Here are a few cool comps with some notable tunes on them, all nice and cheap…

1. A Generation of Hope 7″
Great comp of late 80′s harder edge bands. Best Confront song, everyone’s favorite Chain song, and the only studio track released on vinyl by the almighty Pushed Aside. If you haven’t heard Pushed Aside’s demo, do yourself a favor and grab the 7″ reissue from a few years back on Indecision.

2. In-Effect Sampler cassette
This was released as a promo for current and upcoming records on In-Effect. This comp is cool because it has the only ever officially released songs from Sick Of It All’s demo tape, and has a couple of songs from the legendary Raw Deal demo. A steal at only 99¢!

3. Chop Chop 7″
Decent Bad Trip song on side A, but this comp is really worth getting for the A-Bomb-A-Nation tracks at the end, which although they are live, are (sort of) the only vinyl output from this seriously underrated NYHC band. There’s another comp ep with them playing live on WFMU radio (which is AWESOME), but 450+ of the 500 copies made have been sitting in a basement in NJ for the past 15+ years.

This first item they are selling is a bass that belonged to Jonathan Anastas from DYS. He did not use this bass for the Gallery East show, but it was used at the practices & rehersals leading up to the show. I’m sure some footage of him playing this bass will make its way into the movie.

In addition to it being Jonathans left handed Fender Jazz bass, it has also been signed by all the bands that performed at the Gallery East show. The auction description and title are horrendous!! I sent a question to ask exactly who signed the bass and got back this answer…

Revilers (Jared Souther, Andy Fletcher, Corey Hussey, Dave Reinhardt)

Refuse Resist (Shawn Refuse, Mike Barone, John Mehlman, Steve Risteen, Micheal Swiderick) + Springa

Slapshot (Jack ‘Choke’ Kelly, Chris Lauria, + 2) *+2 is John Bean & Craig Silverman

Antidote (Drew Stone, Niel ‘Zum’ Ostberg, Robert ‘Nunzio’ Ortiz, REA)

Gang Green (Chris Doherty, Walter Gustafson, Michael Earls, Matt Sandonato)

Jerry’s Kids (Bob Cenci, Rick Jones, Jack Clark, Ross Luongo)

The FU’s (Steve Grimes, Mick Stunt, Richie Rich, Wayne Maestri, Bob Furapples, John Sox)

DYS (Dave Smalley, Jonathan Anastas, Ross Luongo, Bobby Frankenheim, Jack Clark)
________________________________________________________

I think this is a pretty awesome item, but I wish they would have had it signed by the other ‘old Boston crew’ people that were at the show. People like Jamie Sciarappa, Katie ‘The Kleaning Lady’ Goldman, Dicky Barrett, Rev. Hank, Phil Phlash & some others too. Maybe if the winner is from New England they can try and track down the other people and have them sign it too!

Let’s start here and move backwards. If asked to listen to these records back to back, this is how I’d start. Righteous Jams’  2nd LP has it’s fair share of naysayers – I say they aren’t listening right. The follow up has a much different feel than their demo or first LP – but consider that the lineup was drastically different, and that this record came out 2 years(or more?) after the first record. Consider this a more churning, drag out record, as opposed to the burst of energy from Rage of Discipline. It’s not a Mike Tyson first round KO – it’s a Larry Holmes 8th round TKO. If you can’t appreciate both, that’s alright. But I like the variety. “Lizards” – awesome.

And here, the (modern) classic. Rage of Discipline has held up well (at least better than the cover on this particular copy) and can formally be notched in as my favorite sxe record of the ’00s, for whatever that’s worth. Unfortunately bad picture, but I’m not going to kill the seller for that. He was probably really emotional having to sell this, so I understand.

By the time the Hands Tied 7″ had come out, Mouthpiece had been broken up for some time and there was a very different “feeling in the air.” Whereas Mouthpiece always served as the carrier of the torch for straight forward, straight edge hardcore in a time where slowed down songs and metal riffs were now the definition of hardcore. And let’s call a spade a spade, Mouthpiece wasn’t necessarily breaking any land speed records themselves. That said, there was a distinct difference in their sound than quite a few of their contemporaries, for better or worse, and that’s what will always define them as a cool band to me.

But still… when the needle hits the plate on the Hands Tied 7″, the energy bounces off the walls in a way that Mouthpiece rarely did on record. Here’s the rare Purple vinyl, limited to 300 copies. This was not an easy record to acquire back in the late ’90s, but over times has seen peeks and valleys as far as interest goes. Despite the recent shows and new ep, this one is only at $11.50 with about a day to go – an interested party might be able to grab this for a decent price.

