One Voice Fest Press

A few months back me and my best friend made the drive up to Sacramento to go to One Voice Fest. A bunch of great bands played that day, but we especially made the drive because the Cro-Mags played the first day. Pressure Point, one of my all time favorites also played and they did a limited cover for the festival. I have posted about this record before, and over the last year I have put a stupid amount of spins on this thing. It was release in 2007, but over the last year it has really become one of my favorites. Pressure Point is one of those top tier Oi! bands that you just can't fuck with.

I got number #24/40. I love the Gadsen snake on the back. Also as a side note, the dude that did the cover art is a tattoo artist from Washington DC that also played in Set to Explode. 

I also picked up this Written Off and Out Crowd split. I own a regular copy of this record, but I can't seem to find it in my posts? I guess I never blogged about it (yet). At the festival the guy that runs Six Feet Under was there and I said what's up to him. I didn't realize he used to play in the Boils, and I had met him in 2003 when my old band played with the Boils at a house party in the Santa Cruz mountains. Small world indeed.

This was #23/40 and on clear vinyl. I was looking at my regular press of this release which is on white vinyl. I don't know the pressing info as far as the colors go, if you do know please leave a comment. 

Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death

Here is the "Resist and Riot" LP by Sacramento Oi! legends Pressure Point. This may be their latest release (don't quote me on that!) and it came out in 2007. Their early releases like "Youth on the Street", "Life's Blood" and "Cross to Bear" are widely considered to be some of the best American Oi! releases ever, and it took me a while to really get into this release. This is by far Pressure Point's most experimental musically and lyrically of any of their other stuff. 

For a long time, I could care less about politics. But over the past few years, I have been waking up to alot of things and alot of these lyrics couldn't be any more dead on about some of the shit that is going on today. This may be my favorite Pressure Point release now, as for the last few months I've been listening to it non stop. I am posting this close to 4th of July because this is some truly patriotic American Oi! Not "ignorant patriotic" like alot of Oi, but these lyrics are much more critical of the government and encouraging people to find out what the fuck is going on. They're talking about the government spying on you and drones and shit flying around all the way back in '07, quite prophetic if you ask me. Give me liberty or give me death, motherfucker. Out of /103 on green and yellow swirl vinyl. 

Ha, well look at that. It's the back of my head (I believe that was at Death or Glory Fest 2006?). 

"Give me Liberty" by Pressure Point is the perfect song for 4th of July...

 

But "Rise Up" is surely my favorite track on this LP.

Aussie Bias

For as much shit I talk about the "bias" of small town American bands and how no one shows them love, I am guilty of the same shit but in a different context. I bought this record by Australia's BLKOUT this past summer. I don't know why it's taken me half a year to give it a listen, but it is definitely really good. BLKOUT brings that NYHC "urban" style hardcore like Madball and Cold World, which is right up my alley! I have a feeling this is going to be a regular listen for me now. 

This album comes on Splatter vinyl which on the Six Feet Under site says there were 300 pressed with 100 going to each label. So does that mean 100 of 3 different colors, or 300 of all this color? If someone could clarify, please do. I am not really a fan of the artwork or the splatter vinyl on this. I am not a complete splatter vinyl hater (Mike, here's looking at you) but I do think there are certain standards for splatter vinyl to make it appealing. For one, I like to see at least 2 to 3 colors mixed in with the splatter. I think if this band had a better band name they would probably take off. I mean "BLKOUT"? It's disappointing to me that the music on this is so fantastic, yet the artwork and band name suck.

Come's with a poster. Meh.

I'm much more excited about this music video. Fucking awesome, spray painting the lyrics all over town. Yeah, these guys rule.

Wolf Whistle - MA Glory

I pre ordered this Wolf Whistle 7" from Six Feet Under a while back not really knowing much about the band, but just seeing that they had shared members with a bunch of other good Boston hardcore bands. That' was good enough for me. I was pissed when I opened this up and saw it on black vinyl. I had to search around to find out that the black was the most limited color of all three colors. I haven't seen official pressing numbers on this release but I saw there are two different blue versions and one of them was out of /300, so I think it's safe to conclude that the black is most likely out of /100. If anyone knows the actual pressing info, please hit me on the head! Onto the music... I really don't know what to think about this release. Short, fast and aggressive hardcore directly to the point, but, I just need a little more than 50 second songs. It's like once the shit is really about to get good, the song ends. For what it is and considering the style of music, this is a good release. Just not really my style.

Now THAT'S more like it!!!

