Complete Crusade

Earlier this year, I started to really get back some love for hardcore. Not that I ever lost it, but the last few years I just found myself more excited to listen to other things... but the tide started to shift back to hardcore back in January when I discovered and started obsessing over Disembodied... and then I was pushed even further when picked up a record from Thought Crusade. I was struck by how much I'd missed that level of energy and aggression and I needed more.

Buying that record release version of Thought Crusade's It's Our War highlighted how close I was to completing the collection for the band. All that I was missing was a couple of test pressings, and while I don't typically chase those for a full collection, the tests for Thought Crusade seemed like they might be easy enough to pick up. I'd already managed to get one of the tests for the Common Man 7 inch, so I had hope... and when I started digging around on Discogs, it came together too easily to pass up.

The Common Man 7 inch has two different test pressings... the accepted test that I picked up few years ago, and the rejected test which has the wrong matrix etched in the deadwax.

The other test that I picked up to complete the collection was the It's Our War 7 inch that was released on Triple B. Nice touch with the green with black streaks colored vinyl test, but no special cover here... just the printed text on the dust sleeve. Numbered out of four made, and for $10 I was happy to grab this.

Felt good to finish this Thought Crusade collection and was a nice reminder of how fun the game used to be before labels started to flood the market with an endless stream of reissues.

Green Crusade

There was so much great hardcore released in the late 2000's, and I imagine that a lot of it tends to be forgotten about and overlooked these days. That includes me too. Rarely do I spend much time in my playlist for those years, but looking back at the records in my collection... damn, there is some good stuff from that period that I need to revisit more often.

One of the recent triggers in digging through my late 2000's hardcore records was finding the record release version of It's Our War by Thought Crusade. This 7 inch was released in 2009 by Triple B, and man, I loved this record. I've lost track of it under the weight of all the music that has been released in the 15 years since then, but getting my hands on this record release version has been a great reminder. Fuck, it makes me excited to listen to hardcore.

Special handnumbered record release cover. Number 45 of 50. And the $3 pricetag on this record proves to me how overlooked this band is. I'm grateful for such a great price, but it is a shame how easily records like this get lost over time.

Not So Common Man

There are times when I really don't see the point in collecting multiple copies of a record. This summer has not been one of those times. I've been listening to a lot of newer hardcore recently, where "newer" is defined as anything from the past 15 to 20 years, and that shit has been hitting me hard. It amazes me that this music can still still excite and move me so deeply. Trends seem to move at the speed of light, but I'm still here getting a charge from a 7 inch that was released in 2008, and for the most part seems to have been buried by time and dust by the rest of world.

Thought Crusade were a band out of Chicago, and they released a couple of 7 inches in 2008 and 2009. They were supposed to have an LP come out on Triple B around 2015, but things appear to have fallen apart for the band before that happened. Either way, those two 7 inches are still fantastic, and when I was recently stuck in my 2008 playlist the Common Man 7 inch was seeing spins daily. I'd been eyeballing the special Dumbface cover for a while now, and while you can pick it up off Discogs for about half of what a new 7 inch costs in 2022, the cover looks kind of dumb...so I kept putting it off.

Like I said, I've been listening to a lot of hardcore lately, and my excitement overruled my temperance enough that I bought this goofy looking cover. Number 7 out of 50.

While I was picking up the Dumbface cover for the Common Man 7 inch, I noticed the seller also had a test pressing available as well. It was listed with a Make An Offer option, so I took them up on it figuring that a Thought Crusade record wasn't seeing a lot of action in 2022, and I walked away with the record for $15. Solid deal as far as I'm concerned.

The Discogs seller for this was actually the label that originally released the record, Organized Crime Records. When the test press arrived numbered 21 out of 20, I had to send them a follow up question to get the story on this. The label confirmed that while they were supposed to get 20 test pressings, the plant actually send them 21. Covers had already been printed numbered out of 20, so they just numbered the extra record as 21 out of 20. Test pressings are cool to own regardless, but having number 21 for this one is even better.

There is also a rejected test press cover that I don't own for Common Man, but this is close enough to warrant a group photo.

