True Colors North American Tour

I don't get out for shows very often these days, but some how I ended up with one a week for a three week period. Last week, Rob and I caught the spoken word gig from Henry Rollins, this week was True Colors, and next week will be the Killfest with Overkill. Paul and I made the trip to Haverhill, Massachusetts a couple days ago for True Colors. I missed them the last time they toured North America, and there was no way that I was going to miss them this time through.

The whole night was a blast, and I enjoyed every band that played. Caught In A Crowd started the show with a nice youth crew sound. I'm not sure what it was, maybe it was just my exceptionally good mood, but there was something about watching these kids tear through their set on the small stage at Anchors Up...it just reminded me how special hardcore is to me. Here was a new band of kids, playing a style of music that I fell in love with about 20 years ago. There was nothing pretentious about it...just some friends playing music that they love and having a good time doing it. They had demo tapes for sale, but I'm fighting the tape revival tooth and nail, so I didn't buy one. Next up was Street Sweeper. They had a great Lockin' Out vibe going on, and it made sense that Justin DeTore and Doug Cho from Rival Mob helped the band record their Stylin' On You demo. I was really looking forward to Alert. I've been listing to their demo 7 inch a lot since the Mindset show a few months ago, and couldn't wait to get up front and sing along. They played a great set, and it was cool to catch up with Keith and Puffer during the night.

The crowd was pretty small for a Thursday night, but I still hung around at the front of the stage with a few guys for the True Colors set. When they started everything off with a Straight Ahead cover, I lost it and found that I would have moshed over puppies to get up to the mic to sing along. The singer had tremendous energy and was all over the stage for the entire set. The Rival Mob ended the night. This was my third time seeing them, and they just get better each time around. The singer know how to work a crowd, and if I had known their songs better, I would have piled on to the crowd that gathered for the chorus of Mob Rules All and Raw Life. Intense. I need to pull out the vinyl I have for their album and give it another spin.

I made sure that I was first in line at the True Colors merch table, and as soon as I saw the True Colors Straight Edge North American Tour shirt, I knew that I had to have it. There is something about a tour shirt with dates and cities on the back that is special to me.

The band also had a tour pressing of Focus On The Light with them. This was the same white vinyl, blank label pressing that Six Feet Under used for the special release of the album at the end of 2009. This one comes with a special screened cover. This now gives me 5 different pressings for this album. All of them are from Six Feet Under, and I don't own a single copy of the Powered pressing.


The back of the album cover is plain white with the exception of the hand numbering down in the lower corner. True Colors had a sign up that said they only had 40 left, and I got number 59 of the 94 pressed.

Government Execution

Back in 2007, a fellow blogger, Tyler, introduced me to Government Warning. Tyler was a good kid, and while I was struggling to keep up with what was new in the punk/hardcore scene, he helped keep me in touch. He made the conscious decision to step away from the internet over a year ago, and he let his blog die. Government Warning, however, are still cranking out records. Their newest 7 inch continues down that same road of attitude filled punk. Only three songs on this one, and one of them is a Battalion of Saints cover. Punk rock, don't stop.

Gaining Control

I recently dropped a ton of money on pre-orders from REACT! Records. The label had 3 records go up at the same time, and since I needed 3 different colors of each one, it quickly added up to a big chunk of change. That was it, I told myself, I'm done spending money for the month. Then Jim Hesketh, the singer for Champion and ON, posted a link on the REACT! board for some stuff that he was selling on eBay. Fuck. How am I supposed to just walk away from that? I don't know, there is just something special about buying a record from someone in the band...but maybe I'm just a geek fanboy like that. Jim was selling some crucial records, and since the ON test press was going to be out of my league, I focused on the record release of the band's second 7 inch.

The record release comes with a nice alternate cover and was pressed on red vinyl.

The back of the cover is hand numbered out of 100, and has the date of the record release show. The date looks strange to me. I'm not sure why they didn't just put March 3, 2009, instead of making it March 3RD. Just doesn't look right. The record also came with a mini flyer for the show, which was a great touch.

Finally, the record release date was included on the lyric sheet insert. Quality release all around.

