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Well you know what “they” say - zines are the life’s blood of “our” “scene”. Seriously though, here’s a few EARLY issues of Flipside my friend Rob Base is selling. These are from back when 1) Flipside was cool 2) They wrote about bands you would care about. Wait do they still publish Flipside? I seriously don’t even know. I have one of those Flipside videos of 7 Seconds and Youth Brigade, there’s at elast 20 7 Seconds songs, all terrible recording quality, all sounding identicle… So these zines…there’s tons of photos of all your (my) favorite bands in these that aren’t widely circulated, Misfits, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, The Germs, GBH… plenty of good usable material for the entrepeneuring bootlegger, or archivist. Hey it’d be a crime not to make t-shirts from some of these photos, and that says nothing of the written content, which is pretty good in the early Flipsides. My favorite is the review section. Also: please check out the rather irreverent Wasted Youth ad below; it probably did not move many units in Texas at the time. I suppose some doofy “shock-me” 82-core band circa now will try and appropriate this as a JPG graphic for their stupid myspace profile. Expect the green-taped copies of Reagan’s In to be sent straight to the dumpster if those folks in Berkely see this. Well it’s not like anyone can really expect taste from a band with the name Wasted Youth I guess. Anyhow, all these mags are in good looking shape , which is pretty surprising considering the age, and the quality of the paper they’re printed on.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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 .
3. 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).
4. 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.
5. 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.

I started compiling a hi-light list a couple days ago for the Jan. 1st post so it would be ready to go the day of, and then I noticed the dawg selling all that stuff is also posting a lot of cool O.G. foreign HC tapes from around the same time as the above like a Declino/Negazione split tape, Pandemonium - Are You The One tape, Inferno - Anti-Hagenbach tape, and some records of similar ilks. There’s plenty of cool North American stuff I haven’t already mentioned that they’re selling in addition, like NOTA, Rebel Truth, sleeveless Articles Of Faith - What We Want Is Free & Agent Orange Blood Stains (wonder what this will go for), Drinking Is Great & Process Of Elimination comps, as well. Something for everyone sort of (but not really), keep your eyes on this one. PS. Happy new year.

Holy crud. Here’s another one of those collections I like to post so much. Most of the notable items I would say sit in the 2nd teir of USHC, but there are a few top shelfers too. In addition I noticed some “nice deals”. I whittled out a list of 10 interesting, or good items, but somehow it ended up actually being 11:

1. Kraut - Unemployed 7″ - Doug Holland. Such a distinguished career. 5,000 copies pressed of this but it still pushes between $75-100, maybe in part because it was comped on the first volume of Killed By Death.
2. A.O.D. -Let’s BBQ - Let’s BBQ is the template for at least 50% of the current 82-core bands around right now whether they know it or not. Suburbia is one of the finest lead-off tracks you ever will here, and my favorite thing about it is the guitar solo. Well more specifically, there’s a spot where the solo should go but instead, an extra guitar track comes in and plays the same riff the rhythm track is already playing. This is a classic trick on older punk and HC records that is scarcely employed now, and I love it whenever I hear it. Please note readers: this is first press (red letters).
3. CIA - God Guns Guts - Well i believe grand theft audio sufficiently jacked the reissue of this so you’ll never see it any time in the next 10 years. What a scumbag that GTA guy is. This is the best record of the collection and I also expect it will go the highest. I love the jangley breakdown in Commie Control, I love the guitar sound, this is a stylistic best. A perfect encapsulation of what 80’s American Hardcore sounds like.
4. The Mob- Step Forward - This, the best Mob release (IMHO), is for some reason not included on their now semi-irrelevant (because it’s also out of print) collection cd on Profile. I was once at Smash Records in Georgetown with Clif Shumaker (Iron Age roadie, My Luck singer, long time record collector) and passed by this very record thinking “it must be a boot, it’s only $4″. Clif pulled it out and declared “you missed this Mob 7 inch, awesome!”, and so ended that evening. The “Bust-It!” used in the title track is one of the earliest instances of the term, and the surfy breakdown it leads into is sorely under rated. Why did Mental (or failing that, Dumptruck) never use a surf breakdown? If anyone has this record on black vinyl, I demand you stand up and be counted (unless your name is Kyle Hughes, we’ve already counted you buddy).
5. Artificial Peace / Exhiled split - Here’s another DCHC, also ran combo. Artificial Peace is a weird band. First of all there’s a semi legitimate discography of them on Lost and Found, complete with tracks of their precursor band, Assault and Battery, that runs 3o or 40 tracks. The pieces all seem to be in place for classic tuneful DCHC circa-82, but whenever I try to listen to it, I feel things never catch fire. I do sort of like the song Suburban Wasteland from the Flex Your Head comp, but even that I’m not in love with. Nonetheless they were one of the seemingly bigger (or at least more active) local bands of the time, with this being their only non-compilation or demo release. Kind of weird. Some of them went on to Marginal Man, who are even less appealing to my ears. Exhiled are 2nd teir at best, but probably 3rd is more fitting. Just totally vanilla American Hardcore of the time. This is the first release on Fountain Of Youth records, a weird DC area label with pretty much nothing but “also-ran” type releases, other than a couple Government Issue albums and singles. I like Fountain Of Youth though, there are some gems.
6. Mecht Mensch - Acceptance - This is a record I’ve always wanted and never persued. Someone outta boot their split w/ the Tar Babies. It’s about that time for someone to do this, I mean it’s 2008, you know. Great 2nd rate midwest HC. Like a baby Die Kruezen.