A Record Of Substance

Got my Betrayed pre-order for the new album, Substance, from Rivalry Records. It is limited to 328 on blue and 622 on white vinyl. There is also a pressing on pink for the record release show at the Sound & Fury fest in California. I'll need to get my hands on that one, and a friend has already promised to send me one.

I'll have to admit that I'm not a big fan of the record cover. The black and white picture of the band doesn't really do much for me...neither does the new font for the band's name. And while the songs are a little too polished, this is still a great album. Aram knows how to really write great, positive lyrics, and the band continues to create great songs. Amazing new songs like Think Twice, Substance, The City Lights, and Nothing Breaks Us Apart, plus some classics re-recorded. A total of 13 tracks of incredible hardcore.

No Life 'Til Leather

Yeah baby, here is Motorhead's No Remorse double album compilation with the faux leather cover. As far as I know this is the only record made that is packaged within a leather cover. The entire packaging is amazing. The trademark Motorhead logo is stamped on the front cover with a metallic silver, while the back cover has the song titles stamped in the same fashion. The record sleeves are a nice thick paperboard displaying the song lyrics, including a quote from Lemmy on how each song came to be, plus lots of photos of the band, and then a great historical overview. Very well done. I saw it on eBay and took a chance, winning it for only $10. Turns out it was the Earmark Records 2004 vinyl re-issue, which sells for $35 retail. As much as I was hoping that it was the original 1984 Bronze Records pressing, I'm quite happy to pick up this copy for the price that I did. I have seen in some places online that this was limited to 1,000.

Seventh Son With Promo Stamp

Here is the Iron Maiden 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son' LP. I picked it up for $8.00 on eBay. The cool thing about this particular record is that it has a gold promo stamp in the upper corner. The downside is that the vinyl is a mess. It has so much static and dust on it that it is pretty much unplayable. It will probably be fine if it gets a good cleaning, and at some point I'll need to invest in some solution to get it done right.

I love this album. I saw Iron Maiden on this tour, and it was really their last great record for me. Granted I like the Maiden albums that came out after this, but they haven't topped Seventh Son since it came out. This album was released in 1988 and shortly after, I started listening to more thrash and death metal before finding punk and hardcore. This led me to shelving the band for a good 15 years, before falling in love with them all over again and starting to collect their vinyl releases.

eBay Bonus

Since the guy that sent me the Blue Monday Rivalry Showcase pressing was a month late in sending it, he sent along the My Revenge / F.P.O. split 7 inch on pink vinyl as a bonus. I'm not sure if it was an auction of his that didn't sell or what, but finding an extra record in the mail is always cool. I have the first My Revenge record and I really dig it, so I was excited to check out some more stuff from the band. First spin through for both bands didn't leave much of an impression on me. My Revenge seemed to be missing that hook that I liked from the first record. Like the album, this record is very raw, but it may take a few spins to really appreciate it. The other side of the 7 inch is F.P.O. (Forever Positively Obsessed). They are a Straight Edge band from Europe, and play really fast old school hardcore. Pretty good and raw, like My Revenge, but I'll need to listen to it a few times to form an opinion.

Blue Monday at Rivalry Showcase 2006

I received another copy of Blue Monday's Rewritten album last week. This one has the cover made for the Rivalry Showcase 2006. I can only assume that the Showcase was an amazing show with Champion, Betrayed, Verse, The First Step, plus many others on the bill. The record itself is the picture disk that the band had pressed for their 2005 European tour. I'm not sure how well they sold, since Bridge Nine still has them available in their webstore. It's funny, because when I mentioned to Rob that they used the picture disk for the Rivalry Showcase, he laughed and said, "Well they had to get people to buy those records somehow.". The record with the Rivalry Showcase cover is limited to only 50, and mine is hand numbered 42. Since it is so limited, I'm happy to have picked it up on eBay for $20.50. The guy that I won it from has sold me a number of In My Eyes records in the past, so I was comfortable that it would arrive, even though it took him a month to send it out. With this copy, I now have five flavors of Rewritten, with only the Sink With Cali cover missing from my collection.

