bidhardcore.com
hardcore records on ebay — aggregated and examined
An Insted test press - hmmm. Can’t say I love ‘em, or really even like ‘em. It’s like someone took 7 seconds, made the vocals even less threatening, made the songs longer, and then put a picture of 3 kids skipping down the road on the cover - how does this even qualify as hardcore? It’s too Boy Scouts Of America. I’m not saying you need to be in full on GG Allin mode, but I dunno, where the hell is the anger? It’s like Crucial Youth only they don’t know it’s a joke. Choose For Yourself, Live and Let Live, Be Someone… I feel like I’m watching that Stuart Smalley sketch on Saturday Night Live. I will admit that We’ll Make The Difference is a pretty classic Straight Edge Anthem, but a whole album of this stuff is just too much.
Shout out to Gil who is the only non-straight edger ever in history to like Insted. To me this is insane. It’s like going to confession once a week but not being Catholic. Gil you’re one of a kind buddy. This one’s for you.
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.
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.
More auctions from a seller I posted last week, and there’s plenty to go around, so be sure to check his whole list. Here’s a couple quickies from that list…
How about this
Chain Of Strength - True Til Death on green vinyl (that’s first pressing dude). Superior in every way to the Chain auction I posted last week, this is also much better than that modernized sounding remix Rev circulates now. I love the way the vocals are buried in the mix giving the music a more powerful feel, and the songs are much more aggressive and angry than the E.P. they did after this. The simplicity in the riffs really brings the anger to the forefront too, the main riffs in the first 2 songs only use 2 notes each. One more thing that some might say is out of the ordinary for the time, is how little focus there is on mosh parts, a couple songs don’t have them at all, and the ones that do can’t be called mosh-heavy by any stretch.
If you want mosh-heavy though, there’s always this
Release - The Pain Inside 7″, which to me sounds something like a combo of the Turning Point 7″ and the Raw Deal demo, but without guitar amps. What I mean is that the guitars have the thin, fuzzy sound that you can easily get by plugging your instrument directly into the mixing board/recording device, instead of plugging into an amplifier, and having a microphone record the sounds that come from that. Questionable production choices aside though, this record is one of the few to have the distinction of the letter A on the cover being replaced by the head of a man in a hooded sweatshirt. Some people would call him a Phantom-Edgeman. What I wanna know is why does that Phantom-Edgeman have red eyes? Was it a bad photograph, or is he some kind of vampire? Similarly the last E in the band name is replaced by a weird dude with a flat-top and big teeth. Bizarre.
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: 
Alright, I feel slightly unsure of myself on this one, but I’m pretty sure I am right. This guy is selling a small amount of stuff and I noticed he’s selling boots of the Unity 7″, Skins Brains Guts, and the Cause For Alarm 7″, nonetheless, I am pretty certain this is a real Agnostic Front “United Blood”. You may want to email the guy and get some further photos to verify, but the sleeve looks right, the labels look right, and it seems to coincide w/ pressing info. One thing I find reassuring is that the sides are taped with scotch tape which is how a lot of the copies of the record originally came, because I guess there was a shortage of glue on the Lower East Side at the time or something? United Blood is the absolute ultimate proof that skill and ability are absolutely unnecessary to play convincing, memorable, and timeless hard core.
If skill is your thing though, there is this Judge “There Will Be Quiet” 7″ on gold vinyl. Forget This Time is a good, post Metallica jaded hardcore shit-kicker. 1,000 on gold vinyl btw. As good as this is (and it’s pretty good) it’s still no United Blood though.
I have a big post coming, but before that, please observe a few items in this short weekend post that Reptillian Records of Baltimore is selling. A lot of run of the mill indie store stuff (a clipped Crispen Glover lp, Guided By Voices, Beach Boys, Mr. T Experience…), but there are a few really high demand straight edge hardcore items. BTW: does anyone know if Reptillian still has a street address? I know they shut down, then moved, and I’m not currently sure if they have a store front or are just an online business. Any info would be appriciated. The records:
1) War Zone - Lower East Side Crew 7″ on Orange
One thing I love is all 3 of these records are raw as hell, and every song is a hit. The War Zone is the big money maker here but Together is probs gonna go for a hundred at least, and the Judge record, though not worth too much in dollars, is valuable at least in terms of the sounds found on it. The thing that really dragged me down to the pit of despair (aka: record collecting) was early rev/schism and related records. Something just looked so cool about the Judge 7″ to my 16 year old mind. After that the seed was planted and the spell was unbreakable. To me these records are great proof that playing straight edge hardcore doesn’t need to be all octave-chord leads, epic tribal drum breakdowns, and grand statements about society and self. Every band on NYHC - 1987 - Together, is basically just scrapping it out, hacking away however they can get the job done. The recordings themselves are not “big”, “clean”, or “huge”, they just sound like some mics pointed at a wall of very fast sound. Timing isn’t perfect, the drumming is primal and simplified, the guitars for the most part sound like beefed up waves of tv static; but every single band delivers in spite of this, and they sound better for it. It’s truely hardcore, “warts and all” as they say, and both the Judge and War Zone 7″s only serve to expand upon, and hammer that point home. Some people, no doubt avid readers of some crap-factory like pitchfork, or buyers of obscure 60’s world music, would protest that this music is juvenile and lacks anything subtle or thoughtful. I on the other hand would like to borrow an arguement from my friend DFJ, that sometimes I still feel the same things I felt when I was but 15, and anyone who says they don’t, is probably a liar. In rememberence, of old New York…
Oh since I wrote this they also added a Unit Pride - s/t 7″ which is neither raw, or New York based but still pretty good. Wide Awake is by far the best song on it though, and I actually don’t love it, but I do love their artwork. In addition, in a pre-emptive Metal Monday note - check the Abruptum 7″ they’re selling which is the first Abruptum vinyl. If you like evil Sweedish black metal made by an actual dwarf, this record is for you. Honestly I’d prefer the War Zone 7″.
User amandango (no idea who that is) is unloading some good stuff. There was a Together comp in the list but it was taken down early. Here’s her whole list
A couple of the highlights…