Cry Wolf

I'm not terribly excited about this post. In case you don't know, Wolf Whistle features Pat Flynn, of Have Heart fame, on vocals. If you want a Have Heart knock off, you will want to look somewhere else. Wolf Whistle is ugly...nothing uplifting here...just pure rage in the same vein as The Swarm or maybe Mind Eraser. I may be off base on the Mind Eraser comparison, but I'll use it because, like Wolf Whistle, they don't leave a lasting impression on me. It's not that I don't like it, it's just no longer a style of hardcore that I easily embrace. I'll continue to give it a spin...my buddy, Rob, really likes them and I will be going to see them play with True Colors in a couple of weeks, so I'll keep kicking it around and see if it grows on me. This copy is from the second press on Triple-B Records and limited to 200.

Supporting The Scene

At the start of 2010, Aram decided to sell off some records to help clear out some debts from running REACT!. The guy was selling so many great records, and I was feeling pretty broke after the Christmas holiday, so I tried to limit my spending. He had one Have Heart pressing of the demo on Bottled Up that I didn't grab, and I have regretted not buying it when I had the chance. Who knows when I'll see it come around again.

I had missed the opportunity to grab the Time Flies 7 inch with the Misfits rip off cover a few weeks back on eBay. When I saw that Aram was selling his copy, I didn't hesitate to pick it up. I love the Walk Among Us cover, and Time Flies did a great job with it.


Malfunction Fiend Club. Number 68 of 138. Time Flies is one of those bands that I've been thinking about collecting for a long time now. This record looked so good, that I'd figured that it was time to get it started.


The other one that I bought from Aram was the record release pressing of the Perspective 7 inch from True Colors. I had never seen a copy of this and had no idea what it would look like, but I really like True Colors and therefore I needed this for the collection.

The record release pressing comes with a cool looking comic strip style cover, hand numbered 44 out of 200, plus a promo shot of the band.

A Thought Crusade

If you are into hardcore at all, then I don't understand how you couldn't be more stoked on the current scene. There are so many great bands that are out there right now. I've got a burned CD that includes Alert, Face Reality, Not Sorry, and the latest in my long list of loves, Thought Crusade. Seriously, the four seven inches released by these bands over the past year get constant rotation in my vehicle and daily playlists. Throw in the incredible REACT! Records roster, and hardcore is running at the top of it's game right now.

I'd never heard Thought Crusade before, but last month Stephen from The First Step posted on the REACT! messageboard that he was looking for mp3s of their new 7 inch. Someone posted a link, so I figured that I'd check them out. Damn, I was immediately impressed. Their song, The Tightrope, has got a hook that doesn't let go, and makes me want to sing along and stagedive. After listening to the mp3s of the It's Our War 7 inch, I headed over to the Triple B Records site and ordered a copy on green vinyl (limited to 400). A couple of weeks later, I was able to pick up the pre-order pressing on clear vinyl (limited to 100) from eBay for only $3.00.

Right Idea Vinyl Demo

A couple months ago, Right Idea put up vinyl copies of their demo in their webstore. Since this was released on Refuse Records overseas, I was glad for the opportunity to pick it up without having to pay for the extra shipping. This was originally listed in the RI store as black vinyl, but a couple of days later Jeff Hess sent me an email saying that there was some confusion and they only had it available on white vinyl. He didn't even think that it was pressed on black. I have no idea what the pressing info on this is, but I'm glad to see this get pressed on vinyl, since there was very little chance that I was going to buy the cassette release.

Killing Time

I'm not sure how I found the time to put up double digit posts for the month of February. Seriously, I'm feeling totally tapped for spare time, and I'm finding it harder to keep this thing updated. I spent some time earlier this week travelling to New Jersey for business. Now that I've got that out of the way, hopefully I can get back on track with the blog. Speaking of Jersey, let's move this along to the new Overkill album.

In less than one month, Rob and I are taking a trip to the Paladium in Worcester to catch Killfest 2010...an eleven band metal fest, headlined with Overkill touring for their new album, Ironbound. Man, this new album is so good that I would put it right up next to their classic late 80's output. If it seemed like Metallica's Death Magnetic should have followed And Justice For All, Ironbound feels like it fits in as a hell of a follow up to The Years of Decay. The best part of this release is that Overkill has finally decided to give the album a proper vinyl release, and didn't do another friggin picture disk.