3 Colors of Motorhead

Here is the Motorhead 'England' box set released on Earmark records. I have had my eye on this box set at various times over the past year. Saw it at Bull Moose Music a year ago and I wanted it, but I continually passed on it to buy something else. After a few months, I finally entered the store committed to buying it only to find that it had been sold. When I went to Bull Moose last week to pick up the new Betrayed and Outbreak CD's, I glanced through the vinyl section and there it was. Since I had kind of started collecting Motorhead vinyl, I didn't hesitate to buy it. Three classic Motorhead records, each one a different color. Overkill is on green, Bomber is on blue, and Ace of Spades is on red. It is strange because the back of the box states that Ace of Spades is on gold vinyl. I'm not sure if that is an error or if the record was really pressed on gold for an earlier pressing.

More Maiden

More Iron Maiden records for the collection. This time around we have 7 inches for Stranger in a Strange Land and Run to the Hills. The labels on these two records are different...one has a silver label and the other one has the rings and picture of Eddie standing under a street light. I'm not sure what difference between the two are, but I have two versions of the Flight of Icarus 7 inch...one of them has the silver label. I believe that is for US pressings, but I'm not sure. Picked these two records up on eBay when I won the Motorhead 7 inch on pink. They had zero bids when the auction was ending so I threw a bid on to win them at $9.99 each.

Think Fast Pre-orders

I got my Think Fast Records pre-orders the other day. First to arrive was the new Sick of it All record, Death to Tyrants. I already had the CD release, but I kind of have a half-ass collection of their albums on colored vinyl, so I picked it up. The yellow colored vinyl with the red splatter seems a little out of place for a Sick of it All record, but the new songs are still great. People love to hate on this band. Sure their stuff isn't as good as that first album, but they still put out quality hardcore music with sincerity and passion. They were one of the bands that got me into hardcore music with Blood, Sweat, and No Tears, and I have seen these guys live countless times, starting back when Paul and I would travel to Boston to see them at The Channel in the early 90's. I remember it was around the time that they released their single for We Stand Alone, and at some point the stage was just flooded with people...I looked up and Paul was standing their with the mic in his hand as the band broke into World Full of Hate. Saw them again in Boston a couple of years ago...it may have been Good Riddance opening up for them...anyway, there was a barrier between the crowd and the stage and it completely killed the energy in the room as most people just stood there for S.O.I.A.'s set. I was right up front screaming along...every word to every song. I remember Pete coming down on to the floor after the set, shaking my hand and thanking me for coming. I don't tend to 'hero worship', but it was a very cool moment for me.

The other Think Fast record that came in the mail was Outbreak's new album, 'Failure'. For this one the colored vinyl fits the band...green wax with clear spots. I was surprised that Bridge Nine wasn't putting out the vinyl for this one, since they are releasing the CD, but I guess that the singer for the band has some role in Think Fast, so he wanted to do the vinyl on his label. The album has really surprised me. I liked the older Outbreak stuff, but this thing is just amazing. Incredibly tight songs. I'm really impressed. I think my favorite song right now is Losing Streak. The tempo and the gang vocals on that are amazing.

Each of these was limited to 300 on colored vinyl.

The New Bright Shiny Object

I really try to focus on completing the collections that I am currently working on, but sometimes I get distracted by a band that is currently commanding a lot of my attention. The current flavor of the month is Motorhead. They are such a classic. I'm not sure what brought on this current obsession, but I have been working my way through their CD's that I have in my collection. Admittedly, most of them are burned CD's from stuff that I have downloaded over the years. I was thinking that I would like to buy the original vinyl copies to truly own their releases, and did a search on eBay to see what was out there. I stumbled across their Motorhead/City Kids 7 inch on white vinyl. The record was released in 1977 and was in mint condition. The record was released before the band had even dropped their first album. I was thinking about how much history was wrapped up in this record, and since it was in such great condition, I figured that I'd throw a bid on it and see if I could pick it up at a reasonable price. I was surprised that I won it at only $15.00. I looked for some more information on this record online and found out that it is also available in pink, black, blue, and orange vinyl. My goal had been set...I needed a copy of each of these. Another search of eBay uncovered an auction for the pink pressing. Bids were made and I picked it up for $22.50. It was more than I wanted to spend, but I was committed to winning this record and getting my Motorhead collection underway.

This So-Called "Shit" Is What I Live For

Can you tell that I love Have Heart? Here is another entry with more records added to my collection. I've always liked the band, but something about seeing them live for the first time...seeing the emotion, energy, and honesty that they bring to their music, it just elevated them so much. After seeing them that time, I knew that I needed to start collecting their records. The new album is going to be released on August 8th (Happy Birthday to me), with the record release show in Massachusetts on August 27th. The day before, I'll be getting home from a weeks vacation on Sebago Lake with the family, but you couldn't keep me away from this show since it looks like The First Step and Betrayed will be playing as well.

