Made To Order Targets

Last year I was introduced to Moving Targets. They were from the Boston area, and released a few albums with TAANG! in the late 80's/early 90's...yet somehow I'd never heard them. On a whim I checked out their Burning In Water album from '86, and then proceeded to play the ever-living shit out of that record. It was, by far, the most played album for me last year. I could not get enough of it.

I'm not familiar with the Boss Tunage label, but as soon as I heard they were looking to do a special pressing of early unreleased demo recordings and radio sessions from Moving Targets, I was sold. The concept for the release is cool as hell. It is a part of their Made To Order series, and it works just as it sounds. The label takes pre-orders for the record, and then they only press enough vinyl to cover that order. No other pressings will exist. It isn't available in stores or distros...the vinyl is made to order for this pre-order only. If the label can't generate at least 30 orders, the whole thing is scraped. I'm not sure how many were actually pressed, but I was pretty siked when it showed up on my doorstep.

This is a cool piece of history to own for the band, and there are a few songs that don't appear anywhere else. Pretty goddamn sweet.

Electric Flower Cult

I kind of lost interest with Give after the release of their first full length, Electric Flower Circus. I loved each of their early 7 inches, but across a full album, it couldn't hold my attention. At the time of it's release, I kind of chalked it up to the fact that all I was really in the mood for was Metal. Anything outside of that had to knock my fucking socks off to get me to pay attention. Give didn't even ripple the water at the time, and I promptly ignored them.

Hey, that album was release back in 2014, and seems like it was light years ago. After a steady diet of mid 90's Hardcore for the past six months, when Give recently posted a new video for their song Beyond The Gun, I figured it was a good time to see what the band was up to.

Turns out that the band hasn't been up to anything new, as the five songs on this new Electric Flower Cult EP are from the same session that gave us the Electric Flower Circus album and Sonic Bloom EP. I guess that while the band didn't feel they were good enough to make the cut of either of those releases, they still deserved to be pressed on wax.

Even though these songs aren't knocking me on my ass, for some reason I'm enjoying this Cult record more than the Circus one. I think I just handle Give better in smaller doses, and 5 songs is easier for me to digest than 13.

Worship At The Crossover Ministry

For a band that initially seemed like a side project for a couple of the Municipal Waste guys, I'm pleasantly surprised to see Iron Reagan still out there thrashing hard with the best of them. Five years in with three albums, a few EPs, and a total of 87 songs...I guess it is safe to say that Iron Reagan are more serious than a side project.

Iron Reagan keep doing what they do best with Crossover Ministry. Great crossover thrash, and videos like Fuck The Neighbors are fun to watch.

Relapse Records goes bold with their colored vinyl options. Bright yellow with hot pink, orange and blue splatter. Damn. That is a gross looking combo...but you know, for me, it works here. Completely over the top, just like Iron Reagan.

When ordering the record, Relapse had a "prayer candle" preorder package available. Of course I had to have it. Light it up and say a prayer for this old man, I'm hitting the mosh pit.

I've Got Mine

I've always found it incredibly difficult to part with any records that I've added to my collection. It doesn't matter if that record has sat on my shelf for 10 years, gathering dust because I really don't care for it...I've lived under the shadow of fear that years later I'll regret letting it go. So I've been a hoarder. At this point in the game though, I'm running dangerously close to running out of shelf space. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I've started selling off records that reflect some of my poor decision making of years past...stuff like needless reissues and multiple copies of records that I generally don't care that much for.

While the process was a bit painful to start, it was amazing how easy things got once some money started showing up in my paypal account from sales. With $100 in my pocket from selling a couple of Ghost records, I decided that I want to take down a heavy hitter from my want list.

I'm a huge fan of Articles Of Faith, but outside of the Bitzcore compilation from '91, I don't own a single piece of vinyl from them. With the new Dead Ending 7 inch getting daily spins, it seemed like the perfect time to look into some AOF vinyl.

I always assume that Articles Of Faith is underrated in Hardcore circles, but the going price of their early records tells me otherwise. When one popped up on discogs a few weeks ago, I knew that I had to go for it.

For a record over 30 years old, this is in great condition, and the music is still as vital today as it was when it was released in 1983.

