Open Hearts And Cow Print Vinyl

I'm easily influenced. Someone on Instagram recently posted a photo of a record for The First Step, and it got me thinking about what I was still missing. I jumped over to Discogs, noticed a few glaring holes in my TFS collection, and made a move to cross one off the list. Zero self control.

Much to my surprise, I realized that the only copies of Open Hearts And Clear Minds that I owned were the 12 inch reissues. I didn't own a single 7 inch pressing that was originally done by Livewire Records in 2003. Seeing the opportunity to correct this oversight, I grabbed the "cow print" colored vinyl. I love the look of this pressing.

I've been extremely slow in collecting records for The First Step. I fucking love this band, but they released their demo and Open Hearts And Clear Minds before I got into collecting records, so I'm still working on making up that lost ground. It feels good to take another small step in building this collection.

Another Step

The plan was to stay on task, and knock out a bunch of posts for this month. I've got a good 30 records waiting in the wings, and I'm so far behind on the blog, it ain't funny...but I still managed to drag my feet, and had to scramble at the end of the month to barely get my post count to ten.

Okay...I'm going to get serious for July. I've got a ton of shit to post here, and I've got to try and get things under control.

My collection for The First Step is goddamn solid when it comes to the What We Know album and Connection EP...but for everything else, it is fucking pitiful. I made a move to correct this back in 2011 when I grabbed the blue vinyl pressing for the demo, and now seven years later, I'm finally taking another step.

As I was picking up another piece for the One Up collection, I noticed that the Discogs seller had a red vinyl copy of The First Step demo available as well. I'd been buying a string of cheap records lately, and made the impulse decision to step things up and finally cross this one off the Want List.

Second pressing on red vinyl. Limited to 200.

The First Step Demo Blues

I'm a huge fan of The First Step. The band was amazing, and I wouldn't hesitate to include their What We Know LP as one of my favorite Straight Edge albums of all times. That said, I've really dropped the ball on collecting any of the 7 inches prior to their LP. This is my first step.

Back when Livewire was a fully funtioning label, they pressed the 2001 Demo from The First Step to vinyl. Man, this demo really captures the youthful energy and passion of the band. Sure, it doesn't stack up next to What We Know or Connection, but the intensity and fire was certainly there from the start.

The Livewire discography page doesn't seem to have any information on the second pressing of this record. Thankfully, it was all captured on the back sleeve, because I'm a geek for this kind of info.

Hand numbered and limited to 100, yet I was still able to pick this up for under $10. Yeah, I was stoked.

Nothing Done To The First Step

A few months back, I picked up a special pressing of Nothing Done's Powertrip LP, which you can check out here. I was trying to find some pressing info about the record, but could not seem to locate the pressing info on the Not Just Words Records website. I was pretty sure that I had checked that site for pressing info before, but this time out I couldn't find anything. After searching for a few minutes, I clicked the Contact Us link and fired off an email to the man who used to run the label, Ronald. Minutes later I got a reply with pretty specific directions on how to find the pressing info on the website..."scroll down to the bottom of the page". Wow. Am I lazy or just blind? Ronald and I ended up exchanging a few emails, and he let me know that he had an additional copy of the Idiot Stomp EP mispressing, and he'd sell it if I was interested.Of course I took him up on the offer. Nothing Done were so good, and I'm always looking for opportunities to add to my collection for them.

When Not Just Words received the original pressing of vinyl, they noticed that the first few seconds were missing from Side A. The label pulled 65 on black and 12 on colored vinyl for themselves, and the rest were rejected. 50 of the black vinyl were used for the record release show, while the remainder got a special cover for the record nerds to fight over.

Thankfully the whole story about this pressing is printed on the backside of the record cover.

Of the 27 copies with this sleeve, 15 are on black vinyl, an 12 are on green with pink splatter. I'm glad that I got the more limited of the two, but when you are talking the difference between 12 and 15, you'd have to be a pretty big geek to care about such things. Welcome to my world.

