bidhardcore.com
hardcore records on ebay — aggregated and examined
Really, one of the biggest mistakes that Greg Ginn has made in his 30+ years of SST, is ever letting The Dicks “Kill From The Heart” go out of print. This is not only one of the best releases the label ever saw, but one of the best rock lps ever to come from Texas. It’s got that drunk sweaty swagger that riffers like ZZ Top had, or pscyhe punks like the 13th Floor Elevators could show off, but it has its own context. So while the sun-baked twang of “Pigs Run Wild” is Texan in tradition, it took a bunch of left leaning, queer punks to play it just like this. For the record, they play the fuck out of it. It’s criminal this album isn’t available to the masses ON ANY FORMAT, and that it isn’t mentioned nearly as much as other greats of the day, many of which it outclasses.When the album opens with Anti Klan Pt. 1, there’s echoes of “You’re Gonna Miss Me” surging through it, but with a completely new sentiment in the lyrics. Disgust at their surroundings. Dicks vs. The World. This record is great cruising tunes (and I mean that both if you’re just out for a springtime drive, or you know… if you’re cruising). I caught the Dicks in Austin in 2006 and they were still pretty great.Peep the sweet condition this copy is in. For whatever reason, whenever you can find this lp it’s always hammered with ring wear and bashed corners. A copy in sweet condition like this with shrink still covering most of it is pretty rare.
While lesser bands of the day continue to increase in infamy, get bootlegged, and be sported on shitty looking tshirts by members of bands with names like Social Crisis, Negative Abuse, Ripping Group, Control Unit, etc., The Stains languish in semi-obscurity, known only to collectors and old men. Their s/t 12″ is one of the best examples of why SST is simultaneously the greatest and shittiest label of all time. While new Mojack and Zoogz Rift CDs are still appearing on a weekly basis, Mr. Ginn has records like this deleted from his catalog (to say nothing of The Dicks - Kill From the Heart, and the undoubtedly massive archive of unreleased Black Flag).
The Stains 12″ is one of the earliest recordings of meat and potatoes USHC, created in ‘81, although the band was started allegedly as early as 1976, the album didn’t actually see release until 1983. What a bummer for the band, (they broke up shortly after). You can still taste some of the heavy metal and rock influences that the members would have obviously drawn from, coming up in the original LA Hardcore scene. It’s not that far off a band like The Fix who were making similar sounds during this time, despite no close proximity to The Stains. I gotta mention that for an album recorded by Spot this one has a great sound. Crunchy thick guitar (much thicker than usual), solid drums, and vocals that are, for once, not 10x too loud in the mix. Maybe the fact that personalities like Greg Ginn or Bob Mould weren’t flexing their egos all over the process is the reason this record actually sounds good. I think these guys might have some connection to Overkill L.A. (another great lost SST band), but I’m not entirely certain.
I’m not sure who the seller is on this stuff but they clearly are an older person. They have 2 items sold in their completed auctions: an original Black Flag flyer and a test press of Jealous Again. Currently for sale they have:
- Red Cross - posh boy 12″ test pressing (Red Kross…)
- UXA - Illusions of Grandeur test press
- Germs - What We Do is Secret 12″ Test press
- and an unused As A Parent, I Found It An Anti-Parent Record sticker
Some of this stuff says “given to me by the band”. The sticker says: “This is one of the last Unstuck stickers on the sheet. We put them on the Damaged records in 1981 at the pressing plant.”
Pretty killer. Hopefully even more cool stuff comes soon. Can anyone identify the model in the studded jacket for sale?
Black Flag’s Damaged lp on Unicorn/MCA (original pressing) is not really a rare record. 5,000 were produced and although a lot ended up in cut out bins, a large number are still in circulation. Still there are few records that are just cooler to own. Everything about this lp is a landmark, but the infamous “As A Parent I Found It An Anti Parent Record” sticker placed over the MCA logo just sends it over the top as far as coolness/collectibility. It’s perfect. Even though its been pointed out there are, musically, some problems with Damaged (the mix is extremely uneven, Rollins delivery being arguably flat, the song TV Party in general), it’s still a flawless record when taken as a whole. The questionable aspects do nothing to dull the full impact of it, and Greg Ginn’s ambitions are fully realized. It was dangerous, inspiring dozens of bands across the country and breaking the minds of every youth that was exposed to it. It’s scuzzy and thuggish and the logical conclusion of Black Flag phase I. It’s one of the most perfectly titled records ever made. It’s everything it ought to be, and everything it had to be to make hardcore matter.
In some ways Damaged is a little too much of an archetype now. It has become the Paranoid of the Black Flag catalog. It gets unfairly dismissed in favor of later releases that contain more experimental, or that are referenced less by outsiders. Do not make this mistake. There’s a reason it’s the Black Flag everyone knows.
Tasty jam from the far east today (for the Sox). Black Flag - My War; Japanese pressing on VAP. One of the coolest Black Flag rarities ever is this lp. I think VAP is a Japanese major, I know they licensed some other big name punk records like Discharge, Septic Death, GBH, as well as a lot of metal, and new wave. I believe this copy would have included an obi-strip if you bought it new, but other than that it looks to be in good shape. One cool thing about this edition of the record is it actually includes the lyrics to the album in English and Japanese. In the US you could mail away to SST for a special booklet of Raymond Pettibone art with the lyrics, but the lp didn’t come with a lyric sheet.
If you don’t know this album I don’t even know what to say. It’s one of the most controversial punk records ever, you either love it or hate it. Conventional wisdom at the time was that it was some kind of sellout, but listen to the infamous B-Side and tell me there’s anything compromised about what you hear. While it may not have been punk enough for purists in 1984, it has since been accepted by many as one of Black Flag’s definite masterpieces. I bought My War as a used tape when I was in high school and found it left me feeling sick to my stomach by the time the second song had started. The atonal leads colliding with Sabbath-esque sludge and minimal basement style production all pointed to one word. BLEAK.
A rather suspect listing in my opinion here of Black Flag’s Nervous BreakdownE.P. First of all though before I get to that, if you don’t know, this is basically the first record that could be called hard core, in its original press (out of 500). The brick pattern that you see on the cover is what denotes that. Nervous Breakdown is one of the 100 greatest rock and roll songs ever written, of any sub-genre that falls within those boundaries. It feels silly to talk about it. It’s like a Christian talking about Christ, or lately, a middle class college student talking about Barrack Obama (I hear after he ends all wars on the first day, he will walk on water on the second). Maybe on the third day he can pass a law obliterating sketchy ebay sales. See the first thing I noticed is the picture on the sale page is just a little stock jpg you can find from a quick search of google images. Which made me puzzle if it was really a first press with an original sleeve, or if the sleeve has ever been counterfeited. In addition the seller only has a feedback of two, in other words they’re a new seller. For such a marquee listing, there’s also minimal information given, and the typing in all caps, just automatically does not sit well with me (which isn’t really fair). Also they misspelled Nervous as NERVOUSE, but I am also a really bad speller. I am fairly certain the claim of “mint condition” is not going to be up to goldmine grading standards or whatever. So… I guess at best this will probably go a little under the going rate (and who even knows what that is… somewhere between $400-$700?). I would not bid without some kind of paypal insurance, or some way to be sure I could get a full refund. Btw. my friend Bob found one of these buried in the back of some record store last year. It was $10. My other friend found a copy of The Mad “Eyeball” for $5 there a few months before. There truly is no justice in this world, is there?
