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What’s to say about Agnostic Front “Victim In Pain”? It’s probably the best New York Hardcore record ever. It may be the best American Hardcore record ever. It’s definitely one of the most universal in the entire genre. No matter what micro-division of Hardcore/Punk/whatever you’re into, if you have even half a clue you dig Victim In Pain. It’s maddeningly perfect. AF never sounded like this again, before or after, and I’ve dug through live sets of the day and rehearsal tapes just trying to hear a few more minutes of the level of brilliance seen on this 12″. There are 2 comp tracks on Urinal Records “Message To America” comp that come close (one a re-record from their 1st 7″, the other got added to their subsequent lp), and an ‘84 studio rehearsal (I believe for their tour with Crucifix) that isn’t far off either. Still the fact remains this album stands alone.

If you were someone who’d never heard hardcore music before, and I only had 15 minutes to give you a basic idea that could approximate the entire genre, I’d just play you Victim In Pain. It’s hard, it’s tuneful, it’s rough, it’s anthemic - it’s everything. When I talk to people who are interested in playing drums or guitar in a hardcore band I suggest learning to play Victim in Pain straight through. It has only a few different drum beats overall, each one relatively simple and economical, but you should be able to do basically anything you want with them with a little ingenuity. The bass and guitar take a similarly simple approach but they surge with energy and nearly every riff sticks in your mind thereafter. Basically it’s all the proof you need that skill is secondary to a good riff and an energetic delivery. But let us not forget the recording, which is the perfect template for any band worth hearing. Tight snappy drums with a natural sound, no funky effects no wild reverb, just power hits. Guitars that sound like buzz saws but are bright and defined. Vocals front and center, no effects, no studio magic, just balls out yelling. Best of all, peanut-butter-thick bass with the fuzz up to 10 and the tone knob down to zero. The antithesis of the over polished, twangy, thin ”Sans-Amp” bass sound popular in “modern hardcore” (you know the shit I mean). I challenge you to find a better hardcore compass. I absolutely guarantee this album CANNOT lead you astray. It’s fucking impossible.

The tracklist might as well be a greatest hits list. Victim In Pain the song is probably the most recognized AF song ever, but Last Warning, Your Mistake, and Power could all compete for that title, and all are featured on here. I’d go so far as to say this is one of very few hardcore full lengths were probably every song has been covered by a band at some time. Speaking personally I’ve performed no less than 6 (out of 11) of these tracks in tribute to the perfection found in the grooves of this slab.

The original pressing was run twice on Ratcage Records with a gatefold sleeve. The second pressing has an Important Records Distribution logo added to the back cover. Later it was licensed to Combat records but the violent cover art was removed in favor of an all black cover.

Well if you’re a collector of early Revelation items you know this is one of the top 5 rarities - Gorilla Biscuits 7″ w/ Todd Youth B-Side label.  I’d assume there was an excess of A-Side labels,  and so the plant just ran them out with leftover War Zone B-Side labels on the vinyl.  I thought these were numbered somewhere but I can’t see it in any of the pictures. The dude selling this tries to make something of the fact that the lettering is purple. There’s really no way to verify what’s more rare though. These were probably the last copies from this pressing sold, and I’d imagine they were just slipped into whatever sleeves were around at the time.

I used to really love this record, now I’d probably turn it off after the first 2 songs. Most of it is kinda poppy which is a good gateway to hardcore for a lot of kids, but the first 2 songs have a pretty straight up NYHC sound like Token Entry or, actually the first War Zone lp. It’s cooler than Start Today (the GB lp) anyway, which at one time was probably my favorite record, and now only makes me cringe. That thing pretty much serves as the blueprint for over-polished octave laden pop-punk/HC hybrids, although I guess it’s directly descended from the first Dag Nasty lp.  I’d rather just hear Break Down The Walls… or Breakdown “both demos”… or Break On Through (To The Other Side), honestly. I’m still straight edge though which is more than I can say for some.

If you’re into this, frankly the Buy-It-Now price is probably worth it. These were breaking $300 US a couple years ago, and given the weak state of the dollar, the fact that it’s driving up the price of nearly all hardcore records, and that Gorilla Biscuits are one of the most popular straight edge bands ever, it’d be a sound investment.

Youth of Today - Can’t Close My Eyes 7″ with blank b-side label is one of those random anomalies no one is really sure about. I’ve heard a number like 40 or 50 thrown around as being the quantity existing but there’s no way to confirm that, and since I’ve seen 2 or 3 I feel like that might be low. Some copies have something written on the label, or a picture glued to it, some seem to be blank like this one. Seems like it happened during the 2nd pressing as they all come in sleeves with white lettering.