Right next to Have Heart's The Things We Carry, What We Know by The First Step may very well be one of the best albums released in the past ten years. Five years after their initial release date, both of those albums still sound fresh and vital. For some reason, I had never gotten around to picking up the second pressing of What We Know from Not Just Words. I asked Ronald if he had any spare copies laying around, and he managed to find one copy and agreed to sell it to me for a very fair price.

330 pressed on white vinyl.

Shipping from The Netherlands to the States was crazy expensive, so I asked Ronald to ship the records to Marcus in the UK, and then he could ship them to me and save me some money. Marcus has used me as his personal Postal Bitch a few times, so it was time for me to return the favor. Since I'd never heard of a band named Deal With It, Marcus decided to properly introduce me to the band's first album, End Time Prophecies, and slip it in with the other records that he was forwarding to me. Deal With It play some serious metal influenced hardcore in the same vein as NY bands like Maximum Penalty, Leeway, and Cro-Mags...only DWI aren't at the same caliber as the bands that influenced them. Good stuff, but it isn't blowing me away...we'll see if it sinks in after a few more spins.

Thank you, Ronald and Marcus, for the records.

Showcase Showoff

I love a good hardcore fest. Hanging out, watching bands kick it live, and checking the merch tables. Seriously one of the best times I've had was catching the last Posi-Numbers fest with my good friend Rob. I had really just started collecting records when I went to that show, and I went nuts buying records...spent so much money. I really don't get to travel much for these type of shows, and while I didn't travel to California for the REACT! Showcase in April, I did get the opportunity to buy the limited REACT! merch from a pretty awesome dude.

One of the hottest commodities at the Showcase had to have been the REACT! boxset. This was a collection of five 7 inches that the label has released. It is too bad that the Get The Most demo wasn't included...it feels a little incomplete without it. Either way, this is pretty fuckin' cool. Screened box with the now classic REACT! image on the front.

The boxset includes a little book that documents each 7 inch included. Lyrics, pictures, history, and even fun facts! Nicely done.

All the records were tied up nicely with a bow. I had to untie them for the picture and it was a total pain in the ass to tie them back together. I can't imagine how insane it was sitting around the REACT! HQ and tying up almost 100 of these things. It took me about 10 minutes to do just one. All of the inserts were included in the box along with a couple of posters. Especially nice is the poster that captures the moment when I almost caught the ass of Mike from Mindset with my face. Classic.

Cool silk screened back to the box. My number looks a little fucked up, but I think it is 84, and not 89, out of 94.

REACT! can hold their own next to my other boxsets.



The Showcase also had some cool special pressings that were limited to 100. Damages on orange vinyl, with the patch that reminds me of Struggle or Econochrist.

Praise was pressed on pink.

I haven't received my Common Cause pre-order yet, but the packaging, once again, is top notch. Showcase pressing is on the coolest color for colored vinyl...gold.

Get The Most decided to make the Showcase their record release show. Nice little fold over deal for the cover to indicate that it is the record release edition. Green colored vinyl.

While Doug was pretty happy with his number 88, as it was a great year for hardcore, I've got to say that 77 was a pretty good year for metal, with cool releases from Motorhead, AC/DC, and Judas Priest. Awww, fuck it, who am I kidding, 88 is still better than 77.

I had been under the impression that my Showcase order was going to be packaged and sent along with the GTM/Praise/Damages pre-order. That didn't happen, and I sent an email to ask what was up. Not sure what the miss was, but to make up for the extended delay in getting everything shipped out, the record release pressing of the new Betrayed record was included. Yeah, that more than makes up for the wait! Holy shit, the song Above The Influence is so fucking good.

Silk screened covers, and hand stamped labels. Limited to 100.

