Sub Pop Screaming

A couple of months ago, I mentioned a music project that I've been doing with my friend Sarah. At the start of the year, we picked 12 albums from 1996 (happy 30th anniversary) and we would dedicate a month to each one... getting together on a call to discuss them. It has been a lot of fun, and it has introduced me to a number of bands that I most likely wouldn't have listened to otherwise. While I don't feel the need to go back and listen to a few of those full albums again (Sebadoh and Cake specifically), we have still been able to pull some songs we've enjoyed from each release and create a Spotify playlist that is a fun listen.

One of the more interesting experiences has been for the Screaming Trees record, Dust, that we did in May. I initially struggled a bit with that one, but it really grew on me over the month, and now I think that I really enjoy it. Dust was the last record from Screaming Trees, and in the middle of checking it out, I had told Sarah that maybe it wasn't the best starting place for me with the band.. like I really should have checked out someting earlier in their career first.

I took a quick look at the Screaming Trees discography on Discogs, and when I saw that they had a double 7 inch release on Sub Pop, I figured that I'd check that one and compare it to what they were doing with Dust seven years later... plus that cover photo, live on stage, just looks cool to me. Oddly, the Sub Pop songs weren't available on Spotify, so I did a quick download from Soulseek and settled in to listen.

I don't know if it was because I was somewhat familiar with Screaming Trees through the album Sarah and I were listening to, or maybe these songs from '89 just sat better with me, but very quickly I knew that I was going to need to get the record for this.

Screaming Trees have a sound that isn't easy to nail down. They kind of fall into that "grunge" style, but also, not really. All I know is that I really don't think that I would have liked this a few years ago... but here in 2026, this hits perfectly. I love the songs on this double 7 inch, and keep returing to the Dust LP. I see more Screaming Trees in my future.

Initial First Five: Part 4 - This World Rejected

This is my final post for the Initial First Five project that Marcus and I did. Initial Records number 5 was the This World Rejected 7 inch.

Another Initial release that I'd never heard before and I kind of assumed that it would be some kind of tough-guy hardcore that would leave me unimpressed. WRONG. While this might be a little "tough", this record is so fucking good. Easily my favorite surprise from this project. It has that great 90's hardcore crunch and groove that immediately has me moving and finger pointing as I sing along. This record is so rad and I want to collect every pressing. I was doing good and showing restraint for so long... content with just one version of a record, but lately I've found myself going off the rails and wanting to collect every single version that I can get my hands on. I've been listening to a lot of 90's and 00's hardcore this year, and that shit just puts me in a collectors headspace.

I was only able to track down this light blue version with the limited and numbered cover, but man, I really need the translucent blue and orange colored vinyl too.

When Marcus and I were going to start this Initial project, I saw the cover for the Jackhammer 7 inch (Initial Records number 4) and was like, nope never heard of them. When I started to dig into the details on Discogs and saw the back cover, I was shocked. Wait. This image with the band logo across the top was suddenly familiar and I knew that I did own it.

I have a box of around a hundred 7 inches that I've shoved into the back of my closet... records that I bought back in the 90's and did not like, but also never wanted to take the time to get rid of them... so there they sit and collect dust. As soon as I saw the back cover of the Jackhammer 7 inch, I knew that it was in that box, and rushed to dig it out.

Look, I totally understand why I didn't like this when I picked it up in 1993. It has a slower, more metallic hardcore sound that kind of reminds me of Integrity... and I didn't really like that style at the time. Listening to it today, I can appreciate it much more, and I'd love to get the colored vinyl version of this for the collection someday... but right now I guess I'm stuck with only the black vinyl.

At the end of the project, Marcus and I did a ranking of the first five Initial releases and mine looked like this:

1. Guilt - Empty?

2. This World Rejected - S/T

3. Ricochet - Evolve

4. Pittbull - S/T

5. Jackhammer - Estranged

As we were wrapping up the project, Marcus made some recommentations for me to check out beyond the first five. One of the things he mentioned was Initial Records number 12, the Roosevelt's Inaugural Parade 7 inch from 1995. As soon as he mentioned it, I jumped out of my chair and ran to that box of records in the back of my closet again. Yes! I owned this one too and had just tossed it aside back in the mid 90's.

This was a great one to revisit. I don't know, I just find it cool to pull a record out of the collection 30 years after you'd decided that you didn't really like it, and be proven wrong. Again, I can see why this didn't interest me back in 1995, but today this is fun to listen to.

So while this isn't technically a new record purchase for me, like the Jackhammer 7 inch, I'm considering it a new find and since I'm finally officially adding them to the collection, I'm getting them documented here as part of the project.

Yeah, this project was a blast, and I'm excited to see what other things Marcus and I tackle together and discuss.

Initial First Five: Part 3 - Guilt

Initial Records number 3 is the Guilt 7 inch. This was really the only record from the first five that I was really familiar with. I'd originally picked it up around '93, and I assume that it was listed somewhere as "features members of Endpoint", so I quickly grabbed it and immediately loved it.

It has been many years since I've really sat and listened to that Guilt 7 inch, but as soon as I gave it a spin for this project, I was floored. It all came rushing back to me on how much I loved these songs, and it was a blast to revisit it again. As I was picking up other records from the Initial catalog, I didn't hesitate to grab another version of this one.

There are a lot of different variations listed on Discogs for this 7 inch, and I'm not sure how many of them I want to chase. I have the white vinyl with the blue cover... so do I need the white vinyl with the red cover? Plus there is a purple vinyl listed... but is that really just the dark red pressing? I don't know. The clear vinyl, on the other hand, was an easy decision.

My two copies together.