The Line Is Drawn

Since we are talking about bands that I missed the first time around, I might as well post about the Carry On record that I received recently. I'm not sure when they released The Line Is Drawn...1999/2000????....but I do know for sure that I was not buying any vinyl at the time. I was strictly buying only CDs, and therefore I missed out on a lot of great hardcore 7 inches from this time period. I didn't check out Carry On until around 2001 when Youngblood released the It's All Our Blood CD. I didn't start buying vinyl again until I saw Internal Affairs in 2003. My brother Paul and I had driven to Boston to check out Stand & Fight, and IA was opening the show along with Blacklisted. Internal Affairs impressed me so much, plus they did a Judge cover, so I figured that I'd check out their merch table after the show. They didn't have any CDs, so I bit the bullet and picked up their 7 inch. Although I turned out that I never really liked that record all that much, it was the official turning point for me to start getting back into buying vinyl. It wasn't until Champion released Promises Kept in 2004 that I really dove headfirst into collecting vinyl.

It's Risky Business

Once again, I'm late to the party. Where the hell was I during this time frame in Hardcore? First, I missed out on Iron Boots, and now I'm sitting here scratching my head on why it took me 6 years to finally check out Risky Business. This shit is so much fun...straight up Lockin' Out style. When they sing "turn that fuckin' frown upside down" on Loosen Up, man, I can't help but smile. Just a good time.

Look, I really like this band, but I don't know if they were really popular enough to warrant 250 copies of a tour press. Seems like a lot to me. Did they sell all 250 on tour?!? Well hell, they did tour Canada, the US, and Europe, and I apparently had no idea what was going on in Hardcore for 2004/2005, so what do I know?

Record Conventions Can Suck It

Man, there was a time when a trip to a record convention was cause for excitement. When my friends and I started going, back in the mid-80's, the conventions were huge, and there were all kinds of cool treasures to find. That time was worlds away, and the record convention no longer holds that same thrill level. For the most part, the shows nowadays are the equivalent of thumbing through so much flea market garbage...the majority of it is either beat to shit, over priced, or some 80's one hit wonder. Still, when Jeff and I drove to Massachusetts the other weekend, I somehow managed to walk out of there with around $40 of vinyl, and an overwhelming need to sanitize my hands.

Grim Reaper : Fear No Evil - This is a true classic from 1985 and a great follow up to their debut, See You In Hell. Man, the cover art with the Grim Reaper busting through some stained glass on a motorcycle...fuck yeah! Metal ruled in the 80's.

Dio : Sacred Heart and Hungry For Heaven - For the last 10 years or so, I didn't hesitate to kind of crap on the Sacred Heart LP, and dismiss it as a low point in the Dio catalog due to the prominent use of keyboards. I recently gave it another listen and was surprised at how wrong my memory had become. This record is amazing! I also grabbed the Hungry For Heaven 12 inch single as well.

Black Sabbath : Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - I love the cover art on this album. Very cool. I only owned a clear vinyl pressing of this through the Earmark label (which has a reputation of sounding like shit), and figured that for $7, I'd add an original Warner Brothers pressing to the collection.

Malice : Licence To Kill - An underrated Metal classic from 1987. Strong Judas Priest influence in this band, and this album just...ummm...kills.

Accept : Breaker - I base most of my Metal time line off of Iron Maiden, and to think that Accept released this album when Maiden's Killers LP was hitting the shelves...I'm left feeling a little impressed. Shit, this album is almost 30 years old and it still packs a hell of a metal punch.

Angel : Helluva Band - An odd find for me. I've been digging into 70's hard rock, and came across this band in one of Martin Popoff's books from the Ye Olde Metal series. Their Helluva Band LP is one of their heaviest.

I hate album covers with the promo saw cut. I flat out refuse to buy anything off of eBay that has this cut in the cover. However, since the vinyl for the Malice and the Dio record looked like it had never been played, and the price was so low, I compromised and picked them up anyway.

I know that I've mentioned it on this blog before, but I'll say it again...I love the look of the Vertigo labels with the UFO's.

Right Brigade

Right Brigade were a kind of hardcore super group from Boston around 1999. Jesse Standhard from Follow Through was on vocals, Clevo from Ten Yard Fight was on bass, and over on guitar was Pat from Fastbreak. You would think that this record was destined for greatness, but by the time their album was released on Revelation, the band was falling apart at the seams. I seem to recall some messageboard chatter at the time about how Jesse left the finishing touches of the album up to the band, and that Pat(?) fucked it all up with the noisy extras he added. I believe that Jesse was so disgusted with the album that he was telling everyone to not buy it. But man, this first 7 inch showed so much promise.

When I received the Straight Ahead record from Brian Murphy, he threw this one in as a free bonus and since I only owned this one on CD, the vinyl was a welcome addition to the collection.

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.

