You're Fired

Triple B Records has a bunch of good stuff coming down the pike. New records from Stick Together, Thought Crusade, and Disengage are on the way, and as far as I'm concerned they can't get here soon enough. When the label posted that they recently got hit with some surprise fees from the pressing plant, and had to sell some BBB rarities to cover some costs, I was happy to check it out and see what they had available. When I saw they had a bunch of early pressings of the Fire & Ice stuff, I knew that I couldn't walk away. Sure, the pricing was a little too high for what they were asking, but I've been on a roll with the FNI vinyl so I went and pulled the trigger on a couple records anyway.

The first thing that I grabbed was the Sound & Fury two-pack, which has both the Gods & Devils and Grim records packaged in a special sleeve for the Sound & Fury fest in 2010. I had not seen this package prior to Triple B selling them for some extra cash, and goddamn, I'm impressed.

This thing looks amazing. The fire and ice motif is tight...from the ice blue front cover to the fire and Sound & Fury logo on the back cover. Triple B even threw in a Vinyl Noize sticker to help promote a great blog.

Wrapped in a nice heavy cardstock sleeve with the original 7 inch art work on the inside, even the colored vinyl ties into the fire and ice theme.

The other Fire & Ice record that I picked up from Triple B was the more limited pressing of the Gods & Devils 7 inch. Metallic silver out of 100.

On Tour

I empathize. I probably can't even begin to comprehend the hard work and headaches it takes to keep a hardcore label going...let alone an independent label like REACT! that releases quality record after quality record. Aram has sold off large quantities of his personal record collection to keep the label moving forward. That is some serious commitment right there...something that you just can't fuck with.

Once again, the man had to resort to selling off some of his collection, along with some rare REACT! gems from the vault. While some items may be considered a "cash grab" *cough* REACT Showcase box set out of six *cough*, if people are willing to part with their cash for some manufactured rare items, who am I to throw stones? As long as it keeps REACT! afloat, you go for it Aram.

Myself, I kept things a little light this time around. While I did throw some bids on other records that I wanted, I only walked away with the Euro tour press for the ON Double Vision LP. Visually, it isn't too appealing with the plain white sleeve with a sticker in the upper corner... and it probably doesn't help that I photographed it with a white background. Still, when the covers for this LP weren't back from the printer in time for ON's European tour, they put this "Emergency Edition" together so the band would have something to sell while on the road.

Number 124 our of 130 pressed.

Gotta Stick Together

Back in February, there was some general confusion in regards to the Stick Together pre-orders. from Back To Back Records. Like most people that ordered all three colors with the pre-order, I received two copies of white vinyl, and one on black. The label had shipped most of the orders and then noticed an unopened box of orange vinyl. At the time, it was assumed that orange was the more limited color with only 100 pressed. When it was announced that the white vinyl was actually the limited color, and the pressing info was 100 on white, 300 on orange, and 600 on black...suddenly the label fuck up didn't seem so bad for those that received two copies of white. It did however leave me in the position of having to hit up ebay for that elusive orange vinyl.

After watching a few auctions for the orange vinyl come and go, and I was able to gauge how much they were going for, I finally decided to pounce. Solid record. Just one of the bands keeping Straight Edge Hardcore fresh in 2011.

It feels good to finally have this collection complete. Next mission is to get the Disengage 7 inch from Back To Back on blue.

Not Afraid

In 2010 True Colors played their last show. In 2011, Packo and Hinkey joined up with Stief from Justice and came roaring back playing a similar style with Not Afraid.

With Powered Records down for the count, it only makes sense that Not Afraid's debut 7 inch, Be Yourself, is released on Control Records. Not a whole lot going on with the packaging...black and white...very stripped down style...just the way I like my hardcore.

Number 72 of 100 on green vinyl.

400 on black vinyl.

Gods & Devils Prerelease

From the last post to this one, we go from the Iron Boots last show press to the prerelease for the first Fire & Ice record. The dudes in this band did not sit back and take a break! From the last Iron Boots show in 2008, the singer and drummer joined up with the guitarist from Down To Nothing and produced the first Fire & Ice 7 inch, Gods & Devils, in 2009.

The latest copy to be added to my collection is labeled Prerelease on the front cover. I don't see this listed in the pressing info on the Triple B page, so I'm not sure if it is what is listed as the Fall 2009 tour press that is limited to 100. I'm stumped. I'll have to track down this piece of info.

Either way this is a solid looking record. While I don't typically buy into the whole red white and blue, stars and stripes motif, this looks tight.

