Solid Record, Solid Bro’s

MINDSET “Leave No Doubt”

I recently acquired this white vinyl copy of Leave No Doubt on MINDSETS most recent west coast weekend. I had the pleasure of accompanying them for the weekend tour.  Great guys, and they wrote one hell of a straightedge hardcore record.  Its actually kinda hard to come up with much more than what i just wrote, if you like hardcore i don’t see how you cannot like this its got everything you want in all the right places, fast parts to breakdowns to sing a-longs and more.  After my initial fist few listen throughs I thought yeah this is pretty good.  After rocking it for a week or so it grew on me more and more, this is an excellent record.   Although I only took a photo of the front cover and vinyl the whole release delivers on every level.  Its got rad photo’s all over it, a nice big fold out insert, the little extra like the sticker was a nice touch and the vinyl is super thick which I got to say i love.  Basically go buy this and rock out to all the songs but especially War, thats my current favorite.

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End of 2012 Round Up

Well its 2013.  I figured I’d start 2013 with a little “best of” 2012 list.  Some of my biggest highlights I have already made posts for this year, so I am picking some things that slipped through the cracks (or have been sitting in a “to post” file but I’m to lazy to do it)  I figured I’d pick five 12 inches and five 7 inches. Anyway I hope 2013 brings on that missing piece of the collection for us all.

First up 12 inches in no particular order.

THE WRONG SIDE “Of The Grave”

This happens to be my favorite Lockin’ Out releases.  I snagged this one on mint vinyl for a pretty good price.  The whole record is great from start to finish but “When the Ink Leaves Your Fist” has got to be one of the best straight edge songs written in recent memory.

YOUTH OF TODAY “Break Down The Walls”

Since all the recent Revelation Records represses of this it was nice to finally get an original Wishingwell press, even if it is just a regular black copy.

BOSTON STRANGLER “primitive”

Probably the best album of 2012 it is that good, it was also really hard to come by once it was out.  People we’re clamoring all over the internet to get there hands on a copy paying upwards of fifty bucks on Ebay.  I was lucky enough to grab a copy from Armageddon labels online shop.

CARRY ON “A Life Less Plagued”

Easily one of my all time favorite records.  I cant believe I hadn’t actually made a post about it prior to this.  I was so pumped to finally get a copy on orange.

INSTED “Bonds Of Friendship”

This guy would have garnered its own post but I’m getting to lazy so its getting lumped in.  I actually just acquired this 2 days after Christmas at an unbelievably low price, so I was super excited.  This actually completes my INSTED collection (minus test’s, though I do have a BOF test) I have been waiting years to get this last bit for my collection and now that I got it, I really don’t know what to obsess over anymore.  I’ll have to set my sights on a new goal for 2013.

Now for the 7 inches

 

SICK OF IT ALL “s/t”

My buddy who was living in texas managed to make it to a small store on RSD out where he was living.  He called and was looking for some stuff that they didn’t have out there and  we managed to buy each other some things we couldn’t find in our own areas.  Later that day he called and said they had this sitting in the store as well and if I was interested, needless to say I was and we worked out a deal.  I was pretty psyched when the package arrived.

 

MOB MENTALITY

I though this was pretty killer 7 inch.  It took forever to arrive but when it did I was pretty amped on it.  I also really like the cut and past lay out.  Good shit.

 

CLEAR “demo”

This is kind of  a double post since I just featured the tape, but whatever I like this record a lot.  Really good straight edge hardcore doesn’t sound like any of the members older bands though.

 

CARRY ON “Roll With The Punches”

A big want for me, I finally got it thanks to a buddy who sold it real cheap to me.  Great dude. Great record.

WIDE AWAKE “Sammy Cover”

Love it when things work out like this.  I had a coverless WIDE AWAKE 7 inch and just figured eventually I will need to buy the entire record to end up with a complete copy.  Well fortune smiled upon me and someone was selling just the cover.  I ended up bidding like 20 bucks but think I only paid 10 for it shipping and all.  once it arrived I immediately put it on the naked record, thats also when I noticed the difference between my two versions.  My complete version had white labels and the one with the missing cover had red labels I was gonna be bummed if the sammy cover was a white label version.  A quick visit to Seeking The Simple’s vinyl page revealed that I was in luck.  The “Sammy Cover” did in fact match the version I had with no cover.  Good stuff.