For a record so awesome, Can’t Close My Eyes sounds like absolute crap on the original 7″. Later on they “remixed” it, and rerecorded the guitar tracks so that it finally sounded listenable, but on this version the guitars sound like they were recorded through a cellphone inside a tin can. Absolutely the worst guitar sound I’ve ever heard on a hardcore record… except maybe that Full On Straight track on the Generation of Hope comp. Even sounding like total garbage though can’t stop a song like Expectations. Even you straight edge hating druggies can dig a song like this, it’s the ultimate teenage anger track, complaining about the overbearing expectations of parental units. In general YOT sound most like Antidote and DYS at this stage in their career. The vocals are the most throat-shredded and spastic, the riffs at their most thrashing and uncontrolled, the vibe in general is just youthful anger. This is also the only YOT record to have a kind of militant stance about straight edge, more in line with DYS/SS Decontrol/Negative FX, than the positive reputation they have today, and all the dull post Insted bands that cite them now.

I wish there was a straight edge band now with vocals this out of control and raging. Cappo is just letting it fly on here with absolutely no regard. No matter how many bad bands these guys have been in since the 90s (Shelter, Never Surrender, Last Of The Famous, other pop-punk bands I haven’t heard thankfully…) this will always be a sick release and my favorite Youth Of Today record. Bonus:  2 dudes from 76% Uncertain are on this one. Hi Bob.

Class is in session! Below, Cooch breaks down the details that stand out about bootleg copies of United Blood. Don’t be swindled!

DUBIOUS EBAY AUCTIONS - BUYER BEWARE!

For some unknown (and embarrassing, at least to myself) reason I have never owned an original copy of Agnostic Front’s “United Blood” ep. I don’t know why this is, since I’ve had my hands on a good number of copies over the years and I own just about every other early NYHC record. So I decided this year I’m just going to plunk down the cash and buy one regardless of price (within reason). After getting beat on ebay for two bona-fide original copies around $300 within the last couple of months, I noticed a smattering of bootlegs for sale as originals.

I emailed the seller of the first copy, and he insisted it was real even though the cover has two telltale marks of the American made bootleg - the cover is a poor quality repro and the copyright information from the bottom of the back cover has made its way to the bottom of the front cover due to a poor print job (and as a result the repro is missing a bit of empty space over the AF banner that is present on the orig), and from the 2nd picture, the pressing marks do not match the original[1] (the boot has a wider diameter, shallower pressing stamper mark around the center hole, original is smaller and deeper). Anyways this unscrupulous seller (also selling many white power records, go figure) got $282 for this copy, I hope the buyer realized it was a boot upon receiving it and was able to get a refund (probably not).

Boot copy number two came up about a week later (sorry no link, same version as above) and I again emailed the seller to see what he thought, and the guy quickly realized it was a boot and canceled the listing. At least there are some honest people out there.

Currently listed copy #3 - Again this one looked like the shoddy cover bootleg so I emailed the seller. Here’s the back and forth -

Me: can you give me matrix information?
Seller: The matrix reads ; AF-001-A and BIOBH on the printed label side and the other label is black.
Me: Oh, that is a bootleg then, that “BIOBH” is actually the number 31634 and the B label should be white.
Seller: I dunno, the matrix #’s check out. If it is a boot, Its an older one, as these records were all purchased in the early 80’s.

At this point, the seller basically refused to acknowledge that he is selling a bootleg, or at least that he is misleading bidders who might believe it’s original, and thus is going to hose the high bidder for $160+ when the auction ends. Greedy/unscrupulous sellers like this are really what makes ebay a crapshoot to the entry level buyer, unfortunately. This seller also has up a lot of nice early 80’s USHC stuff, but obviously does not know much about the records themselves (many are incorrectly listed in regards to their respective pressings, see Minor Threat and Negative Approach 7″s), so, all I can say is… buyer beware!

Footnotes:

[1]Chalk it up to completely useless nerdery (but moreso being involved in releasing a good amount of records over the past 8-9 years), but you can differentiate pressings of certain records by the impression the pressing machine leaves around the center hole. On the original United Blood, the pressing mark is a small, deep circle about 1″ in diameter, and most other early 80’s NYHC singles have the same marks. I believe they were pressed by a plant called Variety that was located somewhere in the NYC area. Check your Mob 2nd 7″ for reference.

Once again, sorry for getting so carried away yesterday, I know I said it would be a marathon post, but there’s obviously way too much to read, especially on a hardcore blog. Forgive me father. Today I will keep it simple with some short-hair music, and I promise no term papers.

