on the end of the year, I wanted to get up one more post for a new release before moving into a bunch of posts for older records that I've recently picked up. Get ready, because we are going back in time for next month.

Ten years ago, or so, Grand Magus were kind of a big deal for me. My friend, Sandwell, introduced me to the band and at the time they took over my life. I could not get enough of that band. I followed them closely over the next six years or so, and rushed to pick up their new records and back catalog. As we moved through the Covid years, I kind of lost interest in them... don't get it twisted, I still loved the band, but they weren't releasing anything new and I started paying attention to other things... and I forgot about them for a bit. Earlier this year, when I heard that they had a new album on the way, it ignited that fire again, and I rushed to preoreder the record. I was so excited that I ordered from the Nuclear Blast European store to make sure that I got my hands on the best vinyl option. The yellow/orange sunburst was limited to 500, and looks as good as I'd hoped.

Man, Sunraven hits exactly as I'd hoped it would. New records from Fu Manchu and The Obsessed have helped reignite my interest in this style of music this year, so when the new Grand Magus album dropped, I was primed and ready. This thing had me hooked from the start. Great traditional metal, and is sure to be one of my favorites of the year.

The Pearls You Clutch

One of the newer bands that tops my list anytime they release a record is Bent Blue. That band just delivers every time, so when I saw that Indecision Records was releasing the bands newest album, you know that I jumped to get my order in.

Dude, this record. Damn. Bent Blue have always played around with that Revolution Summer hardcore sound, and they continue to do that here, but for some reason So Much Seething feels like a more urgent and angry record. I mean, when The Pearls You Clutch kicks in, I just want to rage... dancing and taking down everyone that has the misfortune of being in the kitchen while I'm preparing dinner and listening to this record. That's right, I own the dance floor in this house. This record is so good, and I'm glad that Bent Blue still keep that spark going a few records in.

I don't tend to buy multiple copies of records these days, but when I was in the Indecision store and saw that they only had two colored vinyl options available with the release of So Much Seething, it confused me to see a label being reasonable... and I bought both of them. I don't know what came over me, but it was nice to not see 5 or 6 different options and I was like "oh two? yeah, I can collect two." 150 pressed on purple and 350 pressed on green.

Killing A Camera

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I spent a lot of time earlier this year obsessing over Modest Mouse. There were a few of their albums that I rediscovered and they all hooked me much deeper than they did in the early 2000's. Since Modest Mouse were seeing so much action on my Spotify account, the algorithm started making recommendations for bands that fell into that similar style of music. Cue another discovery of an older band that I didn't truly appreciate the first time around.

Braid were another indie/emo band from the mid to late 90's that I had checked out at the time, but never really connected with. I bought a couple of 7 inches and CDs from the band, so I obviously gave them plenty of chances, however, nothing really hit me the way that I wanted... and after their Niagara 7 inch in 1997, I stopped trying. When Spotify put the Braid song Killing A Camera on my radar over the summer, I was amazed at just how good that song was. I was surprised that I hadn't been into this song back in the day, and when I looked into it, I found that it came from their album Frame & Canvas, which was released in 1998... after I'd given up on the band. Killing A Camera was such a great song, that I quickly checked out the full album it came from... and when I started listening to that entire record daily, I knew that I was going to need to buy the vinyl.

I've had a few problems buying stuff off of Discogs lately. Each one has easily been resolved with the seller, but it is disappointing to buy something that you are excited for, only to have it arrived damaged or for the seller to send a different pressing than the one that you'd ordered. I guess that I still assume that people know what they are doing, but after being burned a couple of times, it makes me wish that the Discogs marketplace would at least force sellers to list photos of the actual item. With this Braid record, I wanted the blue vinyl pressing from 2003. It looked better than any of the recent represses on various colors, so that's what I was holding out for. Months went by before Discogs showed a seller with a copy for a good price, and when I saw it, I jumped on it. Only what the seller sent was the 2020 reissue on silver and blue swirl. Not what I'd ordered. The seller was easy to work with and ended up giving me a refund so that at the end of the day the record only cost me $6, and that was enough for me to keep it.

Songs Of A Lost World

It's funny how some things change and evolve over time. A couple of years ago, if you'd asked me about The Cure, I would have responded with a resounding "no thanks". Last year I would have said, "oh yeah, I've found that there are a couple of songs that I enjoy". Earlier this year, I would have told you that Wish and Disintegration are actually really good records. Then here I am today, rushing out to buy the new album from The Cure.

Look, I don't know anything about the history for The Cure. This is all still new to me. Apparently it had been 16 years since the last Cure record, so it seemed to be a big deal for some people. I figured that I'd check it out, but I didn't really expect much from Songs Of A Lost World. I mean, 16 years is a long time to not release anything, so I felt the chances were high that this was going to be mid at best.

