Abuse Of Power

New hardcore records have been in short supply for me in 2016. I imagine that some of you will be less than impressed when I post my Best of 2016 list next month. I'm not sure if I've really missed some great records for this year, or if I just don't give a shit about trying to keep up with everything these days.

I do keep up with record collecting blogs though, and when Chris over at Unwavering Spirit posted about Abuse Of Power last month, it caught my attention.

I've been seeing posts recently from New Age Records, about a couple of newer bands that they were working with. Abuse Of Power were one of those bands.

Chris seemed impressed with the record, and said that the band would have fit in nicely with the Words To Live By 7 inch back in '91. I was a little skeptical, since New Age hadn't released a new record that was worth my attention for over 15 years now. I was doubtful that this release was going to be anything different, but since Chris was down with it, I decided to give it a chance.

Damn! I'm impressed. The hype was deserved as this does sound like it would have fit in nicely with those songs from the Words To Live By record. I quickly jumped to the New Age store to make sure that I got a piece of that delicious looking "pink lemonade" colored vinyl. 200 pressed.

While I'm trying to ease up on buying multiple pressings for records, I couldn't resist adding another color to my Outspoken collection for A Light In The Dark. Since I already had four copies, I figured that I might as well go for five.

Plus that Reason To Believe pressing looked too good to pass up. R.I.P. Jon Bunch.

200 pressed on red colored vinyl.

Survival Of The Splittest

A month or so ago, Lins posted a picture of an Outspoken 7 inch on instagram. What was this? A pressing of Survival on a transparent clear and orange split vinyl? Damn! I'd never seen that before!

I figured that the New Age Records webstore would be a good place to grab one, but it seems like that entire site has been taken down. It never occurred to me to ask Lins where he might have gotten it, and instead I set out in a panic, desperate to find myself a copy. Not too long into my search, I was in the Irish Voodoo webstore, pulling some pressing info for my latest Done Dying post, and that's when I saw it...that mysterious clear/orange split pressing. It was listed that there was only one copy left in stock, so I scooped it up.

Irish Voodoo had it listed as a special pressing for Outspoken's European tour. Good lord, is this band still out touring without John Coyle?

I recently found out that this record is also available in the Outspoken bigcartel store, so go grab one there if you haven't done so yet.

77 Pressings

New Age mailorder sucks. The label hasn't released anything new that is worth buying in over 10 years. Yet, I still have no problem laying down the cash for their recent repressings. With the exception of the Unbroken record that I've never collected, this is the last of the limited "77 pressing" series.

There is really nothing special about the 77 pressing for Outspoken's Light In The Dark LP. No new cover...just the Walk Proud labels. The truth is that I passed on this when I ordered from New Age 6 months ago. I didn't see the point. Once I got my order for the other Light In The Dark represses, I knew I had to have one. I'm a sucker.

I had heard that New Age had cleaned up it's mailorder process, and they were more efficient, so I soon placed another order with the label. Not much had changed. Emails went unanswered until Mike Hartsfield let me know three months later that my order was shipping. Same shitty packaging though. Bubble envelope? Seriously? Should not come as a surprise that the post office mangled it and the spine of the record cover tore.

The one "77 pressing" that I really wanted was for the first Strife 7 inch. The trouble was, I couldn't find it in the webstore. It seemed that the availability of records all depended on what link you clicked on when you were in the webstore. Some of the Outspoken records weren't available on the Vinyl link, but if they showed up in the Featured Release section, you could order them there. I took a chance and tracked down the original link to the Strife "77 pressing" from and old Facebook post on the New Age Records page. Got it! Seems like all navigation issues are now sorted out, as the webstore has all Strife and Outspoken pressings available.

The sleeve on this record is really cheap. Too bad, because I love the layout on this thing. That front cover shot reminds me of how intense Strife shows were back in the mid-90's. The "77 pressing" neck tattoo for the dude on the back cover is hilarious.

New Age Continues...

Sure New Age takes a while to send out orders, but they have never ripped me off...and really, since I typically have so many records arriving in the mail, I don't mind the wait. Sure their mailorder makes me nervous, but they have always come through.

I love the new re-presses that New Age has been doing. In the early 90's, I was really starting to get into hardcore, straight edge and vegetarianism. Bands from New Age Records like Mouthpiece, Outspoken, and Strife were a huge influence on me. Somewhere along the way, these bands dropped out of my everyday playlist, but recent discographies from Outspoken and Mouthpiece, plus the re-issue of the first Strife 7 inch, has reintroduced me to these bands. To my surprise, I'm finding that they really stood the test of time. In fact I may like them more now than I did when they originally were released.