I have been in a bit of a slump lately with buying records. I realized today that I haven't bought a single record in over a month now. Wow. With gas prices reaching FIVE DOLLARS A GALLON in the Bay Area (Yes, $5 a Gallon), and me having to commute for work everyday almost an hour, it has been harder and harder to justify spending so much on records. Now I look at each potential 7" as a potential gallon of gas. That Sucks. The result of not buying any new records has led me to not take any new pictures in forever, so I've been going through old back logs looking for stuff to post. I forgot about this 7", but this thing is incredible. This type of Oi! inspired Hardcore is just what gets my blood pumping and brings the excitement back for me. If you get a chance to check this out, definitely do so. This is an amazing little 7". Also includes a 4-Skins cover of "Wonderful World". Featuring some pretty obscene art work, but fitting for how grimy and violent the recordings are. I just can't stop listening to this release and can't say anymore good things about it, so go get it.

Guilty - Tunes for an Apocalyptic Winter

Here is Sweden's very own GUILTY. A brutal 7" on Six Feet Under on both Tri Color (/100) and Black and Blue swirl (/300). I guess they were going for a apocalyptic winter theme with the vinyl colors, pretty cool. Both of these colors go fantastic with the cover. Truth be told, this has some of my favorite cover art that I've seen in a long time. It's like a modern "Age of Quarrel" rendition, and the music definitely reminds me of Age of Quarrel. This pretty much sounds like most of the NYHC metal influenced bands, nothing new or original but it is executed to perfection with great vocals, and that can't be said for 90% of the bands out there right now. This is an excellent 7" and definitely worth the pick up if you see it hanging around on one of your next orders. They also pressed different colors on Green Menace Records (Sweden) and Carry the Weight (UK). I actually bought this months ago and took these pictures in April, so I'm trying to go through some old pictures. I remember not writing about this at the time because I liked it so much I wanted to have a nice, long post dedicated to it and didn't have the time. Well it's ending up getting a quick post anyways. Listen to "Hollow Path" below:

15 On Clear, Better Be Right!

That last Judge post kind of got me in the mood for a Floorpunch post. For a long time I had a real fucked up attitude towards reissues and collections. I was really only interested in collecting the originals. A few years ago when this came out I wasn't really interested. Even though I like Floorpunch, I didn't really want a new collection of all their stuff, so I stood by and watched all the limited colors disapear like a dumbass. By the time I kind of felt like getting it, the good limited colors were gone and it was down to an incredibly ugly "Vegas Gold" out of /599 and the clear out /1009. I have never really been a big fan of clear vinyl, to it is so boring, and the Vegas Gold was just so incredibly ugly. So again, I waited. By the time I picked this up earlier this month during their 4th of July sale, of course all that was left was the clear vinyl. Whatever, atleast I got 25% off on it, bringing this to $15.

The layout is pretty simple. Gatefold with some pretty cool flyers from past shows. What more can you say about Floorpunch that hasn't been said, one of the best 90's hardcore bands period. I have been learning my lesson lately though, when something comes out or a repress of some good old classic hardcore, I'm not going to keep sleeping on it. I usually end up paying four times as much for it on ebay, anyways.

I got so much repress on my mind, Refuse to Lose...

When I heard that Six Feet Under was repressing Cold World's "No Omega" I was all over that shit with the pre order. The pressing info is /100 on orange, black and white splatter and /300 on orange marble. Both copies are surprisingly still available, so I would head over to the SFU store if you want one of the limited /100 copies! I am really shocked these are not long gone yet. It seems that Cold World vinyl seems to be getting cheaper and cheaper, and that's kind of sad because Cold World fucking rules. I've always been a huge Cold World fan, especially since they reference so many hip hop lyrics in their songs. My favorite hip hop reference is when they shout out "Big L Rest In Peace!" on "Low Places". Big L is my favorite rapper of all time and when my friend showed me that lyric years ago when this first came out, I was forever hooked on Cold World. As Jake already mentioned, the orange splatter copy is really one of the best looking vinyls I have ever seen. What a perfect blend of colors for this release.

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!

It's a Cold World, keep your long johns on

Since I'm going to see Cold World tonight at the Ceremony record release at the Gilman, I decided to post the Cold World/War Hungry split before I leave. Since I love hip hop, and I love hardcore, it stands to reason that I would love Cold World, right? Cold World has hip hop references in damn near all their songs, and ever since I heard the "Big L Rest in Peace!" line in "Low Places" I have always loved Cold World (Big L is my favorite rapper, ever). Here is the two copies I have, unfortunately the two most generic ones (670 on red/670 on green of the 2nd pressing), but I won them both for $4 on a multiple sale ebay auction so whatever. The layout is pretty cool, it folds out and all the band members have their own page.