In A Crucial Place

I'm pretty stoked on hardcore right now, so that means that I'm buying hardcore records. I'm not only taking chances a checking out new bands, but I'm also having some fun dusting off some older shit that I haven't thought about for years.

At some point last year, I saw a post on Instagram about the Onward album, In A Different Place. I remember that it stood out to me because the cover photo was different than the original CD pressing from '93. I thought it looked pretty sharp, but at the time I wasn't really into chasing new hardcore records, so I shrugged my shoulders and quickly forgot about it.

Recently, that Onward record caught my attention again. I don't know why, since it had been years since I'd listened to the band, but I was feeling really drawn to that album cover. Apparently the original artwork and layout was lost, so for this reissue, the label had to pull together a new design. I'm digging it.

I remember getting the original CD back in '93, and comparing it to We're Not In This Alone...okay, looking back on it, that is kind of a stretch, but as a young edgeman, I was stoked on this album. Still, I'm glad to see this finally get a vinyl release, and it has been fun to revisit it.

While I was picking up the vinyl release for In A Different Place, I decided to add another copy of the Onward 7 inch to my order. It was kind of the spur of the moment, dumb decision that you would expect from record nerds. I mean, I only have a common black vinyl first pressing of this 7 inch, so it's not like I'm "collecting" this record...but with the red cover looking so different from the first press blue cover, I just grabbed this without thinking.

Apparently Crucial Response did this gold vinyl pressing for some kind of Record Store Day release. I'm not sure how many were pressed or if they actually made their way to a physical record store, but hey, I'll take one.

Better Red Than Dead

In 1996, Crucial Response released the first Manliftingbanner discography, We Will Not Rest. While I already owned the original vinyl for all their stuff, I still picked up the CD discography. It turned out to not be as "complete" as I'd hoped, as they has chosen to not include the Profound 7 inch, and they left off the songs from the Share Common Ground comp. While Michiel from the band has told me that Profound was a different band, I'll respectfully disagree and argue that to fully capture the legacy of the band, you need to include the Profound songs as well. Can you imagine if REV did the Bold discography, and didn't include the Crippled Youth songs?

In late 2011, I received a message from Michiel stating that the Manliftingbanner discography was going to be released on vinyl. While the Profound stuff was still not included, he did promise that there would be eight new songs that the band had recently recorded. As he had described them as a cross between Straight Ahead and Judas Priest, I had no idea what to expect for the new material. When the band released their first video for the song Wall Street Wars, you could see that 20 years after their last record, Manliftingbanner hadn't skipped a beat. Still fast and furious hardcore...still no compromise.

In my mind, the best way to own this copy would be to get it on the limited red vinyl. Having to order overseas caused me to procrastinate for 6 months or so, but thankfully, Crucial Response still had the red vinyl in stock when I placed my order in August. Limited to 511.

One of the biggest parts of this discography release was the booklet/lyric sheet that came with the vinyl. As luck would have it, mine arrived without one. I exchanged a few emails with Peter from Crucial Response, and I ended up paying a few more dollars for him to ship one out to me. While I wasn't thrilled with having to spend money to correct the labels mistake, I figured that it was a small price to pay to complete this package.

While I was purchasing from Crucial Response, I figured that I'd add a few more items to my shopping cart. Earlier in the year, the label had made some limited silk screened sleeves for a few of their releases, so that seemed like a good place to start. First up is that classic Profound 7 inch.

If I was ever in a band, I would have insisted that we cover X's For Respect. Screened cover is limited to 70.

Colt Turkey was kind of a side project for the Manliftingbanner guys. They took the Straight Edge and Communist themes and amplified them by ten. "Me and my edge crew, we'll deal with your drugs."

Again, limited to 70 with the silk screened sleeve.

The last item I added to my cart was the It Runs Deep 7 inch from Sportswear. I didn't pay any attention to this band when it was released back in 1998. After being a faithful follower of all Crucial Response releases, I started to lose interest after the Rectify, Spawn, and Spirit of Youth releases. The label no longer interested me, and other than a record here or there, I've pretty much ignored them since then.

I recently heard someone claim that Sportswear was one of the best Straight Edge bands to come out of Europe, so I figured that I'd check them out.

I wouldn't call them the best, but they are quite good. Definitely worth checking out. 817 on orange vinyl.

The Deal...Pay A Price

Every once in a while, Marcus will find himself stuck on the wrong side of the Atlantic with a U.S. seller that refuses to mail stuff overseas, or someone that insists on putting a high dollar amount on the customs form. That is where I step in and act as the middle man. The seller sends it to me, and then I pass it along to Marcus. Don't think that I do it out of the kindness of my heart. No, I expect that motherfucker to pay dearly.

This time around, he comes through nicely. You can't go wrong with Brotherhood.

320 on white vinyl for the third pressing. The funny thing is that this copy has a slight tint of blue to it...enough that Marcus almost kept this for himself as a variant to the white pressing that he has.

He even sent me a picture to show the difference between his copy and the one he got for me. Thanks for parting with it, dude. My Brotherhood collection is pretty lame, and needed a boost. Much appreciated.

No Control

There was a period of a few years where I stopped buying Crucial Response records. I was loyal to the label from around 1991, when I picked up the first Manliftingbanner 7 inch, through the late 90's. I still liked what the label was doing with bands like Eyeball and Mainstrike, but my musical direction was starting to lean in the direction of bands with a more punk influence, like Good Riddance or Propagandhi. Soon, I stopped paying any attention to what the label was doing and I skipped the era of Sportswear, Damage Control, and Insurance Risk.

While organizing music files on my computer, because everything has a place with my music collection, I realized that while I had never bought the first Damage Control 7 inch from 2001, I had also never even heard it. I enjoy the all the other DC recordings, so this was an immediate hole that needed to be filled. I quickly found and downloaded the mp3's online, and then hit eBay to find a copy on vinyl. Found one copy with a Buy It Now option for $5.00.

Since I couldn't just buy only one record from the eBay store, I checked into what else they had for sale. Good Riddance released their last studio album, My Republic, back in 2006, and while I have loved everything the band has released, I've never bought this album. In fact, I actually found myself in the exact opposite position from when I let the Damage Control 7 inch pass me by 10 years ago. For the past few years, I've been more interested in straight ahead, youth crew hardcore, and I've ignored new albums from Anti-Flag, Good Riddance and Propagandhi. For $10, I took the opportunity to rectify that, because there is no such thing as a bad Good Riddance album.

Got To Get The Most

I've been slowly posting from a group of records that I won on eBay back in May...pulling one out every few weeks. Since my last couple of posts have been from REACT!, I figured that it was a good time to pull out the Get The Most tour sleeve that I won. Seriously, I was pretty happy to win this. With the limited number of these that were made, I didn't know when I might have the opportunity to pick one of these up...and for under $20, I consider this a bargain.

In the Fall of 2009, Get The Most hit the road, packaging up their two Crucial Response 7 inches with a special tour cover.


You know that I love low numbers, so I was happy to get number 8 out of 75.

I'm missing test presses, the transition press for Together, and the Common Goals record release, but I figured that it was a good time to pull out all the vinyl for a picture of my Get The Most collection.