 You pretty much can’t beat this for Straight Edge HC rarities outside of a Judge Chung King 12″: Youth Of Today “Break Down The Walls” on red vinyl. Everyone knows this is THE album for mid-80’s straight edge hc. Raging and fast enough even for the druggies out there. Most people also know the Wishingwell edition has a much better mix than subsequent Revelation versions of the record which have additional reverb added, and some kind of obnoxious Mutt-Lange style gated snare sound (check Phil Colins “Air Of Night” and listen for when the drums come in if you don’t know what I mean). The recording is still kind of unbalanced though. The toms are really loud in some places and sort of sound like really big boxes when they get hit, the snare kind of fades in and out in places, the guitars are too quiet in some songs, the whole thing just isn’t that clear sounding. I know they probably thought they had to go to a big studio to make a big lp, but they probably would have been better served cranking it out in a day or two at Don Fury’s 8-track Demo-Demo. It’s just kind of surprising that the premier straight edge band of the day couldn’t get a recording that sounded a little better.

On the whole YOT actually had really bad luck with recordings through their career. The first 7″ sounds like everything was recorded through one of those soup-can telephone toys you make when you’re little. The original mix of the lp that follows this one has drums that clip badly, thin guitars, and the remix of the same album has drums that are off-time. In the end, the Wishingwell version of “Break Down The Walls” is actually one of the better sounding things they ever released. It’s all sort of irrelevant because thousands of people the world over have been moved by these songs time and again, but still it’s odd to think about.

Red vinyl copies of this barely exist.  Look no further than this passage from the Revelation Discography txt file for the explanation:

“The 150 count on each of the records is what Porcell believes to have been made.  100 of each color were given to the band to sell, but before they had a chance, everything from their van was stolen while parked near CBGB’s before a show.  Assuming the thieves were not hardcore kids and were more interested in selling the band’s equipment than some silly records, it can be inferred that the majority of these 200 records were destroyed (a few were given away at the show before the rest were stolen however).  A few years later, Wishingwell sold their remaining copies to local Orange County record stores.  The difficulty of finding either color of this record can be attributed to their initial limited pressing as well as the alarming 66%+ destruction rate.  In another fairly distressing yet humorous twist to the plot, I was told that the owner of one of the stores that got a number of the remaining color vinyl copies, took a dozen or so red ones home and nailed, yes nailed, them to his back porch and watched them curl up in the California sun.”

With the American Dollar the way it is, I expect an all time high for this. I got ripped off on the sale of one once. A really bummer day. Anyone who wants to mail me a free copy to replace it, please get in touch for my address.

Whoa sorry for the hate fest yesterday. See what happens when I don’t get enough sleep folks? In the end, it probably did more good than bad for yesterday’s seller. But that was yesterday. What have I got today? More like, what haven’t I got? The answer to that question, is most of the records this dude is selling. SHAMEFUL on my part.

These listings are not ace, and it makes you wonder about the validity of a few items like the NA 7″, Urban Waste 7″, 7 Seconds “Skins” 7″, especially because the labels are not visible in the photos. On the other hand the seller obviously knows the value of these items, and they seem to be in the company of many obviously legitimate pressings (you can’t fake a Floorpunch on gold people).

How about a top 5 ?

1) I gotta take the Urban Waste 7″here. Presuming that everything is legit about it, this is a hell of a clean copy. Contains an instert, the cover looks nice, unfortunately you have to speculate on the vinyl due to the photo which at the least may keep the price down. It’s kinda strange you know, Urban Waste is at this point just shy of a $500 record. If this one actually had a classy listing I think it could break it, but it’s not hard finding an Urban Waste E.P. It hits ebay seemingly weekly. With only 1000-ish pressed it seems like a large number have survived so it’s kind of surprising the price has been able to climb steadily over the past few years.

2) Even if it’s 2nd press, a clean copy of the Negative Approach 7″is a good investment and I really doubt the price is ever coming down (barring global economic disaster). You’d have a tough time arguing this isn’t the best hardcore E.P. ever, even people outside hardcore can appreciate this one. Best vocals in a punk/hardcore band ever maybe? Contender for greatest lead off track - without a doubt. NA is a band that I would argue outshines their influences (S.O.A., Blitz, 4Skins) on this record. Been listening to it for 9 years of my life now and it hasn’t worn out its welcome in the least. Too bad I’ve been listening on a dumb CD. Gotta change that this year…

3) Either Minor Threat7″ here could, in my book give the NA 7″ a run for its money. They’re both later pressings, but I guess could fetch maybe 2 bills each. There’s been a LOT of Fillers popping up lately, although it shouldn’t surprise anyone. Even blue covers are going for 150-200 now, and there’s plenty to go around. I think pretty much only the red sleeved ones go for more than 250-300 though. Btw, anyone that wants to trade a Red Sleeved copy, I hereby offer my Dogs - Slash Your Face (stock copy) in exchange for one. Maybe we could workout the difference after that, but the thing has been played twice ever so consider that. I love some Detroit Rock n Roll, but I grew up w/ the White House in my backyard, and I’m straight edge, so Ian and the boys will always be my first love.

