Pirates gold

Today we start with a raw hardcore punk sound that tips in favor of the punk part. 

Somali Pirates - the gold collection 7" - 2013 Indecision Records ‎– IND91 

I don't know when it was that I heard the first Somali Pirates song but it was definitely a song off their first 7" called 'greatest hits e.p.' Right away I made a mental note to keep my eyes open for that record. Unfortunately there never appeared one in the shops on- and offline that I frequent. But obviously this one did so I went for it.

The Indecision homepage states a pressing of 605 on clear yellow so no other color available which makes sense considering the name. That's the stuff I like. If you do color vinyl it has to fit the release. 

Meanwhile they put out yet another 7". I hope I'll get my hands on a copy of that one too. They seem to be going pretty much under the radar. At least under mine. Damn.

Death will serve you better

And another band traveling the same road but in their very own car. I just can't get enough of that. 

Mercy Killings - s/t 7" - 2013 Beach Impediment Records BIR-009

This is first press black vinyl out of 550.  There was also a limited edition first pressing on blue vinyl out of 150 and a 2nd press on black with green print on the center labels out of 330

Two of these songs are from their demo and the others are new. Well, were new. Meanwhile they sold out of a promo tape for an upcoming 7". That's bad and good news all in one.

Hard

This is a Richmond, Virginia band doing what I like the most. Mix fast and raw US HC with Oi

Hard Stripes - s/t 7" - 2013 Vinyl Conflict Records VC-003

After their 2012 demo that I'm still looking for they put out a United Blood 2013 version of said tape and included 2 songs as a teaser for this 7".

Maybe it's just wishful thinking but I think I saw a new release on the horizon.
Can anyone confirm that?

The reaper wants you to....

The UK is brimming with great bands right now. This is one of them

Die - s/t 7" - 2013 Sonic Terror Discs STD1

This is their demo pressed onto vinyl and it was engineered by Jonah Falco of Fucked Up. What ever that means. I have no grasp of whatever an engineer does. All I can say is that this is one of the best Oi tinged hardcore I have ever heard.

On their bandcamp page they state that 970 copies were pressed and that they are sold out. Anyone know about new material? I need more of that.

the only circus i'm down with

You might remember that a few posts earlier I mentioned going to the Take Offense / Cold Stare Show and that they those bands didn't have any interesting vinyl for sale. That's because I had already ordered what they did sell that night due to not being sure whether I would go there or not. So this arrived in the mail a couple of days after the show:

Cold Stare - the circus 7" - 2013 Flatspot Records FSR-08

It took me a couple of spins though before I could appreciate this record. But that's a good thing. It means they progressed. Now progress is not always good but in this case it is. You can only write a song so many times before it gets boring. I have a feeling that won't happen here. Maybe they will move into a direction that I can't get behind with their next release but I respect that a hell of a lot more than playing it safe aka churning out the same old boring shit all the time because that's what people expect you to do.

I can't find any pressing info online but I guess I got the more common version out of the two that were pressed, the other being a transparent blue, because that's usually what I end up with when ordering things from a distro. Which to repeat myself I'm totally fine with. Blue, yellow what's the difference.

I'm still missing their s/t 7" which apparently was only pressed once at a capacity of 200. Which probably means I'll never get one. Then again maybe I don't even have to as their is a single compilation LP scheduled to come out on Street Kids Records. I hope it drops soon.

Keep your eyes peeled for the good stuff.

Done!

About two weeks prior to the Cold Stare / Take Offense +2 show the same dudes had booked another show at the same venue. Right now the only bands I remember having played that day are AYS and Zero Mentality. I mainly went there to take my own distro out for a spin again and to see ZM one more time. Besides us there was one other guy selling a bunch of 2nd hand records but he didn't have anything I am looking for. Instead a friend of mine came by and gave me a split 7" of his recently defunct band. Thanks again!

Get It Done! / Overlord - split 7" - 2013 Reality Records

Get It Done! deliver two more tracks of their own Dag Nasty influenced version of oldschool hardcore which for reasons unknown to man no one seems to take an interest in. So little even that this release is not listed on Discogs where meanwhile you can find the most obscure hardcore records.

Overlord on the other hand didn't have any form of impact on me. I don't even remember what they sound like. Sorry guys.

