Purity

It has been a while since I dipped into more of the records that I've picked up from Tim's collection. It took some time for Jeff to prep the next batch of records he was selling from the collection, and then I put stuff on hold with him and didn't rush to pay for it and pick it up... but I've got a little stack here now, so let's start to chip away at them.

I really love New Model Army. When I listen to them, I feel like they are all I want to listen to... but then I'll get distracted and for some reason I don't get back to them for months and months. I really only listen to the first few NMA records, but recently I've been feeling the urge to pick up the next one in line, their 1990 album Impurity. As a bonus push to get me to check out that album, I ended up getting the Purity 12 inch single handed to me earlier this year.

This record came from Tim's collection and since Jeff introduced New Model Army to me back in the early 90's, he felt that I should take this piece of vinyl at no cost and just handed it to me.

The single contains the song Purity from the album, plus two songs, Curse and No Sense, that were exclusive to the b side here. I've been having a lot of fun with these songs, and the Impurity album is proving to be great as well. Going to need the vinyl for that one soon as well. Shame that Tim's collection didn't have one available. Guess I'll have to do some work to find a copy myself.

Ghost Of New Model Army

New Model Army is one of those bands that when I listen to them, that all that I want to listen to. I'll not listen to them for months, and then from out of nowhere a song will jump into my head and then that's the rest of my day sorted... time for a NMA marathon.

New Model Army are a band out of England, and while I very much consider them to be a punk band, they don't really fit the 80's English punk mould... or at least what I tended to gravitate to for punk in the 80's... but the aggression and emotion on their early records is so addictive to me. I've been slow to build a NMA collection, and I can't believe that at this point I didn't own The Ghost Of Cain already.

Like Trouble, New Model Army was an important common thread that ran between Tim, Jeff and me... so it was a nice gesture when Jeff pulled this album out of Tim's collection and handed it to me free of charge.

I Believe In Getting The Bastard

Last Summer I was on a huge New Model Army kick, and then band pretty much dominated my playlist when I would go out for a run. There was just something about those songs that kept me fired up while I was ticking off miles on the roads. My NMA record collection was pretty weak, yet I had trouble pulling the trigger on any vinyl that I was checking out on Discogs. I ended up throwing the band's first full length album, Vengeance, into my Discogs Want List, and then I pretty much just ignored it as I moved on to other obsessions.

Discogs has a great system of notifying you when a record on your Want List is available, and after seeing notifications continually pop up for Vengeance, I was getting sick of seeing the reminders. A $10 copy of the UK first pressing popped up recently from a US seller, and I knew it was time to finally cross this one off the list.

This record is so damn good. Let's queue up Running In The Rain, lace up the shoes, and hit the road for a few miles.

No Rest

I spent a bit of time over this past Fall out on the roads, racking up miles and making some progress in my goal to run 1,000 miles before the year's end (mission accomplished, by the way). I had a New Model Army album loaded up on my running playlist, and I found myself getting a charge whenever one of the songs came up in the shuffle. I really looked forward to having one of those songs give me a boost on the roads, and finally I just took all the New Model Army songs that I had on iTunes, and loaded them into my running playlist. There were a couple of the early NMA albums, that I wasn't really familiar with, and it was great to have them keep me company while pounding out the miles.

One of the songs that I didn't know that well, but really caught my ear, was the song No Rest. My New Model Army record collection is weak, and desperately needs attention, and after hearing that song a few times while out running, I figured that I really should finally track down the No Rest For The Wicked album on vinyl.

I didn't immediately find one in the condition, or at the price I wanted, and my attention wandered over to the No Rest single.

The big draw for the No Rest 12 inch single was the exclusive b-side song, Heroin. If you dig early New Model Army, this song is a must.

The No Rest single comes on a few different pressings. There is the 7 inch version (with different cover art), the regular 12 inch press, and then the double 12 inch single with the bonus record containing three live songs from '84. I wanted the most bang for my $3.75, so I grabbed the double 12 inch off eBay.