On the other side, here is a distinctly NOT limited record, the Mouthpiece “What Was Said” 12″. Now out of print, this record did not come on color vinyl, despite it appearing on record want lists since the time of it’s release. The hard and fast (and perhaps readers can go into further depth) facts of this record pressing is black vinyl, a lot pressed. Is that 2000? Probably. 3000? Not sure. I’m not sure if anyone, including New Age Records owner Mike Hartsfield, knows for sure. That said, given the relatively recent discography on Revelation, I wouldn’t expect a repress and think for $10 you could do a lot worse than adding this record to your collection.

I think an original is worth at least a couple hundred bucks at this point, but Bridge 9 recently did an official reissue (red, white & green vinyls) and there are older bootleg versions out there too. If you dont have an OG one I suggest you pick up one of these!

Bridge 9 red vinyl version…

Bridge 9 green vinyl version…

black vinyl bootleg…

We all know its an awesome record, I think its a great album cover as well. I dont have an OG shirt, but I have a licensed reprint that was done a few years back and I wear it all the time!

The Relentless 7″ was a pretty small pressing but it spawned two of Bridge 9′s ‘rarest’ records. There was a test pressing on clear vinyl Alley Way Dragon picture disc, but the music on that test pressing was actually from the band Close Call. There were 4 ‘prototype test presses’ done and they decided they didnt like the way they came out so they scrapped it. The other rare record is the one in this acution. The vinyl was suposed to be 1/2 maroon and 1/2 white but the pressing plant actually put out about 12 that came out 1/2 clear red and 1/2 white insted.

I’m not a SOIA collector, but I would like to have this record!

Make sure to check out thelovetrees other excellent auctions while you’re on ebay. He’s got a few.

So here are two of the top ep’s ever released from the country, with Anti-Cimex’s Raped Ass coming in tops on my list, and Absurd’s Bloodig Stad (Bloody City) rounding out the top 5*.

Raped Ass, in my (largely worthless) opinion, is the greatest example of taking the Discharge/d-beat style and cranking it up to 11, whereas other top-tier d-beaters like the Shitlickers Cracked Cop Skulls or Agent Orange Your Mother Sucks Cocks In Hell 7″s kind of dumb things down to negative 11. All five songs here are unrelenting, brutal steamrollers with absolutely perfect production, with the larynx-shredding vocals and one note guitar solos sending everything that much more over the top. Several variations of this record exist, with the copy at hand — card cardboard sleeve with printed labels — being the most common (but still difficult to obtain). I believe there are 1,000 of these pressed, but for an exhaustive archive of Anti-Cimex pressing variations and related ephemera, go here.

Next up is Absurd’s one and only release, the extremely rare Blodig Stad ep. While not quite as over the top as Raped Ass or as brutally stupid as Cracked Cop Skulls, this record still d-beats with the best of them. Various rumors abound about the band and this record… it’s believed that only 300 were pressed, and many copies were rumored to be lost/trashed/thrown out by mom/something to that effect. Also the singer is now a priest in Sweden, and supposedly he was liberated of his remaining copies a few years back. Regardless, this record is extremely difficult to track down, with original copies selling for as much as $700 in the past (though more recently they top out around $400), so that $99 opening bid is pretty appealing. Beware of recent American-made bootlegs, the original should have a machine stamped matrix number and a thin, slightly glossy, pocket sleeve cover.

* My top 5 Swedish hardcore 7″s:
1. Anti Cimex – Raped Ass
2. Shitlickers – Cracked Cop Skulls
3. Headcleaners – Disinfection
4. Bombanfall – Asiksfrihet
5. Absurd – Blodig Stad

On Double Vision LP blue $16.50

“Crunchness” The Realness EP green $8.50

COS What Holds Us Apart Confusion Sleeve EP $350

Madball Ball Of Destruction EP $17.50

Stop And Think LP $30

This one is (mostly) sealed, but you can see that its on blue vinyl. I dont know the pressing info, but blue is a good vinyl color!

Springa was running around with American Hardcore movie posters after the Gallery East show screaming “FIVE DOLLARS… FIVE DOLLARS… GET THESE OUT OF MY LIFE… I’LL THROW THEM AWAY… PLEASE TAKE ONE…. FIVE DOLLARS… GET IT SIGNED BY THE BAND!” I would have bought one, but didnt have a five dollar bill and didnt want to get sucked into waiting for change from him.

transformer2000 has a very nice list of 80′s punk and hardcore 7″s up — nothing too wild, but some nice stuff for sure.

These three comp eps on NYC’s Big City records are completely underrated in my opinion — while everyone fawns over the big name NYHC bands of the early 80′s, these comps are chock full of lesser known bands that deserve some attention too. The ardent Dead Boys fan will notice that the comp titles are actually taken from the chorus of “Big City” off their We Have Come for Your Children LP, with the Big City’s One Big Crowd LP completing the lyrics.

