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.

A Minority Unit for a Cold World

Minority Unit is one of my favorite bands from the last few years. That first 7" is all time classic material. And the 2nd one was great too, yet it didn't get up to par so I think they called it quits at the right time. Perfect! Still they don't qualify for being seriously collected by me. Somehow I cannot be bothered anymore to hunt down multiple copies of a record that was originally released after 1998/99.

But despite that I'll pick up doubles or variations to make nice pictures and then trade them for stuff I slept on or just never had the chance to buy.

As was the case with my 2nd Minority Unit - s/t 7" and in late December early January it paid off. I posted my deadformat list in several facebook groups and was approached by someone about the above record which resulted in me finally getting my hands on this little beauty:

 

Cold World - ice grillz 7" Lockin' Out LOR#015

Somehow I only ever saw the CD version for sale at the time it was released. Don't ask me why. I can only guess why. Probably because at the time I didn't check out too many news bands and once I got wind of how good they are it was already sold out. Ten years down the road and that gap is finally closed.

Now I need that first 7" so I can finally sell another one of those dreaded CD releases.

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

Verbal Assault...

...are one of my favorite bands ever. 

Earlier this year I came across the Atomic Action online shop by accident. I'd never heard of that label and the record that I went there for was also unknown to me at the time. 

V/A - Rix-Core 84-86 LP - Atomic Action Records AA#53

It features a live Radio Broadcast from '87 according to the guy who put this record out but discogs says it's from '86 but I believe the later date to be the correct one. The songs on here are from the 'Learn' (1986) and 'Trial' (1987) LPs + 'More than music' from the 'Tiny Giants' (1988) 7".
If this show was recorded prior to the release of the 'Trial' LP then why didn't they include 'More than music' on that release? Why wait another year before making this banger available on vinyl?
Then again this record is called 'Rix-Core 84-86' which should actually rule out a 1987 recording.
I guess we can only truly know if we can find out when that first tour of theirs took place as both sources agree that the radio show was a part of that.
Please leave a comment if you know.
The sound quality on these VA tracks is great and that live feeling really comes across. The Vicious Circle songs are from their demo and sound as good as possible for having been recorded in the 80s. They have a thrashier approach to things that I can't get behind. Never could. Positive Outlook are slowing things down a little and add some more groove which I like a lot better but still not really. These songs are from one of the two demos I know about now and are quality wise up to par with the rest of the record. So altogether this is a great piece of history and worth the dough for the VA songs alone. Go pick one up if you haven't yet. They also just recently Reissued the Alone In A Crowd 7" and they still have that shirt available. What are you waiting for.

With my order I also send along a question concerning the pressing info of the release and in return I got an actual letter included with the order. How cool is that?! Also the fact that it's written on the back of a copy of an old Show flyer just makes the whole package so much more special to me although a copy of a Verbal Assault show flyer would have been even better ;)
The letter mentions a Verbal Assault discography release due out this summer on Revelation but so far I haven't heard any further news on that. What happened? Does anyone have any info on this?

Of course I browsed the shop for other things to order along with the LP. I didn't find too much but what I found was awesome.

Yes! A reprint of an old Shirt design and a good looking one too. Well, actually I don't know of a bad VA Shirt anyway. Naturally I had to order it. Especially because I don't have any other.
Below you can see the back cover for the compilation. Vicious Circle and Positive Outlook are the other bands on here which i had never even heard of before this purchase.

And while the above was the next purchase in line to feature on here it fits quite well with my most recent score which I decided to include here because it also is a Verbal Assault record. I don't know how long I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of

Verbal Assault - learn LP - Positive Force #7 - red vinyl

Now finally the hunt is over. I can't tell you how stoked I am to own this record. It is the only Verbal Assault LP on colored vinyl and the only other color vinyl they released is the 'Tiny giants' 7" and that one is on red vinyl too. Coincidence? Well, whatever.
This pressing of the 'Learn' LP is not that expensive for a 28 year old totally awesome hardcore record on Positive Force and yet it was so damn hard to finally get one. Somehow these don't show up that often and whenever they did it was at a time when I wasn't looking. And this time I would probably have missed it again hadn't it been for a friend who pointed out to me that this guy I actually know put a copy up on ebay. A quick message with an offer was sent and within like half an hour we came to an agreement. Money was paid, the auction ended and here it is now. Really glad this search is over.

Most of all I am stoked on this score because it kinda completes my Verbal Assault collection.
There are only 3 not so classic (in my book) compilations featuring VA songs missing in my collection (which I'll pick up at some point sooner or later) plus color variations of the Rix-Core comp. which I'm not sure I need. And obviously there are no test-pressings because I don't collect those. So this is pretty much it

Yes, they put out two tapes but somehow I'm not too bothered with tapes. I don't know why. I still buy current demos on tape and even listen to them but dishing out substantial amounts of green for a tape? That doesn't feel like me right now. Maybe someday... well,... most likely someday