Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Funky Kingston

There‘s a used record store in the bigger city close to where I live and I try to go there as often as I can. It‘s just nice to flip through actual record bins instead of clicking or swiping to the next page. I don‘t always find something I like, but from time to time I do find a record or two I need to pick up. Funky Kingston by Toots & The Maytals had been on my want list for quite a while and I’m really happy I managed to get a copy from an actual record store. This is just a perfect reggae record. After picking up this record it was on repeat for days while I was working in the office. 


UK Press on Trojan Records (“1976“ on the sleeve and “1974“ on the labels)


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Bare Faced Cheek

Why only buy one record by a band you like if you can buy two? Another early Toy Dolls LP that for some reason I didn‘t own yet. Not their best work, but there are some hits on there. Yul Brynner Was A Skinhead and Fisticuffs In Frederick Street are the highlights for me.  




Monday, March 11, 2024

Idle Gossip

A few weeks ago I was both feeling nostalgic and like I need something fun to listen to, so I reached for a couple of Toy Dolls records and sort of fell into a wormhole. When checking my records I noticed that I didn't own all of their early records, which was a big surprise to me. Luckily, their records aren't that hard to find and don't cost an arm and a leg. 

I realize that The Toy Dolls are very silly, but sometimes you need something silly in your life. At least I do. Also, it's sort of an accomplishment in itself to have what feels like 50% of the band's catalogue dealing with the lives of soap opera characters. Having said that, Olga is such a phenomenal guitarist, and while the subject matter is rather silly in itself, the lyrics are constructed quite cleverly.

Their Live in Tokyo record sounds like a ton of fun and I'm seriously contemplating going to one of their shows if they happen to play not too far from where I live. I also might read the band biography again. Silly me. 




Sunday, March 10, 2024

Bleach

Nirvana have been part of my life for many decades, but only sort of. I caught the tail end of their career on MTV and I remember reading about Kurt Cobain's death in some teenage magazine shortly after it happened. I liked the songs I heard on MTV, but since the metalheads at my school wore their shirts and sweatshirts, I never bothered to dive deeper into their music. Which obviously is a very stupid move, but hey, teenagers aren't always know for their smart choices. A couple of years later I dove headfirst into punk and hardcore and grunge seemed not that exciting and rather boring. Also, all my money went into skateboards, skateboard videos and punk and hardcore records, and I didn't even think about buying records from other genres. Some time ago, I made the conscious decision to finally check out the band's catalogue and after almost 30 years of knowing the band, I bought my first Nirvana record. 


2019 (?) Repress


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

The Crew on Blue

I am sort of breaking my own self-imposed rules, because I'm not posting in strict chronological order, but first of all I wanted to keep going with the 7 Seconds theme, secondly, I haven't been this stoked about picking up a record in a long, long time and lastly: reasons not rules make us strong. 

So, on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago I was having a lazy winter morning. The kiddo let us sleep until 8am, we had a long breakfast and I found some time to check for records early in the morning. I even had enough to take the full tour on Discogs, local listings and eBay. Rare occasion that actually paid off.

I found a record that I thought might interest Marcus, because he'd just picked up a bunch of records by this band. Then I shot him another message because I'd found this 7 Seconds record, but for an absurdly high price. The message consisted of the link and my comment "White whale for me, but that prices is ridiculous.", to which he agreed. I left it at that because the price was way out of my league and I had an important date to go sledge riding with my son later that morning. While I was out with my son, all of a sudden I received a message from the seller offering an incredible discount on the record. My brain was spinning and I had to do some serious thinking on the way home. When I was back, I shot the seller a counter offer and miracle of miracles, he accepted it. I couldn't believe that turnaround. Oh yeah, and the seller was from Germany as well, so I didn't have to worry about customs either. 

A few days later I received the record and couldn't believe I manage to find a copy of this record, but there it was - The Crew on blue vinyl. It doesn't look like much in the first picture, even though it doesn't look exactly like black vinyl either as I had always thought. You can see that there is some color involved. However, when you hold up the record against the light, you can actually see this incredible shade of blue. It has somewhat of a green tint to it, but it's clearly blue and it just looks awesome. 

