20 Years True

As I was preparing for the 20th anniversary for this blog, and looking at releases from 2006 that I could celebrate with, there was one more record that I wanted to pick up in addition to the Sinking Ships album. So consider this part 2 of yesterdays post.

True Colors were another band that released a record in 2006 when I was starting up this blog, but I didn't end up hearing about them for another year or so when they released the Focus On The Light album. Man, I loved this band over those early blog years, and collected a decent amount of TC vinyl, but somehow never managed to pick up a single version of that first 7 inch from 2006. It seems a bit difficult to find True Colors vinyl available these days, so I was very happy to find this version of the 7 inch available from a US seller for my 20th anniversary.

I never really spent much time with this record, but I've been listening to these 7 inch songs a lot this year. It gives me exactly what I want right now as I'm in this mindset for those often overlooked mid 2000's years of hardcore.

This preorder camo sleeve is rad, and I'm so happy to score one. Number 91 of 100 made.

True Colors X'd Up

A few years ago, I was all over collecting True Colors vinyl. At the time, my maximum spending price on a record was a bit more reserved than it is now, and therefore, my collection never really got very far. You know how it is though...time marches forward, and new bands take over the focus of your attention, and soon I stopped chasing True Colors vinyl. With the latest pressing of Focus On The Light from Six Feet Under, it has me thinking about how great this band is, and maybe it's time to see what eBay has to offer.

For the second pressing, Six Feet Under mixed things up a little, and went with the red lettering on the front cover. Looks great! For the vinyl, we get a couple pieces of clear vinyl...with one of them getting a nice solid white X across it.

Damn, this album has aged well...still a great listen.

True Colors In Moscow

There was a time when I was hot to build my True Colors collection. Man, I loved that band, and they had so many variations and special tour covers that it was a collector's wet dream. Their final EP, Consider It Done, was Straight Edge perfection, but when they broke up in 2010, I started listening to other newer bands, and kind of forgot about True Colors.

Recently, Control Records announced that they were repressing the final EP on 12 inch vinyl. Even though it had been a while since I'd thought about collecting TC records, I couldn't resist a new pressing, and stepped up to be one of the first in line when they were made available.

Packaged in a black DJ sleeve with a simple sticker up in the corner.

Listening to this EP now, I'm reminded why I loved this band so much. Flawless.

50 were pressed with a red insert for mailorder, while another 50 had the orange insert from their recent reunion show in Moscow. A total of only 100 pressed.

Geert from Control also threw in a free copy of the Inherit 7 inch the label released last year. I wasn't very impressed with what I'd heard from the band when it was released, and my opinion hasn't changed. Metallic Hardcore...probably good for what it is, but what it is, isn't my thing.

Got 'Em

Back in 2005, True Colors recorded their demo. 5 years later and I'm hearing these songs for the first time, thanks to I Drink Milk Records. I can't believe that it took me this long to finally listen to these songs, but to be honest, I had no idea that they existed. I didn't really hear about True Colors until about a year after they had released their Focus On The Light LP on Six Feet Under Records. So yeah, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that I don't know much about the early recordings of this band. No surprises from this demo, just great straight ahead youth crew hardcore.

Just like the Control Records pre-order for Consider It Done, I found out about this one too late and missed the most limited pressing with the special cover. 104 were pressed on blue vinyl with plain white labels. The pressing info on this indicates that one of these has a fucked up I Drink Milk Records stamp on the B-side label. I'm not sure if it was intended for all the records to get the stamp, and then the label ditched the idea because it wasn't working. I hope that's the case, because these white labels really take away from the look of the vinyl.

394 were pressed on black vinyl with regular labels.

True Control

With all the problems that Powered Records had with the ON record, and shipping stuff in a timely manner, the label's reputation was seriously called into question. Well, it seems like Geert jumped the sinking ship and started his own label, Control Records. I had no idea, until I stumbled upon a post on the REACT! messageboard announcing pre-orders for the final True Colors 7 inch, Consider It Done. The problem was that I stumbled upon it too late, and by the time I saw it, the pre-order vinyl was sold out. I HATE it when I'm not in the loop and I miss out on a pre-order.

