bidhardcore.com

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.

Well…. like an idiot i just lost the stuff I’d just written today about Floorpunch. I found all these editions of their 7″ for sale by one seller:

• Red vinyl #’d 200
• Blue vinyl (of 800)
• Black vinyl - 1st press
• Black vinyl w/ Green lettering on sleeve - 3rd press
• Euro tour edition w/ Judge sleeve
• White vinyl farewell edition

as well as a copy of their lp on white vinyl, and the In My Blood Records shirt.

This sucks total De Ja Vu from an hour ago. Anyway all I really wanted to say is that FP’s legacy has held up remarkably well over the last 10 years. The recordings still sounds pretty hot, the songs still deliver the power-load, the shirts still look good, the records still have cool layouts, it’s all still there, not really dulled at all by time. I was pretty disappointed I didn’t make it to their reunion show last fall, especially since I only really saw them twice when they were around. One more thing I gotta give credit for was how they were able to be a serious band, while still keeping a good sense of humor in interviews and on stage. If anything, the 90’s were plagued with overly serious, self important bands in every sub-genre around, and it’s safe to say, looking back a lot of it was presumptuous and I’d go so far to say some of it was downright insulting. Floorpunch was never caught in that trap. I mean their name defined, if it were in a dictionary, essentially means “To mosh.” Right there that tells you a thing or two, but even though the lyrics and music were simple, it still meant something. The anger was still there at the heart of it, and, even if some people don’t want to admit it, the rebellion against the outside world (and the larger “scene” for that matter). Also they always picked great cover songs.

So that’s not everything I was going to say, but that’s the gist of it. BUST!

Here’s a decent spread of NYHC style items. A lot of bootlegs but they’re all easily identifiable, and there’s a few that are actually pretty cool and nicely done.

Most interesting thing is this Krakdown 7″ with what seems to be an original insert, which is very rare. The story goes that they showed up to Kinkos to make lyric sheets but didn’t have enough money, and got sick of folding them or some such thing, so only a couple hundred were actually made. You almost never see a copy of this E.P. with an insert. Popular opinion, seems to be that their ‘87 demo smokes this recording, and though it is awesome, I think this record stands on its own for sure (even if the recording’s a little on the thin side). A jam like disappointed can’t just be written off quite that easily. If you don’t know Krakdown, well, you’re not necessarily to blame. They’re one of those NYHC bands stuck in reissue purgatory. I think their only available track is on the NYHC: The Way It Is comp, but they have a couple of demo recordings, this 7″, an unreleased split lp, and a wealth of great live sets. A real shame. They’ve always sort of been the NYHC equivalent to Void for me. They were looser and more punky than your average NYHC band with a wild and unhinged guitarist often that would break into squalls of feedback and stuttering atonal solos. Truly a cult classic.

I guess, continuing with the reissue purgatory is this Supertouch 7″ (titled: “What Did We Learn”). Supertouch is weird weird weird band, and until a few years ago they were in danger of being forgotten. I used to get made fun of for loving them in high school, I guess it finally came around though because Revelation recently repressed their album out of new interest in the band. This is their 7″ from before that though, and along with a couple of promo/demo recordings, a comp track on Revelation, and an infamous WNYU live set, it forms really the core of what the band was all about to people (besides stage diving that is). I still really can’t describe Supertouch right. Even on their earliest rehearsal recordings they mixed heavy grooving rock influenced guitar riffs, DC emo-core type melody, and NYHC attitude, delivering a really unlikely mix of all 3.

And then there’s this. Youth Of Today - Disengage on clear vinyl. I couldn’t help but see it and get annoyed. How similar it is to the Supertouch 7″, but how different as well. Disengage is a classic example of the washed-up Straight Edge record. The recording is clean and melodic. It’s a hard core 7″ but only has 3 songs. The cover doesn’t have the band name on it anywhere. The singer won’t scream anymore. While this isn’t far off the record named a few lines above here, the difference is that Youth of Today started off sounding like a bunch of Tasmanian Devils beating trashcans and stringed instruments (seriously listen to the original mix of their first E.P.), and thus it’s way more offensive to me. You’d think by now bands would have learned their lesson trying to transform their youthful hardcore band into some kind of half baked, reconfigured rock outfit, but it keeps happening. I feel like for 25 years it has been an endless cycle of youthful angry boys that make one or two good E.P.s, with a good intro or three, a couple catchy fast riffs, and then they start growing their hair, listening to Joy Division or Ride - or worse just another band of ex-HC guys like Quicksand or Into Another - and then it’s right on to the fanzine interviews where they talk about expanding their sound, how their old music is boring, all that shit. If only there was a way to tell these people that they are living out the same embarrassing cliche ending that so many bands before them have, on par with a high school football player choosing a white hat, or a Canadian citizen loving hockey.

