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Man the holidays have kind of slowed down progress here a little bit, but nonetheless, let me offer you a couple things for Metal Monday vol.2 The big thing: Mayhem - Death Crush on Pozercorpse. This one looks to be in nice shape on top of that. The great thing about this phase of Mayhem, and really, even their first full-length, is it predates most of the cliche’ aspects of black metal music, and thus really makes for cool and original music. It will also kill your braincells faster than a beer bong full of Colt45 (hello to Billy Dee Williams).

For secondary interesting items: please visit these 3 very nice looking Venom singles, 2 of which are picture vinyl. Acid Queen is my number 1 favorite Venom tune, Diehard is number 3, and Burstin’ Out is number 2, which you’ll find on the 12″ version of the Diehard single - making this my favorite Venom release. The breakdown in Acid Queen is one of the all time best, most fist pumping moments in Heavy Metal, that is proof alone that all the critical lambasting over the years of this band is uncalled for. The amount of piss ‘n vinegar energy on display is so much that the campy horror rock lyrics are essentially rendered irrelevant; you’re shouting along with the call/response structure of “Wild”, “Child”, “Demon Controls My Mind”, because you can’t not do it. Venom are to Motorhead what the Misfits were to the Ramones. They can’t play for shit, their lyrics are all of the Z-Grade horror variety, the recordings are terrible, but they take the framework laid out by an important band before them, and use it to write great songs. Blah Blah Blah Blah… back to hardcore and punk tomorrow.

I have a big post coming, but before that, please observe a few items in this short weekend post that Reptillian Records of Baltimore is selling. A lot of run of the mill indie store stuff (a clipped Crispen Glover lp, Guided By Voices, Beach Boys, Mr. T Experience…), but there are a few really high demand straight edge hardcore items. BTW: does anyone know if Reptillian still has a street address? I know they shut down, then moved, and I’m not currently sure if they have a store front or are just an online business. Any info would be appriciated. The records:

1) War Zone - Lower East Side Crew 7″ on Orange

2) NYHC - 1987 - Together, standard pressing

3) Judge - New York Crew on Schism records (2nd pressing)

One thing I love is all 3 of these records are raw as hell, and every song is a hit. The War Zone is the big money maker here but Together is probs gonna go for a hundred at least, and the Judge record, though not worth too much in dollars, is valuable at least in terms of the sounds found on it. The thing that really dragged me down to the pit of despair (aka: record collecting) was early rev/schism and related records. Something just looked so cool about the Judge 7″ to my 16 year old mind. After that the seed was planted and the spell was unbreakable. To me these records are great proof that playing straight edge hardcore doesn’t need to be all octave-chord leads, epic tribal drum breakdowns, and grand statements about society and self. Every band on NYHC - 1987 - Together, is basically just scrapping it out, hacking away however they can get the job done. The recordings themselves are not “big”, “clean”, or “huge”, they just sound like some mics pointed at a wall of very fast sound. Timing isn’t perfect, the drumming is primal and simplified, the guitars for the most part sound like beefed up waves of tv static; but every single band delivers in spite of this, and they sound better for it. It’s truely hardcore, “warts and all” as they say, and both the Judge and War Zone 7″s only serve to expand upon, and hammer that point home. Some people, no doubt avid readers of some crap-factory like pitchfork, or buyers of obscure 60’s world music, would protest that this music is juvenile and lacks anything subtle or thoughtful. I on the other hand would like to borrow an arguement from my friend DFJ, that sometimes I still feel the same things I felt when I was but 15, and anyone who says they don’t, is probably a liar. In rememberence, of old New York…

Oh since I wrote this they also added a Unit Pride - s/t 7″ which is neither raw, or New York based but still pretty good. Wide Awake is by far the best song on it though, and I actually don’t love it, but I do love their artwork. In addition, in a pre-emptive Metal Monday note - check the Abruptum 7″ they’re selling which is the first Abruptum vinyl. If you like evil Sweedish black metal made by an actual dwarf, this record is for you. Honestly I’d prefer the War Zone 7″.