Blxwn xwxy

Hm, I mixed up the order in which I picked up records it seems. My RSD scores have been covered including those who were delayed. The 3 records I bought on April 12th the day of the Cold World show in Antwerp have been dealt with. Even one pick up from May has been handled and now I realize that I still didn't mention this one:

Vowels - chained 7" - 2013 Vendetta Records 75

I picked this record up after seeing them live at their show with Minutes and Bloodstains at the AZ in Köln on March 9th because they totally blew me away. Total unrelenting blistering fast hardcore assault. Usually that kind of description makes me cringe but that night their formula worked its magic on me.

When putting it on at home that feeling wasn't quite reproduced though much to my disappointment. A second listen weeks later found me liking it better again but it's still not where it was that night. I'll have to give it another spin soon and see how that feels. Might just be it is too fast for me but I'm still undecided with the scale tipping a little in favor of Vowels.

Super-excited

On April 12th, so even before the RSD, Cold World played a show in Antwerp, Belgium which me and some friends turned into a day trip of exploring that beautiful city and trying to score on the vinyl front.

This is the first good record I came across:

Supercrush - Lifted / Melt Into You (Drift Away) 7" - 2013 Bedside Records BSR-07

I listened to one of those tracks some time before it was released in October of 2013 and was a fan right away even though not a lot of bands who play this kind of music appeal to me. Maybe that's why I was hesitant to order a copy from the States right away.

Also it seemed like no one of the usual on- and offline stores I frequent carried that record. I even tried to trade a few copies for releases from my label but got no reply. Probably they are not into distroing other releases.

When we went to Antwerp I had already almost forgotten about Supercrush which made for an even more pleasant surprise when I found it sitting in a box on the counter of Fat Kat Records.
Never saw it before and didn't see it again since. I guess I got lucky. Thanks to whoever arranged for that to happen.

Harry Business

Concerning those sketchy political views I mentioned in my last post. What's the deal with Cock Sparrer's 'England Belongs To Me' for example or Angelic Upstarts' 'England'? A german band with a similar song (title) would sure have to answer a lot of questions.

I even heard english kids weren't too concerned with political agendas back then which supposedly led to white power skins playing with redskins in the same band or hanging out together. But you know what. Let's not get into that and just enjoy the musical artifacts this period in the history of humankind blessed us with.

 

The Business - harry may 7" - Ugly Pop Records UP044

This is another official reissue and was released together with the Cockney Rejects 7" I covered in my last post. Of course it's available from us too. And just like that last one it will just be the only pressing in my collection for a yet undetermined amount of time.

Cockney slippers

There's this kind of music which I got more and more into over the last decade. Before that I mostly disregarded it for being a scene of heteronormative macho dudes who drink too much beer and a lot of times have political views that I consider sketchy at least. Yes. I'm talking about Oi. Nothing about that really changed and for the most part I still consider the above to be true but for some reasons I got to hear more and more of the good old classics which made me appreciate the music a lot more. For obvious reasons Blitz are a band that I know and love for a little longer already but this one I sure didn't listen to 10 years ago:

 

Cockney Rejects - flares 'n' slippers 7" - Ugly Pop UP043

This is the official reissue from 2013 that I ordered for our distro and which you can pick up here. It was the bands first vinyl release, no idea if they did a demo, and it instantly became a classic. Selling all of the 5000 first press copies in 2 weeks. Can you imagine getting all these records and then having to send them right out the door again, maybe to a thousand different people/shops? Must have been a nightmare to pack all these orders.

For now I'm ok with this copy but sooner or later, whenever I'll come across an OG copy, I'll add that to the collection. Does anyone know how to tell the first 5000 copies apart from the 2nd press that was made only a few weeks later? My guess is there ain't none.
Share your knowledge.

 

Are you alive or are you Bored (Youth)

It's crazy how much money people spend on hc/punk records. Me included. I drop way too much dough on vinyl but those first two Touch & Go releases... I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to get my hands on any one of those. And even apart from those, collecting early T&G releases is a costly adventure these days.