By the time I heard the second single, A Fragile Thing, it certainly had my attention. That song is so sad and so good... it felt like those earlier songs that I've obsessed over this year... so I was suddenly looking forward to the full album.

On release day, I assumed it would be easy enough to grab a copy of the record at the local store. I checked online, and could see that they had a few copies of the retail exclusive colored vinyl, and then a day or so later they were all gone. I did not expect them to sell out so quickly. Not wanting to settle on the black vinyl, I hit Discogs and grabbed one for a few dollars more. The grey vinyl looks good with the cover, so it was worth the extra money for me.

One of the things that attracted me to The Cure last year was the refreshing change that style of music was for me. I'd spent the entire Trump presidency and insurrection angry as fuck. Emotionally, they were hard times, and once Biden was in office and things settled down a bit, discovering music like The Cure felt really fucking good. It was refreshing and soothed those jagged parts of my brain. My jaw finally unclenched and muscles released some tension. It felt good to just wallow in sad and reflective emotions for a bit. Then last week, the US voted the fascist back into power. I don't know if I can face that again right now. Leave me the fuck alone... I'm just gonna hide inside this Cure record.

Karate Fires

There have been a few older indie bands that I've really connected with this year. I've been on a steady diet of stuff like The Cure, Modest Mouse and The Smiths.... but the biggest surprise this year has been my rediscovery of Karate. When I first heard this band in the late 90's/early 2000's, I thought that I might enjoy them, and proceeded to download three of their albums through Napster (or one of the many file sharing services that I was using at the time)... and even though I would give those albums a listen once every year or so, Karate never quite clicked with me and ultimately were forgettable.

20 years later, and looking back on where I was musically, I'm impressed that I even made the attempt back then because this is far outside of what I was listening to on a regular basis. Nice try, younger self.

When I decided to try Karate again this year, and started listening to The Bed Is In The Ocean, I was surprised with just how much I loved it. It was ridiculous just how much I listened to that record over the summer, and as we moved into the Fall, I figured that maybe it was time to try another album from the band. I jumped into Spotify and queued up their record from 2000, Unsolved, to see how it sat with me.

To be honest, I really wasn't expecting much with Unsolved. When I started listening, my 2000-brain kicked back in and I figured this record would be slow and boring. I was fully prepared to accept The Bed Is In The Ocean as the exception rather than the rule, and that it would probably be the only Karate that I liked. I love being proven wrong... because while Unsolved is more laid back, jazzy and chill, I still can't get enough of it.

Because I had picked up a colored vinyl reissue for The Bed Is In The Ocean, I wanted the same deal for Unsolved. After debating for a couple of weeks which version to get the "small fires" color which was on sale at the label's webstore for only $22.

Guided Tour

Me and High Vis have a complicated history. When I first checked out Blending from 2022, I immediately loved those first few songs on the record, but felt very underwhelmed with the rest of it. When I went back last year and checked out the band's first album, No Sense No Feeling, I felt that same kind of initial disappointment. There was something there that kept me kind of interested, but I didn't see what everyone was loving about the band. The lesson learned here is that sometimes I just need time, because sitting here a year or two later from first hearing those records, I can tell you that I fucking love them now.

When I first heard that High Vis had a new record coming out this year, again I was hesitant. I mean, I grew to really like those first two albums, but had they pushed themselves too far for me with this latest one? I'm not gonna lie, when I first heard Mind's A Lie, yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. The electronic drum sound that starts the song, plus the female vocals, had me thinking that me and High Vis were done. Thankfully I didn't let my closed mind completely shut me down, and when the band released Drop Me Out as an advanced single, I fooking loved it. I loved it so much that it had me scrambling to check what options were still available for preorder, and grabbed this "orange crush" version that was exclusive to Going Underground Records (which I've never heard of before).

Man, this record is so rad. Is it my favorite new album this year? I don't know. I can't trust my opinions right now, because this is just hitting me so hard at the moment. Time will tell.

Satan In Crimson

Just when I have hopes that I'll be back to posting every couple of days, the US has an election that shows just how fucking dumb and short sighted people can be, and it immediately crushes any momentum that I had. What the actual fuck? PTSD of Trump's first presidency was triggered and I'm not sure how the fuck I'm going to deal with another four years of hateful bullshit from him and his fanbase. Fuck fuck fuck you.

I'm going to be avoiding a lot of social media and general news for a while, so maybe now that I've shaken off that initial shock, this is the perfect time to focus on records and churn out a bunch of posts.

