Intent To Collect

A while back, I rediscovered the Naked Angels Hardline 7 inch. I'd originally picked up a copy in the early 90's, but over the years I'd kind of forgotten about it and it got stuck in a pile of 7 inches that were ignored. For one reason or another I stumbled upon it years later and decided to give it a spin to see how it held up. Goddamn, those songs hit me hard. I obsessed over that record and then proceeded to buy three more copies of it. That was the only record that I'd heard from Naked Angels, but since I was loving it so much I figured that at some point I should check out what else the band had released... seven years later, here we are.

I figured that my next jumping off point for Naked Angels was their 7 inch that was released on Doghouse Records, Intent To Kill. Doghouse was a pretty big deal back in the day, and since Intent To Kill was released alongside records from Endpoint and Split Lip, it seemed like a safe gamble. Oh hell yes. This is exactly what I was hoping for, and discovering this record almost 30 years after it was originally released was like finding a long lost treasure.

When I looked to pick up a copy, I noticed that there was a seller that had a copy of Intent To Injure listed as a "tour edition". This special edition wasn't listed on Discogs, so I was curious as to what it looked like. I desperately wanted to own it and unravel this mystery so without hesitating, I added it to my cart and checked out.

The limited tour edition comes with a cover printed on yellow paper and numbered on the back out of 50. I have a feeling that there aren't too many people that would be as excited as I was to receive this.

After sitting with the tour cover for a couple weeks, I was burning to get the regular green vinyl pressing into my collection as well. I don't know if it makes sense to buy another copy on green vinyl, but we are talking about collecting Naked Angels records here, so just let me be fucking ridiculous and happy, okay?

As I was buying NA records and getting stupid, I figured that I'd buy a pointless live 7 inch as well. Recorded while the band was on tour in'92, it contains a song that I don't think showed up anywhere else, Stranded. So I guess it might not be so pointless after all.

Might as well pick up all the Naked Angels 7 inches while I'm at it. No More Heroes was released in '95, and I was a bit skeptical that NA would be able to still record something that kept my attention at this point in their existance. I've never even heard about this record before, so it obviously didn't leave much of an impact, but I figured that I'd check it out anyway. When I initially heard it, I thought these two songs were seriously lacking the punch of their earlier records, but with each listen I find that I like this more and more. The band was definitely trying to grow and push their boundaries to try something a bit different. It was the 90's and this is exactly what hardcore bands like this did. I dig it.

Getting Naked

I've got a stack of old 7 inch records that never got properly filed away when I built my Music Room five years ago. Some of the records in this pile are things that I bought when I was first getting into Hardcore and have been tossed aside and forgotten. I've been slowly working through them over the past year or so, and I've uncovered some long lost gems...among them is the first Naked Angels 7 inch.

When I dug it out of the pile, I expected to give it a quick listen and then probably file it away for another 20 years. To my surprise, I absolutely loved it. There is nothing mind blowing here...just Hardcore from the early 90's, played with the passion of youth.

After listening to the record, I thought it would be fun to check out what eBay had to offer for the band. Since I'd only heard the Real Hardline record, I was hopeful to find something else from the band...when my eBay search returned three different variants to the record that I already owned, I suddenly became obsessed with owning them all.

The first copy of the record that I picked up on eBay was the black vinyl copy with the blue cover.

I got pretty excited when I found the gold colored vinyl pressing. I have no idea if it was rare or not, but it is the only piece of colored vinyl that I'd seen for this record. I'm sure that if I'd waited, I might have been able to score this record at a lower price than the $10 starting price for the auction, but I didn't want to take that chance. I placed my bid, and wasn't surprised to find that I was the only one interested.

I decided to show a bit more patience with the black vinyl. The seller had it listed with a Buy It Now option of $10. It wasn't listed with a Best Offer option, but after seeing it not sell, and get relisted a few times, I sent a message to the seller. I explained that I doubted that the record was worth the price tag he had it listed as, but if he wanted to drop the price, I would be interested. He replied right back, telling me that he'd had been trying to sell it for a while, and gladly accepted my offer. Sold.

The pressing info on these records is a mystery to me, which kind of enticed me to buy the three new copies. It is an unknown, and each different record is another clue that brings me closer to solving the riddle. Is this collection complete? I may never know.