Happy New Year

Hey, Happy New Year everybody!

I was going to do a best of 2011 list, but then I remembered that I am going on vacation tomorrow and I have to pack.

I liked Deafheaven. I listened to Give a lot this year. The Ceremony covers ep was awesome. Defeater was good too. The Fucked Up album gave me a headache. Yay 2011!

As always, you can follow me on twitter @wewillburyyou88

My band, Hope Defeated is also on twitter at @hopedefeated The band also set up a youtube page with a new song we recorded this month. You can hear it here. Leave me some feedback on what you think.
Hope Defeated also has a facebook page. You can look it up through a facebook search I guess. We also have a bandcamp page you can check out here. I will be updating it in the new year with some of our new stuff.

Finally, you can still pick up the Hope Defeated 2010 Demo 7" at Endless Quest Records. Marcus will hook you up.

See you in 2012.
Doug

The First Step - Demo 2001

Two and a half years into this blog and I just realized I haven't made a single The First Step post. That's just wrong. I'm not sure how that happened since they were one of my favorite bands of the last decade.
One of the records I turn to regularly is their Demo 2001 7" released on Livewire Records. The songs are raw as fuck and I probably like "What We Know" and "Open Hearts And Clear Minds" a lot more, but there is something really down to earth, sincere, and cool about this record.

The pressing numbers on this sucker are downright offensive! To see where this band went and the number of people that they touched with their music and lyrics, to only have the small numbers of these records available seems criminal.
On the other side of the coin, I like that the number pressed reflected the stature of the band at the time when they were just starting out. Those who got it, got it. It almost seems like a piece of history, not blemished by mass production after the point to cash in.
Ah, what do I know?

First press. Red vinyl out of 200.

The record came with a two sided black and white lyric sheet insert and also a sticker which was the basis for the artwork for the What We Know Sessions 7" on Bottled Up Records. Pretty cool.

The sticker. I would LOVE to put this on my family station wagon, but I think the sticker means more to me than my Mazda 5.

Second press. Blue vinyl out of a "limited" number of 100. What, the first press of 200 was flooding the market?

They changed the cover slightly by adding the Ltd Second Press text on the back. They are also hand numbered.


I was also able in the past few years to pick up a super limited press that was done for the Posi Numbers Fest in 2002.

I really like the variation on the cover. The date was machine stamped on the bottom right as you can see. They also hand numbered them on the back cover.

23 were printed with blue ink on the cover for the most popular fest of the time. See a pattern here? I have number 15.

They used the red vinyl from the first press.

There was a second cover for the same fest using red ink out of 25. I would love to get that one some day. But you know, it's out of 25.
There is also a black vinyl pressing out of 100 that was used for a west coast tour that I have never been able to track down. Maybe someday. If anyone has a line on it, let me know.

Bane - Give Blood lp Reissue

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. Got what you wanted? Ate a lot? Visited with family? Fought with family? Good.
Let's get to it.

For at least a year in the Triple B Records discography webpage there was a listing for the Bane - Give Blood reissue/repress. Just a small text listing with question marks referring to when it would released, what colors they would be on and how many would be pressed. Good enough for me!
I waited patiently for the pre-order, checking message boards and twitter regularly. Finally the day came and I ordered within 5 minutes of it going up. Done and done.

The holiday season rolls around and these showed up on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to me.

The first thing you notice about these records are the change in cover art, embossed gatefold sleeve, huge insert booklet and all around bad ass-ness of the record. I was a big fan of the original that was released on Equal Vision and was hoping it wouldn't be too different or at least made reference to the original. I was not disappointed.

Here's the vinyl breakdown.
First up, red with white splatter out of 200. This is the most limited color of the entire pressing. It is long gone.

Here is the inside of the gatefold cover and back cover.

The next color from BBB was white out of 400.

Last up is black out of 1000. That is a lot of records! Funny enough, I think black is my favorite color of the bunch. Say hello to my new play copy.

Sometime after the Triple B pre-order, Equal Vision put up their exclusive color. Equal Vision was given 400 to sell in exchange for the licensing rights to reissue/repress the album. Everyone wins!
Red out of 400.

The record comes with this amazing full size booklet. The front has a clever kind of repro of the original Give Blood cover and in total includes a lot of pictures, lyrics, etc. Very nice!

Surprisingly enough, everything except the splatter color is still available from Equal Vision and Triple B. Definitely worth picking up, especially if you don't have the album from the first time around.
Damn, this album is good.

Bad Religion - s/t 7"

The big knock against Bad Religion has always been that every album sounds the same. There is so little in the way of differentiating the sound, vibe, or feel between songs and albums that there is no real point in having anything past "Generator". Some cynical folks would go even further back and say "Suffer".
I can't say I disagree with that logic. I checked out on collecting their albums after "Stranger Than Fiction". Not only did all their records sound the same, the song writing was deteriorating pretty badly by that time. I haven't heard a song past "Grey Race". I don't feel like I'm missing much.

One thing you can't dispute though is how good their early stuff is. (I even have a soft spot for "Into The Unknown".) I was a huge fan of the "80-85" compilation cd when it came out and made it my mission to finally grow a pair and buy the elusive and very expensive s/t 7".

