Instant Mainstrike Collection

Talk about sleeping on a band. It's not uncommon for me to be late on a band, but it's usually not by almost 20 years! Recently I downloaded "No Passing Phase" by Mainstrike and I pretty much knew nothing about them, but I was hooked instantly. I wasn't sure if they were a new youth crew band, from East Coast, West Coast, etc. Then I came to find out they were one of the most influential European hardcore bands of the mid to late 1990s. Wow, okay. Heavily inspired by bands like Judge and Chain of Strength, these guys are fucking incredible. It amazes me that I had never heard of them and that more people aren't all about them. I mean, you can still find first pressings of their albums for sale on the labels website. So when I put my recent order together for the Shipwrecked LP together from Crucial Response, I saw all these limited Mainstrike records and I decided to build myself an instant collection.

Here is the handprinted silk screened edition of "No Passing Phase", limited to 40 copies. On plain old black vinyl. Excellent record. Pictured with the insert that folds out into a little poster with lyrics. All of these limited copies are on plain old black vinyl. 

The silk screened version of "A Quest For The Answers", limited to 97 copies. The back of it is just blank with a Crucial Response logo. Comes with another nice little poster.

And the limited version of the "Times Still Here" 7", limited to 102 copies. The above three are all the "Raw Data" Versions by Crucial Response. The Raw Data series is limited versions of Crucial Response release that are on hand printed silk screened jackets with different designs. Very cool.

Here is the only "regular" pressing I ordered. The idea of their s/t 7" on "Mint Green" vinyl with the green cover was just too irresistible. Out of 405. So there you have it. Sorry Mainstrike for sleeping on you so long, but better late then never right?

Rancid 1993

On my recent trip to San Francisco I found this for a cool $9.99, an original 1993 pressing of Rancid's first LP in pretty decent condition. After a quick look on discogs, I saw that these actually are pretty common and easily attainable for under $20. Seeing this at the record store made me realize I don't own one piece of Rancid vinyl, so I figured I'd pick this one up since it was in excellent condition and an original pressing. I am not really into Rancid, but when I was a kid it was a whole different story. Growing up in the Bay Area, everyone was all about Rancid. It gave me a sense of pride hearing them sing about areas where I knew people that lived or buses that I had taken myself. It was really cool too being in local bands since 13, and Lars used to come to our shows and would talk to us and bought our shirts and stuff. I always thought it was cool how much love Lars showed to all the local San Jose bands. As a little kid it felt like meeting a rockstar, but now as a grown man I see him at shows and it's just like seeing anyone else. 

Pretty standard original pressing black copy. I still like Rancid's first three albums, but I never really paid attention to anything after "Out Come the Wolves" as I grew older and got into more punk rock and suddenly Rancid wasn't so cool anymore. Eventually I think I'll track down "Lets Go!" and "OCTW", and that would probably be the full extent of my Rancid collection. 

ILL INTENT - No Masters

Once again I'm lagging on my posts. Now that I've run out of free space for my pictures, maintaining this blog has become quite cumbersome. Some photo hosting sites don't seem to work when looking at the pages on a mobile device (atleast on my android phone), so I've been having to try different sites. All in all, it makes it a pain in the ass for something that I'm doing for free! But the show must go on, or so they say...

Lately my two most played records have been that PEACE s/t 7" with the goofy cover, and this 7". This is an absolute BRUTAL ripper. I feel the music really reflects their Northwest style hardcore, I picture them recording and it being all dark, depressing, cloudy, wet and rainy outside. That's the feeling that shines through on this thing. Like Rakim said "Ain't Nobody Smiling", and the sheer brutality of the lyrics and vocals are what make this such an amazing release. I'm totally into it and I can't wait to see them when they come through San Jose on tour. This pretty much blows away almost every other release I've gotten lately, hands down one of the best releases of 2012. Check out "No Masters" featuring the singer from Rotting Out:

ANGEL CREW.. 2001... We're taking over this shit!

On a recent trip to San Francisco I got to stop by Amoeba Records and found quite the gem for $2.99. A slightly tore up copy of Angel Crew's "Another Day Living in Hatred". I have had this record on mp3 since 2001 and I have always loved it. Angel Crew was a European tough guy hardcore band from the early 2000s, and this record is raging as all hell. I have never owned any Angel Crew vinyl and honestly I haven't listened to this record in probably a year or two and had somewhat forgotten about it, but I was thrilled to find it for so cheap. After listening to this the last few days I am remembering now why I loved this release so much, this release is filled with absolute bangers.

It came on what appeared to be normal white vinyl, but as I took it out at the house I was surprised to see that when held up to light its kind of an off white marble. Looks pretty interesting though. If you have never heard of these guys, check out the opening track below, ant that brutal intro:

Rotting Out 2nd Press

So when I heard that 6131 would be repressing Street Prowl I was all over it. The first press sold out pretty fast, and I only managed to get a red copy and black copy with printed labels. I've seen the clear copy of the first press go for over $60 on ebay, so I may have to wait a few years before I acquire that one. I headed over to the 6131 store and saw that there were only two colors pressed, so I put in a pre order for 2 copies. The layout was slightly redone, obviously its in black and white now and different back picture. You can check out my old post on this album for more info.

