Youth of Today - Break Down The Walls: Wishingwell Records

I may have to retire the blog after this. I am running out of tricks and I don't think it can get much better than this.
In over a year of running this site, I have never done a Youth of Today posting. Probably because I had the same records as everyone else. Well, after a monster deal I made a couple weeks ago, I now have two of the heaviest hitters in the game. Hell yeah.

Break Down The Walls is a landmark album. The first full length of a band that lead the way for youth crew hardcore in the late 80's after all the original straight edge bands fell by the wayside. These were normal suburban kids who liked sports and aggressive music as an outlet for their frustrations. Finally there was a blueprint for hardcore kids that were not ultra hip, urban inner city kiddies.


In other words, they were a template for me - except I didn't know it yet. In 1988, I was all about thrash metal and crossover. The fact that I had never done drugs or smoked in my life was separate from the music I listened to. It's too bad. It would have been cool to be into this on the ground floor. Maybe I wouldn't have had to pay so much for these records!

This was also an unbelievable era for the band as they were able to bring in Drew from Bold on drums, Richie Underdog on second guitar and Craig Setari from Straight Ahead (and later Agnostic Front and Sick of It All) on bass after the first lineup change from the Can't Close My Eyes 7" era. This was like an all star jam!

Here we go. Break Down The Walls on Wishingwell Records. Blue and Red vinyl.

The story of these records is legendary. 150 pressed of each color with 100 of each given to the band to sell on tour. Before they even had a chance, all the records along with their gear were stolen from their van outside of CBGBs. It is assumed that all the records were destroyed as crack heads and thieves were probably not record collectors back then.
That makes it plus or minus 100 copies in total (50 of each?) remaining.
Then on top of all that, of the remaining copies Wishingwell sold to California stores, a dozen or so of the red vinyl were destroyed on purpose by one retailer who nailed them to his fence to watch them warp in the sun. Awesome.


Let's just say they are rare and extremely hard to come by.

There was also a standard black vinyl pressing as well. This is the record I have had for years, even before the first Rev pressing (which is also pretty tough to come by).

All three pressings came with a fold out lyric sheet and Wishingwell order form. A Unity "You Are One" 7" for $3.50? Yes please!


There was a second Wishingwell press done with a black and yellow color scheme on the cover instead of blue and red. It is very hard to come by despite the fact that all the vinyl for the second press is on black. I don't know the pressing numbers of the black vinyl. All I know is that it isn't too hard to come by and can be had for $50.