bidhardcore.com
hardcore records on ebay — aggregated and examined
Back in the saddle again today. I had some formatting issues w/ the post yesterday so if it looked all effed up to you, give it another read as I think it’s well written (i.e. not by me), and go check out Shit-Fi.com, if nothing else read the article on Tax Scam records, and the Japanese Noise-Core primer. Hails to Stuart who does the site, and from whom I stole the content yesterday.
Found someone selling off their 90’s crusty and dirty stuff. Some real junkers (as always), but a few you definitely wanna grip. First off is a real bargain sleeper. I swear one day this record is going to be in demand. Mid-90’s Connecticut had a ton of these heavy crust punk type bands, all of them coming out of Torrington from what I understand. Hail Of Rage is one of the more forgotten entries in this lineage, they only issued this Fucking Pissed 7″, and a split much later that hardly sounds the same. I think they shared member with Deformed Conscience (who are more remembered), and musically they have some in common, but H.O.R. brought more speed to the table. To me they kind of work it half way between Infest/Citizen’s Arrest and Doom/ENT, in other words if the classic Britcore style got a little more frantic and Americanized. The vocals are way above average too, and for sure qualify the title Fucking Pissed. This is the repressing of the 7″and will probably sell for less than $5, if you’ve not heard it check it out for real.
Another good selection here is this Noothgrush 7″ on Slap-A-Ham, “Embraced By Anti Self”. If you’re not familiar with this band, basically, just imagine baby Eyehategod circa In The Name Of Suffering, but with socially conscious lyrics I guess. I think for the sludgy 90’s DIY stuff, this band trumped pretty much everyone that wasn’t Corrupted. Definitely go on record as taking them over Grief (might be controversial?), 16, whoever. I guess this is one of the more desirable common pressings of their stuff because it’s on Slap-A-Ham which has become something of a cult label, at least for the early part of their catalog.
Seller here has only 2 auctions even worth looking at, and they’re both the same record. Slipknot’s s/t 7″ on revelation, on black vinyl & limited red vinyl. Slipknot is a record best described as “infamous”, mostly for the fact that it sounds nothing like any of the other releases on the label at that time, but also for there being a famous band of the same name in the late 90’s. Unlike basically every record on Revelation up to that point which was derived from Youth Of Today, Agnostic Front, or somewhere in between, Slipknot were a bit of a “cross-over” band, that had most in common with Animosity-era Corrosion of Conformity, Money Talks phase Cryptic Slaughter, and maybe a bit of Septic Death as well. One thing they did keep in common with other bands on the label were message type lyrics, although they were more consistent with COC and Cryptic Slaughter type themes (anti-cop song, songs railing on the power elite). The record itself is quite ferocious and frankly I think the band could have had a decent career on NY’s Combat records, it’s funny how many people who would be into it aren’t familiar because of the Rev affiliation, the band name, and the sort of crappy sleeve on the thing.Whenst visiting RevHQ a couple years ago I saw founder Jordan Cooper sitting at one of the desks in the office. Cautiously I approached and asked for some Slipknot information, as if to illustrate how overlooked they are, he actually thought I was playing a joke. After I explained he opened up a little bit, but didn’t have much to offer in the way of info. There was a rehearsal demo produced by the band under the name Evil Dead, but they switched names probably because there was half a dozen other thrash metal bands with the same name. They were just some dudes from Conneticut doing the band mostly just to entertain themselves. They played CBGB’s one time and all the lights in the club went out which must have enhanced the sinister sound they had on display (or so I’d imagine). One thing people always said was Rev released this record because Jordan owed one of the band members money for pot (oh! the scandal!), but aside from it being denied of course, it sounds unlikely. It’s got a full color glossy cover, and my limited knowledge of the drug trade leads me to believe that’s just WAY too much pot for a dude to float you before asking for money.Here’s a photo of me holding the reels to the record as well as Breakdown the Walls: 
What a strange collection of items this seller has. Mint in package water pistols, creepy 3 for a dollar bendy monsters from the 70s, and some OG demo tape type items. ***THIS JUST IN***: seller is Blaine from The Accused, which explains a bit.