Iron Last Show Boots

Why do you never bid on ebay with an even dollar amount? So when you try to snipe an auction that I'm bidding on at the last second, you don't find yourself short by two cents. Seriously, won this Iron Boots record by $0.02. It worked out for me this time, but damn, what a shitty way to lose out on a record.

I intended to get this post up yesterday, but time was not on my side. It would have been perfect, since I just noticed that it was the three year anniversary of the band's last show.

Solid looking last show cover with artwork by Spoiler. I just wish that it was printed on a thicker paper, as opposed to some quick looking photocopy job.

Number 100 out of 150 pressed.

Foundation - When The Smoke Clears

Prior to the release of the new Foundation LP, Bridge Nine gave everyone a teaser with this three song 7 inch. These things don't excite me too much, and I didn't bother ordering one until the LP was up for pre-order.

The thing that interested me most with this 7 inch single was the exclusive b-side track, which is a Path of Resistance cover of Counter. To be honest, if I recall correctly, the last time I listened to Path, I was pretty underwhelmed, as they didn't really hold up over time. This cover from Foundation, makes me question that, and I want to dig the album out again.

Foundation have always been one of those bands that don't really grab me with the first listen. Every time that I write about them here, I always say the same thing..."good stuff, but it took a few spins for it to grow on me". The new album, When The Smoke Clears, is no exception. The first few listens, I didn't think it was too exciting, but sitting down with the vinyl last night, I opened up the lyric sheet and immersed myself in the album. Once it sinks in, it is pretty powerful stuff.

I'm also really liking the album cover and layout for this. Nicely done. 300 pressed on orange with black splatter vinyl.

Gatefold cover with plenty of pictures of the band up to shenanigans.

Remission Euro Press

A record so good, the Europeans needed a pressing for themselves.

Remission's 2009 debut LP, Accept, was recently repressed by Assault Records. The label did a great job with this pressing. Dark purple vinyl and a new design for the cover. While the cover doesn't look as nice as the original that was pressed on Amendment Records, I'll still give them props for using something different for the Euro press. My only complaint on this whole thing is the logo for Assault. A pair of crossed guns, looking like some kind of vegan warrior record label from the early 90's...lame.

As soon as Assault Records announced they were repressing this, Amendment mentioned that they would stock a few in their store. This would save me from overseas shipping so I played the waiting game, and grabbed a copy as soon as they were available.

363 pressed on clear purple mixed with black.

The vinyl for this looks great, but my original pictures didn't really capture the color that well. I had to photograph the record back lit from my bedroom window for the full effect.

Prior to Remission, Philippe and Daniel played in a band called Remains To Be Seen. To be honest, if it wasn't for this connection, I probably would have never bothered to go back and check them out. Boy, I'm glad that I did. Sure you can make comparisons to Remission, but the songs on this record have a strong influence from bands like Insted and No For An Answer. So good.

This is the second pressing for this record. 125 on red vinyl.

FNI at UB

I've been known to ebb and flow with my obsessions. I'll be hot to collect one band for a while, and something else will catch my attention and I'll move on. Someday, I'll get back to that band, but for that moment, my eye is on another prize. The hot band on my virtual Want List lately has been Fire & Ice, and I've got plenty of FNI vinyl to post over the next few weeks.

Fire & Ice had a couple different pressings of their Gods & Devils 7 inch for United Blood in 2010. One of the pressings came wrapped with the special Agnostic Front Live At CBGB rip off cover. Man, this looks so good.

The AF cover is limited to 50.

In 2011, Fire & Ice made another trip back to United Blood. This time around, they were selling their Collections LP with a special cover. Kind of disappointing when compared to the Gods & Devils pressing from the year before. This year the vinyl was packaged with a simple DJ sleeve, with a sticker in the corner. Not very exciting, but I'm thinking it would look nice next to the test pressing for this LP, which has a similar look and feel. Tempting.

Thankfully, I didn't need to search ebay for the UB 2011 pressing. Triple B was gracious enough to throw some in their webstore after the fest.

Hell Bent For A Killing Machine

This was originally planned to be another post for Dio vinyl. Today is the one year anniversary of Dio's passing, and this would have been my 5th post featuring Ronnie James in a little over a month. It was, however, not to be.

I had recently picked up the new Back On Black pressing of the first Rainbow album, but to my surprise it wasn't on the expected purple colored vinyl. Instead, I opened it to find that it was on black vinyl. Disappointing. Since I already own the colored vinyl repressings of Rising and Long Live Rock N Roll, I really wanted the purple vinyl pressing. Instead of keeping the black vinyl, I did something that I rarely do...I made a trade. Jeff had an album that I was interested in, and he was looking to unload it. Done deal...and since Rob Halford replaced Dio's spot on the mic with Black Sabbath for two shows in 1992, I can somehow make this post relevant to RJD in someway.