HERE’S ONE FOR ALL YOU FIENDS… ahem.

Here’s my vote for “stupidest thing to pay money for on ebay this week”. A Misfits tape w/ hand-written sleeve (by Danzig!!!!) that has alternate mixes of a bunch of songs you’ve heard a crap load of alternate mixes of already. Ryan Richardson is selling this and he is a hustler - RESPECT.  He is the man, because he is the kind of guy that gets to unearth this stuff, but I’m shaking my head at the fools bidding hundreds of American dollars on this thing. Also contains Horror Business outtakes. Great, just what we need. “Alright this is Moon Ghouls Of The Grave take 6 and a half”.  Some doof is going to make a bootleg of this that I’m going to have to flip by in the M section for the next 10 years called like… “The Ghouliest Hits From The Grave Vol. 2″. Most likely the front will feature Bela Legosi fighting a werewolf driving a hotrod, for the rights to a Frankenstein babe surfing on a flying saucer in her bikini. The artwork will of course be very pixilated, and the sleeve of the flimsy European variety. The Misfts are the best shitty band of all time (as in they play shitty, and sound best), but their super-fans are just dorks.
 

Greetings. This is a late post today because I was hardly around a computer at all. Thus it will also be a quick post, which sucks because I’m not going to be able to post the one I was working on, and the auctions it was for are nearly ended. Don’t be bummed though, I’m returning to Jeff Nelson’s Auctions, for a newly listed copy of the Flex Your Head comp, in TEST PRESS form. This is a definitive “scene-documenting” comp, along with jams like Yes LA, Together, and Process Of Elimination… to name just a few. It’s sort of funny seeing who did and didn’t make the comp here (how did they skip The Faith in favor of the worst Deadline songs?). The Youth Brigade songs on here nearly outshine their 7″, the Teen Idles ones feel like table scraps, although that was probably the closest they had to a “name” band at the time. Void - Dehumanized… find the Mudhoney cover - it’s the best. I’ll return tomorrow with a longer post. There’s not too much I need to say about this except that it’s gonna go for at least $300, although I think there’s at least 50 made.

I think my friend Timmy is having these items sold for him, or they used to be his. A couple of painkiller records rarities in here, including a test press of the Breathing Fire 7″, which was really only made in a large quantity for a show in Sherbrook… i’m not sure why really. Breathing Fire are the most powerful and brain melting band I’ve ever been able to “work with”, and by work with, I mean beg to reform and record an album (which will be out soon on Painkiller). There’s also tests of the recent Hard Skin 7″ on Feral Ward, The Government Warning lp, and the Doom/No Security split (which I’m under the impression there’s at least 50 of).

A good record that I expect is gonna set a new high due to the 80’s USHC craze we’re drowning in right now, is “F - You Are An E.P.” 12″. The first song on this one is really well written, a call response that is a little more advanced than many. It never really reaches the same heights after that but it’s a good record. I bought one for $6 once. It was a cool day although I got a parking ticket when that happened.

In a similar vein, and class, is Subculture - I Heard A Scream lp, on green vinyl (I feel like I see green more than black). This band as you might know had the singer of recently acclaimed, Double Negative. This really isn’t as good as Double Negative, not even close. It’s good, but I don’t love it. Sounds like the first COC album watered down by some Mystic style punk. A lot of songs about girls (do I even need to say how bad those lyrics are?), one or two mellow moments that kill the momentum, and is kind of long IMO. People are looking for this though, and with 80’s No Namer HC records all going for more and more loot, how long will it be before either A) you want to buy that Morrally Bankrupt album off me (members of DRI & Pissed Youth… lol) or B) the whole thing falls in on itself and $10 lps become $10 lps again. There was once a time when the first Token Entry lp was clearing $50… and I’ll take this moment to point out, it’s more worthy than a dozen Subcultures, Th Inbred’s, and whatever other mediocre crap someone’s going to dredge up. Then again, I’ve been known to rave about the Infection - “Legal Limit” lp (Deleware), and I may just be crashing from a sugar high (thanks for the cookies mom). I’m giving Subculture a hard time which isn’t really fair. It’s not a bad lp. But it’s also the kind of thing that should be found for under $20.