Thank you eBay. A couple of weeks later, I saw that Geert was selling a bunch of stuff on eBay to help fund his label. Tons of awesome True Colors pressings, but they were going at prices that I couldn't commit to at the time. The one record that I was able to win was the limited press that I had missed out on for the pre-orders.

Control Records didn't do the gatefold 7 inch sleeve like Six Feet Under did with the US pressing. Instead they went for the fold out lyric sheet. Still cool, but it doesn't touch the SFU packaging. Limited to 100 on white vinyl, with a hand numbered dust sleeve. Geert also threw in a ticket for True Colors final show that happened a couple of months prior. Very cool.

When I won the white vinyl press from Geert, I sent him an email and we worked it out so that I could get a copy of the black vinyl version as well. This one is limited to 300 copies.

True Colors Is Dead

True Colors are no more. For their last show, Six Feet Under records packaged up 75 copies of the Bonus 7 inch that came with the preorders for Consider It Done. Dave from SFU never made it over for the last show, so he put them up in the webstore instead.

Kind of a cool record, compiling True Colors songs from various compilations and demo recordings. Wish they had come up with a better name for the record other than "Bonus 7 inch" though. Number 58 out of 75.

While I was shopping in the Six Feet Under webstore, I figured that I'd check out Citizens Patrol. I downloaded the songs on both their Dead Children and Sick Routine records, but other than a casual listen once or twice over the past two years, I never really invested much time into them. Picking up the Dead Children EP, forced me to really sit down and give it a listen. Holy shit, this is so good. Fast and aggressive hardcore punk from Holland with a definite influence from the early 80's. I love this shit.

Finale

It is a shame to see great bands call it quits, but I'd rather see them go out on top, instead of hanging around for too long. True Colors went out on top. Three 7 inches, and two LP's is a solid output for any hardcore band, but True Colors sounded fresh and vital on every release...never getting stale.

Just like the Floorpunch discography, Six Feet Under did a great job on the packaging for the final True Colors record. Nice looking layout, and this may be the first time that I've seen a gatefold sleeve for a 7 inch record. Unlike the Floorpunch discography, Six Feet Under didn't give us shitty looking vinyl for the True Colors record. Nice and basic solid colors that go well with the record cover. 1,019 pressed on white vinyl.

Inside the gatefold sleeve is a nice shot of various True Colors record sleeves, fliers and t-shirts. Cruel reminder of just how many special pressings I'm missing of their records. 608 pressed on black vinyl.

The record comes with a nice, big foldout insert with lyrics on one side and a nice live shot on the other. 300 pressed on clear vinyl.


Of course the best looking vinyl is the olive green pressing that goes nice with the green on the record cover. This was the most limited color with only 104 pressed. Plus it came with a bonus 7 inch which collects the band's compilation tracks and a few other rarities.


The bonus 7 inch was only available in the Consider It Done pre-order package. 200 were pressed of the bonus 7 inch, but only 100 were included with the Consider It Done package.

No Rush

This post has taken forever for me to get up. To start things off, Six Feet Under Records fucked up my order. I was pretty disappointed to open my package for the True Colors pre-orders and find that I was missing both the yellow and red copies of their new Rush Of Hope LP. I emailed Dave at Six Feet Under and let him know that I was missing a part of my order...a week later, he responded that he was going to be out of the office until after Christmas, and he would correct the error when he got back. By the end of January, they were finally being shipped with a second order that I had placed. Hey, I'm not the kind of guy to stress on record labels when things take longer than expected. I'm the trusting type with plenty of patience, so the wait didn't bother me. Dave made good on the order, so we're cool.

I was happy when Six Feet Under announced that they were going to be doing a U.S. pressing of the Rush Of Hope LP from True Colors. As standard variation between the original Powered pressing and the one from Six Feet Under, we get a new color on the album sleeve for the US pressing.

100 were pressed on red, black and yellow tri-colored vinyl.

221 were pressed on clear yellow vinyl.

600 were pressed on clear red vinyl.

When pre-orders went up, Six Feet Under was also selling a True Colors package of both albums with silk screened covers. Kind of a cool idea, plus it was an opportunity to add to my True Colors collection, so I was down with it. 78 copies of white vinyl were pressed for the special silk screened covers. White labels were stamped with a T one one side, and a C on the other.

79 copies of the yellow vinyl for Rush Of Hope were used for the silk screened covers.