SSD - You think I'm joking?

Sometimes I have to sit back and trip out on all the straight edge stuff I have. I have never been straight edge, not even close. But something about the music has always appealed to me. I just love this shit. Maybe it's because opposites attract? This is a classic album, but it really has some of the funniest straight edge lyrics I've ever heard. Some straight edge lyrics pump me up, with classics like Project X ("I'm as hard as the booze that you swill down your throat") or Judge lyrics ("Those drugs are gonna kill you, if I don't get to you first"), Now those are hard as hell. Then you have the lyrics from get it away... "Think I'm joking about your smoking? Think its fair to steal my air?" Really? SSD will get a pass for those because they fucking rule so it really doesn't matter, plus its pretty hard to understand the lyrics anyways. 

STEP ASIDE, and how to run your label pt. 1

I had originally ordered this Step Aside 7" knowing nothing about it or Life to Live Records. This is one of those releases I bought purely based on the artwork. I figured if it sucked, atleast I would be paying $5 for some sick ass art work, right? After hearing it and getting completely knocked off my chair by this Arizona straight edge power house, I did a quick search for Life to Live records and realized they had it on two other colors and a bunch of other cool stuff to boot. I watched their stock for a while and didn't see it moving too much, until one day I saw they posted Provider pre orders, including 5 test presses that they were selling to the public. I jumped on it quickly and got my Provider test press, these and one or two other items and waited for my Blue and Green copies to come in.

The pressing info is /125 on blue with the pre order cover (which as you can see is different because it is black and white), /150 on green and I think it was /250 black. So I wait a month or two for my order to come in (it got held up because of the Provider pre order) and over time I see that this thing goes OOP. Cool, glad I got my copies. Finally when my order comes in, I am shocked and horrified when I go to the mailbox and the package looked like it had been the ball in an all day soccer tournament. I open it and realize that all of my record sleeves were damaged with bent corners and creases. What the hell! So I take some pictures of the package and send over an email to Dan at Life to Live...

So Dan tells me don't even trip, I'll make it up to you. A few days later a package arrives with a bunch of free vinyl and this being the gem, a Step Aside test press! I damn near lost my shit when I seen this in there. Being a collector, customer service makes a huge difference to me. This gesture has just ensured a life long customer to LTL records as far as I am concerned. And for you people that own labels, keep this in mind: record collectors like myself and other bloggers on here are the kind to not only buy one copy, but buy every damn copy on every color and feel this insatiable need to own every vinyl that you ever press. So don't fuck us over, we are the ones paying your bills.  More on Life to Live, this is a record label that is clearly on the rise that you should be paying attention to. They got some great promising young bands right now, including Losin' It and Provider. Last night when I was at a show, I saw a handful of kids running around wearing Step Aside, Losin' It and Life to Live shirts. That's how I know this labels about to blow the fuck up!

Youth of Today and In My Eyes Re-issues are IN!!!

So today I was thrilled to see that my Youth of Today and In My Eyes pre orders had come in! I looked on Rev and it said that the YOT pre orders were shipping June 7th! I had to rush and take some quick pictures to get up for everyone to see. So far it had been a mystery what the colors where going to be, so I'm sure that I wasn't the only who was anxious to find out what these reissues looked like. The Revelation RSD "Big 4" really has NOTHING on this "Big 4"!

This Break Down the Walls comes on a absolutely gorgeous red, with the Wishing Well labels to boot! I was by far the most excited to own this vinyl out of all 4. I don't think Rev could have done any better, this thing looks fantastic.

Next is Y.O.T.'s "Were Not In This Alone" with the Caroline cover art. This thing looks really great as well and was the only one to come with a poster. Now lets all stand around and grab our nuts.

This is actually my first time owning any In My Eyes on wax. Here is "Nothing to Hide" on a very nice green.

And finally "The Difference Between" on what is my favorite vinyl of all 4 of these, as far as color goes I mean. This purple looks really outstanding, I need to take a picture when I have more time of it in the light, you can see a slight swirl/marble effect in it as well. I will be waiting to see if Rev announces different colors. I have no idea the pressing info on these, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I got the most limited color since I got my pre orders in pretty fast. We'll see what other colors pop up as other bloggers start posting these. Now off to the movies with my girl.... enjoy!