I’m kind of curious to see if this Fair Warning - You Are The Scene 12″ will start getting any value. After all it’s as worthy as whatever already is. I think the cover art is better than the actual music. It’s French Canadian, like The Omegas, and America’s Youth.

Lastly, don’t forget the Amebix - No Sanctuary on Spiderleg… not sure if it was ever issued on another label but probably. A veryfine non-punk, punk band. Seems like kind of a battered copy but maybe you’re looking for it.

I’ll be honest. I’m too busy eating figgy pudding and  Wasailing to make this a very detailed post, but for anyone peeping here’s a quick post of “good jams”. I’m not going to talk like I’m an O.G. with this stuff, or even that I know the most, but I know hits when I hear/see them.  This dude’s got ‘em for sure…Stalin, Judgement, Lipcream, LSD, Tetsu Array, Ghoul, Death Side, Outo… these are all names in Japanese HC/punk.But what would any Japanese record sale be without some Madball and Next Step Up? Incomplete I tells you. I once saw Next Step Up open for Biohazard in Hagarstown MD. Rob from Straight Ahead was playing guitar. That doesn’t make it cool to admit that I was seeing Biohazard in the late 90s though, but I was merely an adolecent, I had no idea.

Anyhow, I’d like to volunteer, that while it’s the most common of their 4 singles, and after the departure of Nori from Bastard, Judgement’s - “Haunt In The Dark” is one of the top 5 riffs of the 90’s, fuckit, of any genre. An opening riff like the one it has might play itself, but it didn’t write itself thats for sure. You’re blessed with a riff that good. Where from? Wherever you want to believe, it doesn’t matter, but something that dominating only comes every now and again. It’s the musical equivalent of He-Man, dominating with its authority and control, and also righteous, good, and very likeable. It feels like an anthem hardwired into your brain from birth being accessed by the correct password combination, it’s familiar, or it feels that way as it takes hold.  Well that’s a pretty mellow dramatic take on it, but it is a really good riff, and song, and single. In fact all their single are worth their weight to the 10th power in gold. You’re not going to find Process up for sale here though.

Hello and welcome to a possibly reoccurring feature: Metal Monday (vol. 1?). I know this site is called bidhardcore, but I feel through the years there have been numerous intersections and cross pollinations between the 2 genres, and in fact a lot of hardcore bands aren’t much more than punky metal. This is probably the most blasphemous thing I’ll do today as most of the rest of it will be spent wrapping presents, eating treats, and watching Jingle All The Way, none of which should I be admitting to on the first Metal Monday. Oops. Well I may yet listen to the Misfits 12.25.79 performance.

Also - I have to appologize to AJ - I know making a metal themed day on bidhc is kind of like Hank Hill finding out Bobby wants to go to clown college, but I dunno, I’ll make up for it and be the best college educated clown I can.

Spotlight on a record that I still need, but won’t be bidding on this time around, the Demigod/Necropsy split lp, which compiles a demo from each of these Finnish Death Metal bands onto one 12inch and is the only 12″ vinyl I know of on Seraphic Decay/Skindrill (though there may be one or two more, and there’s at least 1 cd). Getting into death metal in the last 5 years (as I did), is kind of like getting into Star Wars in the same time frame. They already ruined the hell out of that shit. The giants are all crumbled and spent. Mark Hammil is old, Anthony Daniels could not save those abominable new films. Entombed are like Nas where they’ve sucked longer than they been good now. No, just kidding, Nas is still good, he just makes bad records, and Entombed aren’t the only Death Metal band to write an all-time classic followed by a boatload of diminishing returns. I mean, it’s basically the name of the game. This is why I (through DFJ’s guidance) love Finnish death metal. You might say it’s the NJ Hardcore to Sweden’s NYC. I mean NY will always have Victim in Pain, but it can’t not have Riot Riot Upstart as a result, whereas, it will always be cool to talk about Fatal Rage. The short run demo only releases, cult vinyl pressings, name changes, bands that pre-date others, it’s all much better than “here’s their 3rd lp on Earache”. Not to suggest there aren’t tons of cult releases from Sweeden (just as there are from NY) and also not to suggest that there aren’t Marquee bands from Finland (like the ones from NJ), I’m just trying to get a point across, in other words, Finland though somewhat less talked about, is probably cooler. The lo-fi limitations of 8-tracks, and tapes dubbed onto tapes just lend themselves better to such esoteric sounds. The day Death Metal found drum triggers, was a sad day, and I’m sorry to have to blame Pete Sandoval for that.