Left Hand Pathos

Last summer I spent a lot of time immersed in 1996. I listened to those records a lot, and it would occasionally inspire me to reach out and spend some time in the neighboring years. Man, the 90's had a definite sound, and while I'd avoided revisiting that decade for a long time, it was nice to be back inside it. My record collection is pretty thin around this time, and it was exciting to go back and buy a bunch of vinyl from those years. After discovering and picking up the Man Will Surrender 12 inch, it got me thinking about other Equal Vision bands from that period, and I added some stuff to my Discogs Wantlist.

One of the records that I was looking to grab was the Pathos album from Shift. According to Discogs, the album was released on clear vinyl, but there weren't any listed for sale, and one had never been sold through the site. The last record of one selling was on eBay...and popsike showed that as the only one...ever...and that was back in 2015. They didn't seem to come around very often, but I threw it on my Wantlist, and hoped for the best.

When Discogs notified me that one was available for sale, I jumped at it, determined to get it before it disappeared.

Shift are quintessential 90's Hardcore. More Rock than Chugga Chugga, but definitely rooted in that time period. Classic.

No Cure For Fools

I started adding my collection to the discogs database, and during the process, I decided to start selling some stuff through the marketplace. My shelves are quickly running out of space, so in an effort to delay having to come up with a solution for more storage, it seemed like a good time to finally thin the herd a little bit. So, here I am, cutting my losses and letting go of some those multiple pressings that I no longer care about, and yet, I couldn't resist the call to buy another copy of Foundation's When The Smoke Clears LP. One step forward, two steps back.

I don't know what it is, but I've been obsessing about Foundation lately. I think it started when I recently revisited their Turncoat record that I'd picked up last year. I was late to the party for this one, and ended up with only the black vinyl. I started looking at discogs, just to get an idea of all the colored vinyl that I'd missed out on. Things snowballed from there...soon I was researching what other pressings from their catalog I was missing, and was listening to them daily.

I had to feed the need, and a nice cheap score from eBay for the tri-colored vinyl did the job nicely. Grabbing a record a few years down the road for cheaper than the original sale price is always a good feeling.

High Hopes

A few weeks back, social media blew up with talk about some Conne Island pressing of the Gorilla Biscuits 7 inch. I didn't know what the hell was going on, but soon everyone was posting photos of a gold vinyl pressing of the GB record, and I was clueless as to where it came from. I slowly started to put the pieces together on this special press, which turned out to be a benefit for the Conne Island club over in Germany. I'd never heard of it, but apparently it is a pretty big deal. Very cool that clubs like this still exist.

As everyone was showing off that they were one of the lucky ones to have gotten their hands on such a prized possession, I resigned myself to wallowing in a sad and friendless existence. As I sunk into self pity, trying to convince myself that I was still special, and that I was going to get by in life a-okay without this record, REV offered a glimmer of hope.

As I was scanning through Facebook, and validating my feelings through political posts of how much things were going to suck under the Trump presidency, I spotted a notice from Revelation Records that they had some copies of the Conne Island pressing available in their webstore. I didn't fuck around, and I got in, added one to my cart, and checked out...then I allowed myself to take another breath.

The packaging for this record is top notch...a great collection of photos and writing about Gorilla Biscuits' visits to the club. Limited and hand numbered out of 350. Seeing as how REV sold out in about 16 minutes, I consider myself very lucky to have a copy.

Face The Slayer Bootleg

My buddy Sandwell is a terrible influence when it comes to live bootlegs. I don't own very many of them, but I do get a kick out of the few that I have. They feel special to me...and perhaps somewhat dirty, owning something that really wasn't meant for widespread public consumption. Seems as though Sandwell has been a on a bit of a kick lately, posting some really cool live bootlegs to his Instagram account, and...well...to put is simply, the motherfucker was making me jealous.

When faced with that feeling, I did what any other self-respecting record collector would do...I went shopping.

The webstore over at Hells Headbangers has supplied the fix to the bootleg itch in the past, and when I did a quick search recently, it came through for me once again.

This set was recorded live in San Antonio, Texas during Slayer's tour for Haunting The Chapel in 1984. This show was the only one that L.A. Slayer played with the other Slayer out of San Antonio (later renamed S.A. Slayer), and was dubbed a "Slayer vs. Slayer battle of the bands". I can only assume who came out on top in that match up.

This is a soundboard quality live bootleg, and it is cool as shit to hear early songs like Face The Slayer played live...plus we get Necrophiliac played pre-Hell Awaits. Great stuff.

Violence At Midnight

I fell in love with Midnight when Sandwell introduced me to their Satanic Royalty album 5 years ago. Their blend of Venom/Motorhead inspired Metal hooked me quick, and while nothing has had the same impact that their first album did, I still rush to buy anything they release.