Way too much BACKTRACK

Since I'll be seeing Cold World and Backtrack tonight in Oakland, I wanted to post my copies of Backtrack's "Darker Half". I bought the black and white copy when I saw them with Trapped Under Ice last year. At the time I had never listened to them, but I was so blown away that I had to pick up the record and some merch. At the table I remember they had all four vinyl pressings, but I opted for the most common one on black and white vinyl (out of 1000) because I thought it looked so great and the fact that the album is called "Darker half". Then a few months ago I saw that Reaper had posted the pre-order green (out of 300) which was the most limited color and I had to scoop that one up as well. I'll probably pick up the clear and yellow copies if I can get them on the cheap on ebay or something, but I don't really feel the need to pay full price for them.

The artwork and layout is incredible. Another prime example of why Spoiler art is just untouchable. It seems pretty obvious that this is inspired by the Agnostic Front "Cause for Alarm" album art, not just because of the obvious devil connection and other similarities, but there's a dude getting choked out for christs sake!

Now onto the record itself... This thing is an absolute banger. I sincerely think this thing may be remembered as a classic from this era in another ten or fifteen years. This is one of those albums that I loved from the first listen and I can listen to every track. If you haven't picked one of these up, I would definitely do so immediately!

I also have slowly amassed a silly amount of Backtrack merch. I have never been that big of a merch guy. Do I have a shit load of band shirts? Hell yeah, I mean I've been going to shows on a regular basis for well over a decade so it just happens, but I've come to the point where I have enough damn shirts and hoodies that I rarely feel the need to buy something unless I absolutely love the design. It all started at that first Backtrack show, I got a Darker Half crew neck and the white "face" shirt with the vinyl. A few months after that I was ordering some stuff from Reaper and decided I wanted the Darker Half logo on a T shirt and also threw in the Spoiler devil and barking dog shirts while I was at it. Then I seen them again recently in Santa Cruz and bought the black Ape shirt and the black Darker half alternate "green" shirt. Then a few weeks ago, I see an update saying they have left over tour stuff for sale, so I picked up the windbreaker and Darker half hoodie (both in the front). Does the insanity ever end?? I'm going to have to try really hard to not buy any more Backtrack stuff tonight. So far the tally is (1) crew neck sweatshirt (1) hoodie (1) windbreaker and (6) shirts. That is by far the most merch I have of any band, and I feel like a huge dork for having so much. It just kind of happened and built up on me slowly... What can I say, there artwork and designs are just too awesome to deny!

CULO FEVER

I originally discovered this band on someone else's vinyl blog but I can't remember whose. I saw this and the great cover art and I knew I had to have it, so I headed over to Deranged and put together a $25 (now $27) for 5 seven inches shipping bundle and got these three together, as well as a Young Offenders and Violent Minds 7". Culo is from Chicago and plays fast as hell lo-fi noisy thrash style punk. I am not even really sure how to describe it, and although this typically isn't my style this seven inch is pretty good. Both of the Toxic Vision seven inches are surprisingly still available and are only out of 100 each. I suggest picking these up before they are gone for good! They also have a 12" on blue vinyl out of 100 that I really want, but since it adds almost $20 to the shipping cost I just can't justify the purchase at this time. Why the hell does a 12" add so much more to shipping from Canada to the US??? I'll probably have to pull the trigger on it soon though because I don't want to be kicking myself if this band blows up, and those blue 12"s are going for stupid amounts on ebay. 

I picked this one up as well which now appears to be OOP on Deranged (but there are some still at RevHQ), which appears on a very nice clear smoke. I'm not sure of the pressing info on this, but I think it was also out of 100. One of my fellow Bloggers Mr. Rusty Shackleford was kind enough to post download links for these, but of course go support the band and buy "Toxic Vision" before you download that one :) Below is my favorite Culo track and probably their catchiest, the title track for Toxic Vision:

I'm on a Dyno with the Black Mags

While I wait for my girlfriend to finish getting ready before we leave to go see the Bodies in Oakland, I figured I would put up a quick post. I love this Cool Kids single for "Black Mags" because of the sick ass art. A chick with high heels riding on the pegs of a bike... You should just watch the video and you'll understand it better. Basically just a song about cruising around on your bicycle. The Cool Kids are sick, if you haven't heard them you should check them out. All their beats on The Bake Sale album are just ridiculously awesome. For sure a hip hop group that doesn't get the recognition they deserve, but what else is new?

