Heavenly Divine... Steadily Shine in '99

Here is one I had to go diggin' in the crates for. When I bought this almost 10 years ago and I had the choice of getting it on CD or LP, I am glad I opted for the LP. As a 15 year old kid, I am glad I had the insight of downloading the shit for free off the internet and owning a copy of it on vinyl. In my room I had a little shitty CD boom box, but for my record player I had my dads old stereo set up with two big ass Technic speakers and an old Technic record player. So basically I was faced with either A) listening to CD's on a shitty boom box or in my car, or B) listening to vinyl on some big ass speakers and rocking the fuck out. Needless to say, this very record got the neighbors coming pounding on my door telling me to keep that shit down on more than one occasion. 

Some say that Jedi Mind Tricks "Violent by Design" is their classic album. I believe it's Legacy of Blood, then Violent by Design, but to each its own. This is not the original 1999 pressing on Superegular Recordings, but the 2003 repress on Babygrande. Either way, you can't really find this release for under $50 dollars anymore. For a while these were going on ebay for upwards of $100 dollars!

 Here is my copy of the "Heavenly Divine" single on Superegular Recordings. Heavenly Divine is definitely the most well known song on the album, and probably still Jedi Mind Tricks most famous song. When this LP was recorded JMT consisted of Vinnie Paz, Jus Allah and Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind on production. After this release Jus Allah had a falling out from the group, and rejoined years later in 2008 on "A History of Violence". But its like when he came back his voice sounded all weird and way too gruff, so to me this release and his one solo album are the only releases where he actually sounds good. Check out Heavenly Divine below:

And check out one of Vinnie Paz's most recent solo tracks. For those of you that don't know Vinnie Paz is all about that hardcore shit, check him out repping that Trapped Under Ice and Terror merch:

Catching Up on School Jerks

At this stage in the blogging game, it gets hard to keep up with what I have and haven't already posted. For example on my last Night Birds post, as I was writing it I searched for my post that I thought I did on "Other Side of Darkness" so I could put a link to it, and to my surprise it was all a dream. I had taken the pictures, and it was backlogged with hundreds of other records.

As I was getting ready to post the other new Grave Mistake release by School Jerks, again I went to post a link to some previous School Jerks records that I thought I had posted that were all imaginary. Ok, well I'll get to Other Side of Darkness some other time, but for now all also include the other School Jerks 7"s!

Here is Toronto's School Jerks' latest release on a gorgeous sea green marble vinyl, or as GM coined it "Green Slime". Great release of raw, fast, snotty old school punk rock. I feel like I'm drinking a 40 and hanging out a Shady Acres when I put this one on (my SJ folks know what I mean). Fantastic artwork on this, in a way it almost reminds me of the old Age of Quarrel demo cover with all the twisted shit going on. I love how the vinyl perfectly matches the ink color on the poster. The green vinyl is out of /200 and still available from Grave Mistake, so don't get caught slipping. 

Here is the School Jerks' "PPDSCEMFOBBT" 7 inch on Cowabunga. What the hell that title means? Good question. More interesting art work. This is a 3rd press on gold vinyl. Cowabunga's "Discography" page states this is out of /107, yet the Cowabunga store states its out of /100. 

And their "Control" 7" on black vinyl out of /900, also on Cowabunga. This release had /100 on clear, which would be nice to eventually track down. I am really digging all this School Jerks art work. What makes this release interesting is apparently the red "School Jerks" logo is hand stamped on all 1000 sleeves, so basically every sleeve looks different. Man, that must have taken forever. 

What really irks me about this post is the fact that I have their "Nothing Else" EP and I never took pictures of it, but I am far too lazy to go dig it up and take pictures of it so you'll just have to take my word for it. 

Obi Strip Night Birds

Grave Mistake recently pressed the Night Birds' "Fresh Kills Vol. 1" on vinyl. I previously had this on CD so I was looking forward to it coming out on vinyl. I was honestly quite disappointed when I found out they went with a limited edition Obi strip in lieu of limited color vinyl. All the vinyl for this was pressed on black. It also seems that as soon as it was posted on the GM store (literally, that day) they were sold out of the Obi strip version. I can't imagine 210 copies of this selling out immediately. I know the Night Birds aren't that popular! What happened to all those other copies, Alex? 

As far as the record itself, it is quite good. I have been giving the Night Birds alot more listens lately and they have really grown on me. The obi strip itself looks really cool, silk screened maroon and baby blue colors. I got a very cool number #210/210. I did read on facebook that this will be the first (and last) Obi strip release for Grave Mistake, so it's cool having the last copy!

Whiskey Rebels Last Shows

A few weeks back I attended the Whiskey Rebels' last shows. A very sad weekend for sure, seeing one of my favorite bands of all time call it quits. Whiskey Rebels were a group that I grew up on and meant the world to me. I was able to pick up a few items celebrating their grand finale weekend.

First was a limited edition cover, which was basically just a single piece of card board. Honestly I'm rather disappointed in the design and the fact that it wasn't hand numbered. I don't even know how many were made, and essentially had to pay $10 to get a black copy of an LP I already owned. Whatever though, it's not like I wasn't going to buy it. (See my previous review for this LP here.)

Plead the Fifth also played and made a limited cover in what I believe to be one of the best hardcore 7"s of the year. I like what they did with the "I can hear the reaper calling" cover, giving a shout out to Whiskey Rebels. It's just a plain piece of xeroxed paper, but I think they did a good job considering that they were added to the show last minute. Grave Maker cancelled two days before the show so they put these together pretty fast! It comes on red vinyl, but I'm not sure if all 20 were on red vinyl. (See my previous review of this 7" here.)