They didn't show up often back in 2006 when I got mine, so I was happy, but mostly relieved, I finally won an auction without getting outbid at the last second.
The copy I got has the original outer bag with the sticker "New Six Song E.P." and a price tag for $3.49. Yeah I wish.

The cover is a foldout and is really oddly shaped. Very tall and won't fit in regular plastic outer sleeves.

Early copies of the 7" you will notice have the original Epitaph address of Woodland Hills, California.

The cover folds out like a gatefold with pictures and credits inside. This can be unfolded again to reveal an all white back as this entire cover was a folded one sided print job. Like I said, weird.

As far as vinyl goes, black only. There are a couple different numbers out there for pressing details, I guess it all depends on what you believe.

The story goes there are 500 of the first press with the matrix etching of Side A: "We're Not Bad Religion..." and Side AA: "...You Are."
Then there are 1500 of a second press with the matrix etching of Side A: "We're Not Bad Religion..." and Side AA: "Elipses U.R."
The strange thing is, no one has ever seen a supposed first press. Every single copy sold on ebay, or found through popsike, collector frenzy and Flex have the "Elipses U.R." b-side matrix.
So take your pick - 500, 1500 or 2000 of these out there.

Also comes with a two sided red paper lyric sheet insert.

Of course after I finally scored one, Epitaph reissued it a couple years ago for some Record Store Day. They went all out and made it very close to the original. Too close. They had it right down to the off size cover, labels and insert. The only tells were of course colored vinyl (red and white to go along with black) and the Epitaph address change. I can't recall but they may have even kept the same original matrix etchings. Bastards!

Revelation Records Adidas Shoes

Last year around this time, I posted about the new Revelation Records compilation album, "Past Present". You can find it here. Some liked it, some didn't. People felt the original songs really didn't need covering as they were still very much part of their lives.
Yeah, that pretty much describes Rev fans.

As part of the release, Revelation hooked up with Adidas to produce 150 pairs of shoes that would be given to bands who participated in the compilation. A few pairs were set aside for a promotion contest or draw and the rest I assume went to Rev employees or insiders.

What I thought was a pretty cool idea at the time went over like a lead balloon. Message board and blog comments were for the most part negative, vicious and furious. "Ugly, lame, pretentious, elitist, a cheap cash grab". Basically, everything that is wrong with hardcore was heaped on a pair of shoes.

One thing the detractors had going for them was the fact that of the 150 pairs that were made, somewhere around 149 of them went up on ebay. That doesn't exactly give you the warm and fuzzies about the scene. Some of the dollar figures that the shoes went for on ebay didn't help either. $400 - $650 for shoes is pretty sick.

It seems that time has helped calm down some of those negative feelings. The selling frenzy definitely calmed down, and prices dropped with it.
I was able to score a pair a couple months ago for a very reasonable price. I think it might have something to do with the fact I have feet the size of a dwarf.

By far the coolest part of the shoes are the insoles. Literally a roll call of legendary hardcore bands... and Iceburn.

Needless to say I got a pair of a brand new, unworn shoes complete with extra laces and original box. Yellow laces won't be happening anytime soon.

Now it's time to put the shoes away on the top shelf of my closet right next to my three pairs of hi-top Iron Maiden Vans and my other pair of hi-top Gorilla Biscuits Vans. Never to be worn or looked at again.
That's how I roll.

Modern Life Is War - s/t 7" : The one version you will never get

An open letter to all Modern Life Is War 7" collectors.

I'm sorry.

I know how hard it has been to collect this 7". Between the original pressing self released by the band to the endless number of represses on Lifeline, you've had your work cut out for you. You've collected tour presses, farewell show presses, even a lottery press. It has been a chore. You have spent years building your collection to get it to a point where you feel good about finishing it off. Maybe you were even able to get one of the super rare red mix copies off Kyle Whitlow a while back when he was selling his off.

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it just got a little harder. Sorry.

What we have here is a special version of the s/t 7" pressed for original MLIW bassist Chris Honeck's wedding. Yeah.

My buddy Shaun sent me this sucker in the mail last week. Needless to say I was surprised. Shaun has been friends with the band and Big Joe for years. He roadied for them for many tours, stayed with Jeff Eaton's family for Thanksgiving one year and made a special trip out to see the band for their final show a few years ago. Shaun has stayed in touch with Joe and some guys in the band ever since.
The letter that accompanied the record that Shaun wrote laid out some back story on the record.

Like I was saying, the record was put together by Big Joe from Lifeline Records for Chris's wedding. It comes with a cool obi strip as a wedding announcement type thing.

Vinyl comes on a solid aqua green color. This is a completely different color than the clear green from the Euro tour pressing in case you were wondering.

Shaun is pretty sure that there were only 4 or 5 pressed. I saw on the internet there might be 40. Either way, not many.
Shaun got one as a wedding gift for his own wedding last year and one was personalized to me as I was a groomsman in Shaun's wedding.

The dust sleeve is stamped with some more wedding stuff. It's a nice touch.
Finally, it comes with a variation on the lyric sheet/insert. The front is a picture of the happy couple when they got engaged. The back side is the standard lyric sheet used in all the pressings.

To tell you the truth, I feel a little weird owning this. I have never met Chris or his wife, or even Big Joe. Then again, what the hell. It was personalized to me so - all good!