Motorhead Live 1995

I still check the list of upcoming Record Store Day releases each year, but it is more of an exercise in confirming that the event only releases a bunch of shit that I'm not interested in. When I checked the list this year and saw that there was a new Lost Tapes record from Motorhead, I kind of rolled my eyes at the thought. This would be the 7th in the Lost Tapes series of live recordings from Motorhead in the last 5 years and as someone that isn't usually interested in listening to live recordings, it was starting to feel like it was too much.

Still, at some point I found myself in a Motorhead mood and noticed that this latest of The Lost Tapes was available on Spotify, so for the fuck of it I decided to give it a spin... for science... to just confirm that it was useless. This recording was from Motorhead's live show at the Whisky A Go Go back in 1995... a time period that I'm really not too familiar with for the band. 6 of the 16 songs are from the band's two latest albums at the time, Sacrifice and Bastards... both records that I enjoy, but never really spent much time with... so I was at least interested to see how the live set would feel with a good number of newer songs for that time. Much to my surprise, I loved listening to this. The show was Lemmy's 50th birthday party, and it sounds like they were all having a great time... plus the songs are an absolute blast.

It was a great live recording, but I wasn't set on buying a copy. If I came across one, cool, but I wasn't going to put forth much of an effort. I kind of forgot all about Record Store Day, and found myself in Pennsylvania with some friends for that weekend. When Alex suggested that we check out a record store nearby, I thought it would be fun to check out since the two of us were interested in looking for used DVDs and Blu-rays to grow our newly started collections. I didn't really expect to find any records, but when I walked in and saw the bins for Record Store Day releases, it dawned on me that it was that day. I started flipping through the new records and when I saw the live Motorhead record, I figured that I'd grab it as a nice souvenier of my time in PA that weekend.

Burning Collateral

Last year I picked up the Collateral 7 inch from Scheme Records. I bought it on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. It's a really good straight forward hardcore record, so when I heard it mentioned on the 185 Miles South podcast that Collateral had a new split this year with Burning Lord, I quickly tracked down who was releasing it and preordered it.

Each band does three songs here, two new ones along with each of them doing a cover from the other band's demo. The songs from Collateral are good... a nice continuation of the rough and fast hardcore sound that they were doing with the 7 inch... but Burning Lord really surprised me. I guess that I was expecting it to have a really agressive metallic hardcore sound that leans heavy into the metal, but this is actually good. I can pin down what they sound like... musically maybe they have a bit of Best Wishes era Cro-Mags... I don't know, I just really enjoy these three songs a lot.

Tribe Dream did an exlusive "celtic green" splatter pattern that was limited to 100, so I grabbed that one.

Line Drive

Back in the mid 90's I picked up a 7 inch comp called What Still Holds True. I bought the comp strictly because it had songs from Chokehold and Burst of Silence, but ended up disappointed that those songs ended up on the bands respecive 7 inches that were released around the same time... so the comp 7 inch largely went ignored. At some point years later when I was hungry to discover some 90's hardcore that I'd missed the first time around, I started looking at those old comps for smaller bands that escaped my radar at the time.

Line Drive were a straight edge band out of North Carolina and given the small obsession that I had with collecting Naked Angels years back, discovering that Rob R Rock was also in this band gave me a bit of a thrill. I'm sure that I'd heard the Line Drive name back in the early 90's (outside of the one comp song that I had) through zines or distros, and I know that if I'd seen their first 7 inch, The Few, I would have definitely picked it up... but it somehow never crossed my path at the time. I eventually downloaded the songs and it absolutely fits that early 90's hardcore sound.

The Line Drive stuff has just been hanging out on my iTunes for a while now, and a couple time each year it would catch my eye and I'd hit play... but man, there is something special about just owning the physical record. Since this record arrived in the mail, I've listened to it more in the past couple of months than I have in the past 20 years.

Another Greasy Spoon

After the third Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell album, Keep It Greasy, in 2016, I started to get a bit bored with the band. I really wanted to love their stuff, but I just didn't find myself wanting to return to it very often. I guess that could be said for a number of newer bands that I get hyped up for and then let their records sit untouched and collecting dust on my shelf for years after their release.