Straight Boots

You know how much I know about the pressing for the Straight Ahead record? Nothing really. I know that it was released as a 12 inch on I Risk Records back in 1987, and that it has probably been bootlegged a half a dozen times, but that's about it. I was checking out Brian Murphy's recent eBay listings and I spotted a Straight Ahead bootleg, or "fan pressing" as he referred to it. I figured that I didn't own ANY pressings of this record, so I figured that I'd throw a low offer on it and see what happened. To my surprise, I won. More to my surprise, there were songs on this record that I had never heard before! I thought that I had downloaded all the Straight Ahead songs at one point, yet three of the songs on this record were new to me.

This 7 inch pressing is on orange vinyl, and comes with a nicely designed and quality sleeve. Brian's auction mentioned that he has also seen this pressed on purple vinyl.

A couple of days later, I came across another 7 inch boot for Straight Ahead. I figured that if I could pick it up a decent price, it would be kind of cool to see how the two of them compared. I not only won it, but it ended with the exact same price as the orange copy.

This pressing was on black vinyl, and the sleeve was not as well put together. Seriously, this one looked like the cut and paste bootleg sleeve that you would expect. This pressing also included the songs that Straight Ahead had released on the End The Warzone compilation on Side B. Interestingly enough, I bought the End The Warzone comp on a 7 inch boot back in the early 90's...before I was seriously collecting records, and before I really had any idea what a bootleg was. Yeah, bootlegs probably aren't all that impressive, but I'm happy to finally have a version (or two!) of this record in my collection.

Boiling Over On Green

Back when I ordered the Not Sorry records from Lifeline, I also picked up the second pressing of the Boiling Over 7 inch on green colored vinyl. Damn, this record is fucking harsh! Crushing, angry and bitter hardcore, and to top it all off, they are Straight Edge. Very cool.

The three colors of vinyl for this record look great together.

This Is Thirteen

Since this is my thirteenth post for 2010, I figured that it would be an appropriate time to post my latest purchase of Anvil's newest LP, This Is Thirteen. Originally self released in 2007, VH1 Classic Records re-released this last year, giving it the vinyl treatment.

I haven't followed Anvil's career very closely. The last album of theirs that I purchased was their live Past And Present CD, back in 1989. The band was getting a lot of press through 2009 for their documentary, Anvil! The Story Of Anvil, and I figured that I'd check in and see what they've been up to. The documentary was amazing. A truly fascinating story about a band on the verge of stardom, yet failing to make it to the next level, and then spiraling downward through Metal's dark days of the 90's. Yet somehow, the band perseveres, remaining true to their Metal roots and continuing to release albums every few years. The film follows the band through their lives that appear ready to fall apart at any moment, and through their dismal dead end jobs. The only thing holding them together is their music. At one point, Anvil gets an offer from a promoter to do a European tour that proves to be another disaster in the bands career...from playing some hole in the wall bar in Prague where the owner refuses to pay the band since they were late, to a soul crushing experience of playing the Monsters of Transylvania festival where only 174 people show up to the 10,000 seat arena. Still, at the end of it all, the singer/guitar player, Lips, says "at least there was a tour for things to go wrong on". Positive Mental Attitude. The dude just does not give up. At the end of the film, the band records This Is Thirteen with Chris Tsangarides, who helped produce some of their biggest albums from the 80's, like Metal On Metal. The album itself is fantastic...a great slab of Metal. I've got to say that This Is Thirteen is on par with the bands 80's classics. So amazing that a band that has been around for as long as Anvil have, can still deliver. The story of Anvil is truly an amazing one.

No Apologies

Not Sorry recently joined the REACT! crew, so if you've never heard them, that should give you a pretty good indication that we are talking about a quality edge band here.

Lifeline Records, who also have a history of solid hardcore releases, recently put up the band's first 7 inch, Moving On, for pre-order. 100 copies on white vinyl with a yellow insert.

500 copies on clear red with a white insert. Yeah, I think the singer looks like Dan O'Mahoney on the insert.

Say It

Goddamn, Said and Done are at it again. Seems like I just picked up the Endless Roads 7 inch, and here they are dropping a 3 song EP at the end of 2009. Pim posted on the REACT! board when the pre-orders went up for the latest EP, Feel It. As soon as I saw it, I ordered one. The whole order process was a little strange, as I didn't have to pay until after Pim had shipped the record. Quite a trustworthy guy. The 7 inch itself, is amazing. While past Said and Done recordings have a strong Best Wishes-era Cro-Mags sound to them, these three songs seem to have added a bit of a more punkier vibe to them. Excellent, well played hardcore that doesn't stick to a formula. Seriously, more people should be losing their shit over this band. The preorder pressing for this record came with a special linol print cover and was limited to 50. I wish that overseas shipping didn't sting like a kick to the crotch, because I really want to order the other pressings for this record.