Necropsy and Demigod are both groups of the cult sort, and are two of numerous Finnish bands to get demo material pressed to vinyl on Seraphic Decay records, a sketchy little imprint based out of Ohio, known for cutting 7″s that were 8+ minutes on a side, xerox covers, and of course, not sending the things people ordered. More than a few of the most classic cult death metalists got the Seraphic Decay treatment, and chances are if they’re on the label and you haven’t heard them, they’re still good. Unless we’re talking about… like… Killing Addiction.

 Also interesting from the same seller

• Macabre -Grim Reality: early gore grind (not very grindy though) I guess. Not very good but I sold a copy for $100 this year. Maybe the first US band to try this? I think this is the repressing though. The original band released copy (which is the money maker) has red and white hand written labels.

• They’ve sold a lot of other cool stuff too like the first Necrophagia lp, a Bolt Thrower test, Carcass Peel Sessions lp on red… have a look

Here’s a quick bullet list I found just as I was about to post the above. The Bathory s/t lp is obviously not a true first press because the goat is not yellow…

• Bathory - s/t lp & The Return -2 of the most classic (duh). These are the black mark pressings, so they’re worthwhile to own I’d say. It’s still a mind blower that the drumming on the 2nd lp is worse than the first. 1st one is obviously the best punk/metal lp ever.
• Beherit - Drawing Down The Moon lp A real black/death cult favorite. So hated in their time, but well liked now (at least this phase of the band).
• Dissection - Storm Of The Light’s Bane piclp… I guess this is desirable. Note that it’s not a repress. 

So til next time try not to bang your head against the stage too hard, and always look… TO THE MOON.

Today shall be part 2 of unionpride69’s auctions, there’s still some really crucial items here. Before that, thanks to everyone for the really good response so far. I’m expecting there will still be a couple things to work out over the next few weeks to get everything looking and running smooth, and when he has the time I’m sure AJ (who birthed this site into being) will be on it, so hang tight, and we’ll try and keep the content coming.

There’s 5 more real cool items that I haven’t mentioned here yet.

• 3 of them are first pressing Minor Threat Records, the Filler 7″, In My Eyes 7″ on red vinyl, and Out Of Step 12″ w/ black back cover. This is it. The best pure USHC around, the best straight edge band. Just the best. I heard Filler when I was maybe 14 and it really didn’t make a bit of sense to me, but a couple years later things really clicked and its been important music to me ever since. I always sound like a douche talking about these records because I automatically revert to like, a 3rd grade essay on my favorite food. You can’t really say why pepparoni pizza is the best because you’re 10 and you just know you really like the taste. There is nothing but delighted bias towards that pie, and any attempt to reason out why purreed tomatos and melted cheese go together so well is swallowed just by the fact that they do. Price wise both of these 7″s are forging on and will probably hit $500 sooner rather than later, then again Nervous Breakdown w/ bricks on the cover was going for crazy ammounts for a minute and now it has cooled off big time. With any luck (for me) the same will happen here. I also feel everything here might go for more than normal because this is such a visibile set of items. When you sell a bunch of related stuff together it tends to go for more than if you sold each item alone. People get into the idea of just winning something from the lot even if it’s not their first choice. So… beware.
• Faith - Subject To Change Lot - Well I’ve never seen this. All four colors of the Faith lp in one place. I’m really interested to see how high this gets. Sami (of www.heatunitreport.com) says there’s nothing like the Faith, and he loves it. Me… I used to love it, and I kind of don’t anymore. This is a forerunner to like Marginal Man and Dag Nasty I guess, and there are some catchy tracks, but I just always wished it would either deliver something a little more complex, or a little more angry and unhinged. I feel it walks a middle ground just too middley for me, although I still have a blue vinyl copy in the archives. I think I definitely prefer their tracks on the split with Void (though it must be embarassing to be so out matched), you can’t deny a perpulsive riff like It’s Time. Btw if anyone has a good quality copy of the Faith demo, that’s another instance of the demo versions being better (rawer) than the re-recordings that made the record. There’s a shitty bootleg of them that the Grand Theft Audio guy did (SOA & Youth Brigade too) but they sound so generated and crappy they might as well be an American Tapes boxset. Here’s part of a Faith interview:

