Much Love For Youngblood

Youngblood Records doesn't make noise very often, but when they do, it is usually pretty impressive. Their newest release, Sacred Love's self-titled EP, is no exception.

Ev from Mindset switches roles, and moves from vocals to bass, with this new band out of Baltimore. While they cite the early Dischord roster and Bad Brains as influences, there are times during the song Peace of Mind that really remind me of Betrayed. 200 pressed on purple vinyl.

300 pressed on black vinyl.

I do not give a shit about cassettes, and I generally refuse to purchase demos pressed in this terrible format. Fuck that...I'll download it, and if it gets released later on vinyl, I'll pick it up then. Of course I also hate to pass on a new Youngblood release, so I bit the bullet and bought the new Police & Thieves cassette. Man, the new songs sound great, and I can't wait for the new record to drop in 2011. Limited to 100 copies, this cassette was released on Youngblood's imprint label, Youngblood Vaults, and is listed with catalog number 2. Wait. There was another release on Youngblood Vaults? What was number one?

The last thing that Youngblood released with their September pre-orders was the final pressing of When The Lights Go Out from Fired Up. Pressed on purple vinyl and with a special Final Pressing sleeve. I love this record and will proudly proclaim that I own 9 different copies of it.

Number 108 of 110 pressed.

Doomed To Lose

The final piece to my Fired Up vinyl collection. Youngblood pressed 100 copies of the new 7 inch, Doomed To Repeat, on gold colored vinyl for the Youngblood Showcase back in October of 2009. I didn't go to the show (but how great would it have been to see Rancor?), but I was hopeful that, if there were some leftovers from the Showcase, Sean at Youngblood would put up a few copies in the webstore. I waited...I waited...and then I waited some more, and after 6 months, there was no sign of them being made available. I gave up and hit eBay. Finally won a copy for $20.00 on May 16th. On May 17th, Youngblood posts a package deal in their webstore which includes the Showcase pressing of Doomed To Repeat. Fuck.

Number 29 of 100.

Fired Up For Youngblood

One final post before I start pulling things together for my recap of 2009 post. I needed to get this one out of the way first, because one of these records is making it into my Top 10 for last year.

Along with the Carry On LP from Youngblood Records, that I posted about last week, I also received a bunch of other stuff that I was expecting.

A few weeks ago I saw the tour pressing of the When The Lights Go Out EP from Fired Up on eBay. This was the final piece of the puzzle that I needed to complete my collection. I was feeling determined to win it, but the auction was set to end during the day when I didn't have access to a computer...therefore, I couldn't snipe it at the last minute. The record was limited to 150, so I put a reasonable maximum bid amount on the auction, and put my faith in the eBay gods. When I checked the auction results later that night, I was disappointed to find that I had been outbid by about $15.00. Wow. I didn't expect that this would sell as high as it did. A day or two later, I was surprised to receive a Second Chance Offer to pick up this record for my maximum bid amount. Happily, I took the seller up on this offer. The seller happened to be Sean Youngblood, and since my Youngblood pre-orders were set to ship around the same time, he mailed them together.

Clear vinyl. Hand numbered 96 out of 150.

Along with my Youngblood pre-orders, I finally ordered a copy of the Coptic Times 7 inch. This was released in 2008, along with the Police & Thieves 7 inch. At the time, I didn't have extra spending money, and I didn't order either record. I've already regretted not picking up the excellent Police & Thieves record. Now, after hearing the Coptic Times record, I regret not ordering this one when the pre-orders went up as well. Great fast and thrashy hardcore with a strong skate vibe in the vein of Black Flag or Bl'ast. Very cool.

Sean sent me the Youngblood Showcase pressing for this 7 inch. White vinyl with a hand stamped dust sleeve. Number 103 out of 215.

Finally, we get to the latest pre-orders. First up is the newest Lion Of Judah 7 inch, number-rology. This is a really cool record, and I'm liking these three songs more than their last album, which was still pretty good. The packaging on this is very original, with the lyric sheet on the backside of some kind of totem lion mask. Everything about this looks amazing, and the green vinyl coordinates very well with record cover. Pretty slick all around.

Next up, is the amazing new release from Fired Up. Damn, the Doomed To Repeat 7 inch is just killer. The songs seem more raw and faster. It's too bad that this will be the last release from the band, but they put out a hell of a swan song.

The Fired Up 7 inch was released on white and blue vinyl. Since Youngblood takes forever to update their store and their discography pages on the website, I'm not sure what the pressing numbers are, or if there was other vinyl that was pressed.

Now that I've completed the collection for When The Lights Go Out, I figured that I'd get a picture of my Fired Up records.

Youngblood Pre-Order

I finally got the latest Youngblood pre-order in the mail the other day. I believe that the label had some problems with the Fired Up CD, because they finally just shipped my package and will be sending the CD when it comes in. In addition to the new Fired Up 7 inch (limited to 200 on clear vinyl), I also got the new Lion of Judah LP (limited to 225 on clear vinyl with purple/gold splatter). The LOJ vinyl looks absolutely sick. Both records are really good, but I am liking the Fired Up 7 inch more. It has that youth crew hardore sound that I love, and the energy is just amazing. I saw the band play with The First Step last Spring, and I have been anticipating this release since that show.