One band that for some reasons didn't find its way onto the labels roster is the topic of this post and I'm sure had they released their ep recorded in 1981 on T&G as it was actually intended to be you would see it on a lot of peoples want list and changing hands for quite a buck. But instead it was bootlegged almost a decade later in germany. And luckily got a proper release by Alona's Dream Records in 2013. Who later that year also released this LP:

Bored Youth - are you alive? 1982 LP - Alona's Dream Records ADR 12 011

Looks like it wasn't in the cards for Bored Youth to take their rightful place among contemporaries like Negative Approach, Necros, etc. as the LP recordings done by Corey Rusk of Necros fame in 1982 that take up most of Side A of this release were shelved for even longer than the 7". More than three decades later, 31 years to be precise, the general public is finally able to hear those songs.

As with most hardcore full lengths this one too doesn't really use up the full storage potential of a 12" so ADR rounded out the first side with one track from a rehearsal recording and fortified the whole thing with a pretty good sounding 1981 live recording on the remaing half of the platter.

Pictured here is the ltd pre-order edition out of 100 copies which I snagged for my own collection. The regular edition is on black vinyl and usually comes with neither poster nor button.

For some reason we have regular black vinyl copies still available and they even come with a button as we got those as a thank you for pre-ordering right off the bat. So hit the above link and get that classic material into your home. Maybe along with their 7" which we also still have in stock.

 

Violators

The UK. By many people wrongly thought of as the birthplace of Punk, nevertheless produced an incredible number of iconic, classic, crucial, legendary, or whatever adjective you want to use here punk bands.

In the early days a lot of those punks released records through Major Labels that jumped the bandwagon but a little down river some smaller/DIY Labels surfaced. Clay Records might be the best known next to No Future Records.

While Clay, apart from Discharge, didn't release a lot of records catering to my taste, No Future is a whole different story. At least their first 20 releases are either in my collection or on my wantlist. Admittedly there's quite a range of importance each one of those has for me but sooner or later I want all of those.

The Violators' singles are definitely further up on my scale though but so far I haven't had any luck finding one of them for a decent price. Which is why I was pretty thrilled about this release:

 

Violators - singles 82/83 LP - Vomitopunkrock Records REF 007 LP

 

Some dude from Spain posted on facebook about his label releasing this record. Of course I didn't hesitate for a second and put in a pre-order to get some copies for our distro. By the time they shipped they had already sold all of the 300 copies they had made and it didn't take long until it was sold out from us too.

 

So I guess this band is more legendary than I thought. Which would explain why I only see their OG 7"es being sold online but hardly ever at a real deal record store. Well, for now this record will do.

You should be RUNNIN' SCARED if you don't know this

Well at least if you're into late 80s NYHC that is.

For you folks who are the 1987 demo by Breakdown is probably a well known and loved part of your collection. Be it the ever so elusive real deal tape or the vinyl reissue on Blackout! Records.

But how many of you knew about the Runnin' Scared demo? I sure didn't until this record was announced

 

Breakdown - Runnin' Scared LP - Painkiller Records PKR-049, 540 Records – 540-034

The namesake demo to this record was recorded in late '88 after two members had already started Raw Deal and recorded that band's demo.

The fact that Breakdown went into hibernation for almost a decade not that long after the tape was released is probably the main reason why it only got the attention it deserves a whopping 25 years later. And it's pretty amusing that even today it is better than 99% of the current bands who emulate the style.

The LP also compiles two tracks recorded earlier in 1988 and a live WNYU Crucial Chaos Radio broadcast from early '89.

Any selfrespecting NYHC collection is incomplete without this.

Go pick it up here.

 

Sacrilege

This is the last installment of my obscure NYHC trifecta. And again I don't have anything to share with you about this record:

 

Sacrilege - Thoughts Are But Dreams Till Their Effects Are Tried - 1985 Demos

Radio Raheem RADIO-002 // Wardance WAR-14

 

Luckily for all of us it comes with extensive liner notes that I can revert to to give you an idea of how important this band was to the evolution of Hardcore in New York.