I got this group of records from a couple of different sellers on eBay. The 'What Counts' on yellow is limited to 400, and the Demo 7 inch on pink is limited to 100. Got both of them for $18.50. The Demo 7 inch with the Summer Tour 2005 cover is limited to 150, and I got it for $4.99. This one was one of those rare eBay steals that you hope for.

Have Heart

'Lionheart'

This so-called "shit" is what I live for

It's why I'm alive

I'll never smother the fire, forever burning inside

I'm at the point where I'm sucked in by the message, I get this passion

This fury is mine, it keeps me alive

I can't breathe till I release what's inside

Fourth of July in Paris

I was originally going to travel to Massachusetts on the Fifth for Have Heart, but since the show in Maine was closer and I didn't have anything planned for the Fourth, I decided to hit the show in South Paris instead. It was a last minute decision, so I didn't bother checking to see if Rob or Paul wanted to go, plus I assumed that they probably already had plans. The flier said the show started at 5:00, but the first band didn't start until around 6:30 or 7:00, so I took a walk around town to kill some time. The first band never said their name, so I don't know who they were, but I wasn't into them at all. Then The Doldrums went on, and I wasn't feeling them either. Great, the show starts late and the first two bands suck...I guess I didn't have to rush out of the house for this one. The Doldrums break a guitar string in the first song...Christ, we have to wait while they get a new guitar. Second song, they break another string...now we have to wait while they string the guitar. I'm hoping they just call it a night and pack it up, but that didn't happen. Wake Up Call goes on next, and I was really excited to see them play. I love their One Eye Open 7 inch, and this was the first time I'd seen them play. Too bad the sound sucked so bad that I could hardly hear the vocals. Oh well, I'd love to see them again. News is out that Sinking Ships had their van breakdown in New York and weren't going to make it. Too bad, I was looking forward to checking them out. Down to Nothing played next, and came out X'd up...played a great set. I had no idea that they were a straight edge band. I had been listening to their 'Save It For The Birds' CD all week, and I was impressed with their set. Have Heart played last, and had to cut their set short. Not nearly as intense as when Rob and I saw them play in Massachusetts with The First Step, but I had a good time singing along.

After buying some merch after the Wake Up Call set, I was surprised to see Sweet Pete was at the show. I spent the rest of the night talking to him between bands. I had a great time talking to him and meeting another kid, Klint, that I had seen at shows for years. Pete and I talked music and basketball. Great time hanging out with him, and it really made the show worth the trip.

Other than the Down to Nothing and Wake Up Call CD's, I also picked up 7 inches from Wake Up Call and Have Heart. I had seen the Wake Up Call demo 7 inch for sale at Newbury's for $6 and was glad to pick it up on blue for $2 at the show. I was also happy to see the orange with blue splatter pressing of the Have Heart 'What Counts' 7 inch. I had tried to order this from MerchNow but they sent me the black vinyl instead, and I had seen this color go for around $10 on eBay. Glad I waited on both of those records and picked them up at a better price and could help the bands on tour.

Panic over the new Bridge Nine sampler

Two new records from Bridge Nine...the Bridge Nine 2006 sampler and Panic 'Strength in Solitude', which is thier two B9 7 inches pressed onto one LP. I'm not sure what the point is in pressing the four song sampler on vinyl. One song each from the upcoming albums of Have Heart, Triple Threat, Outbreak, and Think I Care. With the exception of Think I Care, all the songs were amazing and I'm really looking forward to each bands summer release. This 7 inch was limited to 500 on purple and 1,000 on orange. The Panic albums were limited to 300 splatter and 700 swirl pressings.

Learn to Have Heart

Received the Learn pre-order from Bottled Up Records. Picked up the Have Heart demo 7 inch on teal vinyl when I ordered it. Two great bands from this label. I picked up Posi Numbers pressings of this Have Heart record and the first Learn 7 inch when Rob and I were at the show last summer. That trip was so much fun, although we missed Bandit. On the ride home we came up with the idea that we should have taken pictures of a can of wasabi peas in various places along the way. Picture of the peas in a roadside bathroom...picture of the peas on the corner of the Posi Numbers stage...picture of the peas with all of our new records on the hotel bed. The wasabi peas are Bandit's signature snack and the pictures would have been a funny tribute to him. Too bad we came up with the idea too late. We had made the trip to Pennsylvania with Paul the year before for the Knife or Death Fest with Youth of Today, but last year he missed it since he had used all his vacation time when the new baby was born. This year the three of us are planning a trip to Toronto in September. The "Boys Club" road trip is becoming an annual event for us, and this year we will be traveling for a Red Sox game. While we are in Toronto, I will definitely need to hit some record stores for a vinyl fix.

