One Up Final Show

Five years ago, I posted here feeling pretty confident that I'd finished my One Up collection. As usual, I was proven wrong when someone pointed out what I was missing. Even with Discogs at my fingertips, I still fuck this up and get my info wrong.

Well, it has taken some time, but I'm finally back with a missing piece... the last show pressing of the final One Up 7 inch. Numbered out of 100 with a special cover, it feels good to add this one to my collection. I love this band so much, and while I have nothing against Texas Is The Reason, I like the One Up cover of their song on this 7 inch more than the original.

Of course, the One Up discography LP has been released over recent years, but I'm not going to bother collecting all five versions of that one. Still, I've discovered that there is still a special cover of The More Things Change that I don't have, so I'm still incomplete. Who knows, maybe I'll pick it up in the next five years.

To All The Fakers

I try to stay away from buying discography records these days, but every once in a while I'll make an exception. I was obsessed with One up a few years back and bought a bunch of records for the collection, so when Hellminded announced the discography LP I was interested in checking it out.

For me, the main draw to pick up a copy of Many Miles Long was that this was the first time the songs from It's Time To Believe were pressed on vinyl. Somehow that album was only released on CD, so I was not going to miss out on finally having the chance to get them on vinyl. In addition to those songs, I was surprised to discover that this discography includes two unreleased songs from The Single recording session. Fuck yes. It's cool to finally hear these songs 15+ years later.

Many Miles Long was pressed on three different versions of colored vinyl, with each one limited to 100. I grabbed the bubblegum swirl version.

If you were signed up to receive the Hellminded email newsletter, the label sent you a code that allowed you to get in early and place your order before the preorders were available to the public...so a pre-preorder. There were 15 copies of the test press available, and with the Speak Out tribute cover, I really wanted one for myself.

I really like the look of this special cover for the test press, and the upside down REV star is a nice touch.

Number 24 of 25. Good deal!

The Finest Line A Man Can Walk

Earlier this year, I picked up a One Up record, and I had such a good time with it, that I picked up another, and then another. Things escalated quickly, and I wanted more.

The peak for One Up was their The More Things Change 7 inch. This record ruled back in 2004, and it is just as vital today. Man, these songs still give me a charge.

Chasing these One Up records has been cheap and easy, with each one readily available on Discogs for under $10. Once I started picking them up, it just made sense to get them all, with this gold vinyl pressing of The More Things Change being the last piece of the puzzle.

Now if the band would only get their full length, It's Time To Believe, finally pressed to vinyl instead of just being a CD only release.

Seemed like a good time to get them all out for a family photo.

Rally The Troops

As I mentioned in my Count Me Out post last week, the 2000's had some great bands that I've been overlooking in recent years. I'm not sure why, but for the longest time, I've kind of written off those years, and have forgotten that there was some great stuff being released. One of the bands that I've been obsessing over lately has been One Up.

I've already hit Discogs a couple times this year for One Up records, and with that fire still burning, I headed back to the well once again. This time I was looking to cross off a couple copies of their demo from the list.

There was a seller that had a copy listed for the clear vinyl pressing...but instead of being numbered out of 100 on the inside cover, this one just has the word "swirl". Bottled Up is known for some crazy transition pressings...especially with the Have Heart records...so I'm assuming that this is a similar deal. "Hey, there are a couple of faint black streaks, lets set this aside, and list it as a transition".

The Discogs seller also had a white vinyl pressing available, so I grabbed that as well.

The More They Stay The Same

Back when I was obsessing over records from 2005, and I was picking up vinyl from Mental and Lion Of Judah, I uncovered a number of forgotten treasures. Man, I had forgotten just how much fun some of this stuff is, and it was a charge getting back into it.

While I already had a copy of the last One Up single, my copy was on green vinyl...and since the blue vinyl was available on Discogs for only a fiver, it was a cheap way to burn some of the energy that had been building up with this obsession. "Hey, I really like listening to this record right now, so I might as well buy another copy of it". Solid logic.

I absolutely love this record. The a-side is great, but man, that Texas Is The Reason cover on the b-side really gets me moving. I really like Texas Is The Reason, but man, if there was ever an instance where the cover beats the original...this is it. This has a total latter-day Turning Point vibe. Damn...if only the band stuck it out for one more record. I would have loved to have seen what they could have put together.

Boys Just Want To Have Fun

When I'm listening to music, I tend to narrow in on specific years or eras. Mostly my attention falls into the category of Metal and Hardcore for the 70's, 80's and 90's...and occasionally I'll get caught up listening to newer shit...and I can be perfectly content to spend weeks just listening to records from that chosen era over and over and over again. There is one period in Hardcore that I tend to overlook these days...those bands from the 00's.

I was recently doing one of those Record A Day challenges on Instagram, and the topic of "All Time Favorite Record" came up. Typically, for this category, I will fall back on something from Ronnie James Dio, but I wanted to mix it up this time around. I was tossing some different ideas around in my head, and then I remembered the Lights Out LP taking the top spot on my Last.fm account (which provides stats on all the music you listen to and capture with their site). Thinking about this album got me thinking about some mid-00's Hardcore records. Before I knew it, I was down the rabbit hole, and I woke up from a record shopping stupor with a stack of Recent Purchases on my account, and a wife that was upset about the number of boxes that were being delivered to the house.

One of the bands that I'd forgotten about over the past few years was One Up. While I was digging through old music and memories from the mid-00's, I came across songs from the It's Time To Believe album from One Up. I only owned it on CD, so I headed to Discogs to find out the deal on the vinyl pressing. Wait. What?!? That was only released on CD? How the fuck is that possible? I mean this was released by Dead By 23, who were kind of known for releasing multiple vinyl pressings, so how did this only see a CD release. Shit is whack.

So while I was trying to figure out what the deal was with It's Time To Believe, I happened to see a vinyl pressing of their demo for cheap. Man, that special cover for Posi Numbers pressing. Pretty much just boys fun. Hilarious.

If you happen to think that the front cover is gay, you might want to stay away from the b-side label. Again...just dudes having a laugh.

Hand numbered and limited to 75.