"1985 was a transitional time for the hardcore scene in NYC — the original class of '82 bands were either in limbo, had disbanded or were heading into a more crossover metal direction and the Revelation/straight edge scene and second wave of NYHC bands were a year away from fully exploding. Along comes Sacrilege, formed in late '84, and their aim to couple Discharge-inspired sonic fury with a peace punk aesthetic. Bassist Adam Mucci's previous tenure in Agnostic Front gave them a safe pass from skinheads, and along with guitarist Victor Venom, previously in Reagan Youth, they recruited two Virginia Beach transplants and Sacrilege was born. Their confrontational style of spiky hair, Crass stencils on jackets and military fatigues give voice to a totally separate group that longed for a band of their own. They played less than a dozen shows and imploded by late 1985. One can only guess how they would have fared as their sound and style laid the foundation for the parallel Squat Or Rot scene that sprung up during the late 1980's. Victor would take several Sacrilege songs into his next project, Nausea, the most notable being "Fallout", which became the signature Nausea tune as heard on the Revelation Records' The Way It Is compilation LP. The nine short, sharp cuts from the Don Fury sessions and the six howling, primitive metal workouts from Bolt Studios, both recorded in 1985, bear witness to an overlooked band that provides a missing link to the development of hardcore punk in the rat cage of a big city we know as New York.

Limited to 600 copies. Includes 12" x 24" poster and lyric sheet."

And yes. This is available from us too.

 

Crunch the high and the mighty

I don't have a lot to say about this record besides that it is another one of those more obscure NYHC recordings which without this reissue I still wouldn't know about at all. Probably though it would be a lot more legendary and well known today had it not only been released on tape back then. If you like that first Cause For Alarm 7" and the Reagan Youth LP you should definitely check out

 

The High And The Mighty - crunch on demo 1984 7" - Radio Raheem RADIO-004

The cover for this beauty is actually a 12 page booklet filled with not only the lyrics but also many never before seen photos and flyers. Nice!

Another job well done by the folks at Radio Raheem. Be sure to keep an eye out on the other killer releases they're working on.

You can probably pick up this record from every corner store which might be why you can also pick it up from us.

Thanks for reading and please support my habbit by hitting the above link. Well, actually not a single cent of the records we sell goes into my pocket. Too many costs to cover....

Are you ready to die? No Thanks!

This is one of the more obscure NYHC bands. They played a bunch of shows in the very early days for example at the A7 with the likes of Cause For Alarm, Agnostic Front, Abused, Kraut...

They released a demo Tape in 1982 and a 7" in 1983. Now you might say that this isn't really very early considering that the first hardcore record was released in 1978 but NY was a little late to the game with the first releases dating back to about 1982.

That 7" is among the pricier records you can buy and hardly ever pops up. The demo is probably even harder to get a hold of. So I was stoked to find out about this:

 

No Thanks - are you ready to die - discography LP - Lengua Armada Discos LA-51 - 2007

I wanted to get copies for my distro but of course 6 years down the road it was sold out from the label. But I didn't stop there and found someone who told me that the bands singer, Donna, still had a few copies for sale and put me in touch with her which is where a bit of a nightmare started. We purchased some copies and Donna put them in the mail. So far so good. But then nothing happened. Me being the patient boy I am I waited a bit too long until investigating the whereabouts of the records and had to find out after several calls with different people who told me different stories that the records had been returned to sender because I didn't pick them up from my customs office where they had been held without notifying me. WTF!! I let Donna know and asked her to inquire about the package at her postal office which apparently she wasn't really into as she told me I'd have to do with with the german postal service. Well, I had already done that. The records were sent back to the US. At that point neither german institution, customs or postal sevice, were able to do anything about that. After a tedious back and forth the terrible truth manifested itself. The records were lost.

How come I can post pictures of one of the copies then? Well, after some tough negotiations we were able to have her send, what she told us were the bands last copies. We had her mail them to a friend of my GIHC partner in crime's place where they were picked up and taken on a plane to germany.

We still have copies available here. Due to what you just read they are a little more costly than we would like though. Also Donna is still selling copies on facebook despite her sending us their alleged last copies. Smells a little funny to me but I don't feel like investigating the matter any further. I'm just glad we finally got what we paid for. Even though we had to pay through the nose.

Not the best memory this record triggers but the music's still great and should be in every self respecting NYHC collection.

As should be the following....

