To tell you all the truth, I have very little coming in as far as rare or new records go. The stuff I am waiting on doesn't really warrant a post as I'm pretty sure either Mike or Marcus will be getting the same records and will have them up faster and post better stories than I could possibly do anyways. Plus, Spring is coming and I would rather be outside hanging out than taking pictures of records. Sorry. You don't know what Canadian winters are like!
All that leaves me with is posting on some of my collection I think people will like to see. Maybe.
That brings us to the first Wrecking Crew 7" put out on Vortex Records.
Wrecking Crew seem to catch a lot of shit from the hardcore community, but for the life of me I can't figure out why.
Wrecking Crew were part of the second wave of Boston hardcore. The band had what I thought was a really cool Agnostic Front vibe.
Throw some metal in the sound, a long hair metal dude in the band, and a singer who at times is a dead ringer for Roger Miret, and they got tagged as an AF clone band. Shocker.
It's not like hardcore was ever that original, I'm not sure why they got the brunt of it.
This record has a few variations out there, mainly in cover color. As far as vinyl goes, there were black and green pressed. Black was out of 500. Green was a later press. The black vinyl had a grey color cover out of 300, and the rest on the more common red cover.
When I got this record in the mail I found something that wasn't in the description of the record when I bid on it.
Apparently, there were 50 of these with yellow inner sleeves. I can't find anything on the internet about this at all. If anyone has any insight, please leave feedback. In the end, I don't think anyone is clamoring for this variation! I just thought it was interesting.
Record also comes with a decent insert.
In the end, this is a pretty damn good record and is worth tracking down if you have a few extra bucks. I think time has been kind to them as their material was reissued on cd by Bridge Nine and their lp on Hawker, "Balance of Terror" has become quite a collectors item.
I grew up going to shows in Boston from 86 to 90, and Wrecking Crew were the DEAL. SUCH a good band. Anyone who was around then will agree. Man, I remember them playing "Troubled Youth" of this 7", the way that fucking song begins, the tension it would create...the place went off.
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted, some red cover copies are numbered on the back (mine, #0098, has the handwritten message "Don't drink and drive." written on the inside of the cover).
I also have an un-numbered red cover copy with a yellow dust-jacket, but with no writing or numbering on it.
Thirdly, copies exist on clear that have (at least mine does) black and white xeroxed covers.
It should be noted also that Vortex Records was run by Mark McKay, Slapshot drummer extraordinaire.
Lovin' yer blog, kid. Keep it up...
HAHA! I released this 7" all those years ago, you lucky f*%cker! Mark Slapshot here... we did SO many things to this 7" when producing it - and of course we did it on a shoestring (we could ONLY afford so many white sleeves on our budget, so hence the yellow ones found CHEAP in a local record store...). We numbered a bunch, did GREEN, CLEAR and BLACK vinyl and assorted colors of sleeves. We did 100 GREEN VINYL WITH GREEN SLEEVES, 100 CLEAR VINYL WITH
ReplyDeleteWHITE SLEEVES, a bunch of the RED SLEEVE ones were numbered with a # stamp, and Hank and I hand wrote messages in HUNDREDS of them while on a bus to see WC in CT... I have a few left of the different variations, but most of the details of quantities are gone to history - but perhaps we can get one of the band members to chime in? Thanks for posting this, I really thought these guys were a GREAT band and BETTER people!