Of interest:
An original Brotherhood demo tape. I believe this is the second Brotherhood demo (the one featuring Ron Guardipee on vocals) and the one that was recycled into the band’s 7″, some of their comp tracks, and eventually the Words Run Thick As Blood anthology on Crucial Response. I heard tell of a little beef between the Brotherhood and Crucial Response camps over owed money, that supposedly ended in a shake-down during a Sunn tour sometime in the last few years. I kinda picture it going down like that part in The Princess Bride when Andre The Giant’s character is standing in front of the castle wearing that same hooded robe that Sunn wears, and shouting ominous things. If it wasn’t that way, I don’t even want to know how it was. Personally if I was one of those Sunn dudes, I’d be wearing that thing everywhere. Down to the convenience mart, to the dentist, wherever.
Yes, if you haven’t caught on, Brotherhood is technically pre-Sunn, pre-Burning Witch, pre-Goat Snake, and who could forget, pre-Engine Kid. Also (and much cooler), post-False Liberty. But truthfully the most interesting aspect of Brotherhood to me is the song The Deal. This is a perfect and, somewhat strange (for its day) hardcore song. It begins with a fairly speedy blasting section, like a revved up SS Decontrol, only to cut to a surprisingly slow moshy section about ten seconds later, before diving right back into the speed. In some ways it predicts the territory that would be increasingly mined by the likes of Infest, and their numerous followers, in subsequent years. I’m not suggesting Infest borrowed a formula here, but just that this is an interesting precursor to one of their trademarks. If anything Brotherhood were probably trying to borrow more than a little from DYS, as well as SS Decontrol on this song. Well at any rate I love it very much.
Also of interest: Northwest Hardcore and More. But what is the “more” you ask? it’s hard to say for sure because this seller’s listings are so sub-par, but The Melvins, Wermacht, the Accused, False Liberty, Spastic Blur, and of course MR. BUNGLE are all in there. Seriously if this guy gets $10 for such a crap listing I’ll be surprised. Seems cool for all you tape buyers out there.
Even though it’s not Monday I can’t not mention that he’s selling a Cannibal Corpse demo as well, although I have no way of verifying if it’s original. There’s a mediocre lot of Accused recordstoo. No Return Of Martha Splatterhead in there unfortunately.
I Was A Sellout Before You Were A Sellout - by Joe Losurdo - (From Roctober #9, 1994)
Gather round kiddies and let’s hearken back to those dark ages known as the mid ’80’s. Yes kids, before MTV was serving up your weekly Alternative hero, before Circus and Rip magazines changed their “formats” to suit the times. The year was 1984 and Punk was pretty much dead to me with Hardcore soon following suit (This decision was made at the ripe old age of 16). But as fate would have it, an opportunity opened to me that I had previously only dreamed about. A local “Hardcore” band called Life Sentence had called me up and asked me to play bass for them and do some touring, so I immediately dropped out of high school and said “later!” to my boring suburb (where else, right?) and headed out. I had grand visions of screaming groupies, packed houses and trashed hotel rooms, though I couldn’t admit it, ’cause I was “Punk”. On the outside I wanted to be Minor Threat, on the inside I wanted to be KISS. However, after three months of playing in people’s living rooms, not making any money, not bathing and worst of all not eating, I went home ten years older than when I left. We were pissed off because we were good (relatively) and yet we weren’t getting anywhere. Sound familiar, folks? We were confused as to why shit groups like GBH and The Exploited were pulling in $500 to $1,000 a show when we weren’t even making gas money. So we said fuck it, we’re going to attack every market in the Punk rock underworld syndicate. First, the new Metal-”crossover” scene was a virtual goldmine! It was truly ironic that all the same people who would beat you up for being Punk were now getting into it. Then again, today’s Nirvana and Pearl Jam fans are yesterday’s Def Leppard and Judas Priest fans. I’m a firm believer in genetics, and it’s what I dub the “sheep” chromosome. Regardless, we were blessed with a stroke of luck when a friend of ours gave James Hetfield of Metallica a Life Sentence sticker, and the next thing you know it’s stuck on the leather jacket he’s wearing in Kerang! magazine and the promo poster for the “Master of Puppets” record. So we of course sent off more merchandise goodies to our ‘ol pals Metalica, and BOOM! Lars is wearing our shirt in the “Cliff ‘em All” video. Jackpot! Next thing you know Anthrax, Nuclear Assault and our touring buddies D.R.I. are Life Sentence fans and the snowball effect has started. We definitely made more money off our merchandise than off our guarantees from shows. We had serious Metal fans coming to our shows, and we would oblige them by playing Slayer’s “Chemical Warfare” and Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades”. Ahh, but folks, man does not live by Metal alone. Our lust for Punk domination became insatiable and we were hungry for more! Our next target: skateboarders!