The newest re-issue from New Age is for Outspoken's A Light In The Dark LP. Somehow, I missed the 77 pressing when I placed this order...I'm sure that I didn't see it in the webstore at the time. I do see that New Age has it listed right now, so I'm going to have to place yet another order. There are 193 pressed on coke bottle clear vinyl with black streaks. Damn, this is a good looking piece of vinyl.

Blank b-side labels and stamped with "We Must Continue...". Nice touch. With the Conversion Records logo, and the Mission Viejo address, it looks like the label just had a bunch of old covers laying around that they used for this pressing. However, when I pulled out my original pressing, the first pressing covers had quite the slick sheen on them, where the new ones have more of a matte finish. Strange decision to reprint the album covers and not remove the Conversion logo and to keep the old address on there.

There are also 275 on orange "creamsicle" vinyl.

Again with the "We Must Continue..." stamp on the b-side label.

With this visit to the New Age store, I also decided to pick up a couple copies of the first Amendment 18 LP...back before they moved to Victory and shortened their name to just A18. The new pressing of this album is crazy limited. Only 55 were pressed on glow in the dark vinyl. The labels are plain black with A18 hand written by Isaac Golub.

New Age must have had a few pieces of solid green vinyl laying around from the first press, so they stuck them in a new silver sleeve, stuck a small sticker on the front and called it the 10th Anniversary press. Is it kind of cheap and thrown together? Yes. Do I care? No. It is limited to 48, and I have one. That is all that I care about. I've always enjoyed A18's two follow up albums to this one, but giving this a listen now, I'm really digging this.

A New Age, Same Shitty Mailorder

Back in the early 90's, I didn't take any shit from bad mailorder service. I wrote letters to Revelation, and I would use directory assistance to track down Dirk Hemsath at Doghouse, and Mike Hartsfield at New Age and call them at home. I think that at one time I may have ended up with Hartsfield's mom on the phone, and she hooked me up with her son's phone number so that I could check on an order that I had placed months ago and had not received.

Here we are 20 years later, and while Revelation now runs like a well oiled mailorder machine, New Age is still hobbling along like some three legged dog. Back in the early 90's, New Age was the one of the hottest labels, putting out records from Mouthpiece, Ressurrection, Unbroken, and Turning Point. These days, I don't know anyone that gives a shit about the bands on their roster. It is nothing the really interests me. When they put up a limited pressing of Outspoken's first 7 inch, Survival, I figured that I'd pick up a few items from their webstore. This was at the beginning of February. Months and months passed. Judging from the messageboards, I was not the only one that was waiting. When we got near the three month mark, I figured that it was time to drop an email to New Age to try and find out what was up.

I finally received a reply from Mike Hartsfield three weeks later, and he said that he was sending my order the following Tuesday, June 1st. Cool. Finally a response! I took a chance and replied back to say that I noticed that the webstore now had a burnt orange vinyl pressing of Survival, and if there was any way to add that to my order. To my surprise he replied minutes later and said to just Paypal him the extra $4.50 and he would add it to my order going out on Tuesday. I took the gamble and sent him the money. Time must move slower in California, as the post mark on the envelope shows that he sent it three weeks later than he said he would.

When all was said and done, it took nearly 5 months to receive my order. Crazy. Still, I was pretty excited to finally receive this package in the mail.

The new pressing of Survival is on "bubble gum red" colored vinyl, with the labels from the first New Age release, the Walk Proud 7 inch. No insert. New photocopied cover. It all seems thrown together, but for some reason it works for me, and it makes for a nice limited pressing of 77.

I've always been a big fan of Outspoken, but I never did get to see them live. The band is back together and playing some shows...and even though they are without their original singer, John Coyle, I'd still be down to check them out live. They are playing the A Time We'll Remember fest this November in DC with Hands Tied, One Up, and Mindset. I can't tell you how much I want to go to this show. Anyone up for a roadtrip?

The other copy of Survival that I picked up was limited to 207 on burnt orange. This seems more like a legitimate pressing. I still love the cover of this record. Outspoken's Survival and Insted's Feel Their Pain were the two biggest reasons that I got into vegetarianism.

It may seem like a strange pick, but I also picked up a vinyl copy of the Red Tape LP, High Revoltage. This may have been the last good band that New Age released, and that was 10 years ago, back in 2000. I love this record. Great hardcore with plenty of punk rock attitude.