Well there ya have it, some cool stuff i acquired in 2012, heres to hoping 2013 gets me a CHUNG KING 🙂

Cassettez

CLEAR – Demo

THE RIVAL MOB -Mob Justice

So I’m not even gonna try and keep the pretense that these are “recent” pick ups anymore.  I got a ton of pictures of records and such to put on this blog, that in actuality has been on hiatus, and I might not come back to it for another six months, so I’ll just put up stuff thats not on here yet when I see fit. I got both these tapes earlier this year while I was in Baltimore at the Mindset “Real Power/Time and Pressure” on a 12″ record release show.  Both bands played and both were awesome.  The CLEAR demo was handed out for free minus the case as I heard that they hadn’t arrived in time.  When they played, Pat (formerly of HAVE HEART) instructed everyone to get their THE RIVAL MOB “Mob Justice” tape that they just bought, toss the tape and insert, then put your CLEAR demo in and voilà a complete CLEAR demo.  The demo is great, good honest hardcore that if you didn’t know by now has been pressed on vinyl by BBB (triple B) Records.  THE RIVAL MOB tape was a few bucks, but that didn’t deter anyone, I’m sure they were gone well before they played.  Their merch table was a mad house with people huddled around it for most of the night.  The Mob Justice Tape is a promo for their upcoming full length on Revelation Records.  It delivers with an Intro, four new songs, a BLITZ cover and to top it all off Philcore for Philcore.  Download it, its great.

Youngblood Part 2

POLICE AND THIEVES “fracturing”

The second part of my youngblood order is this really clean looking 12″ for long running D.C. band POLICE AND THIEVES.  I had the pleasure of meeting Carlos at the last React Records showcase one of the coolest guys I met that weekend for sure.   A scab version of POLICE AND THIEVES with various members of the baltimore bands filled out the lineup with Carlos singing and they were great live.  Now that im getting up there in age, it was nice to meet another “older” hardcore frontman doing his thing.  On to the record I gotta admit I liked the “amor y guerra” e.p. but it was not in Heavy rotation for me.  “Fracturing” on the other hand is great, they really stepped up on this record and I enjoy it a lot and often.  Great melodic hardcore with just the right amount of bite in my opinion.  The layout is great as well, the cover photo just works for the music, i cant really explain it, i just really like it.  Altogether another great Youngblood records release and a great hardcore record by POLICE AND THIEVES.

Youngblood Part 1

NO TOLERANCE “no remorse, no tolerance”

It took a while (not the labels fault) but my Youngblood Records order showed up a few weeks ago and I was stoked!  I made sure I was up immediately when this pre-order was made available I wanted all these records.  First up is the new NO TOLERANCE record which is just as good as I imagined it would be after hearing the demo and getting a copy of the demo 7″ from my buddy Casey, who is apparently the West Coast member of the band.  This thing apparently had been in the works for a while and I read somewhere they where just waiting for the vocals to be laid down.  In response to some message board poster complaining that the follow up to the demo was taking to long, Sean from Youngblood Records response was “you can’t rush perfection” after spinning this a few times I’d have to agree.

 

GIVE “flowerhead”

Another great “single” from this D.C. group.  They’re big fans of the single and I think the goal may be to release something on every punk label currently running and they are well on their way.  If you have heard them before you know what to expect later Dischord Records style punk.  They manage to do it extremely well too, not coming off as a carbon copy and updating the sound to fit in this era of punk.  the title track has definitely been stuck in my head for awhile since I’ve listened to it and that’s a good thing with this band.  When I’m not in the mood to destroy everything in sight,  and I need to relax to some punk (weird, I know) this is my current band of choice.

CARRY ON – A li…

CARRY ON – A life Less Plagued 10 year anniversary editions

I love this band.  In the late 90’s early 00’s they were the band I was always trying to start, perfect blend of youth crew energy and attitude.  various older bands i was in played with these guys on a few occasions and they were always super cool and generous dudes, I played the record release gig for this in Ojai (i got knocked out by Todd Jones’ swinging headstock while climbing on stage to dive, there is video of it out there somewhere) and then a band I was in later got to play one night of the last show gigs ( i got a photo of the marquee somewhere).  Among my group of friends we we’re really into the youth crew revival stuff like IN MY EYES, TEN YARD FIGHT and bands like that, but here was a band that was just as good if not better, from the west coast and represented California in a east coast heavy scene.  Anyway, onto the record Bridge 9 released these two gate fold editions as a 10 year anniversary thing and i swooped in because as i stated before I love this band, Nothing really all that new except for the gatefold and the new color vinyl, but for die hards like myself i had to have it.  If you have never heard this record do yourself a favor and get a copy however you can, every song on this Lp rips aside from the title track and I only say that cause lyrically its not my fav, the tune is excellent though.  Rethinking is by far and away my favorite track and ranks as one of my favorite core tunes of all time. It is that good.