"But I don't care joe, I just keep on pedalin
Ride past shorty light skinned with no melanin
Shirt look like somebody stuffed two melons in
Had to stop so I could preach like reverend
I grip on the handbrake and say 'What up?'
I skip on the handshakes, I'm straight. What else?" - Mikey Rocks

Keep Striving Higher

As I've said before, I typically don't collect compilations... but after missing out on the more limited pressings of "America's Hardcore" I didn't want to miss out on the color pressing of this compilation put out by Six Feet Under, so I figured I'd throw it in with my last order through them. Six Feet Under did a great job with the layout, booklet and vinyl of this release. They definitely did not spare any expense with the huge color booklet with each page dedicated to a band (exactly like America's Hardcore) and a huge SFU poster to boot. 

The vinyl looks really fantastic. When I heard gold/black swirl I wasn't expecting it to look this nice. Sometime's "gold" turns into more of a shit brown on vinyl but I think the album art and layout go well with the color selection. 

An interesting choice for a poster. It's just the cover of all of SFU's releases so far. Uhm... Ok? I guess it doesn't matter much to me, I never hang the posters from vinyls up anyways.

This thing came with a limited Blacklisted flexi disc for anyone that orders the release directly from SFU. Another cool little perk. I would have preferred a free 7" but hey, I'll take this flexi disc!

Record Store Day 2012 - Finally...

I'm probably the last one to post about RSD 2012 but better late than never. There are still a few pieces I may be getting to complete the RSD 2012 collection, but we'll see. So let's get down to the nitty gritty...

Poison Idea's "Pick Your King" was without a doubt my number one target of all the RSD releases. I have never owned this classic on vinyl and it's on a very nice clear. Perhaps what made me most interested in this is the fact that it was put out by TKO Records. I have been collecting TKO Records vinyl longer than any other label probably, and have always made it a mission to collect (mostly) all their early releases. I was stoked to find one of these left when I showed up at my local store.

Since they were out of Blood for Blood, Misfits and Cause for Alarm, this was the next one on my list. Besides Ignite, I must admit that I had never really heard any of the "Big 4" that Rev released this year except this one. One of my old friends had made me an Ignite tape when I was in like 6th grade, and I remember liking it but hadn't heard it in forever and mostly forgot about it. In anticipation of RSD, I had to track down all the "Big 4" and download them to see what I was (possibly) getting into. This Ignite album definitely brought back some memories and I knew I had to have this one. This one was actually already sold locally, and I was pretty bummed. To my shock and surprise a week after RSD I was at the Street Light Records in Santa Cruz and found this in the "RSD" left over bin. Hell yes! This Purple Marble vinyl is definitely the best looking of all the RSD presses in my opinion.

Upon downloading all of the "Big 4", this was the only other release that I had planned on picking up. Definitely not my style, but rather catchy pop punk that also reminded me of being a kid. My original plan was to pick up just this and Ignite, however on RSD I could not find either of them. That is until b. murphy and Vinyl Noize held a contest where they were giving away RSD releases, and they were kind enough to select me! So about a week ago, this shows up in my mail box (as well as another nice surprise, that will be revealed below). Vinyl Noize fucking rules, OK! So thanks again murphy, you are the man! 

I had no plans at all in picking up this Sense Field LP. When I downloaded it, I couldn't even listen to more than a few songs. Sorry dudes, just way too emo for my tastes. But when I got down there and I couldn't find anything except for the "Pick Your King" EP, the record nerd kicked in when I saw just one copy left of this and Into Another and a bunch of people milling about around them. Fuck it, I guess I'll pick it up and maybe trade it later with someone that appreciates it more. It is on a beautiful orange marble vinyl though. 

I had no desire to own this release either, as I just can't even listen to the music. Not my style at all, but same as the Sense Field LP... With only one copy left, I didn't want to kick myself later for not picking it up when I had the chance, because I seem to be doing that way too often. So I pulled the trigger and yeah, this one will probably be traded as well.

Murphy was awesome enough to also throw in this Run DMC single with the Farside LP, what a kick ass dude! It's also on Profile Records, which is rad. Too bad this one doesn't have an "Age of Quarrel" labeled b-side, haha. This is a really cool addition to my hip hop collection, and this is actually the first Run DMC vinyl that I have ever owned. Thanks again Murphy! Now for those of you reading this, go check out Vinyl Noize and TeeTilDeath.

(Note: I'll probably update this soon as I add a few more additions.)