So just as I was getting ready to give up on the Admiral, they came along with Very Uncertain Times in 2019, and they hooked me back in. That record was so damn good and it remains my favorite record from the band... still occasionally getting pulled out for a spin every now and then.

It has been seven years since Very Uncertain Times, and I kind of assumed that Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell had packed it in and called it a day... so I was surprised when Sandwell hit me up with a tip that Rise Above had their new album up to order. I was in Jersey at the time for a business meeting, but made sure that I could break away to get my order in for the Die Hard version before it sold out.

No doubt, The Trouble With The Shovell is a good record. It just doesn't have that same swagger and attitude that I loved with Very Uncertain Times. Instead, the new record feels like more a flashback to those earlier albums that were a bit slower and dirtier. It's still good, but it ain't going to be my favorite from the band.

Typical Die Hard pressing with only 100 on clear vinyl, and a bonus 7 inch that has two songs that you won't hear anywhere else.

1996 Novacane

My friend Sarah and I have done a few musical projects together over the past few years. Her taste in music and her song recommendations rewired my brain. Honestly, some of the music I listen to today... The Cure, The Smiths, Life Of Agony, Gulch, Lana Del Rey, etc... I would not appreciate if it wasn't for her. So when she suggested we do a monthly project for 2026 that is more album focused, I was obviously excited to jump in and see what music we could discover together.

We talked back and forth for a bit, trying to come up with a theme, and eventually decided that we would focus on albums from 1996 that were celebrating their 30 year anniversary, and with a couple of exceptions they would be full albums that neither of us was really familiar with. We narrowed it down to twelve and planned to randomly pick from our list at the start of each month, focus and listen to it all month and then follow up to discuss and share our thoughts. We are halfway through the year, and it has been such a fun project so far. We have listened and talked about records from Carcass (January), Modest Mouse (February), Beck (March), Sebadoh (April) and Screaming Trees (May) so far, and each month has been an interesting journey. I'd wanted to pick up a record so that I could commemorate the project here on the blog, and honestly expected that it would be Carcass, so the fact that it ended up being Beck was truly shocking.

When Sarah mentioned including Beck's 1996 album, Odelay, in our project, I kind of groaned inwardly. I had zero interest in anything to do with Beck, and I kind of had this closed minded view that gave "drunk white girl at a wedding reception singing 'two turntables and a microphone' on the dance floor" vibe. It made me cringe... so I had already built obstacles around enjoying this full album.

The first few listens I was surprised to find that I enjoyed hearing a couple of the singles (Devils Haircut and The New Pollution) again, but overall I was kind of tired of the record by the time we got to the end of its 52 minute playing time. One of the pieces of the project is that Sarah and I each have to pick a favorite song from the album so that we can build a playlist from our choices, so I was committed to finding something here that stood out to me, and I kept queuing up every few days to listen again... and the more I listened, the more I enjoyed it. I ended up picking the song Novacane, while Sarah chose Lord Only Knows, and in the end I really came to enjoy the entire album (although I do tend to skip Where It's At each listen). It is such a cool vibe throughout the entire record and I never tire of hearing it months later. Truly a great and unexpected discovery.

I was happy to pick up this great looking colored vinyl edition from 2016. In addition to the "Jackass" sticker, there was also a 12 X 12 art print that was included in the Vinyl Me Please reissue, and it makes for a nice package.

Eyes Of Salt

At some point this year I saw a promo card for a new release from War Records. I don't typically pay much attention to these things, and usually just toss them aside, but for some reason I decided to actually read what this one had to say. It was for a band I'd never heard of before, Eyes Of Salt, and it described them as drawning inspiration from bands like Modern Life Is War, Hope Conspiracy and Incendiary. The list of influences certainly had my attention, but the promo card also said that "Eyes Of Salt makes a politically charged statement that confronts the current social climate" and given my frustration, anger and disgust at most things happening today, this seemed like something that I should check out.

This Eyes Of Salt record fits my mood perfectly. Perfect conduit to channel my anger from the US political climate. So pissed off and urgent. In addition to the list of influences that were listed for Eyes Of Salt, I'm also getting a bit of Verse here... and while I'm not usually excited about guest vocals, hearing dudes from Sinking Ships and Ruiner on a couple of songs was actually pretty cool. It is all just so good.

Given that War Records tends to use the the worst vinyl colors and patterns, I was surprised to find that this Eyes Of Salt record was only pressed on black vinyl. Limited to 275.