Hardcore Crusade

I was on a hardcore record shopping spree, and I was coming out of this with four records for $10. The last one that I grabbed from the Discogs seller was the first 7 inch from Thought Crusade.

The Common Man record from Thought Crusade was released back in 2008...which is crazy, because it feels like it was just a few years ago that I was seeing them at the Triple B Showcase. Fuck. So much time has passed, and the memories of checking out all kinds of new hardcore bands back then makes me nostalgic to get out and catch a show.

This band is terribly overlooked, and the $2 price tag is a testament to that. Strangely enough, this copy of the Common Man record on red is the only one that has been sold on Discogs.

Triple B Weekend : Part 1 - The Show

The original plan for our roadtrip this year was to head to the A Time We'll Remember fest in Washington D.C.. Unfortunately, Paul was unable to get that weekend off in November, so we had to improvise and decide to make our destination quite a bit closer with the Triple B Showcase in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Other than the show on Saturday and Sunday, Haverhill didn't offer a lot for us to do and see in the down time, but Rob, Paul and I made the most of it and had a blast. Saw a bunch of great bands, and met up with some cool people. I was disappointed with the lack of vinyl for sale at the show, as I was planning on picking up some records from the bands that I'd recently checked out...but to my surprise a lot of bands only had t-shirts for sale.

In addition to the Showcase, this weekend was the Record Release for the America's Hardcore compilation on Triple B Records.

The record looks awesome, and the bands selected are all pretty solid. I love the cover on this thing. I was surprised to find out that the pressing that Triple B was selling was the most common one. Nothing special for the Record Release show. Blue with white splatter. 700 pressed.

Free Spirit, Foundation, Rotting Out, Thought Crusade, The Rival Mob, and Cruel Hand. Fucking solid. While I do love how the packaging on this record looks, I do think that the Triple B logo on the back is a little overkill. Ha! How much real estate does a label need to take up for their logo? Damn.

The book that is used for the insert is amazing as well, with each band getting a full size page for lyrics, etc. Triple B spared no expense in making this record as special as possible. Nice job.

In my last post, I mentioned how much I was looking forward to catching out Thought Crusades' set. I love their two 7 inch records, and I promised that I would be launching from the stage when this band played...regardless of if anyone was going to be there to catch me or not. As soon as the guitar kicked in for Tightrope, I was off. Such an amazing song. I caught up with the singer, Ryan, after their set, and he handed me the demo tape for the band Noose. Said that REACT! was putting their demo out on vinyl and suggested that I check them out. Very cool gesture. Picked up the blue vinyl copy of Common Man...limited to 100.

The line up on Saturday was amazing, and I had such a great time...Sunday on the other hand was pretty disappointing with lots of really "tough" bands and big guys throwing punches on the dance floor. Other than Bane and Cruel Hand, the only other band that really grabbed my attention was Rotting Out from Los Angeles. Incredible punk influenced hardcore...aggressive and catchy as fuck. I can't see why anyone would not like this style. 400 pressed on clear blue vinyl from 6131 Records.


I'll admit it...I got burned out on Bane. I saw them so many times in the late 90's, and as we worked our way into the mid-2000's, thier albums failed to grab me the way thier first 7 inches did. I caught them live a few times over the past year, and while I had a fun time at the those shows, I really wasn't interested in any new material. When Bane released their new 7 inch last year, I couldn't care less and I ignored it. Gearing up for the Triple B Showcase, I decided to finally download the "new" record and check it out. To my surprise, I really liked it...I mean, I REALLY liked what I heard. Therefore, I was planning on picking up the vinyl. The only pressing that they had for sale (amongst the 10 different shirt and sweatshirt designs) was the Los Angeles pressing from 6131 Records. Yellow vinyl and limited to 700 pressed. I'm not looking to collect the many different pressings, from the many different labels...for me, one will do.

*Update* So, 4 days later I was just putting the Los Angeles 7 inch into my record and CD database and noticed that the songs were different than the Boston 7 inch that I had downloaded a few weeks ago. I had no clue that there were different songs on these things. Looks like I will be buying more copies. Ha!

I'm hoping to put more miles on the roadtrip next year, but all in all, this weekend was a lot of fun.