I Spy

I dig chasing new music, and while the level of my interest ebbs and flows, I generally enjoy keeping up on new bands. That said, the excitement of adding new releases to the collection, pales in comparison to crossing off a classic from the Want List. I get such a charge out of buying these old records, that at times it makes me wonder why I bother buying so many new releases.

When I first heard the No For An Answer album, it was when I bought it on cassette back in '90 or '91. I haven't listened to cassettes for over 20 years, and I've never owned A Thought Crusade on CD, so it blows my mind that it has taken me this long to finally own the album.

In this age of vinyl reissues, it is surprising that your only option for A Thought Crusade is to dig for an original Hawker pressing. Black vinyl only. I'm sure it is only a matter of time until this changes, and someone presses this on a few different colors for the nerds.

REV Reissues: Black And White Cover Edition

There was a time when REV reissue posts were fun and exciting. These days, who gives a shit? Really. Does anyone get a charge out of these anymore?

I don't even pay much attention to the reissues anymore. I'll pick something up if the mood strikes me, but I'm not going out of my way for this shit anymore. It just so happens that the latest order of reissues all had black and white covers...

There are a handful of reissues that I can't walk away from. Youth of Today are one of them. I'm missing so many of the YOT original pressings, yet, I step up every time and order the reissues.

550 pressed on white vinyl.

This marks my fifth copy of Can't Close My Eyes since REV started pumping these out in 2011...and yet, these reissues are the only copies in my collection. Sigh.

549 pressed on blue vinyl.

Well, this was a nice surprise. Good to see the No For An Answer finally get a vinyl repress. Judging from the REV pressing info, it looks like it hasn't seen a vinyl pressing since the youth crew revival of '97. I don't own a single copy of this on vinyl, so buying this was a no brainer.

548 pressed on yellow vinyl.

Still No For An Answer

I've always been a big fan of No For An Answer, so I was pretty intrigued when I saw on Double Cross that the band was going to be recording a three song 7 inch. Now if we've learned anything from DYS, it's that sometimes it is better to just let the past be the past, and these reunions often times can be an embarrassing mess. Still, I really enjoyed Speak 714 and John Henry Holiday, plus they were finally doing a studio recording of Man Against Man, so I had a bit of faith in Dan O and crew.

The record itself is quite good. Two old songs get their first studio recording, and then one new one. Man Against Man rages just about as hard as the live version from The Icemen Cometh 7 inch. It Makes Me Sick was written back when the band was doing the You Laugh record, and would fit in nicely on that record. Seriously, the song isn't even seconds long...you would have thought that they would have thrown it on their first record. In The Beginning finishes things off nicely and ends with the opening riff for Without A Reason. The circle is complete.

Limited to 500.