The final piece to my Showcase collection was the "TFS Crew" pressing of the Connection 7 inch from The First Step. Originally released on Rivalry Records, REACT! did a special pressing for the Showcase, and handed them out to the first 77 people at the show. I made an offer to get one, and once we agreed on a price, my collection of the Connection 7 inch went from 9 to 10.

The Final Connection

The First Step and Champion are my favorite bands from the last 10 years. I guess they are my Gorilla Biscuits and Youth of Today of the 00's. - clichejon

Someone on the REACT! messageboard has the above quote as their signature. It rings so true for me, that I figured I'd post it here as well. I absolutely love the late 80's hardcore, and it certainly produced some of my favorite bands and records. Yet, I find that I rarely collect anything from the time period. I do not own Start Today on vinyl. While I own a copy of the Confusion press for Chain, the rest of my collection for them is pretty weak. And Judge...seriously, way out of my price range. For some reason, I find myself concentrating my collecting efforts on bands from the last 10 years...and one of my favorites would be The First Step.

I recently received my annual bonus at work. The amount that I received would have gotten me a Chung King pressing of the Judge LP. There was no way that I would have been able to get away with that, but it did allow me to throw a nice size maximum bid on the eBay auction for the pre-order press of the Connection EP from The First Step. Dobek Ohashi sells the coolest records, and when he listed this record, the final piece in my Connection collection, I was going to win it at any cost. Thankfully that cost didn't end up breaking the bank. I now have 9 copies of this record.

This pressing of the last EP from The First Step was released by Waking The Dead Records out of Argentina. Red vinyl with a special cover just for this pressing.

Especial edition for pre-orders. Hand numbered and limited to 50.

First Steps From The Past

Bottled Up Records recently released the What We Know Sessions from The First Step. As the story goes, TFS broke up during the Spring of 2001. When they got back together at the end of the year, they went into the studio and banged out these six tunes that which, as Stephen writes in the excellent overview on the inside cover, "explain the core spirit and ideology of TFS". The majority of these songs ended up being re-recorded with Walter from Gorilla Biscuits for the What We Know LP, with the exception of Cutting Through, which showed up on a MRR comp, but this session captures the band boiling over with positivity and passion for what the future holds for them. This record stands as a fitting tribute to a band that went out at the top of their game.

Bottled Up released three pressings of this, but I only ordered two copies. I received the hand numbered black vinyl pressing (number 56 of 100), as well as the clear blue pressing (limited to 150). There is also a white vinyl pressing that is limited to 250, and I'll have to pick that up at some point as well.

The First Test

What could possibly entice me to spend more money this month...and only days after a huge win with the Champion Count Our Numbers record release. Exceeding the money that I spent on the Champion 7 inch, I managed to get my hands on a test pressing of The First Step's What We Know Sessions. To fund the releasing of this record, in addition to the upcoming re-release of the Right Idea EP, Bottled Up Records put up some vinyl on eBay...this test press was one of those items. I threw a bid on it at the last minute, but in the end I didn't win it. My bid was reasonable enough so I was hopeful that Bottled Up would look to unload more than just the one they had up for sale, and make me a Second Chance Offer...and the next day I got one. Damn, after the money that I had already spent on the Champion record, I had no business entertaining the idea of buying this record. However, if I didn't do it now, I may never get the chance again. Bottled Up test presses are limited to 13, so I bit the bullet and accepted the offer. Other than the Said and Done test press, that Shield Records gave to me, this was the first test press that I have purchased. I've never really been interested in collecting them, because the prices are typically ridiculous, but fuck it, it felt so good to buy this one. The cover that Bottled Up did for this release is pretty unique. It includes a clear plastic overlay with the image of Aaron Chrietzberg airborne with his guitar, which rests nicely over the paper cover photo of Stephen St. Germain. Very cool. Jeff, from Bottled Up, let me know that he finally just got the artwork for the regular press, and they should be ready to ship in about two weeks. I've got two copies of that one coming as well, which will be nice to add to the collection.