Guns Up!

Guns Up! have been around for a while now, but I had never heard them. 1917 Records put up pre-orders for their new LP 'Outlive', so I figured that it was a good time to check them out. Outlive captures some pretty good hardcore. Guns Up! have a familiar sound, but I can't put my finger on who it is...maybe early Terror, I'm not sure. In any case, I like it. Pre-orders received the white with blue splatter colored vinyl, limited to 304 pressed. The colored vinyl coordinates with the album cover and looks very nice. My record arrived a little warped, but it didn't affect the sound when I listened to it.

Boston vs Connecticut

I hang my head in shame over the state of my Ten Yard Fight collection. Ten Yard Fight were one of my favorite bands from the mid-90's. They were from Boston and I would drive to see them play in New England numerous times. I knew LaCroix from his days singing for Circus Puppies. Why have I been so uncommitted to completing this collection? I don't really know why, but I have continuously passed by TYF records on eBay since starting my record collection over a year ago.

Here is the clear vinyl pressing of the Ten Yard Fight vs. Fastbreak seven inch. I'm not sure how many of this color were pressed. Picked it up on eBay for $6.05. The price was so good that I couldn't pass it up.

The Alice Cooper Drama Show

Why is it that each time I win Alice Cooper records on eBay, I run into some kind of problem. As I noted a few posts ago, the Love It To Death album that I got had some nasty water damage that I wasn't expecting. This time around, my eBay experience ends with drama. So I saw an Alice Cooper record lot up for auction, and won with a low bid of $9.99...Billion Dollar Babies, Killer, and The Alice Cooper Show. The albums looked like they were in fantastic shape, which can be difficult to find for albums from the early 70's, and they included all the original inserts. Early Alice records had the best packaging...Billion Dollar Babies had the billion dollar bill insert, and Killer had the 1972 fold-out calendar.

A few weeks went by, and I haven't received my records. I'm getting nervous, so I send a message to the seller to check on the shipment. A few days go by with no response, so I shot off another message to the seller. Again, no response. A week goes by and my package finally arrives. The records are in great shape, and the Killer album has a white promo label, which is a bonus, but I notice that the guy didn't send the records out until three days after my last message. Two messages that went with no reply, and about a month before delivery. Unnecessary, so I leave neutral feedback stating that the records were in great shape but the service sucked. That was enough to finally get the guy to respond.

Enjoy the records, thanks for the neutral. This is not Walmart, I work out of state and am gone at least 3 weeks out of a month. Thanks for your "understanding"

I will have to really think of appropriate feedback (I seriously doubt I will be leaving a positive or neutral) for you since you decided to make me look like a poor seller in spite of our overall good reputation without contacting me first...

eBay states that you are to contact your seller prior to leaving feedback if there is a problem, if you had bothered, you would have known we have a newborn also and my girlfriend is disabled so you try watching a baby and running to the post office in a wheelchair while the head of the house is busting his ass in another state to make it all work

Good day Sir

oldetoycollector (the slow shipper)

Give me a friggin break. I didn't give negative feedback, it was neutral. The feedback that I left was to let other buyers know that the guy sells quality items, just sends stuff slower than shit. Don't come at me with stories about newborns and disabled girlfriend that you send to the post office while you are out of town. Take some responsibility for not being a great seller sometimes, and don't be a douche about it.

Japanese Pressing

My first Japanese pressing. I've wanted one since I started collecting Iron Maiden vinyl. Something about Japanese pressings with that OBI strip that seems so collectible. I had actually been holding out for a Japanese pressing of Killers, but I saw this copy of 'Live!!! + One' on eBay and placed a winning bid of $19.32. The seller was from the States, which made it more enticing since that meant I wasn't paying for shipping from Japan. I received the record and the quality of this thing is amazing. It was released 26 years ago in 1980, and yet it is still in mint condition.

First Step, Second Press

Here we have the second pressing of The First Step on blue/black swirl vinyl, limited to 215. The color mix on this record looks exactly like the Go It Alone/Blue Monday split 7 inch that Rivalry Records put out. One of the best record labels around right now.