If anything, Midnight stay consistent. You know exactly what you are going to get with them, and Shox Of Violence continues that full on Metal assault. With songs like Who Gives A Fuck? and Groin Gripper, you know that Midnight are still as rough and nasty as ever.

Oddly enough, the CD version of this EP contains 25 tracks...the four included on this EP, plus a bunch of covers and compilation tracks. Probably not something that I'll pick up, but I'm intrigued to hear their Girlschool and Quiet Riot covers.

I love the look of the splatter vinyl with the cover images.

Department Of Youth Services

Let me just say that the new year has been extremely lucrative for my record collecting game. January started off with a big win with the Accused LP, and has just continued to rain nothing but gold in the weeks that followed that score. Record release and tour pressings, new discoveries of old bands, and a nice slab of pink vinyl have caused 2017 to come roaring out of the gate.

Seriously, the eleven remaining months in 2017 were going to struggle to keep up with how great January was...and now that we are throwing an XClaim pressing in the mix...February through December might as well pack it in and go home. There isn't any way to top this month now.

When you are just starting to get serious about record collecting, you resign yourself to the fact that there are some classic records that you are probably just never going to be able to get your hands on. Some records, no matter how great they are, just seem out of your reach.

For me that impossibility seemed to be an XClaim collection. I thought that I'd be able to pick up a few of them here and there, but the harsh reality was that some of these are serious business in the collecting game. They ain't going to come cheap.

I surprised myself by picking up Get It Away a few years ago (Holy shit, that was six years ago!), but at the time I'd figured that I'd picked up the one and only XClaim record that I could actually afford.

Collecting the Black Sabbath UK Vertigo pressings really opened my mind to the possibility of knocking off some of those big time Hardcore players. If I could get things done with Sabbath, maybe things weren't so bleak for some of those other records that I thought were out of my reach. I keep a list of my Top Ten Wants for the year in the sidebar of this blog, and last year I grew a pair, and added the DYS 'Brotherhood' album to it. I didn't really expect to make a move on it, but I wanted it there as constant reminder to keep my sights set on bigger and better things.

I don't have many notifications set with eBay, but one of them is to alert me when there is a new auction for the Brotherhood album from DYS. I've had this set for years, but I've never acted on it...in fact, most times I just delete the alert without checking the auction. This month, however, when I saw the email alert, I decided to at least look at it. Of course the auction had a high starting bid amount, so the only people that were going to be interested were bound to be serious buyers...and in the end it was just me and one other guy slugging it out for the chance at this one. I was flying high on some other recent wins, and was feeling invincible, so I went "all in", determined to finally own a copy of this classic.

When buying Xclaim records, the insert is a must. If it doesn't include one, keep walking.

About four years ago...you know, back when buying 17 copies of the same record gave me fits of excitement, I picked up the latest colored vinyl reissue that TAANG! did for the Brotherhood record. I was afraid that by buying the reissue it was going to somehow smother the flame of desire to own the original XClaim pressing, so I refused to play it...refused to blog about it...refused to officially add it to my collection. It was just a ghost. Now that I've got the original pressing, I can open Capone's vault and finally acknowledge the existence of the Brotherhood LP on red vinyl. It might pale in comparison to the original, but that vinyl sure looks good.

S.O.A. D.E.M.O.

While I was picking up the new pressing for the Red Hare 7 inch, it was recommended that I grab the new colored vinyl for the S.O.A. demo as well. Since I'm sometimes easily influenced, and have an inexplicable aversion to buying a single record when purchasing from an online store, I took the bait.

I'm generally not interested in multiple recordings of the same songs...so if a band's demo songs end up on their first album, I'm generally not going to spend much time with that demo. Over the past few years, Dischord has released a number of old demos on vinyl, and I've ignored them all. If I hadn't been in their webstore for the Red Hare record, I probably would have passed by the S.O.A. demo as well. On a whim, and because I wanted to beef up my cart, I grabbed a copy.

This S.O.A. demo is damn good. Great packaging, and killer songs. I'm glad I picked this up, and while the yellow vinyl probably looks best with the cover, now I'm kind of interested in the red and blue vinyl pressings of this. It also peaks my interest to possibly check out the string of Dischord demos that I've ignored to this point.

Gold Hare

The bad thing about social media is that you get to see the shitty politics of your friends and family, as they use it as a platform to spew their veiled racism and bullshit. Then you have the awesomeness of moments when someone posts a picture of a record that you didn't know existed because sometimes you just can't keep up with everything in the record collecting universe.