For years now, I've wanted a vinyl copy of Judas Priest's 1979 classic LP, Hell Bent For Leather. But I didn't just want any copy. No, I wanted a copy of the record with the original name of the album, Killing Machine. Sure it didn't have the amazing US bonus track of the Fleetwood Mac cover, The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown), but for this album, I really wanted an original pressing. I wanted a copy as the band had originally intended it to be released...before the US record labels insisted the name be changed.

As a bonus, the copy that Jeff was trading was a Japanese pressing, and we all know that I get a hard on over OBI strips.

6th Press and 2nd Press

Is nine copies of one record too much? Considering that I've set the bar at eleven with Champion's Promises Kept, I'd say that nine copies isn't that ridiculous. If you do think the numbers are obnoxious, you have no business hanging with this blog.

With the 6th pressing of Have Heart's The Things We Carry, I'm now up to nine copies of this modern day classic.

I believe I said it with the 5th pressing of this LP, but the vinyl on this is looking amazing. 1,000 pressed on clear vinyl.

To go along with the 6th press of The Things We Carry, Bridge Nine also released the 2nd pressing of the live 10.17.09. I've got mixed feelings on this LP. While I think it captures the energy and passion of Have Heart in a live environment, I think that some of the between song banter was cut in order to make it all fit on one album. If that is the case, I'd rather Bridge Nine stretch this out to a double LP and include everything.

1,000 on yellow vinyl.

The guy in the No For An Answer t-shirt, suck in Pat Flynn's armpit...yeah, that's me.

Radio Moscow

After watching Black Snake Moan, especially after watching Samuel L. Jackson sing the amazing song Stack-O-Lee, I was in the mood for some modern blues-rock in the vein of The Black Keys. The only thing was, I wanted something new. I hit up last.fm and checked the Black Keys page to find similar artists, and pulled the name Radio Moscow from the list. Downloaded the first album and was pretty impressed.

Produced by Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys, and released back in 2007, the first self-titled album just oozes with that blues-rock sound. Parts of this are very reminiscent of Cream.

Great 60's psych inspired cover art. Limited to 500 on orange vinyl.

The 2009 follow up album, Brain Cycles, kind of loses some of the heat that was contained on the first album. The album is still good, but it is a bit more controlled, with a bit more polish.

500 pressed on clear pink colored vinyl.

Yeah, we get it, you worship the late 60's and smoke dope. How clever.

Winds Of Promise On Clear

REACT! Records tends to press a run of colored vinyl, limited to 100, for each of their releases. This press is given to the band for them to use for a record release show, or to sell on tour, or use as a friends press...pretty much for them to use as they see fit.

Remission decided to sell their copies to anyone one that wanted one. If you were interested, all you needed to do was fire off an email to the band to get the pricing, and then send the payment. Right now they have them up in their bigcartel store, so go grab one while you can.

Man, I love this record. Three songs in the vein of One Step Ahead/Verbal Assault...straight ahead, early 90's melodic Hardcore. It is ridiculous how good this record is, and will be earning a spot at the top of my Top 10 list for 2011.

100 pressed on clear vinyl.

REACT! Reissues

Fact 1: I order a lot of records.

Fact 2: I forget and lose track of what I've ordered.

To keep track of it all, I keep a Post-It next to my computer, with a running list of my outstanding orders and what I'm waiting to arrive. A couple weeks ago, my waiting list from REACT! dropped from three to two orders when I received my latest package from the label. Aram constantly has something going on with his label, and I'm always rushing to be first in line with every pre-order that he posts. Hmmm...I'm wondering if he will get the Get The Most/Noose/Clearsight orders out before the Skin Like Iron pre-orders go up.

Back in December REACT! posted that pre-orders were up for the reissues for the latest Mindset and Praise records. 500 of each, and this is the final press for each of these EPs.

200 on tan and 300 on black. Second press has the white with black labels.

I wanted to see the difference between the first and second press labels, so I took out all my Praise records for a picture. Yes, I am missing a first press on black vinyl. Someday, I'll fix that.

Initially, REACT! posted that the color vinyl for the second press was going to be mint green. I'm glad that in the end, they went with baby blue instead. 200 on blue and 300 on black vinyl.

For the second press, REACT! went with a different b-side label.

What the hell, since I took a picture of my Praise records, I figured that I'd snap one of my Mindset collection as well. I had a hard time setting this one up. I had an uneven number of 7 inch records which made it difficult to balance the layout for the picture. I obviously need to pick up another Mindset record at some point.