The Skate-Punk resurgence was ready to explode into the mainstream. We could smell it and we wanted in on the action! As luck (that’s the key word) would have it, while we were in St. Louis for a show a couple of skateboard bigwig pros were in town for a “skaters camp”. Steve Steadham, Monty Nolder and Christian Hosoi were hanging out at the show so we made our move, initiated by Steadham and our guitar player’s love of spliff. Everybody was good ‘n’ high, so we had Steadham come up on stage and play drums with us for a “Blues” jam as our first song. Needless to say the kids loved it, and in the next issue of Thrasher, the skater’s Holy Qu’ran, there’s a photo of Monty doing a handplant with our colorful logo on his chest. We also got one of those hilarious Pushead adjective-abuse reviews. On tour we used to have this inside joke of asking locals where the nearest half-pipe was whenever we’d arrive in a new town. A review in a San Diego zine called Black Market described me as “Joe, who plays a mean bass and craves skating vert!” I can barely stand on a goddam skateboard! But of course we always had them on tour with us. To help move the amps.
The last factions of Punkdom we had to crack were the Straight Edge crowd and the Maximum Rocknroll P.C. army. I believe the Straight Edge crowd to be almost on par with the Metal crowd for generating laughs with their sheer ridiculousness. This was way past the Minor Threat, S. S. Decontrol days. This was more the Uniform Choice and Youth of Today era with plenty of hilarious T-shirt slogans that would have made Nancy Reagan proud: “Straight and Alert”, “Drugs and Booze, the sure way to lose”, etc. We sort of inadvertently got lumped in with Straight Edge ’cause our old singer made us sound like 7 Seconds (whom we also used to play with alot). I can remember a couple of occasions when we would literally fall out of the van drunk and completely bum out the 14 year old Straight-Edgers who were waiting for us to show up. For a humorous take on the Straight Edge movement, go to your local library and in the American Hardcore archives and look under “Crucial Youth.”
The Maximum Rocknroll-Veggie-Leftist-Anarchist-Homo/Lesbian-Revolutionary crowd was pretty easy to infiltrate. We had been reading the magazine long enough to know what catch phrases we should use in our interviews. I can actually recall saying “Protest and Survive” in an interview which functionally translates in America as “Mom, if you don’t buy me the new MDC album I’ll kill myself.” Our first album was chock full of politically Left anthems such as “Peacetime Death”, “Men In Blue”, “Election Day” and of course “Take A Stand”. The funniest part was that our old singer who wrote those songs was one of the most politically ignorant people I ever met. Let’s just say the skinhead he once was still lived in his heart. When we were being interviewed on MRR radio in Berkeley, I threw a curveball to my bandmates by saying that I was in the Revolutionary Communist Youth Party. Our drummer Tom, not to be outdone, went on to talk about the time he spent in El Salvador. Yes, we were full of shit. All kidding aside, a tip of my hat goes to MRR for teaching many bored suburban Punk rockers about more going on in politics than they possibly could have found out from the idiot box or the newspapers.
Of course there was the flipside of the MRR crowd: the dreaded SKINHEADS! The name alone sends people scurrying like mice. BOO! I scared you! When I was 12-13 years old, I lived for Skinhead “Oi!” music. My favorite bands in the world were The Cockney Rejects, Blitz, The Business and Peter and the Test Tube Babies, amongst others. But the Oprah wave of Skinheads, who would have never heard of the movement if it weren’t for all the media attention and who were likely to be Nazis (despite the fact that the original English Skins were Black), seemed to be more into Agnostic Front, Murphy’s Law and the Cro-Mags. Sure they were skins, but they weren’t Oi! So every now and then we’d play “Oi, Oi, Oi!” by The Cockney Rejects and the Skins would go apeshit, but it was quite obvious that most of them didn’t know the tune, but knew they were supposed to. When we played in Montreal there was a group of French-Canadian Nazi Skinheads(?) that were sieg heil-ing us as we played it. Not one of those morons could speak English so how the hell did they know what we were singing about?!!! For all they know we could have been singing “We are all homos! Oi! Oi! Oi! We love Commies! Oi! Oi! Oi! Being bald is stupid…etc.” They’re probably all hockey players or mounties now.