The kids want no monarchy

I know nothing about pre 90s punk/hardcore in Belgium except for this one band. Maybe that's because europe didn't have a lot of bands that were on the same level as their peers from across the ocean. Besides some finish, german, italian and of course a shitload of UK killers. Then again maybe I just don't know about those tons of classic european bands that actually can hold a candle to the Necros, SSD, Minor Threat, Ramones, Stooges, Abused, Fear, X, Avengers, Agent Orange, Germs, etc. But, honestly, I doubt that.

The Kids though, being that band from belgium I do know, do not have to hide behind any of their contemporaries. Their debut LP from 1977 is one of the best punk records ever.

A few years back when Dead Stop, another one of those legendary bands from that small country, were still around, me and some friends went to see The Kids play a show together with Dead Stop which was very special to all of us who went there. One of us even ended up being interviewed by a belgian tv team that came out to the show. I think it was some kind of an anniversary gig. No idea though if they filmed any of the action.

I always wondered how these two bands got to play a show together. Of course Dead Stop got on first and quite a few of the kids who thrashed, slammed and stagedived during their set stuck around to see The Kids but a lot of older folks rushed in afterwards just to see their old time heroes. Which is why it kinda felt like two different shows. I could have asked the DS guys when I still saw them quite often but for reasons unknown to man I never did.

But then I set up a show for The Kids at the AK47 in Düsseldorf, Germany and used that opportunity to ask them. Unfortunately no one of them even remembered the gig that still is so special to me. And the original members didn't even remember ever having heard of that other band. Only their drummer who is quite a few years younger knew Dead Stop but couldn't shed any light on the matter due to not having been in the band at the time. So again I didn't get an answer but I got this:

 

The Kids - no monarchy 7" 2013 Reissue, Danger Records DR-004

It's the 1978 follow up release to their first LP and still slays

The show was wild though. They ripped through their set of one classic after the after without a break and still played for about an hour. I think I've never seen anything like that before.

If I would ever forget about that show this record would always remind me of it. But then again I most likely never will.

It was a great day and I even got this awesome record. Definitely a time I'll remember.

ABUSED ABUSED ABUSED ABUSED ABUSED ABUSED ABUSED ABUSED ABUSED

The Abused are the best NYHC band. Period!

Thanks to Radio Raheem records their discography was recently made available once more. Unfortunately their store has vanished from the web but don't worry if you slept on this release. GIHC still have a few copies for sale.
The beauty of this Reissue was already well documented on a lot of blogs so I won't go into detail here.

The Abused - discography LP - Radio Raheem Records RADIO-003

Up Next is the picture Vinyl release of the discography from 1992. This was the first Abused vinyl I owned.

The Abused - discography pic. LP - Lost & Found LF 043

Of course I also had to track down the regular vinyl pressing of that release. People seem to think it's worth a bit more than anyone is actually willing to pay for it so it took me quite a while to finally find one for a fair price and it even includes a promo sheet.

The Abused - discography LP - Lost & Found LF 043

And here it is. My personal holy grail.

The Abused - loud and clear 7" - Abused Music AM-1

Looks like someone wasn't able to hit the folding line correctly so they had to leave a little something at the top of the front cover that usually is not there.

You can clearly see how far off the fold is from where it is supposed to be.

Also the cover is a foldover sleeve rather than a pocket sleeve. I don't want to open it too far as the fold is already cracking up.

It seems though that the cover was at one point glued together as the tear on the inside of the back cover suggests. As far as I know all the copies had the perforation you can see in the picture below so I guess the pocket sleeve came undone and whoever owned it then ripped off the flaps. If that's the case he or she was very careful though. That tear you see is the only damage that was done. And there is some glue left on the inside of the front cover which supports my guess.
Apart from this it's in beautiful condition so I don't mind any of that. Maybe if I ever come across a cheap glue pocket version I'll buy that too but I highly doubt it.

Completing the collection is the bootleg release of their demo

The Abused - new york hardcore 7" - Dick Dance Records DDR07

Discography & Re-issues

On tour during the cold months at the end of last year a then recently released discography hit the shelves at one of my favorite record dealers which i had to order so i felt like throwing in a bunch of re-issues that were on my list for quite a while already. none of it is anything special pressing wise. i see them for sale quite often but usually i find something a little more interesting to waste my dough on. but not this time

ok. let's take a closer look at each one of those starting with the piece of vinyl that got this ball rolling:

Headfirst - the complete recordings 1987 - 1992 3LP - Indecision Records IND90

Discography releases are tricky. Usually I am not too into those. Especially if they press multiple versions right away like they did for Turning Point, Judge, Underdog, etc. I love all of those bands and collect them so on one hand these releases should be in my collection but then again they are somewhat of an equivalent to Best of… records and I really hate those. 