Cryin' Sunstroke

Sunstroke is one of those bands that seems to enjoy appealing to the record collectors. Special covers that are cool and creative, and stupidly low numbers for pressings... that shit occasionally tempts me into wanting to chase some of those variants. Earlier this year it got me.

The Cryin' Wolves single is a one sided lathe cut 7 inch and was limited to 50... 30 on clear and 20 on black. It only contains the one song, so if you are only here for the music, it probably isn't a great investment...but when I discovered that one was available on Discogs back in March, the collector in me was triggered and I quickly added it to my cart.

Such a great looking record, and I'm really glad that I was able to get my hands on one. Now if I could just have a copy of I Wanna Be Ignored fall into my lap, that would be great.

The Hope Conspiracy

The last couple of years has really opened my eyes to a number of older hardcore bands that I either straight up ignored, or didn't fully appreciate them at the time. Last year I picked up on some late 90's hardcore bands, and this year, thanks to Frostbite, I've been searching through my early 2000's playlist to see what I should spend more time with.

I was recently giving my CDs a quick look to test a new player that my wife picked up, and I saw the first EP from The Hope Conspiracy stuck in there. I thought it had been a long time since I'd listened to it, so I pulled it out for a test spin.

I haven't listened to these songs for about 15 years, and man, that has been a mistake. This kind of shit is exactly what I want to be listening to right now. So heavy... so angry. Lately it seems that most of these new discoveries for me aren't readily available for me to scoop the record on Discogs, and I'm stuck having to play the waiting game... so when I saw this grey vinyl option listed, I jumped on it.

I honestly haven't bothered with any of the Hope Conspiracy stuff beyond the Cold Blue album. Maybe this is the year for me to dive into that.

Dusted Angel

It's always cool to get a recommendation from a friend out of the blue, and even better when it's a good one that clicks right away.

Back in February, I was getting ready to step out the door to clear the driveway from the latest snowstorm, and I had a message from my old blogger friend Chris, asking if I'd heard Dusted Angel yet. I'd never heard the name before, but I put my earbuds in and queued up This Side Of Dirt, and headed out to shovel snow for an hour or so.

I suppose that Clifford Dinsmore from Bl'ast would be the big "ex-member of" draw here, but holy shit, this is so good. As soon as the first guitar riff from Plastic People started to penetrate my ears, I had the biggest smile on my face, and didn't care that I was outside in freezing temperatures moving snow that was already a foot deep. Blending stoner rock, doom and an undercurrent of punk, I loved what I heard and immediately ordered a copy.

This red, yellow and purple blended colored vinyl is limited to only 100.

Psalms Of Brat

Last year I discovered Disembodied, and very quickly became obsessed with the band. I'd ignored them back in the 90's, but on a whim I decided to check them out last year and it was exactly what I needed. Both If God Only Knew and Psalms Of Sheol immediately took over my life, and Disembodied were easly my favorite discovery that year. That obsession hasn't let up in 2026. I started listening to their Diablerie album earlier this year, and I've been desperate to get my hands on the white vinyl version for it... and then along came the Psalms Of Sheol reissue which I apparently needed as well.

I have a few friends that really like Charli XCX, and for a time in 2024 our group chat was full of comments on her new album at the time, Brat. While I was able to enjoy stuff like Lana Del Rey and Lorde, I never really had that same kind of attraction to Charli XCX... well her song Guess was a lot of fun, but I didn't really spend any time with Brat.

While I was still riding my Disembodied obsession, Marcus sent me a message about a new pressing for the Psalms Of Sheol, and the test pressing that pays tribute to Brat. I immediately wanted it. The Brat design is iconic and since Disembodied have done a few of these kinds of rip off sleeves in the past, it was a great choice here... and personally, owning it felt like a good tribute to my Brat friends that know nothing about Disembodied.

After Marcus let me know that this test press existed, I just kept thinking about how nice it would be to own one... and since the label didn't seem to be announcing anything about selling them, I finally just sent Prime Directive an email asking about it. To my surprise, the guy wrote me right back and said that he would check to see if he had an extra. A week later he got back to me, letting me know that he did have one and he gave me a price. Without hesitation I sent the money. I have no idea how many were made of this test, but I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to own one.