 4) Antidote without an insert is still an Antidote 7″, so eff it. I give this my number 4. Probably will still go for more than the Minor Threat recs, and the sleeve looks better than some I’ve seen. Why are these things always trashed? At least there’s no handwriting or water stains on this.  Please lord someone put together a better Antidote release than the junk currently available.

 5) Last Rights 7″w/ a mic-stand-throwing cover. A riff like Chunks really only comes once a career, and a record this legendary probably not much more than that. No matter how much embarrassing shit Choke has pulled over the years with Slapshot, it can never diminish this single. HARD HARD HARD skinhead HARDcore. If there were oi bands that actually sounded like this I’d get a pair of boots and a razor shave on my dome.

See you folks on Marathon Metal Monday…

Good lord this is already at $40? I guess that doesn’t touch even a hair of what it’s worth content-wise. Citizens Arrest started in NYC in 1989, originally with the now semi-famous singer/songwriter Ted Leo on vocals. They produced a solid demo tape, and started playing shows, mostly at ABC-No Rio with other new (at the time) bands like Born Against, Rorschach, and a lot of others that are less cool (sorry Bad Trip). If Born Against became known for their political rabble rousing, and Rorschach became hallowed for their experimentation with metal and noise in a hardcore context, then Citizens Arrest were the band for the purist. Hardcore for the hard-core. I’m getting slightly ahead of myself though. Right after the demo tape, Ted Leo split, forming Animal Crackers, then Chisel. Daryl Kahan, who played drums for the demo phase of the band then took up the mic, previously having sung in the forgotten, but awesome True Colors (check their demos and song on the New Breed comp), and this is when things really popped off. The band recruited a new drummer, Pat Winter, previously of Our Gang and True Colors, and went to the studio to record 2 songs for the Evacuate records sponsored “Look At All the Children Now” 12″ compilation. From there on out the Citizens Arrest sound was fully formed.

What makes Citizen’s Arrest awesome to this day is that they always had a pure hardcore side that grounded any eccentricities. At the root of it all you could tell they were into early SS Decontrol, DYS, Youth Of Today, Ripchord, Void, AF, Negative Approach. The essentials to meat and potatoes HC. But there was something more. For one the riffs and guitar playing were occasionally colored by melodic passages, something that was explored in more detail by Born Against, but which still helped to shape the CXA sound. Most bands that deal in brutality do so in the most complete way possible. It tends to be a monochromatic picture, and while I’ve got no problem with that, I think part of what makes Citizens Arrest’s brutality stand out from the pack is that occasionally they counter balance it with the melodic aspect. The other part of the picture is Daryl Kahan, the band’s vocalist. Daryl was seemingly the most extreme member of the band, and since Citizens Arrest, he’s gone on to play in several pure grind and death metal bands, and at least one black metal band too. You can tell that he’s already aware of these fledgling styles, and he uses his knowledge in some of the harsher portions of his vocal delivery, and in some of the more esoteric lyrical passages on CXA’s recordings. Seriously, on the “A Light In The Darkness” 7″, you’re hearing one of the best hardcore vocal recordings ever. It’s like some unholy alliance between the first Bathory lp, the Void split, and John Brannon. My description does it no justice whatsoever. You just have to hear the way Serve and Protect (the lead-off track) hits a guitar break, only to be brought back together by the vocals shouting “I thought your job was to SERVE…AND…PROTECT”. It’s goosebumps every time, I swear.

A Light In the Darkness was originally supposed to be Draw Blank #2 after the first Infest 7″, but instead came out on Fred Alva’s Wardance label (Killing Joke reference?). There are 2 pressings of 1,000 each, I think you can differentiate them based on the record matrix as they were done at 2 different pressing plants. There’s also 100 copies on red vinyl, good luck getting one. I didn’t hustle when I could have got one reasonably cheap and am going to have to pay the price for that sooner or later. Some copies also come with the Citizens Arrest Eyes logo screened on the inside such as the one up for auction here.

