In 2010, Excursion Records (my favorite local hardcore label) was working on moving the last million copies of The Edge of Quarrel (my favorite local punks vs. straight edger movie) and had a kickstarter campaign to get out of debt. One of the perks of helping out the cause was a mystery box of Excursion goods. I love those kind of things so I was one of 11 people who jumped on it.

Well, in that box there were a lot of random things. A copy of Alien (the book!), a couple VHS tapes I can't play, the broken straightedge swatch watch from the movie (which I sold, sorry), and a number of rare records. Like this 2010 re-packaging of three The Answer 7"'s. I got #44/100. It's filled with some wonderful selection of impossibly rare colors (like single-digit pressings) of this hardcore band's releases. When I started this project, the idea was I'd defile every one of my records by... unsealing and playing them.

Here I am about 15 records in and I can't do it. I can't bring myself to unstitch the sealed package and see which impossibly rare colors I might have gotten. This particular offering is worth more to me as a mystery than it is as a selection of hardcore songs. I don't even really like The Answer, but I can't open this thing. It seems sacrilegious to do so. I guess that makes me a collector and not a music lover. Damnit.