Back in the day, this was really the only Guilt record that I listened to. I picked up the Synesthesia 10 inch as soon as that came out, but I did not like it very much at the time and kind of gave up on Guilt. In talking to Marcus during our conversation on this First Five project, he mentioned that I really needed to check out the band's album on Victory. I took him up on that and I've been loving it. Another record to chase for another day.

Initial First Five: Part 2 - Ricochet

Initial Records number two was the Ricochet 7 inch. I only discovered this band last year, when Marcus posted about their record. It always surprises me when I find a record like this that I'd never heard before. I liked to think that I was pretty knowledgeable about obscure 90's hardcore, but more and more I'm finding that I still have a lot of work to do. Thankfully, that tip from Marcus last year had me better prepared for this First Five project.

I'd grabbed the purple vinyl for the Ricochet 7 inch last year, but digging into these early 90's records with Initial had me in a collector mindset and I wanted more. I wasn't able to get my hands on the blue or the green vinyl pressing, but the full color cover looked too good so I grabbed the black vinyl for less than $3. Got to love a record that still sells at 90's prices.

The more that I listen to this Ricochet 7 inch, the more I like it. I enjoyed it when I first heard it last year, and still really enjoyed revisiting it repeatedly for this project with Marcus... but still, when we ranked the Initial first five, I fear that I still ranked it too low. I've been listening to this record on repeat as I prepared this post, and it is just so good.

My two copies of Ricochet. Give me more.

Initial First Five: Part 1 - Pittbull

When I posted a Beck record here back in June, I mentioned that I'd gotten into it because of a monthly music project that I've been doing with my friend Sarah, where we tackle an album from 1996 that neither of us are familiar with. I've found it to be a lot of fun to do my music homework each month, and then the two of us get together to discuss our thoughts on it. I was recently talking about the project with Marcus, and suggested that it could be fun if the two of us did something similar, but have it rooted more in hardcore.

We tossed around a few ideas to try and figure out what we should do to kick off our project. It was difficult to come up with records that both of us hadn't heard, so I suggested that maybe we could do something where we take a smaller label from the 90's, and we tackle their early catalog. Maybe one of us will find something we hadn't heard before or perhaps we may rediscover a record that we'd forgotten about... and as an example, I threw out the name Initial Records. Of the first five records that Initial had released in '92 and '93, I was really only familiar with one of the 7 inches, and had only recently discovered one other. Marcus, of course, knew all five very well, but we figured that it would be an interesting conversation, so we decided to move forward with that plan.

The project was a lot of fun, and I had a blast discovering a few records that I'd never heard before. As a result, I ended up buying some vinyl in the process, so lets cover them all in a series of posts this week.

I'd seen the name Pittbull thrown around, but didn't know anything about them, and never heard anyone talk about them... so I ignored and forgot about them. As soon as we started this Initial Records project, I downloaded the two songs from their self-titled 7 inch, and I was instantly hooked. First record into the project and I was very excited with what we were doing. Honestly, if I'd stumbled upon this record as I was getting into hardcore in the early 90's, I would have eaten this shit up. Maybe it seems a little generic in 2026, but I'm extremely thrilled to discover this.

The Pittbull 7 inch was originally released in 1989 on the band's own Fist-O-Cuff label, and then Initial bought the remaining stock from them and released it as Initial number one in 1992 with a different cover. When I was looking to buy a copy and document this project here on the blog, I would have liked to pick up the pressing from Initial, but there wasn't one available from a US seller... so I went with this first press, and I'm not mad about it.

1996 Novacane

My friend Sarah and I have done a few musical projects together over the past few years. Her taste in music and her song recommendations rewired my brain. Honestly, some of the music I listen to today... The Cure, The Smiths, Life Of Agony, Gulch, Lana Del Rey, etc... I would not appreciate if it wasn't for her. So when she suggested we do a monthly project for 2026 that is more album focused, I was obviously excited to jump in and see what music we could discover together.

We talked back and forth for a bit, trying to come up with a theme, and eventually decided that we would focus on albums from 1996 that were celebrating their 30 year anniversary, and with a couple of exceptions they would be full albums that neither of us was really familiar with. We narrowed it down to twelve and planned to randomly pick from our list at the start of each month, focus and listen to it all month and then follow up to discuss and share our thoughts. We are halfway through the year, and it has been such a fun project so far. We have listened and talked about records from Carcass (January), Modest Mouse (February), Beck (March), Sebadoh (April) and Screaming Trees (May) so far, and each month has been an interesting journey. I'd wanted to pick up a record so that I could commemorate the project here on the blog, and honestly expected that it would be Carcass, so the fact that it ended up being Beck was truly shocking.

When Sarah mentioned including Beck's 1996 album, Odelay, in our project, I kind of groaned inwardly. I had zero interest in anything to do with Beck, and I kind of had this closed minded view that gave "drunk white girl at a wedding reception singing 'two turntables and a microphone' on the dance floor" vibe. It made me cringe... so I had already built obstacles around enjoying this full album.

The first few listens I was surprised to find that I enjoyed hearing a couple of the singles (Devils Haircut and The New Pollution) again, but overall I was kind of tired of the record by the time we got to the end of its 52 minute playing time. One of the pieces of the project is that Sarah and I each have to pick a favorite song from the album so that we can build a playlist from our choices, so I was committed to finding something here that stood out to me, and I kept queuing up every few days to listen again... and the more I listened, the more I enjoyed it. I ended up picking the song Novacane, while Sarah chose Lord Only Knows, and in the end I really came to enjoy the entire album (although I do tend to skip Where It's At each listen). It is such a cool vibe throughout the entire record and I never tire of hearing it months later. Truly a great and unexpected discovery.

I was happy to pick up this great looking colored vinyl edition from 2016. In addition to the "Jackass" sticker, there was also a 12 X 12 art print that was included in the Vinyl Me Please reissue, and it makes for a nice package.