I love 7 Seconds and The Crew is easily their best output. Owning this record in this particular colorway is a collector's dream come true for me. Nobody knows exactly how many copies there are of this colorway, but the Flex! Book says there were 250 copies pressed. The book also states there's a red colored vinyl version, but I've never seen one of these. This is one of the top 5 records in my collection for sure. I'm sorry I'm gushing, but I'm just so stoked about owning this record. 




Whenever someone asks me why I buy records, I'm going to show them this record. Well, maybe I'll show them only the picture, but still. 

Repress on Blue Vinyl on BYO Records /250 (Source: Flex! Book)


Saturday, February 24, 2024

Soulforce Revolution

From the same seller I bought New Wind, I also got Soulforce Revolution. 7 Seconds go even more pop, but I'm still onboard. I don't think the more pop influenced songs would work well with many other hardcore bands, but Kevin Seconds' vocals have always been very melodic and somehow they pull off these songs. Also, this record has my second favorite artwork of all 7 Seconds records. 


Standard Pressing on Black Vinyl on Restless Records (Printed in Canada)


Tuesday, February 20, 2024

New Wind

Whenever bands change their sound, this can be highly controversial. 7 Seconds noticeably changed their sound after Walk Together Rock Together was released. They went more pop and not everybody liked this. I wasn‘t witness to that first hand, but that‘s what I was told and read. Now, this is admittedly not one of their best records, but it‘s not as bad as people made it sound. I for one am happy to add this to the collection. 




Monday, February 19, 2024

Score - The Sequel

So, a few months ago I made a rather big record score. There were a bunch of records I had to leave behind at the time, because, well, you know, money and so on, so I was more than happy that some of the records I didn’t buy initially were still available a couple of weeks later. Not all of the, but I’m still very happy with the second haul as well. 

I managed to pick up the record release edition of Go It Alone’s Histories LP and I’m equally as happy that I managed to pick up a copy that was made for Sound And Fury Fest. Hard to fathom nowadays that a band, even a well established one, would make 100+ copies of a record just for one festival. 

Sound And Fury Edition #18/110



I picked up this 7” because it was a gap in my New Age collection, but it is anything but a gap filler. Good 90s hardcore that ended up on New Age for a reason. 

1st Press on Opaque Green w/ Blue Labels on New Age Records /150



I also picked up this limited variant of the s.t. Reserve 34 7”. When I first heard this record eight years ago, I immediately fell in love and all those years later, it still holds up. If anything, I like this 7” even more these days. 

Red Vinyl w/ Limited Sleeve on Moo Cow Records #25/101 


Sunday, February 18, 2024

Soar

Another old band I got into last year was Samiam thanks to Marcus. He posted about this band, which piqued my interest, then I saw a bunch of pople posting about seeing Samiam live at the end of the year. So I decided to check them out and bought their third LP Soar. The reason why I chose this as a starting point for their LPs was simply that this one was readily available at a mail order I frequent regularly. This is a fun LP and I‘m definitely going to check out more of their catalogue. 

Also, as stated in my previous post, vinyl is just a beautiful thing. The blue in blue looks so awesome in person. I know that streaming is the more convenient way to listen to music in 2024, but listening to vinyl is a whole different experience. 


2023 Repress on Blue in Blue Swirl on New Red Archives


Saturday, February 17, 2024

Karate

One of my favourite new discoveries of an old band last year was Karate. I picked up their s.t. LP after reading the description in the webstore of a mailorder I regularly order from. It sounded really interesting and I didn‘t get disappointed at all. There was a time, when all I listened to was this record. I just kept flipping it over and over and over again. Also, that green marble colour is awesome. It matches the artwork really well and if you hold the record up against the light, you can see that it‘s slightly transparent even though it looks solid when it lies flat on a surface. Just beautiful. 

The only drawback is that I haven‘t managed to get my hands on any more releases because they‘re sold out everywhere I looked. Oh well, I managed to spend decades without listening to this band. I guess, I‘ll manage for another few months. 

2022 Repress on Green Marble on Numero Group


Thursday, February 15, 2024

Marathon

This is one of the records that could have easily made my best of 2023 list, but I didn‘t get to spend enough time with it last year as it was sort of hard to get copy. Best of list or not, this is a really good record. Mil-Spec just hit that sweet spot for me when it comes to melodic hardcore. Obviously I‘d have preferred a copy on purple vinyl, because coloured vinyl is so much more beautiful and purple is one of the best colours for vinyl, but for now this regular version on black vinyl will have to do. 