So Good.

THE NERVE AGENTS days of the white owl

I really aught to change the  url name of this blog since none of the stuff I post is very recent anymore.  Be that as it may here is another great record I grabbed a while back that deserves your attention.  THE NERVE AGENTS day’s of the white owl is the bands at its peak (I’m not a fan of the butterfly collection) I love everyone song on this album.  I was actually at the record release at the now defunct SF venue, The Cocodrie,  I miss that venue it was in north beach and situated right in with all the various strip clubs and dives in the area, it just had that big city vibe.  I don’t remember who played aside from THE NERVE AGENTS and THE EXPLOSION.  The main reason I remember that THE EXPLOSION played is because between almost every song THE NERVE AGENTS played the singer was hanging off the side of the stage drunkenly screaming “days of the white OOOWWWLLL!” it was kind of annoying at the time, but looking back its kinda funny.  Me and a bunch of friend drove from Redding to SF and about half way down to SF my buddy Nate was driving (and not paying attention to the temp gauge) the radiator blew. We ended up saying fuck it, drove down there on a blown radiator and all the way back up going slow as hell.  I might be mixing up all the different trips we made down to the bay but I think I ended up dropping all my friends off and driving straight to work to be there just in time.  Committed to the CORE!

Not So Recent Pick Up

THE NERVE AGENTS self titled green vinyl

I could of swore I put this up before but I was going back looking through post and I didn’t see it, I actually got this over the summer for a pretty low price on Ebay.  This is kind of a Bay Area classic, THE NERVE AGENTS burst onto the scene with this killer 12″ at least that’s  how it seemed to me.  Aside from this just being totally awesome it was the first good record put out by Revelation records in quite some time.  Again I don’t really know what to say about this other than its great and i,m super pumped its in my collection.  About a year ago this new guy at my work looked super familiar and i couldn’t place him for the longest time until i happened upon some NERVE AGENTS photo’s online and realized it was Dante the bassist, me being me called him on it n front of all my co-workers and he instantly got barraged with the “your in a band?” “what kind of band?” questions norms like to throw at you.  I felt a little bad about that.  He actually had some pretty funny tour stories from THE NERVE AGENTS and from his brief time being in THE DISTILLERS.  Solid dude. Solid band.

Interesting Vinyl Color

FIRE & ICE “collections”

Wow.  Its been forever since I’ve updated this thing.   Anyhow I was waiting what seemed like forever for this record to show up in the mail,  it finally came a few days ago and it was well worth the wait.  This 12″ titled “Collections” is the bands demo “gods and devils” and 1st record “grim” on one 12″ normally I don’t really go for these types of things especially when I own both of the afore mentioned records on 7″, but if you throw it on glow in the dark vinyl count me in.  Aside from the rad vinyl its come with a huge collage insert/poster (see photo below) I have no intention of putting this up on my wall, but its a nice little extra.  Only bummer about this record is that my copy came with a bend in the upper left hand corner, Ugh!

(Photographed with record to show size)

P.S. its hard to take a photo of a glow in the dark record. trust me it “glows” much better in person.

 

Void Party

Void “sessions 81-83

Well I went down to my local record store a few weeks ago to pick up this limited edition Void reissue/lost tapes thing.  I got there just in time to pick up one of the few copies they had left.  I dunno who decided to do this, but it was pretty cool there was some art on the walls, some jam band played.  They had veggie hot dogs, beer and soda whatever you preferred and they were spinning this record.  The owner of 1234 go was nice enough to stay open late and host this little event.  Bubba Dupree and Chris stover from the band were there signing records and taking photo’s, I got my record signed, it was cool. Apparently they got up and played a few Void songs but it was getting late and I bounced before that happened.

P.S. Void>Faith.