When Nico from Do Not Consider Yourself Free posted a picture to Instagram of the gold vinyl pressing of the newest Red Hare 7 inch I was like "Wait. What? Where did this come from?".

While I'm definitely cutting back on needless multiple copies of a lot of new records, Red Hare makes the cut and I didn't hesitate to order the second pressing. Come on, that second full length album can't come soon enough.

Make America Hate Again

Donald Trump was inaugurated as the President Of The United States. It is still unbelievable, and I can't wrap my head around how this happened. I've spent most of the day listening to early 80's Hardcore and trying to restrain myself from just flooding social media with a barrage of middle fingers. When the mailman delivered a new record to my door, it was the small bright spot in a dark and dismal day. When I opened the package, it couldn't have been anymore fitting.

A few days ago, I was bouncing around on Discogs, and I can't remember how I got there, but I stumbled upon the new 7 inch for Dead Ending, and quickly checked out the video for Ivanka Wants Her Orange Back. Being a huge fan of Articles Of Faith, I loved it as soon as I heard Vic Bondi snarling behind the microphone. Great, biting Hardcore Punk. Fuck Trump forever.

I swung by the Alternative Tentacles site, and it looked like there was a limited amount that were pressed on blue vinyl...and they were sold out. This problem was quickly resolved as a Discogs seller had a copy for sale. 100 pressed on blue vinyl, so I was happy to get my hands on this one.

Toxic Yellow Boombox

When I grabbed the new Angel Du$t record last year, I fully expected it to only get a few spins, and then collect dust on the shelf. I never thought that it would slowly climb my Best Of 2016 list and land in the top ten.

Seriously, this thing is catchy as fuck. For a couple of weeks, it was the first thing that I'd queue up for my drive into work. Great way to start the day.

Chris over at Unwavering Spirit ended up with a few copies of the new record with the tour cover when he caught them live recently, and instead of being douchy and flipping them to make money, he offered it to like-mined record nerds like myself. While I wasn't going to get caught up in chasing multiple pressings of this record, I couldn't turn away from the opportunity to grab this special tour cover. Unlike the Turnstile record release, this cover looks pretty damn cool.

Interestingly enough, the copy that Chris kept for himself and posted was on blue vinyl, and numbered out of 100. The copy that he sent me was a part of the second pressing on yellow, and numbered out of 200.

I Need That Super Motion

Back when I picked up the newest Turnstile 7 inch, I mentioned that one copy was enough for me. I was done pouring money into the Turnstile record collecting machine. I got in, grabbed a copy for myself, and got out. It was easy for me to say at the time, since I didn't expect to get the offer to pick up a special record release cover.

Turnstile seem to have a consistent theme of terrible looking record covers, and the one that was designed for their record release show is no exception. Man, that thing is terrible...it is so ugly, that I kind of wanted a copy.

I obviously wasn't going to be making it to Turnstile's record release show, but thankfully, Chris over at Unwavering Spirit saved the day and hooked me up.

So even though I was content with my yellow vinyl pressing, I'm kind of happy to have another color with this one on purple. Record release cover limited to 125 and hand numbered.

Days Of The Pink Owl

There are some records that a reissue just won't cut it. Anything else just feels like a pale imitation. It's got to be the real deal.

Eric Ozenne's previous bands, Unit Pride and Redemption '87, were solid gold, and he didn't disappoint with The Nerve Agents. In the early 2000's, The Nerve Agents were one of my favorites...hell, they are probably my favorite Eric O band ever. Since I was late to the record collecting game, I missed out on the original pressing for their albums on REV.

I grabbed the Record Store Day pressing that REV did for Days Of The White Owl back in 2013 because it was convenient. I knew that the original pressing on pink was the way to go, but the reissue was just too easy, so I grabbed it. It was just a place holder to get the vinyl on the shelf.

At the end of 2016, my self control slipped a little, and I found myself unable to stop from clicking "Add To Cart" on Discogs with no regard for anything or anyone. "Okay, I need to calm down on my record spending...oh shit, it would be great to own this one...hey, there is a US seller that has one available...fuck, I've bought another one.". No regrets on buying this pink vinyl copy of Days Of The White Owl though, because that shit looks great.

Good look with the pink and white. 338 pressed on pink, and 774 pressed on white. Now I'm just missing the blue vinyl. If REV promises not to follow up with five more pressings, I might have to get that one as well.