1st Press on Black Vinyl on Lockin‘ Out Records /550


Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Record Collector Blues

A few weeks ago I missed out on a Bane test press. 6131 Records / Wanna Hear It Records sold a bunch of second hand records and Marcus was kind of to notify me of what was up for sale. But by the time I got to the web store, it had already sold. For some reason I hadn‘t checked my e-mails for a couple of hours, which would have told me about the test press being for sale right away. But that‘s how life goes.

So, what does any record collector do whenever they miss out on a rare record? Well, actually, I can‘t speak for all the collectors out there obviously, but what I do is go to Discogs, local listings and eBay to scour the Internet for rare records. Usually that means even more disappointment (I was thinking of a sports metaphor, but couldn‘t think of any), because 99/100 times I don‘t find anything. However, in this case I did get lucky and came across a Good Clean Fun test press for a really, really good price. Probably because only two people still care about collecting Good Clean Fun records in 2024 and I happened to stumble across this one at the right time. 

This is a test press for Phyte Records #16, the Let‘s Go Crazy 7“, which has Mr Issa dressed as Prince sitting on a motorcycle on the cover/artwork for the picture disc 7“. This is definitely not on the level of a Bane test press, but since I do collect Good Clean Fun records and I‘d never heard of a test press for this release, I‘m more than happy to add this to the collection. 


Test Press out of ??? on Phyte Records


Sunday, February 4, 2024

I Against I

Sometime during fall last year I was sort of obsessed with Bad Brains and more particularly their third LP I Against I. Now, there are maybe individually better songs on their earlier recordings, but I Against I is the album that flows the best as a whole. I was listening to that LP over and over again, and at one point I decided to check out which different versions there are out there. There are a bunch of different pressings on coloured vinyl, so I thought it‘d be fun to start collecting those. Let‘s see how this will go. 

Repress on Gold on SST Records


Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Out Of Outtakes

One of the bigger news last year was that Minor Threat were going to release a new record. It is not a reunion record (luckily), and the songs aren’t new either. The songs you get on this 7” were rediscovered a coupled of years ago and they were recorded around the time when Minor Threat recorded their one and only LP, as the name Out Of Step Outtakes suggest. You get an instrumental track called “The Addams Family” and re-recorded versions of In My Eyes and Filler as a five piece.

                                         


Back cover and the flip side of the insert because everything related to Minor Threat rules. 



Right around the same time as I received the record, I also got this photo book by Glen E. Friedman, a photographer who witnessed the birth of skateboarding, hardcore and hip hop through his camera. The man has seen it all and more importantly, he also documented what he saw. Some of the pictures in the book were already known, some hadn’t been published before. Perfect combo with the 7”. 



Saturday, January 27, 2024

Am Piano

Rio Reiser is most likely unknown to most people reading this blog, but he was a key figure of the German left of the ‘68 generation - in an artistic sense. In the early 70s he was the co-founder and singer of Ton Steine Scherben, which was THE political band back then when it came to leftist politics. To say Ton  Steine Scherben lyrics were very political would be and understatement, at least on their first few reocrds. The lyrical focus changed on their later records, but even the more personal songs often had a political message lying underneath. The band also coined a lot of leftist catchphrases that are used at demos to this day. 

Musically the band had nothing to do with proto-punk or heavy music that was starting around back then, their music was very rock driven and they used a wide range of instruments. Some songs really test my personal tolerance for how long a song should be, but since the rest is so good, I usually make it through them. His vocal delivery could count towards pronto-punk on some songs, but that might also be a stretch for some people. 

Later on, he enjoyed a somewhat successful solo career and even had some hits in the German charts, even though he mainly wrote those songs because he was in trouble with the IRS and had to get money. Must be nice to write a hit song or tow when you need to, haha. 

On this album, Rio Reiser plays old Ton Steine Scherben songs and his own solo songs on the piano, hence the name ‘Am Piano’ (for the non-German speakers). He also covers songs form the 50s and 60s. There are better versions of him playing some of those tracks on the piano out there, but for the most part I enjoy the songs on here and they provide an interesting insight into what music influenced his as an artist.