The picture below is from the First Step set in Providence when they played at the Insted reunion show. Yeah, that's me on top of the crowd. Paul and I drove down to see the show at the Living Room. The club had moved and we had some problems trying to find it...turned out it was just down the street from their old location. The two of us used to always drive to the Living Room when they were in the old building. One of my first punk/hardcore shows was at the Living Room to see DRI. We saw a lot of great hardcore and metal bands there. I remember driving down to see Overkill, and rains had flooded the club so the show was cancelled, but Bobby "Blitz" was hanging out in the parking lot and we got his autograph. That was a big deal at the time! Great memories from seeing Murphy's Law play there with Low Meato, and catching the Circle Jerks "final" tour, getting thrown out for stage diving during Gang Green...damn, those were fun times...three hour drives home popping No-Doz and drinking Jolt Cola to stay awake. Anyway, Paul and I found the new location and hung out for a while in the parking lot. Sweet Pete showed up and we hung out for a while talking to him and Karl from Earth Crisis. Good time just chillin'. The show was amazing, seeing Mental, Desperate Measures, The First Step, and finally Insted. Great time.

Wish You Were Here

Champion were amazing. They were my favorite straight edge band from the past few years...possibly my favorite band since In My Eyes broke up. Something about them was special to me. In a way they kind of got me hooked on collecting vinyl. I remember seeing Champion in Worcester for their East Coast tour when Promises Kept was released on vinyl. I bought the record at the show...blue vinyl with hand stamped labels. It had been a long time since I had bought vinyl at a show, and the feeling of getting that record was that I had something special...a piece of hardcore history. Soon after that show, Bridge Nine sent out the pre-orders and my Champion collection had begun.

Champion had their last show on May 27th, 2006. As much as I wished that I could be there, flying out to Seattle for it was not going to happen. For the show they had 400 copies of Promises Kept pressed on yellow vinyl. Thankfully, Bridge Nine held a few copies of the record and put them up for sale the week after the show. I ordered a copy for myself and one for Rob. Because of the flurry of activity that the webstore experienced as people rushed to get their order in, I got an error when I tried to check out. I tried to submit the order again and it said it was a duplicate order. I got the confirmation email from B9 so I thought that everything was okay, but as the days passed I got more nervous that my order didn't go through. I sent the mailorder guys an email, and sure enough, they hadn't received my order. A huge thanks to Matt and Jena at Bridge Nine for finding the last couple of copies and getting the order filled.

Alone in a crowd, but we're still standing strong

With X'd up fists and sing alongs

Times like these are what we live for

These days are more than we'd ever hoped for

We're still here, and we'll never forget the words we fuckin' said

Time flies by, and the promises made will stay with us through our lives

We're not finished yet, that's right

They tried to break the best of us

But still our hearts are true to promises kept

6/6/6

Okay, we are going to break a few rules with this post. This post is about an old record that I have in the collection, and this blog is supposed to be strictly about new additions to my collection. However, seeing that today is 6/6/06, I'm feeling compelled to do a Slayer entry, and break a few rules. I was also going to include the new single that Slayer released today for Cult, but for some reason I can't seem to upload anymore images, so fuck it.

Here we have the very first Slayer album that I bought, Hell Awaits. I remember buying this off of Jason Violette in High School. He had a few albums that he no longer wanted, if I remember correctly he didn't want to own it because of the satanic imagery. He was looking to unload this Slayer album, Impaler 'Rise of the Mutants', and I think Pile Driver 'Metal Inquisition'. I had never listened to these bands before, but I was starting to get interested in Speed Metal so I took the chance...plus I think he sold them to me for a few bucks a piece. I got home and Paul and I put on Hell Awaits. We get through the creepy intro to the song Hell Awaits and then the song kicks into high gear. Wow...that is the fastest shit we have ever heard. We can't help but laugh at how ridiculous it sounds. We finish off the album, joking about how over the top it is, and I head out to take care of my paper route. While I'm delivering newspapers, I can't get the song 'Kill Again' out of my head. So incredibly fast, yet the melody on that chorus was so catchy it was going over and over in my head. I get back to the house and have to listen to it again and again, falling in love with the speed and aggression (not to mention the shock value of the lyrics and satanic imagery). This is the turning point of having Metallica and Slayer take over as my favorite bands, pushing aside Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.