TS: Have you guys ever seen Trouble Funk?
All: Nope.
Alec: Like to. They used to play every Wednesday night a block away at the Paragon II. Ian and Henry and a whole bunch of people went to see them one night and some kid got killed–an 18 year old kid got shot. Shit like that happens.

Chris: I’ve driven through after a show.
Alec: I used to walk through that shit. A lot of those bands, like Mass Extinction, are supposed to be anti-drug in their songs but it’s supposedly a big farce, they’re really into it and shit. They played at my school and like four people got stabbed. So I don’t know, I don’t know what the deal is.

• Where The Wild Things Are test press - totally switching gears here. I actually owned one of these once although it looked like mine had been used to cut lines of coke up on. I traded it and then later took part in reselling it. This comp is legendary if you know anything about New York City Hard Core, or as we like to refer to it NYHC. NYHC: The Way It Is comp (the updated version of the Together comp) did have a little bit of the rougher side of the scene covered (Breakdown, Sick Of It All, YDL), and there were weird flukes (like Trip 6 and Nausea) included, but it was mainly a comp to spotlight the wave of straight edge bands that were coming out of NY (Youth Of Today, Bold, Side By Side, Gorilla Biscuits, sort of Warzone…). Where The Wild Things Are has a totally different side of New York and arguably a more accurate one on display for evaluation. You probably know this already, I’m not sure why I even need to say it, but there it is. The meat of this record is really the Breakdown, Raw Deal, Uppercut, and Outburst cuts (and maybe Maximum Penalty too). Bands that were chunkier, meaner, not straight edge at all, and probably more relavent to the future sound of NYHC. They all have a common sound, the kind of scooped metallic crunch that the guitars on records by Cro Mags, Crumbsuckers, AF already had, but with less attempt to mimic thrashy speed picking big on the crossover circuit, and more of just the musical equivalent to getting a brick thrown at you. It’s a paradigm shift for a lot of people when they get their first dose of Breakdown and Outburst, and many a positive youth never make it back, hate-moshing their way into the future. With all that though, let us not forget the Sheer Terror and Life’s Blood cuts here (frankly if I never had to remember Norman Bates and the Shower Heads or this throw-away Gorilla Biscuits cover, I’d be fine). Sheer Terror, pre-lp I think, still nihilistic, and still with the Tom Warrior crunch, I especially love. Life’s Blood, get a little to oi for me, but their 7″ sort of saves their legacy. On this here test press… well I’d imagine there’s a lot of them because the bands probably all got copies, I’d guess this will run about $150-200. The shreded one we sold got like $100, I bought it for $15 though. Great pick up.

I’m heading home for the holidays this weekend but plan to be posting during the week next week (and beyond). See you then!