Here’s a brief rundown of the 7″s…

Big City Ain’t Too Pretty – notable for having a bunch of old NYHC band names drawn on the cover that I REALLY want to hear (Doughboys, Possessed, Anti Warfare, The Influence)
• XKI (aka ex-Killer Instinct) – solid girl-fronted punkcore
• Betrayed – really awesome lost NYHC, totally ripping stuff here. They had some other comp tracks, and then in a strange twist, some of the members relocated the band to the Philippines where they released an album on BMG (?!?).
• U.V. – this is actually Ultra Violence, they had some member changes and decided to go incognito on this one. Good gruff HC.
• Savage Circle – Javi from Big City’s band, kind of generic punkcore
• No Thanks – absolutely BLAZING hardcore with girl vox, imo their demo (where this track is taken from) marks them as one of the fastest bands playing in ’82
• Armed Citizens – also had a 7″ on Big City, good but somewhat of generic NYHC
• Fathead Suburbia – Paul Bearer’s early band pre-Sheer Terror, more of a standard early 80′s hc sound than what was to come from ST

Big City Nice and Loud – this one is a split between NYC and CT bands
• No Control – another pre-Sheer Terror band, this time with Alan Blake on guitar. GREAT girl-fronted UK style hardcore, this band REALLY needs a reissue.
• Disorderly Conduct – great anarchycore from NYC
• Ultra Violence – the fast part’s a little dodgy but this song has a great mosh part
• Reflex From Pain – reminds me a lot of the Abused. Ray Cappo on drums, for all you youth crew all-stars
• Vatican Commandos – I don’t think Moby appeared on this one, but it’s kinda generic either way
• CIA – a slow burner from CT’s best ever HC band

Big City Don’t Want No Pity – back to NY-only bands, and the last 7″ before the One Big Crowd LP (NYC and CT bands). Essential for the No Control track.
• Ultra Violence – only band to make it on all three comps, it’s too bad they never had a record back then. Probably my favorite song by them, the riff is exactly the same as Subvert by the State, so it seems like one was definitely copying the other (but which came first???)
• Armed Citizens – title track off their 7″, not sure if it’s the same version or not. Probably their best tune. (search em on youtube for a killer early CB’s video)
• The Unjust – not sure who was in this band but they sound a lot like Crucifix. Good stuff.
• No Control – another KILLER track in the vein of their previous comp cut, I think these were the only two tracks they ever had

1. Crossed Out discography lp on white – some people say they are the #1 PV band of all time, I may be inclined to agree on certain days, but on other days I prefer No Comment. This LP collects all of their vinyl output (first 7″, split w/ Man Is The Bastard, split w/ Drop Dead) and some other odds n sods. I believe only 300 came on white, I’m still kicking myself for not buying a $15 sealed copy at Vinyl Solution in CA back in 2002.

2. Couple o’ Capitalist Casualties 7″s – Raised Ignorant and Dope & War. These are their 2nd and 3rd singles, respectively. I was listening to the split LP with MITB the other day (scored for $7 a couple months ago, so ILL) and was thinking how fucking shredding this band is and how much they are unfairly overshadowed by their peers (Crossed Out, Infest, MITB, etc). I wasn’t too into the later stuff with Max from Spazz on drums, but everything they released up to that point is top shelf PV material.

These records dont have anything to do with that, but they are bands that are just as classic as the Fix or the Meatmen!

bobbisue1 brings the goods!

Awesome band that I’m bummed I didn’t get to see in Providence last week. I saw them the first them they came through, but I was sick last week and wanted to be as healthy as possible for the Gallery East show.

I already mentioned that (like most hardcore fans in the north east) I was at the Gallery East Reunion show last Sunday. When it was first announced I was SUPER psyched, but then I saw the rehearsal footage of DYS and I was really worried that they were gonna suck. I got there really early and saw their sound check and I was convinced they were gonna suck. It was a really long day but there was enough cool stuff that even if DYS sucked it would have been a good day. Springa did ‘Boiling Point’ with Refuse Resist. Slapshot played an almost flawless set. GangGreen was awesome and Jerry’s Kids was unreal!! But even with all that while DYS was setting up I was hoping they wouldn’t suck and even though I know they were not the same DYS from 1982, they were good! The songs from Brotherhood sounded good and a few of the ones from the 2nd record were okay too. I got sucked into buying some merch and I actually stage dove during Wolfpack…. it was a good day.

I saw a guy walking around with a copy of this record that he had signed by Jonathan Anastas, Dave Smalley and Dicky Barret which I thought was pretty cool! I still don’t own this LP, but someday I hope to have all of the XClaim releases…. and this is my favorite.