My favorite item that I got was this poster drawn by Big Chuck of Whiskey Rebels. Nice big poster on thick card board, hand numbered #14/100. I felt this was 10 dollars well spent, and I'll definitely be framing this to go with the rest of my Big Chuck paintings. I had so much fun watching Whiskey Rebels for the last time, it truly saddens me that they called it quits. I only hope they will have a reunion show or two one day. Check out "Reaper Calling" below:

Face Reality, This Record RULES!

I was all over it recently when Back to Back announced pre orders for Face Reality's newest EP, "Strong Survive". I wasn't going to go out like a sucker (like I did with the last Face Reality release!), and pay big bucks! I'm really glad I did, because the "orange" copies (which are CLEARLY red) of /150 sold out in less than an hour. I am assuming that the label must have given atleast 100 to the band or something, because there is just no way they sold 150 that fast. What's strange is the color version was sold out for months, but I just looked at the Back to Back page and saw that some are available now? If you haven't picked one up yet, I would say now is a good time. The black version is out of /350.

This is without a doubt one of the best releases of the year. The band has stepped it up since their last release (which is no easy task), and you can see these guys are getting better with every release they put out. This is some brutal straight edge hardcore. The vocals are so gruff and awesome, you just cannot beat this release. 

I got to pick this guy up on blue with my last Youngblood order too. Hell yes. Now I have it on blue, red and black (see my last post of this release for more info). I was stoked to get this on blue for only $5, and not have to pay a silly price like I did for my red copy. Anyone know the pressing info on this blue copy?

Check out the "Strong Survive" EP below in its totality:

No Remorse, No Merch Flipping

In that last Youngblood order, I also grabbed a black copy of the "No Remorse, No Tolerance" 7", which would have been my first No Tolerance vinyl. Considering that everyone is in full on No Tolerance worship mode right now and that even black vinyl has been going for silly prices on ebay, I was happy that I waited it out and could find myself a copy for only $5. Shortly after I saw on Facebook that they would be selling a limited Blue vinyl out of /200 for the This is Hardcore fest. Bummer, living in Northern California isn't always the shit. I knew I would have to miss out on that one, or pay $40 for it or some silly price on Ebay.

A few months go by and still no Youngblood order... What gives? So I send them an email to see what is going on, and I got a big apology and a "Don't trip I'll send you a few extras". I then kindly asked if there were any blue copies of NRNT left, and he said he would send me one. I even went as far as to ask for two and that I would gladly pay for them, and explained to him that I needed one for my boy Jake too, and that I'm not a merch flipper. He was kind enough to oblige.

The blue and black copies are on different sleeves. The blue copy has Silver screen printed writing on a matte black fold out with no insert. The black copy has White ink and is on more of a professional looking looking glued jacket with a double sided insert which is identical to the fold out. I prefer it with the silk screened silver cover. So there you have, I got lucky and scored this sweet record without going to pay for plane, hotel and all kinds of other fees to go to TIHC Fest or having to through my nose to a merch flipper on Ebay. Thanks Youngblood!

Police (and Thieves) bring Justice

I put together a nice Youngblood Records order recently and had to throw in a few extra items. I picked up the "final pressing" of Justice's 2007 LP, "Escapades". This is on a silk screened alternate sleeve. At the time I bought it, I think it says this was out of /50 but I can't remember. I wish I would have written it down because now that it is OOP the info is missing of the Youngblood page. The artwork looks great and the alternate sleeve is really nice with the silk screen.

I also got Police & Thieves "Fracturing" LP on white vinyl. I am a little confused about the pressing info. At the time I bought this, the Youngblood page stated that this was out of /100. But after checking Mike's page, I see he has it /195 on white. Oh, the confusion. I may have to send an email to Youngblood to get all the correct pressing info, if I get a response I'll update this post.

And Police & Thieves first seven inch. According to Mike also, only 300 pressed on black and "Gold". Unless I got a later pressing, this is a strange looking gold. Not as strange as the "Vegas Gold" on the Floorpunch 2LP though. Youngblood threw this in for free, thanks guys! 

In honor of the 9/11 Victims...

How about some good old NYC Oi? That's right the Templars have a new (which is actually old) release out on TKO Records. Wait, you're telling me the Templars are rereleasing old recordings? Surprise, surprise. This is a one sided 7" that is hand numbered out of /666 on black. I really messed up because I saw that Pirates Press had a limited edition white version up out of /50, and it sold out in like a half hour before I could get an order in. So I had to settle with the TKO limited version which came with a patch for the first /200 (boring!).

With the patch and etched B-Side, which looks pretty cool. Also hand numbered #87/666. 

Now moving on... 

Of course on 9/11 I always can't help but feel sorrow for all the innocent people that got killed. Of course this is not a political blog, and I don't want to say too much on here because I am really not out to offend anyone (unless if it's saying a record sucks!), but below is a great 9/11 documentary that I think everyone should watch if you haven't seen it. It discusses some of the interesting things that occurred that a majority of the American public have no idea about. I don't mean to sound stupid, but before I watched a similar documentary several years back, I never even knew a third building collapsed in NYC on 9/11! At the time the media covered it up pretty well and no one talked about it at all. Even to this day I ask people how many buildings fell on 9/11, and nearly everyone answers; "Two". Whatever you want to believe, I feel that this should at least be seen by every American so they can make their own opinion on the matter. My heart goes out to all the victims of 9/11 and their families.