Locked Inside Record Collecting

There was a time when I wanted every single variant for every single record that I bought. It was fun for a while, but I got burned out on that game as labels were pressing so many different versions and records were getting more an more expensive. I said "fuck it" and walked away. These days, it is rare for me to buy more than one copy of a record, but occasionally I'll get that collector itch and I'll do something dumb. That was the case with the Locked Inside 7 inch, because if I'm going to do something stupid, I might as well chase a record that has 12 different variants.

Last year I picked up three more copies of the Locked Inside record, bringing my total to seven. I posted a picture of the collection to Instagram because I was so happy with it, and someone brought it to the attention of the guy that runs Not Like You Records, and he mentioned that he had extras of a few that I was missing. We exchanged a few messages and struck a deal for me to buy three more versions.

First up is the purple vinyl version, limited to 54. I don't know if the photo really does this color justice, but man, this thing looks so good.

Another one that I was very happy to grab was the smoke colored vinyl. This one looks really nice as well, and apparently comes with different degrees of smoke... but yeah, this one is good and smokey. Limited to 47, and came with the word "smoke" written on the dust sleeve.

The last one that Mike from Not Like You offered me was a black vinyl version with the center labels getting hit with a blue stamp. He made sure to let me know that this was not a record release version, but I remember Marcus picking up a couple records like this from the label a few years ago.

Mosher dude on one side, and Locked Inside stamped on the other.

For someone that doesn't chase different record versions anymore, I somehow now have 10 copies of this.

Three Lock Box

Every once in a while, I'll hop over to Discogs to see what is available for the Locked Inside 7 inch. I've been very interested to collecting multiple copies of this record due to a couple of reasons. A: the band plays some killer straight forward hardcore, and B: the vinyl colors all look great. If these looked like shit with dopey looking patterns, I could easily be one and done, but these things look fantastic and it makes me want them all. Unfortunately for me, there are a shit load of colored vinyl options. I already owned four of them, and after adding three more to the collection, I'm still missing more than a handful.

Initially, I picked up the gold vinyl version back in April. This one was exclusive to the REV store, and is one of the more common versions with a heafty 145 pressed for this color.

I thought that I was content with just picking up the gold version, but as I was getting ready to post about it here, I got the itch to chase more of them. I had put the purple colored vinyl version in my cart, but I was hesitant to commit to the price, so I figured that I'd let it sit there for a while before I pulled the trigger. So of course someone else swooped in and bought it before me. Ugh. That's what I get for dicking around.

So then with the need to fill that void, I quickly grabbed the clear vinyl version that was still available. There are a couple wisps of black in the clear, but apparently not enough to qualify as the "smoke" version. 63 pressed on clear.

Finally, I grabbed a blue vinyl pressing as well, which is limited to 100.

Seven versions of the Locked Inside 7 inch. Still need the purple vinyl, and the "smoke" variant... plus the record release cover... and a test press wouldn't hurt either. All of those are fairly limited, so I'm not sure when they will come around, but when they do, I'll make my move.

Locked Inside The Green

I never know what is going to set me off on a quest to buy multiple copies of a record. Years ago I swore off this nonsense, but lately I've found myself breaking my own rule more and more. Sometimes I'm just really excited about a band and in my lizard brain that means I need to spend money and aquire more records from them. For the most part though, I'm not a complete degenerate and I still have some morals because I can usually stay away from that game if the vinyl looks like shit. Case in point would be Ecostrike. As much as I fucking love that band, the vinyl from Triple B looks terrible, so I have zero desire to chase multiple pressings for them. Locked Inside on the other hand... those records look fantastic, and it has been too tempting to buy more just because they look great.

I was introduced to Locked Inside earlier this year, and I loved their old school hardcore sound. Ed McKirdy sounds a lot like Dan O from No For An Answer on this record and I loved hearing a new band play this style so well. As soon as I received the red vinyl pressing, and saw how great it looked, I immediately started toying with the idea of chasing multiple pressings. When I received the opportunity to buy the reissue on white vinyl, as well as the ultra limited pink vinyl, it helped to seal the deal that I wanted more colored vinyl for this 7 inch. When I saw the green vinyl available on Discogs at a fair price, I jumped on it.

Not Like You Records has done a dumb amount of pressings for this record. There are around eleven different pressings, so I don't even know why I would entertain the thought of chasing multiple copies, but here we are. Now if Discogs sellers would stop trying to make some quick cash, and just list this with a reasonable price, maybe I'd chase more copies of this one.

That vinyl does look great though.

Locked Inside The White And Pink

Earlier this year, Marcus made a post over on his blog that introduced me to Locked Inside. The band features Ed McKirdy from Hands Tied, Triple Threat andSearch on vocals, and he sounds so much like Dan O from No For An Answer that I immediately liked it. I did not hesitate to jump over to Discogs and grab the red vinyl pressing of their 7 inch.

A couple weeks after posting about the record here, Marcus brought to my attention that the label was doing another pressing of the record. It seems that the original pressing plates broke, so they had the record remastered and had it pressed to white vinyl.

For some reason, the label ended up with a single remastered 7 inch on red vinyl...and that led to 15 copies on pink as the pressing plant transitioned over to white. The only way to get a pink copy was to message the label on Instagram. There was no clue as to how much this thing was going to cost, but I sent them a message and said that I was DTF.

I love how this pink vinyl looks, and the hand numbered back cover is a nice touch. Definitely worth the price of admission for me.

Locked Inside

These past few months I've been discovering a number of bands from the past couple of years that for one reason or another I didn't pay attention to at the time. I felt like I'd been doing a good job keeping up with newer hardcore bands, but then Marcus went and posted a string of records for bands that I'd never bothered to check out and I suddenly felt out of touch. One of the records that he ended up posting about was Locked Inside.

I'm sure that I'd seen this record posted on Instagram by some of the people that I follow, but honestly, I don't remember it. I was probably too busy being a jaded old hardcore dude to pay it much attention at the time. When Marcus mentioned that Ed McKirdy, from Hands Tied and Search, was on vocals for this band, and that he really sounded at lot like Dan O'Mahoney suddenly I wanted to hear this record.

The Dan O comparison is spot on, and this is some solid hardcore. I'm kind of surprised with how good this is and that I let it get by me unnoticed when it was released. I need to be better about checking out new hardcore bands. The record is long sold out from the label, so I had to scramble to Discogs to find whatever I could. Happy to grab this red vinyl pressing, limited to 88, for a great price.