Technicolor Turncoat

With each post that I write up about Foundation, it seems that they all start with something along the lines of, "I don't really collect Foundation records, but (insert some excuse as to why I've bought another Foundation record)". I suppose that I can only use that line so many times before I have to finally admit it... yeah, I collect Foundation records now.

Back in 2015, I missed out on the more limited color vinyl pressing of the last Foundation record, Turncoat. I sat around pouting about it for a number of months before I finally just bought the black vinyl because it was cheap and available. As soon as I sat down and listened to the record, I knew that taking the easy way out was a mistake. This record was great and I wanted something more special than the black vinyl. I dropped the limited red/blue split color into my Discogs want list, and figured that I'd wait until the hype on this band calmed down.

As we were approaching the end of 2021, I wanted to make one more stupid impulse purchase before the year's end. When I saw the Turncoat record listed on Discogs where the seller included the description of "This shit is crazy, looks like a purple explosion in space god damn. Straight edge." Fuck me. Take my money. I wanted to own this more than anything. I didn't care what the price was and smashed that Add To Cart button and checked out.

This colored vinyl is fucking amazing. Completely worth losing my mind over. Limited to 100.

No Cure For Fools

Over the summer I picked up the West Coast Tour pressing of Foundation's Hang Your Head. Man, that is a cool looking package. In that post, I mentioned that some of the special pressings for Foundation records carry a high price tag, and it wasn't something that I really wanted to fuck around with...and yet, here we are just a few months later with me eating my words.

Foundation play a hard and heavy style of hardcore that really reminds me of 90's bands like Chokehold and One King Down, and when I'm in the mood for that shit, this band delivers every fucking time. So when I was recently on a mid-90's hardcore kick, I started throwing the Foundation records into the playlist and before long I was looking at Discogs and wondering if there were any Foundation record that I might want to buy. I noticed that someone had a copy of the record release pressing for When The Smoke Clears available, and while it was't cheap, the price wasn't over the top crazy. However, the thing was, I had no idea what the packaging was for the record release press, and since Discogs had no photos, I was even more intrigued due to the mystery. I couldn't resist the temptation so I bought it.

For the record release pressing the dust sleeve for the record is printed and numbered out of 150. Damn, this looks absolutely fantastic. The record also comes with a fanzine style booklet with a bunch of photos and writings from friends reflecting on the band.

I've never put any thought into collecting Foundation records, and it's never felt like it has been something I've actively pursued, yet somehow I keep slowly adding pieces here and there. It still isn't an impressive collection, but hey, check with me in another ten years and let's see where we are at then.

Hang Your West Coast Head

I'm pretty random when it comes to collecting Foundation records. I mean, I'm not really actively working on attempting to buy every pressing from the band, yet I somehow have still managed to amass 15 records from them. I've got a couple of their cool special pressings on my Discogs want list, but whenever one shows up, I usually just ignore it as prices are typically much higher than I'd care to pay...seriously, the Final Show pressing of Turncoat would be sweet to collect, but that price seems to hold steady and there are other records that I'd rather drop $100 on.

I've had the West Coast tour pressing of Hang Your Head on my Discogs want list for four years, and when I recently saw one become available recently at a decent price, I figured that I'd finally make my move. Damn, I love the look of this special tour cover.

I've been listening to a lot of 90's hardcore lately, and while Foundation was from the late 2000's, they definitely fall in line with that 90's sound, so it seemed to be the right time to finally cross this one off the want list.

Number 41 out of 200 pressed.

No Cure For Fools

I started adding my collection to the discogs database, and during the process, I decided to start selling some stuff through the marketplace. My shelves are quickly running out of space, so in an effort to delay having to come up with a solution for more storage, it seemed like a good time to finally thin the herd a little bit. So, here I am, cutting my losses and letting go of some those multiple pressings that I no longer care about, and yet, I couldn't resist the call to buy another copy of Foundation's When The Smoke Clears LP. One step forward, two steps back.

I don't know what it is, but I've been obsessing about Foundation lately. I think it started when I recently revisited their Turncoat record that I'd picked up last year. I was late to the party for this one, and ended up with only the black vinyl. I started looking at discogs, just to get an idea of all the colored vinyl that I'd missed out on. Things snowballed from there...soon I was researching what other pressings from their catalog I was missing, and was listening to them daily.

I had to feed the need, and a nice cheap score from eBay for the tri-colored vinyl did the job nicely. Grabbing a record a few years down the road for cheaper than the original sale price is always a good feeling.