The colors were a kind of whitish gray marble and a reddish black swirl. I'll go ahead and coin them "bone" and "blood red" marble. The red actually looks very nice when held up to the sunlight. I'm not sure which one is more limited or what the pressing info on this is. One thing I found interesting was that the blood red version came with the "Rotting Out" sticker on the polybag, while the bone marble version had no sticker. I'm not sure if it is like that for all copies, but that may possibly be a way to tell the colors apart if it is sealed?

Another big ass poster, though not quite as big a poster as the first press, still pretty cool. The lyrics are on the back. I've been listening to this release alot lately and it is really quite excellent. However, some bands are better on record than they are live, and some bands are better live than they are on record. Rotting Out is better live than they are on record. They are one of the best live bands I have seen in a long time, and I'm hoping that they can find a way to channel that live stage presence and energy into their recordings a little bit more for their next release.

Omegas - Blasts of Lunacy, and Clothing Advice

Here is my copy of Omegas' "Blasts of Lunacy". Great band name, great record name, great cover art/layout. Simple and to the point. This has been one of the more hyped records of the past few years, and was at the top of many 2011 best of lists. It was out of press for a minute so I finally scooped a copy up a few months ago. There are some very good songs and parts of this album where they flash brilliance, but I don't think it's consistent enough all the way through to warrant the hype that it has received. Like many bands, it really comes down to vocals for me and there are times where the singers voice just flat out annoys me. Maybe this will grow on me like that Fire & Ice LP did, time will tell. I've been trying really hard to get into this. 

Maybe this is what annoyed me right from opening the packaging. The two things I hate most about hardcore music are 1) Hardcore dancing and 2) Short shorts/Tiny ass clothes. I'm sorry but if you are a grown ass man, please cover up your legs nobody wants to see that shit. Have some respect for yourself. They're called Dickies, go buy some! So I am 6'0, almost 200 pounds and I rock a 2XL or XL tee, I have seen guys my size at shows right next to me at the merch table buying a size small or medium. Really bro? I'll never forget last time I saw Trapped Under Ice that "freaky franz" guy was working their merch table. I went up to buy a 2XL shirt, and there was a guy next to me that tried to get a small and he was almost my size. The merch guy asked him if the shirt was for him, dude says "Yes" and the merch guy said he refused to sell him anything less than a large and said that he needs to buy a "grown man size, like this guy" (points at me). I literally lost my shit. I felt kind of bad laughing right in the guys face but it was the funniest merch table moment I've ever seen. 

M.O.P. - Firing Squad. Harder than Hardcore.

At a recent record store shopping trip that I mostly came up empty handed in the hardcore and punk sections, I was thrilled to find a gem in the hip hop section. One of my favorite groups of all time M.O.P. (Mash Out Posse)'s "Firing Squad" album from 1996, and an original pressing at that. Even though this is my second favorite M.O.P. album, behind "Warriorz", this is still a classic and essential hip hop album. If you ask my friend Max who is a complete hip hop connoisseur he will swear up and down that this is M.O.P.'s best album. For those of you that don't know M.O.P. and say you like hip hop, well, you suck. Billy Danze and Lil Fame (aka Fizzy Womack) are two of the hardest, rawest rappers ever and they blend perfectly together. Especially for someone that likes hardcore music, these guys are basically the hardcore version of hip hop. They yell and have a ton of energy. Crucial record.

Although this is not necessarily super rare, it is still hard to track down and old hip hop LPs don't come around too often on ebay. Especially when you consider 90's hip hop on vinyl, they probably pressed a few thousands and most of them were used as promo copies. Back then, and even today, it is difficult to find most hip hop new releases on vinyl. It is especially difficult to find them with the real album art, as most hip hop LPs are promo copies, which basically mean they are a plain black sleeve with just a sticker on it with the rappers logo and the album name, and a little blurb about the album. Either way I'm stoked to own this now, and I'm just going to keep it sealed since I already know for a fact that this was only pressed on black vinyl. This is an original pressing on Relativity Records so it is much rarer than the later repress on Epic Records which was a 2LP version. Check out the rather corny video below for "World Famous" which suddenly turns into "Downtown Swinga", so the video is like half of both songs:

And still my favorite M.O.P. video, their first ever single "How About Some Hardcore?" So Good! This is the type of song that you can play at any social gathering and in the words of Lord Finesse, "turn a house party into a concert". My old band used to play this over the PA before we started our set:

Get the Most - Common Goals EP

For a quick post, check out these Get the Most 7"s that I got from my recent Crucial Response order. Here are the limited 2nd press copies of /296 on red and /206 on blue. These guys broke up not too long ago and that sucks, they were a solid youth crew hardcore band. I have a few of their LPs from React! Records that I'll try to post soon. That's it for now guys, I'm off to work!