I'm not sure if I would have ended up buying the Psalms of Sheol reissue, but since I owned the test press, it felt like a logical move.

The new cover design for the reissue looks cool, and it was only available on this splatter colored vinyl... which at least matches well. 200 pressed.

Things snowballed from there, and since I was buying the new reissue for the LP, it only made sense for me to pick up an original pressing off Discogs.

Three copies of Psalms Of Sheol picked up within a three week span, and there are still other versions that I would have grabbed if they were available.

Orange vinyl was limited to 333.

The Purple Dawn

I never really paid too much attention to The Suicide File back in the mid 2000's. Those were weird times for me with hardcore and I was pretty disconnected from what was happening... so The Suicide File was one in a long list of bands that I never spent much time with. A few years ago I really sat up and started paying attention to some of those bands, and had a stretch where I was obsessed and spinning The Suicide File on repeat. I was looking for colored vinyl from the band, but for one reason or another it was proving more difficult that I expected and I ended up empty handed.

After adding some records to my cart over on Discogs, I started to browse to see if the seller had anything else that caught my eye. As soon as I saw this Suicide File 7 inch, I was excited to finally grab this. I still haven't bothered with the full length album, but these early songs from The Suicide File are so fucking good. One of the best records from 2002.

380 pressed on purple vinyl.

RTA LI

When record labels started pressing stupid amounts of colored vinyl options... frustrating me to the point of giving up collecting multiple versions... Rule Them All were one of the bands that snapped me out of that mindset and had me chasing multiple copies again. I loved the band that much and it brought that collector spirit back a little bit.

With their first 12 inch, An Alignment Of Polarity, I didn't think that I'd make much progress on that collection. The record was only pressed on black vinyl, but it did see a couple of limited covers made in small numbers, so I figured that my chances were small in getting my hands on them.

Last year I was surprised to have the opportunity to pick up the Silent Majority ripoff cover from a Discogs seller, and as I was writing the blog post back in January, I decided to see if anything else had popped up there. I was happy to find someone looking to sell the limited Long Island map cover, and I quickly added it to my cart.

Discogs doesn't have much info on this one... it just lists it as "300 copies pressed", so I was happy to find that it was numbered out of 50. I wonder if I'll have any luck finding a test press for this one and completing the collection.

90 MPH Ordination

I love that 90's hardcore/emo shit so much. I know that my love for 90's hardcore punk covers a lot of ground, but let me live in that sweet spot of Ebullition style with bands like Mohinder, Plunger, Moss Icon and Shotmaker because that style never gets old for me. That sound seems to only live in that timeframe, and I don't know if it could successfully be replicated today. Prove me wrong... please. But one of the bands that I loved from the mid-90's time period was Ordination Of Aaron.

Ordination Of Aaron came out strong around 1994 with a 7 inch, a split with Indian Summer, and some amazing songs that ended up on a few compilations, and I loved that shit so much. For one reason or another I wasn't able to pick up their LP, Immersion In A 90 MPH World, when it was released the following year. By the time 1996 rolled around and I picked up the discography CD, and I heard those LP songs for the first time, I was disappointed. They didn't really move me like I'd hoped they would... plus the youth crew revival was starting to take off at the time, and so I didn't spend much time with those songs and I quickly moved on to chase high fives and stage dives.

At some point last year, I decided to revisit the songs from that Ordination Of Aaron album (it was the 30th year of its release after all, so I was motivated) and I was surprised with how much I loved what I heard. Damn. This is that classic 90's emo stuff that I love. I had those songs on repeat, and early into 2026 when a US seller finally had a copy of the record available, I jumped on it.

Bitter Animals

I'm continually surprised with how many records Tim Singer is turning out these days. Between the new No Escape a few years ago, a new Deadguy album last year, and Bitter Branches... it seems like there is always something new from that guy.

Still, I was shocked to see preorders go up for a new Bitter Branches record from Equal Vision this year. Your Neighbors Are Failures was one of my favorite new releases back in 2022... it surprised me with how good it was... so yeah, I jumped on the preorder for their newest, Let's Give The Land Back To The Animals.

This new Bitter Branches record hits just as hard as the last one. There is so much rage in the delivery of these songs that it feels like it could boil over at any second... and this fits my mood lately, so I've been spinning this record a lot. "But I'm the weird one. I'm obscene. Why are you not screaming?"

