Out Of Step

Outside of a few reissues over recent years, I'd never much thought to chasing down Minor Threat records. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it is because I tend to buy records based on what I'm listening to at that moment, and I don't spend as much time sitting with those classic bands so they rarely spark the immediate excitement that makes me want to chase them down. Obscure bands from the 90's that no one cares about? Yes, give me that. Records from classic hardcore bands from the 80's that laid the foundation for everything that was to come? Meh.

Still, classics are classics for a reason, and there is no denying how great those Minor Threat records are. These songs played a major part in defining who I was going to be as we rolled into the 90's, and the lyrics still are still a core part of me. So as I was looking though Tim's collection, of course I had to put his Minor Threat records on the list of those records I wanted to buy.

Initially I was a bit intimidated by the price for this red cover 12 inch. I mean, I've definitely spent more than this for a record... but I wasn't sure that I wanted to lay down that amount of cash for something that seemed somewhat common. In the end, I obviously decided that I needed to take this opportunity to finally grab this classic.

One of the cool things about Tim's copy was the letter that he'd saved from Jeff Nelson from when he bought this in 1986. This one piece of paper with two simple sentences was really the deciding factor that had me buy this. It just seemed wrong to let this go to anyone else.

An early red cover, but reissues for yellow, green and blue. That should be enough for this collection.

The other Minor Threat record from Tim's collection was the Out Of Step 12 inch. I've only had these songs from the original Complete Discography CD that I bought as a kid, and never owned any version of this record. It was an easy decision to buy this one.

Third press with the blue stripe on the cover. I'm very happy to have this in the collection.

Out Of Takes

I'm not big on alternate recordings for songs. It just doesn't interest me. All I need is the final version that ended up on the record. Anything else is wasted on me. So when I heard that there was a new Minor Threat record with some outtakes, I didn't give it much thought. However, as I was listening to the DJ station on Spotify and it queued up this different version of In My Eyes, it caught my ear and I thought it was kind of cool.

Okay, a little backstory. Chad Lutzke is an author that I enjoy quite a bit. He writes short novellas that tend to come in just over 100 pages, and focus on darker coming-of-age themes and slice of life stories. He writes in a very stripped down style that works incredibly well for him, and I binged seven of his books to start the year, including his classic Of Foster Home And Flies and a reread of one of my favorite novellas ever, Out Behind The Barn. The other thing about Chad is that he loves old school hardcore punk, and we have exchanged a few messages and comments through Instagram... but I was surprised when he had tagged me in a post a few months ago asking if I'd picked up the new Minor Threat 7 inch. While I hadn't really considered buying the record, getting called out like that had me rushing to the Dischord store so that I didn't lose any punk points with the man.

Was I happy that I caved to peer pressure when the record arrived? The packaging is great, with the story on how this recording came to be, plus the photos from that time are a perfect documentation of history... the clear vinyl looks great, and the songs are fun as hell. Does that answer your questions, motherfuckers?

Seeing Blue

A couple of months ago, everyone was posting about their copy of the lastest Minor Threat reissue. I suppose it was only a matter of time until I grabbed a copy as well, but I managed to talk myself out of it for a good couple of weeks. In the end, it was Minor Threat on colored vinyl, and unlike most labels, Dischord doesn't have the bad habit of reissuing records on a different colored vinyl every four months, so this one still managed to feel a bit special.

No doubt, this latest pressing looks great. Even though I dragged my feet in buying this latest repress, the blue vinyl with the blue cover is too good to pass up.

The last time I picked up a Minor Threat repress was back when Discord did the yellow and green covers back in 2008. That was about twelve years ago, which seems forever ago..and it also blows my mind to think that I had blogged about those records at the time, which is a strange reminder that I've been doing this thing and writing about records for about a million years.