Souls Of Gold

As I was wrapping up 2016, I was putting some thought to my Top 10 list, and was spinning all the new releases from the past year. As I was working my way through all those new albums, I found myself really enjoying the latest Bouncing Souls record, Simplicity.

Listening to that new album got me thinking about how thin my Bouncing Souls record collection was. Well, not that I'm really looking to collect them, per say, but I'd still like to have their full album discography on my record shelves.

Band is so much fun to listen to, so I jumped over to their Discogs page to have a look at all their records, and just have a casual glace at what was available in the marketplace. Five minutes later, my lack of self control struck again, and I'd bought a copy of their self titled album from '97.

I was tempted to buy the original first pressing which was only on black vinyl, but when I saw how great the gold vinyl pressing looked, I couldn't resist. Second pressing from 2014, and limited to 500.

Never Surrender

I always kind of lumped Man Will Surrender in with those "too cool for Hardcore" Doghouse rock bands. I ignored them back in the mid-90's, as I had no interest in that weak ass style. Well, as time goes on, sometimes you find your stance relax a little, and you open your eyes up to those bands that you fought against back when you were young and more closed minded.

When I was neck deep into my 1996 obsession, I saw that Man Will Surrender had released an EP on Equal Vision that year. I was feeling adventurous, so I loaded up to the songs to check them out. They kind of blew in and out...initially not leaving much of an impression. Still, I stuck with it, giving the songs an occasional spin here and there. I found that with repeated listens, I started to enjoy it more an more, and before too long, I knew that I was going to need the vinyl.

There was a copy on blue vinyl available through Discogs for a while, and I had my eye on it. A copy had never sold on Discogs, so I figured that I might be able to wait it out, and see if a cheaper copy would come along there or on eBay. My resolve lasted about a month before I broke down. I just wanted the record, damn it, and with my need for instant gratification, I could only be expected to wait so long. Price be damned, I was buying it.

This Year's Savior

When I was a kid, one of the first distros that I would order from regularly was the Toxic Shock/Westworld mailorder. Through some awesome cosmic power of the universe, one of the Toxic Shock catalogs ended up in our hands. As a couple of kids stuck in Maine, it felt like we didn't have many options when it came to buying music...if it wasn't at the mall, we were out of luck. This catalog was like a gift from a punk god. We would pour over each catalog that we received, reading the entry and description for each album, and using a highlighter to mark the ones that sounded interesting. Man, I wish that I still had some of those old catalogs.

A lot of those bands on Toxic Shock Records just seemed odd. Since I absolutely loved the record from Th' Inbred, I was always interested to check out other releases on the Toxic Shock roster...but they seemed so strange, that I never took the chance on them. Almost 30 years later, and with big thanks to the internet, I'm finally checking out some of those records that I never quite had the stones to gamble my hard earned money on back in the late 80's.

I can't remember what caused the name Jesus Chrysler to pop into my head recently, but soon I was hunting down youtube videos, interested to finally hear them after all these years. I found a few and as soon as I heard Kick It Down, I was sold. It had a quirky catchy punk rock sound that hooked me instantly. I couldn't stop singing the chorus, so I figured that it was a good sign to just grab the whole album.

Such a great, fun record out of '88.

Subcore Splatterhead

Five years ago, Sandwell posted about a vinyl reissue that he picked up for the Return Of Martha Splatterhead LP. I'd owned the Combat cassette for this as a kid, but to be honest, with the tape buried in the back of my closet for the past 20+ years, I'd completely forgotten all about the band. Seeing Sandwell's post was the spark. I quickly downloaded the album, and then proceeded to obsess about it for the next year and a half.

This album blew me way...it was raw, frantic, and packed with a ton of attitude...and I loved it ten times more now than when I first heard it in the late 80's. I couldn't believe how much I liked it, and I knew I needed to get my hands on a vinyl copy.

Return Of Martha Splatterhead has seen a number of different pressings over the years, and three different versions of cover art. While Sandwell's reissue looked pretty cool, I convinced myself that only an original Subcore Records pressing would satisfy me...partly because until I'd started researching the history of this record, I'd never seen the artwork used for the first pressing. The original art just seemed to fit the album the best...and while I like the artwork used on the Combat Records reissue, it just seems too slick for the rough and crude sound contained within.

As fate would have it, here we are, five years to the day of seeing Sandwell's post, and I've finally added a Subcore pressing to the collection.