Great gatefold packaging. 150 pressed on clear and red ripple colored vinyl.

William, It Was Really Nothing

Going through Tim's collection early on, he had a copy of Hatful Of Sorrow from The Smiths available. It was a version that had a misprinted cover that was missing the black dot separating two song titles on the back cover. I can't even remember what Jeff had priced it at, but at the time I felt that I didn't need to pay an inflated price because of a missing dot, and I let it pass me by. I was buying Louder Than Bombs from his collection, so I should be content with that, right? Wrong. I regretted not just putting up the money and buying Hatful Of Sorrow too, and earlier this year I was sharing those thoughts with Jeff. Much to my surprise, he reached into a stack of records and said that he had an extra in his collection and that I could take it for free. Good deal!

It still shocks me how much I love The Smiths these days, and this collection of singles, b-sides and other recording sessions is so good. Also, I love the way this package looks with the blue cover, lyric sheet and record labels.

So now the only two records I own for The Smiths are compilations. That's cool, but man, I'd really like to track down UK copies of Meat Is Murder and The Queen Is Dead soon.

30 Years Of Absinthe

I'm big on celebrating anniversaries. What was I listening to twenty years ago.... forty years ago? Hell, I'm keeping a list over on Letterboxd to watch and rank all the horror movies that I can from 1976 for a fifty year anniversary challenge. So yeah, I'm always interested in that stuff. I'd already done a couple of posts for the blog's 20th anniversary, so I've been in a celebrating mood... and as soon as we rolled into 2026, I started digging into my 1996 playlist to see what I was listening to 30 years ago.

At the start of my 1996 playlist was the Absinthe EP. I always loved Groundwork, and while Absinthe features a couple of key players from that band, I never really latched on to them the same way. Absinthe seemed a bit more harsh and chaotic compared to Groundwork, and I wasn't too interested back in the day. Seeing how much I fell in love with stuff like Disembodied last year, I approached this record with that mindset and found that I really loved what I was hearing. This thing got multiple repeat plays early this year, and I've listened to these songs more than I have over the 30 years that I've owned the 10 inch.

So yeah, while I do still own the 10 inch that I orginally bought for this record around 1996, it was the black vinyl version. Seeing how much I was listening to this, I couldn't help but feel the itch to pick up the colored vinyl version for it as well.

Free And Pink

I love some late 60's and 70's rock, but in recent years I've found that I don't reach for it nearly as much as I once did. My brain wants more aggresive shit these past few years. However, one cold and snowy weekend at the start of this year, I wanted to pull some of those old albums off the shelf, and stuff like Cream and early Bob Seger had me back in that frame of mind. At some point over the following weeks, I dove into the band Free on Spotify and I was surprised to find that I started obsessing over their self titled album.

The song Lying In The Sunshine had a chokehold on me and I couldn't get enough. It has such a lazy carefee summer vibe and it contrasted nicely with the harsh snowy January weather. I just kept returning to that album and I was surprised with how obsessed with it I had become. I needed the record in my collection and because I was listening to it so much, my brain thought that it would be very cool to pick up an original UK pink label Island pressing from 1969.

I really wanted this record, and I know how fickle my tastes can be, so I knew that if I didn't pull the trigger at the peak of this obsession I'd soon move on and forget about it... then a couple of years from now I'd find myself wishing that I'd struck while the iron was hot. Not wanting to regret letting it pass me by, I found one and jumped on it... making it my second $100 record purchase of 2026, and we were only two weeks into the year.

Most People Are Dicks

Another record from Tim's collection that I wasn't really sure if I wanted it when I saw it. I've been familiar with Ludichrist since the late 80's, but never really latched on to them. For the most part, I felt like they were trying to be funny... and that kind of thing tends to get old really fast with me... so I never really spent much time with them. I saw Immaculate Deception available from Tim's collection, with those Combat Core labels, and I figured that I'd give Ludichrist another chance.

