Back in March, I was stoked that I got to go see Step Aside and Mindset on their "Cali Weekend" tour. Step Aside's "Reaching Out" was one of the best releases of 2012. Now that I have this, I think I have almost every pressing of this release (including a test press). This is a really sharp looking Bones Brigade rip.
There were 50 pressed and they were only sold at those three California shows. I like the Life to Live Records Revelation rip that they did. At the Gilman show, I don't remember that many people buying these. Everyone was busy trying to get a copy of Mindset's "Leave No Doubt" on white.
My copy was on black and I scored 2 other copies for Jake and Mike. Me and Mike's copies were on black vinyl while Jake's was on white. I wonder if they used other colors in the limited fifty? If you don't have a copy of this 7" then you are seriously living under a rock! There is still some pretty limited copies left of the 2nd press available at Life to Live.
As I've talked about in my previous post, I love Arizona's Youth Crew powerhouse STEP ASIDE and their seven inch "Reaching Out", and now I own 8 copies of it. Since I already had all 4 of the first press (including the test press), when I saw pre orders go up for a 2nd press and a package deal of all 4 colors, how could I resist? If you missed out on the first press of this, there is no reason you shouldn't be heading to Life to Live right now to pick up the 2nd press copy!
So you can get a better look. Red /75, Gold /100, White /125, Frost /200. My favorite is the gold and "frost". Now off to the Raiders game. GO RAIDERS!
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!
