bidhardcore.com
hardcore records on ebay — aggregated and examined
I can’t say I love the Faith anymore, but I still have a soft spot for their split tracks, and the slightly more melodic, Subject To Change lp. I guess really this is one of the links between where things went with Dischord after ‘83, and where they were before. There’s more full chords, more sheen to the production, a bit less raw anger. When this record dropped, the Faith were already basically done, and so it’s one of of many Dischord releases that’s more like an epitaph. The sound kind of prefigures where groups like Dag Nasty were going to go, mixing up fast Minor Threat type progressions and questionable early U2 style guitar FX and flourishes. This in turn begat stuff like Gorilla Biscuits and American Standard, kind of… poppy pseudo hardcore.
But all that aside there are some good DCHC standards here. Aware sets the tone right off the bat with open ringing guitars, a rising bass-line, and a tight propulsive drum beat. Except for the growl of Alec Mackaye that comes in a few seconds later it bears little resemblance to the recordings Faith had made only a year before, and even that is somewhat subdued. Actually what Subject To Change really sounds like is the starting point for Mackaye’s next band Ignition, which was more of a post hardcore thing, formed with one of the other ex-Faith members Chris Bald. I guess it’s just hard for me to sit down and listen to something like this at this point in time. The band sounds torn in what they really want to do and I can’t say I’m surprised they didn’t even survive to see it released. They’re trying not to abandon everything they came from, but they’re obviously over straight up hardcore and trying to find some way to add a new element. I don’t really think they do it as well as some others did. For a more sophisticated (although more pompous) execution of the same ideas, the go to band for me is Articles of Faith particularly the Wait 7″, but really anything they did. It is a lot more preachy, but sonically, they bring a bit more to the table, and really make use of multiple guitars (using 3 on some songs).
Anyway - blue is first press. I’m sure a lot of people are interested in this regardless of my apprehensiveness to it at this point.
since i’ve been reading this site, i have been crate digging my punk collection like a mad man. today my wife begged me to put some records back away.
it doesn’t matter the she re-did our bathroom closet so that we could actually sit in it… like we did in college and have “closet” parties with warzone on the boom box, i had to forget the struggle and slip it back into the bin.
one of the records i had pulled put was this one. sprung from that void post which had me spinning the void/faith split and one thing led to another and i was on a beefeater, faith, kingface jag.
G.I. used to cover “Trapped.”
i’m tired and talking nonsense now.
where’s my coffee?
Found this album in a random used record sidewalk sale at SXSW a few years ago. Always wondered if blue was the first pressing. It was the last time I ever had a satisfying find.