Final Foundation

Late last year, news was posted that Foundation were breaking up, and releasing one final 12 inch record. By the time I'd heard the pre-orders were up over at Jawk Records, the limited color vinyl was sold out. I was so disappointed in missing out on the pre-order pressing, that I just walked away and didn't order a damn thing.

As I was hanging out in the REVHQ store, and looking to increase the size of my order, I tossed the new Foundation record in my cart on a whim. Why not? I've always enjoyed Foundation, and since I was buying a bunch of Hardcore records, it seemed like the easiest way to finally grab a copy.

Now that I have the vinyl, and have sat down to really listen to these songs, I'm disappointed that I chose to settle with the regular black vinyl pressing. This final goodbye from Foundation is so damn strong, I wish that I'd put forth more of an effort to get the colored vinyl...hell, even the coke bottle clear vinyl that is still available from Jawk would have looked great with the cover art.

Foundation For Appreciation

Some bands just grow on you. You don't initially appreciate them, but over time you suddenly find yourself listening to them more and more. That was certainly the case with Foundation. I was digging their Hang Your Head 7 inch from 2009, but to be honest, I never really spent much time with their 2011 LP, When The Smoke Clears. Since it's release, I'd probably only listened to it about 15 times. It just never grabbed me...until earlier this year.

One day, recently, I was trudging through my workday, listening to the 2011 playlist on my iPod when the album came on. It suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks, and soon after that, I found I could not listen to it enough. Passionate and powerful Hardcore.

I've never sent out to collect Foundation records, but I've still managed to pick up more than a handful of different pressings over the years. While in the middle of my Foundation obsession, I couldn't resist an eBay search to just check out what what was currently out there. Yeah, I was just looking...I wasn't really going to buy anything...until I saw the United Blood fest cover. Fuck. I immediately knew that I was going to make it mine.

The record itself was their 7 inch preview of When The Smoke Clears. You know, those obnoxious records that have a song or two from the band's upcoming album, but lure you in with one exclusive track. So annoying. Still, it is worth it when it comes in a limited fest sleeve, hand stamped and numbered out of 150.

...if you don't listen to Avail, we feel so bad for you...

Wait. There is a possibility that some people might actually not listen to Avail? How could someone not like that band?

Foundation have such a strong early 90's Straight Edge Hardcore sound, so a tribute to Avail seems like an odd choice...but I've got to applaud the band for doing something a bit off the beaten path with their choice for their United Blood fest sleeve. Since this cover was a tribute to Avail's first 7 inch, I figured that I'd drag out my copy to get a picture of them side by side.

I'd tried to talk myself out of buing another copy of Foundation's When The Smoke Clears LP. There were three colors for the first pressing, and I only bought one copy when it was released. It would be stupid to buy a copy of the second pressing that Bridge Nine had available, right?

I currently can't get enough of this album, and during a recent stop at the Bridge Nine webstore, I couldn't resist the call and added another copy to the cart before checking out.

1,000 pressed on clear olive green vinyl. Damn, am I going to have to go back and buy a copy of that colored vinyl that I missed from the first pressing?

Random Foundations

No self restraint. Zero. None whatsoever. I've been doing a terrible job of limiting my record spending this year. At the start of the new year, I told myself I was going to be more focused, and I wasn't going spend my money frivolously...I was going to avoid those random repressings, and not fall into the trap of buying each and every pressing for most of the records that I buy. Six Feet Under repressed Foundation's Hang Your Head record, and all that talk of showing restraint when right out the window.

Hang Your Head was originally pressed as a 7 inch back in 2009, and Six Feet Under recently took the opportunity to add in the songs from the self titled 7 inch from 2008, and press it as an LP.

The prefer the 12 inch format over the 7 inch, but I don't know if that fact alone would have me purchasing this record. No, what sold me is that they were pressed on random colored vinyl, and SFU promised to send different looking copies to those that ordered more than one. So what did I do? I ordered three copies, of course.

I know that I've been burned by the "random vinyl" gimmick before, but thankfully I had better luck this time around.

Sure, the pinkish and purplish clear vinyl are pretty similar, but I'm still satisfied with the variety from SFU. If I see another variant from this pressing, chances are high that I'll be interested in buying it. No self restraint.

Foundation - When The Smoke Clears

Prior to the release of the new Foundation LP, Bridge Nine gave everyone a teaser with this three song 7 inch. These things don't excite me too much, and I didn't bother ordering one until the LP was up for pre-order.

The thing that interested me most with this 7 inch single was the exclusive b-side track, which is a Path of Resistance cover of Counter. To be honest, if I recall correctly, the last time I listened to Path, I was pretty underwhelmed, as they didn't really hold up over time. This cover from Foundation, makes me question that, and I want to dig the album out again.