Out of 13 auctions from user unionpride69 I can see a mere 3 that are not major marquee items. USHC is the specialty, for the most part Dischord. In fact I’m not exactly sure where to start here, so let me just say, I may end up bidding on at least one thing here. After some thought I may just ride this dude out for the rest of the week.  Here’s Part 1:

• Teen Idles - Minor Disturbance 7″  - not sure if this is the 1st or 2nd press but it is signed by all the members. Personally I’m not a fan of autographed hard core records, I think I’d rather have a clean mint copy. Geordie Grindle isn’t really a celeb, and his note of “why am I signing this” sums it up well. Nonetheless, it’s still sort of cool, and I mean, let’s face it, this is top shelf heat. One of the very first hard core records I ever heard, ”Sneakers” still amps me up, and on a side-note The Misfit’s “Nike-A-Go-Go” has a similar begining. Now that we’re talking about Nikes and Sneakers (well I am), let me mention www.heatunitreport.com. It’s much funnier than this blog, and it reads better too.  Anyhow, this record is essentially when the Teen Idles became a hardcore band, mostly by speeding up and playing about as fast as anyone in 1980. If you listen to their recordings from before then they have a scrappy kind of sub-Dangerhouse delivery, that I’m sure was ditched as soon as they’d seen the Circle Jerks on their notorious cali jaunt. Even though this record is remembered more for the iconic photo on the front, and the bands it begat, it is also remembered for the songs on it, which I think is attibutable to the fact that the music was originally written to be much more bouncy and tuneful, and then simply sped up to double time. This is why so few bands today that attempt to revist this style, can come up with anything worthwhile.
• State Of Alert - No Policy 7″ - Firstly let me note this is a first pressing on green vinyl. Secondly let me note I own this record, but I do not have a sleeve for it. If you have a spare sleeve, even for a different pressing of the record, I would like to trade with you! I have some good stuff, and a paying job. Okay so this record is once again kind of overshadowed by what it begat (namely Henry Garfield’s career as Rollins, but I guess also Iron Cross).  I said this in an earlier post, but I really mean it, the first time I heard this it was just a total paradigm shift for what “hard” sounded like, and it seemed like the coolest thing in the world that there was a lead-off song that was railing against drugs and booze. One thing that still blows my mind today is this music was basically written between 1980 and 1981 (most of these songs appear on their 1980 demo which I think is a better recording btw). There was almost no precedent for music this primal and primative, and this is a lot further removed from the punk before it than The Teen Idles. It’s like the 2 chord riff/1 note solo structure of Discharge, sped up faster, cut down to about 1/3 the length, and then injected with all the raukus knuckle-headed sentiment of British Oi bands, only I kind of think it’s cooler than both. This might be the first time a hard core band seemed to be purely hardcore, without much connection to the “punk sound” although that’s pretty debatable.
• Youth Brigade - Possible E.P. - Man. I love this record. In fact I may throw my hat in the ring here. So I could be blowing up my own spot, but fuck it, there’s a lot of them around I guess - well 1,000 anyway. One thing that always struck me about this record, and I guess the band in general is that it has a really heavy and driving sound, with thiiiiick bass, that’s a step apart from most of the other DC bands at the time, and thereafter (Minor Threat, Artificial Peace, Scream, GI’s, Faith, etc.). Did anyone else notice the Fight Back button on Nathan Strajeck’s jacket in certain photos in Banned In Dc? Youth Brigade tried to go on tour with Minor Threat but had to nix the whole thing a few days in because they had taken someone’s parent’s van without asking. The band disolved soon after, probably for no good reason, I really think they could have been contenders, but aside from this cult classic, the only other thing they can lay claim to are a demo, and a few comp tracks. Btw Cali-Youth Brigade never had anything on “Sick Of Things The Way They Are”. Some of the personel in the group made their way into other also-rans like Double-O, Second Wind, Madhouse (under rated lp!), and so on.
• Government Issue - Legless Bull 7″ - Ah Legless Bull. The John Stockton of the early Dischord “roster”. It’s not that it’s not very good, but when your teammates are Ewing,  Jordan, Bird, Magic, and Barkley, you just can’t expect to be a starter, but you can still make a career out of being on the dream team. Actually, that’s not fair, Stockton already had made a name for himself, if anything, the GI’s would be the Clyde Drexler or Christain Latener I guess (note: after some thought I’m going w/ Latener). I just always remember how short Stockton seemed, but only because he was dwarved by these giants (litterally as well as figuratively). My favorite GI’s album has always been Joy Ride which I have always thought would be good to skateboard to, and it’s at weird time when their Damned influence hadn’t completely taken over, but had been pretty obvious. I think Make An Effort is truely their shining moment though, with the best Stabb vocals, and the most memorable songs.
• Iron Cross - Skinhead Glory + Hated and Proud 7″s - I think if I continued along with the analogy in the Government Issue section above, it would make Iron Cross that Angolan dude that got elbowed by Charles Barkley. Ultimately a footnote, but noted nonetheless. Not known for being very good, but they were known to have been there. Leaving that behind, Iron Cross is one of the shittiest bands of all time. Frequently cited as “too slow” and as a “one-hit-wonder”, and rightfully so, though they’ve basically staked their legend on the fact that they were slow (citing various oi influences) and that their most popular song (Crucified) is still a punk staple today. They’re also a terribly confused mess, switching from a quasi-facist skinhead image replete with lyrics about gay-bashing, to a studs and bristles “look”, half way through their career, union-jack tshirts and all, and at least some attempt at more socially responsible lyrics.  At least YDL had English Nick to front their sketchy slow-core band. Seriously Skinhead Glory is one of the most ineptly performed, idiotic, atonal slabs to be remembered from the early days of hardcore BUT there is something I absolutely love about it. I could never pay the going rate for a copy, because somewhere in my brain I know it’s aweful, but there’s just a certain ignorant charm to the whole thing, although accounting for the wealthy backgrounds the members came from this may be the original suburban “thugcore” record. Hated and Proud finds the band trying to take a sensative stance on issues like… beating up the elderly, which you should NOT do I’ve learned. Also the recording is all treble, it sounds worse than the first record, but their guitar tuning skills have advanced. Still there is a cult around the band for being, I guess the first US Oi band, as well as intersecting with the early DC hard core scene.  Oh also the copy of Skinhead Glory is signed, which I will again note, doesn’t really add anything from my point of view. Is anyone kicking their heels for having Wendel Blow’s autograph?