By all means if you start a band feel free to grow, evolve, change, try new things, EXCEPT, if you start a straight edge hardcore band. If this is the path you choose please, all I ask is some good mosh parts, a singer with a powerful and unleashed yell, and at least one good t-shirt design (free of scratchy lettering, too many colors, and anything that has been on a hardcore band’s shirt in the last 6 years). This is all it takes folks. You don’t need to grow, you don’t need to get introspective, you don’t need to plagiarize that Sonic Youth lp you just bought. People have been playing rock music for a major chunk of the last century, so when you get over hardcore, please spare everyone the come-lately rocker vibe, and just quietly put down your guitar and shut up. Thank you in advance, and to all my formerly Straight Edge friends - I still love you.

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.

Yo, I’m a little short on time today, but here’s some hott picks anyway.

 First off found a dude selling a Sean John jacket, a SOIA cd, and oh a little 12″ called Breakaway, by one of the finer HC bands ever, Straight Ahead. This is the first press w/ the white DJ jacket and sticker. One just sold for $150, which is effin crazy, but this dude (stupidly) refuses to ship international, meaning that only people with the weak US dollar will be bidding on it. It’s like he opened a cake shop where fat people can’t fit through the door.

Anyway, Straight Ahead made me think of Lärm and I found this store in austrailia with their “No One Can Be That Dumb” e.p. I wish there were more bands that played the kind of tuneless thrash that they played in their day, that were also straight edge, and I was disappointed to hear that the whole band no longer is, (although Seein Red is still pretty ripping in their relatively old age).

Anyhow, after checking the other records for sale by this seller I noticed an OG Hitler SS/Tampax split, which if you’re a real baller, might be of interest to you. Me, I gotta pay that rent check.

This wins the award for
funniest auctions of the week . For Sale:
1 original Vile “Solution” lp, and a bunch of 90’s emo (in case you need a re-up on your Portraits of Past collection).  Vile is mostly infamous for the irreverent lyrical content on the record, although at least on person I know thinks they made the best Boston HC lp. Subtract the obnoxious, lyrics though and you’re left with an over-long, uneven snotty hardcore jam, better than say, PTL Klub, but not half as good as the FU’s. There are a few undeniable hits like 5 to 10, but there are so many great early 80’s Massachusetts HC/Punk releases that it really doesn’t matter much to me. About the only thing it’s good for is pissing off squares. My favorite Vile story is that they beat up their bassist on stage during a show, but that doesn’t really save the album as a whole. I guess this will probably sell for $300. Probably not worth your trouble, but there it is.

 Also funny, but not nearly as funny:
this seller with about a dozen Spazz records, and then the first press of the
Hard Stance “Face Reality” 7″.  Time for this jam to get a reissue, a total hard-edge classic. Btw the
Doom “Police Bastard” they got for sale looks to be either a 3rd or 4th press. Don’t miss that
Gordon Solie Motherfuckers “Chairshot Politcs” either (discography out this year on Painkiller!). Spazz has the best joke band riffs besides Straight Youth, and maybe something else I can’t think of.

Clevtoday is a 90’s Cleveland hardcore special, with a round up of items from the most polluted hell-hole in the midwest.

 Kickin’ it off with this Only The Strong comp on blue vinyl, 1st press. This is the most limited standard variation of the record, the b-side on this one is just a 1-2-3 punch of violent moshy hardcore — the undisputed best Confront song, the only recorded Meanstreak song (feat. Paul Inmate on guitar), and a classic take of Darkness by Integrity. Find me another comp that delivers that well… you’ll have a hard time. A-side has the only good Insight song (Utah? what?), a pretty good Even Score song (they’re called Life Cycle on some pressings) and a good Face Value song too. Speaking of Erba and Anthony Brown…

…Here’s a Face Value 7″ on clear vinyl. Coming Of Age. There’s some great unsung riffs on here, I think they kind of get a bad wrap as being too posi-core for cleveland, and also some of the drumming choices. The drummer obviously is rock-trained, and extremely proficient, but he uses some crappy cheaters beats during the fast parts. I don’t know if it’s laziness or he thought it would just sound better. Even so this was a good highschool jam, and has a cool vibe.

Total idiocy you’re looking for? How about the Integrity/Kids Of Whidney High split 7″ w/ Bloodbook zine. I think the Integs tracks is a demo take of Jagged Visions with some sound effects of pigs dubbed over it. I still have no idea if the KOWH side was actually authorized or what, but “I See Pretty Girls” was a highschool mixtape staple. I’m sure there’s a place in hell just for people like me.