Foundation have always been one of those bands that don't really grab me with the first listen. Every time that I write about them here, I always say the same thing..."good stuff, but it took a few spins for it to grow on me". The new album, When The Smoke Clears, is no exception. The first few listens, I didn't think it was too exciting, but sitting down with the vinyl last night, I opened up the lyric sheet and immersed myself in the album. Once it sinks in, it is pretty powerful stuff.

I'm also really liking the album cover and layout for this. Nicely done. 300 pressed on orange with black splatter vinyl.

Gatefold cover with plenty of pictures of the band up to shenanigans.

A European Foundation

I like Foundation, but I never really set out to collect their records. Yet somehow, along the way, I've managed to pick up five different copies of the Hang Your Head 7 inch. The two latest copies are from the Euro press that Control Records did.

While I like Foundation, I LOVE Control Records. Each release has one limited pressing on colored vinyl, and a small run on black vinyl. The packaging is always well done, with a few stickers thrown in with each pressing. I'm really loving the new cover design for this Foundation record. Total quality. At this point I'd buy anything that the label releases.

100 on clear. 200 on black.

Hardcore For Hardcore

"Here's where we separate the men from the boys". The new 7 inch from The Rival Mob absolutely destroys. Hardcore for hardcore indeed. This band just gets better and better. Can't wait to see them again at the Triple B Showcase next month. 150 were pressed on what was supposed to be black with clear green splatter. Too much black was used in the mix, and therefore you can't really see the clear green unless you hold it up to the light...and even then, you can only see a few spots. 350 on yellow and 900 pressed on purple vinyl.

When I pre-ordered the new Rival Mob record, Six Feet Under also had the second pressing of the Hang Your Head 7 inch from Foundation. 500 were pressed on orange/blue/white mix vinyl.

The coolest part of this pressing are the labels showing a kid ripping down a sign outside of a club that states No Hardcore Shows... a great rip off of the Judge 7 inch from Revelation Records.

Hang Your Head

Foundation have really grown on me. I remember initially not being terribly impressed with their Never Stops Raining 7 inch a while back, but by the time I grabbed the tour pressing of Hang Your Head, I was sold on this band. I don't know if I'd buy into many bands doing this mid-90's sound, but Foundation can pull it off. In the past I've compared them to Outspoken and Unbroken, but listening to this tonight, I hear a lot of Trial in this band's sound.

308 pressed on clear brown vinyl with cream splatter from Six Feet Under Records.

Edge Day 2009

The Edge Day show this year was both a ton of fun and a huge disappointment. The show itself was a blast. Rob, Paul and I drove down to Massachusetts yesterday, and compared to our previous roadtrip to Toronto, this drive flew by and before we knew it, we were at the club. It was complete chaos trying to get into the show, as the club kept redirecting the lines to get inside. Pat Flynn started off organizing everyone, and seemed to have everything well in hand, and then the people running the club continued to move the lines about 5 or 6 times...moving people from one side of the building to other. By the time they wanted all 1,500 people to organize into a single file line, the crowd lost any semblance of order and started getting unruly and crowd surfing. We were at the front of the line, so we were one of the first ones inside, and therefore were amongst the crowd of 50 that got to see No Tolerance play their set. I was really looking forward to checking them out and they did not disappoint. Waste Management, Rival Mob, Step Forward, Foundation and Cruel Hand all played fantastic sets as well, but the highlight of my evening was when Sweet Pete took the mic and they started ripping through a handful of In My Eyes songs. In My Eyes is one of my favorite hardcore bands of all time, and I went off for Pete and his makeshift band...stagediving left and right, and taking the microphone from him to sing along (I'm in the photo above, next to Pete, with the No For An Answer shirt). By the time Bane and Have Heart hit the stage, I was pretty beat and had to work myself to the back of the crowd for each of their sets. All in all it was a great send off, for a great Straight Edge band. Have Heart, R.I.P.

The big disappointment was the lack of a Have Heart Last Show vinyl pressing. Once inside, I rushed to the merch tables, but no one had any limited Edge Day vinyl...I was pretty bummed. Given the number of special covers and tour presses Have Heart has for their records, I was really looking forward to something really epic for their last show. The only piece of vinyl that I picked up was a tour pressing for the Foundation 7 inch on Six Feet Under. This record really impresses, sounding like it came straight out of the early 90's hardcore scene. Comparable to Unbroken's Ritual LP, or maybe Chokehold's Prison of Hope. I'm liking it.