Black Hare

Much to my dismay, I completely missed the boat when it came to the limited clear vinyl pressing of the new Red Hare album when it was released earlier this year. Having picked up both the red and the blue pressings of their last album, Nites Of Midnight, missing out on the clear vinyl for this new record was difficult for me to deal with. I immediately added it to my Discogs want list, prepared to pay top dollar, and I assumed that one would pop up soon. Weeks turned to months and I didn't have a single hit...and here we are almost six months later and I still haven't seen a single copy in the wild.

When Sandwell came over from the UK to visit NYC again, once again we arranged to meet up in Boston for a day of record shopping. The weather was terrible, with wind and driving rain, but we did not let that deter us as we hit up Newbury Comics and Armageddon Shop in Harvard Square. I made out with a pretty good record haul during Mark's trip last Spring, but this time around, surprisingly, I walked away with only a single record that I'd picked up at Newbury's.

While I'd really been holding out for the clear vinyl pressing of Little Acts Of Destruction, seeing the regular press in the clearance bin for only $8.00 made it difficult to walk away...plus we were closing in on the end of the year, and I really wanted a copy in my collection before I started putting together my Best Of 2018 list.

While this album didn't have the immediate impact of their first record, I've really warmed up to this album, so it will be interesting to see where it lands at the end of the year.

Just a couple of nerds in Boston!

Gold Hare

The bad thing about social media is that you get to see the shitty politics of your friends and family, as they use it as a platform to spew their veiled racism and bullshit. Then you have the awesomeness of moments when someone posts a picture of a record that you didn't know existed because sometimes you just can't keep up with everything in the record collecting universe.

When Nico from Do Not Consider Yourself Free posted a picture to Instagram of the gold vinyl pressing of the newest Red Hare 7 inch I was like "Wait. What? Where did this come from?".

While I'm definitely cutting back on needless multiple copies of a lot of new records, Red Hare makes the cut and I didn't hesitate to order the second pressing. Come on, that second full length album can't come soon enough.

Clear Hare

Each week, I get the email newsletter from Revelation Records. It has some REV news, a Hardcore fun fact, and a listing of all the new releases added to the REVHQ distro. To be honest, I've hardly paid these emails much attention for the longest time...just quick scroll through the list of new additions, to see if anything jumps out at me. Most days, it is a five second process...open, skim, delete...but a couple weeks ago, I see a name that catches my eye. Red Hare.

The Nites Of Midnite album was one of my favorites from 2013, but I kind of figured that it was going to be a one-off kind of deal, and we wouldn't see anything else from the band. Apparently, Red Hare has been busy in the studio, recording a new LP, and Dischord is offering up a three song tease with the Lexicon Mist 7 inch. I've been dragging my feet lately on new Hardcore releases, but I didn't hesitate with this record.

The two originals on here do not fail to deliver the goods...the Lungfish cover on the b-side is okay, but I don't know shit about Lungfish, and this song doesn't really push for me to check them out. Bring on the new album!

My Favorite Blue Job

I really enjoyed the Red Hare album that Dischord/Hellfire released earlier this year. I like it so much that there have been times when I've flirted with the idea of putting it in the number one spot for my Best of 2013 list.

I was very interested when I heard that Dischord was doing a second pressing of the record, but once I saw what they were doing to it, I didn't hesitate to order a copy.

The first pressing was on red vinyl, with all the art done in the same color...an obvious choice for a band named Red Hare. The second pressing, however, gets a makeover in blue.

It would have been so easy to just wrap the new blue vinyl in the same sleeve as the first pressing, and be done with it. Instead, the label went ahead and changed all the colors on the cover to match the new vinyl pressing, and holy shit, it looks amazing.

No shortcuts on this either, as even the insert gets the blue treatment.

Such an amazing job. What's next? Is Dischord going to be able to keep this up with the next pressing?