 Here’s one sometimes overlooked, The Mormons self released 7″. This is Steve (9 Shocks & Homostupids) and Kevin (9 Shocks) high school band. I once bought a copy off Steve at a 9 Shocks show and he insisted I explain why I wanted to pay money for it. Honestly it’s a cool record, some of the songs have an early (read: good) Gang Green type sound. Some of it misses the mark, but this is one of the more collectible 90’s cleveland DIY releases. Actually it’s not too far off some of the Homostupids releases, so I guess things come full circle.  BTW: i think Jamie from Boulder/Midnight is the one selling this.

Lastly here’s an Upstab Stabbing The Church 7″, which was sort of a legit bootleg.I always liked this one a little more than their officially released 7″s which were a little cleaner (still good though). When Mind Eraser played with Upstab in Cleveland Chris was wearing a ski-mask and holding an open switch-blade. While it seemed par for the course for Cleveland, it was a far cry from anything on the east coast then, or now, which is too bad. At least there’s still real nihilistic punk music happening somewhere.

Some people have sort of equired as to why myself, and others like me, have such a fixation on this era of Hardcore and Punk, from this area of the country. I feel like there’s a lot of factors, obviously I think the music is generally good, and the cult vinyl pressings are fun to collect, but I really dig the meanspirited-ness that was on display by so many of these bands. Just utterly unconcerned with being offensive, or being friendly or even being noticed. With the exception of a band like Integrity, who were obviously big and opperating in a different scene, despite sharing memebers of bands like the Inmates, most of these dudes were just playing for each other, and as a result went unnoticed by the idiots buying southern crust metal and cut-rate grindcore instead. Of course I was too young to know the difference, but it’s all time and place man.

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.

Got a couple selections from M. Colin Tappe’s auctions here. Nothing too crazy for sale but some good picks, check ‘em all out. Looks like he’s just selling off a few things to buy other stuff.Numero Uno:Anti-Sect: “In Darkness There Is No Choice”- I guess this is one of the big milestones in anarcho-punk and “crust” music. For 1983 it’s frankly pretty shocking how polished it is, and how many bands it was the template for, not just in style but in the sound of the recording. It’s tricky because on the surface it’s basically just a metal album taking a lot from early thrash bands but with the realist/Discharge-style approach to horror and despair that Discharge mapped out. The songs take on a similar driving and hypnotic delivery, but being stretched much longer (the opener “THEY” runs like 6 minutes at the same tempo), so that it kind of reminds me in some ways of Crass (besides the obvious politics), and in other ways of something like Killing Joke (who I think were a big influence to a lot of peace punkers). It’s a pretty important album, and also at times I find it kind of boring. There’s something about an unwavering cockney accent just shouting and shouting and shouting for 6 minutes… I keep waiting for something else to happen. Still it sounds heavy, although I gotta wonder how he kept from getting tongue-tied, i guess they do have 3 vocalists on this album. A lot of the atmospheric shit like wind blowing and abstract wooshing noises that are meant to be dramatic on crusty HC and punk records also in part originate here, and maybe haven’t aged too well. I also feel like this might be a more overwhelming, powerful, and inspirational album if you hear it at a younger age, where I only really sat down and listened about 2 or 3 years ago. So in conclusion, while this is a stone cold classic to the peace punk crowd, and a “first of its kind” type release, it feels a little obsolete to me. I’d prefer the more rhythmic churning Amebix approach, or Sacrilege’s much more refined version of the sound on this lp. Btw this is the Southern pressing, I believe there is one on Spiderleg predating it.Underdog: “Demos”- Here’s one on the other side of the coin. Gotta love that this is the original press with the classic pool skater artwork. When I was really young Underdog just seemed weird and not that hardcore to me. All the groove and singy vocals confused me which is now kind of embarrassing and probably strange to some people in this day and age where weird-hc is the bread and butter of everyone and there’s a popular band named after Into Another’s shelved trip-hop album. Forget all that BS though, Over The Edge is just a very fine well nuanced song, and if half the bands that put Underdog on their list of influences could compose a song so advanced there would be a lot more good songs, and probably less wars or something. Revelation are the current keepers of these demos, but I think it’s time someone considered re-reissuing the Vanishing Point (w/ original artwork), restoring the original mix to the demos, and tying up loose ends, like the demo with Carl Mosher, etc, all on one disc, or maybe 2. Most records like this have turned 20 or are about to, and it’s time someone do a definitive historical package of stuff like this.  Far Out records back catalog is kind of funny as I remember, I think they did the 2nd press of the Fear Of God 7″ around the same time they did this Underdog 12″.