My point to this whole article is that there is no point…to any of it! Black Flag in ‘81, D.R.I. in ‘84 or Nirvana in ‘91, NONE OF IT MATTERS! Like those geriatric corporate machines said over 20 years ago “It’s only Rock n’ Roll!” So shove your twenty something-Slacker-Grunge-Generation X-Details-MTV-in it’s eco-pak-bullshit up your ass, America! Throw in your Pearl Jam CD’s and Docs too if there’s room! Oh yeah, and here’s a tip: If it goes platinum, there’s nothing “underground” or “alternative” about it! Now get out of my room kid, visiting hours are over.
Hardcore, punk, indie rock, they’re Sex/Vid crazy right now. Sex/Vid the band, not uhhh… the video genre. Sex/Vid’s been gigging around for a couple years now, and issued their first single, I guess around 2006 in the summer. Mind Eraser was in Seattle and we were staying with our friend Nick-Knack (Turner - named for his collection of cool nick-knacks all around his place) who played us a test pressing of the EP. It was about 8 in the morning at that time. No we were not raging on pills, we’d just drove for an entire day across the country, I believe Minnesota to Seattle, and we were all too wound up to sleep yet. I guess this was a good state to experience a record where the first song is called Drugging. I’ve never actually done drugs except, the kind they give you when you’re a wimp that’s allergic to dust and pollen, so this for me is the closest I can probably get to being in a “drugging” kind of state. Anyway we threw the record (or platter, haha) on and it was a real buzzsaw in the ears. Lofi, fuzzed out, snotty singer, fast n loose… as ragged as I felt right then, so it was cool to find out we were playing with them that night. I remember a Deep Wound comparison being thrown around a lot in regards to this first EP. Later when we saw them I really caught some Fang vibes too with some slower breaks they did, some of that material ended up on their Tania 7″which came out in 2007.
Anyway the show wound down, we chatted a bit, and of course, us being from Massachusetts, and they, sounding like they did, Deep Wound came up, at which point I most likely suggested that Sex/Vid cover Asprin Feast. Similarly, Asprin Feast came from the Pacific Northwest, and similarly, they had a kind of scuzzed out sound that constantly got compared to Deep Wound. I suppose they were a bit more politically minded, but it was 1990 after all, and it was the style at the time. The Police Beat E.P. I believe is the Aspirin Feast demo put to wax and is a little bit on the punky side, whereas How Do You Call The Cops On The Cops, is full on thrashing, maybe even a little faster than Deep Wound, except the dirging intro track, which is in No Trend territory or something. But while Aspirin Feast is sunk into half-obscurity, Sex/Vid seems to be getting more and more momentum. When they were on the east coast during the fall they played with precision I’d never seen on display prior. For whatever reason indie rockers, and ex-HC enthusiasts seem content to latch on to their relatively no-frills delivery as much as anyone else. Maybe it’s their above average compositional skills, or maybe it’s just the novelty of listening to hardcore (again?) for such folks. Me I just know they shred, like Aspirin Feast before them.
