Dare O.C.S.E.

I didn't pay any attention to the band Dare until REV released their Against All Odds LP in 2021. I was excited for that album and started to look back to check out what they had released with Reaper a few years earlier. I still haven't fucked with the OC Straight Edge record though, and I'm sorry but I just haven't found the strength to even listen to the songs for something that was only released as a flexi... the self-titled Dare 7 inch though, yeah that was something that I could get down with.

So as REV was set to release the LP, I figured that I could swoop in and pick up the Dare 7 inch somewhere. I had no luck. Reaper was sold out of it, and surprisingly only did the one pressing... and I couldn't even find one available on Discogs. The market was dry and as time went on I kind of forgot about it. It had been a few years since I'd even thought to listen to those songs, but then as I was picking up a Despair 7 inch recently, I saw the seller had the Dare record available as well. Easy decision to drop it into the cart too.

I guess I'm not the only one that forgot about this band because this was relatively cheap to pick up.

300 pressed on the yellow and blue split.

Dare2Be Straight Edge

Dare are a straight edge band out of Orange County California, and you'd think that would be all the info that I would have needed to check out the band. Yet, despite releasing two EPs on Reaper, I had zero interest in Dare until I heard they had an album coming out on REV this year. Given how interested I've been in checking out newer hardcore bands this year, I figured that I'd finally roll the dice with Dare.

With my first listen of the new Dare album, Against All Odds, I was a bit underwhelmed. The singers voice was a bit different than what I was expecting, and it really threw me off. To be honest, if this was a few years ago, I would have ditched it then and there without looking back...but these days, I'm trying to be more open minded so I queued it up on Spotify a few more times. With repeat listens, I started to connect more and more to the songs, and it got to the point where I was going to need to buy a copy.

Initially, I was really interested in the purple vinyl that was exclusive to the REVHQ store, but when I was looking to buy a copy, it was listed as SOLD OUT. I thought that I might be able to scoop it off Discogs for a decent price once the record was finally released, but soon a few shithead sellers started looking to flip it for $80. Fuck that. I went for the indie store exclusive on orange vinyl at a much more reasonable price. As luck would have it, this color looks fucking great...also, REV currently has the purple vinyl available in their store again, so Discogs sellers can eat shit.