Push It To The Edge

Technically I could have included this one in my Cheap 7 Inch Haul series from a couple weeks back, but it was something that I picked up outside of that shopping spree, and I had to draw the line somewhere to end that series of posts... still, at $5 this one fit the theme.

I love Justice. At one point in time, I was really more focused on their early stuff, and I found the stuff after the Elephant Skin record to be a bit dull, but these days, I'm more inclined to reach for Escapades or Live And Learn. Either way, I'm always interested in growing my small Justice collection, even if I rarely focus long enough to throw the money needed to grab some of their more limited pressings.

I've never owned the Up And Down 7 inch, and when I saw the Lockin' Out pressing available for cheap, I scooped it up. These songs ended up on the Escapades record, but the recording sounds a bit raw here. I like it... and now I really want to chase all the Powered Records pressings and special covers.

I Need Air

When Justice released Escapades back in 2007, I was majorly disappointed. Following up their Elephant Skin album, Escapades came across like a limp dick. I was not impressed.

Okay...sometimes I'm a little slow, and over time this album wormed it's way into my head, and grew into a full blown obsession as I bought pressing after pressing of the thing.

It's been a while since I've been excited to chase multiple pressings of a record, and about five years since my last copy of Escapades, but fuck, when I saw that Youngblood had pulled a copy from their vaults and posted it for sale in their store, I quickly added it to my cart and checked out.

I'm not sure what possessed me to make the impulse purchase. I'd probably only listened to the record a couple of times over the past three years, but here I was throwing money at Youngblood to obtain my fifth copy of Escapades. I don't why the sudden urge, but since I've received this record, it is basically all I want to listen to. Seriously, I can just throw on Escapades and Soul Structure from Higher Power, and let them roll back to back over and over.

The thing is, I was so quick to buy this pressing, that I didn't pay much attention to the details, and can't remember exactly why Youngblood printed up these covers. I had to check back on my email receipt to see that Youngblood had mentioned in the description that this pressing was from 2013, but why? I want to say it was some kind of Youngblood anniversary showcase pressing, but I can't be sure. Fuck.

White Escapades

In case you didn't notice, I've been posting a bit of Justice vinyl lately. This marks the seventh piece of Justice vinyl that I have purchased this year. I still can't get enough of this band. I still have a long way to go, so the hunt continues...

525 pressed on white vinyl from Youngblood Records.

Powered By Judah and Justice

Since I've been doing this blog, I find that every once in a while, someone will reach out to me with an offer to buy some of their records. Chances are, they read one of my posts, and will fire off an email looking to sell a record or two and help build my collection. I don't know why, but I very rarely take people up on these offers. When I received and email from Geert, who used to help run Powered Records, the offer was too good to walk away from.

With Geert's first email, he offered a couple different variations on the Euro tour press for the Lion Of Judah album that I posted about back in July. I had the green cover, but apparently the tour press was also available with red and yellow covers as well. Geert's price was very reasonable, and less than what I'd paid for the green cover, so I took the opportunity to buy the LP with the red cover. While the tour press was limited to 300, it would seem that the red, green and yellow covers are limited to 100 each.

Knowing that I was looking to build my LOJ collection, Geert also offered me a Powered pre-order copy of the Universal Peace LP.

Splatter colored vinyl rarely looks good. Just don't do it.

Number 3 of 75 for pre-orders.

As a bonus record, Geert also threw in what looked like a test press for the Lion Of Judah LP. No cover, white labels...yeah, it looked like a test to me. Turns out it was left over vinyl from the tour pressing. After doing the 300 tour covers, there were a few pieces of vinyl left over that Powered didn't do any thing with. Now I've got a copy on my shelf. Very nice.

While exchanging emails, I also mentioned that I couldn't get enough of Justice right now, and if he had any extra vinyl hanging around for the Powered releases, I'd gladly take them.

This was my first Powered pressing of the Escapades LP, and I was really impressed with the thick lyric booklet that they did for this. Geert listed this one as clear blue vinyl, which was limited to 250. I'm assuming that all the clear blue vinyl had this marbled pressing, but I'm loving the colors on this copy.