The Book, The Record

Early in 2009, Refuse Records posted that their project for The Past The Present was available for order. The package, which included the new Birds Of A Feather LP plus a book on 25 years of history on the European Straight Edge, certainly caught my attention. Shortly after I got into hardcore around 1990, I started ordering all kinds of records from Ebullition mailorder and reading reviews in Kent McClard's No Answers zine. This was my introduction to Straight Edge bands from Europe and soon I was buying records from Seein' Red, Manliftingbanner, Betray, Blindfold and Nations On Fire. A book documenting this time period, sounded like a great read for me.

Of course, ordering the package for The Past The Present was pretty expensive, due to the overseas shipping. I was pretty disappointed, and had to let it pass me by and not order. Soon after they were available, I had an email from my friend Onno in The Netherlands. Apparently he had bought a copy, but since he doesn't collect vinyl, he offered to send it along to me when he was done reading the book. Quite a few months passed, before I received another message from Onno, letting me know that he was sending it my way.

I'm not a real big fan of Mainstrike. I like them well enough, but other than that first 7 inch, I never really lost my shit over them. Still, I was excited to check out Bigma's new band, Birds Of A Feather. I've got to say, BOAF are so much better than Mainstrike. I picked up their Chapter 5 EP a few months ago, and along with The Past The Present, I'm really impressed. The LP comes on some funky brown colored vinyl with hand stamped labels. Mine is number 41 out of 100.

The book for The Past The Present, while a nice attempt, was pretty disappointing.

I don't know, it seems like the book was lacking in a lot of details that I was hoping for. Sure their was a lot of history on 'Larm and Seein' Red, which appeared to be well documented, but some other big bands, like Nations On Fire and Blindfold, hardly saw their name in print. In the end, it seemed like the book was purely based on the authors perspective and experiences, with very little research into those bands that fell to the outside of their travels. To call the book A History of 25 Years of European Straight Edge seems a bit of a stretch. Overall, I just wasn't feeling it. If you were there, however, the book might have meant more to you.

My other major complain on the book was the format. It is nearly as big as a 12 inch record, and fucks up my bookshelf because it sticks out so far.

The other album that Onno sent me was for a band called Oil. He has been pushing for me to listen to them for years now. Sending me their Definition Delta album, paints me into a corner and forces me to finally check them out. I had seen their name dropped a few times in The Past The Present book, and apparently they played a lot with bands like Deadstoolpigeon and Seein' Red. Still, other than Onno's recommendation, I had never even heard this bands name before. After finally giving this a spin, I've got to say, this is actually quite good. I can't really place my finger on who they remind me of...maybe a big of latter-day Refused, or a bit of Movielife...or possibly a heavier rocking Lifetime. The band just does a great job with the Punk Rock sound...just enough rock, without overshadowing the punk. Cool stuff, even though this album cover is a bit hard on the eyes.

Thanks Onno!

Police And Thieves On Blue Times Two

I rarely stay focused on building my record collection for one specific band. I'm continually sidetracked and distracted by other vinyl. I've tried to stay focused for both Fastbreak and Rain on the Parade, but ended my active pursuit after one record. Hell, I can't even seem to focus on getting my Have Heart collection finished. Because of this lack of focus, I'm surprised that I stuck with my plan to add some more Police and Thieves vinyl to the collection. After receiving the record release pressing from Marcus back in November, I made a half hearted promise to work on this collection. It didn't take me long to fulfill that promise with this recent eBay win. Hell, for $6.00, how could I resist?


This one is the blue vinyl press with the Youngblood Showcase stamp on the dust sleeve. Number 121 out of 150. Now I just need to get my hands on the green vinyl.


The funny thing is that after I won this off eBay, I ordered some records from Sean Youngblood. When he was shipping them out, he asked me if I wanted a free Police and Thieves record on colored vinyl. Not sure what he was sending, I told him that I would gladly take a copy. A few days later, the Showcase pressing that I had won on eBay arrives in my mailbox, followed shortly after with the same pressing from Sean. Ha! Now I've got two copies.