Sex/Vid E.P. on Painkiller in 2008, (as well as one on WYR)
Here’s a hot mess. Someone’s early 90’s shoebox of 7″s plenty plenty plenty of junk. But there’s some choice picks, like No Comment’s “Common Senseless” (why is this record so hard to come by?), Trip 6’s one and only “No Defeat No Surrender”(plz don’t speak ill of the cover art), a bunch less remarkable things too like 7″s by Outburst, Against The Wall, Turning Point, early Seein Red, Confrontation. Also there’s 2 10″s, both by kinda weird bands, 1 is the post Brotherhood project, Resolution- foolishly this is not tagged as being pre-Sunn or Burning Witch. For all the bad music Greg Andersen has been involved with, he gets a pass for life for being in Brotherhood. Oh also there is the Demise 10″on Erich Keller’s Off The Disc, in fact it’s a rare variation limited to 100 copies. Demise were around the same time as Infest, and gigged around with some of the weird thrash bands in Cali but never found the same popularity that some of their peers did (I think in part because they took up some nationalist political views later on). This 10″, and their
Furnace of Tension 7″(which I believe is just remixed 10″ tracks?) are their best stuff which is still just OK at best. The clear gem in this stuff is the No Comment 7″. While it’s not an example of a perfect hardcore record (that would be their Downsided 7″), it’s damn near close. Andy Beatie (I think I spelled his name wrong), is one of the best vocalists ever to take up extreme music. Please someone - read this and get the Low Threat Profile e.p. released. Trip 6 is a cool band probably most remembered for their track on the Revelation “The Way It Is” comp, and somewhat less so for being the band that The Psychos dissolved into. In fact the full recording session for this 7″ was actually a 12 song demo, about half comprised of re-done Psychos songs. Tommy Rat, the final singer for the Psychos has one of the burliest vocal styles in NYHC, kind of transposing the NY-Street vibe onto something that reminds me of Crucifix or some other such band… Trip 6 is hardly a peace punk band, but they have a dirty primitive sound and that’s what I mean when I say this.
Everyone get Swizzy… Recently I pulled out my Swiz “No Punches Pulled” discography and was kind of pissed to notice some skips on it. No sweat I thought, and pulled out my vinyl copy of “Hell Yes I Cheated”. The needle hit the vinyl, and I was shocked. I was furious. The CD sounded SO BAD by comparison, all the life had been sucked out — forced out in the re-mastering stage (and I’ve started to suspect a few things were changed in the mixing or possibly parts were rerecorded). The side by side comparison was almost like hearing a different recording of the same songs. It seems whomever was in charge of the CD project tried to make all the songs sound like they were one recording, and the only way to do this was to heavily EQ and compress them, but to the detriment of the original music. Even the vocals sound more urgent to me on the vinyl of Hell Yes I Cheated. When I went for the side by side comparison of the self-titled 12″ that predates “Hell Yes”, the story didn’t change much. You need these records on vinyl…
Swiz were such a wrong place/wrong time band being from DC in the late 80’s. The main things happening were the self-conscious and socially aware Dischord groups, and hard headed Skinhead and NY derived hardcore. I can’t say that I was there (well I mean I was in the vicinity, but i was 8 years old), but it’s obvious listening to their music now Swiz doesn’t fit with the moralizing Positive Force crowd, nor the machismo of the tougher bands, in fact they were at times confrontational towards both. They played faster than either one, but kept their songs tuneful and melodic, most of them running about a minute and a half. That’s not to say they were a thrash band though as gear-shifts like Sun-Stroke and Won’t Breathe For You prove beyond a doubt. But what characterizes Swiz most to me, is how fearless they seem now. Shawn Brown’s delivery sounds venomous and focused as it does assured, even when he’s holding a mirror to himself, there’s never a note of doubt. Not afraid to spit in the direction of his former band-mates (Dag Nasty). Not afraid to stand alone between two of the most overbearing, heavy handed scenes to ever happen in the DC area. They were a straight edge band that decided to smoke cigarettes on the cover of their 2nd lp and call it Hell Yes I Cheated. I guess it’s a little juvenile, but if that’s not fearless, especially in the late 80’s, then I got nothing here. Besides these two 12″ vinyls, there were two 7″s released during Swiz’s run, 1987’s “Down”, and 1990’s With Dave.
There was also the side project Fury, which was most of Swiz but shuffled around to different instruments, attempting to sound more raw. It doesn’t actually sound much different other than the vocals, but they seemed to be aiming for something like an early 80’s HC band, and even put “Thanks to: no fucker” on the insert. I think the recording is from ‘88 or ‘89. Eventually the lineup on With Dave, disbanded as Swiz, and re-named themselves Sweetbelly Freakdown, a terrible terrible name, but issuing a fine fine lp under it.