Greetings… 2 picks for you today.

• First of all, if you’re a Misfits collector this Horror Business 7″ is probably one of your most sought after items. This has an a-side label on both sides, and as you can see the opening bid of $2000 has already been met. If someone’s got some Xmas money on their side this could maybe get up to $3000 but probably won’t. This is one of the stupider pieces of Misfits minutia, IMO, but I’ve bought things nearly as stupid I guess. You’re probably not going to buy this but you might as well have a look anyway. This one is my 2nd fav misfits single and layout btw (3-Hits is numero uno). I guess I should bust out the Misfits Xmas-day ‘79 boot, next week so I can have a Ghooooul Yule. Maybe not.
• Also seller kiitollinen_kansalainen has a fine spread of dirty hardcore picks. A few worth mentioning: Neanderthal’s life changing “Fighting Music” 7″ , as well as their split with Rorschach, which is where the song Fighting Music is actually found (”let’s fight!”). Outo’s “No Way Out” E.P., is a personal favorite and a great sleeve on it too. A Totalitar/Disclose split LP a true “d-beat” classic, and the best of a number of listend genre items. The Crucifix lp is not a first press so don’t bother, I’m not sure what the deal is with the Battalion of Saints 7″ either. What I wanna know is how this Floorpunch EP made it into the collection? It looks so lonely as the only record without a large ammount of black on the cover. I guess when it comes to genre boundries Mark Porter is just trancendent. In my mind though I’m imagining this crust punker heard Division 1 Champs, took a shower, went straight edge, and then bought 5 more copies of the 7″. Now he’s just selling off the remains of his punk collection, and throwing in an extra FP 7″ for good measure. I think he sings in a band called SobrietyXPoint that sounds like a harder Turning Point 7″ mixed with the Invasion demo, and are playing a show in fantasy land this weekend (see you there).