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Well maybe you’re out today voting for who you get to vote for later this year. Unfortunately my favorite UFO peeping, Larry Flynt allied, pacifist is already outta the running. Just kidding I could never vote for a candidate whose name I wouldn’t be able to spell until year 3 of his term. Really, Larry Flynt Dennis? Well it’s not like you can go any lower than zero anyway. Can you believe though, that I actually got a mass text message to vote for Obama? Like I trust a friend of Oprah any more than a lady with the same voice as my middle school social studies teacher. It’s more of the same with all of these jerks. . Oops sorry… let me go back to consoling the post Superbowl depression of my peers (”Ya know the Superball’s in Detroit this year…”). Personally I’m just thrilled that after 8 years, #81, ART MONK, has been inducted into the NFL Hall Of Fame. Wait this isn’t right either…

GREETINGS FELLOW  HARDCORE/PUNK ENTHUSIASTS! Today I’ve found a seller with a couple of tasty treats, and a bunch of indie-rock tripe, that shall get no further acknowledgement.  Firstly there’s Canadian Youth Youth Youth - “Sin” 12″e.p. We call them YYY for short. You can put them on the same itunes playlist as your Pig Children 12″ maybe. This one (like the Pig Children) has a tendency of showing up sealed kind frequently, and this one appears to be as well. So if what you’ve always wanted was, a pricey record you will be de-valuing by listening to it, well here it is! Nah this is an above average offering for sure.

Also available The Inmates - “Government Crimes”7″. This one comes with the Zouo themed sleeve on blue vinyl(it has a photo of Zouo on it), thus denoting it as a 2nd pressing, although it’s listed confusingly as a 3rd pressing. In addition, it’s listed as being from Japan, which must at least be flattering for these guys. The Inmates are my number-one favorite group of the Cleveland scum-core bands. It was truly an honor to be able to reissue their lp on Painkiller in that toxic-waste-green jacket. Seriously the fact that this came out of the United States in 94/95 is mind blowing. There was nothing this cool or catchy anywhere else. Maybe the next best thing was the Copout 7″, and frankly I’d rank that far below. Slap-a-Ham was already a spent force, Straight Edge Hardcore still sounded like a spoof of a Helmet record, most punk bands sounded like Aus Rotten at best. I dunno, maybe it wasn’t that bad. I mean I was 14, at best I had a couple people playing me garbage on Victory, and maybe 7 Seconds, but that’s at best, so what do I know right? I’m sure seeing Catharisis or some such 5th teir Rorschach ripoff whose name I can’t think of was really meaningful at the time, but let me go out on a limb and say, you probably don’t wanna wear that on your sleeve now anyway. The Inmates - this is the stuff from then that still matters. Blown out ear smashing, brain searing, 10 megaton destruction.  Oh and if you’re still in a Cleveland mood, there’s a repeat copy of The Mormons “On The Trail West”e.p. Looks like this is a $50 piece now, I guess the appearance of the Homostupids has cemented that.

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)

I think my friend Timmy is having these items sold for him, or they used to be his. A couple of painkiller records rarities in here, including a test press of the Breathing Fire 7″, which was really only made in a large quantity for a show in Sherbrook… i’m not sure why really. Breathing Fire are the most powerful and brain melting band I’ve ever been able to “work with”, and by work with, I mean beg to reform and record an album (which will be out soon on Painkiller). There’s also tests of the recent Hard Skin 7″ on Feral Ward, The Government Warning lp, and the Doom/No Security split (which I’m under the impression there’s at least 50 of).

A good record that I expect is gonna set a new high due to the 80’s USHC craze we’re drowning in right now, is “F - You Are An E.P.” 12″. The first song on this one is really well written, a call response that is a little more advanced than many. It never really reaches the same heights after that but it’s a good record. I bought one for $6 once. It was a cool day although I got a parking ticket when that happened.

In a similar vein, and class, is Subculture - I Heard A Scream lp, on green vinyl (I feel like I see green more than black). This band as you might know had the singer of recently acclaimed, Double Negative. This really isn’t as good as Double Negative, not even close. It’s good, but I don’t love it. Sounds like the first COC album watered down by some Mystic style punk. A lot of songs about girls (do I even need to say how bad those lyrics are?), one or two mellow moments that kill the momentum, and is kind of long IMO. People are looking for this though, and with 80’s No Namer HC records all going for more and more loot, how long will it be before either A) you want to buy that Morrally Bankrupt album off me (members of DRI & Pissed Youth… lol) or B) the whole thing falls in on itself and $10 lps become $10 lps again. There was once a time when the first Token Entry lp was clearing $50… and I’ll take this moment to point out, it’s more worthy than a dozen Subcultures, Th Inbred’s, and whatever other mediocre crap someone’s going to dredge up. Then again, I’ve been known to rave about the Infection - “Legal Limit” lp (Deleware), and I may just be crashing from a sugar high (thanks for the cookies mom). I’m giving Subculture a hard time which isn’t really fair. It’s not a bad lp. But it’s also the kind of thing that should be found for under $20.

I’m kind of curious to see if this Fair Warning - You Are The Scene 12″ will start getting any value. After all it’s as worthy as whatever already is. I think the cover art is better than the actual music. It’s French Canadian, like The Omegas, and America’s Youth.

Lastly, don’t forget the Amebix - No Sanctuary on Spiderleg… not sure if it was ever issued on another label but probably. A veryfine non-punk, punk band. Seems like kind of a battered copy but maybe you’re looking for it.