Satan have been one of those rare New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands that were able to come back after years of inactivity and just blow my mind with how good they still are. Their 5th album since reuniting in 2011, and Songs In Crimson does not disappoint. I've struggled to stay interested with a few new metal albums this year... like the Saxon and Judas Priest records are good, but I don't find myself wanting to return to them very often... and I worried that might be the case with the new Satan as well. I assumed that I might play it and forget it... but that was not how it went. I started playing the songs as I was working, and quickly lost focus on what I was doing because these songs screamed for my attention. This record is so good, and it is actually quite shocking how great the band continue to be this many years down the line.

700 pressed on "transparent pigeon blue marbled" color vinyl.

Rebirth Of Hardcore Pride

It feels that records from straight forward hardcore bands have been a bit of a rarity this year... or maybe it's just me and I'm that out of touch. Either way, when records like the new Statement of Pride come along, I'm gonna jump on it.

Statement Of Pride play that style of straight edge hardcore that I cannot ignore. Release that shit on Youngblood Records, I'll be there ordering multiple copies. I really liked what I'd heard from the band a couple of years ago, so I'm very happy to see that they had more to give. This 12 inch features four new songs, plus the four songs from the Out Of The Ashes EP from 2022 that never saw a vinyl release. I don't think that Youngblood carries the weight that it once did, but I hope that it is enough to put this band on kids radar because this record is so good.

100 pressed on clear vinyl, and 300 on green. I'd also like to get my hands on the two limited covers that are floating around for this record. Nothing makes me want to collect records like good straight edge bands.

Tough

No matter how fun it was for me to pick up the alternate cover for Lana Del Rey's Chemtrails Over The Country Club, the floodgates still haven't fully opened for me to chase down a bunch of her records. Still, I didn't hesitate to order her latest single.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this latest song, Tough. It's a collaboration with some hip hop artist that I'd never heard of before, Quavo, and I kind of expected it to be a bit underwhelming. I mean, how far was I expected to push my musical boundaries, and how much could I take?

Fact is that after a couple of listen, I really liked this song. Maybe it was the timing of it, because I'd just started reading Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove book shortly after the song was released, and the opening song lyric of "Tough like a scuff on a pair of old leather boots" really set the mood for reading that 800 page epic. I ended up realy loving Lonesome Dove (one of my favorite books that I read this year), and Tough is my soundtrack to that reading experience. The two will forever be tied together in my mind.

I'm not sure if this song is going to appear anywhere else, or if it is considered a Lana song featuring Quavo, or a Quavo song featuring Lana...whatever... I'm just happy to own this song on vinyl and it didn't end up as a digital only release.

This Is UKHC

Another record that I've had in my hands for a while now, but have been slow to blog about is the latest Unified Action 7 inch, This Is A War. The delay in posting this record is due to my own stubbornness. See, I want to listen to a record a few times before I post about it, but since the vinyl didn't come with a download code, I couldn't find the songs on soulseek, and they aren't available on Spotify... I simply hadn't listened to it. I mean, what am I supposed to do, actually use my turntable? Gasp! The horror and inconvenience! Thankfully, after struggling for months to get my hands on the digital files for these songs, I was finally able to solve that problem... so here we are.

Unified Action knows what they want to do. They aren't going to fuck around with cool and trendy hardcore styles. They are here to just pummel you from start to finish with harsh and angry early 80's inspired hardcore. Oh you like Negative Approach? Get this record and find out.

I'm really glad to have this record. I know that the band went through some trouble getting it released as the original label seemed to flake on them after the initial preorders went up. Can't be an easy thing for a band to jump on to social media and tell everyone to cancel their orders, and then quickly try to find someone else to get the record pressed. Bad experience for the band, but hopefully it didn't cause too much disruption and people check this record out because it rages.

Hellish Expectations

I had every intention on getting my post count back on track this month, and then it all fell apart and October is shaping up to have my lowest post count in the past 15 years. It kind of bums me out, but I just haven't been able to get my attention focused on this thing. Granted, I was gone for over a week on holiday this month, and then I had trouble finding motivation to write about a four album Black Sabbath boxset, but I still hoped to have my post count higher than this for the month. Still, I've bought some cool new records, plus have been excited to add some old classics to my collection recently... so maybe November will be more productive for me.

Midnight released their sixth album, Hellish Expectations, back in March this year, but I've had a hard time working up the interest to check out new releases this year. So while I liked what I'd heard, I just couldn't stay motivated to stick with it, and since the record wasn't available at a local record store, I couldn't be bothered to track one down online. Basically, I was uninterested and lazy.

Here we are, seven months later, and my interest in new records has been sparked. I'm listening to new shit more these days, and after revisiting the new Midnight album a few more times, I knew that I needed to get a copy before the year was out. Hellish Expectations is pure Midnight speed metal. It is exactly what I want from the band. If my mind was right earlier this year, I would have jumped all over this because it is so good.

"Sangria" colored vinyl.