bidhardcore.com
hardcore records on ebay — aggregated and examined
January 2nd, 2008 by aj
I split up the post from Jan 1st showing highlights of jrk1332’s collection cause it was too much to take in at one time and was screwing up the layout of the page for some reason.
- Husker Du - In A Free Land - 2nd 7″ by Husker Du, this might be one of several cheap deals in this lot because the right corner on the sleeve is all chewed up. This phase of the band is kind of under-rated and overshadowed by lps like Zen Arcade which have more critical acclaim and thus, are the ones you always see written about. Husker Du as a hard core band though were like a graft of Beatles melodies onto a kinda Minor Threat delivery. I’m not sure if that’s entirely accurate but you can always hear a little 60’s pop influences even in their early days. Bob Mould - reppin’ a Roland Jazz Chorus. I hope mine is fixable.
- Graven Image 7″ & Honor Role 7″ w/ limited cover?! - Not one but 2 7″s on ESKIMO RECORDS. If that name doesn’t immediately jar your brains, I’ll just remind you of 2 of the least interesting 5th teir bands from the less interesting part of Virginia in the early 80s - Norfolk. However, Sami if you’re reading this, please laugh with me at a band called GRAVEN IMAGE on ESKIMO RECORDS. HA! Okay, first of all you got your Graven Image - Kicked Out Of The Scene 7″. Imagine (if you will), a less good, more generic 7 seconds clone band (as in a clone of a clone band) with the worst vocalist, and some song about being kicked out of the scene. If that weren’t enough you’ve got the Honor Role 7″, another slab of generic 82-core (at least it’s actually from 82), with an even worse singer than Graven Image, however, notable because it has a limited cover. Frankly I’m only pointing this out to say how bad these records are. They shouldn’t be worth more than the dollar-bin mystic fodder. As we say about records like Cross Purposes and The Eternal Idol, “FOR COMPLETESTS ONLY”. Regardless, if you are that level of completest (the kind that can talk with me about why Glenn Hughes ultimately fails as a vocalist on 7th Star — if we continue the previous reference) you may want this Honor Role e.p .
- Necros - IQ32 - This is the most listenable record by what I consider to be an over-rated, middle of the road band. The Necros were big in their time. I’m not sure how or why. Maybe they just had songs that were good to skate to. Maybe they had a live sound never captured on record. Maybe. Or maybe there just wasn’t a whole lot to choose from at the time, and often times, the bands that are the biggest are the most boring, and just work the hardest. Still this is a collector’s piece, and much better than the coveted, but musically worthless, Sex Drive 7″, or the over-long, mid-pacey, Conquest For Death (which like this is still okay, and not bad).
- Code of Honor - What Are We Gonna Do - Skate rockin tunes. Only they don’t really rock too much. Like 30 seconds deep in the first song the singer busts out a preachy talking part and from there I’m tuned out. People love to love Code Of Honor, and I think maybe that’s a big reason why I love to hate them. Maybe I’m a sad sack, but I greatly prefer Sick Pleasure who they went on to do a split with. Sicky Nicky looks like a homeless freak now, but he wins the contest of snotty vocalists in punk. To put it in Scooby Doo terms, if Sick Pleasure are Shaggy, then Code of Honor would be Velma.
- Final Conflict (WI) - Ah the other Final Conflict. The one without a Ronflict in it. Produced by Bob Mould and there’s an evil zombie guy on the cover which is sort of cool… I guess. I don’t have a lot to say about this one, but it’s desirable, and thus being noted.
Posted in Foreign HC, collection
lolololol
Necros = OVERRATED???
You crazy.
Yo here is my official defense of the Necros lp:
I could go the cheap route and say how it’s not fair to compare the Necros to their piers who are obviously in a different league (the same way I wouldn’t take credit away from the Youth Brigade 7″ for not being Minor Threat), but I feel like with “Conquest for Death”, you can forget about those piers and grade it based on its own merit.
Now yea a lot of it is mid paced, and the anger and hate isn’t as apparent as it is on the NA or Fix 7″s, but I feel like the sense of desperation in the vocals and the overall gloomy, haunting vibe of the record is fitting for what I imagine it must be like to grow up in a cold and desolate midwest dump. This is what I think makes the record worth it as a whole, but the individual songs are what really do it for me. Lots of memorable riffs and a cool playing style (the faster parts could almost fit on “tied down” if JB was singing over them, and the dirgy parts plow pretty well). “Search for Fame” is a great opener to the record, total anthem that bursts out of nowhere.. it could be a lost tune from “what we want is free” (p.s. peep this next to that SF song “cant get ahead”). Driving songs like “Crying Form” or “Face Forward” almost have a Gray Matter feel to them (maybe they would have fit in better as a DC band a few years later). The stomper outro in “Friend To All” has a great dark and melodic riff, and is one of my favorite ends to a record ever. Maybe it’s just me, but I think these songs stand out as well as songs from more notable bands of the era.
I think “Sex Drive” straight up sucks (why people pay so much for it I’m really not sure) and “IQ32″ is cool, but “Conquest..” takes the cake in my bad and un-asked-for opinion. I don’t really know why I feel strongly enough about this to ramble so much in your forum..maybe it’s a sentimental record to me (one of the first bands I had to dig a little deeper than Minor Threat or NA to hear in my beb years), or maybe its because I hear so much slagging on it and feel like people are missing out. Either way, I would kindly ask for everybody to give this guy one more spin through, and if they still aren’t sold, then I guess I’m alone on this one. I think I converted Luke at least….
P.S. I also support other 2nd tier midwest bands like NOTA and Toxic Reasons, and I will be happy to defend these as well if people don’t like them.
P.P.S. This blog is cool keep up the good work.