The Underdog one was a no brainer because of the book that came with it and this beautiful thing here also won me over right away. First of and obviously mainly so for the two unreleased songs from the 'back in control' recording session plus the included two demo tapes i had never even heard of. The other reason is that there is only this one pressing, apart from maybe a test pressing that i'm generally not into. That way I don't have to throw too much money at a recent compilation of old releases while I'm still missing a few OG pressings while still being on a good way towards a truly complete vinyl collection instead of just a collection that feels complete to me but actually isn't.

The most needed of the Re-issues I threw in the cart is this one:

Supertouch - the earth is flat - Revelation Records REV21

With all those represses Rev churns out I'm slowly getting to back the 'Revelation can suck it' thing but this one here is a whole lot different. From what I know this is what the record was actually supposed to look like. Maybe not the vinyl itself but the packaging. But due to financial problems the original release looks the way we all know it. I think it's great that after all these years they were able to finally make the vision of how to present their music come true. No way I would pass on this one. Discogs says there were 550 pressed on opaque blue vinyl. Well, mine is clear and not mentioned on there. Anybody know what that's all about? Another one of those cases where they ended up with a lot of different 'shades' of vinyl? Or maybe some kind of transitional pressing? 

Of course Rev already repressed this release on a different color and at first I thought i definitely don't need that but meanwhile I'm not too sure. That white vinyl version looks a hell of a lot better than this blue one.

Followed by this one:

The Make-Up - destination: love. live at cold rice - discord DIS99V remastered 2012 pressing

The Make-Up are one hell of a band. I went to a lot of shows and most of them I don't remember anymore but I clearly remember seeing them on what I think was their first euro tour in support of this, their first full length, release. Definitely one of the best shows I ever saw. Why I didn't pick up this LP back then escapes me. The only reason I can think of is that I didn't have the funds at the time. Took me only about 17 years to finally get my shit together and it's not even the original pressing. Usually I wouldn't mind as I'm not into collecting certain pressing of this band but the fact that this release was remastered somehow doesn't sit too well with me. Looks like I'm in the market for the first mix which to my ears probably doesn't sound any different.

And then this one:

H2O - s/t - Bridge Nine B9R158

This record was a little too melodic for me back when it was released. I liked it but was never bothered to actually pick up a copy until years later. And for an even longer time I didn't feel the need to own any later H20 releases but that changed with the 'Nothing to prove' record. That one I bought and like almost as much as the first full length. 

After I finally decided to pick up a vinyl copy it kept eluding me. It felt like the record was saying 'you neglected me for that long now I don't want to be with you'. And even now that I finally do own one it's on the ugliest vinyl color it was released on. But I'm ok with that. I don't deserve any better.

Last but not least is this killer KBD 7"

Nubs - job / little billy's burning 7" - Last Laugh Records HAW-033

I got a real late pass on everything KBD which is why none of those releases mean anything special to me. I mean I love the music but they didn't influence me like say UC's 'screaming for change' which had me turn straight edge about 20 years ago.
I'm glad I don't have a special connection with any of those releases because otherwise my desire for OG pressings would be a lot higher.
This is one of the best of the genre and one of many re-issues on Last Laugh Rec. If you have a soft spot for this kind of music you need to check out this record and if your pockets are as shallow as mine you should check out the label. Some of their releases you can order from my shop GIHC.



But wait there is one more 7" in that picture.

Trephine - reprogram…recondition 7" - +/- Records PMR-004

This one was a freebie and the only original pressing on this heap. A lot of times those free records are crap that no one cares about and while no one might care about this record too it definitely isn't crap.
Great 90s militant vegan sound in the vein of Green Rage. I almost put this in the distro without even listening to it. Good thing I didn't. I might not take this one out for a spin too often and if I do it sure won't be the first of the genre that comes to mind but once in a while when I'm in the mood for that sort of stuff it will be a great addition to the playlist.