FUN FACT: Daryl Kahan can also be seen in Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan as a skinhead in the times square scene.

One of the earliest NYHC lp rarities is the first Damage lp - Sins Of Our Fathers. Damage have a pretty classic pre-’85 sound for NYC, somewhere between Victim In Pain, Adjustment To Society, and the first Reagan Youth lp maybe. The difference is, they never made it to an actual studio (as far as I know). Instead they released 2 albums recorded live off the board at CBGBs, this being the first and far more rare one on Gnarl Records. Another odd aspect of the band was that they had 2 bass players, which apparently wasn’t so unheard of in New York back in the day, as The Cavity Creeps had a setup like this too. Something like 300-500 of this lp pressed but at least half must have fallen into a black hole because you rarely see it. Cover and insert look to be in nice shape too. Seller has plenty of other key items from all over the board, from Japanese HC, to early post-HC, to South American Metal.

Today’s guest blogger is Jon Westbrook from sunny (Southern) California. You may remember him from Knife Fight, or some bands he doesn’t want you to interview him about. In his words, “I don’t speak Spanish, so I don’t have anything interesting to tell you”. He’s also a purveyor of very fine vinyl platters.

I’m sure a lot of you saw this posted over at the livewire records message board, but cc’s on vacation this week and I’m working crazy hours these days (tax season….ok, I’m too lazy to scour ebay every hour in the hopes that some badass platters turn up, but honestly…tax season). Looks like we have the start of a whole collection being sold right now. Hopefully the seller didn’t blow his ebay load on this first batch though, because there’s some pretty good ones up there. Always better to build the hype if you want serious money for your goods. The most likely winner of the bunch will be the Antidote “Thou Shalt Not Kill” EP. I can’t imagine anyone not knowing this EP by now, but in case you’re a n00b, it’s a definite top 5 USHC ep, and in most cases top 2 (Negative Approach is better). Only 500 made, backups by JJ, feat members of M.O.I., yadda yadda yadda. Other gems include an original SSDecontrol “The Kids Will Have Their Say,” FU’s “Kill For Christ,” Rest In Pieces “My Rage,” and the ever popular XChorusX LP. The majority of this collection is in the straight edge vein (80’s and 90’s). And seeing that the seller is from Italy, maybe we’ll get lucky and get some Wretched, Underage, and Bloody Riot records next go around (here’s to hoping). But if there’s one thing to learn when it comes to record collecting for the person who’s serious about owning the best of the best, consider this anecdote: For many of my teenage years and into the early 20’s, I used to curse my parent’s names for waiting 8 years to have children. I thought paying $50 for a record was absurd, and thought “if only I was 5 years older, I could have paid “absurd” prices by 1989’s standards.” But a wise man once told me “if you have the money, just buy it because it’ll be worth more than that in a few years.” Just think about how dumb I’d feel now if I had passed on paying $75 for that Antidote EP in ‘97…

Alright here’s a nice looking Underdog 7″for sale, noted as being first press. Presumably it is because if it were 2nd press it would be blue vinyl. Underdog still stands alone as such a weird band of their time. The riffs are really groovy and heavy for something recorded in ‘85 and even though they always point to the Bad Brains as an influence, there’s something way different about them. The soulful vocals threw me off as a kid, I thought they sounded like 80’s metal. I regretted thinking that later (now). Underdog is really right on the line where Hardcore crossed over from the first to the second generation of participants, and started to have much less to do with “Punk”. From around this point onward there seemed to be a lot more emphasis on precision in the music, speed seemed less important, production became more modern, there was a sound and aesthetic that became more self contained, and nowhere was this was more noticeable than New York City and its surrounding areas. Some could say it was the influence of Heavy Metal’s rising popularity, and in part it was, but I think, even if in a more subtle way, that street culture and early rap music played a part too, especially in New York. Look no further than Underdog’s classic Say It To My Face for a pseudo-rapped vocal delivery, and a musical groove, that I can’t describe any other way than “bouncy”. In some way or other it just sounds like the New York you’d picture from the mid-80s set to a song. My memories of that place are as dim as could be, I only visited once, and I was a child so maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. For these reasons and probably some others, the Underdog 7″ strikes me as one of the earliest examples of a record you just can’t explain to punk “purists”. They hear Say It To My Face, or True Blue, and it just doesn’t resonate to them like Urban Waste or early AF. It’s too far removed, maybe too clean or not “crazy” enough. For me it’s just a different kind of power and anger, more focused, maybe less out of control, but not any less meaningful. Btw - check this seller’s other stuff for plenty of other great NYHC picks.