Escapades was a split release with Powered and Reflections Records. Of course this copy was from Powered, so it had the Powered stamp on the dust sleeve.

In addition to the Escapades LP, I also grabbed a copy of the Live and Learn 12 inch EP. Uggg...more splatter vinyl. Gross. This one is from the regular press, so there is no pre-order stamp. Limited to 240.

More emails were exchanged, and my total continued to grow. This time it was for the Loud and Clear LP. I love this record, and when Geert offered up a clear vinyl pressing, I just couldn't say no.

Limited to 100 on clear vinyl.

These were all pressed for the Light The Fuse fest. Hand stamped and numbered dust sleeves. I do love those low numbers.

Geert now runs Control Records, and as if I hadn't already spent enough money, I decided to also pick up the second pressing of the Tremors 7 inch that Control had stocked in their webstore. The second pressing comes with a new cover and is limited to 150 copies.

This 7 inch is brutal. Full of distortion and anger. Since the Euro press has one song that was left off the US pressing, I'm glad to own a copy of this.

There it all is. What stemmed from an offer for a couple of Lion of Judah records quickly grew. It was more money than I should have spent, but I was glad for the opportunity to fill some holes in the collection. Thanks, Geert.

Lived And Learned

I mentioned it a few months ago, but Justice has become my newest obsession. I keep returning to the band's catalog, and spinning those records again and again. Of course, with this obsession comes an overwhelming need to buy more of their records, so I started scouring eBay every few days...desperate to find more Justice vinyl.

There were only 102 pressed on clear for Six Feet Under Records...wait, let me repeat two important facts...102 pressed...Six Feet Under Records...so why was I able to win this on eBay for only $3.25? With low pressing numbers, and Six Feet Under's high profile, I figured this would command a higher price than that. Do people really care that little about this record?

After picking up the clear vinyl copy, I hit up the Six Feet Under store to grab the black vinyl. 753 pressed.

There's No Justice

Try as I might, I can't keep up with every band. Sometimes even the great ones fail to really get my attention for years. Such is the case with Justice. Something clicked with me recently, and now I can't get enough of this band. It doesn't matter which record it is, I'm loving it all. In fact, this week I've been frantically searching ebay for new Justice vinyl. Unfortunately, I've been coming up empty. Welcome to my new obsession.

Because I was a little slow on the draw, I'd never heard the first Justice record, Look Alive, until a couple years ago. Listening to it now, I'm wondering why it has taken me so long to finally buy a copy.

With the Breakout demo on the B side, this thing rules from start to finish.

Youngblood: Part 3 - Next Pressings

In addition to the four new releases, Youngblood also had some new pressings of older records available.

First up is the second pressing of the Number-ology 7 inch from Lion Of Judah. While I enjoyed this 7 inch when it was originally released back in 2010, I don't think I spent a lot of time with it. Lately though, it seems like I've been listening to this band more and more. I've been looking to add some more LOJ vinyl to the collection, so this was a nice addition. 350 pressed on clear.

When the first Iron Age LP, Constant Struggle, was released in 2006, I probably only listened to it a handful of times. I thought it was okay at the time, but I was too busy comparing it to Far From Breaking, and didn't really appreciate it like I do today.

When Sean Youngblood put up the four record pre-order back in December, he also made available the last few copies of the Youngblood Ten Year Anniversary press for the Constant Struggle LP that he found laying around. After buying the pre-order press for this LP back in 2006, I then proceeded to ignore all other pressings that Youngblood did for this album. My loss, and now I've got to try and catch up. This copy is a good place to start.

215 pressed on red vinyl...stamped and numbered on the dust sleeve.

Yes, another Youngblood release that I didn't appreciate at the time of it's release. The Escapades LP from Justice seemed like such a departure from the excellent Elephant Skin album. Just like the Iron Age LP, I was one and done...I grabbed the pre-order and then ignored all other pressings. Man, I'm kicking myself now, but at least it will be fun trying to track down what I've missed.

Along with the pre-orders, Youngblood also released the Final Pressing for the Escapades LP. White vinyl with a screened cover. Determined to not miss anymore Youngblood pressings, I quickly added this one to my cart before they were gone.