I am running a tad later than normal today, but here’s 2 more cool tapes to scope out. First a real quick one, is this Sex Pistols ”Heyday” cassette on Tony Wilson’s Factory Records. I’m not like a huge Sex Pistols fan or anything (who is?), but this tape comps a bunch of interviews, which are probably more interesting than their songs, and as is customery with Factory in its own heyday, the packaging is cool as hell. It’s a low number in the Factory catalog too (Fact.30).
The same seller is also offering a Charred Remains tape comp, which is a little weird. To be exact it’s a “promotional version” with no cover, but including the booklet for the comp. To my knowledge most copies do come with this large booklet, despite the description here, so you may be able to obtain a first generation copy of this for less than normal. Version Sound put out a couple of these 60 min. tape only compilations back in the early 80s and filled them up with tons of midwest and east coast USHC. One thing that’s sort of invaluable in these comps existing is finding out about less known bands along with hearing fairly raw offerings by the more known groups on them. Lineup on this one is:
- Articles Of Faith (one of their best sessions, like 5 songs!)
- Die Kreuzen (might pre-date their 7″)
- District Tradition (so unremarkable… kind of like a 3rd rate TSOL)
- Dogs Of War (typical Americanized Discharge influence… pretty good)
- Double O (much better than their 7″ on R&B, might be from their demo)
- Husker Du (live track - sounds like their live lp)
- Misguided (this track is always better than I remember the band being)
- Personality Crisis (never liked this… sounds like rock guys trying to be punk)
- Rebel Truth (sing-songy nursery rhyme HC, almost bad religion-ish)
- Sin 34 (could be the same as Rebel Truth w/ Female vocals, solid thrash)
- Toxic Reasons (classic track, kinda puts the last few bands in their place)
- UXB (like a bootleg Youth Brigade Cali)
- Violent Apathy (surprisingly good considering their rep as one of the worst)
- Void (a couple tracks from the Condensed Flesh session; CLASSIC)
- 5051 (I guess about as good as Rebel Truth)
Seller blueninja99 has always been pretty well known for wheeling and dealing Japanese hardcore and punk. The listings he has right now are no exception, a stack of the most well known records in the style mixed with a bit of newer stuff and this lone
Anti-Cimex “Scandanavian Jawbreaker” lp. Tons of marquee names like Bastard, Deathside, Acid, Disclose, Poison Arts, Gai, Gauze, Cobra, G.I.S.M., Stalin, Laughing Noise… just to name a handful. It seems like, especially over the last 5 years or so, Bastard’s Wind Of Pain 12″, has been the entry point for a lot of people’s interest in this genre in the United States. Aside from having production that seems to be perfect, and a running time that’s too brief for sure, there’s something about the way the riffs cut that’s maybe just a tad more accessible, than some of their peers. Or maybe it’s just that the opening riff to Misery is one of the most devastating show stopping riffs in all of rock music. Like up there with Back In Black, For Whom The Bell Tolls, and Born In The USA. One of those things that should be admired from a distance to really take its scale. Or maybe it was the popular opinion (which I believe originated in New Jersey) that the songs mine a post-Motörhead, Dischargy territory similar to the Age Of Quarrel (which surely offended many USHC haters who saw this as a short sell… idiots). This is one of those records that’s probably never going to dip in value again, unless there’s like a catastrophic event like a serious nuclear holocaust where people stop caring about entertainment, but barring that, the price is only going up so get it now or get it later on.
Okay here’s a new little feature I may do now and again: cheap picks. I don’t have a catchy name for it like Metal Monday, maybe from now on I’ll do it on Friday, and call it Frugal. Anyway… here’s the
Madhouse 12″ on Fountain Of Youth recordings that I find to be very under rated. Female fronted, and punky, not too far off the Avengers, or maybe like a better & American Vice Squad, it also features one of the guys from Youth Brigade (DC). As I remember it keeps up a pretty good clip in terms of speed, and never lapses into ballads or overly new-wave type tracks. There’s maybe a bit of goth like early 45 Grave mixed in but it’s hardly overbearing. I think it’s from ‘84? I’m certain at least that no one cares about it, and it’s a pretty good album. Total sleeper.