This album was more enjoyable than I remembered. Sure there is the goofy shit like Green Eggs And Ham or the goofy cover of Last Train To Clarksville... plus songs that are kind of gimmicky like Most People Are Dicks and Down With The Ship (which they lean into quite a bit more with Ludichrist's This Party Sucks and when Scatterbrain revived Down With The Ship and made it a hit)... but I guess that I never really was aware of the New York Hardcore connections here with Chuck Valle on bass, and guest appearances by dudes from Agnostic Front and Leeway (and cool to see guys from Nuclear Assault and Crumbsuckers show up here as well). So, yeah, this album was surprisingly good.

Happy to kind of discover this old school crossover record and get it into the collection.

Caroline Quickness

I didn't bother checking out the Quickness album from Bad Brains until last year... 36 years after its release. The Punk Note edition of those Bad Brains records looked so good that it pushed me to finally listen to Quickness, with hopes that I'd like it and I could buy another one of those great looking covers. The marketing scheme worked, and I ended up grabbing one.

I was thinking that the Punk Note pressing was probably all that I needed for Quickness. It looked great, and the version of Don't Blow Bubbles was made into an instrumental, so I was all set with only having that version, right? Wrong. As soon as I pulled the record from the sleeve and saw those Caroline labels, I needed to have it. You can blame We're Not In This Alone... I think that was my exposure to those Caroline labels, and seeing them here, I was like yes give me more of that.

You'll still find me reaching for Rock For Light and I Against I 9 times out of 10, but Quickness is still a fun listen.

Ticket To Whiplash

Prior to this month, all of my posts this year have been for records that I picked up in 2025. Moving into May, it is nice to finally start writing about records that I've bought this year. I've bought 46 records so far in 2026, so I'm obviously still working with a large backlog. It would be nice to just rip through a bunch of posts to make this blog a bit more current, but I keep struggling to find the time. Who knows, maybe I can start to get things under control this month.

Dipping back into those records from Tim's collection, it was nice to pull some more thrash. Whiplash's second record, Ticket To Mayhem, was released near the height of thrash's popularity in 1987 and it just rips with an absolute metal fury. I love how raw and unhinged this album sounds... a voice that sounds shredded and guitars at 100 mph... man, it's so good.

I always found it cool that the bassist for Whiplash, Tony Bono, ended up in Into Another... so as I was leaving metal behind in the early 90's, it was funny to me that suddenly there was a new band with ex members of Underdog, Bold and Whiplash. Seemed like a such a strange mix.

No Tears In Effect

In my early days of collecting records, I picked up a copy of Sick Of It All's Blood Sweat And No Tears back in 2005, before I started this blog. It was a red vinyl reissue out of Germany, and I was pretty excited to pick it up at that time. Sure it looked nice, but it always ate at me that I didn't have an original pressing of the album. At the start of this year, when I got the latest update of what was available from Tim's collection, I was very excited to see that SOIA album in there.

Blood, Sweat And No Tears was one of the first true hardcore albums that I picked up back in the day. Sure I'd stumbled upon stuff like Black Flag, Minor Threat and Misfits as a young metalhead, but stuff like that first Sick Of It All record, Agnostic Front's Liberty And Justice For, and Killing Time's Brightside really helped to open my eyes and start to shift my musical focus at the end of the 80's.

As a huge influence as that Sick Of It All album was on me, I'm glad to finally have an original In-Effect pressing on my shelf.

Dedicated To Murder Anthems

To be honest, I'm not even sure where I picked up this record. I know that it was included for free in a package I'd received at some point, but I wasn't really interested in it when it arrived, and I just tossed into the "junk to deal with later" pile, so therefore I didn't really register where it came from.

I remember picking up the CD for The Dedication's Youth Murder Anthems back when it was released in 2002, but like I'd mentioned in my Frostbite post at the start of this month, it was a weird time for me with hardcore. I didn't spend much time with it at the time, and it has literally been 20 years since I'd last listened to those songs. When the record arrived, I was tempted to just throw the damn thing away... but that Frostbite post awakened something in me, and I've been listening to a lot of early 2000's hardcore that I don't really spend much time with these days. With that mindset, I figured that I'd give this record from The Dedication a quick spin before I wrote it off completely.

Yeah, this record from The Dedication definitely fits that vibe I've been riding this month. Early 2000's hardcore has a sound, and this is it. I'm really glad to have this one in the collection (especially since it appears that I got rid of the CD at some point), but I'm content with just the clear vinyl pressing and I'm not going to be rushing out to buy other versions of this... for now.